HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER. by Sarah Loring Bailey, 1880
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    CHAPTER I.

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.

     WHOEVER tries to restore a picture of the life of past centuries in any locality, cannot fail to be impressed with the scantiness of ancient relics,-- the meagreness of the actual material at command, in comparison with what has perished.  Only here and there has a fragment been saved from the general destruction, and these relics are not for the most part the monuments that men have reared for the continuance of their name, but rather mere chance waifs preserved without thought or purpose. Especially is astonishment awakened at the wonderful duration of the seemingly most fragile and perishable of materials, while works designed to be strong and enduring have disappeared from off the face of the earth. Inscriptions graven in stone are obliterated; the stone itself crumbles to dust; buildings, raised in the pride of their owners and cherished with the affection of those owners' posterity, drop to ruin, while a scrap of paper, which the zephyr might blow away, or water soak to pulp, or a candle's flame consume, endures, and that not in careful keeping, but tossed hither and thither as waste or worthless, till, at last, somebody. recognizing the jewel, it is picked out of the rubbish and thenceforth kept locked up and guarded in archive of brick and iron, destined again, perhaps, to outlast these strongholds of its security. Thus it is that in groping back for something tangible of the olden times, relics of ancient Andover, we find scarcely a trace or thread of continuity, by which hand can clasp hand with the men and women of the former generations, whose
 
 
 

    2    HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

names are in our town and parish records and books of genealogy, perpetuated in their posterity and familiar to us as household words, and yet who themselves are almost as shadowy and unreal to us their descendants as though they had  never walked the roads we walk, planted the trees we sit under, founded with toil and pain, and blood even, the institutions whose beneficence we enjoy. Hardly a relic now remains in the town-- except on paper-- of the first twenty-five years' labors of those hard-working pioneer settlers who cleared the forest, broke the ground, made their homes, reared their families, and found their graves during the first half century of Andover's incorporated existence. It seems fitting now, however, when the sentiment of the day tends to reminiscence, that the heirs of so rich a legacy of local history and tradition should make some effort to revive the ancestral associations, and quicken that feeling of obligation to former generations out of which grow all noble endeavors for the present generation and all generous solicitude for generations to come. The first glimpse through the vista of the centuries, which brings to view persons and places actually and directly influential and instrumental, in the founding of Andover, takes us back to the year 1639 and the ancient town of Agawam, or Ipswich. All along from the year 1604, and the exploring expedition of Sieur de Monts and Champlain (when a map of the Merrimack River was traced for them on a piece of bark by an Indian sachem), down to the date of the settlement of the town, the neighborhood of Andover receives frequent mention, either as the Valley of Merrimack(1) and Shawshin(2) or as the territory near Cochichawick(3) River or the great pond of Cochichawicke. Several times action had been taken by the General Court relative to

(1) Merrimack is an Indian name, said to mean "the place of swift water."
(2) Shawshin (the spelling most common in the old records, although Shawshine, Shashin, Shashine, Shashene, Shawshene, and later, Shawsheen, are found) is said to mean "Great Spring."
(3) Cochichawicke (the most common and seemingly authorized ancient spelling) means the place of the Great Cascade. (See N. H. Hist. Coll., vol. viii., p.451.) Mr. Nathaniel Ward spelled the name Qui-chech’-acke and Qui-chich’-wick. Also Queacheck, Quyacheck, and various other spellings are found, but, in all, the guttural chich are found, evidently sounded as in which. The Colonial officials adopt the spelling Cochichawicke, or without the final e.
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.  3

"vieweing" it, with reference to a settlement; and committees had been appointed to license "any that may think
 meet to inhabit there," but at the close of the year 1639, when Salem, Lynn, Wenham, Newbury, Ipswich, Rowley, were thriving villages, or considerable towns, the forests of  Andover remained uncleared by the white man's axe; only  the Indian in rude agriculture tilled its fields, or hunted and fished along its streams. There seemed a probability, however, that it would eventually be occupied by "certain residents of Newton," who had petitioned the General Court and received favorable answer therefrom, but on the twenty-second of December, 1639, which begins this narrative of the town's history, a letter was written which decided the dis  posal of this valuable tract of territory. The writer was the Rev. Nathaniel Ward, ex-minister of Ipswich, and afterward author of the sagacious State paper, "The Body of Liberties," and the witty satire, "The Simple Cobbler of Agawam."  The records of the time present a pleasant picture of the cheerful parson and his hospitable fire-side, with its Latin motto on the mantel, "sobrie, juste pie," to which the good man characteristically added "laete," his somewhat heterodox supplement to the approved summary of Puritan virtues.

    The letter before mentioned, he wrote with earnestness, and, doubtless, also with despatch, for there was need of expedition, lest the action which it was designed to forestall should take place in the time that would of necessity intervene between its completion and its arrival at its destination, the distant city of Boston. Through the snows of the scarcely travelled roads, in woods whose trackless wilds bewildered wayfarers to and from settlements scarcely a dozen miles apart; among encampments of savages, of at least suspected friendliness, letter-carrying, done as it was by private messengers, and those often on foot, was precarious and uncertain. Therefore we may believe the writer's quill flew fast, and was mended without delay, as, in his sharp-pointed chirography, he jotted down sententiously the bits of advice on public affairs, which served as an excuse for a letter at this time "To our Honorable Governor at Boston."

      Governor Winthrop had lived at Ipswich, and was con-
 
 
 

    4    HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

    nected by marriage with Mr. Ward. Moreover, the preacher  was a prized counsellor to the Governor in State affairs, adding, to the qualifications for that service which his ministerial ordination was believed to confer, that of having been bred to the bar in the old country. Too worldly wise, some of the good folk of Ipswich parish thought Mr. Ward; and in truth he seems to have had considerable practical sagacity, as the sequel of his enterprise in connection with the new plantation shows; for these few strokes of his pen secured to himself, his townsmen and friends, a large part of the territory embraced in the ancient towns of Haverhill and Andover, with the privileges conferred by the Court on pioneer settlers, namely, "three years immunity from taxes, levies, and public charges and services whatsoever except military discipline."

     Mr. Ward had a son, Mr. John Ward, who had studied  divinity, and a son-in-law, Mr. Gyles Fyrmin, a physician,  to whom the town of Ipswich did not afford a living practice,  and who had even thought of giving up medicine for theology, or of combining the two, as it was the custom of the time to do, in circumstances of necessity. Mr. Nathaniel Ward was therefore desirous to find or to make places where the talents of his family might have scope. Accordingly, he wrote to Governor Winthrop(1)—

     "One more request, that you would not pass your promise, nor give any encouragement concerning any plantation att Quichichacke or Penticutt,(2) till myself and some others either speake or write to you about it, which shall be done so soone as our counsells and contrivalls are ripened. In too much hast, I commit you and your affaires to the guidance, of God, on whom I rest, etc."

     Four days after Mr. Ward's letter, Dr. Fyrmin himself sent
    One(3) seconding his father-in-law's request, and explaining
    fully his motives as already stated. "Considering that the
    gain of physicke will not find me with bread," he says, in
    giving his reasons for studying divinity; and, speaking of
    change of residence, he adds that he "thinks well of Pentuck-

           (1) Mass. Hist. Soc Coll., Fourth Series, vol. vii.
           (2) The site of Haverhill, on the River Merrimack.
           (3) Hutchinson Papers, p. io8.
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.  5

    ett" or of "Quichichwick by Shawshin." Mr. Ward soon
    after wrote again, pressing the matter:--

     "We are led to continue our suite concerning the plantation, I have lately mentioned to you; our company increases apace from divers towns of very desirable men, whereof we desire to be very choise. This next week if God hinder us not, wee purpose to view the places & forthwith to resort to you; in the mean time we crave your secresy & rest. We have already more.than 20 families of very good Christians purposed to goe with us."

     These appeals accomplished the end desired. The Colony
    Records, May 13, 1640, have the following:--

     "The desires of Mr. Ward and Newbury men is comited to the
    Governor [Thomas Dudley] Deputy Governor and Mr. Winthrop
    senior [not elected Governor 1640] to grant it to them p'vided they return answer within three weeks from the 27th p'snt & that they build there before the next Courte."

     A year went by, and no village had yet been begun at the
    place granted, and it seemed doubtful whether there ever
    would be by the persons who bad petitioned; for the neigh-
    boring plantation of Rowley had succeeded in getting its ter-
    ritory so enlarged that the men who had thought of settling
    at Cochichawick feared their prospect of a profitable enter-
    prise was spoiled. Mr. John Woodbridge, of Newbury, who
    subsequently was the first minister of Andover, thus details
    his discouragements in a letter to Mr. Winthrop(1)--

     "TO THE RIGHT HONL. JOHN WINTHROP SEN. ESQ. at his house
    in Boston, these present:

     "Right worthy sir:-- After my service promised &c I am bold
    to write a few lines to you, with desire that you would advise us to the best you can and as speedily as your occasions will permit.  Some of us have desired to plant at Quichichwick & accordingly notwithstanding all the oppositions and discouragements that wee have had, having viewed the place since ye court, were intended this spring to have built there; but there are two things that yet stand in the way to hinder us, the proceeding of either of which may be so great an annoyance that will quite cut off any hopes of being to a plantation there. The first is the intended taking of a farm by Rowley men which the Court allowed them to

         (1) Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Fifth Series, vol. i.
 
