THE

STORY OF BYFIELD

a New England Parish

BY

JOHN LOUIS EWELL, D.D.

Professor of Old Testament Hebrew Exegesis and Church History,

Howard University, Washington, D. C.

With Maps, Plans, and Illustrations

BOSTON

GEORGE E. LITTLEFIELD

67 CORNHILL

1904

COPYRIGHT1 1904,

By JOHN LOUIS EWELL

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

To my wife

EMILY SPOFFORD EWELL

IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION

OF HER CO-OPERATION IN THE PREPARATION

OF THIS VOLUME

PREFACE

IF one could only know in youth what he was to do in after

life how much better he could do it! Had I dreamed in my

early years of writing a history of Byfield, there were many

about me, who have long since passed on, who could have in-

stantly given me information which I have only obtained with

difficulty, or not at all; but up to four years ago I had never

thought of such a work. What led to it was the publication of

an article by me on Ezekiel Rogers and Rowley in the New

England Magazine for September, 1899. This brought to me

the urgent suggestion, particularly from Mr. Northend, that I

should write a history of Byfield. At first I would not enter-

tain the idea because my regular work was so engrossing, but

at length I yielded, and I have found the task, while a large

one, very pleasant. It has been lightened by the hearty co-

operation of so many friends that I cannot attempt to enumer-

ate them all, although under the head of authorities and, from

time to time, in the body of the work, I have had the privilege

of acknowledging my debt to some of them. I think, however,

that there should be mentioned pre-eminently the late Mr.

Northend, to whose most cordial and helpful assistance from the

beginning until his death I have tried to give due' acknowledge-

ment in more than one place in the book, and whose decease

before the publication of the work is a special grief to me;

Mrs. Forbes, who has evidently delighted to incur any pains or

expense that could aid me, and whose interest in the book has

been to me a constant stimulus and cheer; and she to whom

the book is dedicated, who has helped me throughout by un-

ending copying, investigation, and suggestion, and to whose

viii PREFACE

enthusiastic co-operation the history is largely indebted for

whatever value it may have.

I have sought by this book to perpetuate the memory of

many of the men and women who have made Byfield worthy of

remembrance, and if I have felt obliged to criticise any of them

at all, I have remembered a remark of Professor Fisher that it is

a serious function of the historian to pass judgment on the dead,

who cannot defend themselves, and I have aimed to be generous

in my criticisms. I have also hoped that the portrayal of the

excellencies of the fathers may foster a similar character in their

descendants of the present and future for

They who on glorious ancestry enlarge

Do but confess their debt, not its discharge.

I have entitled my book a story because my aim has been to

present the more readable and interesting facts and features of

the history, rather than to give a complete chronicle. Hutchin-

son says, in his " History of Massachusetts," that " we are fond

of knowing the minutiae which relate to our ancestors "; believ-

ing this to be true, I have gathered up many a little incident in

the life of our people. At the same time I hope that many por-

tions of the story may interest those not of Byfield lineage who

would trace the mighty current of New England's influence back

to its modest springs.

If I were to give several years more to the book I could render

it more exhaustive and accurate, but if I were 'to wait to make

it perfect I should never publish it at all, and so I send it forth,

bidding it bear a kindly greeting to all who may honor it with

their attention; --and may God bless Byfield, and all her people,

and her children's children, however far they may be scattered,

throughout all generations.

J. L. EWELL.

BYFIFLD, August 31, 1903.

PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES

IN MANUSCRIPT: --

Record of Baptisms and Deaths, beginning 1709.

Assessors' Records, beginning 1717.

Church Records, beginning 1744.

Parish Records, beginning 1762.

Newbury Fund Records.

Meeting-House Records.

Records of the Sunday-School-Choir-Ladies' Benevolent Society

and Ladies' Vestry Association.

Rowley Records.

Newbury Records.

The Parsons Diary.

The Longfellow, Pearson, Hale, Root, Pillsbury, and Ewell Ledgers.

Documents furnished by Mrs. S. E. P. Forbes, Miss Marion McG.

Noyes, Miss E. M. Morgan, Mrs. J. 0. Hale, Miss Loraine Peabody,

Mrs. G. H. Dole, Mrs. H. T. Pearson, Messrs. W. D. Northend,

P. L. Horne, S. T. Poor, H. Longfellow, G. W.Adanis, L. Adanis,

E. I. Dole.

Letters from many of those just mentioned, also from the late Prof.

E. A. Park and Principal C. F. P. Bancroft, from Messrs. W. 0.

Webber and P. N. Spofford, Mrs. J. Howard Nichols, and very

many others.

PAMPHLETS AND NEWSPAPERS in great numbers-many of them loans

from kind friends; among newspapers particularly the Newbury-

port Herald, Georgetown Advocate, and Byfield Parish Bulletin.

Among pamphlets special use has been made first of all of J. N.

Dummer's "Brief History of Byfield" --the highly praiseworthy

pioneer history of the parish. Special mention should also be made

of Cleaveland's Centennial Address at Dummer Academy; President

Wood's "Parker Cleaveland;" Northend's Address at the 125^th

Anniversary of Dummer Academy; Ware's Eulogy on President

Webber; and Little's "Contribution to the History of Byfield,"

also termed by the author, "An Outside View." Many other pam-

phlets have been of great service; also scrap-books compiled by

Mrs. A. W. Lunt, the mother of Mr. W. H. Morse, and Mr. J.

N. Dummer.

x PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES.

Books: --

Gage's History of Rowley.

Coffin's History of Newbury.

Currier's Ould Newbury and History of Newbury -the latter not

published until half of this history was written.

Blodgette's Early Settlers of Rowley.

Professor Parsons' Memoir of Chief justice Parsons.

The Standard History of Essex County.

Hurd's History of Essex County.

Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Essex County.

Sprague's Annals of the American Pulpit.

Miss Emery's Reminiscences of a Nongenarian.

The Hale, Chute, Cheney, Poore, Adams, Woodman, Stickney, and

Spofford Genealogies.

Mather's Magnalia.

Hubbard's History of New England.

Winthrop's History of New England.

Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts.

Barry's History of Massachusetts.

Dr. E. E. Hale's Story of Massachusetts.

Bodge's King Philip's War.

History of Rindge, N. H.

Lechford's Plain Dealing.

McClure and Parish's Life of President Wheelock.

Dr. Parish's Sermons.

The Westbrook Papers.

John Quincy Adams' Diary.

Of the many to whom I am indebted for oral information I will only men-

tion the departed, and I do so tenderly and gratefully --Mrs. Otis Thompson,

Mr. Benjamin Pearson, the sixth, and Mr. E. I. Dole.

Fuller descriptions of some of these authorities 'will be found at the

beginning of several of the chapters.

CONTENTS

Page

PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

ILLUSTRATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

CHAPTER

1. WHAT AND WHERE IS BYFIELD? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

II. THE NATURAL FEATURES, THE NATURAL HISTORY, AND

THE INDIAN PERIOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

III. ANCESTRAL HOMES BEYOND THE SEA . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

IV. THE PIONEERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

V. DURING THE MINISTRY OF THE REV. MOSES HALE . 70

VI. DURING THE MINISTRY OF THE REV. MOSES PARSONS . 101

VII. DURING THE MINISTRY OF THE REV. ELIJAH PARISH, D.D. 159

VIII. DURING THE MINISTRY OF THE REV. ISAAC BARBOUR, THE

REV. HENRY DURANT, LL.D., THE REV. FRANCIS V. TEN-

NEY, AND THE REV. CHARLES BROOKS . . . . . . . 209

IX. THE WAR OF THE REBELLION AND SINCE . . . . . . . . . . 252

X. CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

APPENDIX

PASTORS OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

PASTORS OF THE METHODIST CHURCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

DEACONS OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

SUPERINTENDENTS OF THE CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL . 305

SUPERINTENDENTS OF THE METHODIST SUNDAY-SCHOOL . . . . . . . 306

MASTERS OF DUMMFR ACADEMY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

LIST OF THE LOAN HISTORICAL EXHIBITION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

xii CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF THE HISTORIC SITES MARKED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

MASTER MOODY'S RECOMMENDATION OF SAMUEL WEBBER . 310

ADVERTISEMENT OF THE FEMALE SEMINARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

SOLDIERS OF THE WAR OF THE REBELLION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

COLLEGE GRADUATES FROM BYFIELD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

SPINNING-BEE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

PARISH AND OTHER FUNDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

AN AFTER WORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

ILLUSTRATIONS.

The Bi-centennial Celebration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frontispiece

Photograph by Ramsdell.

Judge Nathaniel Byfield. 1653-1733 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opposite Page 4

Frazer's Rock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 4

Photograph by the author.

Thurlow's Bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 10

Photograph by W. S. Ewell.

"A plain Of salt grass, with a river winding down" . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 10

Deed from Byfield Indians, with their Marks. 1681 . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 15

Yew older than the Conquest (1066); Churchyard of

Bishopstoke, England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 26

Photograph by the author.

Ancient Parish Church, Walton, England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 26

Photograph by the author.

Cholderton, England, Home of the Noyes Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 34

Photograph by the author.

Kemerton Manor House, England . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 34

Photograph by the author.

Dr. John Clarke (Clark) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 52

Chief-Justice Samuel Sewall. 1652-1730 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 52

The Original Longfellow House, built about 1676, as it

appeared in 1875 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 54

By permission of Harper and Brothers.

The Parsonage of 1703, as it appeared in 1875 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 54

By permission of Harper and Brothers.

The Witham (Dickinson, Pillsbury) House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 62

Photograph by Prof. R. R. Moody.

"The Top House" (Robert Jewett House), Warren Street " 62

Photograph by Prof. H. R. Moody.

The Plan of the First Meeting-House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 72

Drawn by R. D. P. Noyes.

The Plan of the Second Meeting-House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 72

Drawn by Rev. D. P. Noyes.

Lieut.-Gov. William Dummer. 1677-1761 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 82

Photograph by the author.

Dummer Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opposite page 82

The Benjamin Pearson House . . . . . . . . . . . " 92

A Page of the Baptismal Register kept by Rev. Moses "

Hale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 98

Rev. Moses Parsons. 1716-1783 . . . . . . . . . " 104

Mrs. Moses Parsons. Died 1794, aged 75 . . . . . " 104

Eben Parsons. 1746-1819 . . . . . . . . . . . " 104

Gorham Parsons. 1768-1844 . . . . . . . . . . . " 104

A Page from Rev. Moses Parsons' Diary, recording the

Opening of Dummer Academy . . . . . . . " 114

Master Moody's Schoolhouse - Built 1762-63. . . " 116

Master Moody's Grave, York, Me . . . . . . . . . " 116

Photograph by the author.

Samuel Webber. 1760-1810 . . . . . . . . . . " 138

Eliphalet Pearson, LL.D. 1752-1826 . . . . . . . " 138

Chief-justice Theophilus Parsons. 1750-1813 . . " 138

The Tenney House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 154

Photograph by the author.

Warren Street District Schoolhouse . . . . . . . " 154

Photograph by the author.

Grave of Eliphalet Pearson . . . . . . . . . . " 154

Photograph by the author.

Closing Words of the Church Covenant as renewed in

1788, with the Autograph Signatures . . . . " 164

Map of Byfield, 1794, 1795 . . . . . . . . . . " 167

State House Archives.

Rude Map of River Parker in 1811, showing its Mills " 168

State House Archives.

Elijah Parish, D.D. 1762-1825 . . . . . . . . " 176

Rev. William French. 1778-1860 . . . . . . . . " 176

Hon. Samuel Tenney, M. C. 1748-1816 . . . . . . " 176

Fatherland Farm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 180

Moses Colman. 1755-1837 . . . . . . . . . . . " 192

Map of Byfield in 1830 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 210

State House Archives.

Rev. Henry Durant. 1802-1875 . . . . . . . . . . " 214

Rev. Francis V. Tenney. 1819-1885 . . . . . . . . " 214

Rev. Charles Brooks. 1831-1866 . . . . . . . . " 214

The Plan of the Present Meeting-House, with the Original

Purchasers of Pews and Prices . . . . . . . " 224

Isaac W. Wheelwright. 1801-1891 . . . . . . . . " 232

Zev. Daniel Parker Noyes . . . . . . . . . . . . " 232

ILLUSTRATIONS. xv

Luther Moody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Opposite page 232

Martin Root, M.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 232

The Present Congregational Meeting-House . . . . . " 252

Photograph by Herbert H. Moody.

The Congregational Meeting-House - Interior . . . . . . . " 252

Photograph by Rev. R. M. D. Adams.

The Former Methodist Meeting-House . . . . . . . . . . . . " 254

Photograph by Ramsdell.

The New Methodist Meeting-House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 254

Photograph by Ramsdell.

The New Schoolhouse, Byfield Station . . . . . . . . . . . . " 262

Birthplace of Secretary Moody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 262

Photograph by Ramsdell

Alexander B. Forbes. 1836-1903 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 264

Mrs. S. E. P. Forbes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 264

The Parsons Mantel, Fatherland Farm Mansion . . . . . . . " 264

Photograph by the author.

Hon. William H. Moody, Secretary U. S. Navy " 280

From a photograph (copyright, 1902), by J. E. Purdy, Boston.

Chief-Justice John S. Tenney. 1793-1869 " 280

Prof. Parker Cleaveland. 1780-1858 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 280

Hon. William Dummer Northend, LL.D. 1823-1902 . . . " 280

Rev. Herbert E. Lombard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 292

Master Perley L. Horne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 292

Nathaniel N. Dummer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 292

Justin 0. Rogers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 292

The Present Parsonage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 292

Photograph taken during Rev. Mr. Gleason's Pastorate.

Map of Byfield in 1902 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " 300

Drawn by A. W. Ewell.

THE

STORY OF BYFIELD

CHAPTER 1.

WHAT AND WHERE IS BYFIELD?

Special Authorities: Newbury and Rowley records.

BYFIELD is in Essex Co., Massachusetts. It is not a town,

as so many suppose, but a parish. Its people were never

separated from their fellow-townsmen for civil, but only for

religious purposes.

Originally each town made one parish, but as the towns grew

and their more remote portions were settled, the population fre-

quently became too large and too widely scattered to attend

worship in one place; so there would often after a time be two

or more parishes in one town. These parishes must be marked

off by definite bounds, so that no one might evade his "ministry

Rate."

In the case of Byfield, it happen that the people in the cor-

ners of two towns, namely Newbury and Rowley, were set off in

a new parish, although many, who are so far posted as to know

that Byfield is not a town but a parish, suppose that it all lies in

Newbury. In fact, ever since 1838, when a part of Rowley was

incorporated as the town of Georgetown, Byfield has comprised

adjacent portions of the three towns of Newbury, Rowley,

and Georgetown. Indeed, it happened that the present meet-

ing-house was built partly on one side of the line between New-

bury and what is now Georgetown, and partly on the other, and

1

at least one pew is thus divided so that a man and his wife can

worship in the same pew but in different towns.

As only the religious tax was assessed according to parish

lines, the bounds were not drawn and maintained with the same

exactness as those of towns. I have been unable to find any

boundary determined with distances and angles until 1809 when

the line between Byfield and the first parish of Newbury was

thus defined, and 1816 when a similar line was run between

Byfield and the second parish in Rowley, now in Georgetown.

A remonstrance to the line of 1809 and a counter statement by

the Byfield committee show that the original line, at least against

Newbury, ran "by farms and lots;" that is, so that each lot and

each farm might as far as possible fall on the same side of the

line. These "bounds were not transcribed into the act of in-

corporation," and there were "subsequent transfers," so that

the original lines can only be approximately determined.

The original Newbury record runs thus:

At a Legal meeting of the Freeholders and proprietors of the Town

of Newbury Oct. 25th, 1706 Decon Cutting Noyes Chosen Moderator

. . .upon reading the petition of the Inhabitants of the Falls in

ye Town of Newbury . . . It was voated yt ye Dividing Line in

Reforance to their procureing and maintaining a Minister amongst

themselves and for yt only said Line shall begin at Rowley River's

mouth and so up said River to Rowley Line and so all thence of the

Southwardly side of the falls River and of the Northwardly side of

the falls River Taking in John Chaney with his Land he Lives on

and Mr. Moody's Farm and the Farm comonly called Mr. Long-

fellow's Farm and Mr. Gerrishes Farm and the westerly part of ye farm

called Thirloes farm until it comes to the Dividing line between Frances

Thirloes Farm and Thomas Thirloes farm for so long a time as they shall

maintain an orthodox minister amongst them Voted on ye Affirmative.

Ensigne Richard Kent dissented.

In this record "Rowley River's mouth" means what we call

Oyster Point, that is, the junction of what is now called Mill

River with the Parker. The "falls River" was the Parker. Al-

though it is not definitely so stated, the Parker seems to have

been the northerly bound from Oyster Point to the dividing line

in "Thirloes" farm. The description of the northerly bound

in the record begins at the northwest corner of the Newbury

part of Byfield. John "Chancy" (Cheney) lived near the resi-

dence of the late Mr. Benj. Pearson; Mr. Moody on the place

where Miss Harriet Moody now lives. "Mr. Longfellow's

Farm" is still in the family and the name. Mr. Gerrish lived

where Mr. Lacroix lives now, and "the Dividing line between

Francis Thirloes farm and Thomas Thirloes farm" is said to be a

stone wall just east of Mr. Asa Pingree's house. There the line

seems to have turned south and run to the river, which, as was

just said, appears to have been the northern bound from that

point to its junction with Mill River.

The Rowley records have three important entries as to the

Byfield bounds. The first reads:

At a legall meeting of the Inhabitants of the Towne of Rowley

march the : 16 : 1702-3 It was Agreed and voated that the Inhabi-

tants of the Towne of Rowley living on the North west side of the

bridg called Rye plaine bridg and on the North west side of the hill

called Long hill and Joyned with the farmers of Newbury that doth

border on us in building a New meeting house for the worship of god

Shall be Abatted their Rattes in the ministery Ratt in the Town of

Rowley: if they do maintains with the help of our neighbours at New-

bury an Athordaxs minister to belong to and teach in that meeting

house that they have buillt : untill such times as it is Judged that there

is a sufishent Number to maintains a minister in the Northwest part of

our Towne without the help of our Neighbours at Newbury that doth

border upon us; whose Names are as foloweth that have their Rattes

Abatted: Samll Brockelbanke; Jonathan Wheeler; Richard Boynton;

Benjamen Plumer Henry Poor John Plumer Dunkin Steward Ebenezer

Steward Josiah Wood John Lull Jonanth Looke ; John Brown Nathaniell

browne ; Ebenezer Browne James Chutte Lionell Chutte Andrew Stickne

James Tenney

Voted and pased on

the Affirmative

"Rye plaine bridg" is the bridge between the Georgetown

almshouse and J. L. Ewell's house; practically, "the North west

side" of that bridge seems to have taken in Warren Street.

This designation and "the North west side of the hill called

Long hill" seem to have included the greater part of what is

now Georgetown. A more definite record is found in the Row-

ley records under date of May 13, 1707, four years later than

the one just quoted. It reads as follows:

It was Agreed and voated that there Shall be a line Setteled

between our neighbors that belongs to the New meeting house and us

belonging to the ould meeting house for paying Rattes to the ministery

and Shall begin at the great Rock in Newbury line at the head of the

great Swamp lotts and So along by the north west end of them lotts:

to Thomas Jewets land and so between Thomas Jewets and Rye plaine

land : to the bridg called Rye plaine Bridg and So to the way that

runs to long hill beg[inn]ing at the path a[t] this Side francis Nelsons

house and So to long hill and So along to the road at the elders plaine

that goeth to Samuel Brokelbank's taking in all his farm and the farm

layd out as the right of Thomas Barker and So to Bradford line and

along as Bradford line runs to Newbury line.

passed on the affirniitive.

In this record the following points are pretty clear: "the

great Rock in Newbury line at the head of the great Swamp

lotts" is Frazer's Rock a little back of the present parsonage,

now the meeting point of Newbury, Rowley, and Georgetown.

A straight line from there to "Rye plaine Bridg" would pre-

cisely correspond to the present line between Rowley and

Georgetown. The "path" to Long Hill must be what is now the

highway between Mr. L. R. Moody's and Mr. E. P. Searle's.

There was no town road over Long Hill until 1713. "The

elders plaine" was what is now Marlboro. Samuel Brockelbank

lived where Rev. Charles Beecher lived in my youth, and the

family of the late Melvin G. Spofford lives now. Thomas

Barker's farm was south of Pentucket Pond; from there the line

followed what is now the road from Georgetown through South

Groveland toward Bradford up to the present Groveland line.

There are also lists of persons in Rowley and in Newbury

who had half their ministry rate abated in 1701. The reason is

not given in either case, but from their location as far as it is

known, it is probable that they had already begun to contribute

to the new religious enterprise, and so their ministry rate in their

Judge Nathaniel Byfield

1653-1733

Frazer's Rock

Boundary-point of Newbury, Rowley, and Georgetown

old religious homes was abated. The Rowley list is the same as

that quoted in the record of 1702-3 ; only, the earlier list lacks

the name of Lionell Chute. Of these men, Mr. Brockelbank's

home has been mentioned. Dunkin Steward appears to have

lived where Mr. Fletcher lately did in Warren Street. One

Chute homestead was where the cellar is, near the church

on the road leading from the church direct to Georgetown, and

another where the late Mr. James C. Peabody lived. Andrew

Stickney lived where J. L. Ewell does.

The record of a similar abatement in Newbury is as fol-

lows:--

At a Legal meeting of the, Freeholdrs and Ppriorrs of Newbury

Decemr 9th 1701, MaSr [?] Thomas Noyes esqr Moderatr . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . Upon ye request of

Mrs Elizabeth Dumer Mr John Dumer mr Joshua Woodman, Lut William

Moodey John Wicomb Nathan Wheeler mrs Jane Gerrish in behalf of

her Tenant mr Richard Dumer, John Smith, Phillip Goodridg Joshua

Woodman Jnr John Cheney Collen Frazer Phillip de-lano Robert Mingo

yt the one half of theyr minisrs rate heere may be abated for this next

[indistinct word, probably year] Rate that is to be made the Free-

holdrs and Pprietrs of Newbury grant theyr proposition.

The location of a part of these has been mentioned. In addi-

tion it may be said that Mrs. Elizabeth Dummer probably lived

on Fatherland Farm, and the old Woodman place is on Fruit

Street, and the old Goodrich place on Forest Street, both near

the Byfield station. Mr. Frank Ambrose's house has an ell that

is known from of old as the Wicomb ell; Mr. Horsch's place was

anciently a Wheeler place; and "Frazer's Rock" suggests that

Collin Frazer lived near it, perhaps at the end of the pleasant

lane from Rev. Mr. Torrey's and Miss Tenney's, where there is

still a well of delicious water.

Additional valuable information may be drawn from the pas-

toral church and parish record, particularly from the record of

baptisms and deaths kept by the first two pastors. These indi-

cate the families in connection with the church and the parish.

The bounds appear to have been changed repeatedly for the

convenience of various families. In the absence of maps and

the dearth of explicit statements, it is impossible to be precise

and positive, but I will now try to trace as nearly as I can the

entire circuit according to the evidence that I have been able to

gather from living lips and the records of the past. Alas, that

one to whose intimate knowledge and unfailing kindness I have

been greatly indebted on this and other points has already been

called away, --the late Mr. Benj. Pearson.

Mill River was, though not originally, yet from a very early

time, the line, from its junction up to near Mr. Dummer's saw-

mill; then the boundary curved to the south so as to include the

Minchin, and probably the Dresser and Martin houses. It in-

cluded certainly from a very early time the house formerly on

Long Hill, and after the second parish of Rowley which lies in

what is now Georgetown was set off in 1731 it ran east of Mr.

Mooney's and Mr. Arthur Kneeland's, taking in Mr. Dawkins'

and all on that road as far as and including Mr. S. T. Poor's,

all on Thurlow Street as far as and including the second house

beyond the railroad crossing, where Mr. Aaron Kneeland lives,

all on the road from Mr. S. T. Poor's, including Mr. A. C. Poor's

on the lane, to the station, but just leaving that out, all on West

Street, all on River Street, and all on Forest Street as far as and

including Mr. Lyman Pearson's. The line probably ran between

Mr. Benj. Pearson's store and the hall on Central Street, run-

ning just north of Mr. Mighill Rogers' on Fruit Street. If the

hall is in Byfield, then all on that street south of the store to the

Byfield Woollen Mills, including those mills, and all on the road

from there to Newburyport, that is, Orchard Street, and includ-

ing probably the lanes running north from it until we come to Mr.

Pingree's, as was said before, and including Mr. Pingree's, would

be in Byfield. It will be seen that the original Byfield does

not take in nearly all of what now bears the name around the

Byfield station, but only the westerly portion. In justice and to

avoid historical confusion, it would seem that the post-office

now called South Byfield should be designated as Byfield, and

the one at the station as North Byfield; for the people around

the Congregational meeting-house, which is the ancient and

geographic centre of the parish, get their mail from the South

Byfield office. If I am not mistaken, the late Rev. Daniel P.

Noyes and Rev. Isaac W. Wheelwright always insisted that the

adjective "South " should be removed from the designation of

the southerly Byfield post-office. Possibly, however, it would

better meet the present conditions of the case and prevent in-

convenience to let the post-office at the station retain its name

and to change the designation of the other office to that of Old

Byfield.

A radius of two miles from the Congregational meeting-house

as a centre would draw a circle roughly coincident with the

ancient outlines of Byfield, --that is, after the second parish of

Rowley was set off; before that the parish stretched to the west,

of the meeting-house some four miles. The parish is longest

from east to west, the distance from Oyster Point to Mr. S. T.

Poor's being about five miles. It contains, I suppose, in the

neighborhood of twelve square miles.

As to the population of Byfield, the map in this history indi-

cates about 185 occupied dwelling-houses in 1892, excluding a

few which are outside the ancient lines. If we assign five per-

sons to each house --and this would seem a moderate estimate

for a number of the houses have more than one family each --

and then add 73 for the hamlet at the factory, we have about

1000 for the present inhabitants of the parish. This population

is increasing near the station and holding its own elsewhere.

The parish bond of union has always been chiefly religious,

but growing out of that there have been strong social ties, and

these have attached many to it who did not deeply feel the re-

ligious attraction. Now for some seventy years the ancient

lines have had no legal value; everybody has attended church

and paid where he pleased, or nowhere if he pleased, and there

have been two religious centres in the old parish; but the two

churches are of one heart, and all within the old borders, and

multitudes without, feel a kindly interest in the story and the

welfare of Byfield parish.

CHAPTER 11.

THE NATURAL FEATURES, THE NATURAL HISTORY, AND

THE INDIAN PERIOD.

Special Authorities; Mr. J. H. Sears of Salem, Mass., Prof. W. J. McGee

of Washington, D. C.

GEOLOGY.

BYFIELD is a good place to take lessons in geology.

Long Hill is a characteristic drumlin; that is, a long, high,

smooth, unstratified hill of glacial origin. It is over a mile

long, two hundred feet above the sea, and one hundred feet

above the adjacent ground. It bears a silent but potent witness

to the might of the ancient sheet of ice that once enveloped all

the region. The great glacier towered possibly thousands of

feet above it, and the hill was the deposit of the drift that was

borne along in its lower portion.

What was known as Rye plain when the parish was set off,

or the region of Warren Street, has, in Mr. Witham's land and

thereabouts, interesting kettle holes. These are deep, circular

depressions. Mr. Sears pronounces Rye plain "an overwash

of post-glacial sand," that is, it was deposited in the period of

abounding waters and floods which resulted from the melting

of glaciers. These kettle holes are supposed to mark spots

where the rushing floods swirled around some detached mass

of ice, and so scooped out deep, crater-like hollows.

Between Warren Street and Long Hill are extensive peat

meadows. Peat is a kind of half-made coal. Most of the

young are unfamiliar with it, but those who grew up in the

western part of Byfield fifty years ago need no description of

it. Its brown-black to black color, its salve-like tendency to

stick to the hands when newly dug, the roots with which it

abounded, and the great prostrate trunks of ancient trees

which sometimes stopped the peat-knife, are familiar to memory.

There was a set of tools made expressly for cutting peat. After

the sod had been removed the peat was cut in long black

blocks about three or four feet long by four inches square, and

came up dripping from the peat-ditch; then it was spread on

the meadow, and when partially dry it was piled tip cob-house

fashion. After about four weeks it was dried through and was

fit to be stored under cover. It made a hot, durable fire. The

last thing at night would be to cover up a fresh piece of peat in

the coals and ashes, where it would be found all aglow in the

morning to rekindle the new day's fire. It emitted a peculiar

ground-like odor as it burned, and tended to smoke up the

walls and furniture, but there was nothing unhealthy in the

smoke or the odor, and it was a great boon to people in mod-

erate circumstances. With the larger incomes of today and

the accessibility of coal, and because it required so much labor,

peat has gone out of use; but the beds are there still, and the

day may yet come when somebody will be grateful to draw

upon their treasures.

A boulder train runs from the northeast to southwest from

east of Mr. Leonard Adams' house to west of the meeting

house; some of these boulders are of great size and afford an

illustration of the gigantic facilities for transportation possessed

by the ancient glacier. Mr. Sears finds the most interesting

geologic feature of Byfield in the range of volcanic rocks which

extends from Clay Lane (Hillside Street) across Dummer

Academy grounds to Oyster Point and beyond. What mighty

forces must have once convulsed the region, now so quiet, to

have belched forth those huge masses through the earth's crust.

At many points along the streams, in the pasture of J. L.

Ewell for instance, if I may take for an example what I am most

familiar with, one may see beautiful illustrations of ancient

terraces showing how much broader the bed of the stream was

in geologic time.

Perhaps the most charming contribution of geology to By-

field scenery is afforded by what are technically called the

"drowned" valleys of the Parker and of Mill River below the

head of tide water. A subsidence of the land along the coast

admitted the flood tides to the valleys of these streams.

Hence we have our beautiful marshes or salt meadows. When

I was a little boy, the causeway at Thurlow's bridge was so

low that in high tides it would be covered with a foot or

more of water. I well remember the grandeur of the view of

the broad sheet of water, unbroken save by the bridge and

covering all the marshes, so that it looked like a large lake to

me as I sat between my parents in the chaise, while the faith-

ful family horse slowly splashed his way across the flood, ap-

parently not ungrateful to be permitted to take that moderate

pace which was congenial to his years.

Byfield has many beautiful views. One is from the turnpike

bridge over the Parker. This is at its perfection on a summer

day near sunset, when high water occurs at that hour and the

wind is east. The full river winding down from inland through

broad level marshes, and visible far out toward its mouth,

bordered by steep, wooded hills alternating with gently sloping

fields and rocky pastures with here and there a farm-house, the

rich sunlight bathing all the landscape, the gorgeous-hued

western horizon, and the air full of the quickening flavor of the

sea, --all unite to impress upon the heart

a sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns.

Another choice view is from Long Hill, whence the eye

takes in a broad landscape that includes the greater part of the

county; hill and valley, field and woodland, stretch away in

long and varied perspective in all directions. From that

eminence it seems as though most of the land were still the

forest primeval. Toward the east the land view is bordered by

a long range of white sand-hills, with the clustering spires

of Newburyport to the left, and, beyond the sand, the blue

ocean extends to the horizon, speckled with the white sails and

the smoke-stacks with their long, trail of smoke to remind one

that the sea is a vast network of lines of travel whose roads

THURLOW'S BRIDGE

"A plain

Of salt grass, with a river winding down."

"lead everywhere to all," while toward the west on a clear day

one may trace the blue outline of Monadnock fifty miles away.

Some of my older readers may recall the dear old Long Hill

house, of which only the cellar has been left now for more than

twenty-five years, and the delight they once enjoyed of sitting

at Major Stickticy's west attic window and sweeping the broad

landscape of land and sea with his long spy-glass. I could

add many other views dear to all Byfielders, and some of them

with more than a local renown.

The soil of Byfield varies; that of the Newbury portion is

usually good, some of the Rowley side is good, some poor,

most of the Georgetown part is poor. In 1794 Mr. Joseph

Chaplin made an excellent map of Rowley, that is, what is now

Rowley and Georgetown, and attached some interesting notes

in the corners of the map. In these notes he says of the centre

of the town, " Most of [it is] little better than barren and unim-

provable lands; and it is a fact that many families who inhabit

this part can scarcely subsist, though they pay little or not

axes." The region which he thus criticises comprises the

western part of Rowley-Byfield and most of Georgetown-By-

field, but Mr. N. N. Dummer has now for three years proved

that some of its light soil can be made, with the favor of Provi-

dence, to wave with broad and beautiful fields of full golden

heads of rye.

NATURAL HISTORY.

The fauna of Byfield originally included the wolf, the bear,

the deer, and the moose. In the earlier part of Reuben Pear-

son's ledger are frequent entries for making moose-skin

breeches, but it is not probable that any moose were then found

in Byfield, for the moose is very shy of human neighbors,--

although one seven feet high was killed in Salisbury in 1733.

The wolf held his ground tenaciously. Hounds were imported,

and traps were set, and bounties paid for his head for a long

time. Rowley had several pens for catching wolves, one of

them west of the Nat Taylor barn below the Dole neighborhood,

and another "somewhere below Symond's Bridge " (the bridge,

I suppose, east of the Taylor barn) ; so two of the Rowley

wolf pens were close to the Byfield line and possibly one was

within it. On the Newbury side, the depression of an ancient

wolf-pit can, it is said, still be traced on Forest Street within

the Byfield line. In 1665, that is, thirty years after the settle-

ment of the town, Thomas Thorlay (Thurlow) killed seven

wolves in Newbury.

Mr. Parsons' diary says that a bear was killed on Dea.

Moody's farm in 1750. The first Benjamin Stickney of Long

Hill, who died in 1756, had a pig stolen from his pen in the

night by a bear, and being awakened, I presume by vigorous

squealing, he chased the bear with a hoop-pole, that is, a

slender pole which being split would make two hoops, and

rescued his pig. The gentle deer was early protected by law,

but not early enough to save it from extinction in this region,

although of late occasional specimens seem to be finding their

way down to us from New Hampshire. My own family caught

a full view of one in front of our house in the summer of 1900.

Judge Sewall, in his beautiful prophecy for Newbury, predicts

that Christians shall be there trained for heaven "as long as

any free and harmless doves shall find a White Oak or other Tree

within the Township to perch or feed or build a careless

nest upon, and shall voluntarily present themselves to perform

the office of gleaners after Barley-Harvest," and Rev. Mr. Parsons,

who was pastor of Byfield from 1744 to 1783, writes on

one occasion in his diary, "pidgeons plentiful." I trust that

Byfield still trains Christians for heaven, but the wild pigeon is

almost unknown, although Mr. Lunt of Glen Mills is said to have

shot four in 1900. Mr. Elijah Searle, who is one of our most

observant citizens, tells me that he has not heard the whistle of

the killdeer for forty years. An otter is still caught at rare

intervals in our streams, and the wakeful raccoon occasionally

pierces the night-air with its cry. With the exceptions that

I have noted, the fauna of Byfield is much as it was of old.

The flora is still rich. The flowering cornel or dogwood (not

the poisonous) lights up the woodlands with its gay profusion

of large white pink-tinted flower-like bracts, the maiden-hair

fern nestles in the crevices of the damp rocks, the Rhodora

unfolds its rich purple flowers in defiance of the biting east

winds of our bleak spring in solitary nooks, to prove that

Beauty is its own excuse for being,

the beauteous triad, the Calopogon, the Pogonia, and the

Arethusa allure their lovers into the wet meadows, the scarlet

cardinal flower makes many a brook gorgeous, and in late

autumn a more diligent search will be amply rewarded here

and there in moist places with finding the fringed gentian.

Thou waitest late and com'st alone,

When woods are bare and birds are flown

And frosts and shortening days portend

The aged year is near its end.

There lies before me a very kind letter from Mrs. William

Horner of Georgetown, in which she specifies forty-two of the

rarer flowers that adorn the forests, fields, and meadows of

Byfield. She writes, "It is a fine locality for collectors, and I

have had many pleasant and profitable rambles there." Salmon

and shad and oysters formerly abounded in our waters. As

lately as 1840, Coffin tells us that there was not a day in the

year in which the inmates of the Newbury almshouse, which

was more recently the home of Mr. Alfred Ambrose, could not

obtain oysters enough for their own use. All of these have

disappeared from within our limits, but trout and pickerel,

perch and pouts are still caught in our fresh-water streams, and

our tide waters abound in alewives and smelts; and only last

week a horse was frightened by a sturgeon which leaped out

of the river just as he was crossing Thurlow's bridge.

Byfield seems a pleasant place to her children. I have known

my great uncle, Alfred W. Pike, the teacher, to shed tears of

tender reminiscence as he retraced the paths of his childish

wanderings in Byfield woods; and the recollection of Byfield's

rural charms inspired some of Albert Pike's sweetest poetry.

I am sure that many of Byfield's sons and daughters whose

work has called them far away from their birthplace can

appreciate the feelings of Alfred and Albert Pike from a similar

attachment which binds their untravelled hearts to the scenes

of their childhood. More and more of them contrive to return

to the old homesteads in the summer, and more and more

people whose ancestral trees did not grow in our parish appre-

ciate its attractions as a summer home.

THE INDIANS OF BYFIELD.

Byfield was a favorite haunt of the Indian. When the white

man came, all the territory from the Merrimack south as far as

the North River of Salem and inland as far as Andover was

subject to Masconomo, whom Winthrop terms "the Sagamore

of Agawam," that is, Ipswich, where his home was. The

record of Masconomo does honor to his race. Would that it

had been commemorated by some of our poets who have sung

the praises of the Indian. When Governor Winthrop in the

"Arbella" cast anchor off Cape Ann over the Lord's Day in June,

1630, on the voyage which ended with the settlement of Boston,

Masconomo went aboard with one of his men and stayed nearly

all day. One wonders what impression the English. Puritan

way of hallowing the Sabbath would make on his untutored

heart. Did what he saw on that day draw him quietly to the

religion of his new neighbors until, fourteen years later, he

petitioned the Massachusetts legislature to be instructed in the

Christian religion? Sixty years later still, that is, in 1704, we

find his grandsons testifying that it was with their grandfather's,

"Knowledge, Lycence, and good Liking" that the Englishmen

settled in his territory. He was the unchanging friend of the

colonists until his death in 1658. He was buried at his home

on Sagamore Hill in Hamilton, which was then a part of

Ipswich. At about 1700, Rowley and Newbury as well as

other adjacent towns quieted the title, if I may so say, of the

grandchildren of Masconomo by the payment of various sums

of money, and received deeds from them in return. Rowley

paid them L9, Newbury L10. This is, so far as I know, the

latest trace of the family of Masconomo, the noble sachem who

was so friendly to the white man and his religion.

The River Parker was a favorite resort of the Indian, and

especially its falls, where the Byfield Woollen Mill now stands.

