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