 
 
 

    HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

    doe in lieu of a farme which Mr. Vane had within their bounds, adjoining to their bounds, which though it be not plainly expressed, yett we are credibly informed they intend to take neere Quichichwick so to take away 100 acres of meadow from that place which at best will entertain but a small company by reason of the little quantity of meadow. The second is, that notwithstanding all the agitations of the last court, Mr. Rogers being demanded whether he yett expected any more, answers that the contention, the last Court, was only about the neck & whereas he afterward expressed to the court that his first grant was eight miles into the country, he says, nobody speaking against it, he tooke for granted that he should have eight entire miles into the country, besides what was given, and they purchased from Ipswich & Newbury. These only are the impediments & reason of o’r not proceeding. Now that wch wee would desire of your wo'p
    by way of advice is an answer to these three questions. 1. Whether you apprehend that the Court will allow of their so taking the farme aforesaid in such a place as will be so much praeiudiciall to a Plantation. 2. Whether the court will make good the grant of eight miles, to them or compell them to stand to those bounds only which were specified the last court. 3. Whether you would
    advise me nevertheless to proceed & trust to the Court more or to desist & leave it either all together. I have desired to propose these things first to yourselfe rather than the Governor(1) because I know that he hath allways heretofore bin opposite to my going thither. And the reason why I desire your speedy advice is because some of o’r company have sold them-selves out of house and home & so desire to bee settled as soone as may be. Divers others would gladly know what to trust to & some with some resolution affect Long Island intending speedily to be gone thither, if they settle not here, & for my owne part I have strong solicitations thither, by some not of the meaner sort & (being resolved that I cannot comfortably carry things along as I am) though not there yet elsewhere, I think I must resolve to labour to better myselfe. Thus leaving to your serious consideracion what I have written desiring your speedy advice, I humbly take my leave and rest.
                                       Your worp's to command
                                          JNO WOODBRIDGE

    NFWBERRY this 22th of 1 mo 1640
     (Mar 22 1640-41)
 
 

       (1)Governor Dudley, Mr. Woodbridge's father-in-law.
 
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.   7

     The "Mr.Rogers," referred to was the minister of Rowley,
    who was highly offended, and used some pretty sharp words,
    because the court at first refused to extend Rowley bounds
    for fear of injury to Cochichawick. Ten years afterward
    this neck of land was taken from Rowley and joined to Andover.(1) The line then drawn is presumed to be the same
    that now divides Bradford and Boxford from Andover.

     It seems probable that soon after the above letter, some-
    time during 1641-1642, a settlement was begun at Andover,
    or steps taken to secure the grant to Newbury and Ipswich
    men. They would be likely to make a speedy decision; hav-
    ing, as Mr. Woodbridge's letter states, "sold themselves out
    of house and home," where they had been living. From an
    Act of the General Court, June 14, 1642, it would also appear that a settlement had been made, although the words may possibly refer to a prospective rather than an accomplisbed "village."  Lands were granted along the Shawshin, Concord, and Merrimack rivers, to Cambridge men, on condition that they should build a village; but, "so as it shall not extend to prejudice Charlestown village, or the village of
    Cochitawit."

     On the 10th of May, 1643, the General Court ordered that
    "the whole plantation, within this jurisdiction be divided into four shires." Essex was to contain the towns: "Salem, Linn, Enon [Wenham], Ipswich, Rowley, Newbury, Glocester, Cochichawicke."

     Neither Mr. John Ward nor Mr. Gyles Fyrmin was among the first settlers in the new plantations, though Mr. Ward ultimately went to Pentucket (Haverhill), and was the first min-
    ister of that town. Mr. Nathaniel Ward received a large
    grant of land on the Merrimack River, some six hundred
    acres, which he afterward made over in payment of a debt to
    Harvard College.

     The first business transaction found of any resident of the
    town of Andover (the earliest evidence of any resident's being here), is dated August 13, 1643. It is a deed of land and stock in Ipswich to Richard Barker, "of Cochichawicke."

                (1) Gage's History of Rowley.
 
 
 

    8    HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

     "Know all men by these presents,(1) that I, William Hughes of New Meadowe(2) have devised and granted bargained and sould
    for diver good causes & considerations me tbereunto moving but more especially for ye sum of thirty-eight pounds in hand p'd, ye receipt whereof I acknowledge as alsoe for ye assur-ance of ye som of forty-one pounds more to bee pd to me ye sd William my heires, executors, administrators or assignes at or before ye fourteenth day of October next ensuinge ye date hereof, have devised granted assigned set over and sould unto Richard Barker of Cojichichicke 3 yearling heifers, 2 yearling bulles at twelve pounds ten shillings, twoe kine at tenne pounds, 4 calves at 3 pounds, one house & house-lot Of 7 acres broken up and unbroken-up with all the corne ... thereunto belonging, as also twelve loads of hay, with all the strawe of ye corne, at the farme of Mr. Paine where the said William now lives [the last clause is inserted between the original lines] at tenne pounds all whose above sd pticulars it may be lawful for the sd Richard his heires or assignes to sell assign or
    dispose of, as his owne by right in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand.
                                          WILLIAM HUGHES.
     "Test ss ______AVERY(?)
         JOHN HUGHES."

     In 1650, a house and land and three cows, in Andover, are
    Mortgaged(3) by job Tyler to John Godfrey, of Newbury.

     The first sale of lands at Andover, of which a deed has
    been found recorded, was by Mr. Simon Bradstreet to Rich-
    ard Sutton: a house-lot and dwelling-house and some fifty
    acres of meadow land. Richard Sutton came from Roxbury
    to Andover; he remained here only a few years, removing to
    Reading, and afterward to Roxbury again. He was active
    in the military service in the Indian wars, and, for his honorable service and sufferings, was, in advanced age, by order of the General Court, exempted from further duty. He left no descendants in Andover, but, as late as 1728 [ancient deed], a tract of land "in the township of Andover was known as Sutton's Plaine, the pine plaine "on ye borders joyning upon Billerica line."

     Richard Sutton's descendants gained honorable distinction

         (1) Essex County Court Papers, vol. i., p. 15.
         (2) Afterward Topsfield. Here Mr. Bradstreet owned 5oo acres.
         (3) Registry of Deeds, "Ipswich," Book 1.
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 9

    in other towns, and by a curious coincidence, and without
    knowledge of an ancestral title of two hundred years' date,
    the family has now become one of the most influential in
    North Andover. Scarcely a half mile from where the early
    settler bought his "house lot, kort yard, and dwelling-house"
    of Mr. Simon Bradstreet, and where he lived, with his neigh-
    bors "George Abbot senr. on the north and George Abbot
    jr. on the south," (Mr. Bradstreet's house not far distant,)
    all of them probably in small and primitive houses of logs or
    unhewn timber, now rises, crowning the hill-top, the elegant
    mansion of General Eben Sutton, the owner of the large
    woolen mills(1) in the village which bears his name.

     Following is the deed from Mr. Bradstreet to Richard Sutton, 1658: (2)—

     "Know all men by these presents, that we Simon Bradstreet of
    Andover and Ann his wife for and in consideration of several
    summes of money and other payments to be made to the said
    Symon & his heires or assignes more particularly mentioned and specified in another wrighting bearing date with these presents have sould and by these presents do give and grant, bargain, sell, assigne and sett over unto Richard Sutton of Roxbury husbandman all that our dwelling-house, situate and being in Andover aforesaid with the kort-yard and house lott thereunto belonging or therewithall now used conteining by estimation eight acres, be ye same more or less, having the house lott (3) of George Abbot senr on the north and a house lott of George Abbot jr on the south and abutting upon the street on the west with forty and eight acres of upland belonging to the sayd house lott lying on the farr
    side of Shawshin river, granted by the town of Andover for six acres, be the same more or less, together with the hovill, fences, proffits, privileges and appurtenances to the said house & premises belonging or appertaining (except a small parcell of meaddow containing by estimation three acres; be the same more or less, lying on the southeast side of Shawshin river aforesaid) together with such other divisions or allot-ments of meddow that belong to the sayd house or lott and may be hereafter granted and assigned

          (1) See Chapter X.
          (2) Essex Registry of Deeds, "Ipswich," Book II., p. 372.
          (3) This indicates the truth of what is elsewhere suggested, that the villagers at first all lived in the north part of the town, and not till later removed to their outlying farm lands.
 
 
 
 

    10     HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

    thereunto by the inhabitants of Andover aforesaid which are
    hereby reserved to the said Symon his heires and assignes. To
    have and to hould the aforesaid house and lott, meadow and upland with the profits and priviledges thereunto belonging (excepting before excepted) unto the sd Richard Sutton, his heires and assignes forever; and we the sayd Simon Bradstreet and Ann his wife doe hereby covenant & promise to and with the said Richard Sutton that it shall, and may be lawful for him the sayd Richard his heires, executors administrators & assi-nes from time to time and at all times forever, lawfully, quietly and peaceably to have hold, possess, and injoye the said house and premises with the privileges and
    appurtenances thereunto belonging (except what is excepted) without any lett, trouble claim or molestation by or from us or either of us our heires, executors administrators or assignes or by or from any other person or persons whatsoever claiming in through by or from us or either of us, them or either of them, their heires or assignes. In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seales this tenth of March one thousand six hundred & fifty-eight.
                                 SIMON BRADSTREET (& seall).
                                 ANN BRADSTREET.

     "Signed, sealed and delivered in the
    presence of    GEORGE ABBOT
                   WILLIAM CHANDLER.
 

     "Mr. Simon Bradstreet did acknowledge this wrighting to be his act and deed in Court held at Ipswich the 29th of March 1664."

     The settlements of Andover and Haverhill are thus mentioned in "Good News from New England:"--

   "To raising Townes and Churches new in wilderness they wander
    First Plymouth and then Salem next were placed far asunder
    Woburn, Wenham, Redding, built with little Silver Mettle
    Andover, Haverhill, Berris-banks(1) their habitation settle."

     The first formal description of the town of Andover is
    found in "The Wonder Working Providence of Zion's Saviour in New England," written by Captain Edward Johnson, of Woburn, published in London, 1654:--

     "About this time [the date is approximately given 16481 there was a Town founded about one or two miles distant from the place where the goodly river of Merrimack receives her branches into her own body, hard upon the river of Shawshin, which is one of

         1) Portsmouth-- Strawberry-banks.
 
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.   11

    her chief heads; the honored Mr. Simon Bradstreet taking up his last sitting there hath been a great means to further the work, it being a place well-fitted for the husbandman's hand, were it not that remoteness of the place from towns of trade bringeth forth some inconveniences upon the planters who are inforced to carry their corn far to market. This town is called Andover, and hath good store of land improved for the bigness of it."

     Andover was incorporated May 6, 1646. It was named for the town of Andover, in Hants County, England, which had been the home of some of its principal settlers. The following extract from a letter written by a resident of Andover, England, to a gentleman of our town a few years ago, gives an idea of the mother town as compared with the daughter:--

      "I find that Andover, in America, is of more importance than the same place in England. We have no institutions that can be named that in any way approach those in America, nothing of more note than an old endowed Grammar School...."