Along the stream he caught the sturgeon, and at the falls vast

quantities of alewives and salmon in their season. On these he

feasted when they were fresh, and he dried great quantities of

them for use at other times. Pause for a moment, if you

please, to picture in imagination those ancient days in Byfield

when primeval forests of lofty trees covered the places where

now pleasant houses and well-tilled fields smile, when the

streams were fuller and the springs more abundant, and the

Indian chased the deer and the moose with his bow and arrow,

tall and lithe, swift of foot, keen of eye and scent and hearing,

for

He was fresher from the hand

That formed of earth the human face,

And to the elements did stand

In nearer kindred than our race.

Twice just before the settlement of Byfield, the pestilence had

far more than decimated the original people, so that there were

very few living within the limits of the parish to meet the white

comers. An Indian known as "Old Will" figures in the early

records; he or his family claimed a tract of land near the

Falls. Finally in 1681 Henry Sewall bought whatever title his

heirs had to that property, which was called "the Indian field"

and contained about one hundred and sixty acres, as well as

all their rights to any other lands in Newbury, all for L20. A

copy of their quit-claim deed, with the marks of Job, Hagar,

and Mary Indian attached, has been kindly furnished me by

Mrs. J. 0. Hale. The original document is still preserved in

Lowell. There are traditions and statements of the survival of

a lone Indian or two in the vicinity almost down to our own

day; for instance, Mr. Enoch Floyd, who died in 1872 in his

ninety-fifth year, saw the wigwam of one near where Mr. Benj.

Pearson's sawmill stands, and Mr. Giles Woodman tells me that

in his childhood he saw an Indian named Thomas die in the

Bailey house on Forest Street; Mr. Woodman also tells of the

marriage of a daughter of Thomas to one of our white people,

so that the aboriginal race is continued in one of our worthy

families. The Virginian aristocracy are said to be proud of

such a tincture, and I know not why it should not be equally

honorable in Byfield.

Although our fathers had little to dread from home Indians,

those from without their borders kept them constantly under

arms and forced them to build garrison houses, as they were

called, for their protection; and Byfield experienced one Indian

tragedy in the evening of that autumn Lord's Day in 1692,

when Mr. Goodrich, his wife, and two daughters were killed

while they were at family prayers, and another little daughter,

seven years old, was carried captive. The house which was set

on fire by the savages, but only partially burned, was taken down

in recent years. It stood on a lane running south from North

Street. The willow planted four generations ago still shades

the cellar, and one can still trace the path by which the

Indians stole around the wooded hill that fateful Sabbath

evening so long ago. All these long and tragic struggles

live only in the pages of Gage and of Coffin, and all the

memorials that Byfield has of her strange Indian people who

dwelt here so long but wrote no records, are the relics that

one and another have collected, notably Mr. F. Bateman and

the late Mr. J. C. Peabody, and the hardly recognizable Indian

burying-grounds like that near Mr. Stephen Kent's on Central

Street.

Hither the silent Indian maid

Brought wreathes of beads and flowers,

And the gray chief and gifted seer

Worshipped the god of thunders here.

The bright pure faces and healthy forms of the Indian boys

and girls who now receive training at Hampton and similar

institutions permit us to hope for a better future for some of

our Indian tribes who yet survive.

CHAPTER III.

ANCESTRAL HOMES BEYOND THE SEA.

Special Authorities. Town and county histories, genealogies, etc., in the British

Museum and English parish registers.

STICKNEY.

I was in England in 1869, but with me as with many

others, the genealogic passion did not awaken in youth,

and it was not until 1888 that I began to search out the English

homes of our forefathers. On a bright June morning of that

year, I took a delightful walk of three miles from Sibsey rail-

way station to Stickney. Stickney is in the fen country or

lowlands of Lincolnshire, some eight miles north of Boston.

The roadsides were fringed with sparkling English daisies, and

the pastures were bright with buttercups; the hawthorn hedges

perfumed the air with their blossoms, and the hedges and the

lofty English elms which towered above them were vocal with

the morning carols of a multitude of tuneful birds. Great

flocks of sheep and many cows were grazing on either side.

The houses were of red brick with red tiling, and here and

there a "back linter " (lean-to) or a cluster of purple lilacs in

the front yard reminded me of my own dear grandmother

Stickney's home on Long Hill.

I found Stickney a pleasant hamlet of six hundred and

eighty-four souls, with an ancient church more than four hun-

dred years old. The rector, Rev. G. H. Hales, was a graduate

of Eton and Cambridge, who was not ashamed to own that

between the two courses he had worked as a mechanic--I

suppose to earn money to complete his studies. All honor to

such scholars. After the hospitable English manner, he

brought out those thin slices of well-buttered bread so refresh-

ing to a pedestrian, and offered me my choice of sherry or tea

as a beverage. Unlike any other English village that I have

visited, so far as I know, and I have usually inquired upon

that point, the farmers of Stickney were small freeholders, not

one owning as much as two hundred acres. The village

enjoyed a free school, which was founded in 1678. Altogether

it seemed a typical English hamlet, such as charms the reader

of Howitt's "Rural England," and I could hardly have begun

my filial journeys more pleasantly.

SPOFFORTH.

Two days later I was at Spofforth. I do not know that there

are any Spofforths or Spoffords, as we spell the name, now

within the present limits of Byfield, but before the second

parish of Rowley, in what is now Georgetown, was set off, there

were several prominent families of that name in our parish, and

there have been those of Spofford blood ever since. Spofforth

is in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The parish has one

thousand six hundred and nine people. The village is very clean,

solid, and attractive in appearance. Its houses are of stone,

though many of the roofs are of thatch. I stopped at the

Castle Inn, so named from the ruins of Spofford Castle just

outside the village. The high-backed "settle" where the

farmers sat before the fire that cool June evening and sipped

their ale and gossiped in broad Yorkshire dialect, revived

faint recollections of similar seats that I had seen in New

England. They pronounced 'coming' co-ming, 'niece ' nace,

and 'no' noah. The rich old furniture of my bedroom would

have tempted an American lover of the antique to extravagant

bids. Two features of my breakfast were a pitcher of real

cream and mutton chops of a sweetness unusual even in that

land so famous for its delicious mutton.

The ruins of the castle are imposing and beautiful; how

splendid, then, it must have been in its glory, with its banquet-

ing hall seventy-five feet long and thirty-six broad, when

Lord Percy made a solemn [stately] feast

In Spofford's princely hall.

The church has a similar antiquity to that of Stickney. The

walls of its tower are eight feet thick, and are so massive that

although it has no foundation but mother earth, it stands plumb

after all the centuries that have passed over it. The spacious

and noble rectory deserves the name that it has in some book

of " the great rectory of Spofforth," and its grounds are larger

and more beautiful, as they live in my memory, than any that I

have seen since in similar English parishes. I suppose the

incumbent at present (1901), the Rev. Wm. Pearson, would be

generally regarded as a fortunate clergyman, for his net income

as rector is L8oo. From this country parish there have gone

forth an Archbishop of York and even one of Canterbury.

Altogether Spofforth abounds in suggestions of the substantial

worth, the refinement, and the thrift which have been to so

high a degree characteristic of the American Spoffords.

SANDWICH.

In 1895 my quest of English places associated with Byfield

led me to Sandwich and Rowley. As I paid a second visit to

Rowley, I will defer speaking of that place. I visited Sandwich

because Henry Ewell, who was in all probability the ancestor

of the Byfield Ewells, came from Sandwich to Plymouth on

"the good ship Hercules " in 1634, and became one of the

first settlers of Barnstable.

My route to Sandwich took me through the vast hop fields

of Kent. Sandwich is to-day one of the quiet towns where

Sunday lasts through the week, but this is only because the

sand has choked the sea. Of old its location, looking out across

the straits of Dover to the French coast, gave it great promi-

nence. An eleventh-century chronicle terms it "the most

famous of all the English ports." From its exposed situation

it suffered greatly from the Danish pirates and invaders, now

being laid waste with fire and sword, and now persuading them

to turn back by a gift of three thousand pounds, and yet

again having its hostages sent back with hands, noses, and ears

cut off. On the other hand, it was from Sandwich that the

proud fleets of Edward III. set sail to subdue France, and it

was to Sandwich that they returned when successful, with

princely prisoners and splendid trophies. Later, Queen Elizabeth

was royally entertained in Sandwich. The beautiful mansion

which was the centre of the festivities on that occasion is still

standing and in perfect condition; before it a hundred children

on a platform spun "fyne bag yarne" in her presence, and

within the banquet was spread for the virgin queen, and upon

the lawn in the rear a silver cup was presented to her.

The Reformation found early acceptance in Sandwich, and

here the new faith suffered persecution. After the massacre of

St. Bartholomew's in France in 1572, this generous town by the

sea received those who fled to it across the straits with open-

handed hospitality. So Henry Ewell was only acting in the

spirit of his enterprising and progressive town when he became

a member of Plymouth Colony and a founder of one of its

settlements.

I pass now to my European tour of 1901, which had for its

principal object somewhat extended journeyings among the

homes that furnished the settlers of Byfield or the progenitors

of those settlers.

COVENTRY.

My first visit was to Coventry in the County of Warwick.

Coventry is a busy, thriving town of 70,276 people, with "three

tall spires," known to every reader of Tennyson as the home of

Lady Godiva and the "one low churl" who

Peeped--but his eyes, before they had their will,

Were shrivelled into darkness in his head.

I stopped over at Coventry on my way from Liverpool to

London, because the Sewall family was from Coventry.

Coventry had a very conspicuous and honorable position in

olden times, and it is no small honor to the Sewall family that

for four or five terms within fifty years it supplied the city with

mayors. The city hall has an ancient fresco with a multitude

of shields containing the names of the mayors of former genera-
tions and the dates of their terms of office. Here I read

"Henry Sewall 1587," "Henry Sewall, 2nd Time, 1606," "Wil-

liam Sewall 1635," "William Sewall 1637." These dates do not

altogether agree with those in the Sewall diary, but I copied

them carefully. That diary has also a William Sewall, vintner

or wine merchant, put down as mayor in 16l7. The noble

parish church of St. Michael's has a "brass" in memory of

Ann Sewall, wife (as nearly as I could decipher the word) of

William Sewall. This William was probably the mayor of 16l7,

for his wife was named Ann. Upon this brass there is the

kneeling figure of a woman in Elizabethan dress, and under-

neath is this beautiful tribute :

Her jealous care to serve her God,

Her constant love to husband deare,

Her harmles harte to everie one,

Doth live although her corps lye here:

God grannte us all while glass doth run,

To live in Christ as she hath donne.

My day in Coventry was intensely hot for England, about

87 Fahrenheit. My discomfort was increased by the fact that

I was still wearing the heavy clothing in which I had landed that,

morning; but it grew delightfully cool toward night, and as I

sped away to London in the twilight of the long English mid-

summer day I felt amply repaid for stopping over in the heat

by the tokens that I had seen of the position and worth

of the English Sewalls.

NEWBURY.

My second excursion was to Newbury, Ashsprington, and

Bishopstoke, all in the south of England. Newbury was the

home of the Rev. Messrs. Parker and Noyes, and was so prom-

inently connected with the original emigration that it gave a

name to one of the two settlements out of which Byfield grew.

It is a town of 11,002 people, fifty-three miles a little south of

east from London. Its situation in the lovely and fertile valley

of the Kennet is charming. It is an historic spot: it was

formerly a great centre of the broadcloth trade; two great

battles of the war between Charles and Parliament were fought

in its neighborhood; and at an earlier period one of its people,

John Smalwode, better known as "Jack of Newbury," was a

foremost citizen of England. Being ordered to furnish three

or four soldiers for a campaign against the Scotch, he fully

armed and equipped a hundred and led them himself. He

entertained Henry VIII. and Catherine of Aragon beneath his

roof, and would have been ennobled but he declined the honor.

A fact more significant in the emigration from Newbury to New

England is that the Reformation gained a strong foothold in

Newbury very early. In the reign of Henry VIII. there was are

formed congregation of two hundred meeting there by stealth

three or four of them were burned at the stake, and Fox has

immortalized the name of one -- Thomas More. The moderator

of the Westminster Assembly, Dr. Twisse, was the minister of

the Newbury parish church, and his body was buried in West-

minster Abbey, though the partisan spirit of the Restoration did

not allow it to remain there. Mr. Parker was the curate of Dr.

Twisse, and Mr. Parker and Mr. Noyes taught in the ancient

grammar school. Mr. Parker had studied not only in Oxford,

but also in Dublin and in Leyden. A few weeks later I found

this entry in the records of Leyden University: "July 15, 1614,

Thomas Perkerus Anglus 20 Y." Put alongside this record

the following from the parish baptismal register of New-

bury: "1593 Dec. 9 Thomas Parker son of Thomas." This

Thomas would be twenty years old July 15, 1614, so no doubt

the "Thomas Perkerus Anglus [Englishman] 20 Y," of

Leyden is the Thomas Parker who was baptized in Newbury

Dec. 9, 1593; so Cotton Mather's statement that Mr. Parker

first pastor of our Newbury, was a Leyden student is con-

firmed. Now the Pilgrim Fathers were in Leyden from 1609

to 1620, and Thomas Parker would surely find a congenial home

with them; and thus Newbury and Byfield are linked in a direct

and interesting way with the Plymouth colony. The parish

church of St. Nicolas was over a hundred years old before Mr.

Parker emigrated to New England, but it still stands with its

original beauty only chastened by the gentle touch of time, and

its present pulpit is that of Twisse and Parker. Its register is

perfect back to 1538, the very year when parish registers were,

first commanded to be kept in England. In the considerable

number of such registers that I examined, I met with no other

that ran back so far. Most of the ancient names of our New-

bury are still found in or around the old home town, and it is,

fortunate in its accomplished historian and antiquarian, Mr.

Walter Money. I was much indebted to his great kindness,

and courtesy. It will appear, I trust, from these brief notes that

it was very natural that such a stronghold of Puritanism should

have sent forth a vigorous colony to America, and that Mr.

Parker and Mr. Noyes were its fitting leaders.

ASHSPRINGTON.

From Newbury I went to Ashsprington, far away in the south-

west peninsula of England, 222 miles from London. The con-

nection of Ashsprington with the Parsons family drew me

thither. It is a little hamlet of four hundred people, four miles

from Totnes in Devon. Devon is one of the most picturesque

counties of England. Its high hills, deep valleys, and rich green

verdure make it a charming region. The winters are very

mild. There had been no ice in Ashsprington for six winters

before my visit, and the camellia thrives there the year round

in the open air. In, my brief stay I noticed several interesting

peculiarities of dialect: 'no' was pronounced naw, 'left,' lift, and

the cases of ' us 'and 'we' were transposed. A farmer remarked

to me, " Us haven't had any rain for a long while." The village

is delightfully primitive. It is hidden away in a nook among

the hills, so that in driving out from Totnes we did not see it

until we were just upon it. Its street is hardly more than a

narrow lane bordered with high walls and cottages with thatched

roots. The little inn has but one bed for guests, and as

that was spoken for I had the greatest difficulty in obtaining

a lodging. I had sent back my vehicle to Totnes, so I walked

down the very steep valley a mile farther to two other

inns, but they were equally "full up" and I was obliged to

climb the hill back to Ashsprington lugging my hand-bag; but

there the postmistress had pity on me and gave me food and

shelter. The floor of her humble but cleanly house was of

lime and sand, hard and smooth. The church tower dates

from the fourteenth century, and a yew of as great ace shades

the tower. At the entrance to the churchyard is a lich -- that is,

corpse -- gate with a slab in the centre to rest the corpse upon.

Lich gates are a common feature of rural churchyards in

England, but I have nowhere else noticed the slab. The one

at Ashsprington is in keeping with the antique simplicity of

the hamlet. I take it that 'lich' is connected with the German

'leiche' and 'leichman,' both of which mean corpse; so the word

reminds us that we belong to the great Teutonic stock. Almost

all the village -- houses, lands and all -- is owned by one person.

This is usual in rural England. For common people to own

their houses seems to the mass of English people a Utopian

dream. The ancient register is kept in a tiny damp closet in

the church wall, and is in places almost illegible. It was the

first time I had grappled with the strange chirography of the

Tudor and Stuart periods, but I had others follow up the

search, and neither they nor I found Geoffrey Parsons' baptism

in that register. I did find other Parsons entries; one under

the head of burials reads as follows: "Elizabeth Daughter of

Jeoffrey Parson Dec. 19, 1698." Professor Parsons, in his memoir

of his father the Chief justice, says (p. 96) that the ancestor of

their family in America, Jeffreys Parsons, probably came from

Devon, and there is a letter extant written by a Mrs. Elizabeth

Parsons Morgan of Ashsprington in 1714, whose contents show

that there was a branch of the family established there then.

Savage says in his genealogical register that Geoffrey (or

Jeffrey) Parsons was born at Alplington near Exeter in 1631.

I shall come back to his English origin farther on in this

chapter, but, wherever he was born, I think the evidence en-

courages the pleasing belief that the primitive picturesque

hamlet of Ashsprington with its ancient church and yew and

lich gate were familiar to Jeffreys Parsons.

BISHOPSTOKE.

My next visit was to Bishopstoke. I stopped over on my

journey for an hour or two at Salisbury, but as I subsequently

made a longer stay there I will defer speaking of its magnificent

cathedral and its connection with Byfield. I visited Bishop-

stoke because it was the birthplace of Chief justice Sewall, and

the home of Richard Dummer. It is in the south of England

a little north of Southampton. I asked for a ticket to Bishop-

stoke and received one to Eastleigh, but I understood the

"booking " clerk, or ticket agent as we call him, to say that

they were the same place. I alighted at Eastleigh late Satur-

day evening and inquired for a good hotel and was directed to

the Eastleigh Hotel, half a mile and more to the east. There

I found very clean and comfortable quarters ; but Sunday

morning after I had eaten breakfast I discovered that Eastleigh

and Bishopstoke were different places, though contiguous, with

one railway station ; so I took up my band-bag and set out for

a westerly walk of a mile and a half to Bishopstoke. After

passing the station I followed a delightful country road between

luxuriant pastures where herds of horses and cattle were graz-

ing, and then I traversed a foot-path with a green hedge on one

side and a rushing stream on the other, and presently I passed

through an ancient churchyard with several large stones of the

Dummer family whose inscriptions were almost illegible, and

where a venerable yew, which I subsequently learned was

eleven hundred years old, shielded me from the heat of the

July sun as it had shielded thirty generations before me. Had

it mind and tongue, what a story such a tree could tell! And

so I came into Bishopstoke. The parish church was well filled

and the sermon was a good one, but the edifice was not the

one of Dummer and Sewall. That was taken down about 1825.

I have a pen-and-ink sketch of it which shows it to have been

a most ancient and quaint structure, one that in these days

would be "restored " rather than demolished. It had dormer

windows and an entrance into the roof by an outside stairway.

In the vestry of the present church there hangs an ancient

document which, like some other records to which I refer in

this book, has been already copied, but I will give a portion of

it that it may fall under the eye of some who would not other-

wise see it, and it deserves a wide circulation. It begins:

"Bishop Stoke in the county of Southampton.

"A memorial of the several Persons who have been Benefactors

to the Poor of the Parish of Bishop Stoke whose names are

recorded as well for the Encouragement of all other Persons

who shall be like minded as for the Prevention of the Mis-

application of what has been and shall be so charitably GIVEN"

The first two mentioned in the list are Thomas Dummer and

Richard Dummer. The entry concerning Richard Dummer

reads as follows: "Richard Dummer likewise a parishioner

there in the seventh year of King Charles the First did surrender

a CLOSE of LAND called five acres to Stephen Dummer his

brother and his heirs with condition for payment of the like

sum of forty shillings yearly for the Use of the Poor and Needy

inhabitants of the said Parish, etc., etc." This Stephen Dummer

was the father of Jane who married Henry Sewall, Jr., and one

of their children was the Chief justice. The seventh year of

Charles I. would be 1632. That very year Richard Dummer

came to Roxbury, whence he removed to Newbury in 1636.

It is very pleasant to find him giving to his parish this gen-

erous parting token of his affection. The gift also illustrates

the large-hearted, open-handed character of his whole life.

WATTON.

My next pilgrimage was to Watton, the birthplace of Thomas

Hale, the ancestor of the Byfield Hales. Watton is a hamlet

of 817 people in Hertfordshire, about thirty miles northwest of

London. I reached it by a delightful drive of five miles from

the railway station of Hertford (local pronunciation Harvord).

Although where there are railroads in England there are much

more frequent trains than in America, it is remarkable that so

many places are several miles from the nearest railroad. But

while this increases the expense a little, it adds greatly to the

pleasure and profit of travel. One sees the country far more

Yew Older than the conquest (1066); Churchyard of

Bishopstoke, England

Ancient Parish Church, Walton, England

intimately by a drive along a highway than on a train, and the

driver's talk is apt to be well worth hearing. This was a

characteristic drive in central England. The road was broad

and smooth and hard, the sidewalks excellent, and the hedges

luxuriant and well kept, and the road was bordered by rows of

noble trees, such as the oak, the elm, and the linden. Our

horse was a good roadster. For a long distance before reach-

ing Watton, our course lay alongside Woodhall Park, a great

estate of 13,000 acres, the residence of the member of parlia-

ment for the borough, whose father had been in parliament

before him, I was told, for forty years. Great herds of graceful

deer were grazing in it, and majestic swans were gliding up

and down the river that ran through it. My driver's dialect

interested me, -- as a single specimen of it, I may mention

that to him a post was a paust. The parish church is the centre

of every English hamlet. This one, as almost always, is very

old. Its tower is massive and noble. It has some fine old

brasses; one in particular has a beautiful effigy of a knight

in full armor -- with hands clasped in prayer, and bears the date

of 1361. It was pleasant to find that the Rev. Edward

Bickersteth, the author of "Yesterday, To-day and Forever,"

was once the pastor of this parish. The tablet to his memory

says that he is "Known, revered and loved by the servants

of the Lord in every land." It was twilight when the young

rector kindly went with me to search the ancient records.

He lighted a candle, unlocked the old iron-bound oaken chest,

which is over five hundred years old, -- I think he said, --

and took out the venerable parchment register yellowed with

the centuries. Within ten minutes I had found and deciphered

the record, "A Domi [Anno Domini] 1606 June 15 Thomas

Hale ye sonne of Thomas and Jane baptized." The rector

was astonished and I was delighted at my speedy success.

Puritanism was in the air of England in those times, but the

heavy hand of Laud was upon it, and when young Hale of

Watton heard of the Puritan colony that was organizing in

Newbury, he no doubt determined to cast in his lot with it and

seek liberty of conscience in flight.

DEDHAM.

The "Chute Genealogies" says, "Lionel Chute, jun., the emi-

grant ancestor of the family in America, was born in Dedham,

Essex County, England, about 1580." This statement took me

to Dedham. It is in a lovely region which is a haunt of artists.

It has an ideal English country inn. Memories of the great

landscape painter, John Constable, who was born in its neigh-

borhood, fill the region. He was faithful to nature and to his

high ideals throughout his pathetic career, although it was not

until after his death that the rare excellence of his art was

recognized. Such a life is full of instruction and inspiration

for the young. John Constable, however, has no special con-

nection with Byfield; but another Dedham name has, and that

is the name of John Rogers, not the martyr, but the great

Dedham Puritan preacher from 16O5 to 1636. The windows

were taken out of the parish church so that more people might

hear him. His rule was so to preach every time that he could

come down from his pulpit with a clear conscience. One of his

enemies said that his preaching poisoned the air for ten miles

around, but a friend said that more souls were saved under his

preaching than in any other part of England. Once, twice,

thrice, he was silenced by the church authorities in their stick-

ling for outward uniformity. At length the persecutions he

suffered seemed to break his heart, and he is said to have fallen

in his pulpit and to have been carried out but to die. His

descendants filled the pulpit of the first church in Ipswich,

Mass., for a hundred and fifty years, one of his grandsons was

president of Harvard College, and his posterity is said to be

more numerous in America than that of any other early emi-

grant family (Stephen's "Biographical Dictionary"). This illus-

trious Puritan preacher has a double connection with Byfield,

for he was brought up in the family of Richard Rogers, the

father of Ezekiel Rogers, first pastor of Rowley, one of the two

mother parishes of Byfield, and no doubt his preaching was a

potent factor in determining Lionel Chute to go with the

Puritan colony beyond the sea.

WETHERSFIELD.

My next visit was to Wethersfield, the home of Richard

Rogers, the father of Ezekiel Rogers and the foster-father of

John Rogers. Wethersfield, like Dedham, is in Essex, and

like Dedham and Watton, it lies off from the railroad. One

must drive nine miles from the station to reach it. I struck

"bank holiday" that day, and conveyances were in great

demand and expensive, but my drive was delightful. I passed

some characteristic English sights, such as a great pack of

hounds numbering perhaps, a hundred, with huntsmen gay with

buff and scarlet liveries, and a farmer with a large flock of

sheep, he in front in his cart, and his dog in the rear keeping

all the flock in their place. My driver was a master of the

reins and had the bearing of a duke, but from his questions

when we came to guide-boards, I inferred that a knowledge of

letters was not one of his accomplishments. I found Wethers-

field a delightfully primitive little hamlet abounding in babies,

with here and there a windmill and a great tree, an oak I think

it was, on the grassy little green in the centre of the hamlet,

and a flock of sheep enjoying its shade. The good vicar was

away like almost everybody else on the holiday, and his wife

seemed at first shy of me as a sort of transatlantic tramp, but

when she was convinced that I was not a fraud, she became

very communicative and followed me to the church, telling me

all she knew and deeply lamenting the absence of the vicar

with the keys to the church treasures. One of its possessions

is, it seems, an ancient black-letter Bible which used to be

chained in the church, where all might come and read. The

Wethersfield church was one of the most ancient in appearance

that I saw in England. It is built of flint stones, some of them

not larger than hens' eggs. Richard Rogers, like John, was,

strictly speaking, a lecturer, that is, not the regularly appointed

minister of the parish supported by the compulsory tithes, but

one selected by the people and paid by voluntary contributions.

The parish clergymen even after the Reformation were not as a

rule earnest preachers, and so their Puritan parishioners, in

many instances, voluntarily taxed themselves additionally to

secure pious, learned, and whole-hearted preachers. These

were termed lecturers, and their sermons were called lectures.

They were apt to find their path a thorny one. Richard

Rogers, like John, felt the heavy hand of ecclesiastical tyranny.

He was a voluminous writer. I found six of his works in the

British Museum varying in size from the elegant little book for

the pocket, with bordered pages, up to the folio, and more than

one of them had reached a fifth edition. His daily life of

goodness and piety won for him the title of "the Enoch of his

day." His portrait, full of fatherly benignity, is honored by a

place in the long row of Puritan worthies that adorn the walls

of the library of Mansfield College in Oxford. Mrs. Rogers

was a, woman of rare attractiveness of character, of whom it

would be a pleasure to speak at length. It was in this ancient

church and this primitive hamlet and this godly ministerial

home that Ezekiel Rogers was trained to be the founder of the

first Church of Christ in Rowley.

BURY ST. EDMUNDS.

Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk was the next place connected

with Byfield that I visited. It formerly contained a shrine of

world-wide fame -- that of St. Edmund, the old Saxon king who

was foully murdered by the Danes in 870, and in whose memory

Canute after his conversion built there a vast and splendid

monastery. Bury St. Edmunds was the home of Edmond

Moody in the reign of Henry VIII. In 1524 the young, king

was hunting, with Edmond Moody for an attendant. The king

had let loose his falcon and rushed after it with a stout pole; a

ditch crossed his path and he attempted to leap it by vaulting;

the pole broke and the kin fell into the mire and water face

downward, where he would have drowned had not Moody

lifted him out. For this act he was knighted, and took for

his arms two hands holding up a Tudor rose, a fitting memorial

of the rescue of the great Tudor king by his hands. This has

been the heraldry of the Moody family ever since, and many a

time have their arms, stanch and true, succored a worthy cause.

DUMMER.

On my way from London to Southampton to take a steamer
for the continent, I stopped at Basingstoke and drove out five

miles to Dummer, the ancient seat of the Dummer family, of

which we found a branch at Bishopstoke. Dummer is fifty

miles southwest of London. Two things I recall of my drive;

one was the moderation of our horse, whose speed my driver

sought to increase by a lavish use of the whip, but with little

effect; this was especially trying in a chilly rain with an open

dog-cart; a more pleasant memory is that of the magnificent

trees that grew here and there on top of the mounds or dikes

which served for fences along the highway. The settlement of

Dummer is one of immemorial antiquity. Before the Norman or

the Saxon or the Roman had set foot in Britain, the Celt had

his home in Dummer, and reverently deposited the ashes of his

dead in rude urns which are from time to time uncovered in our

own day. The little church had the most venerable look of

any that I visited in England. The walls curiously contracted

in thickness on the inside toward the top, so that the space

within was decidedly broader at the top than at the bottom.

The pillars in the walls were great unhewn oaken trunks, from

which only the bark had been removed. The church contains

a beautiful brass of "William atmore als dommer " [Dummer],

who was born Feb. 13, 1508, but the date of his death is lack-

ing, probably because he set up the memorial of himself and

his family during his life, and his survivors neglected to fill in

the blank. The Dummers of Dummer appear to have been

wealthy, for they owned land in the city of Winchester, perhaps

fifteen miles away. Most of the rural parish clergymen whom

I had thus far visited in the homes of our forefathers seemed

to have a generous support, but I twice found in the parsonage

tokens of straitened circumstances, -- in one instance, I fear,

even of poverty.

DOL.

I traced but one of our families back to the continent, from

which of course they all originally came, only taking in England

on their way, though they made a long stop there. I visited

Dol in Brittany, which is the westernmost province of France,

because Coffin says that it was the seat of the Dole family before

the Normans conquered England in the eleventh century. The

connection of the family with the town has been disputed;

but my Dol trip was unique, and I will venture to give it.

My voyage from Southampton down to St. Malo was exceed-

ingly disagreeable. It was a chilly, boisterous drizzly night,

the little boat was "full up" with passengers, there were

no state-rooms, no sheets on the beds, and but scant separa-

tion between the quarters of the men and those of the

women, and there was plenty of sea-sickness, -- there was only

one redeeming feature, the boat was a swift one,-- but all

my memories of Dol are bright with sunshine and pleasure.

The old cathedral vast and gray is said to be forty feet longer

than Westminster Abbey, while not far from it I noticed one of

the huge piles of brush-wood fuel much loftier than the neigh-

boring house-tops -- a characteristic feature of Brittany; so

near is the commonplace to the sublime. From Dol I took a

delightful walk out to a menhir a mile and a half from the town.

A menhir is a solitary upright stone erected by an ancient

people. There are some sixteen hundred of them in France,

this being one of the ten noblest specimens. I judged it to be

thirty feet high. Like the urns of Dummer it is attributed to

the Celts, and was doubtless erected for some religious or com-

memorative purpose. The use of such memorial pillars is very

wide-spread and ancient. In the Bible, for instance, we find

Jacob and Samuel setting, them up. Dol is full of history. One

item is that here William the Conqueror was conquered and de-

spoiled in battle shortly before his death; but the grim old war-

rior gracefully bowed to his fate and gave his daughter to the

one who had vanquished him.

EWELL.

After my return from the continent to England, and on my

last day in London, when I had finished my packing and shop-

ping, at a quarter past three in the afternoon, I broke away from

the endless grime and din of the world's metropolis and took a

little run out into the green fields of Surrey as far as Ewell,

seventeen miles to the south of the city. So far as I know

at present, this is the original home of the Ewell family in

England, although there are none of the name there now.

From its nearness to the capital it is full of beautiful country-

seats. In the churchyard there is an ancient church-tower

thickly mantled with ivy and very picturesque; opposite the

churchyard is Ewell Castle, at present the home of the Gads-

dens, represented in America by the historic family of that

name in Summerville, S. C. The lady of the castle very politely

showed me through it and its spacious grounds. To the rear is

the site of Henry the Eighth's magnificent palace of Nonesuch,

and there hangs in the hallway of the castle a drawing of the

palace showing its great extent and splendor.

CHOLDERTON.

The next morning with many a fond regret, I bade good-bye

to dear old London, to which I have become warmly attached

by successive visits during more than thirty years. I have al-

ways made it my headquarters when abroad, and have found in

it not only an endless wealth of art and history, but also true

friends and honest tradesmen. On my somewhat roundabout

journey from London to Liverpool, I visited a number of Byfield

shrines. At about noon that day I left the train at Grately, a

little station near Salisbury. From Grately, I proposed to walk

three miles to Cholderton, the English home of our Byfield

Noyes family. I tried to get a hearty lunch at the station inn

before taking my walk, but it could offer me no meat but cold

boiled salt pork, though it had abundance of drinks, which men

and women were liberally patronizing; so I contented myself

with "light refreshments." On my walk broad rolling fields

stretched away on either side dotted with great flocks of sheep.

Cholderton, like many another English hamlet, nestles in a val-

ley, so that you do not see it until close upon it. The name has

been spelled in twelve different ways. The green valley of a

winter stream which is dry in summer, with its numerous little

rustic bridges, adds to the picturesqueness of the place. The

parish only numbers a little over one hundred and fifty people;

but two of its rectors have become bishops. The rectory is

roomy and homelike, with an ancient warming-pan hanging in

the hall-way -- typical of warm hospitality. On that day the

stranger from across the sea was entertained in the rectory li-

brary with the cup of tea and buttered slices of bread so char-

acteristic of an English welcome and so acceptable to a dusty

foot-traveller. The rectory grounds abounded in beautiful beds

of flowers, and the little church is rich in pictured windows.

The long list of rectors stretches back to 1297, of whom two in

the seventeenth century were named Noyes, and the first of

these was the father of our Newbury emigrants, the Rev. James

and his brother Nicholas. There could hardly be a more pleas-

ant setting for the memory of these men than Cholderton with

its hospitable rectory and beautiful church.

SALISBURY.

That night I spent at Salisbury. The place had a double

attraction for me: its cathedral, and the founder of the cathedral,

Bishop Richard Poore. He laid the solid foundations in 1220,

and the structure was completed according to his plans in 1258.

Each English cathedral has its own peculiar charms. Those

of Salisbury are very great. It stands in a "close" of half a

square mile; this enables its beauty and grandeur to be seen

to great advantage. Built on a single plan and in a com-

paratively short time, its architecture has unrivalled unity;

and then there is its stone spire, the first of that material, it is

said, that was erected in England, and it is so slender, so richly

carved, and so lofty, -- the tallest spire in England, four hun-

Kemerton Manor House, England

Dating from about 1500

Cholderton, England, Home of the Noyes Family

dred and four feet high. I visited the cathedral by starlight

and lingered in contemplation, loath to leave such a "poem in

stone," -- and the world owes this majestic temple to the genius

and piety of a Poor!

KEMERTON.

The next visit of which I will speak, and the last connected

with Byfield that I made on my way to Liverpool, was to

Kemerton in the north of Gloucestershire and the west of Eng-

land. I went there because it is an ancient seat of the Parsons

family. As usual it lay off from the railroad, and the walk to it

was delightful until a hard rain beat down upon me; but one

of the things to be thankful for in, my journeyings was that so

far as I recall I was in no case prevented or hindered by sick-

ness, accident, or weather. The ancestral manor-house was in

true English fashion hidden from the road by a high wall, but

as I passed through the gate and up the winding avenue, a

broad and noble mansion was disclosed nearly covered with

luxuriant ivy. Some four centuries have passed over its roof

and some twelve generations have gone in and out over its

threshold, but for aught one can see it may greet as many more

centuries and shelter as many more generations. The name of

the family is now Hopton, but it should be Parsons by right of

descent. They took the name of Hopton in 1817 on succeed-

ing to the Hopton estates.

The Parsons family has long been noted in England. I

counted more than thirty of the name in Burke's "Landed Gen-

try." One was Earl of Rosse in the eighteenth century. Was

our American emigrant one of the Kemerton family? In all

probability. It will be remembered that his baptism could not be

found in the Ashsprington record. Professor Parsons says in his

life of the Chief justice (page 6)" . . . perhaps about 1645 Jef-

frey (or Geoffrey) Parsons sailed from England for the West

Indies. He was then very young. He remained at Barbadoes

with an uncle some years and then came to Gloucester on Cape

Ann about 1654." Burke says ("Landed Gentry," page 1006),

"The family of Parsons has been long settled in the island of

Barbadoes, where one of the original settlements was called after

it and retains its name to the present time." Miss Winifred A.

Hopton of Kemerton writes me: "We find the following entry

in the church register, '1627 Godfrey the sonne of John Par-

sons of Kemerton and Alice his wife was baptized . . . Novem-

ber."' Now Jeffrey, Geoffrey, and Godfrey are only different

spellings of the same name. Jeffrey is the English, Geoffrey

the French, and Godfrey is English for the German Gottfried,

which means peace of God. We therefore conclude that Jeffrey

or Geoffrey or Godfrey Parsons may have been baptized in the

ancient church of his ancestors in Kemerton and have gone

from there to Ashsprington where I found evidence of the

presence of members of the Parsons family, and thence to

Barbadoes, and ultimately to Gloucester in Massachusetts.

I had received a cordial invitation to visit the manor house,

and I lunched there with great pleasure. The lady of the

house is a widow; her husband, Capt. Charles Edward Hopton,

was an officer in the Crimean War. She has four sons and

three daughters. I do not remember the calling of all her

sons. One, I think, is a clergyman. The family is a worthy

example of the English country gentry and a worthy repre-

sentative of the ancient Parsons stock. The fact that such

a family retains its home in a little hamlet like Kemerton is

typical of our English cousins. The word 'manor' comes

from the Latin maneo, which means to remain or stay, and the

English gentry love to stay in the country. They visit much in

the metropolis and abroad, -- one of the Hopton young ladies

was just home from Paris, -- but their choice for a manor or

remaining-place is the country. They are great lovers of the

open air. Even in-doors they want as much out-of-door air as

possible. The sister of the young rector of Ashsprington re-

marked to me laughingly, "We English people are horrid for

drafts;" and many an American would think so, but their love

of the country and the open air does great things for their

health and vigor.

ROWLEY.

What Newbury, England, is to our Newbury, that Rowley,

England, is to our Rowley and even more, for while only a

curate led the Newbury colony, the rector himself came with

those from Rowley, and he was followed by a far larger pro-

portion of his flock. There are five Rowleys in England.

Our English Rowley is near Hull. I went directly from Liver-

pool across to Hull, one hundred and nineteen and a half miles.

The scenery was in marked contrast to the garden-like counties

of southern England. The train went through many a tunnel

and many a great manufacturing town grimy with soot and dim

with vast clouds of smoke. At Manchester, for instance, at

half-past two in the afternoon, though it did not rain, it seemed

like twilight from the smoke. We also threaded many a steep,

narrow, rugged valley, but at length when we drew near to the

east coast, we came into a flat, low country diked like Holland, to

which it looks out across the North Sea. I spent the night at

Hull in a clean and pleasant hotel with excellent food. It was

a temperance house, and I usually stopped at such, but I could

not in all cases recommend them so heartily. The next morn-

ing I went out on the Hull and Barnsby railroad a twenty-one-

minute ride to Little Weighton (formerly written and still

pronounced Weeton), and from there a short mile's walk,

brought me to the gate of the Rowley rectory grounds. The

land is high and rolling with broad views, great flocks of sheep

and herds of cattle and horses were grazing in the pastures, the

hawthorn hedges had already begun to take on autumnal tints,

although it was but the tenth of September, and here and there

a lingering songster of summer regaled me with its carol. The

rectory and the church stand near each other in the broad

rectory acres, but there is not another building to be seen for

a long distance. When Mr. Rogers came to America all his

immediate neighbors are said to have come with their pastor,

and their humble cottages, left tenantless, decayed and fell to

the ground; occasionally to this day one comes upon a brick

or some trace of a cellar where there was once a house. Hence
the church and rectory stand in solitude. The "New England

Magazine " for Sept. 1899 contained an article by me on Mr.

Rogers, and I will not repeat much of what I there said. He

was an able and faithful preacher, whom the people flocked

to hear from all the neighboring region, but, to quote his own

words, "for refusing to read that accursed book that allowed

sports on God's holy Sabbath or Lord's Day, I was suspended,

and became one of God's poor exiles." On my former visit to

Rowley in 1895, Rev. H. C. T. Hildyard was rector. He was

then over threescore and ten, and had been in charge of the

parish for forty-five years. He was tall and still erect and

ruddy, a noble specimen of the English country gentleman and

clergyman. Three years later he passed away; in 1901 I was

entertained by the new rector, Rev. Robert Hildyard, the

nephew of his predecessor and a scholarly and faithful pastor.

It may be worth mentioning, as showing one point of difference

between the average English clerical home and those of the

United States, that as I sat down to lunch my hospitable host

said, "Now, Mr. Ewell, what will you have to drink, -- cider,

claret, whiskey, or beer? "I think he proffered me a wider

range of choice, but I only definitely remember the four that I

have mentioned. The Hildyard family has been in the region

since 1110 and has held the Rowley livery since 1704. Gen.

Hildyard of South African fame is an uncle of the present

rector. The part of the rectory farthest from the church is as

old as Mr. Rogers' day, and I was shown an elegant silver

flagon -- an heirloom of the rectory -- bearing the date of

1634; so that would be a memento of Mr. Rogers. I suppose it

to have been used in the communion service. The church

bears the name of St. Peter, and was already venerable with a

history of three centuries when from its pulpit Ezekiel Rogers

commended himself "to every man's conscience in the sight of

God." Within on the right is a beautifully carved lectern or

reading-desk, the work of the late rector's own artistic hand; on

the opposite side are a new pulpit, and in the rear new choir

"stalls" or seats. The pulpit bears the inscription:

To the Glory of God,

and

In memory of the

Rev. Henry C. T. Hildyard

Rector of Rowley,

The pulpit and choir stalls

Were placed in this Church

by Relatives, Parishioners

and Friends.

July 20, 1900.

Among the "Friends" who contributed, our Rowley and Byfield

were represented.

What ancestors of Byfield families came from Rowley, Eng-

land? Mr. Rogers' colony numbered " about sixty families;"

of these "about twenty families" came over with Mr. Rogers,

while the others joined him between his arrival here and the

settlement of our Rowley. The Rowley, England, parish regis-

ter will not help us very much, for it only runs back to 1653.

Mr. Rogers' leaving would seem to have brought the parish life-

almost to a standstill, so that it began anew, as far as records

go, fifteen years later. Mr. Gage gives (Hist. Rowley, p. 132) a

list of seventeen families that probably were of the twenty that

came with Mr. Rogers; of these, Jewett, Nelson, and Tenney, at

least, are Byfield names, and the Spofford family has been largely

represented in the parish, and no doubt a large proportion of

the others became by marriage ancestors of our Byfield people.

Mr. Blodgette believes the Tenneys to have come from Rowley.

It is certain that the Northends, though not in Mr. Gage's list

of seventeen, were from Rowley. One entry in the Rowley

register reads: "1657, Jeremiah Northend of Little Weeton [a

part of the parish gent aged thirty years, mindeth to take to

wife Mrs [not necessarily a widow, mistress was then a title of

rank corresponding to gentleman] Mary [following word illeg-

ible]" Another entry is "Mr. Jeremiah Northend dyed Apr.

11, 1702. He went with Mr. Rogers to America when about

twelve years old and staid there about nine years." This

Jeremiah was cousin to Ezekiel Northend, who also came with

Mr. Rogers and who was the ancestor of our Byfield Northend

family. The Northends were large land owners in Rowley and

its vicinity and lords of the manor of Little Weeton and Huns-

ley, in Rowley parish. Hunslow Hill in our Rowley was prob-

ably named by the Northends in fond recollection of their

ancestral manor house. I presume a careful examination of'

the registers of neighboring parishes would bring to light the

homes of others of Mr. Rogers' company, though most of them

were probably entered in the lost records of Rowley itself.

So the pleasant and ancient parish of Rowley shares with New-

bury the honor of being above all other English localities one of

the two cradles of our composite Byfield stock.

BRADFORD.

My last filial visit was to Bradford. I went there because it,

is thought to have been the home of our Jewetts and Brockle-

banks, although the American home of the latter family only

came within Byfield bounds down to 1731, when the second

parish in Rowley, as I have already said, was set off. Prob-

ably a number of Rowley's settlers were from Bradford, else

they would hardly have, given the name Bradford to one of

their two streets, and to the fair daughter settlement on the

Merrimac. Bradford is in the southwest, of Yorkshire. It is

an exceedingly black manufacturing town of 291,535 people.

The soot is so pervasive and insinuating that even the young

girls who are clerks in stores can hardly keep their hands clean.

But Bradford has something to show for its grime, for it is the

metropolis of the worsted industries, and has the largest silk

and velvet manufactures in the world. It is in a densely popu-

lated region. Leeds, another black town, with 400,000 people,

is only nine miles away. Between Leeds and Bradford, I passed

through a station marked Horsforth. The thought instantly

occurred to me, Horsforth was the English home of the Long-

fellow family. I regretted exceedingly that I could not stop

over and pay my respects to the place associated with one of

the most honored and dearest names not only of Byfield but

of America, but my steamer was to sail in less than three days,

and the flight of time was inexorable. The growth of Bradford

has been remarkable. It had but 2,000 people when Ezekiel

Rogers emigrated, and only 13,000 in 1800. The introduction

of steam power gave it its wonderful impetus. Its noble parish

church of St. Peter's is 450 years old; and the church tower

still bears the marks of cannonading during the Cromwellian

wars. The interior is very interesting, particularly a great

window with four sections in honor of four English saints. I

cannot forbear to give several of the quotations from those thus

honored, inscribed beneath their portraits in the window.

Under Aiden is written, "If thy love, 0 my Saviour, is offered

to this people, many hearts will be touched. I will go and

make thee known." Under Bede, "No man thinketh more

than need be ere he go hence, what to his soul of good or of

ill doomed shall be." And under Wilfred, "So teach the

young, that whether their after lot shall be to serve God in the

holy office or to serve the king in council or in arms, they may

be found fit."

The name of Jewett occurs frequently in the records of the

time of the Rowley emigration, also Jowett and Jewitt, which are

probably only variations of spelling. Brocklebank does not

occur, but Brooksbank does repeatedly, which may possibly be

the same name. In the current Bradford directory there is one

Jewett, and he is put down as a blacksmith. It will be recalled

that three generations at least of the Warren Street Jewetts

were, blacksmiths, Maximilian, David, and David's son, Maxi-

milian. The old Rowley names are very common both in the

parish register and the directory. From the former I copied

Wood, Dickinson, Hopkinson (with various spelling), Pearson,

Pickard, Northend, Todd, Smith, Browne, Nelson, Barker,

Bailey, Proctor, and Jackson, and in the directory I found

nearly two columns of those named Barker, three of them put

down as gentlemen, eighteen named Boyes, nine named

Brockebank, four named Carlton, one Chaplin, thirty-four

named Lambert, three of them gentlemen, eighteen named

Nelson, two named Palmer, ten named Parratt, and twenty-

seven named Hopkinson, of whom one is put down as

gentleman. As far as names go, Rowley might have been

almost a colony from the English Bradford, and certainly the

honest industry and triumphant enterprise of the great York-

shire manufacturing town make it something to be proud of

that we of Byfield may claim so near a kinship to it. I left

Bradford Thursday, Sept. 12, and sailed Saturday, Sept. 14 --

a sad day in American history; but its grief had some com-

pensation in the revelation that blood is not only thicker than

water, but that kindred blood beats responsive though separated

by the water of the broad Atlantic. The news that President

McKinley was dead was received in Liverpool at about 9 A. M.,

and before noon flags were flying everywhere at half mast. I

should be very thankful, if at some future day I might prose-

cute these filial pilgrimages farther, and I present my sincere

regrets to all our good people of Byfield, and of Byfield stock,

whose ancestral homes across the sea I have not thus far been

able to visit, or in some cases, as that of the Pearson family,

even to locate.

THE CAUSE OF THE EMIGRATION.

Most of our ancestors came, as has appeared in this chapter,

from small country places, and probably most of them were

farmers; so that by heredity we ought to have a kindly appre-

ciation of the soil and of husbandry. The civilization of Eng-

land was much inferior then to its present condition, and the

comforts of life were fewer, but they had much to leave, -- houses

and highways, books, schools, and church edifices, and the

tender ties of kindred and neighborhood, -- and they came forth

into the primeval wilderness where there was neither house nor

building of any kind nor highway, but the vast forest tenanted

by the wild beast and the savage. In coming they hoped, I

suppose, to improve their pecuniary condition if they could

survive the hardships and perils, but the mighty force that

impelled them was a religious one. Archbishop Laud was bent

on enforcing religious uniformity, gospel preaching was perse-

cuted, clergymen were required to read from the pulpit a

proclamation enjoining a Sunday afternoon of gay sports, and

at every point there was pressure to return in a large measure

to the ceremonies of the Church of Rome. Milton's "Lycidas"

has a noble passage in which he depicts the mercenary spirit

of those with whom Laud was filling the pulpits, where

The hungry sheep look up and are not fed.

Neither was there any peace for those who withdrew from the

Established Church and sought to worship God according to

their convictions. All public worship throughout the kingdom

must conform to Laud's ritual. So grievous was the oppression

that George Herbert, than whom never soul loved the Estab-

lished Church of England more passionately, wrote:

Religion stands on tip-toe in our land,

Ready to pass to the American strand.

In the year 164o the pressure began to relax, and the tide of

emigration ebbed, but before that the fathers of Newbury and

of Rowley, and so of Byfield, had fled from the storm.

It may seem strange, considering that our fathers were

Puritans or Separatists, that I have given so much attention to

the parish churches, connected as they are with the establish-

ment that drove them out, and have said nothing of the non-

conformists, who are of the same spiritual lineage with them.

This implies no lack of appreciation of the history and spirit

of the English dissenters, but it was the parish churches to

which our fathers belonged, and from which they came out,

and where alone the records of them are to be found. I am

glad to add that no memory of the past should occasion any

bitterness toward the Anglican Church of to-day. There is in

England now absolute religious liberty, and I everywhere met,

on the part of clergymen, officers, and people of the Church, as

it is called, the most cordial reception and hearty co-operation

and a generous admiration of the Christian heroism of the

founders of New England.

No chapter of this history has cost the author so much time,

labor, and expense as this, but none has afforded him more

pleasure, and he will feel doubly repaid if it shall strengthen

the appreciation of our emigrant ancestors and of the mother

country.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PIONEERS (1635-1702)

Special Authorities: Records and documents in the Salem Probate Office,

Winthrop's History of New England, Sewall's Diary and Letter-Book, Johnson's

Wonder-Working Providence, and Mather's "Magnalia."

BEGINNINGS.

ALL through this history it is often difficult to determine

who belonged to Byfield, because people are usually

mentioned simply as citizens of their respective towns. When

Mr. Smith, for instance, is said to reside in Newbury, it remains

to be determined whether or not his home was in the Byfield

part of Newbury, and the problem is particularly difficult in

the earliest period, when there was no organized Byfield with

its records.

The Newbury people came first. Governor Winthrop tells

us of the arrival of the "Whale," May 26, 1632, after a pros-

perous voyage of forty-eight days. She brought about thirty

passengers, all in good health, and sixty-eight cows, having lost

two cows on the voyage. One of her passengers was Richard

Dummer, of Bishopstoke, a name ever to be cherished with

honor, not only by Byfield but by our whole country, alike for

his own worth and that of his posterity. I suppose most of

the cows belonged to him. Two years later, Henry Sewall, Jr.,

father of the Chief-justice, and ancestor of many other noble

souls, landed from the "Elizabeth and Dorcas." Her voyage

had been a sad contrast to that of the "Whale," for in it sixty

of her passengers had died. Mr. Sewall also brought "much

cattle" with him. The following year, -- that is, in 1635, -- a

little company of perhaps fifty people, who had been collecting

at Ipswich, made their way from there through Plum Island

Sound and up the Parker to near where Oldtown bridge is

now, and there landed, and on a Lord's Day, probably in June,

Mr. Parker, in the open air, "under the branches of a majestic

oak," preached his first sermon in Newbury, and a church was

organized, with Mr. Parker for pastor and Mr. James-Noyes for

teacher, and so in blended piety and beauty the life of our New

England Newbury began. Four years later, that is, in 1639,

Mr. Rogers and his company of twenty Yorkshire families,

who, like their Newbury friends had already spent a winter

this side the water, and who had grown by accessions to sixty

families, began at Rowley their conflict with the stubborn wil-

derness; but the wilderness, despite its fierce tenants, was more

acceptable to them than the tyranny at home, for it afforded

them "freedom to worship God."

Almost from the first, the settlers began to make their way

westward into the forest. The falls of the Parker were very

attractive. Even the Indian had appreciated them, and had

derived his name for the river from them, and called it Quas-

cacunquen, which means "falls." Another attractive point was

where the Glen Mills are now, on Mill River; and still another

was the rich lands on the Merrimack, in what is now Bradford

and Groveland. The far-sighted Mr. Rogers had demanded and

secured these lands as part of the Rowley grant. To go in-

land, they would first of all make large use of the waterways

of the Parker, Rowley River, and Mill River, as the Indian had

before them, although they would instantly improve upon the

canoe that he had made by toilsomely hollowing out a great

log with his stone axes, for they would build the little dory and

hoist upon it the sail. By land they would follow the Indian's

simple trail, and like him go up the streams to where they were

fordable. These enterprising pioneers would strike out into the

forest and seize points like those I have mentioned, and rely

upon the trail or the stream to connect them with the main

settlement until a road could be made. As a mill was erected

in 1636 at the falls of the Parker, which we will henceforth for

convenience, and following the ancient custom, term "the

Falls," probably the first road into the interior that struck

Byfield would be north of the Parker and across Cart Creek to

the Falls. Seven years later, John Pearson built a fulling-mill

near the site of the present Glen Mills. That would no doubt

very soon result in a road from Rowley to that paint. As early

as 1654, Thurlow's Bridge was built. This was a great step for-

ward in lines of communication, and a notable event. Mr. Cur-

rier tells us, in his "Ould Newbury," that this bridge stands third

in the list of " bridges in continuous use in New England for two

and a half centuries." Mr. Little says, in his "Outside View,"

that it was thrown across the river as far down as logs could

reach across. Even after the bridge was built, it was no easy

matter to make a good road from Thurlow's Bridge across the

marsh to Rowley. The Newbury records for some years show

the difficulty of the undertaking. But it was accomplished, and

thereafter until 1758, when Parker River Bridge was built, that

is, for a century, the great highway from Boston to Portsmouth

and the cast ran through Byfield. So it was the great good for-

tune of Byfield almost from the beginning to feel the pulse-beats

of the outer world. The "path," which went ahead of the high-

way, would serve for the horseman, and after a fashion gradually

for the rude cart and even better vehicles. It was not until

1662, or thirteen years after Bradford began to be settled, that

a road was laid out to connect it with Rowley, and it was six

years later still before it had one to Newbury. The Long Hill

house was built in 1700, but there was only a path over Long

Hill until 1713. We owe a great debt to our fathers for the

toil and expense which it cost them to bequeath to us our

roads. It was not the work of a year nor of a generation to

bridge the streams, and fill the swamps and marshes, and blast

out the rocks, and shave off the crests of the hills, and put on

the gravel, so as to afford our present commodious roads, and

each generation can best show its gratitude for them by leaving

to its successors better highways than it inherited.

RICHARD DUMMER.

Richard Dummer, who has already been repeatedly mentioned

in these pages, was the most prominent of the first settlers of

Byfield. He was, perhaps, the richest man in the colony. His

broad lands are said to have stretched on the south side of the

Parker from Oyster Point to Wheeler's Brook, and to have

comprised a thousand and eighty acres. His herds were so

numerous and so aggressive that in 1660 Rowley voted to put

up "a substantial and strong three-railed fence . . . between

Newbury and Rowley, to prevent cattle coming from Mr.

Dummer's farm." His "mansion," as it was termed, appears

from an ancient deed to have been on Fatherland Farm. Only

one year after Newbury was settled, this energetic man, who

had already done a similar thing at Roxbury, with the co-

operation of a Mr. Spencer, erected, as has been said, a mill at the

Falls. Then for the first time the waters of the Parker were

troubled by artificial barriers and machinery, but from that day

to this they have been compelled by the dam and the wheel to

lighten human toil and augment human comfort. This mill

appears to have been at first a saw-mill, -- a most welcome

addition to the resources of the colonists: something beside

hewn logs would now begin to appear in their buildings. In

1638 we find the town entering into a certain contract with the

owner, "in case Mr. Dummer doe make his mill fitt to grynd

corne." The grist-mill would be as great a boon as the saw-

mill. Before that, all the grain used in the family must be

pounded with pestle and mortar after the Indian fashion. The

late Mrs. Benjamin Winter, of Georgetown, had such a pestle

and mortar, an heirloom of primitive toil and simplicity, handed

down in the Spofford family.

It is noticeable that while Messrs. Dummer and Spencer built

the mill in 1636, Mr. Dummer appears as the sole owner in

1638. The reason introduces us to perhaps the greatest reli-

gious convulsion in the history of Massachusetts. Mrs. Ann

Hutchinson had followed her beloved pastor, John Cotton, from

old Boston in England to its infant namesake on the Charles in

1634. Soon after her arrival she began to proclaim her peculiar

views. She seems to have been a worthy woman of rare gifts

and charms, but somewhat inclined to mysticism and religious

subtleties, and withal a little censorious toward the ministers.

Many leading colonists were captivated with her suggestions.

Rev. Mr. Cotton himself accorded them a large measure of

indulgence and approval. Mr. Dummer and Mr. Spencer both

espoused her cause. Probably Mrs. Dummer led the way for

her husband in accepting Mrs. Hutchinson's views, for John

Eliot says of her that she was " a Godly woman," but "was led

away into the new opinions in Mrs. Hutchinson's time." The

conservative party triumphed under the lead of Governor Win-

throp, and the adherents of Mrs. Hutchinson were condemned

and disarmed, including Mr. Dummer and Mr. Spencer. Both

Dummer and Spencer returned to England, perhaps in disgust,

but the former shortly came back. In 164o, when the Governor

was embarrassed through the dishonesty of his steward, "and the

various towns sent in a contribution of 500 pounds, Mr. Dummer

in a more private way, with unequalled liberality, sent him 100

pounds" (Allen, "Biog. Dict."). This was more than the whole

tax of Newbury and half the contribution of all Boston. Such

an act was not merely generous, -- it has the added perfume of

a beautiful magnanimity. Byfield was a great gainer from the

severity of the colonial government toward Mr. Dummer, for

that appears to have led him to make the Falls, where he

already had so large an estate, his home (Eliot, " Blog. Dict.").

Mr. Dummer seems to have been an enthusiastic promoter of

fruit culture. When I was a school-boy at Dummer Academy,

in the fifties, there stood in front of the mansion-house a straight

and lofty mulberry tree, whose fruit used to be the delight of

the students. That and some of the old apple-trees on the

farm were thought to have been planted by him some two hun-

dred years before.

Mr. Dummer became involved in a most unfortunate and

protracted controversy with his pastor, Mr. Parker. At least,

as early as 1643, Governor Winthrop speaks of the Presbyterian

church government of Newbury. Johnson's "Wonder-Working

Providence," which appeared in 1654, says, "The teaching

elders in this place [Newbury] have carried it very lovingly

toward their people, permitting them to assist in admitting of

persons into church society, and in church censures, so long as

they act regularly, but in case of maladministration they assume

the power wholly to themselves." Dr. Dexter calls Mr. Parker

and Mr. Noyes "par nobile fratrum" (noble pair of brothers),

but this was not Congregationalism, and as early as 1645 their

arrogation of power had begun to agitate the little settlement.

Forty consecutive large octavo pages in Coffin's history are

mostly filled with a narrative of the contest, and nearly all is in

small type, besides briefer notices of its progress in other parts

of the book. The conflict culminated in 1670, when the breach

between the pastor and his party, and those who stood fast in

the old Congregational paths, had been deepening and broaden-

ing for at least twenty-five years. In that year, a paper was

presented to Mr. Parker signed by Richard Dummer and

Richard Thorla, Mr. Dummer's neighbor, in behalf of what

claimed to be the majority of the church, deposing him from

the pastorate "until," as the paper said, "you have given the

church satisfaction." The deposition however contained this

remarkable qualification: "In the meantime as a gifted brother

you may preach for the edification of the church if you please."

It is evident that the opposition was not to the pastor's doctrine

and still less to his life, but simply to his church polity. Mr.

Parker and Mr. Dummer were then both old men, Mr. Parker

being about seventy-four, and Mr. Dummer about seventy-nine;

possibly it was a little harder for each one to appreciate an

opponent's position and to be conciliatory than in earlier life.

Mr. Dummer's party numbered forty-one church members

whose names are on record; the next year forty-one church

members are recorded by name on Mr. Parker's side, but there

is no name common to the two lists; this indicates that the

Yankee Puritan backbone was displayed and nobody would

change sides. Meetings were disturbed by "an hubbub, knock-

ing, stamping, hemming, gaping;" and there are indications

that which side a candidate would take affected his admission

to the church. Council after council sought to pour oil on the

troubled waters, but could not allay the storm. It is not strange

that one council should speak of the devil's "too much influence

upon the spirits even of godly Minded ones," and of "the

remnants of the powers and deceits of the old man in the best."

The matter was taken into court, where fines were imposed on

Mr. Dummer and thirty-eight others, ranging from the equiva-

lent of $22 down to $1. Still the strife raged. It came be-

fore the legislature, which on the 19th of May, 1672, adopted

a lengthy statement concerning the whole matter, and sent

a letter to the church, for then church and state were con-

nected. In this letter the Congregational method of doing

church business is explained and upheld; the "offences and

provocations given" Mr. Dummer and his party are admitted,

as is their claim to be the majority, but their course, is con-

demned "as a violation of church order in the gospel and

usurpation upon the liberties of their brethren." Even this

action of the colonial legislature did not produce peace, for, on

the 8th of October of the same year, the legislature appointed

a committee comprising some of the most eminent citizens

of the colony "to repair to Newbury and call both parties

together," and if possible effect "Christian submission one to

another," but to report "any refractoriness in any amongst

them to the next court of election." This is the last notice that

has come down to us of the unhappy church quarrel that had

lasted at least twenty-seven years. We may hope that this com-

mittee of peace-makers was successful. Mr. Parker lived nearly

five years longer and Mr. Dummer more than seven. Let us

trust that their closing years realized much of the peace and

love of the better country to whose border they were come.

There appears to have been an impetuous vein in Mr. Dummer's

character, but this very impetuousness probably contributed

much toward the achievements of his life. His long, active,

beneficent, and somewhat stormy career closed December 14,

1679, when he was eighty-eight years old, "and he died in a

good old age, full of days, riches, and honor." But his stock

took root in the earth, and the long succession of his worthy

descendants has been unbroken down to our day. Mr. N. N.

Dummer, of Byfield, is one ,of them.

OTHER NEWBURY SETTLERS.

Opposite to Mr. Dummer, on the north side of the Falls, was

the great pasture of Mr. Henry Sewall, Jr., comprising five

hundred acres. Mr. Sewall had a house on the Longfellow lane,

about a hundred rods north of the present street, but it could

hardly be called his home. His lands stretched to Cart Creek

on the east. On the other side of Cart Creek was Dr. John

Clark's farm of four hundred acres. He lived where Mr. Asa

Pingree does now. He was a very prominent citizen in the new

colony. He is said to have received while yet in England a

document certifying to his skill in operating for the stone. It

was a piece of rare good fortune for the little wilderness settle-

ment to have so eminent a surgeon within its border, and the

town showed its appreciation of his services by exempting him

from taxation. Dr. Clark is reputed to have been a lover of

the horse, and to have introduced a breed that long bore his

name. The inventory of his estate corresponds to his equine

and surgical distinction. One entry reads: "Horses, young and

old, 12 @ , L5 each L6o," and another entry is: "Books and

instruments, with several chirurgery materials in the closet,

L60." The striking portrait of Dr. John Clark, owned by the

Massachusetts Historical Society and reproduced in Coffin's

"Newbury," is probably that of our Dr. Clark. Unfor-

tunately for our parish, the attractions of Boston soon drew

him thither. He had descendants in the medical profession in

a direct line to the seventh generation. Dr. Clark was suc-

ceeded on the same farm by Mr. Richard Thorlay, the bridge

builder. The beautiful new reredos of Winchester Cathedral

has a statue of one of its ancient sainted bishops, with a bridge

in his hand to commemorate the fact that he was a pioneer

bridge builder. Mr. Thorlay has that title to canonization.

Mr. Thomas Thurlow, of West Newbury, is his descendant.

JOHN PEARSON.

When we turn to the Rowley side of the parish, we find

Mr. John Pearson to be the best known of the early settlers.

Like those that have been mentioned on the Newbury side,

Mr. Pearson served his generation. In 1643 he built a fulling-

mill on the Byfield side of Mill River, a few rods south of

the present Glen Mills. Such a mill did not supersede the

wheel and loom at home. It was simply a mill to which the

homespun cloth was brought to be rudely finished; it added

compactness to the cloth, and so made it warmer and more

durable, at the same time it improved its appearance. John-

son's "Wonder-Working Providence" says of Mr. Pearson and

his neighbors: 'These . . . were the first people that set

upon making of cloth in this western world, for which end they

built a fulling-mill;" thus early -- sixty-seven years before the

parish was incorporated -- did Byfield take a leading place in

industrial progress. This mill remained in Mr. Pearson's family

and name for six generations, and his son Benjamin became a

miller on the main stream of the Parker, where his descendants

of the same surname and given name have continued in honor-

able and successful business to the present day.

OTHER ROWLEY SETTLERS.

Thomas Nelson erected a grist-mill on the same stream and

the same falls, probably a year or two earlier. This was the

pioneer grist-mill in Rowley. Mr. Nelson was an emigrant of

large means and the ancestor of a numerous and worthy pos-

terity in Byfield, Georgetown, and far and wide. There is every

reason to believe that the great admiral was of the same family.

With the second generation, the number of settlers in Byfield

increased. Then the Tenneys struck westerly into the wilder-

ness to near the foot of Long Hill, and built a house nearer to

the river than the present one. This was destined to become

one of the historic homesteads of New England. Toward the

close of the century, at least three brothers-in-law of judge

Sewall were residents of Byfield: Moses Gerrish, William Long-

fellow, and William Moody. Henry Sewall, Jr., divided his

Falls lands between his three daughters, who married the men

just mentioned. The lines of division are said to have run

straight up from the river. Mr. Moses Gerrish married Jane

Sewall September 24, 1677. Her share included where Mr.

Lacroix lives now. Possibly the Gerrishes lived in the oldest or

westerly part of Mr. Lacroix's house. Before he renovated the

house, that part bore the marks of great antiquity. Mr. Gerrish's

family became very prominent and useful both in the parish

and far beyond its borders. Mrs. Lacroix is a descendant of

Henry Sewall through the Longfellows, so the farm is even now

inhabited by the good old Sewall stock. Mr. William Long-

fellow married Anne Sewall November 10, 1678. Her portion

or a part of it, still remains in the family and the name. Mr.

Longfellow seems to have been good company, but not over

provident, nor liable to the charge of undue attention to his

dress. He was drowned in Phips' unfortunate expedition against

Quebec in 1690. Judge Sewall's writings have graphic allusions

to him. It need hardly be added that the poet Longfellow was

descended from William and Anne (Sewall) Longfellow. An

interesting tradition puts the building of the first Longfellow

house at 1676. It stood until recent years. Two memorials

of the home are said to still survive: a stone horse-block and

a sweetbrier rose bush -- a beautiful suggestion of the solidity

of the Sewall stock and the sweetness of song which a Long-

fellow was to bequeath to the world. William Moody married

Mehitable Sewall November 15, 1684. Miss Harriet Moody,

his descendant, and the widow of William Goodrich live on the

original Moody place. Mr. Moody was a worthy, enterprising

citizen, a miller, and the record of his descendants in this

history will show their sterling, worth. Mr. William H. Moody,

Secretary of the Navy, is one of his posterity. About 1687

Mr. Peter Cheney entered into an agreement with the town

of Newbury to build a fulling-mill and a grist-mill on the

Parker, both apparently at the upper falls or near the present

railway station. Those whose names were mentioned in Chap-

ter 1. as having their ministry rate abated would all, of course,

be already within the limits of Byfield. Thus, what was to

become the new parish was gradually being peopled.

JOHN SPOFFORD.

As most of Georgetown belonged to Byfield until the second

parish of Rowley in what is now Georgetown was set off in

1731, I will speak of the pioneer family in that section, that of

John Spofford. He was one of the first settlers of Rowley, and

The Original Longfellow House, Built about 1676

as it appeared in 1875

(By permission of Harper and Brothers)

The Parsonage of 1703, as it appeared in 1875

(By permission of Harper and Brothers)

probably one of Mr. Rogers' little Yorkshire band that formed

the kernel of the company. He was, so far as is known, the

ancestor of all of the name in the United States and Canada,

and of a great multitude that bear other names. Paul Spof-

ford, for more than fifty years a leading merchant of New York,

whose son Paul N. has been helpful to the author in the prepa-

ration of this book; George Peabody, the banker; Dr. Richard

S. Spofford, of Newburyport, and his son Hon. Richard S. Spof-

ford, " champion of the hardy New England fisherman; "Judge

Henry M. Spofford of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, and

Ainsworth R. Spofford of encylopedic knowledge -long may

he adorn his office in the Congressional Library! --are a few

of his prominent descendants. When John Spofford the emi-

grant had lived thirty years in the pleasant little hamlet of

Rowley, impelled by a true Anglo-Saxon spirit of conquest, he

went westward more than six miles, and more than three miles,

probably, beyond any white settler, and made a new home on

what is still called from him Spofford's Hill. Think of the

loneliness and peril of such an outpost! But imagine also the

fascination to a sturdy pioneer of battling with hardship and

peril, and changing the wilderness into a fruitful field. The

town owned a tract of three thousand acres on the hill; from

that it leased to him a farm of ninety acres. He and his de-

scendants retained the lease eighty-one years, and at the end of

that period it reverted to the town, but in those eighty-one years

they had become owners of nearly a thousand acres adjacent.

Certainly this was a good specimen of the thrift of our fathers.

After the Byfield church was formed, until the second parish

was set off, his family in common with the others of that

region attended the Byfield meeting. I would like to extend

this study of the honorable record of the settlement of By-

field, but it would swell the book to an undue size. Let

those that have been mentioned be taken as specimens. No

generations in our history are more worthy of commemoration

than those which let the sunlight into the primeval forest,

broke up the virgin soil, and bore and conquered the privations

and perils of this new land.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE MOTHER CHURCHES.

Some have misapprehended the differences between our two,

mother churches of Newbury and Rowley. There were marked

differences, but not in doctrine. The catechism of Mr. Noyes

of Newbury breathes the same spirit and maintains the same

doctrines as that of Mr. Rogers of Rowley, and Newbury, as

well as Rowley, insisted on doctrinal soundness in candidates

for membership. In the heat of the quarrel about Mr. Parker,

both parties agreed that "orthodoxy" must be a condition of

admission to the church. The differences, were, however,

marked. Rowley had, like almost all the early New England

churches, a Congregational polity, while Newbury's worthy

pastor was, as we have seen, bound to rule his church

in a Presbyterian fashion; but chiefly, while Rowley, like

almost all her neighbors, examined the "experiences" of can-

didates with rigid scrutiny, Newbury laid little stress on in-

ternal evidences of conversion, though it is not to be inferred

that Newbury underrated experience. Both Mr. Parker and

Mr. Noyes were men who walked with God, but they did not

set candidates on a minute and painful work of introspection: it

was enough for them if they were "orthodox and of good con-

versation." We read in Mather's Magnalia "that Mr. Noyes

held " that such as show a willingness to repent and be bap-

tized in the name of the Lord Jesus, without known dissimu-

lation, are to be admitted." It has been said of three branches

of the Christian Church of our day, that the decisive question

with one is, "What do you believe?" with the second, " How

do you feel?" and with the third, " How do you live?" Mr.

Noyes put the first and the third, but passed over the second.

All honor to him for being a pioneer in this direction.

CURIOUS INSCRIBED STONES.

Byfield affords interesting relics of a remarkable early in-

dustry in various inscribed stones. A considerable number

of these are to be seen about the buildings of the late Mr.

Alfred Ambrose; there are also the ancient mile-stones at

Dummer Academy, at Mr. Silas Noyes', and elsewhere, and

there are gravestones of the same character. It is likely

that the work was done near where Mr. Ambrose's house

now stands, as there are so many specimens about those

premises. The stones are ornamented with rude sculptures

of fleur-de-lis and scrolls and other devices, some of them, in

the opinion of Dr. Hovey of Newburyport, of a pagan and

phallic character. The material, according to his interesting

sketch (Scientific American Supplement, November 24, 1900),

is diorite, hard to work but very durable, and it is found in

the neighboring pastures. The dates range from 1636 to 1756.

What a strange eccentricity possessed those stone-workers in

the strict Puritan settlement, and how enduring is the record

left us of hands that forgot their cunning so long ago!

INDIAN WARS.

Repeated allusions have already been made in this history

to our fathers' troubles with the Indians. Hardly any New

England settlement was free from these. While Byfield that

was to be, suffered no general massacre, she had an average

share of conflict, although the sachem of the immediate region,

Masconomo, was always friendly. The Pequot War of 1637

occurred before Rowley was settled, but Newbury was called

upon for eight men, and Byfield was represented among them.

From 1637 until 1675 there was comparative peace, although

Rowley and Newbury were represented in a little expedition

of 1642, and Rowley had men in an expedition of 1653. In

1675-76 there came the life-and-death struggle of New Eng-

land, and especially of Massachusetts and Plymouth, with King

Philip. In this struggle six hundred colonists fell on the

battle-field, and there was scarcely a family in which some one

did not suffer; more than six hundred buildings were burned,

and the cost of the war -- half a million dollars -- was as great

in proportion as that of the war for independence (Barry's" History

of Massachusetts," I., p. 447). The pages of Coffin

and of Gage show how heavily the conflict bore on Newbury

and Rowley. Coffin tells how frequent and large were the

impressments of soldiers, and how great were the war ex-

penses of Newbury. In 1675 the "minister's rate" was in

round numbers L104, while the war cost them, L458, or more

than four times as much. Gage dwells fondly on the heroism

of Captain Brocklebank of Rowley and his fellow-townsmen,

who fell on the bloody field of Sudbury.

After a breathing spell of only twelve years, the colonies were

again plunged into the terrors of another Indian war, which

raged from 1688 to 1697. It was not now a contest with Indians

near home, but with those that swarmed out of the vast forests

to the north and east; nor yet with the Indian alone or chiefly,

but with the Indian stirred up and backed by the Frenchman in

the long contest between France and England for the mastery

of North America. It was in this war that Mr. Goodrich and

his family were smitten, as was narrated on page 16. One of

the eastern Indian massacres also touched Byfield closely, for

its most noted victim was one of Byfield's noblest sons. At

the opening of the year 1692, southern New Hampshire, and

what is now the southwestern part of Maine, had already

suffered so severely that the good people of Connecticut had

collected a large store -- a vessel load, apparently of provi-

sions and clothing for their succor, and Judge Sewall, of Boston,

was glad to be the agent for the transmission of the timely

charity. On the ninth of January he wrote a very kindly

letter to Rev. Shubael Dummer, of York, Maine, and two others,

concerning the fraternal gift. Mr. Dummer was a son of our

Richard Dummer, a graduate of Harvard, of the class of 1656,

and a man of beautiful Christian character. His flock was

poor, and he had been their generous helper from his own

means. He had labored among them devotedly some twenty

years, turning a deaf ear to every call to a more prominent or

an easier field; but sixteen days after the writing of that letter,

in the dead of winter, when the little frontier hamlet had begun

to feel secure, partly because for several months there had

been a lull in the storm, and partly, no doubt, from the depth

of the snow, the Indians burst upon them, having made their

way over the snow on snow-shoes. In this attack they killed

about fifty, and took captive nearly a hundred. Mr. Dummer

fell with the slain, and his wife was carried into captivity

"where through snows and hardships among those dragons

of the desert she also quickly died." Cotton Mather, whose

sketch of Mr. Dummer is one of his best bits of biography,

after enumerating his excellences says, " In a word, he was

one that might by way of eminency be called a good man."

And Sewall laments ("Letter-Book," I., p. 129): "[His death)

is the more sorrowful to me because he was my mother's cousin

german and my very good friend." Mr. D writt me a Letter

of the 19th Jan. full of love.... "

Mrs. Almira A. Lunt, to whom I am much indebted for in-

teresting facts as to old Byfield, sends me an extract from a

letter to her from Mr. Parker C. Pillsbury, concerning the house

where Mr. Herbert Witham now lives. Mr. Pillsbury was born

in that house. He writes: "It was built in the time of the

Indian depredations. My great-grandmother occupied it in the

time of the Indians. It was lined from the sill to the girth with

bricks between the plastering and the boards. There were

doors outside the windows to shut at night. The outside doors

were barred inside. One night the Indians came and attacked

the house, making an attempt to cut the outside [doors] down

to get into the house. My great-grandmother took a pail of

scalding water, went upstairs, and poured it on their heads, and

they were glad to retire." It will be remembered that the

Witham house has its second story project over the lower story,

and it is said that there was formerly an opening through the

projecting part to fire upon assailants, or, as in this case, to

give them a hot-water baptism. All honor to the brave fore-

mothers of Byfield!