     Speaking, of the "South Church Manual," which he had
    received, he says:--

     "I have been much interested in the minute particulars of the customs of the Congregational church ..... They differ but
    little from the old Congregational churches in England .....
    The name of Abbot is not common here, but rare; Holt is often
    heard, but not common; Osgood is not known in our locality;
    Faulkner, Barnard, Ballard, Lovejoy but seldom; Stevens, Poor, and Chandler, are those oftenest occurring."

     In the earliest book of the town records now existing is
    a list of names, which purports to be "the names of all the
    freeholders [householders is written above, as if by another
    hand, in explanation] in order as they came to town":--

     MR. BRADSTREET, JOHN OSGOOD, JOSEPH PARKER, RICH-
    ARD BARKER, JOHN STEVENS, NICHOLAS HOLT, BENJAMIN
    WOODBRIDGE, JOHN FRYE, EDMOND FAULKNER, ROBERT
    BARNARD, DANIEL POOR, NATHAN PARKER, HENRY JACQUES,
    JOHN ASLETT, RICHARD BLAKE, WILLIAM BALLARD, JOHN
    LOVEJOY, THOMAS POOR, GEORGE ABBOT, JOHN RUSS, AN-
    DREW ALLEN, ANDREW FOSTER, THOMAS CHANDLER.
 
 
 
 
 
 

    12  HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

     Respecting these, information is scanty. Following are
    some notes and memoranda,-- "memorials" of their life and
    times; such records of their individual history and the fam-
    ily lines of which they were progenitors, as have come to
    notice in tracing the general history, and also such incidental items as serve to illustrate the manners and customs of this early period of the town. The arrangement of the facts is, for the sake of graphic, description and more vivid, illustration, somewhat informal, and such as grows out of the connection of thought in the narrative, rather than the more methodical and logical arrangement which would be required were there fuller material to be disposed of under the several heads. The names are taken up in the order of their respective prominence in the town history.

     SlMON BRADSTREET. It is doubtful if Mr. Bradstreet removed his residence to Cochichawick at the very first planting, as his name occurs in connection with Ipswich, in 1645.
    But he is said to have built a mill on the Cochichawick, 1644. He was the most influential citizen. The "worshipful Mr.
    Simon Bradstreet," he is most often styled. He held office
    in the colony as one of the Executive "Assistants," during
    most of the time of his residence in Andover, and afterward
    was Governor many years. A sketch of his life, and also a
    brief biography of his wife, Mrs. Anne Dudley Bradstreet,
    who is eminent as the first woman poet of America, are given
    in the history of the Bradstreet house, in another part of
    this chapter. The earliest relic found in Andover, of Mr.
    Bradstreet's life and work, is a deed, drawn and witnessed
    by him in 1663. This conveyed the land formerly sold by
    him to Richard Sutton. George Abbot bought the land, and
    the deed has been handed down to his descendants of the
    seventh generation. It is a document imposing and unique
    in style of execution. A facsimile, is given herewith, of
    which the following is a translation, which the ancient writing makes necessary:--

     "Know all men by these presents that I Richard Sutton of
    Andover in the county of Essex weaver and Rachel my wife for
    divers good causes & considerations mee thereunto moving & for recaived payment in Howse & Land wch I have resaived & had
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.  13

    of George Abbot sen'r of Andover aforesd husbandman every ryte & tytell whereof I do acknowledge myselfe satisfyed & payd.  Have Bargained & sold & by this presents doe give, grant bargaine, sell, infeoff, assigne, & make over unto the said George Abbot senr All those my two pc'lls of ox-land or ploughing ground on the westerly side of ye Shawshin river, the one lying & being By Little-hope brooke conteyning by estimation thirty acres, Be the same more or lesse & the other lyinge & being on the west syde of a lyttle peice of meadow belonging to the sd George Abbot containing by estimation eighteen acres be the same more or less,
    both wch peeces I lately purchased of Mr. Simon Bradstreet & are within the bounds of the towne of Andover To have & to hold the aforesd two peices of Land with the wood & timber thereon growing or to be growing to the said George Abbot his heirs & assigns forever. And wee the said Richard Sutton & Rachel his wife doe hereby covenant & promise to & with the sd George Abbot that hee the said George, his heirs, executors administrators & assignes shall or may from tyme to tyme & att all tymes forever lawfully quietly & peaceably have, hold, possesse occupye & enjoy the aforesaid two peeces of Land & every ryt & privilege thereof hereby granted or intended to be granted without any lett, troubles, hinderances, interruption or molestation by the aforesaid Richard or Rachel or either of them our heirs, executors, administrators or assignes, or by or from any person or psons whatsoever claiming in by through or under us or either of us our heirs or assignes, hee the sayd George paying or causing to be payd all rates, Levies,
    or assessments from tyme to tyme that shall be due or lawefully imposed for the above Land either by the Lawe of the Country or custome of the towne of Andover or otherwise, shall save harmless the said Richard & Rachel their heires & assignes forever from any damages for default thereof. In witness whereof we the said Richard & Rachel have hereunto sett or hand and seales this
    eighteenth day of the first month commonly called March, in the yeare of our Lord one thousand six hundred sixty & three & in the fifteenth year of the raigne of ye Soveragne Lord, King Charles the Second.
                                            RICHARD SUTTON
                                                 her mk
                                            RACHEL____SUTTON."
    "Signed, Sealed & Delivered
     in the presence of
      SIMON BRADSTREET
      THOMAS CHANDLER
      JOHN BRADSTREET
 

        (1) For women (except those of remarkable advantages of wealth and culture) to write was unusual in the earliest years of the town history. See Chapter VIII.
 
 
 

    14  HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

     "This writing was acknowledged by Richard Sutton to be his
    act and deede & Rachel his wife did give her free consent thereto, this 6th of ffebruary 1664 before mee

                                   SIMON BRADSTREET.

     "ESSEX. SS. This Instrument is Recorded with the Records of
    sd County Lib 31, fol. 209.     STEPH. SEWALL Record,"

     Mr. Simon Bradstreet, after the death of his wife (1672),
    removing to Salem, his house was occupied and his place
    filled in the town by his son,(1) Col. Dudley Bradstreet. The
    latter lived in Andover till his death, 1706.  His wife was
    Ann Wood, widow of Theodore Price. His only son, the
    Rev. Dudley Bradstreet, first master of the Andover Gram-
    mar School, removed to Groton 1708, and was for some years
    pastor of the church there, but subsequently went over to
    England and took orders in the Established Church. The
    other sons of Mr. Simon Bradstreet having settled elsewhere,
    with the departure of Mr. Dudley Bradstreet the name became extinct in Andover. Of the other sons a word may be
    added:--

     Samuel Bradstreet was a physician, graduated at Harvard
    College, 1653. He was representative for Andover to the
    General Court, 1670, although probably then a resident of
    Boston. He died in the West Indies.

     Simon Bradstreet, graduate of Harvard College, 1660, was
    minister of New London, Connecticut.

     John Bradstreet was the only son born in Andover. He
    was born July 22, 1652. He settled in Topsfield, on the
    grant of land made to his father.

     Of the daughters: Dorothy was married to the Rev. Sea-
    born Cotton. Sarah was married to Richard Hubbard (H. U.
    1653); also to Maj. Samuel Ward. Hannah or Anne, to Mr.
    Andrew Wiggin, of Exeter, N.H.  Mercy, to Maj. Nathaniel Wade, of Medford.

     Dr. Samuel Bradstreet's daughter Mercy was married to
    Dr. James Oliver, from whom are descended Dr. Oliver Wen-
    dell Holmes and Mr. Wendell Phillips.

          (1) A sketch of his life and character and his influence in the town will be given in the history of the Bradstreet house.
 
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 15

     Rev. Simon Bradstreet's daughter Lucy was married to
    Hon. Jonathan Remington, of Cambridge. From them were
    descended Dr. William E. Charming and Mr. Richard H.
    Dana.

     MR. JOHN OSGOOD, whose name stands second on the list
    of householders, and also next after that of the minister on
    the list of the ten members who formed the nucleus of the
    first church (a list of ten freeholders was necessary before a church could be organized), was probably the most influen-
    tial citizen, after the Bradstreets and the ministers. He
    came from a town near Andover in England, and it is said
    that it was he who named the new plantation, but of this
    there does not appear any certain evidence.

     Mr. Osgood was the town's first representative to the Gen-
    eral Court, 1651. It is interesting to compare the affairs of
    town and commonwealth now with what they were then when the member from Andover wended his way on foot(1) or on horseback through the woods to the halls of legislation, all undreaming of the coming eras of railway, telegraph, telephone, etc., and without a suspicion that the debates, discussions, and declarations which he and the men of his time were indulging in at town meeting and General Court were the seeds destined to ripen into American independence.  The great problem of the General Assembly just at that time was how to keep a safe neutrality in regard to the civil wars of the mother country, or rather how to seem submissive subjects to the powers that were and yet practically to manage the colonial affairs in their own way. The Massachusetts Colony was Puritan in sentiment, but had no mind to embroil itself in the quarrels across the water. The fact that the colonists thought possible to maintain neutrality is evidence that they had to some extent, even then, severed themselves from the parent government. Indeed, whether England was ruled by king or protector, Massachusetts contrived for the most part, for more than fifty years, to govern herself, and, while professing allegiance, to ignore or evade the laws

    (1) Mr. Simon Bradstreet walked from Salem to Dover in 1641, on official business, as one of the Commissioners of the Colonies.
 
 
 
 

    16  HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

    which she had no mind to know and obey. The General Court,
    to which Mr. Osgood was the deputy from Andover, voted, in
    reference to some of the demands of the beloved and hon-
    ored Protector of England, to the effect that it would be in-
    consistent with the colonial conscience to submit its affairs
    to any laws except those made by the freemen of the colony;
    and especially they remonstrated against the appointment of
    any governor, by the Protector, for the colony; demonstrat-
    ing that their charter entitled them to elect their chief ex-
    ecutive in the colony. Cromwell, therefore, left the colo-
    nial magistrates undisturbed,-- Endicott, Governor; Thomas
    Dudley, father-in-law of Mr. Bradstreet, Deputy Governor.
    Mr. Bradstreet was one of the Assistants at this time, Ando-
    ver being honored in having two of her citizens at this early
    day influential in the colonial legislature and government.
    The acts of legislation which engaged the attention of Ando-
    ver's first deputy did not concern especially the town of his
    residence, and are of no particular local interest, being in the main in regard to lands or boundaries, or the regulation of colonial trade and commerce. One or two characteristic acts
    are the following in 1651:--

     "Whereas it is observable that there are many abuses and disorders by dancing in ordinaries [taverns] whether mixt or unmixt upon marriage of some persons this Court doth order that henceforward there shall be no dancing upon such occasion or at other times in ordinaries uppon the paine or penaltie of five shillings for every person that shall so daunce in ordinaries."