A local history is not the place to discuss the general ques-

tion of the moral character of our fathers' dealings with the

Indians. The Indians were uncivilized heathen, and perpe-

trated the most fiendish cruelties in war, but that they were

never despised, defrauded, and oppressed, even by the Puritan

settlers of New England, I should not like to maintain. It

takes a larger infusion of Christianity than the world has yet

experienced to lead a strong race to do justice to a weak

one. The voluminous pages of Sewall's "Diary" and "Letter-

Book," which afford our best mirror of those days, give abun-

dant proof that he did not think that the Indian and the Negro

received a full measure of justice and Christian kindness and

effort from the white settlers; but the record of the settlers of

our region, so far as it has come down to us, is a favorable one.

This conduct made Masconomo friendly not only to them but

also to their religion; and we have seen (p. 14) how our

towns paid money to his grandchildren to get a clear title.

One individual at least also paid a considerable sum to Indian

claimants of the land he occupied. This was Henry Sewall, Jr.,

who in 1681 paid Job Indian, Hagar Indian, and Mary Indian,

the heirs of "old Will Indian late of Newbury Falls" L6 13S. 4d.

each, or L20 in all, for their quit claim deed to one hundred

and sixty acres or more of land. The original document was

found among the papers of the late Paul Moody and is now in

the possession of Mr. Patrick of Lowell.

Through the kindness of Mr. J. 0. Hale, I am permitted to

insert a transcript of it in this history with its "marks" made

by representatives of a race that has vanished from our borders.

L 20 seems perhaps a moderate price for one hundred and sixty

acres, but land was not worth so much to those who only

roamed over it and hunted its game and fished in its waters as

to those who unlocked the treasures of its soil. Besides, this

may have been only a final payment to quiet all claims. He

may have previously paid a much larger sum to "old Will"

himself.

WITCHCRAFT.

The massacre of Mr. Goodrich and his family in Byfield,

and of Rev. Mr. Dummer, a son of Byfield, at York, both took

place, as has been said, in 1692. This is the most tragic year

in New England history, for in it the witchcraft delusion

reached its culmination. The mania cast its dark shadow over

both Newbury and Rowley, for Elizabeth Morse, who a few

years earlier barely escaped the gallows under the fearful

accusation of being a witch, lived in Newbury, and Margaret

Scott, who was hung in 1692, was of Rowley; but neither of

these victims lived within the limits of Byfield. Our parish

has in history only the romantic corona of that dark eclipse

of reason and humanity. The falls of the Parker was the

traditional spot where the witches entered into covenant with

the Evil One, and received his sacraments of baptism and

hellish bread and wine.

For Tituba my Indian saith

At Quascycung she took

The Black Man's godless sacrament,

And signed his dreadful book.

Quascycung or Quascacunquen was primarily the falls of the

Parker, although the whole river came to bear the same name.

THE LIFE OF THE PIONEERS.

I shall not attempt a full picture of the life of Byfield in the

seventeenth century, but only here and there a lineament. The

people lived at first in log-cabins with thatched roofs, and floors,

in some instances it would seem, of mother earth; but as saw-

mills multiplied and their means increased, they exchanged

these primitive abodes for frame houses, often large and of

two stories, in size corresponding to their families. In these

houses, the second story frequently projected over the lower

one for defence against the Indian, and the roof ran down to

the lower story in the rear, making a back "linter" (lean-to).

In the huge chimney was the bench where the family could

sit cozily and watch the great fire of logs or read by its light.

I have a faint recollection of such a chimney in the Long Hill

house before its alteration by the late Major Stickney.

Mr. Witham's house, which was in my youth the Pillsbury

house and was still earlier the Dickinson house, is probably

an heirloom from the seventeenth century. Its architecture

closely resembles that of the old house on Kent's Island, not

now standing, that is said to have been built in 1653. The

exterior has already been described. The interior is interest-

ing. The large living-room has a huge fireplace in which two

cook-stoves stand side by side, a beautifully carved wooden

latch on the great cellar door, a crane five or six feet long

thoroughness with which our fathers built, the character of their

architecture, and the perils that beset them.

They married young and had large families of children, for

which they thanked God. Judge Sewall had five sisters who

married in Newbury and Rowley. Their average age at mar-

riage was nineteen years, and their average number of children

was eight. The pastor of one of these sisters, the Rev. Mr.

Payson of Rowley is said to have had twenty children by one

wife -- little danger that such a stock would be crowded out

of the land by any rival.

I give the following inventory in full, as I am sure my readers

of the fair sex would not forgive me if I abridged it:

An Inventory of the eftate of mrs ffrances Dumer of newberry de-

ceafed, the goods fhe was poffeffed off apprifed as money 23 appril

1685.

Imp. I bed & bolfter & 3 pillowes 4. 10. 0

a worfted rugg 26s/ Courled [Coverlet] 3 blankets 37s/ 3. 3. 0

1 fuit of Curtens & Vallence 30s/ a wt rugg 7s/ 1. 17. 0

Silver goblet 4 fpoons 32s/ thimble 2/ 5. 4. 0

3 fcarfes ye best at 27s/ the du cape 9s/

a luteftring fcarfe 17s/ the best hood 7s/ 2. 19. 0

the two worft hoods 8/ 0. 2. 0

Silk cape & whifk, fleevs filk ftokins

7s/ in all 0 . 11. 6

1 Pr ftockins 3/ 3 Pr gloves 3/6 0. 6. 6

a fann 4s/ a fay apron 8s/ 0. 12. 0

1 pr bodies 10/ an otter muff 5/ 0. 15. 0

2 filk Petticots 47s/ a farrendine mantle 30/ 3. 17. 0

1 filk gown 3th 5s/ a ftomacher 3. 5. 0

1 prunel1a black gown 34 & petticot 14 2. 8. 0

1 farge coat wt a lace 23 and a white

woolen Coat 8s/ 1. 11. 0

1 dutch farge gound 28/ a morneing

gound of ftuff 8/ 1 farge petticot 18 2. 6. 0

Rideing hood & fafegard 16s/ 2 old peticots 16/ 1. 12. 0

"The Top House" (Robert Jewett House), Warren Street

The Witham (Dickinson, Pillsbury) House

Probably built in the Seventeenth Century

3 pr ftockins 1 pr fhoes 0. 7. 0

1 pillion & cloth 7s/ & a cufhion 0. 7. 0

Bermuda hat 2/ 4 pilowbers 6s/

and a balket 6d 0 . 8. 6.

1 whit mantle 1s/6d Sex

napkins 6/ 0. 7. 6

1 pr cotten & Linnen fheets 20/

a tablecloth 3/9d 1. 3. 9

1 pr old cotton & linen fheets 3/ 0. 3. 0

pr fheets half wore 12/ and

1 pr old ones 6s,/ 0. 18. 0

a fheet & towel 3s/ 4 dowlas fhifts 26s/ 1. 9. 0

3 fuftin waftcots 4s 6d 7 wt aprons 17s/ 1. 1. 6

7 handkerchifs 9s/ 6 neck

handkerchifs 13s/ 1. 2. 0

1 ps holland 6s/ 8 caps 16s/ 2 old ones 1s 1. 7. 0

plain wt capes 4 of ym 10s/ 0 . 10 . 0

wt fleivs 9 pr 12s/ a pr gloves

a blue apron 9d 1 pillowbear 3d 0. 13. 0

a wt bag of remnants of cloth thred

filk & other things 0 . 5. 0

2 litle boxes 2s/ a bible & 2 books 6s/

more peuter 10s/ 0 . 18 . 0

a morter & Peftel 4s/ 2 chifts 9s/ 0 . 10 . 0

two trunks 14/

a cabinet 4s/ 1 cupbord 20s/ a table 10/

the Gally potts 1s/ 1. 5 . 0

1 knive & glafs 1s/ 10d 0. 1 . 10

45 14 - 01

JOHN BAYLY

JOHN CALDWELL fenr

At a Court held at Salem June 30. 1685

An Inventory of the estate of mrs frances dumer deceafed being pre-

rented to us of 45 pound 14/8 by her fone Richard dumer we fe caufe

to ordor to mr Shubael dumer eldeft fone the one half of it And to

mr Jeremy dumer and Richard dumer the other half to be equaly

divided between you two.

The Court orders this to be entred as attefts

JOHN APPLETON Cler.

Essex. ss. Probate Office October 10 1903.

A true copy from Book 302 page 141.

Attest. J. T. Mahoney. Register.

Four years later the inventory of the emigrant Richard

Dummer's son Richard was taken. I give extracts from this
inventory to show the possessions of a man of large means in

those primitive times. (304 Essex Co., Prob. Records 302.

Original Document.)

An Inventory of ye Estate of Captn Richard Dummer Esqr Late of

Newbury who deceased July 4th 1689

His Wearing apparell 30 00 00

plate 24 ounces &

plate buttons L2

1 Fowling peice L3

musquet 1 - 10 = 0 1 Carbine 30s

1 Raipier 25s 1 Shoulder belt 35s

a buff belt 12s a cane 7s 09 - 19 - 0

To Bookes 05 = 00 = 00

Housing Landes upland & Meadow

Gardens orchardes Tenements

forming togather with the

freehold & privilidges 2000 = 00 - 00

7 Bedes bolstezes & bedsteedes

& other Furnuture 31 = 00 - 00

23 pairs of Sheetes 29 = 19 - 00

. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .

To a glas case &

Looking glas 2 = 10 = 00

. . . . . . . . . .

Iron pots dripinpans

candlesticks tongs Tramiles

fender & Spitt 05 = 02 = 01

Brass kittle & other brass 05 = 00 = 00

a Copper pott & Skimer & a Ladle 00 = 15 = 00

Putter 06 = 19 = 00

a Case of Knives 00 = 05 = 00

["sheepes wole," flax yarn and

hemp yarn are inventoried.]

To a Hors & Furnitture 20 = 00 = 00

Item Neat Catle breeding Maires

and a Colt Sheep & Swine 147 = 00 = 00

Item a Neagro 60 = 00 = 00

2432 = 00 = 00

These inventories are instructive. Like almost all manu-

scripts of the period they display great fertility of invention in

spelling, and a great dearth of punctuation marks. Mrs. Dum-

mer's inventory shows that the proverbial economy of the

Yankee marked our stock from the beginning: not only "half

wore" but "old" clothes are carefully enumerated; even the

white bag of remnants is not overlooked. Our lady's ward-

robe enabled her to dress if she pleased in silk-from cap to

stockins." She was equipped for horseback riding with pillion

"cloath" and "cushing," but of shoes only one pair is recorded.

Her library was limited to "a bible & two bookes more." Little

mention is made of "cotten;" it was still an expensive rarity,

for the days of Arkwright and of Whitney had not yet dawned.

The probate office of that time was deficient in arithmetic:

there are at least ten errors in the figures carried out, and the

footing up is several pounds astray, and the clerk's quotation of

the footing is incorrect. The oldest son had a double portion as

the first-born. He was the one who seven years later was mur-

dered by the Indians (p. 59). This inventory ought to be re-

viewed by a lady; the general impression which it makes upon

the masculine mind is that of great variety and abundance.

If we may judge from the inventory of Captain Dummer, a

leading citizen sixty and more years after the first settlement

would be fairly well clothed, excellently armed, and scantily

supplied with books. He would have some plate, but brass

and "putter" (pewter) would enter largely into his household

equipment. The great brass kettle and the broad pewter

platter that are cherished heirlooms in so many of our homes

are typical of those times. He would lead an independent life,

with broad acres, large flocks and herds, and a good store of

flax and wool. Slavery was not a prominent feature of the

times, but the "neagro" was there as property, and was valued

in pounds sterling just like the sheep and swine. No carpets

appear in either inventory: it was the era of scoured and

sanded floors. Forks are likewise absent; the fingers still plied

briskly their immemorial task at meal time between the plate

and the mouth.

The table of those times if compared with ours had less fresh

meat and more salt, but it had more game and fresh fish,

including salmon from their own streams; they had no potatoes,

but plenty of turnips of that choice flavor which only a virgin

soil could impart. Trenchers, that is, square pieces of board

such as are still used in Winchester College, England, served

for plates. With their "victuals" they drank neither tea nor

coffee, but liberal draughts of cider.

They had no newspapers, but had time and, mind for solid

reading, mostly religious and so stiff and dry in style as hardly

to deserve the name of literature, -- but they did have and

read and ponder the choicest classic of all our literature, our

English Bible.

Letters were, to most, a great rarity; the mails were few

and slow and expensive. In 1693, more than fifty years after

Byfield was settled, it took nearly a cord of oak wood to pay

the postage on a letter from here to Virginia.

Their clothing, if of cloth, was homespun, and the great loom,

as I remember that of my grandmother, would fill a room;

but they wore many a skin of sheep and deer and moose,

which did not tax the fingers of wife and daughter in their

preparation. The courts watched with a jealous eye and sup-

pressed with a substantial penalty any attempt of ambitious

women to dress beyond their husbands' rank and means.

They were largely a pastoral people, with great flocks and

herds that were securely penned at night to save them from

bears and wolves. Newbury is estimated to have had in 1685

over five thousand sheep. The humble ass also was common.

Swine abounded and were yoked and ringed in the spring to

keep them out of mischief; and the poor dog had one "legg

tyed up " in the same season so that he might not "bee found

scrapeing up fish in a corne fielde," that is, the fish used as

dressing for the corn.

Cattle of different owners were distinguished by marks cut in

the ears. "Richard Dol ye 3^rd" -- a Byfield man -- had for

the ear-mark of his cattle "a slip in ye uper [side]" and "a

fork in ye left ear," &c., with a diagram, all carefully entered in

the town records. It was so important that the car-marks be

accurately recorded that room was found in the town books

of Newbury for the following poetry (?) of warning:

"To the Clarcks suckgessively

Examine well the marks set

Down before

By you there be Recorded

Any more

Least some persons through

Mistake do wrong

In that which

dont to them belong.

JOSHUA MOODY, Clarck 1

Driving in the springless cart or farm wagon along the rude

"paths" and roads could not have been attractive, but horse-

back riding was as exhilarating exercise then as now -- com-

panionable also, for the maiden or matron often rode on a

pillion behind the man. One trait of travel gave the good

horse a frequent minute to breathe, for the rider often had to

dismount to open and shut the gate that barred the road to

keep different herds of cattle separate.

Very early in Newbury, within four years after the settlement

of the town, provision was made for the public school, and fre-

quent entries in the ancient record attest our fathers' deter-

mination that their children should not grow up in ignorance.

Their pastors often taught the week-day school, at least for

the more advanced pupils, as well as preached on the Lord's

Day. But schooling in those times was not altogether free: the

town paid part, and the parent part; in 1681 in Newbury such

scholars as studied only English branches paid threepence a

week. The fact that the great eastern highway ran through

our borders was an educating influence of no small power.

While there was little luxury, there was a high degree of

general comfort and thrift. No pauper is mentioned in Rowley

until 1678, and Newbury was nearly as favored.

In some respects their life was not so healthy as ours, and

their knowledge of medicine was very defective; against the

1 Clerk, that is, Town Clerk.

dreaded visits of the small-pox, for instance, they had not yet

even the protection of inoculation; but they were a robust

stock, following the healthiest of all callings, and many of them

lived to a hale old age.

The general standard of integrity was high, and the moral

conduct of families was under the close scrutiny of the tithing-

men, of whom each one had the oversight of a specified num-

ber of families. It was not until a later period that their duties

were narrowed to the maintenance of order in the meeting-house.

On the Sabbath, -- they never used the pagan term "Sun-

day," -- everybody went to meeting -- never to church; they

reserved that term for the Lord's people. Some of them

had to travel six miles to their respective meeting-houses in

Rowley and Newbury, but they were all there. When they

arrived they all took the seats that had been assigned them.

Three facts were considered in the delicate matter of deter-

mining these seats, -- age, social rank, and the amount of the

minister rate paid by each one. Before the close of the period

family pews began to be built in the meeting-houses. The house

was not warmed, but their veins were full of healthy red blood,

and their homespun woollen clothing was unadulterated with

cotton. In winter as in summer, the minister was expected

to preach until the hour-glass ran out, and he rarely disap-

pointed them. On one occasion a young preacher in the

Newbury meeting was so bashful that he did not dare glance

at the hour-glass, and so preached on and on for two and a

half hours! The timid youth ultimately concluded that he

was not called to the ministry, and is known to history as

Chief-Justice Sewall -- the one so often quoted in this history.

They were honest, cheerful, and brave; pure and hard-

working; a virile, God-fearing, home-loving people, who looked

to heaven as "their dearest cuntrie." There may be others,

but the only books in existence, of which I am aware, that

came over with the progenitors of the Byfield people, are the

Stickney and the Moody Bibles. This fact is typical of their

character. As Mr. John Higginson said in 1663, "New Eng-

land is originally a plantation of Religion, not a plantation of

Trade . . . worldly gain was not the end and design of the

people of New England, but Religion. And if any man

amongst us make Religion as twelve and the world as thir-

teen, let such an one know he hath neither the spirit of a true

New England man nor yet of a sincere Christian."

CHAPTER V.

DURING THE PASTORATE OF THE REV. MOSES HALE

(1702-1744).

Special Authorities: MANUSCRIPT. The records of the church and of the Parish

for all this period are lost. We have the record of baptisms from 1709, in a pre-

cious little manuscript volume, which was substantially bound and put in a neat

and durable case through the kindness of the late Mr. Cyrus Woodman of Cam-

bridge. Mr. Woodman was a descendant in the sixth generation of Mr. Joshua

Woodman, whose familiar stone in the Byfield burying-ground informs us that he

was the

first man child borne

in Newbury

& second inturid in

this place.

The assessors' book begins with 1717. It is a thin folio bound in parchment, and

the corners are tied together with inserted leathern strings. The memorial

address upon Judge Byfield, delivered by Hon. Francis Brinley before the Rhode

Island Historical Society in 1870. The manuscript is owned by Miss Emily M.

Morgan of Hartford, a descendant in the fifth generation from Judge Byfield. The

account book of Stephen Longfellow, the blacksmith, begins in 1710. He made

his entries wherever in the book it pleased his fancy. The latest date that I have

noticed is 1752. It is an invaluable mirror of its times. The present owner is

Mr. Horace Longfellow, his descendant.

PRINTED. Hutchinson's second volume has much information as to Governor

Dummer, and is very instructive as to the state of affairs in the province of Massa-

chusetts. The Westbrook Papers are full of information as to Governor Dum-

mer's public life.

THE NEW PARISH.

THE cause of the formation of the new parish may be

inferred from what has already been written: the grow-

ing population in those parts of Rowley and Newbury that

were at an inconvenient distance from the established places

of worship.

The beginnings of the organization of Byfield are obscure

from the dearth of records, although the main facts are well

known. In 1701 seventeen persons in Rowley and fifteen in

Newbury had half of their ministry rate abated; probably, as I

have said before, because they had already set up a new preach-

ing service or were about to do so. In these lists one was a

woman, Mrs. Jane Gerrish, and one Robert (or Robin) Mingo,

a negro. He joined the Byfield church, April 28, 1728. He

became a citizen of Rowley and at one time lived in a small

house on land now owned by Mr. L. R. Moody, east of

Leighton's corner (Gage, p. 406). Thus the brotherhood of

mankind was recognized by the Byfield church in its be-

ginnings. May all its future be true to that happy omen. In

the next year -- 1702, -- we have the following very instructive

entry in judge Sewall's diary:

"Augt. S. 1702. My dear sister Moody dies a little before sunrise.

. . . Augt 11. Set out from Salem [He had left Boston, his home,

the day before] as the School-Bell rung. . . . When came to Rowley

our Friends were gone. Got to the Falls about Noon. Two or three

hours after the Funeral was, very hot sunshine. Bearers, Woodman,

Capt. Greenlef, Dea. Wm Noyes, Jno Smith, Jona. Wheeler, Nathan

Coffin. Many Newbury people there though so buisy a time; . . .

Mr. Hale, their minister [was there]. . . . About a mile or more to

the Burying place. . . . Our dear sister, Mehetabel is the first buryed

in this new Burying place, a Barly-earish, pure Sand, just behind the

Meeting-house. . . . I went back to the House, lodg'd there all night

with Bror Moodey. Gave Wheelers wife a piece of 8/8 1 to buy her a

pair Shoes, Gave cousin Lydia a piece of 8/8. Augt. 12 pray'd with

them and sung the 146 psalm. Went to Jno Smith's and took the

Acknowledgement of the Deed for the Land of the Meeting-house and

burying place."

He wrote to Governor Dudley of his bereavement ("Letter-

Book," I., p. 274): ". . . She liv'd desir'd and dyes Lamented

by her Neighbours . . . very ingenuous, tender-hearted, pious

creature. . . . " Mrs. Moody was about thirty-seven years old,

and the above extracts show how tenderly she was loved and

lamented. They doubly deserve a place in these pages because,

of her honorable posterity. They also reveal the generous and

pious character of the judge, and his close connection with the

new parish, but they are inserted at this point because of their,

historical significance. They prove that Mr. Hale was already

1 A Spanish coin of eight reals, the original of our dollar.

their minister, and that the meeting-house was built.1 The

description of the burying-place shows that there was little loss

to agriculture when it was set apart to a sacred use. The in-

scription on Mrs. Moody's stone is as follows:

Mehetable

Dater of Mr. Henry & Jane

Sewall, wife of Mr. William Moodey,

Promoted settling the worship

of God here, and then went to

her glorified son William,

leaueing her son Samuel & four

Daters with their Father, August ye

8th, 1702, Aetat 38 2 was the first

interred in this place. (Gage, p. 431.)

It is interesting to notice that the one act of her life which was

selected for record on her gravestone was her aid in the estab-

lishment of the infant parish, and the term employed is also

interesting -- "the worship of God." It is pleasant also to learn

that a woman had so honorable a share in the good work.

Mark likewise the strong faith in a blessed life beyond for the

mother and for her child that had gone before. How much

instruction and suggestion one brief epitaph may afford!

In 1704 we have another valuable record from Judge Sewall

("Letter-Book," I., pp. 296, 297). It reads thus:

To Col. Nathan. Byfield, at Bristow [Bristol, R. I.].

Mar. 4, 1703/4.,

My Brother Moodey of Newbury came to visit us this week: He

tells me that the inhabitants from the upper part of the River Parker,

who have Mr. Moses Hale for their Minister, having made his house

habitable, took the advantage of Meeting in it upon the four and

twentieth of February last, being the fifth day of the week, to consult

about the concerns of their Infant-Parish: At which time they unani-

1 No picture of our first meeting- Noyes' plan of the interior was no doubt

house has come down to us. We may based on careful research.

surmise how it looked from the cut 2 She was in her thirty-eighth year,

of the Oldtown meeting-house of 1700 having been born May 8, 1665.

in Coffin's Newbury, p.111. Rev. D. P.

The Plan of the First Meeting-House, Drawn by

Rev. D.P. Noyes

The Plan of the Second Meeting-House drawn by

Rev. D.P. Noyes

mously agreed to have the Place called Byfield. My brother is to

carry home a Book to Record their Transactions relating to their

Settleing the Worship of God in that Quarter; and this among the

rest. I presume they will henceforward look upon you as their God-

Father; and will be ready gratefully to Acknowledge any Countenance

and Favour you shall please to afford them. . . .

So the parsonage was " habitable " by February 24, 1704.

The stout-hearted little company seem, after a brief rest, if

any, following the completion of their meeting-house, to have

set about building a house for their young minister, but if

there was speed there was no haste; for the house still stands

after a lapse of one hundred and ninety-nine years plumb and

stanch, and promising with good care to greet future cen-

tennial celebrations. It was the home of all our pastors until

June 21, 1847, when it was leased to Rev. Mr. Durant for nine

hundred and ninety-nine years. What household joys and sor-

rows, and what social gatherings its walls have witnessed; and

how many of our families have tender ancestral associations

with that venerable structure!

The first recorded parish gathering within it is not the least

interesting. The naming of the baby is always an important

event, and at this meeting the "Infant-Parish" received its

name. The reader will notice that judge Sewall says that the

meeting took place on the fifth day of the week. He had too

thorough a horror of heathenism to speak of Thursday --Thor's

Day. The parish had been called "Rowlbery" to commemo-

rate the two towns to which its people belonged, and the Judge

had suggested Belford; Bel being Mr. Moody's pet name for

his wife Mehitabel, and there being a ford at the falls. For

long after it was familiarly termed Newbury Falls, but its

proper title from this time was Byfield. This naturally leads

to a sketch of the worthy, gentleman whose name it bears.

JUDGE NATHANIEL BYFIELD.

Judge Nathaniel Byfield was the son of the Rev. Richard

Byfleld, of Long Ditton, Surrey, England, who was a member

of the famous Westminster Assembly of Divines. The Judge's

mother was a sister of Dr. Juxon, Archbishop of Canterbury.

So he was of high birth. He was the youngest of one and

twenty children, and one of the sixteen that -- "sometimes fol-

lowed their father to the place of publick worship." Picture the

little Nathaniel, who was to win so many honors, trudging at the

rear of that unique procession! He was born in 1653, and

came to America in 1674. He was the principal original pro-

prietor of Bristol, R. I., which he made his home for forty-

four years. In 1873 Bristol gave his name to an elegant and

commodious school-house in grateful recognition of its mani-

fold indebtedness to his foresight and liberality. He held

many hich offices. He was Speaker, Judge of Probate, Judge

of Common Pleas for forty years, member of the Governor's

Council, Judge of the Vice-Admiralty, etc., etc. He received

commissions for the last-named office from three sovereigns of

Great Britain, and not one of his decisions was ever reversed.

Being deep in politics he had enemies, of whom one was

Jeremy Dummer, grandson of our Richard and brother of

our Lieutenant-Governor William. Jeremy Dummer was the

able agent of Massachusetts in England.1 Judge Byfield was

opposed to Governor Dudley, whom Senator Lodge terms

"untrue to his country and to the honored name he bore,"

and went to England in 1714 to supplant him. Dummer sided

with Dudley, and there is a lively letter of his extant, in which

he describes an interview with Byfield and their mutual hos-

tility. Dummer told Byfield that he should stand by Dudley

with what friends and interest he could make; to which Byfield

"replied that he would by the help of God get him turned

out and therein please God and all good men. Accordingly

1 Dr. Chauncy pronounced him one thanks for the many blessings with

of the "three first sons of New Eng- which He has been pleased to fill up

land," and Bancroft said that his writ- the short scene of my life, firmly con-

ings contained "the seed of American fiding in the Benignity of His nature,

independence." He was the friend of that He won't afflict me in another

Bolingbroke and not a Puritan in his world for some follys I have committed

belief. The opening paragraph of his in this, in common with the rest of

will reads thus: "in the chief place mankind, but rather that he will gra-

and before all things, I do on this sol- ciously consider the frail and weak,

emn occasion commend my soul to frame that he gave me, and remember

Almighty God and render him infinite that I was but dust."

[Dummer continues] we have both been pretty diligent, but

I think he is now a little out of breath. [The judge was then

sixty-one years old and a very large man.] . . . I believe he

now heartily wishes himself safe in his own government at

Poppy-squash" [Dummer's nickname for Pappoosquaw Point,

Judge Byfield's Bristol home]. The letter contains much more

in the same vein. Judge Byfield, although born in England,

was a stanch advocate of the rights of the colonists. He

maintained in New England much of the establishment of a

wealthy gentleman in old England. He was a man of sincere

piety, great energy, courage, and executive ability, a ready

and effective speaker, and at once very economical and sys-

tematically and bountifully generous. His liberal-mindedness

appears in his denunciation of the witchcraft mania and the

sentences pronounced on the unfortunate victims. In 1724 he

moved back from Bristol to Boston, where he died June 6,

1733. Dr. Chauncy, his pastor, says of him in his funeral ser-

mon," The Father of Spirits was pleased to form within him

a soul much beyond the common size." Our parish may

always count it an honor to bear his name.1

THE FIRST PASTOR ORDAINED.

On November 17, 1706, Mr. Hale was ordained, and prob-

ably the church was organized the same day. There appear to

have been sixteen members from Rowley: probably there was

a little larger number from Newbury, and possibly there would

be one or two from other churches. The total number would

hardly reach thirty-five. Gage has preserved to us the names

of the sixteen from Rowley; they were: Samuel Brocklebank,

Jonathan Wheeler, Benjamin Plumer, Nathan Wheeler, John

Brown, Andrew Stickney, and Colin Frazer, with their wives,

also Mary Chute and Elizabeth Look. Of these, Samuel

Brocklebank lived, as I have said before, in the Beecher house,

Benjamin Plumer possibly near him, one of the Wheelers

1 Our parish was named for Judge to mean cultivated field. I give this on

Byfield, but the name in itself is appro- the authority of Mr. W. Wheater, the

priate, for Byfield is said to be the eminent antiquarian scholar of Harrow-

equivalent of Bega-field and the latter gate, England.

perhaps where Mr. Horsch now lives, Andrew Stickney where

Mr. Ewell lives. Mary Chute was the wife of James Chute, who

probably lived on the James Peabody place; Elizabeth Look's

home was probably on North Street; and Colin Frazer probably

lived near Frazer's rock. Of these sixteen, seven were men;

so the strength of manhood and the gentleness of womanhood

were blended in almost equal measure. Happy church! and

happy it will be when such a proportion shall exist once more

in our Byfield church and in all our churches. Man needs

the gospel as much as woman, and the church needs both

sexes equally in order to satisfactorily accomplish her mission.

This seventeenth of November seventeen hundred and six, Old

Style, was a red-letter day in the history of Byfield. Perhaps

no better tribute could be paid to that devoted and courageous

company of men and women, who made up what may be

called the charter membership of the Byfield church, and to

their associates in the parish, than is found in the following

letter from Judge Sewall to Judge Byfield:

To Nathaniel Byfield Esq.

Janr. 6th, 1706/7

SIR, - The enclosed News letter mentions the little Parish, that

bears your Name, and was so called for your sake. The Parishioners

have struggled with many Difficulties in their little and low beginnings.

The Work they have accomplished is Noble. They have settled the

Worship of GOD in a place where the Inhabitants were under very

hard Circumstances, by reason of their Remoteness. Their hands are

few and weak. If you shall find it in your heart, one way or other to

give them a Lift, I am persuaded you will therein be a Worker with

GOD; And I hope, neither You nor any of your Descendants, will

have cause to Repent of it. . . .

your humble Servt. S. S.

Judge Byfield did not forget his namesake parish, but gave

it a "Lift" as the judge had suggested, some three years after,

by the gift of a bell weighing two hundred and twenty-six

pounds. How eagerly the parishioners, from Spofford's Hill

to Dummer Academy, must have listened for the welcome tones

of that bell ringing out on the crisp winter air the first Lord's

Day morning after it was hung! Heaven speed the return of

the day when all the people within the present limits of the

parish, who do not worship elsewhere, shall delight to respond

to the serious, gentle invitation of our church bell, the music

nighest bordering upon heaven."

The parish was incorporated October 30, 1710, as "the Parish

or Precinct upon Newbury Falls commonly called Byfield," and

from this time Byfield may be regarded as its legal title.

THE DEACONS.

Who were the deacons of the new church? This question

has never, so far as I know, been fully answered. William

Moody, the husband of Mehetabel Sewall, was one. But who

was his associate? It has been said that Joshua Boynton, who

was born in 1640, was one of the first deacons, but I find no

evidence to support that statement. I know no law requiring

a small church to have two deacons, but the Weston church

records contain this entry:

"Deacon John Cheney and Mary his wife recomendd and

dismissd from a Chh in Newbury (under ye Pastoral care of Mr

Hale) rec'd into or Comunion Aug. 23, 1724." ("Cheney

Family," p. 232) John Cheney was a son of Peter the mill-

builder and owned for a time part of the estate now held by

Mr. Benjamin Pearson and his family. He was a worthy and

enterprising man, who made four or five removals during his

life. This record indicates that he was a deacon in the Byfield

church in or before 1724. He was born in 1666, and lived in

Byfield as early as 1693; so that it is very possible that he was

one of the original deacons. This is a convenient place to

pursue the inquiry as to the early deacons. Mr. Hale's bap-

tismal record speaks of the children of Daniel Jewett from time

to time, but beginning with 1723 we read of the children of

Dea. Daniel Jewett. We infer that Deacon Cheney had as

early as sometime in 1723 left Byfield, and that Daniel Jewett

was chosen in his place. Dea. William Moody died in 1730.

The baptisms of the children of Samuel Moody, the son of

Deacon William, are recorded from time to time, but beginning

with 1732 he is termed Dea. Samuel Moody; so undoubtedly

he was chosen to succeed his father as deacon. He served until

October 4, 1763. We read in the "Chute Genealogies," page 15,

of James Chute who was born in 1686 in what became Byfield:

"He lived there more than eighty-two years, an honest, pious,

sober citizen; more than half of this time deacon of the Con-

gregational Church."1 According to this statement he was

deacon as early as 1727. His last child was baptized January

1, 1727, as the child of simple James Chute, but this does not

disprove his election as deacon the same year; but what of

Dea. Daniel Jewett? The last entry of a baptism of a child

of his is in 1725. We may infer that he ceased to be deacon

probably through death and was succeeded by James Chute

about 1727. Miss Emery says ("Reminiscences of a Nonage-

narian," p. 325) that the Joshua Boynton who was born in 1677

and who died in 1770 was deacon of the Byfield church for forty

years, but the facts here presented show that this statement is

altogether a mistake, and that he cannot have been deacon at

all, for there is no question who were deacons after 1763. So

the list of deacons for Mr. Hale's pastorate according to my

present knowledge stands thus:

William Moody, 1706-1730.

John Cheney, 1706 ( ? )-1723 ( ?)

Daniel Jewett, 1723(?)-1727(?).

James Chute, 1727 ( ? ) -1763.

Samuel Moody, 1730 (? ) -1763.

THE PASTOR.

Now that both church and parish are fully organized and

have entered upon their long and beneficent career, it seems the

right point to notice the one who was the centre of the new

organization, their pastor, the Rev. Moses Hale. He belonged

to one of the original families of the Newbury settlement, for he

was the son of John Hale and the grandson of Thomas Hale,

whose baptismal register I found in Watton, England. He was

1 He can hardly have been officiating discharge the office in 1763, probably

deacon forty-one years. He ceased to owing to the infirmities of age.

liberally educated, being a graduate of Harvard of the class of

1699. When Byfield chose him for its first pastor it established

a precedent that was followed up to the bicentennial, that the

pastor of the Byfield Congregational Church be a college-bred

man. It is a strong tribute to his worth that his townspeople

who had known him from his infancy should have chosen him

for their pastor. He was born July 10, 1678; therefore if he

began to preach among them in 1702 it was at the age of

twenty-four. They listened to him, observed his daily walk, for

four years and liked him so well that they chose him for their

ordained pastor. Although but twenty-eight years old at his

ordination he had already been sorely chastened in the loss of

the wife of his youth, "Mrs." Elizabeth Dummer- "Mrs." being

a title of honor and not implying a previous marriage; she was

the granddaughter of Richard Dummer the first settler. This

bereavement occurred January 15, 1704, but at the time of

his ordination he was once more most happily married. His

second wife, like his first, was from among his own people.

She was Mary, the first child of Deacon William and Mehetabel

(Sewall) Moody. She was born May 30, 1685. I have not

the precise date of her marriage, but at the time of the ordina-

tion she would be twenty-one years old. It is said to be a

hazardous thing for a pastor to marry one of his flock, but in

this case no doubt the beauty of her own character and the

worth and prominence of her family made the people welcome

her to be the mistress of the parsonage. Their union was

blessed with ten children, and seems to have been in all respects

most happy. Would that we had a picture of them in the

bloom of their youth on that ordination day. Mr. Hale will

come before us from time to time while we consider his pastor-

ate. His wife, although she was spared to a good old age of

seventy-two years, occupies a more retired position, though one

equally honored and useful. The record of her death made

by Mr. Parsons, who succeeded her husband in the pastorate,

reads: " The Widow Mary Hale, Relict of Rev. Mr. Moses

Hale the first minister in Byfield died July 17, 1757, aged

almost,72 years. A Virtuous Woman that is praised."

Mr. Hale had an interesting parish, and there is material for

a good acquaintance with some of its people. Judge Sewall,

although not strictly a parishioner, deserves the first mention.

Samuel Sewall was born in Bishopstoke, England, March 28,

1652, came to Newbury in 1661, and was graduated from

Harvard College in 1671. After filling many offices eminently

well, including those of Judge of the Superior Court and Judge

of Probate, he was made Chief-Justice in 1718. He died Jan-

uary 1, 1730. Judge Sewall was very pious, and at the same

time fond of good society and good cheer, a successful merchant,

a promoter of agriculture and learning, and the friend of the

Indian and the negro. His tract entitled "The Selling of

Joseph" has been pronounced "the earliest public challenge to

slavery in Massachusetts." He is best known by his public

confession in the Old South Church in Boston of his "Guilt

. . . and shame" in sentencing the so-called witches to death.

His character is one of the noblest in our colonial annals. I

have tried to do him more ample justice in a previous publica-

tion.1 His home was in Boston, but there was a frequent inter-

change of visits between the Judge and his Byfield relatives and

he very often remembered them with tokens of regard. On

one occasion he sent "70 odd" (i. e., more than seventy) ser-

mons to Rowley and Newbury; at another time he sent Mrs.

Hale "a Lutestring Scarf," and to her husband two funeral

sermons and a News Letter.2 In the autumn of 1719 he paid a

visit to Byfield which is described at unusual length in his diary,

and may be regarded as a specimen of many others. Tuesday,

September 29, he writes, ". . . about 3 P.M., set out for Salem

with Scipio [apparently a negro servant], got thither in the

dark." The rain detained him over Wednesday at Salem. Part

of his entry for Thursday, October 1, is: " Ride to Rowley. . . .

I Papers of the American Society of be said to have been established." It

Church History, Vol. VII., pp. 25-54. was a weekly, and the first number was

2 The Boston News Letter was the published April 24, 1704. -- Palfrey's

first newspaper in America "which can "New England," IV., pp. 303, 304.

Dine with my Sister [Mrs. Northend], and then pass on to the

Lieut. Governour's; Bror. Moodey gets us oysters, Scipio waiting

on him. I help to gather Indian Corn." His entry for Sunday

is "8r [October], 4, Lord's day. I ride to Byfield Meeting-

house; hear Mr. Payson's son [probably the son of Mr. Payson

the Rowley pastor], of the Unparallelness of Josiah. Sat with

Madam Dummer and M. Pemberton in her Pue. I dine with,

Cousin Hale [Mr. Hale was really his nephew by marriage].

He preaches at Hampton. By reason of the rain Madam Dummer

comes not p. m. and I sit in the Pue alone. After the exercise

I go into the buryingplace, now full of stones and view my dear

sister's; after I had found it, Rode to Madam Dumer's, and

lodg'd there the 4th. night." The next day his daughter, who

was in poor health, rode "in the Calash" to Mr. Hale's, "who,"

he writes, "has a pleasant chamber for her," while he dined

and "Lodg'd at Bror Moodey's" and distributed presents,

among others, to "the Negro Main and Negro Charioteer 5s

each," and " 4s for 2 other Negros." The word "calash has

been applied to various vehicles for driving; the mention of the

Negro Charioteer" would indicate that in this case it was a

large carriage such as only the wealthy could afford. For

Tuesday he writes, "visited Cous. Gerrish, Adams, Longfellow.

Din'd on Fish [was it salmon from the Parker?] at Cous.

Gerrishes. Lodged at Bror Moodey's. "Mr. Moody lived

where Miss Harriet Moody does now, Mr. Gerrish where Mr.

Lacroix does, Mr. Adams in the house now occupied by Mr.

George W. Adams, and Mr. Longfellow on the Longfellow place.

For Wednesday his entry is " Octobr. 7. Mid-week. Went with

Mr. Hale to Rowley Lecture; . . . Went to my sister's [Mrs.

Northend]. . . ." In the entry for Thursday we read, ". . . twas

night by that time we landed [at Boston], having no sail . . .

found all well Laues Deo [Praise to God]." So ended happily

the ten days' trip to Byfield. What a pleasant picture of the

simple pleasures of the Judge: his readiness to lend a helping

hand to the Lieutenant-Governor in harvesting, the leisurely

and restful manner in which he travelled, and his attachment, to

his country cousins! Such a vacation must have been a true

recreation. The meeting-house in which he worshipped that

rainy Sabbath passed away long ago, but the burying-ground

remains with its quiet sleepers, and, with some changes, at

least four of the houses where he stopped: those of Mr.

Adams and Mr. Gerrish, the parsonage and the Governor's

mansion. The close connection of Byfield with so eminent and

worthy a personage as Judge Sewall must have kept the parish

in quickening connection with the greater world.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR DUMMER.

Each of the first three pastorates has one pre-eminent char-

acteristic; the first of them has for its special distinction its

close connection with the government of the province, and

this came through Lieut.-Gov. William Dummer. Like Judge

Sewall he was not a native of the parish, but he was of original

Byfield stock. He was a grandson of Richard the illustrious

pioneer, and a son of Jeremiah Dummer a silversmith of Boston.

He was born in Boston in 1677. His wife -- one account would

indicate that she was his second wife -- was Katherine Dudley,

thirteen years his junior. She was an English girl, but of

American ancestry. Her father was member of Parliament and

Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Wight, and from 1702 to

1715 Governor of the province of Massachusetts. So both by

birth and marriage, Mr. Dummer belonged to the highest social

position in that age when the aristocratic distinctions of them

other country were so carefully maintained in New England.

Senator Lodge's severe criticism upon her father has been

quoted, but Mrs. Dummer's education and accomplishments,

her graceful person and manners, her abounding benevolence

and devoted piety, adorned her high position. They were

married April 26, 1714. October 15, 1713 Mr. Dummer's father

had deeded to him what we know as the Academy farm prob-

ably in view of the approaching marriage and to provide a

home for his son and his son's bride. The mansion house, that

precious treasure of Byfield, was no doubt built shortly after.

Mr. Dummer had two residences, one on School Street in

Boston, his winter home, the other the Byfield mansion house,

Lieut.-Gov. William Dummer

1677-1761

Dummer Academy

but he belonged to Byfield rather than Boston, for he was a

member of this church at least after the beginning of Mr.

Parsons' ministry in 1744 and probably much earlier though

the records are lost. Samuel Shute, a soldier of Marlborough,

was appointed Governor in 1716 and at the same time Mr.

Dummer was appointed Lieutenant-Governor. That same year

the new Governor journeyed from Boston to Portsmouth, which

was included in his little realm, and was received with military

ceremony in Newbury, probably in the Byfield part of it, and

escorted to the Lieutenant-Governor's, where he was "finely

entertained that night "according to the Boston News Letter.

President Leverett of Harvard College was a fellow-guest.

Probably this was in the new mansion house, and this stately

welcome of the Governor of the Province and the President of

Harvard College fittingly inaugurated that long series of hospi-

table receptions of the most eminent men and the fairest ladies

of the province which make Dummer Academy Mansion one

of the historic houses of America.

Governor Shute's administration was a continual struggle be-

tween the soldier in the chair, bent on maintaining every iota of

the royal prerogative, and the people, who were no less resolute

in asserting their ancient rights and in particular were bound to

keep a firm hand on the purse strings. At length the soldier

grew weary of his contest with the farmers, and in 1723 he

scuttled back to England leaving the Lieutenant-Governor to

preside. Mr. Dummer was now the acting Governor for some

six years. His position was delicate and difficult, for he was

the representative of the Crown and so in opposition to the

mass of his fellow-provincials who were jealously contending

for self-government. He, like his predecessors, pleaded for a

fixed salary, but this the sturdy patriots would never grant to

any governor whom they did not elect. At one time he re-

turned a sum of money that they had voted for his immediate

need, as being too pitifully inadequate to be worth accepting.

His administration was signalized by a fierce-war with the

eastern Indians, who were backed and spurred on by the French,

as a part of their long struggle with the English for the mastery.

of North America. The war is known in history as Dummer's

War. While not a life-and-death struggle like King Philip's

War, it sorely taxed the strength of the province. A large

military force was maintained and a fleet co-operated. The

cost to the province was one hundred and seventy thousand

pounds. New light has been thrown on the war by the recent

publication of "The Westbrook Papers." Colonel Westbrook

was put in command of the forces by Governor Dummer.

These papers add very much to our knowledge of the Governor.

His care for the soldiers appears in his generous shipments of

molasses "that you may Brew Spruce Beer which I sup-

pose will do good both to the sick and well." He shows his

regard for religion in ordering a guard for the minister and peo-

ple of an eastern settlement "in their Going to Church." His

economical spirit leads him to rebuke Colonel Westbrook for

sending, a letter by express when there was "nothing in the Let-

ter that required such a Charge but it might have come as, well

by the Ordinary Post." His bluntness crops out in a complaint

to his secretary at one time, "Collo Westbrooks Packett is

enough to make anyone sick." His promptness, breadth of

view, and wisdom appear at every point. If we may draw the

distinction brought out by Ambassador Porter in his oration at

the West Point Centennial, Governor Dumrner was military but

not warlike -- i.e., while whole-hearted in war he did not love

war: hence he sent commissioners to Vaudreuil, the French

Governor, that he might live in amity with his neighbors. His

generous spirit shines out in his final despatch to Colonel West-

brook. Although he had plainly criticised him in minor points,

he here uses the language, "Giving you hearty Thanks for

your Faithfulness Diligence and Good Conduct." In the sum-

mer of 1726, Governor Dummer, Lieutenant-Governor Went-

worth of New Hampshire, Paul Mascarene, Commissioner of

Nova Scotia, and other prominent colonists met the Indian

sachems at Falmouth, now Portland, and, amid the blended

ceremonies of savagery and civilized state, ratified a treaty

whose justice and humanity made it the basis of a twenty-years

peace. Governor Hutchinson says, "This treaty has been ap-

plauded as the most judicious which has ever been made with

the Indians." This meeting on the beautiful shore of Casco

Bay, a meeting so picturesque in its composition and so bene-

ficent in its fruitage, might well employ the brush of the painter.

When William Burnet, "son to the good bishop of Sarum," as

the broad-minded Dr. Parish says of him (Parish's " History

of New England," p. 270) arrived as Governor July 13, 1728,

Lieutenant-Governor Dummer of course descended from the

chair that he had filled so worthily; but when the new Gov-

ernor, "disappointed and " depressed," as Dr. Parish again

tells us, in his contest with the sturdy patriots, died suddenly

of fever September 7, 1729, the administration once more de-

volved on Lieutenant-Governor Dummer, and he retained it

until a new Governor and a new Lieutenant-Governor arrived

June 30, 1730.

All parties have united to praise the administration of Gov-

ernor Dummer. Perhaps no tribute is more valuable than that

of Cotton Mather, who would not be prepossessed in favor of

any royal Governor. He wrote that they were "Inexpressibly

Happy in our Lt Governor's wise and Good Administration."

Mr. Dummer was subsequently elected to the provincial Council

which seems to have had much the power of our present Senate,

and this body showed its appreciation of him by making him its

President; but after two or three years he was left out because

he was "thought too favorable to the prerogative." "He

seemed," says Hutchinson, "to lay this slight more to heart

than the loss of his commission [as Lieutenant-Governor], and

aimed at nothing more, the rest of his life, than otium cum

dignitate, [leisure with honor], selecting for his friends and ac-

quaintance men of sense, virtue, and religion." In 1729 he gave

to his home church a silver communion service inscribed with

his name and the crest of his family coat of arms. A part of

this service has survived all the vicissitudes of the generations

and is still used in the sacred service to which it was originally

consecrated. In 1742 he gave to the Hollis Street Church in

Boston a large and rich folio Bible on condition that it should

be read as a part of public worship on the Lord's Day. This

gift shows his liberal-mindedness, for the Puritans banished the

reading of the Bible from public worship, unless it were ex-

pounded, as "dumb reading" and akin to the use of a liturgy

or it stinted prayers." It was not until twenty years after this

gift that the original church in Newbury, for example, voted

that "it is agreeable that the Scriptures be read in public."

Governor Dummer will once more come before us in an illus-

trious manner in the next period of Byfield history.

LIEUT. STEPHEN LONGFELLOW.

Another prominent citizen was Lieut. Stephen Longfellow,

the blacksmith. He lived in the first Longfellow house. He

was the great-great-grandfather of the Poet, who dedicated

"The Village Blacksmith" to him. His account-book resem-

bles in appearance the Assessors' book described in the list of

authorities at the beginning of this chapter; its inscription of

ownership is:

Stephen Longfellow

his Book

July 1710

Another similar inscription reads:

Stephen Longfellow

his Book Coust

Sex Shillngs and

Sexpense

The spelling is marvellous; "c" stands for "k," not only, as

with us, before "a" "o" and "u," but also before "e "; so that

Mening A bras Cetel" means "mending a brass kettle;" "c,"

even does duty for "sk," so that "to m Celet" stands for "to

mending skillet;" putting a new eye on a hoe" is, "poting

A ny to hoo." This quotation illustrates a most remarkable

peculiarity of the book: when a word beginning with a vowel

follows a word ending with a consonant, the consonant is com-

monly joined to the second word;, " an iron " is " a niron;

"an apron" is "a napron;" an old scythe" is "a nold

Siethe;" "an outer door" is "A nouter Doer;" "an inner

door" is "A nener Doer;" "an adze," "A nads," etc.

One charge is

to Days work my Selfe and

6 oxen and boys 15- [15 shillings]

The sturdy blacksmith with his three yoke of oxen and his

stalwart boys no doubt did a big day's work. The entry just

quoted shows that he was a large farmer as well as blacksmith.

Another agricultural entry is as follows: "1741 William Adams

10 Shep 5 Eues and 5 wethers Let out fore year for hafe

woll and then to return old Stock." The trade was largely

by barter, which the following entry Illustrates:

1718 Tom Manuel

to A Sadel

to hos trases and hames for wich he is to bring

me A hundred and hafe Rails.

Another entry reads

1718 Mr. Moses Hale

2 pound and hafe of Candles.

This entry suggests usual light in those times; it also shows the

respect for the preacher, for very few names in the book have

any title. Sugar was an expensive luxury, as a comparison of

the two following items shows:

crad 6 pound of Sugar at

11 pan [pence], poun 5-6

John goodridg

1714 A goos that weayed

5 pound 3/4 cam to 5-9

so goose flesh was worth 12 pence a pound and sugar 11 pence.

I suppose that now a pound of goose flesh would buy two and

a half or three pounds of sugar.

Byfield was not isolated, and the thrifty blacksmith, appears

to have occasionally visited his uncle Judge Sewall, and to have

improved the occasion by shopping in the provincial capital, as

the following entry indicates:

Sister bettey to A gous [goose].

by money Lent for to buy Clos when i

went to boston 7 - o6 - o.

It would seem from this that Mr. Longfellow, notwithstanding

his name, was sometimes, like most of us, "a little short."

Probably his usual dress was homespun, but he had something

better for Sunday, as appears from entries like these:

John Corser

cradit by

Brad Colth Cote [Broadcloth Coat], 4 - 10 - . [L4 10s.]

Johnhathan weler [Jonathan Wheeler],

A Selik [Silk] handkerchef 7 - 6 [7s. 6d.].

Although Sewall, (I who the halting step of his age outran," had

already lifted up his voice against slavery, it existed as a matter

of course and appears in various ways on the pages of the

account-book. There are occasional entries of this sort.

Thomas Gage

1714 . . . . . . .

Bouston one day to plant.

"Bouston," i. e., Boston, was his Indian slave, who some years

later became his fellow-member in, the Byfield church according

to this entry in Mr. Hale's baptismal record:

Boston, an Indian servant of Lt. Longfellow Nov. 19, 1727.

The following somewhat obscure entry shows that buying

and selling it went hand in hand with owning human flesh:

" B. Adams Matthew Adams crad for going to Ipsweck to

by his Ingen garl." Perhaps this means that Lieutenant Long-

fellow had sent his nephew and next door neighbor Benjamin

Adams, subsequently the Rev. Benjamin Adams, to Ipswich to

buy an Indian girl of Benjamin's uncle on his father's side,

Matthew, subsequently Dr. Matthew Adams, the West Newbury

physician.

The diary contains frank statements, such as this:

Johnathan Danfud

1723 . . . . . . . . . .

crad by mosti [musty] Sider baral.

This is similarly outspoken:

1713 September 22 Dek Moodey to A bridel yt you bored, [bor-

rowed], and worout [wore out] - 2 - 6. [2s. 6d.]

Although frank the account-book is pervaded by a friendly

atmosphere. Relations are very often mentioned by their

term of connection, according to the pleasant custom of our

fathers which might well be continued, so that one often meets

with expressions like "sister betty," and "Cos [Cousin] Samuel

Mood [Moody]," and " Cos Garach [Cousin Gerrish]." It is

respectful, as is shown by its care to use titles when they were

due, though it was equally careful not to apply even the title

of "Mister" to common people. It shows an appreciation of

education: one of its large entries is:

November 1 day 1739. . . .

Cra by money payed [apparently by 'Deak Moody and Dew to me

Longfellow'] to fraser [Fraser], for School Master 1 - 10 - 00,

and he had dealings with

Sister Adams

. . . . . . . . . .

for A Speling book

Whether he bought or sold the "Speling book" is not clear;

judging from his own spelling he must have sold it, and that

very early, but he believed in education so practically as to

send a son to college, and he was a man of all round worth

who richly deserved to be honored by the dedication of the

beautiful poem of "The Village Blacksmith" to his memory.

With the change of a word or two to fit his name and surround-

ings we may apply to him his poet descendant's encomium on

one of the same craft who figures in his most popular poem,

and term this Byfield ancestor of his: --

Stephen the blacksmith

Who was a mighty man in the parish

and honored of all men;

For, since the birth of, time, throughout

all ages and nations,

Has the craft of the smith been

held in repute by the people.

OTHER PARISHIONERS.

JUDGE SEWALL's diary has this entry:

Oct. 23, 1695. My dear

Mother visits us; rides behind Joseph Gerrish from Rowley this day.

This Joseph was the son of Moses and Jane (Sewall) Gerrish,

and so the grandson of the Judge's mother. He was born in

Byfield, March 20, 1682, and would therefore be at this time a

boy of thirteen. Mrs. Sewall was then sixty-eight years old.

The entry gives a pleasant picture of travel in those primitive

days. The noble elderly lady rode on a pillion behind her

young grandson the thirty miles from Rowley to Boston in a

day -- no small journey, but how delightful and exhilarating

for those who had the strength, now through "the forest pri-

meval," and now through the vigorous little settlements of the

pioneers; now they would perchance catch a glimpse of a fox

or a deer, and now would (I flush a great flock of wild pigeons.

Probably young Joseph was large and strong beyond his years,

for he became known as "the big man," and his strength was

in keeping with his size. He used to swim across the Merrimac

near its mouth every year until he was past seventy. He was

a member of the legislature twenty years, and each year was

chosen by his fellow-members for the Governor's Council, but

was as often negatived, because, to quote an old record, he

was it not supple," i. e., to the royal demands. He is known as

Col. Joseph Gerrish, also as Joseph Gerrish, Esquire. His

name appears on our first extant list of parish assessors, that

for 1717. He probably lived where Mr. Lacroix does. His

stalwartness of body and soul reminds one of Agamemnon's

heroes, and he was a worthy actor in our epic period. He had

four children whose collective weight was twelve hundred

pounds, and the line of his worthy descendants has continued

until this day.

We learn from Sewall's "Letter-Book" that Dea. William

Moody was prospered in his fulling-mill, and the diary records

for July 14, 1701, "lodge in Sister Moodey's Brick House;

which has an excellent foundation." The Moodys have been

wont to build on good foundations. From the Judge's entry

one would infer that the house was then new; its material

accounts for the large number of bricks that have from time

to time been found in the soil about the present Moody house,

which is itself a fine old mansion with a very interesting in-

terior. This was probably the only brick dwelling-house in

the parish, for the Governor's mansion only had brick ell.

That, Deacon Moody could afford to build of such material

confirms the testimony of the "Letter-Book " as to his busi-

ness success.

Capt. Abraham Adams lived where his descendant, George

W. Adams, does now. He was an enterprising sea captain,

who launched coasters from the river in front of his house.

The present homelike and interesting house, which is rich in

heirlooms, was built by him, it is said, in 1705. His wife,

Anne, was the daughter of William and Anne (Sewall)

Longfellow. Mr. Adams has in admirable preservation a,

highly interesting ancient deed. In it Samuel Sewall and his

wife, Hannah, deed to Sergt. Abraham Adams half "the High

Field," which still bears its ancient and fitting title, and half

the great Meadow" on the River Parker, and other land for

five hundred pounds. The deed states that the property had

been conveyed by Henry Sewall, the father of the Judge, to

John Hull, the mint master, and implies that Hannah, the

Judge's wife, inherited it from John Hull, of whom she was

"Daughter and sole heir." The deed is dated June 11, 1705.

The property, while deeded to Sergt. Abraham Adams, was

"intended for a settlement" for his son, Captain Abraham,

"who married with Anne Longfellow, niece of the said Samuel

Sewall." So substantial a present from the uncle and aunt of

the bride must have been very encouraging to the newly

wedded pair.

Lieut. Samuel Northend, son of Ezekiel Northend, 2d.,

and great-grandfather of Hon. W. D. Northend, of Salem,

was a prominent parishioner of Mr. Hale. His name appears

frequently upon our records. Mr. Cleaveland spoke of him

as "long a pillar of the church and parish." He lived in

the house that stood in my youth where Clay Lane (why

should we relinquish the significant ancient name for Hillside

Street?) forks into the roads to the meeting-house and the Dole

neighborhood.

Dunkin Steward, who has already been mentioned as one of

the original members of the parish, and who, as has been said,

is believed to have lived in the Fletcher (Pike) house on Warren

Street, deserves additional mention. He had been a pioneer

ship-builder at Rowley, and lived to be a centenarian; being,

so far as I am aware, the only citizen of our parish who has

attained that distinction.

There were Pearsons, busy and thrifty, on the two streams,

the Parker and Mill Rivers. The noble house of the late Ben-

jamin Pearson was built near the beginning of Mr. Hale's

pastorate. It has stairways of solid oak, and beautiful broad

panelling. Under the clapboards it is enclosed with white

oak plank, set perpendicularly and stretching from the sills

to the eaves. In 1902 it underwent some changes, and one

might see the tops of the encompassing planks where the

sheathing had been temporarily removed. Here and there

are port-holes through the planking. The whole structure of

the house tells of the perilous times in which it was built,

when a man's house needed to be literally his castle. The

magnificent elm before it, -- once the glory of all the elms of

Massachusetts, which Mr. Currier has graphically described

in "Ould Newbury," lives now but in memory, for it succumbed

to a great storm November 27, 1898. The house is now in

thorough repair, and is as beautiful as it is ancient.

There were Poors near Mr. S. T: Poor's, Chutes by the

meeting-house and where Mr. Peabody lived, and Stickneys

on Long Hill and where Mr Dummer's saw-mill is now.

These were some of the substantial, God-fearing, hard-work-

ing families of that period, and there were many more equally

worthy.

Along the cool sequestered vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenour of their way,

and, after they had in their "own generation served the counsel

of God, fell asleep."

OLD HOUSES.

A number of the old houses of Byfield have been mentioned,

but the parish is full of them. Among those dating from early

in the eighteenth century are the Elijah Pearson house, said

to have been built by Joshua Woodman, who has the ancient

gravestone (p. 70); Mrs. Sophronia Pearson's house, probably

a Cheney house of about 1700 or earlier; Mr. Asa Pingree's

house, erected about 1712; and the Top House in Warren

Street, now fallen. That was originally of one story, and was

subsequently raised a story higher. Was it called the Top

House because it had thus been topped out? Part of it was

sheathed like the Pearson house, with two-inch plank under

the clapboards, and some of the inside partitions were of the

same material and thickness, and the walls were made solid

with brick that it might serve as a garrison house. Its builder

was probably a blacksmith, for "every spike and nail was

made on the premises." With its gambrel roof and sides,

tinted grayish yellow by the storms of some two centuries, it

was a picturesque sight, and seemed like a stranger that had

stepped out of antiquity into our day. The last of its life it

was uninhabited, and by night, as it loomed above the passer-by,

he could easily imagine it frequented by the ghosts of the many

generations that had partaken of its good cheer in their days

of flesh and blood: What a pity that such a house was allowed

to crumble and fall!

CHECKERED LIFE.

Our fathers of that era shared the checkered life of the times.

They bore their full burden in the Indian wars that caused so

many alarms and hardships and bereavements. They suffered

from a disorganized currency. They were no doubt driven to

prayer, like all the neighboring settlements, by "The Great

Earthquake " of October 29, 1727, which was most severe in

this region. The terrible " throat distemper" of 1735 and

1736 more than decimated Byfield. Dr. Parish's "History

of New England" has a vivid sketch of the terrors and

ravages of that epidemic. He tells us that "in just thirteen

months one hundred and four persons died, which was about

the seventh part of the population of the parish. Eight

children were buried from one family; four of them in one

grave."

INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS.

Despite all difficulties there was great industrial progress.

About 1700 Jeremiah Pearson erected a grist-mill opposite to

where Mr. Dummer's saw-mill now stands; and about 1740

Samuel Stickney came down from Long Hill and built a saw-

mill near the site of the present one. He built, also, the sub-

stantial house in which Mr. Minchin lives. There are traces of

many other early industries in Byfield, particularly tanneries.

Business was not then centralized as it is now. Each local

community was far more independent of its neighbors.

New articles of food and drink began to add to the attrac-

tions of the table, such as coffee and tea and potatoes. Mrs.

J. C. Peabody tells me that one of the early Chutes raised a

hogshead of potatoes near the church, and all his neighbors

wondered how in the world he would ever dispose of so many.

Up to this time the turnip had been the staple vegetable.

SCHOOLS.

Our Byfield fathers believed in both meeting-house and

school-house, though they put the meeting-house first. Four-

teen years after the building of the meeting-house, i.e., in 1716,

the Rowley side of Byfield had a school-house whose location is

shown on the map of 1794. A Mr. Syle was the teacher, and

his salary was L16 a year, three months being given to Byfield.

In 1727 he had L30 a year and 3d a scholar additional for

readers and 6d for writers. How early Newbury side had a

school I do not know. There was early need of one, as we

have seen in the Longfellow account-book. There is more

evidence of the same kind. The women were more illiterate

than the men. In 1709 four daughters of Peter Cheney, a

prominent miller on the Parker, in signing a deed all made

their mark.

GEORGETOWN PARISH AND CHURCH.

Georgetown parish was incorporated October 1, 1731, and the

church was organized and recognized October 4, 1732. The

Byfield church showed a generous maternal interest in the new

enterprise; as a church it gave a flagon and six cups; Ensign

Coleman and Gershom Frazier, of Byfield, each gave a com-

munion platter, and -- best gift of all -- the Byfield pastor gave

his daughter Mary to be the bride of the pastor of the new

church, Mr. Chandler.

COLONIZATION.

The Byfield people of that day were an exceedingly vigorous

stock. They not only transformed their own wilderness into a

beautiful field, improved their water powers, and erected large

commodious houses to stand, if properly cared for, through

centuries, but they were continually sending out colonists,

especially northward and eastward. For example, three, and

probably more, children of the Samuel Stickney just mentioned

went forth from their picturesque glen to colonize New Bruns-

wick, and their father could only keep another child from

following the same mighty Anglo-Saxon bent to subdue "the

regions beyond by deeding him the homestead. Another

pioneer from Byfield was Stephen Gerrish, son of the first

Colonel Joseph and grandson of Moses and Jane (Sewall)

Gerrish. At the early age of twenty-two he and four others

led the way for the white man into Boscawen, N. H. He came

with oxen and plough, the first ever seen there. He established

the first ferry. Robust, industrious, enterprising, and economi-

cal, wise, frank, and kind, he was a born leader of men. He

had little book knowledge or polish of manners, and, I am

sorry to add, flagrantly violated the third commandment, but

his-wife, Joanna Hale, aunt of Nathan Hale the spy, and great-

great-aunt of Edward Everett Hale, was as religious as her

husband was profane. Her daily prayer was " Bless my chil-

dren to the latest generation." God heard her prayer and

made her the means of "turning the current in the family," so

that "her hundreds of descendants have generally embraced

religion in their youth." Were there space I should love to

greatly extend the list of stalwart pioneers from Byfield in this

period.

Colonization from Byfield was stimulated by the acts of the

provincial legislature. In 1733 lands were granted to the sol-

diers in King Philip's War and their heirs, and the first grant

was to persons in Newbury and Rowley. Among the grantees

I find at least seventeen Byfield names. It was known as Nar-

ragansett, No. 1, and it assigned to them what is now Buxton,

Maine, on condition that they "settle sixty families thereon

with a learned Orthodox minister within the space of seven

years." For many years the proprietors used to hold their

meetings at the tavern of Joseph Hale, in Byfield. This tavern

was probably the old Hale house, which was replaced by the

present one in 1764.

At about the same time "Rowley Canada," now Rindge,

N. H., was granted to the soldiers of Phips' expedition against

Canada in 1690, and their heirs. This grant appears to have

been to citizens of Rowley and Newbury. By such grants

patriotic services were rewarded, room afforded for the great

swarming families, and an outer line of defence against the

French and Indians established.

The parish sent out five college graduates during Mr. Hale's

pastorate, all from Newbury side. Rev. John Moody was

probably a son of John Moody, and so brother of Apphia,

great-great-grandmother of Edward Everett Hale ("Moody

Family," p. 109). Mr. Moody was pastor at Newmarket,

N. H., from 1730 until his death in 1778. Rev. Moses Hale,

nephew of the minister, was pastor in West Newbury from

1751 until his death in 1779, and was greatly beloved. Rev.

Benjamin Adams, son of Captain Abraham, was pastor in Lynn-

field from 1755 until his death, it is said, in the pulpit in 1777.

Rev. Joseph Adams, twin brother of Benjamin, was "stated

preacher" for three years of what became the First Presby-

terian Church of Newburyport, and then pastor in Stratham,

N. H., from 1756 until his death in 1785. Stephen Longfellow,

the son of the blacksmith and the great-grandfather of the poet,

was a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1742, and became a

teacher in Falmouth, Me. (now Portland). Thus Byfield sent

forth not merely the sturdy pioneer but also the educated

leader.

FUNDS.

The parish in Mr. Hale's day had two funds, one belonging

to the Newbury side, the other to the Rowley side. The earliest

record of the Newbury fund is for November 5, 1730, when a

lot of some ten acres, situated apparently in the neighborhood

of the Byfield railway station, was laid out by the Newbury

proprietors " for the use of the Ministry (viz.), for the inhabi-

tants of the Parish at the falls called Byfield that do belong to

the town of Newbury." The Rowley fund was the share of the

Rowley side of the parish in the legacy of the Rev. Ezekiel

Rogers. It was all in land, some of the land being Hawk-

meadow, -- the meadow north of Long Hill, -- with adjacent

upland, another piece seems to have been "the cross pasture,"

now owned by Mr. L. R. Moody, and so called because the

generations have gone across it by the deeply worn footpath.

This fund did not become available until 1735. Its value is

said to have been nearly double that of the Newbury fund, but

through poor investment and depreciation of the currency or

in some other way, it was all lost long ago (Gage, pp. 338-340,

Dummer, p. 15).

We went forth, early in this chapter, from the parsonage

among the people, let us now return to the parsonage. Our

material for a picture of Mr. Hale's life is limited. I have

not been able to find any printed or manuscript sermons

of his, and the official records are scanty. Occasionally he

attended commencement at his alma mater, once, at least,

going over with his uncle, the Judge, from Boston to Cam-

bridge in a sloop. The Judge, in turn, occasionally visited

him. Of one such visit the diary says, "drink a Glass of

Cider." Probably there were other similar potations that are

lost to history. The "Letter-Book" mentions various gifts by

the Judge to the minister. Mr. Hale was, like most of the early

ministers of New England, a man of means. He had many

dealings in real estate. In three instances he seems to have

received gifts of land, and he bought at least eight lots and

sold four. He built the Root house for one of his sons. It

is difficult to determine his salary from the Assessors' Book.

In 1717 it seems to have been , L83; in 1729 L125 ; in 1739-

L92; in 1741 L100; in 1742 L116; and in 1743 L103. The

currency was in a very unsettled state, and probably the salary

was graduated accordingly. No doubt his people were also

generous with free-will offerings of food, fuel, and work. The

old-time New England parish thought its minister its best

citizen, and showed its appreciation in very liberal treatment,

as far as its means permitted. Mr. Hale probably also in-

herited property. He had ten children. His congregation

grew so that in 1725 there appears to have been "paid out

of the Rate for Repairing the Meeting House and enlarging

etc., L152, 05, 01," which would perhaps be the equivalent

of $457.00. The growth of the church was striking. In place

of the some thirty-five original members there were one hun-

dred and fifty-five at the ordination of his successor in 1744.

In his will Mr. Hale bequeaths to one son, "my silver

tobacco box and Mr. Burket's exposition on the New Testa-

ment," etc., and to another son two negroes, Hannibal and

Jane. A tobacco box and a commentary on the Bible and

slaves may seem a strange combination in the will of a clergy-

man, but it did not seem so in New England, a hundred and

fifty years ago. At that time slave-holding was more common

in Massachusetts than ever before or after.

He died of "Asthma and Dropsy," January 16,1744. Prince's

Christian History, a religious weekly, in its issue for January 28,

1744, has an obituary notice of Mr. Hale, written by one of his

parishioners -- was it Governor Dummer? This notice says, "A

great Multitude from this and the neighboring Parishes did him

Funeral Honour and his grateful Flock handsomely contrib-

uted to the Charges of it." The same obituary says that he

was a "lively Preacher of the great Truths of Religion, and a

Soldier of CHRIST, the Weapons of whose Warfare have been

mighty by GOD, to the pulling down of Satan's strong Holds, an

Ambassador for CHRIST who hath not only prevailed with many

of his Hearers to be reconciled unto GOD, but hath many

Times been successful in persuading them to be at Peace one

with another. . . . His natural Temper had something of

Quickness in it, but then his second Thoughts and Expres-

sions usually were such as discovered much of a Spirit of

Meekness and Forgiveness." He "readily acknowledged the

Agency of the SPIRIT of GOD in the late religious Motions,"

but "saw Cause to bear Testimony against some Excesses,"

the nearer the enemy approached him the more intrepid he

grew." The enemy mentioned was of course "the last enemy"

Death; "the late religious motions" were no doubt the Ed-

wardean and earlier Whitefield revivals.

Mr. Hale's life and character were evidently marked by

strength and beauty. He was a man of culture, which ex-

tended to minor things, such as correct spelling and neat and

distinct penmanship. He was a thrifty citizen. His life was

marked by patient continuance in well-doing throughout a

pastorate of some forty years. He had the high spirit and

courage of a soldier: the high spirit appeared in the quickness

of his natural temper; the courage in the pulpit and in the

dying hour. On the other hand, he was a man of meekness

and peace, and a peace-maker between God and man and

between man and his brother. He was liberal-minded, as was

shown in his recognition of the Spirit of God, in the new type

of religious revival, near the close of his ministry; yet he was

judicious to detect the human alloy that marred the divine

work.

Altogether he was a cultured, manly, country gentleman, a

faithful and highly successful preacher and pastor, and a sincere

Christian -- one most worthy to head the roll of the pastors of

Byfield. His descendants "have always occupied positions

of the greatest trust both in New York and Boston."

SUMMARY OF THE PERIOD.

It is easy to summarize the life of this the third generation

of the people of Byfield, and to discern some of the links that

bound it to the past and to that which was to come, and also to

the contemporary life of the period. The great work of this

generation was to "settle the worship of God" in Byfield.

Life also became more comfortable as the forest was felled,

the stone-walls -- emblematic of the character of the builders

carried forward rod by rod, the highways improved, and the

modest earnings increased. Families continued large, so that

a steady current of emigration flowed forth from the infant

parish to push forward the frontier. The parish still bore its

part in the long struggle with the savage, now rendered more

intense because the savage was spurred on by the Frenchman.

It was also represented in the assertion of colonial rights against

British tyranny, an assertion which was destined to be insisted

upon on the one side, and denied on the other, for more than

a generation, until at last it should prevail at Yorktown. So

the young settlement throbbed with a vigorous beneficent life,

which beat in unison with the larger life of the colony, and con-

tributed its share toward the movement of the colonial history.

CHAPTER VI.

DURING THE PASTORATE OF TI-FE REV. MOSES PAR-

SONS, 1744-1783.

Special Authorities: The sources for a knowledge of this period are much more

numerous than for the previous one. We have in the little book bound by Mr.

Woodman the record of deaths from the beginning of this pastorate as well as of

baptisms, and Mr. Parsons was very apt to attach some little note to the entry of

a death. The church records are extant from the beginning of this period, and

those of the parish from 1762. The invaluable diary kept by the pastor begins in

1748 and continues until December 9, 1783 -- Only five days before his death.

It is an interleaved almanac and treats largely of the weather, but also tells of his

pastoral work, farming, family life, and numerous social functions. There are

entries, too, concerning public affairs. The penmanship is beautiful. The diction

has a curious intermixture of Latin; for example, instead of writing, "Father went

home," he puts it, "Pater went domi." Rev. Mr. Wheelwright is said to have

discovered this precious record "in a lumber room" of the old parsonage. We

have a rich store of ledgers. Ledgers kept in the Hale family and now owned by

Mrs. Thomas Thurlow, of West Newbury, cover over a century. The earliest date

that I have found in the oldest ledger is 1738. That and a portion of the second

pertain to the period of Mr. Parsons. These ledgers also contain here and there

valuable contemporary slips of paper, that were laid in them for safe keeping,

Captain Joseph(4)1 Hale, who wrote most of the first ledger, was the son of the

Joseph of Mr. Hale's time, -- the tavern-keeper; his line was Thomas (1) John (2)

Joseph (3). Like his father he lived on the Hale place, by Dummer Academy.

Both father and son were "cordwainers," that is, shoemakers, and each ranked as a

"gentleman." Joseph (4) was a prominent citizen of more than average property.

His estate was valued at L1,886 7s., or somewhat over $6,ooo. His son, Joseph (5),

the deacon, who continued the ledger, will come before us as one of Dr. Parish's

people. The Jeremiah Pearson ledger, belonging to Mr. Joseph Pearson, the

blacksmith, stretches at least from 1742 to 1786. Mr. Pearson kept a tavern in

the house where Mrs. E. C. Ferguson now lives, and liquors of many kinds afford

the characteristic entries, but he sold a great variety of articles, and took many

things besides money in exchange. He had many customers from outside the

parish limits -- Lord Timothy Dexter, for instance, from Newburyport. The

Reuben Pearson ledger covers the long period from 1764 to 1818 -- fifty-four years.

Then at length the fingers that had made so many figures seem to have ceased to

move. Mr. Pearson lived near Glen Mills; his specialty was tailoring, and, like

the other Mr. Pearson, he drew customers from beyond the parish. He was prob-

ably a stylish cutter, for he seems to have been a favorite with young students who

wished a graduation suit. Rufus King patronized him. The tailor did so varied

a business that he might be said to keep a tiny department store, and his trade

1 Numbers like this indicate the generation, reckoning the emigrant as (1).

was largely one of barter. This I suppose was due to the scarcity of money and

the disorder in the currency. All the above sources are in manuscript.

Newspapers become a little more plentiful; Newburyport began to have one

in 1773, but the space given to local matters was distressingly meagre.

Walker's "Hist. Cong. Churches in the United States," Dr. Chauncey's letter

of July 17, 1742,

to Rev. Jas. Davenport, prefixed to a sermon of Dr. Chauncey, printed in 1742

and Dr. Hovey's "The Old South" (of Newburyport) give information as to "The

Great Awakening." Professor Parsons' "Memoir of Chief-justice Parsons," Mr.

Tappan's sermon at Rev. Mr. Parsons' funeral and Mr. Frisby's oration at the

interment are instructive as to the pastor and his family. McClure & Parish's

"Life of Dr. Eleazer Wheelock" has interesting notices of John Smith.

THE NEW PASTOR AND HIS WIFE.

THE Boston Gazette or Weekly Journal for Tuesday,

JULY 10, 1744, is a little sheet of four pages, each one

nine and a half inches by seven in size, but it is very inter-

esting to Byfield, for it contains this item: --

"Byfield in Newbury, June 20, 1744. This day was ordained

to the Pastoral Office among us, the Rev. Mr. Moses Parsons;

the Rev. Mr. Warren begun with Prayer; the Rev. Mr. Wiggles-

worth preached from Gal. i, 10, the Rev. Mr. White gave the

Charge; the Rev. Mr. Jaques the Right-Hand of Fellowship;

after which the Rev. Mr. Jewet prayed."

Thus began Byfield's second pastorate, which, like its prede-

cessor, was destined to continue about forty years.

The new pastor, the Rev. Moses Parsons, was born in Glouces-

ter June 20, 1716. The Parsons family in England was treated

of in Chapter III. Jeffrey, or Geoffrey, or Godfrey, Parsons

came from Barbados to Gloucester about 1654, being then, if

the Kemerton baptism referred to on page 38 be his, some

twenty-seven years old. Here he married, after a roman-

tic meeting and checkered courtship, -- if we may believe the

traditions, -- a beautiful girl named Sarah Vinson. He became

a prominent citizen and a successful merchant, and died in 1689.

His youngest son, Ebenezer, was born in 1681 and died in 1763.