     The author of a new book, Mr. Pincheon, was reprimanded
    by the Count for failing "to speak so fully as he ought of the price and merit of Christ's sufferings but afterward he was pardoned, since the Court conceive he is in a hopefull way
    of improvement." A citizen of Lynn was fined fifty pounds
    for having "defamed the management of the town and con-
    trary to the lawe of God and the lawes here established re-
    proached and slandered the courts, magistrates and govern-
    ment."  Such were some of the (as they seem to us) frivolous
    or irrelevant subjects introduced among matters of practical
    and vital interest to the colony. Whether to men who looked
    upon life and civil government, as our ancestors looked upon
 
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SET7LERS.  17

    them, they were questions frivolous and irrelevant to political legislation, and whether larger experience has given to the legislators of the nineteenth century wisdom to come to better and more just decisions respecting the questions which
    our forefathers disposed of so summarily, future centuries will give verdict.

     Mr. Osgood's term of office was short.  In October, 1651,
    he died, aged fifty-six years. During an illness some time before, he had made his will, the first, so far as has been found, of the many testaments of Andover citizens, by which hands reaching forth from beyond the tomb have held strong grip on the treasures which they had laid up on earth, and dead men's "wills" have been, considering the fluctuations of human motives, more potent than those of the living to control
    the transmission of their estates. The will was witnessed by
    two of Mr. Osgood's townsmen, both of whom outlived him
    by more than a quarter of a century. The reader will not
    grudge, the space taken to transcribe this interesting memo-
    rial, one of the few relics(1) of these olden times:--

     "The twelfth of April 1650, in the age of the testator fifty-four [born in 1595 June 23d] I John Osgood of Andover in the County of Essex in New England, Being Sick of Body but in perfect memory do institut and mak my last will & testament in manner and form as foloweth:

     Imprimis, I do give unto my Sonn John Osgood my hous and
     hous-lot with all the accommodations thereunto belonging,
     Broaken-up and Unbroken-up land, with all the meadow there-
     unto belonging fforever, with the proviso that my wife Sarah
     Osgood shall have the moyety or the one half of the hous and
     lands and meadows during her natural life.

    It. I do give & Bequeath to my Sonn Stephen Osgood 25 pounds
     to be payd at 18 years off age in Country pay.

    It. I do give to my dater Elizabeth Osgood 25 pounds to be payd at 18 years off age in Country pay.

    It. I do give to my daughter Sarah Clements 20 shillings to be payd when she is 7 years of age, but if she dy before that time to be null.
    It. I do give to my servant Caleb Johnson one cow-calf to be payd

             (1) Essex County Court Papers, vol. ii, p. 22.
                        2
 
 
 

    18    HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF AADOVER.

     3 yeares Before his time is out and to be kept at the cost of my executor till his time is out.

    I do give to the meeting-hous off Newbury 18 shillings to Buie a cushion for the minister to lay his Book upon: all the rest of my Goods and Chattels unbequeatbed I do give unto my son John Osgood and to Sarah my wife whom I do make joynt executors of my last will and testament & in witness hereof set my hand and seale. I do intreat John Clement of Haverhill and Nicholas Hoult of Andover to be overseers of this my last will and testament.
                                            JOHN OSGOOD
        By me
      In presence off
              JOSEPH PARKER
              RICHARD BARKER."

     The scene of this ancient will-making in Andover was very
    different from that of such occasions now. The house of the
    primitive settler was built of logs, or, if of hewn timber and more pretentious as that of the representative may have
    been, still plain and rude, and devoid of the elegancies or
    comforts of modern time, or of older settlements in the early
    time. For it does not appear from the few records left that
    any of the "first" families of Andover, except the Brad-
    streets (and, perhaps, the Woodbridges), had brought hither
    anything except the absolute necessaries of life, in the way
    of household furniture and appointments. Any ideas of
    there being here at the earliest day, choice china, delft, etc., or silver plate, such as are seen in old collections handed down as heirlooms (except, perhaps, in the families before named), are dispelled by a perusal of the inventory of the furniture and household goods of the next most prominent
    citizen, after Mr. Bradstreet. No family portrait, silver plate, china, or porcelain ware, mahogany, or oak, or damask-covered chair, were in the little humble abode, where this the
    town's first deputy to the General Court made his last will
    and testament; and in his pious regard for the Church of
    Christ he was more ready to expend his money for "cushions
    for the pulpit Bible, "than he was to provide luxurious adornings for his own dwelling. A rude cottage, and plain furniture were all the worldly goods, except his broad acres, that
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.  19

    the sick man had to dispose of, and take leave of, and his
    eye looked out on a landscape far different from the present
    aspect of old Andover. Through the narrow windows of the
    house, set in heavy leaden sashes (if glass windows were
    afforded, instead of oiled paper, often used to admit light),
    he looks off not on cultivated farm and smiling landscape
    stretching everywhere, but to the dense wood beyond the vil-
    lage clearing. He may, perhaps, descry stealthily creeping
    thence an Indian, intent on barter or plunder, or with friendly purpose, to bring a gift to the sick pale-face,-- fish, or game, or powow-charm, and healing herb, to drive away the spell of disease.

     When the twilight shadows fall, and the early-to-bed house-
    hold sink to sleep and silence, except the drowsy watcher at
    the sick bed, the quick ear of the restless patient may catch
    the sound among the crackling brushwood of the deer's light
    tread, venturing near the dwelling, or by the moonlight may
    discern its graceful form and soft eyes peering out from
    copse or corn-field, or perchance he may, roused from dreams
    of Old England, and merry-making with rout of huntsman
    and bugle-horn, start to the dreadful reality of the wilder-
    ness, hear the howling of wolves, and see the glaring pack
    rush past, bearing down on some estray of flock or herd, or
    benighted traveller. It may be, the latch-string of the door
    left loose, a bear snuffing around thrusts his nose over the
    threshold, and draws back growling at sight of the embers
    burning on the hearth, while Reynard, the fox, interrupted
    thereby in his depredations on the chicken-coop, drops the
    fat cock from his back, and arouses up all the cackling brood.

    So drag on the weary hours; howls of wolves, baying of
    hounds, hoot of owl, cry of whip-poor-will, or of loon, startled from its reedy covert by the pond, disturbing the night, till in the glimmering dawn the chorus of morning bird-song begins, and the beat of drum summons the villagers to their daily rounds, and brings the solace of human society to the sick man. Thus wild and primitive is the scene, which fact
    dictates for fancy's sketch of the night-watches in the homes
    of ancient Andover. To make the picture true to life, we
    should set it in a frame-work of Scripture texts and pious
 
 
 
 

    20   HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

    ejaculations, and put into it numberless conflicts and wrest-
    lings, fastings and prayers, witnessed only by the All- seeing. For, firm as was the faith of our fathers in the presence of the invisible God, as firm also was their belief in the presence, if not the omnipresence, of the invisible devil. As they held communion with their divine friend, so did they likewise hold conflict with their demoniac enemy. Prayer was the panoply in which the Puritan was ever clad, and as he kept his loaded musket at hand at all times, in health or in sickness, by day and by night, for defence against sudden attack of savage, so he kept his quivers of Scripture texts, and his magazine of petitions ever ready to quench all the fiery darts of the adversary. When the last enemy had gained the last victory over the militant saint, and, conflict, prayer, will and testament all ended, earth was to be returned to earth again, the funeral rites were simple and character-istic of the Puritan creed. Prayer at the grave of the dead was not allowed, lest it should seem to countenance the Romish masses for the repose of the soul. Whatever was allowed in the way of ceremony and funeral pomp, was no doubt done by the citizens of Andover, to render impressive the burial and honor the memory of their first deputy.

     The Inventory(1) of Mr. Osgood's estate is as follows:--

     "An Inventorie of the Estate of John Osgood sen. of Andover lately deeeased.
                                           L  s  d
    Foure oxen                            30  0  0
    Two steeres                           10  0  0
    Six cowes                             29  0  0
    Seven young cattel                    24  0  0
    Eight swine                           25  0  0
    120 Bushels of wheat                  24  0  0
    30 Bushels of Ry                       5  0  0
    120 Bushels of Indian                 15  0  0
    House Lands & Meadows                 80  0  0
    For Rie sowed                         12  0  0
    Due upon bond                         20  0  0
    Sixty Bushels of Barly                13  0  0

         (1) Essex County Court Records, vol. ii.
 
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 21

    Fifty Bushels of Pease                 8 15  0
    A  feather-bed & furniture             4 10  0
    A flock bed (being half feathers) & furniture  3 10  0
    A flock bed & furniture                2  0  0
    Five payre of sheets & an odd one      2  8  0
    Table linen                            1  0  0
    Fower payre of pillow-beers            0 18  0
    Nineteen yards of Carsamere            5  0  0
    Sixe yards of Serge                    1  4  0
    Ten yards of Canvace                   0  9  0
    A remnant of Serge                     0  9  0
    Penistone (?) ten yards                1 10  0
    Ten payre of stockings                 0 18  0
    Three yards of Stuffe                  0 10  0
    Twenty-two pieces of pewter            2  0  0
    For ye copper & brasse                 4 14  0
    For Iron pott, tongs, cottrell & pot hooks      1  0  0
    Two muskets & a fowling-piece          2 10  0
    Sword, cutlass & bandaleeres           1  5  0
    Yarne & cotton-wool                    0 15  0
    Barrels, tubbs, trays, cheese-moates and pailes  1 10  0
    A stand                                0  5  0
    Bedsteads, cords & chayers             0 14  0
    Chests and wheeles                     0 16  0
    A hayre cloth                          0  5  0
    Bridle & Saddle                        0  5  0
    For sawes                              0 10  0
    Mault                                  1 16  0
    A firkin of Butter                     1  8  0
    Bacon                                  2  0  0
    A yard of holland                      0  3  0
    A yard & a half of calico              0  2  6
    Household implements                   1  0  0
                                          _________
    The Sum of all.                      373  7  6

                                    SARAH OSGOOD"
                                      Hwe O marke
    JOHN CLEMENTS
    NICHOLAS HOULT
      His H marke
    This was recorded 25th, 9th month, 1651.
 
 
 

    22   HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

     From the first settler, whose home was, as appears from
    the inventory, devoid of the luxuries and even of many of
    the comforts of life, have descended generations reared in
    affluence. The pioneer settlers grew rich rapidly. Their
    estates became valuable. Lands which were "granted" to
    the fathers were sold by the children and grandchildren for
    large sums of money. The town of Andover did not long
    lack the refinements which come with wealth, when, as in
    the case of our townsmen, pains are taken to add to it intel-
    lectual culture.

     The Osgood name has been remarkably influential in the
    town, connected both with civil and with military office. For
    a hundred and fifty years there was scarcely a time when
    there were not several military officers, captains, or colonels, in service, and in the list of representatives to the General Court, the name occurs thirty times before the year 1800.  During the Revolutionary period, the Hon. Samuel Osgood, of Andover (North Parish), was State Senator, Repre-sentative to the National Congress, first Commissioner of the
    Treasury, and, after his removal from Andover to New York,
    Postmaster General. Among the representatives of the name in this period were the eminent divine of Medford, Rev. David Osgood, D. D., native of the South Parish, and the physicians at North Andover, Dr. Joseph Osgood, who died 1797, and his son Dr. George Osgood, who died 1823.

     Isaac Osgood, Esq. (resident some time in Salem), Peter
    Osgood, Esq., Captain Timothy Osgood, were respectively
    heads of families influential at North Andover in the last
    fifty years.

     Hon. Gayton P. Osgood, representative to Congress 1833
    (died 1861), was a gentleman of rare culture. he lived at
    North Andover, in the fine mansion(1) (on the Haverhill road)
    built by his father, Isaac Osgood, Esq.

     Captain Isaac Osgood, Rev. Peter Osgood (H. U. 1814),
    Mr. Henry Osgood, were among the later prominent repre-
    sentatives of the name. There are now very few(2) members

         (1) Now the residence of Mr. James Davis.
         (2) Miss Hannah Osgood, daughter of Peter Osgood, Esq., and sister of Rev. Peter Osgood, is living in her eighty-sixth year.
 
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS     23

    of this once large family left in the Andovers. The principal
    of these is Mr. Isaac Osgood, postmaster of North Andover.

     Emigrants from old Andover have carried the name to
    many different places, and among their descendants are num-
    bered many names of distinction. But to collect and record
    even a part of these would require time and space beyond
    our limits. The ancient estates on the Cochichawick are
    still owned by descendants(1) of the Osgood line.

     No trace of memorial tablet, or grave-stone, remains, which
    marked the spot where was laid the body of John Osgood, the first settler, in the old burying-ground, nor any relic of
    the men, his neighbors, whose names are signed as witnesses
    of his will and stand next to his on the list of house-holders.  This burying-ground is at North Andover Centre-- at the southeast of the Bradstreet House,-- on the hill near where was the first meeting-house, and is, besides the house, the only memorial left of the works of the first settlers.

     Of all the tombstones erected in memory of the first
    householders, one alone remains, that in memory Of JOHN
    STEVENS. Its broken stone has been re-set in a granite tab-
    let:--

                                Here lyes buried
                                 The Body of Mr.
                                   JOHN STEVENS
                                  Who deceased ye
                                  11 Day of April
                                   1662 in ye 57
                                  year of his age.

     The stone is quaintly carved and ornamented, but bears no
    eulogy or text. "He lived-- he died,"-- this is indeed the
    sum and "abstract of the historian's page" in regard to the
    life of this, as of many another first settler of Andover, to
    whose memorial monument time and decay have given a longer reprieve than to most of those of his contemporaries.
    His name appears occasionally in the records of the County
    Court, and once in the records of the General Court, 1654:
    "John Stevens of Andover, Henry Short of Newbury, Jo-

(1) Mr. T. Osgood Wardwell, Mrs. S. Osgood Russell, and Mrs. C. Osgood Stevens.
 
 
 
 

    24   HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

    seph Jewett of Rowley, a committee chosen to examine, into
    the grounds of a dispute between Haverhill and Salisbury in
    regard to lands, and to return their apprehentions thereof to
    this Court."  On the 19th of October, they made an elaborate
    and minute report of their action in the matter, detailing
    their surveying, etc., in its full particulars, and stating their conclusion that former surveyors had made a mistake by
    which land was cut off from Haverhill "to their great pjdice"
    Their report was accepted.

     An idea of the house, estate, and style of living of John
    Stevens may be obtained from the following:--

    "An Inveniory(l) of the goods and Chattels of John Stevens of Andover Deceased emprized by George Abbot, Richard Barker, Nathan Parker, Nicholas Noyes, the 28th of Aprill Anno 1662.

     "Imp. His wearing Apparell.
     "It. In the hall, two beds with their furniture. It. One chest and foure boxes. It. Eight payre of sheetes, foure Bolster cases and three payre of pillow-beeres. It. Three table cloaths, 1 dozen of Napkins with other sleight Things.

     "It. One brasse Pott, foure small Kettels one Skillett, a Scummer & warming pan. It. One Iron Pott, an iron posnett, two
    payre of pott hookes, two trammels, a spitt, a payre of tonges & fire-pan, a payre of Cob-irons with a smoothing iron & a trevett.

     "It. Six pewter platters, two brazers, two porrengers, foure
    drinken cuppes, a salt-seller a chamber-pott, a dozen & half of spoones a latten-pan. It. A table board & foure chayres, two cushens two dozen of trenchers, half a dozen of dishes.

     " It. A muskett, corslett & head piece a sword, cutlass and
    halberd. It. A bible with other books. It. In the Leaneto--
    Barrels, wheeles, with other lumber. It. In the Chamber—bed-
    ding. It. Wheate, twenty Bushells, Indian corn ten bushels.
    It. A bridle & saddle & pommel. It. Two flitches of Bacon.
    It. Baggs. It. Flax & yarne. It. Old tubbs with other lumber.
    It. Sawes, Axes, ploughes, with other working tooles. It. Eight oxen. It. Six cows. It. A heifer & two yearlings. It. Three calves. It. Swine. It. A colt & an asse. It. A horse. It. One stocke of bees. It. One carte, sleads, yoakes, chaines plowes & plow-irons, ropes, &c.

    "It. House, barnes, upland, & meadow and corne upon ye
    grounde. Sum total L463. 4. 0."

           (1) Essex County Court Papers, vol. viii., p. 18.
 
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 25

     The inventories of the two citizens, John Osgood and John
    Stevens, are interesting to study, not only for the idea which they give of the amount of property owned by the rich citizens of ancient Andover, but also for the picture they present of the style of living of that time, the household furniture and farm implements. Some of the names of utensils are now unfamiliar in New England households, but they were
    those in use in the old country, and often occur in the Eng-
    lish classics of that period. An "iron possnet" was a sort
    of porringer; "cob-irons" were andirons, with a round ball
    at the top; a "trevett" was a "three-footed stand," probably
    to accompany the smoothing-iron-- a flat-iron stand, in mod-
    ern parlance a "latten-pan" was a pan made of latten, a
    sort of tin; trencbers "were wooden plates, which were in
    common use for the table. Wooden plates and pewter plat-
    ters, or dishes, pewter drinking cups and spoons, no knives
    and forks, are what constituted the table furniture of the two well-to-do farmers of North Andover in 1650-1660. The
    quantity of military outfit is noticeable "Sword, cutlass, halberd, head-piece, corslet (an outfit for a knight of the middle ages), also a musket, but all only costing two pounds.

     The Stevens name was prominent in the early military record. Sergeant John Stevens, 1661; Lieutenant John Stevens, 1689; Captain Benjamin Stevens, about 1725, was one of the most active officers in the frontier service, ranging in quest of Indians. He was representative to the General Court and justice of the peace.

     The name of Stevens was widely known in the colonial time by the brilliant reputation of Rev. Joseph Stevens, grandson of John Stevens, the first settler; also of his son Rev. Benjamin Stevens, D. D., of Kittery, Me., once candidate for the presi-dency of Harvard College. Rev. Phineas Stevens, D. D., was a graduate of Harvard College, 1734; ordained at North Andover, 1740; settled at Boscawen.  Capt. James Stevens, during the French and Indian war, did honorable duty in the King's service. He was also one of the deputies to the General Court. During the Revolution, Adjutant Bimsley Stevens was on the staff of General Ward.

     Among the prominent names of the family are, in recent
    times, Capt. Nathaniel Stevens, one of the early manu-
 
 
 
 

    26  HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

    facturers of North Andover (his five sons manufacturers--
    among them Mr. Charles Stevens, of Ware, and Hon. Moses
    T. Stevens, of North Andover); the late Justice William
    Stevens, of Lawrence; his son, Colonel William 0. Stevens
    (attorney, of Dunkirk, N. Y.), killed in the battle of Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863; Major-general Isaac I. Stevens, Governor of Washington Territory, killed in the battle of Chantilly, Va., September 1, 1862; Oliver Stevens, Esq., now
    District Attorney of Suffolk County; Henry J. Stevens, Esq.,
    counsellor at law, Boston; Mr. Phineas Stevens (deceased,
    1864), builder of first mills at Lawrence, civil engineer; Mr. Augustus G. Stevens, now city engineer of Manchester. Mr.
    Warren Stevens and Mr. Enoch Stevens, traders fifty years
    ago, at North Andover,-- also James Stevens, Esq.,-- were
    widely known in this vicinity, and many others of the family,
    especially in the West Parish, had a local name; but enough
    have been mentioned to indicate the descent and perpetuity
    of the family through the centuries.