The minister's entry of his death speaks of him as "My hond

Father" and says that he "had been confined to his room near

20 months, exercised with great pains, but," the diary con-

tinues, "I trust is fallen asleep in Jesus." The minister was

this Ebenezer Parsons' youngest son. Moses Parsons was

graduated from Harvard College in 1736. He had the minis-

try in view when he entered college, and immediately after

graduating entered upon the study of theology although he

taught school in his native town for some years. He was very

successful as a teacher and proved his fitness to be a guide of

souls as well as a teacher of the mind during a season of special

religious interest among his pupils. January 11, 1743, he mar-

ried Susan Davis. Professor Parsons ("Memoir of Chief-Jus-

tice Parsons," p. 7) gives her descent step by step from John

Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrims, thus: John Robinson,

of Leyden, Abraham,(2) Abraham,(3) Andrew,(4) Anne,(5) who

married Abraham Davis, Susan, (6) who married Rev. Moses

Parsons. Certainly this was the undoubting belief both of

her and of her husband, and of the great jurist, their son.

It has been denied in our day. She was unquestionably de-

scended from Abraham(3) Robinson, of Gloucester; the point

is whether he was a son of Abraham,(2) and a grandson of.

John Robinson, of Leyden. The name Abraham does not ap-

pear in the Leyden list of John Robinson's household in 1622,

but may there not have been a son Abraham who was not then

in the family, being perhaps well on in his youth and support-

ing himself outside his father's house? The wife of President

Webber, of Harvard College, believed herself descended from.

John Robinson by the same line as Susan (Davis) Parsons,

but her written statement only speaks of a son of John Robin-

son who settled north of Cape Ann, without mentioning his

name as the ancestor of the line. May we suspect that Mrs.

Parsons and Mrs. Webber were descendants of a son of John

Robinson who had some other name than Abraham, the Parsons

genealogy being that much in error? The early date of the

belief, and the high character, intelligence, and education of

the two families who held it, incline one to think that it is

"founded on fact." The reader who wishes to pursue the in-

vestigation farther may consult Giles' "Memorial," pp. 364, 365;

Dr. Dexter in the " Historical and Genealogical Register," Vol.

XX. 151+, and Babson's " Gloucester," 134+.

The great-grandfather of Mrs. Moses Parsons, Abraham Rob-

inson, whom I have termed Abraham,(2) is said to have been

the first English child born on the north side of Massachusett

Bay, and to have lived to be one hundred and two years old,

His son Andrew, Mrs. Parsons' grandfather, was a mighty

hunter, who used to strike out into the primeval forest in quest

of large game on expeditions that lasted several days, and to

return with splendid trophies of his courage and skill. He was

also an Indian fighter, whose daring and cunning even surpassed

those of his foes. He killed a large number of red men with his

own hand. Once he and two other men, who were the sole crew

of a little sloop, were captured by the Indians and the other two-

killed, but he was reserved that the execution of so renowned a

captive might grace a great celebration; it was, however, the

old story of the Indian's weakness: that night all the dusky

victors, save the sentinel, got drunk, and Andrew killed him

and made his way several miles through the forest to his

sloop. He was shortly pursued by a great company of in-

furiated savages in their canoes, and they overtook and boarded

his becalmed craft, that is those of them who escaped his

deadly and frequent bullets as they approached; but the wily

Andrew had strewn his deck with scupper nails, and as fast

as the frenzied Indians leaped upon the deck with their bare-

feet they were pierced with the sharp points of the nails and

fell down yelling with pain, whereupon he despatched them one

by one, and shortly the survivors turned and rowed away as fast

as their oars could carry them from a foe whom they thought

more devil than man. But Andrew Robinson was not merely

a mighty hunter of wild beasts and wild men. He was the

inventor of the schooner rig for vessels and the originator of

the name, and his fellow-citizens showed their appreciation of

him by calling him to fill many prominent positions.

Mrs. Parsons much resembled this ancestor in energy and

executive ability, but all her faculties were devoted to save,

enrich, and adorn life, and none to its destruction. She led a

life of manifold usefulness and beauty. She was at once a

housewife of rare skill and economy, a ministering angel to

every sick-bed in the broad parish, and a passionate lover of

Rev. Moses Parsons Mrs. Moses Parsons

1716-1783 Died 1794, ages 75

Eben Parsons Gorham Parsons

1746-1819 1768-1844

literature. As a mother she inspired such respect in her chil-

dren that long after they had left the parental roof her word

was law to them. Mrs. Susan (Davis) Parsons was one who

richly deserved and received the ancient reward of the good

wife and mother: --

Her children rise up, and call her blessed;

Her husband also, and he praiseth her.

THE GREAT AWAKENING.

Mr. Parsons had hardly been settled when his troubles with

the Whitefield movement began. A half century of "low and

unemotional" piety had been suddenly brought to an end by

the Northampton revival of 1734 under the preaching of that

holy man and burning pulpit orator, Jonathan Edwards. The

new movement bad been intensified by the arrival, in 1740, of

the marvellous preacher George Whitefield, then but twenty-five

years old. The revival services were characterized by outcries

of agonized souls, hysteric fits of women, and the falling down

of strong men as if struck with a cannon ball. Heaven and

Hell seemed open to ecstatic souls and wondrous religious ex-

periences were narrated. Very severe denunciation was uttered

by Whitefield against those who did not sympathize with these

manifestations. Itinerant evangelists demanded of pastors a

reason for their Christian hope and passed judgment on their

spiritual condition, and the more conservative pastors sharply

resented being summoned before such a tribunal. Churches

were rent and new churches formed. Underneath all this ex-

citement there was a genuine turning of thousands from sin to

righteousness and God. It was the greatest religious awaken-

ing in all the history of New England. As in the earthquake

of 1727, so in this spiritual upheaval our region was specially

moved. Whitefield arrived in what is now Newburyport in a

blinding snowstorm September 30, 1740. As early as Feb-

ruary 15, 1743, a new religious congregation of those in full

sympathy with the new movement was meeting in that place

in a building which they had erected. For three years they

were "ably ministered to" by the Rev. Joseph Adams, of By-

field, who has been already mentioned, and whose pioneer work

in this congregation "merits lasting remembrance," though his

zeal seems to have exceeded his discretion. Out of this con-

gregation grew "the Old South," or First Presbyterian Church,

which has had a noble history. March 28, 1745, Capt. Abra-

ham Adams, of the Byfield Church, complained that "the

Brethren of the Chh are against opening the Meeting House

Doors to Such men as he thinks are faithful Preachers of the

Gospel," and on the same day Benjamin Plumer, another mem-

ber said to the pastor, "I don't remember Sir that ever you so

much as gave Thanks for Such an Unspeakable Favour to the

World as Mr. Whitefield." After presenting other criticisms

on the attitude of the pastor, he says, "these Things with many

others appear very dark on your Side." A third member,

Samuel Adams, son of Captain Abraham, ". . . said, it does not

please the great God to edify my Soul . . . under the minis-

try of the Revd Pastor of this Chh. . . Whereas I generally

find the Lord graciously visits me under the Means of Grace

used in the new Congregation of Christians." Capt. Abraham

Adams was the father and Samuel Adams a brother of Rev.

Joseph Adams, the minister of "this new Congregation of

Christians," so natural affection may have heightened their

appreciation of his services. Such opposition must have been

a severe trial to the young pastor who was not yet twenty-nine

years old.

On May 27, a report on the matter was received from a

committee of the church. That committee comprised, with

others, Dea. Samuel Moody and Lieut. Stephen Longfellow,

whose ledger received attention in Chapter V. Of these Deacon

Moody was own cousin to Captain Adams' wife and Lieutenant

Longfellow her brother, so that the would not be likely to be

unfair to the captain and his son. This committee reported

that the church doors had been closed to some because they

thought their conduct calculated "to disturb the Peace and

Edification of the Chhs in alienating the minds of People from

their settled Pastors." (Probably by pronouncing them uncon-

verted men, dead men in the pulpits, and those who preached a

Christ they did not know. Such denunciations even fell from

Mr. Whitefield's lips, at least in his earlier days.)

Mr. Parsons said in reply to Mr. Plumer's complaint, that he

had justified Mr. Whitefield wherein he was unjustly blamed,

as well as mentioned public charges against him of "Impru-

dency or Irregularity." He added, "I look on Mr. Whitefield

as a good man and a faithful minister and as one yt has been

improved as an Instrument to do much good." Three years

later we find Samuel Adams attending his home church "in a

Way of Trial " and the church voted his course satisfactory.

The result of his renewed "Trial" of his pastor's ministrations

is not recorded, but we may hope that he was "edified." The

unrest, however, continued. In 1752 the Legislature interposed

and set off certain estates for religious taxation from Byfield

parish to the Presbyterian society. Mr. Parsons appears to

have become a warm admirer of Mr. Whitefield; his diary

shows that he welcomed the great evangelist to his house and

pulpit, took great pains to hear him elsewhere, was his fellow-

guest at other tables, and was a bearer at his funeral.

It may be added that another pallbearer was Rev. Edward

Bass, the Episcopal rector in Newburyport, subsequently the

first Episcopal bishop in New England. The endorsement

of Mr. Whitefield by man like Mr. Parsons and Mr. Bass only

anticipated the verdict of history. Whatever uncharitableness

marred his youthful years, and however excessive his insistence

on internal conscious experience as an evidence of conversion,

he belonged to the same class as Edwards and Wesley and

Luther and Bernard and Chrysostom and Paul, epoch mak-

ing witnesses for Christ, filled with his Spirit to quicken God's

people, and to turn "the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of

the just." Mr. Parsons' growing appreciation of Mr. Whitefield

shows his candor and his love of the saving truths of the Gos-

pel. I am not aware of any such change in the attitude of

Dr. Chauncey or of President Stiles, of Yale College, who sym-

pathized with Dr. Chauncey's adverse opinion of the awakening.

Even with the death of Whitefield discontent did not cease in

the Byfield church. Mr. Whitefield died September 30, 1770,

but December 19, of that year, in a Byfield parish meeting.

The vote was put whether Each man Shall have Liberty to

attend Publick worship where he Likes best and pay his Minis-

ter Rate where he goes & it passed in the Negative." Seven

years later a call was issued for a parish meeting to appoint a

committee to wait on the pastor and ask his consent to have

Rev. John Murray, of Boothbay, lecture in the meeting-house,

and if he should refuse, "to act further upon the affair as the

Parish shall think proper." The committee was appointed and

the fact that Dr. Parker Cleaveland was a member shows that

the parish was in earnest in the matter. I have found no record

of Mr. Parsons' response, but it would seem to have been a

refusal, for three months later the parish invited Mr. Murray

to preach. Mr. Murray had succeeded "Celtic Tennant," the

spiritual but violent and censorious coadjutor of Whitefield, in

Philadelphia, and in 1781 became pastor of the First Presby-

terian Church (the Old South) in Newburyport. So, while Mr.

Parsons became the warm friend and admirer of Whitefield, he

had a lifelong trial with the Whitefield wing, if I may so say, of

the church.

THE SECOND MEETING-HOUSE.

Notwithstanding the discontent and criticism and the with-

drawal, even, of some, in the second year after Mr. Parsons' ordi-

nation, i. e., in 1746, a new meeting-house was built. It seems

to have been proposed to build it on an entirely new site, but

the project was met by an earnest protest and was abandoned,

and we may hope that no similar one will ever be made again.

Mr. H. T. Pearson has the remonstrance with its signatures.

The building of a new house of worship indicates that on the

whole there was growth and good feeling in the parish. The

new building was " fifty-six by forty-five with a steeple twelve

feet square, and a tall spire" (Gage's " Rowley," p. 330). The

Rev. Daniel P. Noyes -- would that so accomplished a student

and so devoted a lover of his native parish had committed to

paper his intimate knowledge of her history -- left us a plan

of this meeting-house after it was repaired and enlarged about

the middle of Mr. Parsons' ministry. I say enlarged, "for

Mr. Noyes' plan would not correspond to a ground surface of

fifty-six by forty-five feet but rather to seventy by forty-five.

It will be noticed that, while Mr. Noyes' plan of the first meet-

ing-house indicates but three pews, the second shows at least

twenty-seven. Besides the pews there were "seats" which I

suppose to have been plain benches, possibly with backs. The

ownership of a pew was a mark of superior means and rank.

The parish records contain frequent entries concerning the

building of pews, and the Assessors' Book has this minute:

The Pews that were Sold at a Vendue in March 1766 at Mr.

John Frazer's Amount to the Sum of . . . 65-14-8." This

would, I suppose, be the equivalent of $200,1 a considerable

sum for the parish treasury, and indicative of a large increase

in the number of well-to-do parishioners. The seats in these

pews were on hinges. When I was a boy the parish was full

of people who had a vivid recollection of the second meeting-

house, and I have often heard them recall with a smile the

interruption to the decorum of Puritan worship when the seats

which were raised for convenience during the long prayer were

let down with a creak and a slam at the end of the prayer: the

children very often officiated in this part of the program, and

took no pains to reduce the noise to a minimum.

WAR.

It is wonderful how closely connected are the fortunes of any

little community with the great tide of the history of the world.

Byfield felt the ebb and flow of the struggle for the mastery of

North America between England and France, which lasted for

generations. I will not linger upon the war at the beginning

of Mr. Parsons' ministry (1744-1748), although Byfield men

1 In 1749 the legislature of Massa- law it will be seen that the Massa-

chusetts fixed the legal values of vari- chusetts shilling was put at three-fourths

ous currencies. Silver was rated at 6s. the value of the sterling shilling. If we

8d., the Spanish milled dollar, or "piece remember that the sterling shilling is

of eight," at 6s., the guinea was 28s., the worth between twenty-four and twenty-

sterling shilling 1s. 4d., the pistole 22S., five cents it will give us a standard in

old tenor bills 45s. for 6s. middle and our currency for all the currencies and

new tenor 11s. 3d. for 6s., etc. By this coins mentioned.

must have had a part in the bold move upon Louisburg, in

which Massachusetts took the lead, and no doubt Byfield

shared in the remarkable spirit of prayer, by which those who

stayed at home co-operated with those who went on the haz-

ardous expedition, and we may be equally sure that Byfield, in

common with all the colony, recognized, in the wonderful suc-

cess of the enterprise, a signal answer to prayer. Dr. Chauncey

expressed the feeling of Massachusetts when he said, "I can't

but think there was a special hand of Providence in it."

Hutchinson speaks of "the labour, fatigue and other hardships

of the siege" as "without parallel in all preceding American

affairs." He also says that "considerate persons could not

. . . avoid gratefully admiring the favor of divine providence."

He states that "Tidcomb's [Titcomb's] battery with five 42-

pounders did as great execution as any," and that "Major

Tidcomb's readiness to engage in the most hazardous parts of

the service was acknowledged and applauded." Major Titcomb

was from Newbury, and Byfield names occur in his company.

The colonies had but a brief breathing spell, for in 1755

hostilities were resumed and peace was not declared until 1763.

This proved the death struggle of the French power in North

America. Byfield was intensely engaged. Gage mentions a

single company of one hundred and twenty men from Byfield,

and Byfield names are very frequent among the officers and

men of various companies; Stickney, Dresser, Chute, Jackman,

Pike, and Gerrish are some of them.

Mr. Parsons' record of deaths contains this entry: "Steven

Lavenuke, or Duell, died Janr 1, 1764 aged abt. 85 yrs. French

Extraction and heathenish in his education & way of living.

"How did this Frenchman find his way to Byfield? Probably

he was one of the seven thousand and more Acadian French

who in 1755 were torn from their pleasant homes in Nova

Scotia with nothing but their clothing, household goods, and

money, their houses burned, their farms and stock left behind,

because they would not take an oath of unqualified allegiance

to England including bearing arms against their French fellow-

countrymen of the same blood and faith.

Far asunder on separate coasts, the Acadians landed;

Scattered were they. . .

Friendless, homeless, hopeless they wandered . . .

From the cold lakes of the North to sultry Southern savannas.

Something over a thousand were brought to Massachusetts;

the Legislature did what it could to alleviate their pitiable

condition, especially that of the aged and infirm; but their lot

was a sad one, in a strange land among people of a strange

tongue and a strange faith who were at war with their nation.

Fourteen were assigned to Rowley, and twenty-three to New-

bury. Of those sent to Newbury it is pleasant to find the over-

seers of the poor reporting that those able to labor "doo work

at all opportunity when they have it offered & can find anything

to do" (Currier's "History of Newbury," p. 554). All accounts

agree in praising "the simplicity of their manners, the ardor of

their piety, and the purity of their morals." It is not surprising

to learn that they languished in their exile and extreme home-

sickness. The worst aggravation of their miseries was that they

were forbidden to have priests, although they were permitted

the free exercise of their religion in their families and in public

meetings. Priests were forbidden lest they should act as spies

for the French government. Poor Steven Lavenuke was prob-

ably one of these unwilling immigrants, and what good Mr.

Parsons branded as "heathenish" was but his fidelity to the

faith of his fathers. Mr. Parsons, however, says that he was

heathenish in "his way of living" as well as "his education."

Possibly "his way of living" did not correspond to Puritan

notions of cleanliness. Some eighteen years later I find

Deacon Hale charging the town of Newbury, "To cash paid

Stephen Lunt for cleansing Mehitabel Lavenook of Dirt and

Lice." Was Mehitabel, Stephen's daughter, and does this un-

savory charge indicate her family's heathenish "way of living"?

Byfield was represented in the fateful retreat from Fort

William Henry, on Lake George, in August, 1757. Montcalm,

with a force of eight thousand, of whom two thousand were

Indians, laid siege to the fort whose garrison numbered two

thousand, and after five days compelled its surrender. Be-

cause of their gallant defence the soldiers of the garrison were

allowed to march out with the honors of war, carrying their

guns but without ammunition. During the night the Indians

got hold of fire-water and at dawn made a frenzied attack on the

helpless retreating garrison, robbing, stripping, and murdering

with fiendish fury. Out of two thousand hardly six hundred

escaped into the forests. Joseph Poor, subsequently Deacon

Poor, and Jedediah Stickney were two Byfield boys in there

treat who made good their escape. Joseph Poor was a youth

of twenty, and seems to have been stripped of all his clothes.

Jedediah Stickney's escape was the theme of a thrilling nar-

rative, which was the delight of my boyhood, as Aunt Molly,

his daughter, used to relate it to me, when she was past eighty.

At the first onset he threw off most of his clothes, that he might

be harder to hold by the savages. A tall Indian seized him by

both shoulders, but he broke his hold by a sudden, swift, mighty

back-stroke of his musket, and ran for his life to Fort Edward,

twenty miles away; his musket, that had saved his life without

powder or ball, still in his hand. He was but a boy of eighteen.

The efforts of Massachusetts in this last French and Indian

war were intense. Currier's "History of Newbury" shows that

in that town, which of course included part of Byfield, all per-

sons between sixteen and sixty, who were exempt from ordi-

nary military duty, were organized to repel any invasion of

the town. In one of these "Larum" [alarm] lists I find three

lame persons, and one with but one foot, and another with but

one eye. In another such company I find the name of "Rev.

Mr. Moses Parsons."

The war practically closed, and the Empire of France in

North America came to an end with Wolfe's capture of Quebec

September 18, 1759, although the treaty of peace was not signed

until four years later. Wolfe was the ideal of a hero of War,

and Montcalm was worthy to be his foe, and the capture of

Quebec was a brilliant stroke of military genius; but this nar-

rative has nothing to do with the heroes of world-wide renown,

who fought and fell on that momentous morning upon the

heights of Quebec, but simply with a humble, dusky soldier

from the Byfield parsonage. The minister's diary contains

these entries concerning him and the victory:

Cuff listed to go in ye Army with Capt Joseph Smith of Rowley.

May 4 1759 And set off from home to go to Boston May 26, 1759

Oct. 12 News surrender of Quebec

Oct. 25 Public Thanksgiving for surrender etc.

Nov. 12 Heard of Cuff's death.

A subsequent entry informs us that he "Died on his Passage

from Quebec Octr 29, 1759 between Gaspee & Cape Breton."

He was but a slave, he had only one name, no surname, and he

had only one life, but that was as dear to him as Wolfe's to its

owner; he did his part, I trust, faithfully, and had his share

in the glorious conquest, but probably hardship brought on

fatal disease, and he died while homeward bound. May this

record preserve in honorable memory the name of the lowly

black soldier, who lost his life in helping transfer the sceptre

from backward France to progressive England, and who thus

helped prepare the way for something yet better to come on

this continent.

EDUCATION. DUMMER ACADEMY.

Amid wars and rumors of war our people fostered education

generously. Gage has preserved (pp. 395, 396) the names of

several school-masters on the Rowley side of the parish. That

of Greenleaf Dole is associated by tradition with a motto that

he often used to repeat to his pupils, "Spend time wisely, your

good, not mine." Currier's "History of Newbury" (p. 406),

shows that the Newbury grammar-school was from time to time

kept in Byfield. John Noyes was a veteran Byfield teacher

whose services receive a beautiful recognition in the epitaph on

his tombstone. "The Stickney Family" (p. 104) has an in-

teresting account of a private school in charge of trustees

taught by Joshua Noyes and kept in Mr. Samuel Adams

house, now that of Mr. Geo. W. Adams, in 176o. To this

school thirteen persons from both sides of the parish sent

twenty pupils.

The educational event which eclipses all others in the history

of the parish is the founding of Dummer Academy. In the

same year that peace was declared, i. e., in 1763, the Academy

was opened. Lieutenant-Governor Dummer died in Boston

October 10, 1761, at the ripe age of eighty-four. Although his

life had been very beneficent, what is written of Samson may

with a slight change, be applied to him, and we may say that

the good which he did in his death was more than he did in his

life, for by his will he left all his real estate in Newbury to

found "a Grammar School" and that grammar-school became

Dummer Academy. It is not my intention to repeat the story

of the Academy, which has already been told and told so well

by a Cleaveland, a Northend, and others. I shall only notice a

few leading points, and intersperse some items that have not

been hitherto published. . Before the days of Dummer Academy

Madam Pierrepont, a sister of Governor Dummer, taught a

school in the mansion house. This school was for girls cer-

tainly, whether for boys also I do not know. It seems to have

been well patronized and in scant quarters, for one little girl

Mary A. Northend, subsequently Mrs. Deacon Hale, had to sit

on the stairs. The late Mrs. Sarah (Hale) Todd, in a letter

of June 6, 1888, to Mr. Northend, writes: "Was that (Madam

Pierrepont's school) the nucleus of Dummer Academy? Did

the Governor get his idea to benefit Byfield youth from her?

Can you call him up and settle that and some other questions?

A curious account of Madam Pierrepont's is preserved in the

papers of the Academy. In it she is credited with something,

apparently for December, 1761, and a quarter of 1762: perhaps

services as teacher

2 1 - 7 - 6

To fouer barils of Cyder . . . . . . . . 12 - 0 - 0

To three Emty barils . . . . . . . . . 02- 5 - 0

35 - 12- 6

Dr may 1762 to Cash . . . . . . . . 18

Dew to ms Pearpoint . . . . . . . . 17 - 12 - 6

On the backside is this record:

Boston December 14/1762

Recd.ye allance [balance] of the within accompt in full pi me

Margtt Pierpot

A Page from Rev. Moses Parsons' Diary, Recording the

opening of Dummer Academy

An early entry concerning the Academy in Mr. Parsons' diary

reads thus: "1762 Dec. 31 At dea. Colman's ab't school house

and School master." The school-house was a modest affair, a

one story building about twenty feet square. Joseph Hale(4)

(Captain Joseph) rented the mansion house and farm in 1762,

and the rent was " to be used to build a school-house.". That

first school-house was for many years part of the carriage house

between the farm-house and barn. The Adelynrood has done

a great kindness to the Academy and the parish by rescuing

this building from dissolution and beautifully restoring it as a

little Episcopal chapel after its primitive simplicity. But a

costly building was not essential to the success of the school

with such a teacher as they obtained, -- Master Moody from

York, recommended to them by Whitefield the evangelist.

Mr. Parsons' diary contains two kinds of notices -- very brief

from day to day, and fuller ones of the more important events

entered separately. In his daily record for 1763 we read, "Feb.

28, Mond.. Very stormy." "Mar. 1 Tuesday Dumr Charity

School begun prayd ther in ye morng." There is also this fuller

notice:

"Dummer Charity School opened Feb. 28. pd [preached]

upn, ye occasion a public lecture fr'm Isai. 32.8 When Mr.

Sam Moody of York took the charge thereof. Said school

began the next day viz. March 1, 1763." The text reads in

the version of that day: "But the liberal deviseth liberal things,

and by liberal things shall he stand." Mr. Parsons was happy in

his choice of texts, and never more so than on that day. Gov-

ernor Dummer had devised liberal things throughout his life,

and this bequest was pre-eminently liberal, and by this liberality

shall he stand in the grateful memory of all generations. Byfield

has a wonderful record for first things, but Dummer Academy

is the most illustrious of all the things in which she has taken

the lead. Its claim has never been challenged to be the oldest

incorporated academy in the United States. It had been in

operation over fifteen years when Phillips Academy of Andover

began, and almost eighteen years before the opening of Phillips

Academy in Exeter. It has bestowed its blessings upon over

two thousand youth from all parts of our country and beyond,

and has wonderfully stimulated and gratified the love of letters

in Byfield. The country parish had sent ten boys to college in

the one hundred and twenty-six years that people had been

living there before the academy was opened, but the graduates

during the one hundred and forty years since number at least

sixty-nine, besides the multitude of her sons that have studied

at Dummer without taking a college course. Gage says in his

history: "Perhaps no country parish within the Commonwealth

has educated more young men according to its population than

Byfield." The writer of this history is one of many sons of

Byfield who would never have aspired to a college diploma had

not Dummer Academy put the preparatory course within their

reach. Mr. Parsons did a good work that very stormy day in

opening such an institution.

Master Moody was of the good old Moody stock of Newbury,

the same stock that produced the patriotic and liberal-minded

Joshua Moody of Portsmouth, and the ancestors of the teacher,

Caleb, who withstood the tyranny of Andros, "Faithful Moody"

of York, and "Handkerchief Moody" of the same town, the

latter being the father of the teacher. It was the same stock

also from which sprang Paul Moody of mechanical fame, and

William H. Moody, the present Secretary of the Navy.

Master Moody was not a scholar of encyclopedic range, but

what he did know he knew and taught with marvellous thorough-

ness. He was a strict disciplinarian, but of a unique type. He

let all his pupils study aloud in the same room; at times he

would unbend and become the most rollicking boy in all the

school, and he used to interrupt the routine of the day, when

the season was favorable, if high water occurred during the

school hours, so that every pupil might make sure of his bath.

He had charge of the Academy some twenty-seven years. No

portrait of him has come down to us, but we can easily picture

him to our minds from the descriptions of his pupils; a large

man with strong features, wearing a long green flannel gown and

a tasselled smoking cap, with a full assortment of instruments

of punishment within reach, such as ferule, long flat rule, and

Master Moody's Schoolhouse- Built 1762-63

Master Moody's Grave, York, Me.

switches of various sizes, adapted to the boys of different ages;

and his five hundred and twenty-five pupils proved the rare

excellence of his training by the remarkable proportion of

them who attained eminence in after life. By and by his eccen-

tricities developed into serious aberration of the mind. A letter

of Mrs. Todd preserves a pathetic story of his coming down to

her grandmother and begging a loaf of bread, "and then he

went back and beckoned to the boys who boarded with him to

come out and share with him, as he said they were starving."

But this only illustrates that infirmity of advancing years to

which we are all liable. Master Moody will be remembered as

he was in his prime, eccentric and severe, but most severe

toward himself, devoted to his boys, thorough in storing and

developing their minds, and watchful to cultivate their Christian

manliness -- at once a, pioneer and a prince among American

teachers.

THE REVOLUTION.

The Revolution makes a heroic chapter in American history,

and the lines in that chapter written by Byfield are bright with

patriotism, sacrifice, and faith, but it is difficult to do justice to

the parish, because most of the records were kept by the towns

of Newbury and Rowley, which did not commonly distinguish

the part taken by Byfield from that borne by other portions of

the town.

The Stamp Act took effect November 1, 1765. Ten days

before, Newbury had held a town-meeting, and unanimously

instructed its representative in the General Court how to act.

The representative was Joseph Gerrish, a Byfield man. The

political sky grew more and more cloudy, and Rowley voted in

1768 that the selectmen "wait upon the several ministers of the

Gospel in this town, desiring that Thursday, the 6th day of

October next, may be set apart as a day of fasting and prayer."

This fast was kept in Byfield.

But our fathers did something besides fasting and praying;

they girded themselves for the conflict with the utmost care

and with equal enthusiasm. The young ladies, as usual, were

not behind their brothers in patriotic ardor. When they met

at the Byfield parsonage to spin yarn for Mrs. Parsons, on

April 20th, 1768, they drank liberty tea made from ribwort

or English plantain. Although brought, I suppose, originally

from England, it had become thoroughly naturalized, and paid

no duty to the English Exchequer, so that our fair foremothers

could drink it without any derogation to their patriotism; and

under the circumstances no doubt it tasted better than the best

Young Hyson or Oolong.

May 27, 1772, Mr. Parsons had the honor to preach the elec-

tion sermon. His audience was a strange mixture of loyalist and

patriot. The Governor was Thomas Hutchinson, who would

shortly find the air of old England more congenial than that

of New England, while the clerk was Samuel Adams. Mr. Par-

sons text was Proverbs 21.1. The verse reads in their version:

The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of

water: he turneth it whithersoever he will." "God," he said,

"can turn the rivers of water into their right channels when they

have been deviated from their proper courses." " [The] bless-

ings . . . [of] good civil government . . . [are] like Rivers of

water reviving and refreshing." He reviews the worthies that

had adorned the British throne, and continues: "His present

Majesty ascended the throne . . . amidst the joyful acclama-

tions of his subjects. . . . But the scene is changed . . . the

waters are troubled. . . . We cannot submit to shackles and

chains." This was plain talk for Governor Hutchinson to hear.

A tender of military service dated Byfield, September 9, 1774,

and signed by Benjamin Stickney and thirteen others, gives,

among other reasons for volunteering, apprehension of " the

Totall Subvertion and Overthrow of the present Constitution,

and what is most dear Our Religious Liberties and priviledges,

and Popery Established in its stead." With such fears no

wonder the patriotic and religious enthusiasm rose to fever

heat.

Those who sided with the Crown had a hard road to travel.

In Newburyport merciless mobs maltreated them; in Rowley

mass meetings compelled them "by a force too powerful to

admit of a refusal " (Gage, p. 236) to ask forgiveness for their,

crime, renounce and denounce the British government, and

solemnly pledge their future loyalty. I suppose it to have

been under a similar pressure that Thomas Coleman of Byfield

twice in 1775 published statements defining his political po-

sition. In the first he confesses that he had opposed the war,

but promises to cast in his lot with the country, at the same

time reminding the public that his father and four of his

brothers had embarked in the patriotic cause. In his second

statement he made a solemn declaration under oath that he

had never been an informer. He took this oath before Hon.

Joseph Gerrish of Byfield. (Essex Journal and Merrimack

Packet for May 3 and May 13, 1775.) Byfield had a very

distinguished Tory sojourner in Judge Edmund Trowbridge,

the great lawyer, termed by Chancellor Kent "the oracle of

the common law of New England." He found an asylum in the

parsonage. His convictions were on the side of the Crown, but

he remained silent because his nearest relatives were ardent

patriots. It was at a hint from Joseph Warren that he decided

that the climate of Byfield would promote his health. The

Judge's anxiety for his health was ludicrous; he used to send

his body servant, Sam, ahead sometimes to inquire of any one

that he was about to meet whether he had any contagious

disease, and in some instances Sam would get an answer

that was more plain than courteous. His ostensible reason in

coming to Byfield was to avoid the small-pox, but what must

have been his terror to find a certain Mrs. Biscoe, his sister

possibly, who came out with him, struck down with the dire

disease only four days after. She was removed to the pest

house and there she died.

I can do little more for the volunteers from Byfield, who

helped to win our liberties, than to mention the names of those

who were probably from the Byfield part of their respective

towns, and along with them I shall seek to perpetuate the mem-

ory of the names of such as are known to have sustained them

by patriotic acts at home. In 1770 Samuel Northend, Oliver

Tenney and Amos Jewett were on a Rowley committee to

devise measures to prevent the importation of British manu-

factures. Mr., or Lieutenant, Northend, was the grandfather of

the late Hon. Wm. D. Northend, whose death occurred last week

(October 29, 1902), to my great grief. Oliver Tenney lived

where Mrs. Chapman does now, and was the great-grandfather

of Mr. G. D. Tenney of North Street. Amos Jewett lived, I

suppose, in Warren Street. Shortly after, papers were circu-

lated pledging the signers against British importations, and in

particular "that we will not hereafter use any foreign tea our-

selves or suffer it to be used in our families." The following

persons in the Rowley part of Byfield signed this pledge:

Samuel Northend, Reuben Pearson, Moses Pearson, Jeremiah

Pearson, William Longfellow, Oliver Dickinson, Amos Jewett,

Jeremiah Poor, Enoch Pearson, Henry Poor, Abraham Sawyer,

Mark Thurla, Daniel Pearson, Jacob Pearson, Jonathan Thurla,

Israel Adams, Moses Lull, Noyes Pearson, Nathaniel Tenney,

John Searle, Samuel Searle, John Searle, Jr., Benjamin Stick-

ney, Amos Stickney, Benjamin Jackman, John Thurla, John

Tenney, Samuel Pike, Moses Smith and Abraham Colbe. The

paper was called a Whig Covenant. Reuben Pearson lived near

Glenn Mills, and kept that remarkable ledger; Oliver Dickinson

lived, I suppose, where Mr. Herbert Witham does now; the

Poors and the Thurlas probably lived in the neighborhood of

Mr. S. T. Poor; Israel Adams appears to have lived in Warren

Street in a house that was burned down in 1795, between Mr.

George Rogers' and the old Pike house; Nathaniel Tenney

lived in the Tenney house near Long Hill; Mr. L. R. Moody's

place is an old Searle homestead; Benjamin and Amos Stickney

were brothers living on Long Hill. The houses of Messrs.

Frank Hazen, Louis Pingree, and R. Ronan were all formerly

Jackman houses, and there used to be a fourth, the original

Jackman house in Byfield, opposite the widow Aaron Hardy's;

Moses Smith may have lived in a house that stood in my child-

hood at the head of Warren Street, and was known as the Smith

House.

In 1772 Samuel Northend and Nathaniel Tenney were on a

committee of Rowley which prepared an address to Boston

pledging co-operation and drafted instructions to their repre-

sentative in the legislature, and both the address and the

instructions were adopted by great majorities.

In Newbury, January 4, 1774, a committee of seven presented

resolutions and an appeal to neighboring towns that were unani-

mously adopted. The appeal rang out thus: "Beloved breth-

ren, let us stand fast in the liberty, wherewith God and the

British constitution in conjunction with our own, have made us

free, that neither we nor our posterity after us, (through any

fault of ours), be entangled with the yoke of bondage." This

appeal deserves careful reading. It is statesmanlike. Our patri-

otic sires were neither iconoclasts nor innovators. They planted

themselves on their constitutional rights, and they knew how

to use their Bibles; there is an implicit argument in their

Biblical quotations that Christ's freemen could "not properly

be under civil tyranny." One is reminded that they were

Calvinists, and that Calvinism is of old "the creed of rebels."

At least three of the seven who issued this remarkable appeal,

including the chairman, were Byfield men, namely: Capt. Joseph

Hale, Mr. Jacob Gerrish, and Mr. Dudley Colman. The Boston

Port Bill, which closed the port of Boston in punishment for the

destruction of the tea, went into effect June 1, 1774. Much

suffering ensued, but the colonists vied with one another in

sympathy and generous gifts. In fact the first contribution

received was two hundred barrels of rice from South Carolina.

Two offerings from Byfield were as follows:

L s d

October twenty-sixth, Mr. Samuel Moody principal of

Dummer Academy collected and sent to the inhabitants

of Boston the sum of . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 . 0 . 0

The members of the Byfield parish church Rev. Moses

Parsons, minister, sent . . . . . . . . . . . . 10. 16. 4

In January, 1775, Capt. Timothy Jackman was one of a

committee to receive and distribute arms. Captain Jackman

was the ancestor, I judge the great-great-grandfather, of Mr.

Benjamin Pearson the seventh, and of his sister Mrs. J. 0. Hale.

The year that had now opened was to be forever illustrious for

the heroism shown at Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hil1,

and was crowded with intense activity. News of the battle of

Lexington reached Rowley the same day, although there was

no railroad or telegraph, and the minute men marched that

very day as far as Lynn, and after a little halt for food and rest,

pressed on and reached Cambridge early on the forenoon of

the next day. Among those who answered their country's

urgent call from Rowley were Benjamin and Amos Stickney,

brothers from Long Hill, and also Jedediah Stickney from

where Mr. Minchin lives. Jedediah, it will be remembered, had

been in the Fort William Henry massacre eighteen years be-

fore. Another Byfield volunteer was Joseph Poor, who, like

Jedediah Stickney, was a survivor of that day of carnage.

He now led a company. In the muster-roll of Capt. Jacob

Gerrish's company which marched on the same 19th of April,

I find the following names, apparently of Byfield men: Capt.

Jacob Gerrish, Benjamin Stickney (already mentioned), Lieut.

Paul Moody, Jedediah Stickney (already mentioned), Joseph

Danforth, John Noyes 2d, sergeants; Privates Nathaniel Adams,

John Cheney, Oliver Goodridge, Richard Martin, Benjamin

Poor, Amos Poor, Eliphalet Poor, John Sawyer, Abram Thorla,

Nathaniel Pearson, William Searl, John Turner, Daniel Chute,

Daniel Hale (grandson of the minister, a boy under nine-

teen), Abner Woodman, Enoch Boynton, Amos Stickney (be-

fore mentioned), Stephen Gerrish, Thomas Smith, Stephen

Smith. Out of a total of forty-one, twenty-six, including the

captain, one of the lieutenants, and all four sergeants, seem to

have been from Byfield -- probably there were others.

Capt. Jacob Gerrish subsequently commanded a company

of fifty-nine men in Col. Moses Little's regiment, in which the

names of Adams, Pearson, Hale, Poor, Rogers, Searl, Cheney,

Flood, Goodridge, Moody, and Thorla are found. Four com-

panies of this regiment were in the battle of Bunker Hill, where

they had forty men killed and wounded. Capt. Jacob Gerrish

was baptized in Byfield, February 11, 1739. He was the son

of the Hon. Joseph.(4) In the following year this Captain Ger-

rish was court-martialled for misbehavior in the presence of the

enemy, but he was found not guilty, and the charge was pro-

nounced "entirely groundless," and George Washington ap-

proved the findings. He was subsequently promoted to a

colonelcy. He participated in the battles of Bunker Hill,

White Plains, Princeton, and Trenton. At Trenton he com-

manded the left wing.