     Before tracing farther the early settlers we may here pause
    to take a survey of the every-day life in the new plantation,
    and gain a more vivid idea of the manners and customs
    of ancient Andover. First, as to their gaining a legal and
    moral right to the goodly territory on which they settled.
    We have already seen what the action of the General Court
    was in reference to the Cochichawick plantation, and that
    Mr. John Woodbridge was a prime mover in the matter of
    collecting a colony. He and Mr. Edmond Faulkner are said
    to have purchased the land from the Indian sachem, Cut-
    shamache, or Cutshamakin, who lived near Dorchester, and
    who was a kinsman of Passaconaway, the sachem living in
    the region about the Merrimack River, "Old Will," as he
    was sometimes called.

     For the paltry sum of six pounds, currency, and a coat,
    the township of Andover was bought, a tract of land included between Merrimack River, Rowley, Salem, Woburn, and Cambridge. This sale the Indian sachem acknowleged about the time of the town's incorporation, and confirmed before the General Court, as appears from the Colony
    records:--
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 27

     "At a General Court at Boston 6th 3d mo. 1646 Cutshamache,
    Sagamore of ye Massachusetts came into ye Corte & acknowl-
    edged yt for the sum of L6 & a Coat which he had, already received, he had sold to Mr. John Woodbridge in behalfe of ye inhabitants of Cochichawicke now called Andover all his right
    interest & privilege in ye land 6 miles southward from ye towne, two miles eastward to Rowley bounds be ye same more or lesse, northward to Merrimack river, pvided yt ye Indian called Roger and his company may have liberty to take alewives in Cochichawicke River, for their owne eating; but if they either spoyle or steale any corne or other fruite to any considerable value of ye inhabitants there, this liberty of taking fish shall forever cease, and ye said Roger is still to enjoy four acres of ground where he now plants."

     The name of Roger is still perpetuated in Roger's brook
    and Roger's rock,(1) the well-known landmark, near the pres-
    ent site of the South Meeting-house. "Roger and his company" taking alewives in the rivers, or even, in spite of their
    promises, "spoyling or stealing corn" in the white man's
    planting grounds, were no doubt familiar sights to the set-
    tlers of old Andover, for it is to be observed that the clause in the agreement does not imply the possibility of their abstaining wholly from plunder." To any considerable value," left a wide leeway and margin, as a concession to the Indian's natural propensity. Roger's "reservation," of "four
    acres where he now plants," seems never to have occasioned
    any controversy; but he and "his company" (like all his
    race destined to fade away before the invader) have long ago
    ceased to be,-- no descendant of an Indian is now (2) known
    to live on the soil sold by Cutshamache.

     The "village of Cochichawicke" was laid out in house lots,
    chiefly of four acres and eight acres. To many persons who
    have not given special thought to the matter, and are not familiar with colonial life, it is a matter of wonder that the early settlers of the New England towns had not larger homesteads.  When the country was all before them, why did not our forefathers each surround his house with an estate of hundreds of acres, instead of crowding as closely together in living as

          (1) Now removed.
          (2) Some persons now living remember a woman named Nancy Parker, who is said to have been the last Indian.
 
 
 

    28   HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

    though land were scarce, and why are the estates, which
    have been held by families from the time of these first set-
    tlers, not contiguous territory, but scattered all over the town in patches here and there, a wood-lot in one place and a
    meadow two to five miles away?

     A little reflection on the state of things, in which the
    pioneer settlers found themselves, and a study of the records
    of the town and of the proprietors, explain all this.

     It was necessary that the population should be compact together, not only because of the danger of attack from Indians and of the ravages of wild beasts, and the guard to be kept against these, but, also, because the facilities of communication were few for transacting the business of the community.  With no good roads, and few horses, it was desirable that a community mutually dependent should not be scattered over a wide territory. Some ancient rules(1) or directions, for laying out a "towne," are the following, which are likely to have been in general the plan followed at Andover:--

     "Suppose ye towne square 6 miles every waye. The houses orderly placed about ye midst especially ye meeting-house, the which we will suppose to be ye center of ye wholl circumfer-ence. The greatest difficulty is for the employment of ye parts most remote, which (if better direction doe not arise) may be this; the whole being 6 miles, the extent from ye meeting-house in ye center will be unto every side 3 miles; the one half whereof being 2500 paces round about & next unto ye said center, in what condition soever it lyeth may well be distributed & employed unto ye houses within the compass of ye same orderly placed to enjoye comfortable convaniance. Then for yt ground lying without, ye neerest circumferance may be thought fittest to be imployed in farmes into which may be placed skillful bred husbandmen, many or fewe as they may be attayned unto to become farmers, unto such portions as each of them may well & in convenient time improve according to the portion of stocke each of them may be intrusted with.".

     The township was owned by the Proprietors. Some twenty-
    three names are found, but the original lists were lost, and
    after some years persons were counted as proprietors who
    were not among the original ones. The house-lots having
    been assigned, the farm lands (meadow lands, ox-ground,

          (1) Mass. His. Soc. Coll., Fifth Series, vol. i
 
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.  29

    ploughing ground, mowing land, they were variously named)
    were distributed in proportion to each man's house-lot; that
    is, to a four-acre house-lot belonged a certain amount of
    meadow or farm land to an eight-acre house-lot belonged
    double this amount of farm land, etc. These were called
    "house-lot rights" or acre-rights," and thus when a man
    bought a house-lot of eight acres, he had also with it, and at first (as it would seem) inseparable from it in transfer, these farm lands. But the whole township was by no means used
    up and divided out. A large, perhaps the larger, part was
    kept in reserve by the proprietors, and called the "common
    or undivided lands."  From these, grants and sales were made
    from time to time, up to the year 1800, when the whole was
    sold and the money divided for the support of free schools.(1)

     The first house-lots were grouped around the meeting
    house in the north part of the town. The old burying-ground
    marks the site (nearly) of the meeting-house. The estates
    remote from this centre, which are often said to have been
    the "homesteads" of the first settlers, from the fact that the land can be proved to have been held by them, it is not probable were in many instances the places of their first abode, although, in the progress of the settlement, many of the first owners of house-lots undoubtedly removed from their original residence, further from the centre, to their own farm
    lands, where, in time, residence became safer and more con-
    venient. So, as was said, estates and homesteads have been
    handed down from first settlers which were not their first residence, or even perhaps their residence at all. This will appear more clearly in the course of the narrative.

    It is apparent, from what has been said, that the "common"
    lands were not for any ornamental or decorative, or even san-
    itary purposes, such as the "common" of a city or village
    now serves, although in some instances the land now beauti-
    fied and adorned as a public park is a remnant of the former
    common lands of the town-- as Boston "Common," which was used for a pasture. The "common or undivided" lands served for the pasturage of the flocks and herds. Those common lands conven-iently situated were often used as places

          (1) See Chapter VIII., "District Schools;" also "Franklin Academy."
 
 
 

    30   HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

    for military drill, which was rigidly enforced during the Indian wars. These were called "training fields":--

     "1718.-- Voted & passed That the three training-fields, that
    which is called Benjamin's Lott,(1) the old training field; and that between Capt. John Chandler's and Samuel Peters's and Ensign Henry Chandler's, and that by the South Meeting house, all three places shall lye common forever."

     There were also common wood-lands, and for various purposes, as appears from the following in the Proprietors' records:--

     "Andover's Common Clay ground 1aid out and Recorded for to
    Lye Common forever for the Use of all the Town.

     "We the subscribers hereof who were chosen and appointed a
    Committee by the proprietors of Andover at their meeting that
    was on the 22: day January: 1721-2 for to lay out such Pieces of Clay Ground as was then common: whereupon on the seventh
    day of June 1722: was Laid out these three severall pieces of
    clay ground That is to Ly open to the Common and that the Clay in each place is to be free: and common for any of the inhabitance of the said Town of Andover forever: for their own use in Andover: To wit: the first piece of said clay-ground we Laid out for the End aforesaid. Lieth a Littell below Lieut John fries Dam just below his home meadow, that is about Thirty-five pole of Land be it more or Less. Bounded att the North West Corner with a Stake and Stons, then Run eastward four pole and a half to a great stump, then southward .... The second piece of said clay-ground lieth att a place called the miller's meadow clay-pitts, containing about one hundred pole of land .... the north end of it the said hundred pole of Clay ground and the east side of it Joyneth to Robert Swan's Land and the West side to the way that Leadeth from Joseph Ingales to Edward faringtons.  The third piece of said clay Ground lyeth att Rose meadow Broock by the South Side of the way that Leads from Jacob Mastons to Quarter master John barkers."

     As late as 1794 there was a tract of land on Preston's
    Plain, lying west of Boston road and south of the road to
    Ballard's mill, which, "although divided by metes and bounds

         (1) This is believed to have been the land north of or near the present house of Dr. Kittredge, on the hill-- a lot owned by Benjamin Stevens at one time.
 
 
 
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 31

    is yet improved by the owners in one common field," as says
    the ancient document(1) recording the action. A meeting of
    the proprietors was called at Mr. Isaac Blunt's tavern, Sep-
    tember 21, and adjourned to meet at an Oak Tree, on the
    road to Ballard's mill, for the purpose of dividing this "commonage" for separate improvement by the owners, and the
    division was effected.

     It is difficult to ascertain with certainty anything definite about the first house-lots and their occupants, who seem to have removed from place to place in the town. In 1658,
    Richard Sutton bought a house, which had belonged to Mr.
    Bradstreet. The deed gives a clew to the residence of some
    of the other settlers. George Abbot, senior, had his house-
    lot on the north, and George Abbot, junior (not the son, but
    a younger man, "George Abbot tailor," or, "of Rowley," as
    the "Genealogical Register" designates him), had the lot
    south. Robert Barnard's lot adjoined Mr. Bradstreet's; Mr.
    Dane lived near; John Stevens seems to have lived near the
    burying-ground, to the east. Joseph Parker had his lot "toward the mill river, southeast of the meeting-house, bounded by the house lot of Nicholas Holt, and by Mr. Francis Faulkner's on ye common."(2) This was probably as late as 1670.  Henry Ingals lived near the meeting-house, 1687. The Osgood and Johnson lots were toward the Cochichawick, and
    north of it. Richard Barker's was contiguous. It is a tradi-
    tion that John Frye lived south of the Bradstreet House,
    and the Poors near the Shawshin. Thus we learn that the
    first settlers, whose estates are now in the south and west
    parishes of Andover, lived in the beginning at the north part
    of the town. As is stated hereafter the town at first forbade
    any to go to live on their farm lands without express permis-
    sion.

     The names of the proprietors, who had been also house-
    holders before 1681, are given in a list (which, it is stated in the record, was copied from the town books), in the prop-rietors' books. These, as has been said, were not all proprietors

         (1) MSS. of Mr. Asa A. Abbot.
         (2) That he had a lot would not necessarily imply that he lived on it, but more than once in allusions to transactions the families are spoken of as contiguous.
 
 
 

    32   HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

    originally, but from time to time were voted into the number:--

    Abbot, George, senior.
    Abbot, George, junior.
    Abbot, John.
    Allen, Andrew.
    Ballard, William.
    Barker, Richard.
    Barnard, Robert.
    Blanchard,(1) Samuel.
    Bradstreet, Simon.
    Chandler, Thomas.
    Chandler, William, senr.
    Dane, Mr. Francis.
    Farnum, Ralph.

    Farman, Thomas.
    Faulkner, Edmond.
    Foster, Andrew, Senr.
    Foster, Andrew, Junr.
    Frie, John, senr.
    Frie, John, junr.
    Graves, Mark.
    Holt, Nicholas.
    Ingolls, Henry.
    Johnson, Thomas.
    Johnson,John.
    Lovejoy, John, senr.
    Martin, Solomon.

    Osgood, Capt. John.
    Parker, Joseph.
    Parker, Nathan.
    Poor, Daniel.
    Rowell, Thomas.
    Russell, Robart.
    Russ, John, senr.
    Stevens, John, senr.
    Stevens, John, junr.
    Stevens, Nathan.
    Stevens, Timothy.
    Tyler, job.
    Woodbridge,(2) Benjamin.

     The Proprietors in 1714 bought new books, and began a
    careful record of their transactions and the grants made.
    The two volumes of their records are now in the Memorial
    Hall Library, Andover, and are of interest to the curious in
    local history. In looking through them we find frequent
    mention of houses and land-marks, helpful in identifying
    family estates and abodes.

     The Proprietors' Records contain an account of what has
    already been said was the manner of dividing the lands, also
    of the mode of taxation, and when it underwent a change:--

     "The Proprietors in Andover raised their Town Rate By their
    Lots, so that he which hath an eight-acre lot paid double to him that had a four-acre Lott and had also double division of Land and meadow, until the year 1681. Then the proprietors came to a new agreement with themselves and also with all that were then householders: To raise our Town charges by Heads and their Ratable estate and then every man was to be priviledged in all town privileges according to what taxe he Bore and also to have an Interest in the Common Lands in Andover according to the Tax they Bore from the year 1681 to the year 1713."

     The first town-meeting, of which there is any record,(3) was
    holden at the house of John Osgood, 9th inst., 1st, 1656, and
    was, as the record states, "chiefly warned and intended for
    the entering & recording of Town orders now in force and

           (1) Alias Henry Jacques.
           (2) Alias Thomas Chandler.
           (3) The earliest books are lost.
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 33

    particular men's grants of Land in a New Town Book; the
    old being rent and in many places defective and some graunts
    lost."

     In 1660 action was taken by the town in respect to persons' removing their residence, and all citizens were forbidden to go out of the village to live, which at that time of compara-tive security from Indian attacks many were inclined to do.

    The disadvantage of such residence to the general welfare is
    thus set forth and guarded against:--

     "Att a generall Towne meeting March 1660, the Towne taking
    into consideration the great damage that may come to the Town
    by persons living remote from the Towne upon such lands as
    were given them for ploughing or planting and soe, by their hoggs & cattle destroy the meadows adjoyning thereunto have therefore ordered & doe hereby order that whosoever, inhabi-tant or other shall build any dwelling-house in any part of the towne but upon such house lott or other place granted for that end without express leave from the Towne shall forfeit twenty shillings a month for the time he shall soe live in any such p'hibited place p'vided it is
    not intended to restrain any p'son from building any shede for himself or cattle that shall be necessary for the ploughing of his ground or hoeing of his corne, but to restraine only from their constant abode there, the towne having given house lotts to build on to all such as they regard as inhabitants of the towne."

     An instance of the damage done and the trouble caused
    by roving animals is found in a record,(1)1665, of a lawsuit:
    "Simon Bradstreet vs. Daniel Gage" for damages done to the plaintiff's fields by swine owned by the defendant. The
    fence-viewers, Thomas Johnson and Richard Sutton, testified
    in regard to the condition of the fence, that they had viewed
    it, and found it "very sufficient against all orderly cattle."  It was not expected that fences could be made so as to keep out swine, and therefore persons, except innholders, were forbidden by law to keep more than ten of these animals.
    The year before, Mr. Bradstreet, whose suits against his
    neighbors and others were many (the law seems to have been
    resorted to on the most trifling causes in those times), had
    had a case(2) in court against Richard Sutton, which arose

          (1) County Court Papers, vol. xiv
          (2) Court Papers, vol. xiv.
                      3
 
 
 

    34  HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

    primarily from the trespass of Mr. Bradstreet's horses on his
    neighbors' premises. The charge brought against Richard
    Sutton was that he intentionally struck and killed one of the
    horses. He claimed that he did not,-- that the horses had
    been in his yard again and again (as he brought witnesses
    to prove) "eating up his cattle's fodder."  One night, when
    they came, he called Mr. Bradstreet's dog and Mr. Dane's
    dog, and set them on the horses, and then was unable to call
    them off, and the dogs had killed a mare. "The doggs pulled
    her downe once in my yard & I beate them off & they fell
    upon her again & almost pulled her downe in Mr. Dane's
    cort yard & I did what I could to save her & I doe believe I
    can prove yt Mr. Dane's dog & Mr. Bradstreet's killed her."
    This was what Richard Sutton said to a neighbor, Thomas
    Abbot, the next day after the affair, as Abbot testified in
    court. The defendant was fined ten pounds; but as his
    townsmen chose him for one of the fence-viewers the next
    year, it would seem that his reputation did not suffer seriously from the cbarge. It is noticeable that in his official capacity his evidence in the suit of "Bradstreet vs. Gage" was in favor of the plaintiff. He did not, however, long remain in Andover; Mr. Bradstreet was a man who would not brook contradiction by his neighbors of less commanding influence, and it would not be surprising if Richard Sutton was glad to sell the house which he had bought from him, and go out of the neighborhood. At any rate, he seems to have removed to where there would be no more danger of trouble from Mr. Bradstreet's horses.

     The trespass of horses some years later caused yet more
    serious trouble between neighbors,-- a hand-to-hand fight
    which came near ending fatally, between William Chandler, Jr., and Walter Wright. These instances, and many others, go to show that it is an error to infer from the strict
    rules and severe penalties for Sabbath-breaking, religious
    heresy, and extravagant dress, that the community was a
    model of good order and sobriety. Persons unfamiliar with
    the facts would be astonished to find how many offences
    there were against the moral and the civil law, and how com-
    mon they were in the families of prominent citizens. Both
 
 
 
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.  35

    the parties in the fray now alluded to were of respectable
    family connections. The young man was the son of William
    Chandler, and nephew of Thomas Chandler, the deputy to
    the General Court; that same year, 1678. Walter Wright
    was in 1689 the constable, and in 1673 had been granted
    encouragement by the town to erect a fulling-mill. The story
    is told simply to show the actual state of the town and of
    society, as it was here and elsewhere, and to correct an erroneous idea that the first century of our colonial history was in every respect superior to the present century, which, if it be true, is a sad commentary on all the labor expended to educate and cultivate and refine the masses. Our ancestors
    were good men, but their age had its faults, which were those
    of a primitive society, rude and not glossed over with any
    fine semblance, which makes right and wrong indistinguish-
    able.

     The trouble between our townsmen in August, 1678, was
    as follows (an extract from the evidence in court,(1) September, 1678):--

     "The Testimony of William Chandler aged about 19 years, who
    saith that a month ago last past, Goodman(2) Right early in the morning came by to my father's house and I being in the yard he sd to me: Well, I will shoot your horse; I asked him why: because sd he, he hath been in my lot tonight. I replyed I am sorry for that; for I did forget to fasten him tonight; but I hope I shall doe soe no more, but Goodman Right replyed: And so you will always forget it; but I will goe home & charge my gun & shoote him, for he hath done me forty shillings worth of hurt this summer."

     The youth retorted, and being exasperated by some further
    offensive words, sprang upon Goodman Wright, and seized him by the collar. They grappled in a fierce tussle, in which
    Wright, being strangled by Chandler, drew a knife and gashed
    the face of the youth, "cut a long deepe gash on my cheeke
    which came very near my throat-- his knife was in the in-

         (1) County Court Papers, vol. xxix., p. 93.
         (2) Only a few of the more wealthy and influential men were spoken of as Mr. All others were called Goodman. Only four of the first settlers have the title Mr.: Bradstreet, Osgood, Faulkner, Woodbridge.
 
 
 

    36.  HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

    deavour as I thought to cut my throat,"-- was the testimony
    of Chandler in court. This trial, like the former one, seems
    not to have been any great injury to the reputation of the
    parties, or to have interfered with their standing in the town.

     But the many difficulties growing out of the trespassings
    of domestic animals made the watching of them important.
    They were also in danger of straying off and being lost in
    the woods, or in the boggy grounds. Officers to look after
    them were, therefore, appointed by the town, "reeves" and
    "branding men,"-- the latter to see that all cattle had the
    town-mark, and the former to superintend the driving of
    them to the common lands for pasture. Herdsmen were also employed to watch and drive the cattle and sheep. In the morning many of these were driven out, and back at evening, by the herdsmen, while some were out for the greater part of the season. In 1686 the town voted "that a parcel of land lying between ye land of William Ballard senior and ye pond called Ballards pond and soe to ye end of ye pine plaine and soe betweene ye land of Joseph Ballard, Hugh Stone, & William Blunt & soe to John Abbot shall forever lye for a sheep pasture."

     The herdsmen were assisted in watching the flocks by
    boys and girls, who were obliged also to have some other
    employment meanwhile, so that their time might not be
    wasted, or habits of idleness formed.

     "1642. The Court doe hereupon order and decree that in
    every towne the chosen men are to take care of such as are sett to keep cattle that they be sett to some other employment withall as spinning upon the rock, knitting & weaving tape &c that boyes & girls be not suffered to converse together."