There was also a Col. Samuel Gerrish of Byfield, the son of

Col. Joseph, in the revolutionary army. He was the Capt.

Samuel Gerrish, Jr., of the French war. He was colonel of the

company commanded by Jonathan Poor that marched on the

night of April 19. I am sorry to say that he was subsequently

cashiered for "timidity and conduct unbecoming an officer.

"He was exceedingly fat. Perhaps his obesity accounts for his

timidity. Falstaff was a fat man. There was also a private

from Newbury named Samuel Gerrish in Capt. Joseph Poor's

company. There was still another Samuel Gerrish of Byfield,

who was baptized August 19, 1739, and who sided with the

Crown and was in the royal army. After the war he emi-

grated to the island of Grand Menan, where he was a magis-

trate for many years. There was a private named Stephen

Gerrish in the company of Capt. Jacob Gerrish. The father

of Col. Jacob Gerrish -- Col. and Hon. Joseph(4) Gerrish

belonged of course to Byfield. He was the son of Colonel

Joseph(3) "the big man," and grandson of Leut. Moses (2) and

Jane (Sewall) Gerrish. He was the representative of Newbury

for thirty years, first in the provincial legislature, and subse-

quently in the provincial congress. After the encounter of

April 19, L100 was sent over from England which was pub-

licly announced in print in England as "for the widows,

orphans, etc., of the brave American, inhumanly slaughtered

by the King's troops at Lexington because they preferred

death to slavery." (Thos. Hutchinson's "Diary and Letters,"

p. 466). The memory of this gift should be gratefully cher-

ished, for it shows that the war against the colonies was

waged by the English government rather than the English

people. Hon. Joseph(4) Gerrish was one of the committee

appointed by the legislature for the distribution of this inter-

esting contribution. He and President Langdon of Harvard

College married sisters. Mr. Gerrish was a man of many-sided

activity and usefulness. He carried the mail on horseback be-

tween Newbury and Boston. When Mr. Lacroix renovated the

Gerrish-Titcomb house he found what are supposed to be the

saddlebags in which Mr. Gerrish carried the mail. He is said

to have been the Gerrish who taught the Farnis or Adams'

town school. The Kent's Island boys used to bring raw pota-

toes for their luncheon which they roasted in the huge fireplace.

At the proper time he would say, "Kent's Island boys, it is

time to put in your potatoes." One of his daughters was

Catharine, who married for her second husband Benjamin Poor

of Indian Hill. When she died at the great age of ninety-four

and one-half years a writer in the Newburyport Herald for

July 13, 1827, paid a high compliment to "her unostentatious

Piety and Charity" and her "highly cultivated mind," and at-

tributed her rare worth largely to the privileges which she

enjoyed in her father's house whose "station in life was such

that his family had advantages of society and education which

few enjoyed at that early age of this country." Mr. Parsons'

entry concerning Mr. Gerrish's death reads thus, "The Honble

Joseph Gerrish Esq. died May 26, 1776, aged 67 yrs. Numb

palsy." The Newburyport paper of June 14, 1776 has over

a column in commemoration of his worth. So the Byfield

Gerrishes played a remarkable part in the Revolution. In-

deed they played on both sides, but the record of most of

them is highly patriotic and honorable. Would that the name

might have been perpetuated within our borders. The excel-

lent brothers Kent of Kent's Island are descended from the

Byfield Gerrishes.

Just one week after the battle of Lexington, the following call

was issued for a parish meeting in Byfield. It is the only such

call that I have found in all the records of the parish. Usually

the people would meet for such purposes in their town capacity,

but in this case the patriotic ardor found vent in a parish

meeting. The call is so unique and instructive that I print it in

full:

The Inhabitants of sd Parish are hereby Notified to assemble at the

Meeting House in sd Parish on Thursday the 27 Instant: Immediately

after the Afternoon Service of the Fast. To see if they will take under

Consideration the Present Difficulties & Chuse a Committee to regulate

Matters in time of an Alarm -- Which May call for our help in some

other part of ye Country & See that they all exert themselves in the

Defence of their Country & if Any should not assist in ye same to

examine into the Cause of their neglect & if they Should find the

Cause of it to be insufficient that they expose their Names to the

Publick that they May be treated as enemies to this Country.

--Likewise to see that those Persons who have or may go forth in

the Defence of their Country & tarry any time & leave their Families

destitute of help Shall not Suffer in their Respective Families & Estates

any further than their Neighbors in General.

Dated April 26th 1775.

Committee chosen Ap. 27 with power to act.

These freemen and patriots showed by this document their

ability for self-government. King George was likely to find

such farmers hard to subdue. They were full of enthusiasm,

but they were as prudent in forecasting future possibilities as

they were zealous; and their zeal had no narrow bounds, but

was ready to respond to the need of their fellow-patriots else-

where. The necessity was urgent, and only one day intervened

between the call and the meeting.

May 8, 1775, Samuel Northend was appointed by Rowley one

of a committee of four for patriotic correspondence. Dr.

Samuel Tenney, who was born on the Tenney place, had

begun to practise in Exeter, N. H., but as the conflict deepened

he mounted his horse -- and rode to the seat of war, arriving in

time to help dress the wounds of those who were injured at

Bunker Hill. He remained with the army as surgeon through-

out the war and witnessed the surrender of Burgoyne and of

Cornwallis. The following men in Capt. Thos. Mighill's com-

pany, stationed in Brookline September 26, 1775, were prob-

ably from Byfield: First Lieutenant, Thomas Pike; Sergt.,

Samuel Searle; Privates, Amos Jewett, Jr., John Pearson,

Benjainin Pike, Thomas Smith and John Sawyer. The Pikes

probably lived in Warren Street. I suppose Thomas Pike to

have been the grandfather of Gen. Albert Pike. Amos Jewett

and John Pearson both died in camp. Let us cherish the

memory of these men of Byfield who died for their country.

Amos Jewett, Jr., had previously enlisted May 2, in a Tops-

field company. He was the son no doubt of that Amos Jewett

whose name was on the pledge against drinking tea; so patri-

otism ran in the family.

In March, 1776, Nathaniel Tenney and Capt. William Tenney

were on a committee of safety, and Timothy Jackman was on

a committee "to number the inhabitants of the town [of Rowley]

agreeably to an order of the Court; " probably this census had

reference to the war. The same month John Sawyer and Moses

Smith were in the service apparently under an enlistment for

twelve months. In December, 1776, Jedediah Stickney, Moses

Smith, and Benjamin Stickney enlisted as sergeants, and Moses

Lull and Bradstreet Pearson as privates, all for service in New

York. The same month Capt. Paul Moody, great-great-grand-

father of the Secretary, commanded a company of sixty-eight

Newbury men in Colonel Pickering's regiment, which was

ordered to the succor of Danbury, Connecticut. Earlier in

the same year Timothy Jackman and Jeremiah Jewett were on

a committee to pay out L400 in bounties to soldiers "in the

present unhappy war."

March 10, 1777, Lieuts. John Searle and Thomas Pike were

appointed on a committee to raise fifty additional soldiers,

and Benjamin Stickney was one of a committee to hire L750.

March 18, Nathaniel Tenney was appointed on a committee

of safety, and Timothy Jackman on a committee which re-

ported the names and terms of service of the soldiers from the

town [Rowley] up to that date. May 13, Benjamin Stickney

among others volunteered for eight months to take the places

of eight months' men who might enlist for three years. July 8,

Joseph Poor was on a committee to prevent monopoly and op-

pression. November 7, Jedediah Stickney was on a committee

to hire twenty-six men to help guard Burgoyne's army that

had surrendered October 17. November 24, Lieut. Rufus

Wheeler and Capt. Timothy Jackman were appointed on a

committee to hire soldiers. From a vote at this meeting it

appears that Lieut. Benjamin Stickney was one of those in

command of the guard over the captured army. On December

29, a vote shows Lieutenant Stickney to be still in command in

the guard.

On March 17, 1778, Joseph Poor was appointed on a com-

mittee of safety, and on March 23, he was appointed on a com-

mittee "to raise thirteen men." On April 27, Capt. Timothy

Jackman and Dr. Parker Cleaveland were two of a committee

of five to consider the new constitution proposed for the State.

This is the first appearance of the name of Dr. Cleaveland, who

was to be so prominent. In May, 1778, Thomas Pike, Jr.,

volunteered for eight or nine months. He is thus described:

"age 37; height 5 ft. 10 in., complexion dark, eyes dark, hair

black;" the dark complexion has been characteristic of most

of the Pikes that I have known. In June, Benjamin Pike, the

great-uncle, as I suppose, of Gen. Albert Pike, volunteered, and

the same month Thomas Pike was drafted, and served nine

months at Fishkill, New York. June 26, Moses Dole was ap-

pointed on a committee of three to hire ten soldiers, and on

the same day Dr. Parker Cleaveland was put on a committee

of three to inspect the town militia. July 8, Reuben Pearson

was one of a committee of three to hire six soldiers. July 30,

David Jewett and Joseph Pike were two of a committee of five

appointed to procure twenty-one soldiers. This is the first

mention in this history of Joseph Pike's name. September 14,

Lieut. Benjamin Stickney was put on a committee to procure

ten soldiers. September 22, Lieut. Samuel Northend, Jeremiah

Jewett, and Lieut. Rufus Wheeler were on a committee of nine

to procure "such number of men, as shall be equal to one-

third of all the men in this town [Rowley] belonging to the

train band, to serve in the present war, agreeable to a late

order." It shows how intense was the struggle that one-third

of the able-bodied men remaining in the town after so many

calls should be demanded. December 21, Rufus Wheeler and

Olivier Tenney were put on a committee of five to try to prevent

the spread of the small-pox. This terror of our fathers was

aggravated by the war.

March 16, 1779, Capt. Timothy Jackman was appointed one

of five on a committee of safety. July 7, Dr. Parker Cleave-

land was appointed one of three delegates to a convention to

form a State constitution, as the one proposed by the legislature

in the previous year had been rejected by a vote of five to one.

August 26, Capt. Joseph Poor Dr. Parker Cleaveland, and Capt.

Timothy Jackman were made members of a large committee

whose object was to maintain the prices of labor and com-

modities as recently established, to save the currency from

further depreciation, and to publish the names of those who

would not comply, "thereby fixing upon them that odium and

perpetual disgrace which can be equalled by nothing but their

malignancy of their crime." But the currency was already

doomed beyond the power of patriotism to reverse its fate.

May 4, 1780, Nathaniel Tenney, Dr. Parker Cleaveland, and

Capt. Timothy Jackman were put on a committee of nine to

draft alterations and amendments to the proposed Bill of Rights.

The final meeting upon this momentous question in which

freemen acted in their sovereignty considering what should be

the fundamental law of the Commonwealth, was held in Byfield

meeting-house. Thus while with the sword in one hand they

fought tyranny, with the trowel in the other they laid endur-

ing political foundations. They were no anarchists, no mere

destroyers. July 1, and July 8, town meetings were held at the

house of Moses Dole in Byfield to raise recruits. These meet-

ings resulted in the raising of a company of seventy-one three

months' men commanded by Capt. Thomas Mighill. Among

them I find the names of John Pearson, Enoch Boynton, Rich-

ard, Jeremiah, and William Dummer, Joseph Goodridge, David

Lull, Samuel Moody, William, Thomas, and Samuel Noyes, from

Byfield.

In 1781, January 11, it was voted to divide "the town [of

Rowley] into twenty-six classes, as nearly equal in polls and

property as may be found convenient," and that each class

procure a "good able-bodied" three years' recruit. Lieut.

Benjamin Stickney of Long Hill was put at the head of one of

the classes, and the summons to him as leader of his class has

been preserved by Gage. Some of the names with their number

of polls and the hard money valuation of their estates are as

follows:

L s. d.

Lt. Benj. Stickney . . . 3 Polls. Estate. 329 - 10 - 0

Amos Stickney . . . 1 " " 295 - 12 - 0

Amos Jewett . . . . 1 " " 100

Maximilian Jewett 1 " " 36

Lt. Rufus Wheeler 1 " " 320

Samuel Searle & Son 1 " " 519

Jedediah Stickney 1 " " 444

I regret that my information concerning the soldiers and

patriotic acts of the Newbury side of Byfield is still more im-

perfect than that concerning the Rowley side. I have already

mentioned some names of officers and common soldiers from

that part of the parish. I can add the following: Dudley Col-

man, son of Deacon Benjamin, rose to the rank of Lieutenant-

Colonel. From the old Adams' homestead at "Highfield"

Samuel and his four sons, Samuel, Elder David, Josiah, and

Stephen, went forth at their country's call. Of these, Josiah

became Adjutant, and Stephen Captain. There was another

volunteer from Newbury side, whose name I do not find in the

bulky volumes of the Massachusetts soldiers and sailors of the

Revolution; possibly because he had but one name, possibly

because when I write, the list has not been published as far as

"P" and he may have been put down with his master's name.

The proof that he did volunteer is found in this entry in Mr.

Parsons' diary: "1778, Aug. 12 Bille came home who had

been gone 9 months & taken twice by ye Enemy." I judge that

he was both bold and shrewd: bold so that he was twice

captured, and shrewd enough each time to slip out of his

captors hands. All honor to this able patriot. Let us cherish

his name along with that of Cuff in an earlier war, and be thank-

ful that "Bille" was spared Cuff's tragic fate. I doubt not the

dusky soldier had a hearty welcome back to the parsonage

home.

The number and variety of the committees and the incessant

calls for soldiers and for money throughout so many long

years may help us to realize what it cost our fathers to be-

queath us self-government. Rowley is supposed to have had

an average of fifty soldiers in the army throughout the war.

But many other great items should be added to make up the

sum total. Those who volunteered not only ran the risk of

sickness, wounds, and death, but their business interests suffered

from their absence. For example, Benjamin Stickney of Long

Hill had become by inheritance and purchase the owner of all

the fertile acres of the Stickney farm on that hill. He had a great

family of seven sons and seven daughters, but he was a man of

war from his youth. Before he was seventeen he enlisted in a

cavalry company during the French war, and these pages have

indicated how often he volunteered during the Revolution. In

consequence of his patriotic expenditures and the depreciation

of the currency he was forced to part with his land by

piece, and died, I suppose, a poor man. Those who stayed at

home worked the harder to support those who volunteered;

and they did not support them with food alone. Maximilian

Jewett of Warren Street forged swords and bayonets for them.

When Washington and his men were in such dire distress at

Valley Forge, Moses Colman, whose unique portrait is in this

volume, grandfather of Mr. J. C. Colman of Newburyport, and

great-grandf-ather of the Byfield Colmans of the present time,

took a two-horse wagon, loaded with clothing and food by

patriotic citizens, from the Colman place in Byfield, safely,

the perilous winter journey of some four hundred miles, to

the camp, and distributed the precious contribution among the

suffering soldiers. While he was there one of his bridles gave

out and he replaced it with one made by himself from a knap-

sack. This knapsack bridle is still preserved with patriotic

pride by the Colman family.

There seem to have been but few real stay-at-homes. From

time to time nearly all of fighting age seem to have been in the

army. Two things aggravated the burdens of the struggle:

short enlistments and paper money. The raw recruit had

hardly learned the alphabet of war when his term of service

expired. We all know how much this tried and perplexed the

Commander-in-Chief: toward the close of the war this evil was

mitigated by longer enlistments, but the state of the currency

grew worse and worse.

The New England colonies had suffered greatly before from

an inflated currency, and at the beginning of the Revolution

they were opposed to such an expedient, but as the contest

lengthened and the financial problem grew more difficult they

gradually yielded; and every fresh issue only aggravated the

malady. The changes in the salary of the Byfield minister il-

lustrate the depreciation in the currency. In 1766 it was L8o,

Plus L4 13s 13d "to inable him to pirches his fier-wood." This

may be taken as the normal amount. In. 1778 his salary was

L6oo, o, o. In 1779 it was L1500, 0, 0. Byfield seems to have

taken the lead in raising the minister's salary as the cost of

living went up and the currency went down. Her thought-

fulness was highly commended and earnestly held up for

imitation in the press of the time. (Essex -Journal and Merri-

mack Packet, Jan. 2, 1777.) The same year Dea. Benjamin

Colman was voted $100.00, or L30, for two days' work on the

parsonage wall. This is the first mention of the dollar so far as

I have noticed in our parish records. The entry also shows

how nearly worthless the currency had become. The vote on

the minister's salary for 1781 reads:

Thursday imedetly after Lecture Voted to allow the Revnd Moses

Parsons for his Salary for this present year eighty pounds silver

currency, the same as Voted in the year 1774 and it to be paid

in Silver Spanish milled Dollars att 6/ a piece or in Bills of the new

Emision or in Bills of the Continental Currency in such proportion as

will at the Time of payment be Equal to Silver dollars or in Indian

Corn valued att 4/ Lawfull Money Silver Currency pr Bushel or in Rye

att 5/8 pr Bushel in like Currency.

One entry of December 2o of the same year speaks of "the

paper money . . . which is now dead."

The Commonwealth was now prepared to build its financial

structure on a better foundation, but how many just debts had

been unjustly scaled down or rendered worthless, and through

what monetary convulsions and how much anxiety, disappoint-

ment, and suffering had society been forced to pass mean-

while.

Heaviest of all counts in the cost of the war was the injury

that it inflicted on the morals and the faith of many. The

injury to faith was the greater because of the aid afforded by

France. Too many were led by this aid to look with favor on

the scepticism of their allies.

Undoubtedly my record of officers in the Revolution of

Byfield birth and residence is incomplete, but I have found

mention of one surgeon, - Samuel Tenney; two colonels, Jacob

and Samuel Gerrish; one lieutenant-colonel, Dudley Colman;

four captains, Joseph Poor, Timothy Jackman, Stephen Adams,

and Paul Moody; seven lieutenants, Thomas Pike, Benjamin

Stickney, John Searle, Rufus Wheeler, Samuel Northend, John

Noyes, and Silas Adams; and one adjutant, Josiah Adams,

-- sixteen commissioned officers in all; no mean roster for

our little country parish.

Mr. Currier's "History of Newbury," that did not reach me

until after the first writing of this chapter, enables me to add

the following from his list of Newbury soldiers who are indicated

by the record of baptisms to belong to Byfield.

Daniel Goodridge, John Pearson,

John Lunt, David Boynton,

Richard Martin, Benj. Jackman, Jun.,

Nathan Adams, Drurnmer & Fifer, Jonathan Martin,

John Turner, Nathl Dummer, Sergt.,

David Chute, Richard Dummer, Jr.,

James Chute, David Cheney,

Pall [Paul?] Gerrish, Sergt., John Bayley,

Joseph Noyes, Enoch Flood,

Joseph Goodridge, Samuel Poor,

Samuel Sawyer, Enoch Dole, Corporal,

Abram Adams, Trumpeter, Joshua Boynton,

Daniel Cheney, Charles Cassady,

Josiah Adams, James Martin,

Joseph Pearson, Jonathan Stickney,

Jonathan Cheney [drew pension Joseph Woodman,

when 85 years old], Jonathan Pearson,

Mr. Parsons wrote in his diary under date of 1782: "Oct 2

Went down to Nantasket & sailed round ye French fleet." That

was, I suppose, the fleet whose co-operation had made the victory

of Yorktown possible. As the good minister took that delight-

ful sail in Boston harbor how his heart must have thrilled with

admiration for our gallant allies, and with gratitude toward Him

who had turned the heart of the King of France to our succor

according to the text of his election sermon ten years before.

The war was practically over, although the articles of peace were

not signed until the next year. I have dwelt at unusual length on

the history of Byfield in the Revolution because the patriotism

of our fathers, and God's blessing on their sacrifices, ought to

be kept green in the memory of all generations of their children.

THE PARSONS-COLMAN CONTROVERSY.

Before the close of the Revolution Dea. Benjamin Colman's

controversy with his pastor reached an acute stage. Deacon

Colman was a man of decided convictions who at all times had

the courage to utter and champion them, although he might

thereby be brought into opposition to his dearest relations or

most prominent fellow-citizens. If Master Moody employed

a dancing master, Deacon Colman promptly protested in the

most vigorous denunciation; if his son, the Lieutenant-Colonel,

seemed to be falling into worldliness and scepticism he wrote

him a long letter in which fatherly love and solicitude for his

immortal soul vie with zeal for the truths of the Gospel. Miss

Emery gives the letter in full ("Reminiscences," pp. 153-155),

and deserves thanks for so doing.

Deacon Colman's contest with his pastor was the outgrowth

of the deacon's outspoken hostility to slavery in general. As

early as 1774 and again in 1776 he had published articles call-

ing upon the people, if they would be prospered in their own

struggle for freedom, to grant it to those whom they held in

bondage. December 21, 1780, Mr. Parsons and Deacon Colman

brought public charges against each other in a church meeting

called for the purpose, Mr. Parsons taking the initiative and

complaining that his deacon had charged him with man stealing,

called him a thief, and accused him of offering to sell Violet, his

negro maid, for a large sum of money. The controversy was an

open sore in the church for nearly five years. March 12, 1781,

Deacon Colman was suspended from the church until he should

"by repentance and confession give Christian satisfaction" for

his offence. Nearly three years later the pastor died, and still

the difficulty continued. At length, October 26, 1785, almost

two years after Mr. Parsons' death, Deacon Colman was restored

to church fellowship on his acknowledgment "that in his treat-

ment of the Reverend Moses Parsons, the late worthy pastor of

the church, that he urged his arguments against the slavery of

Africans with excessive vehemence and asperity without show-

ing, a due concern for his character and usefulness as an elder,

or the peace and edification of the church."

One who wishes to form an opinion on this most unhappy

difference between two good men should read both Coffin's

"History of Newbury," pages 339-350, and Professor Parsons'

Memoir of Chief-justice Parsons," pages 16, 17. Professor

Parsons tells us that the minister invited the deacon to ask

Violet whether she wanted to be free, and that the deacon did

so and got an answer that was too emphatic for publication and

that restrained him from ever repeating his inquiry. Professor

Parsons also tells us that "when it was generally believed that

slavery was unlawful in Massachusetts," the minister called the

two men and the one woman whom he owned into his sitting-

room one day and there in the presence of his children told

them that they were free. The men accepted the gift or

rather the declaration," but Violet answered in the words so well

remembered in Byfield, "No! No! master, if you please, this

must not be. You have had the best of me and you and yours

must have the worst. Where am I to go in sickness or old

age? No! Master; your slave I am, and always will be, and I

will belong to your children after you are gone; and by you

and them I mean to be cared for." Violet remained in the

family until her death at the advanced age of nearly ninety,

always tenderly cared for and indulged even in her whims.

Her funeral was conducted by Professor Kirkland of Harvard

College, and she was buried in the Parsons' tomb. For very

interesting particulars concerning her, see the "Memoir of Chief-

Justice Parsons," pp. 17-18 Coffin says of Deacon Colman,

"No one entered more deeply into the cause of the suffering

and the dumb, and displayed more zeal and ability," and Profes-

sor Parsons records his belief that he was "a very good man."

After carefully reading both accounts, and consulting the origi-

nal records in our church books, I conclude that Deacon Colman

deserves high praise for his early and outspoken plea for the

slave, and that Byfield should cherish it as her high honor to

have produced such a champion of the oppressed. I also

notice that he did not acknowledge the groundlessness of his

charges, but only "excessive vehemence and asperity" in urging

them. Undoubtedly the good deacon felt that he had erred in

this respect and had thus wronged, "the late worthy pastor"

and the good cause, but he was not the last noble reformer who

has marred an advanced position by "excessive vehemence and

asperity."

Deacon Colman sent three sons to Harvard: Dudley the Lieu-

tenant-Colonel, Thomas, and Samuel. Samuel Colman, his great-

grandson was president of the American Water Color Society.

Another descendant, Rev. Reginald Pearce, is now rector of the

Episcopal church in Ipswich, so the line continues to yield

good fruit.

OTHER PARISHIONERS.

Mr. Longfellow, the blacksmith, was a leading parishioner in

the earlier part of Mr. Parsons' ministry. The entry of his

death in the pastoral record reads, "Lieut Stephen Longfellow

died Nov. 7 1764 of a lingering Disorder just entered up'n his

8oth year" An ancient bill for dry goods which undoubtedly

refers to his funeral may be found on page 155. Mr. Parsons'

diary shows Dea. Samuel Moody to have been very prominent

and useful in the parish. Mr. Parsons wrote this obituary

notice of him: "He was one who served his generation by

the Will of God & was highly esteemed and respected." The

parish seems to have been favored with a large number of

worthy and efficient women. I quote a few brief but expres-

sive obituaries from Mr. Parsons' record: "Mrs. Mary Hale

widow of Capt. Joseph Hale a mother in Israel: "Mary Chewte

Wife of Dea. James Chewte -- She was a very useful Woman

as a Midwife & as she lived desired so died much lamented;

Mrs. Abigail Longfellow Relict of Lieut. Stephen L. She

had been very useful in her day among the sick."

COLONIZATION.

Despite the ravages of war and epidemics, the vigorous stock

of our fathers multiplied, so that it not only kept the old home-

steads well peopled, but sent forth many a sturdy pioneer, and

a remarkable number to adorn conspicuous positions. Thomas

Stickney may be taken as a representative of the stalwart

emigrants from Byfield of this generation. He was one of the

fourteen children of Lieut. Benjamin Stickney of Long Hill.

The patriotic spirit of the father beat high in the boy, and when

he was but fifteen years and eight days old we find him in the

revolutionary army, and from that time on we catch occasional

glimpses of him following the patriot flag until after the sur-

render of Cornwallis. Subsequently he settled in Hallowell,

Maine, where he was an honored citizen. He was the ancestor

of a large and influential posterity. Only three days ago at

little dinner party in New York City I was introduced to

a Brooklyn author, Mrs. John K. Creevey, who cherishes an

affectionate regard for Long Hill in Byfield as the home of

her ancestors through this same Thomas Stickney. In fact one

must go far outside the limits of the parish to find many of the

most worthy representatives of the old Byfield stock and spirit.

The old parish has been to many a son and daughter but a

nursery whence they were transplanted where they might

have room to grow and multiply. There were four directions

especially whither our region then sent forth colonists: New

Hampshire to the north, Maine to the east, Ohio to the west,

and the sunny south land. Byfield had a partiality for New

Hampshire. For example, William Colman, son of the first

Deacon Benjamin, sought the rich pastures of Boscawen;

Surgeon Tenney settled in Exeter, and John Smith became

professor in Dartmouth.

SAMUEL TENNEY.

Five sons of Byfield born during this period call for pre-

eminent mention. In the order of their birth they were:

Samuel Tenney, Theophilus Parsons, John Smith, Eliphalet

Pearson, and Samuel Webber. Two of these have already been

mentioned. Samuel Tenney, whose services as surgeon have

been noticed, after the war exchanged medicine and surgery for

politics, science, and literature. He helped frame the constitu-

tion of New Hampshire; became judge of probate and member

of the national House of Representatives from 1800 to 1807.

He belonged to various learned societies and wrote valuable and

interesting essays on practical, historical, and scientific subjects.

His treatise on orcharding, written for the Massachusetts Agri-

cultural Society, was highly esteemed. His admirable descrip-

tion of "the Dark Day" in 1780 is reprinted by Gage in his

history of Rowley. My grandmother remembered that day

well. Its darkness and mystery, and the awe that it inspired,

were familiar topics of conversation in my childhood. Byfield

lay in the region where the darkness was densest. Dr. Tenney

chanced to be at home on the Tenney place that day, and

the next day set out to join his regiment in New Jersey. Dr.

Tenney's sister Lois, Mrs. Joseph Pike, was my great-grand-

mother, and he was known in our family as "Uncle Doctor."

He lived until 1816, when my mother was in her tenth year. I

have often heard her tell how "Uncle Doctor" and wife used

to drive down from Exeter in the winter in a sleigh, covered, I

think, and drawn by a pair of horses, and visit six weeks with

their relatives. In due time the Stickneys would repay the visit

with one of equal length; and yet some people think that our

fathers did not have any good times! By rare good fortune I

came upon a picture of Doctor Tenney in the possession of Mrs.

Everett Cutler of Wakefield, Mass., who kindly loaned it for

reproduction in this book. Mrs. Cutler's grandmother, Sarah

(Tenney) Cheney, was the youngest sister of Doctor Tenney.

THEOPHILUS PARSONS.

Theophilus Parsons was the son of the minister, and was

born in the old parsonage. His father's entry of his baptism is

under the heading 1750, and reads: "Theophilus Parsons (ye

2 and) my 4th son Feb. 18." Judge Parsons is the only native

of Byfield whose life has been written in full, and that fact may

indicate his pre-eminence among all the children of the ancient

parish. Much of this sketch is drawn from that memoir. One

who knew him in his childhood said of him "He was always

playing harder and studying harder than any other boy, and

which he did the hardest I do not know." The child was father

of the man. After his graduation from Harvard by singular con-

verging Providences he enjoyed the instructions of Judge Trow-

bridge in his father's house and the use of the Judge's library,

which was the best in New England. Long years after, when he

had worsted Alexander Hamilton in a case in court, Hamilton

asked him how he came to be so well posted on a certain point

that came up, and he replied that he made a brief of the authori-

ties upon that point when he was a student with Judge Trow-

bridge. Excessive study brought on bleeding at the lungs, and

he seemed far gone with consumption at twenty-seven, but his wise

mother told him to mount the old family horse and ride until he

was well. The first day he was so weak that he could only ride

seven miles, and that at a walk, but as he rode his strength in-

creased day by day until he could ride more hours than the

horse could carry him, and so when his horse was tired he

walked, and when at length he returned he was in good health.

In 1778 a constitution was proposed by the legislature for

Massachusetts, and a convention met in Ipswich to consider it.

This convention condemned it very strongly, principally because

the government which it would set up would be very weak.

The statement published by this convention is known as "the

Essex Result." It was very influential in securing the decisive

rejection of the proposed constitution. Theophilus Parsons

wrote that "Result," though he had but just entered his twenty-
ninth year. When the Massachusetts constitution was framed

Samuel Webber

1760-1810

President of Harvard University, 1806-1810

Elphalet Pearson, LL.D. Chief-Justice Theophilus Parsons

1752-1826 1750-1813

in 1780, although Mr. Parsons was but thirty years old, "many

of the most important articles were of his draft," and he was

regarded as its chief author. When the new national constitu-

tion was under consideration in the Massachusetts convention of

1788, and the question whether it should be accepted or rejected

trembled in the balance, Mr. Parsons moved its ratification, and

Chief-Justice Parker pronounced him "the master spirit of that

assembly." He was already recognized as the leading member

of the bar. Mr. Parsons was appointed Chief-Justice in 18o6

and accepted the appointment, thereby exchanging an income

at the bar of about ten thousand dollars for a salary of twelve

hundred and thirty-three dollars. He made the sacrifice in the

hope of improving the judiciary, where delays were at that time

very protracted. His work as Chief-Justice fully realized the

high expectations of the people, and although individual

lawyers were at times exasperated to be relentlessly cut short as

they were by him, his justice and ability and never-failing good

humor won the heartiest consideration from the bar as a whole.

The State showed its appreciation of his services by raising his

salary first to twenty-five hundred dollars and then to thirty-five

hundred. Judge Story said of him, in view of his entire career,

that he was "a head and shoulders taller than any other man

in the whole State." Chief-Justice Parker said of Mr. Parsons'

most eminent contemporaries, "They were great men; he was a

wonderful man," and that "for more than thirty years" he was

"acknowledged the great man of his time." Oliver Wendell

Holmes said that his father-in-law, Judge Jackson, regarded

Mr. Parsons as "the one great man whom he had met with and

known." Fisher Ames called him, "our Ajax."

He had a passion for knowledge. He collected a library of

over six thousand volumes, most of them imported; his special-

ties were Greek, the natural sciences, and mathematics. His

wit was quick and keen and inexhaustible, but genial; he was

the soul of kindness, would never take a fee of a widow or a

minister, shunned notoriety, and looked down on no one. He

loved his home better than any other place, and was always

there when evening came, and his great extension table that

would seat thirty was often full. I am sorry to add that he was

"wholly unconcerned as to the color, quality, and condition of

his wardrobe," hated exercise, was a slave to tobacco, lived

highly, and drank freely after their, custom of his day. He

regularly replenished his case with five hundred cigars when

setting, out on a circuit; he also chewed, and took snuff; but

toward the close of his life, finding his health impaired, he quit

tobacco and drank very little. When he died Chief-Justice

Parker, from whose address I have already quoted, said, re-

ferring to his active mind and sedentary habits, that he "should

have lived to the age of sixty-three is rather a matter of as-

tonishment than that, he should then have died." In religion

he, was not a Calvinist, but he kept the Sabbath strictly, chang-

ing all his course of reading on that day and requiring his

family to do the same. In his later years he joined the church.

His pastor said that in his last illness his trust was "in the

pardoning mercy of God declared by his Son to penitent men,"

and that he invariably asked prayers that he might be sub-

missive in life and death. He solemnly declared two days

before his death, "I could as soon doubt of the existence of

God himself as of the truth of the Christian religion." After

he had been silent for some time and his family had given up

hope of hearing the loved voice again, he suddenly revived and

said, " Gentlemen of the jury, the case is closed and in your

hands. You will please retire and agree upon your verdict."

These were his last words.

He was six feet tall and had an eye that seemed to read one's

inmost soul. The portrait of him which is given in this book

was presented by him to the mother of Mrs. Forbes. Such in

most meagre outline was the great Theophilus Parsons. His

posterity has been distinguished. His son Theophilus was an

eminent professor of law in Harvard, and his granddaughter

Emily Elizabeth was a most devoted and efficient hospital

nurse during the Civil War, and the founder of the Cambridge

Hospital. Her memoir, written by her father, is very touching

and inspiring. The Parsons stock still gives promise of dis-

tinguished usefulness in the future.

John Smith, who was baptized December 15, 1751, was born

in the house where Mr. Frank Hazen lives. His father was a

chair-maker. He put his son under Master Moody's tuition as

soon as the boy could appreciate such a privilege. Young

John used to learn his lessons by pine-knots, sitting in the

huge fireplace where he could look up at the stars. He

planned to go to far-away Yale, but a great treat came to him

in his twentieth year that determined all his after life; for his

teacher invited him in the month of August to accompany him

on the wild journey up through the primeval forest, in the

retinue of Governor Wentworth, to Dartmouth's first commence-

ment. It was a wonderful event for the infant college, and was

celebrated by the roasting of an ox at the cost of the generous

Governor. Master Moody's wit and stories added zest to the

journey and the festivities. The result for young Smith was

that he entered the junior class of Dartmouth, was graduated

there in 1773, became the first professor in the college, and

there labored, except as briefly interrupted by the war, until his

death in 1809. In his Junior year he read all the Hebrew Bible,

most of it twice. He published Latin, Hebrew, and Greek

grammars. Three editions of the Latin Grammar were called

for. He did not merely absorb languages, but investigated the

nature of language and introduced a new method into his gram-

mars. He was also college librarian, and he and his wife kept

the college bookstore; he was at the same time a preacher and

the pastor of the college church, and his ministerial work was

richly owned of God. His first wife was Mary Cleaveland,

daughter of the Rev. Ebenezer Cleaveland of Gloucester. She

was a young lady of great beauty and attractiveness, but her

charms did not long grace "the wild woods of Hanover," for

this flower of the wilderness was cut down in her twenty-fifth

year. John Law Olmstead is the descendant of Professor

Smith and Mary Cleaveland. His second wife was Susan

Mason, daughter of Col. David Mason of Boston. Her name

at first was Sukie; when she joined the church it was Susan; in

her old age it was Susannah; what it is in heaven I do not

know," said Rev. Dr. Leeds of Hanover in conversation with the

author. She went from her home in the centre of New Eng-

land's wealth and culture on horseback along a blazed path

through the forest to Hanover foil, her wedding journey, and

subsequently repeated the romantic trip five times. She lived

until 1845 and left a memoir of her husband in manuscript.

This memoir may be in existence, but I have failed to find it,

and so have the college authorities of Dartmouth, who have

kindly searched the college archives for it. As I write there

lies before me, on paper yellow with age, a letter kindly loaned

me by the owner, Mr. Samuel T. Poor, which was written to his

great-grandfather, Capt. Joseph Poor, in 1784, by Professor

Smith. This letter shows his generous thoughtfulness for two

maiden aunts. Professor Smith was not only a great scholar,

he was remarkably pure, modest, and unselfish, -- a most lov-

able Christian; his name will always be a treasure to the parish

that gave him birth.

ELIPHALET PEARSON.

Eliphalet Pearson was born near the station, in the house now

occupied by Mr. Albion Witham. He was baptized June 7,

1752. He fitted for college under Master Moody, and walked

back and forth each day the more than three miles which

separated his father's house from the Academy, largely pre-

paring for his recitations while on the road. He and Theophilus

Parsons were classmates in Harvard, and at their graduation in

1773 had a dispute on the African slave-trade, which awakened

so great admiration that it was published. Shortly after his

graduation young Pearson taught a grammar-school in An-

dover. At the same time he studied theology and became an

effective preacher, although he was never settled. In 1775 we

find him superintending the manufacture of gunpowder in the

same town for the patriot army. The need was pressing and

the floors of old barns and sheds were pulled up to get salt-

petre from underneath, and the mill was run night and day

including Sundays. In 1778 he became the first Principal of

Phillips Academy in Andover, and retained the position until

1786, when he was elected Professor of Hebrew and other

oriental languages in his Alma Mater. Here he served with

distinction for twenty years. He was perhaps most noted as a

literary critic. He boasted that he had driven bombast out of

the college. Both Yale and Princeton recognized his eminence

as a scholar and teacher by giving him the degree of LL.D. in

1802. He was Samuel Webber's principal competitor for the

office of President in 1806, both being Byfield boys, and when

Mr. Webber was chosen Dr. Pearson resigned. He forthwith

devoted all of his immense energy and ability to the foundation

of a Theological Seminary in Andover. This institution was

understood to be the opposite of Harvard College in theology.

Dr. Pearson's many-sided ability shone conspicuously in this

work as founder and organizer. He is even said to have

selected the commanding site and to have laid out the grounds.

It is to him that the Seminary owes the terraces, walks, and

avenues, and the lines of noble elms, that make the spot so

lovely in its June anniversary. He was the first professor in the

Seminary, but he resigned after one year. "I suppose," Pro-

fessor Park wrote me shortly before his death, " that he left the

Seminary through dissatisfaction with Dr. Woods." Professor

Park defined him as an "old-fashioned New England Calvinist,

as distinguished from the Scotch Calvinists of his day and in

opposition to the more extreme Calvinism of the Hopkinsians."

The modifications which Dr. Pearson's religious views under-

went are interesting. Professor Park says in the same letter:

"Some of the opposers of the Andover Seminary Creed con-

tend that Dr. Pearson would never have signed that creed.