     A scene for the painter, if there had been one to appreciate it, would have been the wild, rocky pasture, with its flocks and herds browsing, tended by boys and girls with knitting-work in hand, or spinning-wheel on the rock, themselves watched by the sharp-eyed herdsman, lest they transgress the rule of silence, while from behind bush or tree the whole party is eyed by lurking Indian or savage beast, waiting an unguarded moment to spring upon a victim.
 
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 37

     To clear the forests of wild beasts was no small part of the
    labor of the primitive settler. It was also in its way a pleasure, as well as a duty,-- one of the few recreations permitted to the Puritan. That the settlers sometimes undertook the chase in another spirit than the motive of self-preservation, appears from " Josselyn's Account of Two Voyages to New England," 1675:--

     "Foxes and wolves are usually hunted in England from Holy
    Rood to Annunciation. In New England they make best sport in
    the depth of winter. They lay a sledg-load of cods-heads on the other side of a paled fence when the moon shines, and about nine or ten of the clock, the foxes come to it; some-times two or three or half a dozen and more, these they shoot and by that time they have cased them there will be as many more; so they continue, shooting and killing of foxes as long as the moon shineth. I have known half a score killed in a night."

     He describes the sport in killing wolves, and narrates with
    gusto some acts which would point a moral for the advocate
    of prevention of cruelty to animals:--

     "A great mastiff held the wolf..... Tying him to a stake
    we bated him with smaller doggs, and had excellent sport; but
    his hinder leg being broken, they knocked out his brains....
    Their eyes shine by night as a Lanthorne ..... The fangs of a
    wolf hung about children's necks keep them from frightning and are very good to rub their gums with when they are breeding of Teeth."

     Josselyn, in his "New England Rarities," also describes
    another method of catching wolves, which was perhaps used
    at Andover, and may offer some clew to the meaning of
    the term "Wolf-hook," of so frequent occurrence in the colo-
    nial records.

     "Four mackerel hooks are bound with brown thread and wool
    wrapped around them and they are dipped into melted tallow, till they be as big and round as an egg. This thing thus pre-pared is laid by some dead carcase which toles the wolves. It is swallowed by them and is the means of their being taken."

     Mr. Bradstreet, in one of his accounts, has an entry or
    order for "25 Wolf-hooks."
 
 
 

    38   HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER.

     In 1686 it was voted in the town, meeting "that those that
    catch wolves in ye towne of Andover shall have ten shillings
    for each wolfe to be paid by ye towne."

     A valiant hunting feat of an Andover youth is recorded by
    Judge Sewall in his diary, 1680-81, February 3:--

     "Newes is brought of Mr. Dean's(1) [Dane] Son Robinson his
    killing a Lion with his axe at Andover."

     The "lion" was probably a bear, it being common then to
    use the word lion for any great wild beast of which the set-
    tlers stood in terror. Bear-hunting is described by Josselyn.
    As this was no small part of the work and "sport" of the
    Andover settlers, we are not turning aside from our main
    path to note it:--

     "Hunting with doggs they take a tree where they shoot them;
    when he is fat he is excellent venison, which is in Acorn time and in Winter, but then there is none dares to attempt to kill him, but the Indian; he makes his Den amongst thick bushes."

     Den Rock no doubt received its name from being one of the haunts of the bear (although in later times the place has
    gained, perhaps named by divinity students, a theological
    significance, and been called "Devil's Den"). Bear Hill,
    Bruin Hill, Wolfe-pit Meadow, Wild-catt Swamp, Deer Jump,
    Crane Meadow, Rattle-snake Hill, Woodchuck Hill, Scoonk
    Hole,-- suggest the denizens of the woods and meadows, most
    of which have long ago disappeared; and here a plea may be
    pardoned in behalf of the old significant and commemorative
    names. Plain and homely as they are, those already quoted,
    and others found on the ancient records,-- Musquito Brook,
    Five-mile Pond, Great Pond, Dew Meadow, Heather Meadow,
    Rose Meadow, Flaggy Meadow, Rubbish Meadow, Half-moon
    Meadow, Rough Meadow, Ladle Meadow, Pudden-bridge Swamp, Falls Woods, Rockey Hill, Barn Plain, Rail Swamp,
    Cedar Swamp, Little-hope Brook, Roger's Brook, Rowell's
    Folly Brook, Job's Folly, Needless Bridge, Holt's Hill, Foster's Pond, Hagget's Pond, Aslebe Hill, Marble Ridge, and
    many others,-- shall they be supplanted by the trite and flavorless commonplaces which can be found in nearly every

            (1) Dean Robinson(?)
 
 
 

    MEMORIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS. 39

    suburban town from Maine to Oregon? Let us hold to our
    local names, those which are time-honored and have a mean-
    ing; and in selecting new ones, almost anything, however devoid of elegance, which preserves a fact, is, we may venture to say, preferable to a merely pretty or fine-sounding title. In selecting names for streets, would it not be well to bear this in mind, and draw from our rich repository of local history, or have reference to some actual fact of natural history, or something distinctive and characteristic, even though it be humble? "Pomp's Pond,"(1) for instance,-- who would make it romantic with a mellifluous name, and obliterate the memory of the old colored man, "Pompey Lovejoy" (servant of Capt. William Lovejoy), who had his cabin near it, and made ‘lection cake and beer for the delectation of voters' palates on town-meeting days! This name is almost the only local re-
    minder that negro slavery was one of our early institutions,
    and that for more than a hundred years men and women were
    bought and sold in Andover. Almost in the earliest days of
    the town history (that is to say in its first quarter-century), negro slavery existed. In 1683, Jack, negro servant of Capt. Dudley Bradstreet, died. In 1696, "Stacy, ye servant of Maj. Dudley Bradstreet, a mullatoe born in his house," was
    drowned. In 1690, Lieut. John Osgood complained to the court at Salem, that he had been taxed for a servant boy (" small as to his growth and strength, and in understanding almost a foole"),(2) as much as though the boy were an ablebodied man.

     In 1730, the negro girl Candace was sold by her master, the Rev. John Barnard, to Mr. Benjamin Stevens, who seems to have owned several slaves. The following is the bill of sale:(3)—

     "Know all men by these presents that I John Barnard of Ando-
    ver in the County of Essex and Province of the Massachusetts
    Bay in New England Clerk, for and in Consideration of the sum
    of sixty pounds to me in hand paid or by bond secured by Ben-

         (1) Formerly Ballard's Pond.
         (2) Essex County Court Papers, vol. i., p. 14.
         (3) The original, among the papers of Mr. Barnard's son, Rev. Thomas Barnard, of Salem, was preserved by his friend Col. Benjamin Pickman, among whose papers it was found by the Hon. George B. Loring, and by him contributed to the Essex Institute Collection, 1865.
 
 
 

    40  HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF ANDOVER

    jamin Stevens junior of Andover aforesaid, husbandman, Have
    given, granted, sold, conveyed and by these Presents do for myself and Heirs, give, grant, sell, convey and confirm unto Him the said Benjamin Stevens, his Heirs and Assignes forever a certain Negro-Girl named Candace, to Have and to Hold the said Negro-girl, to him the said Benjamin Stevens His Heirs and Assignees forever.

     Further. I the said John Barnard for myself, my Heirs, Exec-
    utors and Administrators do Covenant and Promise to and with
    the said Benjamin Stevens his Heirs, Executors, Administra-tors and Assignes that he the said Benjamin Stevens, his Heirs, Executors, Administrators and Assignes shall legally and peacefully hold the sd Negro Girl forever and that He the sd Barnard his Heirs, Executors & Administrators will warrant and Defend the sale of said Girl to sd Benjamin Stevens, his Heires and assignes against the lawful claims of all and every person whatsoever. In witness whereof I the said John Barnard have hereunto set my Hand and Seal this 14th day of December Anno Domini 1730 and in the fourth year of his Majesty King George the Second.
                         JOHN BARNARD (Seal)
                         SARAH BARNARD (Seal)"

     The original bill of sale, or receipt for money paid for a
    negro girl, 1756, is among the papers preserved on the home-
    stead of George Abbot, Senior, now owned by Mr. John Abbot:--

                        "DUNSTABLE, September 10, 1756.
     "Received of Mr. John Abbot of Andover Fourteen pounds
    thirteen shillings, and seven pence, it being the full value of a negrow Garl named Dinah about five years of age of a Healthy, Sound Constitution, free from any Disease of Body and do hereby Deliver the same Girl to the said Abbot and promise to Defend him in the Improvement of her as his servant forever.

                                        ROBERT BLOOD.
     "Witness my hand - JOHN KIMBALL
                        TEMPLE KIMBALL.

     "This day Oct. 25 (the new style) the within named Girl was five years old."

     Among the records of marriage is "Abraham & Dido servants to Mr. James Bridges Oct. 31, 1744."

     Among the records of intentions of marriage is the following:--
 
 
 

    MEM0RIALS OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.  41

     "Oct. 4, 1755. The Intentions of Marige between Primas and
    Nan negrow servants to John Osgood Esqr. and Mr. Joseph Os-
    good were entered on record. Published and Certeficet Given."

     Although not strictly within the scope of this chapter, the sketch of slavery may here be brought down to the time when it ceased to be legal in Massachusetts. It is not attempted to gather all the facts and details in regard to individual slaves (concerning the sales and transfers of some of whom accounts differ), but merely to present enough to show how prominent a feature of the town history slavery was.

     Some families kept several servants, and (as in the case of Mr. Bradstreet's household and James Bridges's, and as in the Southern States recently) their affairs, and the domestic events and concerns of their households, were of almost as  much interest among their masters' families as in their own.
    But, tender as were the attachments sometimes formed between the servant and the master, and kindly as many servants were treated through life, we have seen that even the minister sold Candace, and that the little five-year old Dinah changed masters, and was carried from her home in Dunstable to a stranger's at Andover.  So, too, when masters had ceased to need the services of their slaves they advertised them to the highest bidder. Witness the following from the "Essex Gazette," 1770:--

     "To be sold by the subscriber cheap for cash or Good Security, a Healthy, Strong, Negro Boy, 20 years old last month, very ingenious in the farming business and