Mr. Farrer [Treasurer of the Seminary and Dr. Pearson's.

intimate friend] contended that he, would have signed it at the

height of the Unitarian controversy, but that in his old age, after

his mind had failed, he might have wavered in regard to it. An

aged Unitarian minister told me that Calvinism 'tasted sweeter'

to Dr. Pearson at the opening of the Seminary than it ever did

before or since." May not his recent defeat at Harvard have

temporarily accentuated Dr. Pearson's Calvinism? He died

September 12, 1826, while on a visit to a married daughter in

Greenland, N. H. In 1900 I visited his grave in Greenland

cemetery. It is a solitary grave inclosed by a plain iron fence.

On the fence is a small brass tablet, closely engraved with his

many honors and offices, all being overshadowed by lofty pines

apparently of nature's own planting. Such a grave is in keeping

with the simplicity and strength of his character. His mind

has been described as "imperial and imperious," nevertheless

there was underneath a current of warm Christian kindness that

ever and anon would break out in the beautiful treatment of

some sick or wayward pupil. For instance, if he was obliged

to leave the school-room when he taught the Academy, he would

put the room in charge of a monitor, and on his return receive a

report of the behavior of the pupils. On one such occasion he

found that a boy had left his seat and taken the Preceptor's desk.

He called him up and something like this conversation ensued:

"Jack, have you been out of your place?" "Yes, sir." "What

did you do when you got out of it?" "I made up faces and

made signs to the boys." "Monitor, did Jack do all this?" I

did not see him, sir." "I forgive you, Jack, because you have

told the truth. I love an open mind. I shall not punish you, but

you must not do the same thing again." He took thought for

the souls as well as for the minds of his pupils and used to urge

upon them the habit of secret prayer. Dr. Pearson was a man

who "did things," one who might well have found a place

among, Carlyle's Heroes. Professor Park was urgent for a

bronze statue of him to stand in front of Phillips Academy.

This were well, but he already has a nobler monument in the

Academy and the Seminary. Professor Park had a trunk full

of Pearson papers, and always wanted to write the life of the

great educator. Would that he might have carried out this

work! Somebody, first of all some one of the Andover scholar

sought to write that life. It would make a fitting companion to

the memoir of Dr. Pearson's fellow-parishioner and classmate,

Theophilus Parsons. The late lamented Dr. Bancroft of Phillips

Academy, to whom I am much indebted in what I have written

of Dr. Pearson, wrote of him fourteen years ago: "He seems

to me a man not simply great, but very great."

SAMUEL WEBBER.

Mr. Parsons thus entered the baptism of President Webber:

1760

Samuel, of Jno. Webber, Jan. 20.

Samuel Webber is said to have been born on the Caldwell

place. When he was ten years old the family removed to

Hopkinton, N. H. For this reason few traditions have been

handed down about him in the parish of his birth. He had

begun to study with Master Moody, but his father was in

humble circumstances and either did not appreciate a liberal

education or did not think that he could afford to give one to

his son, and so until he had almost reached manhood Samuel

seemed likely to follow the plough to the end of his life -- an

honorable calling, but he was fitted for something rarer, for

Fair science frowned not on his humble birth.

The minister of Hopkinton at that time was a Mr. Fletcher

presumably a faithful and successful pastor, but all unknown to

fame save that he saw the choice gifts of this farmer youth and

at length persuaded his father to permit him to pursue his

studies. Mr. Fletcher himself superintended those studies, and

within a few months young Webber was fitted for Harvard.

Mr. Webber always cherished the memory of this humble,

country pastor, to whom he owed so much, with the warmest

gratitude. He entered in 1780, being, twenty years old, an age

at which many were graduated at that time, but lie took the

highest rank in scholarship, notwithstanding his early disad-

vantages. After his graduation he remained in the college and

studied theology, and had begun to, preach, when in the year

1786 he was recalled to Dummer to be Master Moody's assist-

ant. He there won the hearts of Master, Trustees, pupils, and

neighbors, for his rare qualifications of mind and heart, all made

the more winsome by his great modesty, but the times were

bad financially and he resigned and returned to his father's

house in Hopkinton, and resumed his divinity studies, preaching

as he had opportunity. Meanwhile Master Moody wrote an

exceedingly eulogistic letter in his behalf to the President of

Harvard College. The letter is so interesting in itself, and the

literary remains of Master Moody are so few, that I print it in

the Appendix, although possibly it shows that decline of his

mental powers which made it best that the great teacher should

lay down his sceptre only three years later. It certainly shows

that spirit of fulsome flattery which according to J. Q. Adams'

diary marked Master Moody's later years. While Master

Moody expressed an extravagant admiration for his young

assistant he wanted to be fair, and so he wrote: "He is incident

to Reverie and Brown Studies. I have often, when his classes

in the languages were around him, surprised him Absent and

in another World, but never have catched him a wool gathering

with his Mathematical Pupils; here he is ever alive, awake and

alert -- Mathematics are, I think, his peculiar genius. They

are a high luxury to him. Here he (I had like to have said)

revels and riots wanton and unbounded." Probably as a result

of his Principal's recommendation, Mr. Webber was called to be

tutor in Harvard. He gave so great satisfaction that in 1789

he was made Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural

Philosophy. He filled this position with distinguished success

and usefulness for seventeen years. During this period he

published a text-book in philosophy which was introduced

into kindred institutions. He also had the high honor to be

appointed by the United States government to determine by

astronomical calculations the true boundary between the United

States and British America. It was with reluctance that he

exchanged the professor's chair, which was so congenial to him

and in which he had won such distinction, for the arduous duties

of the President of the College in 1806, but the same qualities

of mind and heart which had made his professorship so emi-

nently successful shone out in the more conspicuous position.

He was but forty-six years old, and a long career of very un-

usual influence and usefulness as President seemed opening

before him, but it was not so ordered. Only four years later,

in his fifty-first year, while stooping to pick, up a pin he died

of apoplexy. His death was probably hastened by over-work

and by confinement within doors, which wore upon this son of

the soil, and also by the death of his eldest son the year before.

In theology President Webber represented, that wing, of the

Congregational communion which shortly developed into the

Unitarian body. His election over Dr. Pearson was recognized

as the victory of that party. President Webber's character

was full of beauty. His wisdom equalled his learning, and

his dignity and enthusiasm were blended with gentleness and

patience. In the domestic relations he was particularly de-

voted and beloved. His parents were richly repaid for letting

him leave the farm by the grateful tenderness with which he

cared for their declining years. He has a numerous posterity

of worth and prominence, to one of whom, Mr. William 0.

Webber of Boston, I am greatly indebted for facts and docu-

ments pertaining to the family of their noble ancestor. I have

also drawn largely from Professor Ware's Eulogy upon Presi-

dent Webber.

The remarkable number of great men who have sprung from

the country parishes of New England is well known.. Those

frugal and hard-working, thoughtful and God-fearing communi-

ties have had wonderful potency in our national history, but I

think few of them ever produced within twelve years five names

to match those of the scientist and statesman Samuel Tenney,

the great teachers John Smith, Samuel Webber, and Eliphalet

Pearson, and the jurist Chief-Justice Theophilus Parsons. All

of these were baptized by Mr. Parsons between November 20,

1748, and January 20, 1760. Of these, Theophilus Parsons

sprang from an ancient and eminent family, but the other four

were from the common people, but common people of the

uncommon New England type. President Eliot said in his

welcome to Prince Henry of Germany last March (1902):

"Democracy promotes human beings of remarkable natural

gifts, who appear as sudden outbursts of personal power, with-

out prediction or announcement through family merit." Change

the last word to prominence, and President Eliot's remark is

illustrated by the eminence attained by those sons of the

common people whose careers have just been outlined.

THE PASTOR AND HIS HOME.

The minister was the first citizen of the parish, and through

his diary he is the best known to us. He was a faithful pastor.

My great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Stickney, was sick unto

death in the winter of 1756. Long Hill, where he lived, was as

high, the distance from the parsonage as great over two

miles -- the winters as severe, and the roads not as good as

now, but Mr. Parsons' diary indicates that he made seven visits

to that hill between February I and March 8, when Mr. Stickney

was buried. One is reminded of the old English picture of a

good pastor:

Wide was his parish, and houses far asonder,

But he ne left nought ...

In sicknesse . . . to visite

The ferrest in his parish ...

He was a tender shepherd of the lambs, who went hither and

thither throughout the parish catechising the children from

house to house. He also preached "to ye young pp" [people]

from time to time. So, though there was no Sunday-School,

the young did not lack Christian nurture. Mr. Parsons main-

tained strict discipline in the church. The most frequent occa-

sion was that married couples had been improperly intimate

with each other before their marriage. In almost every in-

stance the discipline resulted in the confession and restoration

of the offenders. It need hardly be said that Mr. Parsons was

faithful to his Sabbath duties. If the weather was too severe

for his horse he walked, if the snow was very deep he wore

snow-shoes. If he was too weak through occasional illness to

stand, he preached in his chair; this he did in 1776 from

August 18 to November 24; if he was too ill to go to the

meeting-house or to write out a sermon, the entry in his diary

would sometimes be like this: "1775 Jan. I pd in ye Parsonage

house extempore." He was however, repeatedly so sick as to

be laid by altogether from work.

Mr. Parsons has been charged with a lack of spirituality, but

I think the charge a mistake. The only evidence brought in

proof is the small number that he received into the church. It

is true that he received into full communion during his long

pastorate but forty-seven, that is, an average of a little over one

a year, but those were days when people demanded of them-

selves so great evidence of conversion that they were apt to

draw back with trembling from full church membership; so

they would venture to enter into covenant with the church and

submit to its discipline without coming to the Lord's table.

Such a relation to the church was called a half-way covenant.

One, hundred and forty-three thus "owned the covenant." It

should also be remembered that from 1765, when the Stamp Act

was passed, first politics and then war distracted attention from

the gospel. Every page of Mr. Parsons' diary breathes a warm

Christian spirit. He had his choice of two ministerial associa-

tions and selected the more evangelical. He became, as we

have seen, the warm friend of Whitefield. Every sermon of his

that I have met, whether in print or manuscript, is full of gospel

earnestness. Permit me to quote from one of them. Shall not

those who are of Byfield stock receive it as the voice of the pas-

tor of our fathers addressed to us from the skies? "All are by

depraved Nature and sinful Practices out of the way of Salva-

tion; that is, under Guilt and Condemnation, obnoxious to the

justice and the Wrath of God and so exposed to all the miseries

of this Life and of that which will never end. . . . But Glory

to God in the highest, that there is Peace and Good will pub-

lished to men here upon Earth . . . the Invitation of the

Gospel is made to all . . . all are welcome to Christ if Christ

be but welcome to their Souls." Mr. Parsons was a clear, in-

teresting, forcible preacher, one who had the good sense to

steer clear of theological subtleties and extremes.

He was an all-round man; one who kept up his acquaintance

with him Alma Mater through occasional visits to her, and who

met her professors at the social board in Byfield; one who with

his good wife was very often seen at the tables of his parish-

ioners, and who in turn entertained with a hearty and never

failing hospitality; as a farmer he stocked his orchard with

choice fruit, and took an honest pride in the weight of his pigs;

he was a sportsman too, whose sure aim brought down many a

savory specimen of game for the table. The parsonage was

enlivened with young peoples' parties, singing-meetings and

sewing-bees. From 1758 on, it appears to have been cheered

by the regular visits of a newspaper. He and his wife had ten

children to care for, but they discovered the secret by which on

a salary, including fuel, of $280.00 with the free-will offerings of

a loving people, they not only lived respectably and entertained

bountifully, but sent three boys to college.

THE LIFE OF THE PEOPLE.

Mr. Parsons had an interesting people. Almost all kinds of

handicraft seem to have been practised in the parish. One that

has passed away made cheerful music in every house that of

the spinning-wheel and the loom, but people often hired a part

of their weaving done. The first Hale ledger has frequent

charges like this:

June 1751 to weven 33 yards

of tow and Lining [Linen] 8 - 10 - 2 [L 8 10s. 2 d].

The table had some delicacies obtained at hand that now only

come from outside the parish, if at all, such as wild pigeons,

shad, and salmon. Potatoes became more common, and even

then Maine potatoes seem to have been in demand. In 1776,

Deacon Hale sold Moses Lull eight bushels of "Mount desert"

potatoes at Is. 8d. ($0.30) a bushel. For drink, distilled liquors,

especially rum, were becoming banefully common. I do not

remember any entry of such liquors in the Longfellow ledger

of Mr. Hale's day, but such entries are common in the Hale

ledger of Mr. Parsons' time and the Jeremiah Pearson ledger of

the same period. Flag-bottomed chairs were in common use,

and flags to bottom them were sold at two shillings ($0.33 1/3) a

bundle. People wore garments with curious names, such as

banyans and gragoes and Josephs. These names appear in the

ledger of Reuben Pearson, the tailor; the banyan was a loose

gown or wrapper, and the grago or grego, perhaps a short

jacket or cloak, sometimes hooded, and the Joseph a long riding-

coat, with a cape, worn on horseback by both men and women;

they threw cloths called houzen over their saddles for easy

riding; and Captain Hale the cordwainer, or shoemaker, made

for their feet, along with many other sorts of footwear, the golo,

possibly a sort of galosh or overshoe. For material, homespun

was of course the staple, but along with that they wore sheep-

skin, and also beaverskin, deerskin, and moosehide, for the wild

life of the forest was still near at hand. Wall papers, and that

with a border, began to add to the attractiveness of the homes.

In July 1775, Captain Hale, or his son the Deacon, bought "6

Rolls of paper Hanging" for 1 pound, that is, some sixty cents

a roll, and at the same time "6 1/4 yrds of Bordering." Only the

best room could be papered, we may be sure, when the paper

was so expensive. Mrs. J. C. Peabody's house still retains some

of the earliest paper put Oil in Byfield. It is of a large and

tasteful pattern. Trade was still largely barter. Reuben Pearson,

the tailor, credits one customer "by half a peck of indian meal,"

and another "by six eggs," and "by half a pound of butter,"

and yet another "by half a Load of mean hay." If they settled

the balance with hard money they used many a strange coin,

such as a Johannes, which was a great Portuguese gold coin

worth some seventeen dollars, or a Pistareen, a little Spanish

silver coin worth about twenty cents, the original of the peseta

of the Spanish countries of our day, or sometimes that "mighty

coin," the Spanish or Mexican piece of eight reals stamped

with the pillars of Hercules, the original of our dollar: speci-

mens of it were still in circulation when we old boys were

young. One of the Hale ledgers of the 18th century has pasted

on the inside of the cover two leaves of an almanac showing the

value of the coins of various, nations, and giving a table dis-

playing the equivalent of Old Tenor in Lawful Money. Those

yellow leaves suggest how difficult it was to keep accounts with

so motley a currency, and how impossible it is often to deter-

mine the value of articles from the statement in the currency of

that day. When at last by barter, or paper, or coin, or guess-

work, they had succeeded in balancing their accounts, they

closed them up with some such statement as this in Reuben.

Pearson's ledger: "Decemr 1786 then Setled all accompts with

Mr Nehemiah Jewett from the begining of the world to this

Day." The Academy boys used candles for light and paid

Deacon Hale six shillings or $1.00 a week for board. Deacon

Hale has this entry -- one of a number giving the same price

for board:

1775 Brigadier Genrl Pribble [Preble]

Novr Dr

To Boarding yr son from

6 Novr untill ye 3rd

April 1776 being 21 weeks

2d [days] at 6s pr week 6 - 7 - 8

This son was the boy whom Master Moody tried to frighten by

bringing the fire shovel down with great force close to his head,

and of whom he exclaimed, in pride at the boy's invincible cool-

ness, " Boys, did you observe the Brigadier, when I struck? He

never winked. He'll be a general yet." Young Preble's after

career in the navy justified Master Moody's prediction. The

academy school year seems to have covered forty-nine weeks,

judging from the deacon's charges for board. Household help

could be relied upon to stay, if the following entry in Deacon

Hale's account book was typical of the times: "1778 Mary

Crombe left my Family the fifteenth Day of October 1778 hav-

ing Lived in my Family 8 years & five months including some

intermissions."

Some of the people were fond of reading. No doubt the

minister's wife's passion for literature had an influence in the

parish, and the presence of the Academy would tell in the same

direction, and the reading was no longer exclusively religious,

for the outcome of the Revolution made good Christians feel

that they had a country on earth as well as in heaven. The

following is not the only entry in the Hale ledgers that has a

literary flavor:

1782 Capt. Edmund Sawyer Cr.

By one Volume history of war

" Mr. Parsons Sermons [probably Mr. Parsons of Newburyport]

" one Number Histry war

" Mr. Danas Sermon

" " Edwards Piece on Redempn

" No I Histry of the War

The invoice of the estate of Capt. Joseph Hale, who died in

1754, and who began the first of the extant Hale ledgers, may

be quoted as showing the amount, and proportion, of real estate

and stock that a thrifty farmer of the period had:

Real Estate Orchard I [acre], Tiling [tillage or ploughed ground]

7, moing 34, Pasturin 30, 2 Horses, 2 oxen, 8 cows, 24 Sheep, 2

Swine.

The following are a few of the houses of Byfield which are

memorials of those times (I take these for samples simply

because I happen to know more of their history): the Tenney

house near Long Hill was built probably about 1750 by

Nathaniel Tenney, father of the Congressman and grand

father of the Chief-Justice, who will come before us in the next period;

the Minchin house by the saw mill was built probably a little

earlier by Samuel Stickney, whose children have been men-

tioned as New Brunswick pioneers; the Ewell house probably

dates from about the same time, but was moved from its original

site south of the Taylor lane to where it now stands about 1797;

the Hale house by the Academy is shown by entries in the

ledger to have been built or at least begun in 1764, to take the

place of an earlier house which was pulled down in that year.

The excellent condition of all these houses after a century and

a half of service shows the skill and honesty of their builders;

there was no sham in their work.

The beautiful double row of elms in front of Mr. E. P. Noyes'

house is said to have been planted by his great-great-grand-

father as Liberty trees in the year 1776, to commemorate the

1 Number, -- that is, of a work published in parts.

Declaration of Independence. They were thirty in number

originally, and a pound of pork was paid for planting each

one.

Our good ancestors of that period were superstitious. Miss

Emery has preserved the account of a dreadful giant some twenty

feet high, clothed in black, that stalked swiftly through the air

near the ground, gliding through walls and fences without dis-

turbing them, one spring Sunday afternoon, from the Academy

to the meeting-house, and through Warren Street to Deacon

Searle's house -- now Mr. L. R. Moody's -- and beyond, until

Deacon Searle saw it vanish over Hunslow Hill. The giant

screamed as he rushed along and stupefied the beholders with

terror and set the cows to running and bellowing. No wonder

Deacon Colman to whose published narrative we are indebted

for this marvellous bit of Byfield history (?) thought it an omen

of divine displeasure against his slaveholding pastor, but prob-

ably the pastor gave it a different interpretation and one quite

as correct.

The people suffered from quaint and fearful diseases such as

"an Imposthume" in the head, or "ye rising of ye Light;"

sometimes, however, one was simply "worn out with eating age

till the weary wheels of life at length stood still." (Mr. Parsons'

record of deaths.) The methods of treatment were as curious

as the diseases, even the poor cattle suffered from the fondness

for blood letting. Captain Hale charges Mr. Richard Kent for

"blooding your Catil." I am not sure but Mrs. Parsons showed

her usual superior wisdom in abjuring the medical science of

her day as "no science at all," and solemnly charging her

children, should she be sick and delirious not to give her any

medicine "come what might." One wonders whether the med-

ical science of our day could not have mitigated the ravages

of "the throat distemper" from which the parish still suffered.

Captain Hale had thirteen children, but lost all but the deacon

in their infancy of this scourge.

An elaborate funeral was a costly tribute of affection. One

who did not know the worth of the faded document lately

burned a very long Byfield funeral bill. The following account

Warren Street The Tenney House

District Schoolhouse

Grave of Eliphalet Pearson

The picture is correct; the railing sags

of a fraction of the funeral expenses of Lieut. Stephen Long-

fellow the blacksmith is a copy of one loaned me by Mr. Horace

Longfellow.

Dr Edward and Samuel Longfellow

To Anthony Gwynn --

To 5 1/4. yards Lute String (a 6o/ 15 - 15 - 0

To 8 yards women Sipros a 2o/ 8 - 0 - 0

To 8 3/4 yards hat Crape a 14/ 6 - 2 - 6

To 5 pr Mens Gloves a 17/6 4 - 7 - 6

To 5 pr womens Gloves a 17/6 4 - 7 - 6

To sowing Silk -- 9 - 5

To 3 pr Black Buckles -- 1 - 10 - 0

L 40 - 11 - 11

17 - 15 - 1 19 - 17 - 7

2 - 2 - 6

19 - 17 - 7 Sent by John 20 - 14 - 4

Longfellow to pay part of this

this sent Desemr ye 22 - 1764

This bill indicates that "a weed" for the hat and expensive

buckles and gloves, and costly silk and veils of "sipros" were a

part of the funeral attire. The seven items of this bill foot up

to the equivalent of about one hundred and fifty dollars, reckon-

ing the shilling equal to three-fourths the sterling shilling (see

p. 109).

The age continued respectful. Deacon Hale speaks of his

father-in-law as "My Honrd Father Northend." Woman was

accorded more honor than before. There are many records of

the appointment of committees of men to promote singing in

public worship, but it was not, so far as I have found, until

March 6, 1781, that any women were put on such a committee.

It was then "Voted to appropriate the Two Womens Seats in

the front Gallery for Such Women as are Skilled in musick to

Set in."

The industrial progress of the parish continued. The first

snuff mill in New England, and probably in the country, was

built about 1750, at the mills village [the village at the station]

and it has been continued (though with some suspensions) to

the present time." At about the same time "there were iron

works on the site of the present Larkin snuff mill, the ore being

largely obtained in Byfield and vicinity."1

The parish continued in close connection with the outer

world, and a trip to Boston seems to have been frequent.

Reuben Pearson's usual charge for "my horse to Boston" was

12s, or $2.oo. A little later than this period, that is in 1794,

Deacon Hale hired Sewall Woodman in the spring for seven

months at $8.oo a month; so that it would take about a week's

wages to hire a horse to Boston, and there would be the time

and board of one's self and horse in addition probably for three

days.

Our people were still very religious. Not content with the

two long sermons preached on Sunday, they used to appoint

committees "to read some Suitable Discourse to such as tarry

at ye Meeting-House between Public Exercises," and also and

this last clause shows that human nature was much the same

then as now, and that even young people in Puritan families

needed a little watching -- "to see yt ye Sabbath be not pro-

faned." Their fidelity to public worship appears in the pastor's

entry in his diary for the Lord's Day January 6, 1765:

Stormy, snow, No woman at meeting. No horse at ye Meeting--

House, tard [tarried] at noon 15 min, few pp [people] abt 70.

It was mid-winter, the snow was probably already deep, and

it was still falling, very likely there was a blizzard; not

woman could face the storm, there was not a man but was too

merciful to his horse to take him out, and the parish was four

miles in diameter: yet about seventy men waded through the

snow and buffeted the storm to worship God in his house, and

they stayed through the two services in that unheated house,

cold and damp as they must have been. Heroic record! heroic

ancestors of ours! magnificent legacy to all generations of their

posterity, of love for the Lord's house!

I Manuscript essay on "Parker River Manufacturers," by the late Mr. J. C.

Peabody.

THE PASTOR'S LAST DAYS.

Time wore on and the pastor, who had given his people the

strength of his youth and the wisdom of his maturity, was

approaching old age; still in the course of nature it seemed that

his pastorate might be continued for some years ; but the end

was at hand. The last three entries in his diary are these:

S.D. [Sabbath Domini = Lord's Day] Dec. 7 No Meetg unwell wth a

cold.

Dec. 8 Mondy, mode [moderate.]

9 Tuesday mode cloudy

Five days later he died. The cold which developed into this

fatal illness is said to have been contracted in attending a

funeral; this was in keeping with the fidelity which had charac-

terized his entire pastoral life. His son Theophilus reached

home the day before his father died. He wrote to his sister:

"He smiled upon me as usual, and professed his perfect readi-

ness to go, saying that he was satisfied in his religion and that

his hopes were firm."

The chamber where the good man meets his fate

Is privileged beyond the common walks of life,

Quite on the verge of heaven.

Professor Tappan of Harvard preached the funeral sermon

and Rev. Mr. Frisby of Ipswich delivered an oration at the

grave. Both emphasized in similar language the blended grace

and dignity of his "commanding presence," and Professor

Tappan eulogized among other traits his good judgment, quick

perception, and fluent and pleasing speech, his frankness,

enlivening humor, and remarkable purity and self-control, and

his rare gift in prayer, but the sermon contains no higher

tribute than this, that he was "the same good man both at

home and abroad." Mr. Parsons must have been in personal

presence, in mind and in heart, a New England country pastor

of the best type.

RETROSPECT

During this second period in the life of our parish, the vigor

and prolific increase of our people were undiminished, and they

continued to improve the conditions of the life at home, and

to extend their local industries and also to send forth the sturdy

pioneer and the educated leader. The secret of their strength

was, as it had been all along, their virtue and integrity, and

their church-going, God-fearing character, although religion

may not, have been so prevalent and deep as in the previous

generation. Their fortitude was tested by more continuous war

than in any other period, whether of pioneers or parish foun-

ders, but the outcome of it all was that before the close of the

period they emerged from subjection to the British crown into

self-government with all its privileges and responsibilities, its

perils and high hopes. At the same time that they broke the

shackles that bound themselves, they voluntarily removed

those by which they had held their fellow-men in bondage, so

that henceforth civil and personal liberty joined hands in the

good old commonwealth. In all the conflict and sacrifice which

opened the way to this larger and freer arena our parish

responded with alacrity to every draft upon its patriotism.

The most important event of the period was the opening of

Dummer Academy, alike for its quickening influence on the

intellectual life of the parish and because it made Byfield an

intellectual centre of the country. It was especially such a

centre during this very period, for it was not until near its close

that the Academy had any rival. Many a man knows just one

thing of Byfield, and that is that it is the seat of Dummer

Academy. Hitherto there had been one leading person in

Byfield -- the minister; henceforth there were to be two the

minister and the Master of the Academy.

CHAPTER VII.

FROM THE DEATH OF THE REV. MOSES PARSONS,

DEC. 14, 1783, TO THE DEATH OF THE REV.

ELIJAH PARISH, D.D., OCT. 15, 1825

Special Authorities for this Period. - MANUSCRIPT: Mary Cleaveland Channell's

diary (1810-1829). Miss Channell was a niece of Dr. Parker Cleaveland, and

lived with her widowed mother 'in the house where Mr. Asa Rogers now lives.

Her stone in the old burying-ground says that she died September 26, 1830, aged

34 years. Her diary and the traditions concerning her indicate that she was a

very interesting young lady.

ORAL: Reminiscences of Dr. Parish and his times told me by his contem-

poraries. The community had many such persons in my youth. Possibly the

last one in the circle of my acquaintance was taken from us when Mrs. Otis

Thompson died September 27, 1902. I am much indebted to the reminiscences

of that worthy lady. My last call upon her was on her ninetieth birthday,

August 22, 1902. Her mind was clear, and her heart sunny, and I noted down

from her lips some additional memories of the olden times.

PRINTED: Dr. Parish's Sermons. Four brief printed sketches of Dr. Parish,

namely those by Dr. Sprague, and a "constant hearer" in Sprague's "Annals of the

American Pulpit," Vol. 11, and two by Dr. Withington, one in "Contributions to the

Ecclesiastical History of Essex County," and the other prefixed to the volume of

Dr. Parish's Sermons; Woods' "Life and Character of Parker Cleaveland;" arti-

cles on Paul Moody and John Dummer in the "Contributions of Old Residents'

Association" of Lowell, Mass.; John Foss' "Journal;" John Quincy Adams'

"Diary" while he was a pupil of Theophilus Parsons in Newburyport; President

Dwight's "Travels;" "The Life of Mary Lyon." Other authorities will be cited

in the course of the chapter.

BETWEEN PASTORATES.

AFTER the death of Mr. Parsons repeated fasts were ob-

served for divine guidance in "Resettling the Gospel."

The arrangements were somewhat elaborate; six ministers were

invited to participate in the services. For one of these fasts a

committee was appointed to secure "a Suitable House as near

the Meeting House as conveniently may be to accommodate the

Revrd Gentlemen who are to lead." At about this time it was

Voted that Capt. Daniel Chute and Capt. Joseph Poor be desired

to read the Psalm or Hymn which may be sung on Lord's Day or on

other Days except on the last time singing on said Days, when Dea.

Searl is absent also that they be desired to set in the Pew by the

Pulpit.

We may suppose that hymn-books were not generally owned,

and that the custom of deaconing the hymns, that is, giving them

out by the deacons line by line still continued, and that good

Deacon Searle could not always be at "meeting" because of

the infirmities of age, and so these two worthy Captains were

requested when he was absent to sit in the deacons' pew and

officiate in his place, one probably in the morning and the

other in the afternoon.

One matter of general history at this time touched Byfield,

namely Shays's Rebellion (1786-87). "The decay of trade,

the loss of public credit, and the weight of public and private

debts "led to riotous disorder, in which "burning barns and

blazing haystacks," the closing of courts by armed mobs and

the opening of prison doors showed that the very existence of

government was threatened. The seat of the rebellion was the

centre and the west of the State. The commonwealth put a

large force of soldiers into the field who suffered much hardship

from the snow and the intense cold. In one encounter three

of the rebels were shot dead. In a few months, however, the

rebellion was crushed and the courts resumed their functions.

Rowley furnished for the State a lieutenant and twenty-three

men, among whom I find the names of Joseph Pike, John Pike,

Samuel Searle, and Stephen Pearson from Byfield. Newbury

furnished a company of fifty-five men led by Capt. Edward

Longfellow of Byfield, a graduate of Dartmouth College in the

class of 1780. So Byfield though sharing the burdens and

sufferings that followed the revolution stood firm for law and

order.

Year after year passed and still the flock found no shepherd;

a Mr. Daniel Oliver was twice called, but unsuccessfully. No

doubt there was great disappointment, but the Lord had a

choice treasure in store for the church.

THE THIRD PASTOR SETTLED.

September 3, 1787, the parish concurred with the church in

giving Mr. Elijah Parish "a Caul " on a salary of L85 silver

currency ($283.33), with fifteen cords of wood " Brought to his

Door " and the use of the parsonage buildings and lands, the

buildings to be kept in repair " glass excepted." -

Mr. Parish was born in Lebanon, Conn., November 7, 1762.

On his mother's side he was a descendant in the sixth gen-

eration from Capt. Myles Standish the Pilgrim. Both printed

records and tradition indicate that his family was in straitened,

circumstances and that like so many other New England boys

who have done honor to their stock he was obliged to struggle

to get an education.

When he was eight years old, his pastor Rev. Eleazar Whee-

lock, whose Indian school at Lebanon had already won fame

beyond the sea, with a magnificent Christian heroism struck

far north into the wilderness and founded Dartmouth College

at Hanover, N. H. Thither young Parish followed the great

teacher, although after his death, and was graduated from Dart-

mouth in 1785. It will be remembered that John Smith from

Byfield was already an honored instructor in Dartmouth.

Probably Parish's college career showed marked ability, and

Professor Smith would be apt to seek to secure him for the

vacant pastorate in his native parish. So it is easy to trace the

Providential lines which are likely to have led Mr. Parish to

Dartmouth and to Byfield.

OPPOSITION.

The call provoked speedy and pronounced opposition. On

November 8 a remonstrance was signed by thirteen persons,

of whom Israel Adams, Jr., probably lived on Rowley side, but

the rest in Newbury. Three more from Newbury asked Mr.

Parish to postpone an affirmative reply " for the present." The

names of prominent men like Paul Moody, Stephen Adams,

Samuel Longfellow, and Benjamin Pearson are attached to the

paper. They objected (i) that the salary was beyond their

means; (2) that he might be able to draw it throughout his

ministry though "unable to preach for a number of years ; "

3ly that Mr. Parish will admit none as fit subjects to dedicate their

Infant Children in the Ordinance of baptism, but such as are in full

communion with the Church;

(4) that Mr. Parish's preaching did not afford the desired in-

strucition and edification. One Newbury name that was not on

the remonstrance was that of Benjamin Colman, Jr., subse-

quently the second Dea. Benjamin Colman. He had given

his heart to Mr. Parish before the call with a depth of apprecia-

tion that reached his pocket, for away back in June Reuben

Pearson the tailor had charged him

for making a Cirtout for Mr. Parish - 0-10-0 ($1.67).

So Mr. Colman showed his esteem for the young candidate by

taking cloth down to the parish tailor and having a garment

made for him. Mr. Parish said in his answer that he had taken

"every prudent method to learn the true state of the Parish,"

had advised with his friends and made the call a subject of

daily prayer. He said that he was not " forgetful of disagree-

able circumstances attending the call," but he reflected "on

the almost entire unanimity of the Church and the improbability

of a perfect union in such a time of various tastes and senti-

ments," and so in a very modest and tender manner and with a

profound sense of the solemnity of the step he accepted the call.

An ordination was a rare event in those days when settlements

were for life, and it always drew a throng. An unusually large

concourse was likely to assemble on this occasion, for there

would probably be formidable opposition; so precautions were

taken to make the galleries secure, and Reuben Pearson, who

could turn his hand ,to almost anything, charged the parish

under date of December 17, 1787:

for helping to brace the Galeries in the meeting house

-0-2-0 ($0.33)

The council to ordain and install Mr.. Parish met December

19, 1787, but the great ordination dinner " had ample time to

cool." The opposition wart, so strong that the people were kept

in painful suspense " all through that day and all through the

next as to the result, and more than once the candidate pressed

his hand on his chair to rise and decline the call, but something

seemed to check him." Never was a young candidate [Mr.

Parish was only twenty-five] settled under greater opposi-

tion." At last, however, the council came to an affirmative

decision, and he was ordained and installed in the evening of

December 20.

The settlement did not settle matters. On the contrary, the

opposition waxed stronger. The malcontents turned in various

directions, some to the new Baptist church in New Rowley, now

Georgetown, and others to the Presbyterian church (the Old

South), and to the Episcopal church, both in Newburyport. I

have before me a list " of those men and their Taxes who Separ-

ated from us." The list is dated February io, 1789, and con-

tains twenty-four polls, and taxes amounting to L26 5s- 5d

($87.56). 1 have also before me an application to " the Pres-

byterian Congregation of Newburyport " signed by nineteen

persons, mostly those who had remonstrated against Mr. Parish's

comin.g. The application requests " liberty of meeting with

you until we can be Edified elsewhere," and pledges, if the

request be granted, to pay the same tax that they had paid the

Rev. Mr. Parsons " before the late war." One of those who

attended "the Presbyterian congregation" -the blind Joseph

Adams, great-uncle of Dea. Leonard Adams-was asked by

the Byfield church to give his reasons for leaving. In his reply

he says that their minister appears to him to preach " the new

divinity." He also says, " I know not but they [their new

doctrines] will sink all into Hell who die in the belief of them,

and would it be thought wisdom in me to walk in a path which

I fear might at last land me in Hell?"

But Newburyport was too far away and the seceders were

too numerous to take so long a journey each Lord's Day, and

so after a few years a large house of worship was erected nearly

where Mr. Hudson Hill's new house now stands. The contract

for the lumber shows the change in our forest growth. This

had been chiefly oak, and so all the buildings had been of oak,

but most of the material for this structure was to be pine,"hude

smoth " [hewed smooth], but a part of the studs and all the

braces were to be of oak. It was raised August 25, 1796.

An Englishman named William Sleigh accepted the call to

the pastorate of the new congregation. His letter of accept-

ance indicates an imperfect education and no high ideal of the

pastoral office. The new society grew from year to year, as is

shown by the records of the old parish. There was not yet

religious liberty. Everybody must pay in the incorporated

parish in which he lived; but the stringency of the law had

been somewhat relaxed so that if a parishioner were a regular

attendant at some other meeting, while he must pay to his own

parish, the treasurer of that parish would pay an amount equal

to his tax to the congregation where he worshipped. For ex-

ample, it was voted November 18, 1790, " to raise L30 to supply

the deficiency which May arise for the money which may be

Drawn out of the parish Treasury for the Support of the public

worship of God in other places." The appropriation for this

purpose in 1794 reached L40 ($133.33). A paper drawn up

April 12, 1797, and entitled "Reasons for Separation from Mr.

Parish" mentions among other objections:

Want of instruction and Edification

A backwardness in Mr. Parish to explain texts of scripture when

asked

particularly some sentiments by him advanced

1st That Adam's first sin was not imputed to his posterity:

2d That though man is totally depraved yet his understanding is

not darkened by the fall:

3d That man has power to comply with and perform all the divine

requirements :

4th That regeneration when wrought in the soul is not wholly a work

of God's spirit :

5th That God is the Author of sin.

This is a remarkable set of objections to be urged by people

of whom most were outside the church. They show how

deeply ingrained with theology and that of the knottiest nature

Closing words of the Church Covenant as renewed in 1788,

with the autograph signatures

was the mind of our fathers. The first and fourth sentiments

charged upon him suggest that he was a new-school man of his

day, while his opponents, though good men, looked backward

and were slow to recognize new treasures from the old store-

house of divine truth. It should be remembered that we do not

have Mr. Parish's answer to these charges. We do have, how-

ever, Dr. Withington's testimony concerning him in the memoir

prefixed to the volume of Mr. Parish's sert-nons. Dr. Withington

there says that Dr. Parish " was not a narrow preacher." " His

mind was replenished with the fulness of the gospel. In this

respect I hardly know his equal . . . the religious suspicion

and obloquy to which he was for 'a time subjected . . . arose

from his independence of character. He was a friend to

religious liberty; he would have the human mind assailed by

no arms but those of persuasion, and truth. . . The truths

embraced by our fathers he believed to be infinitely important

to the happiness of man; yet he was cautious of judging of

intentions. In declaring opinions he spoke with confidence:

but persons he left to the tribunal of God." We have many

printed sermons of Mr. Parish, and these sustain the verdict of

his friend and neighbor Dr. Withington. They also show that

he preferred to preach the saving truths that have been revealed

in the gospel rather than to entangle himself and his hearers in

the secret things that belong to God.

Probably most of the opponents of the new minister were

what were called half-way-covenant members, and their weighti-

est objection-was the third in the remonstrance of 1787, namely,

his refusal to baptize the children of such parents. His posi-

tion was a great and bold innovation in a church where the

majority were only half-wa covenant members, but Mr. Parish

was right and prophetic as well as conscientious an courageous,

for the New Testament nowhere recognizes a half-way dis-

cipleship, and our churches have now for a century taken his

position.

If we may judge from the parish records the alienation

reached its extreme point in 1797. October 17 of that year

$268-34 was voted for Mr. Parish's salary plus $6o for wood.

It is interesting to notice that pounds, shillings, and pence, with

the cumbersome reckoning they involved, had given way to dol-

lars and cents, - a change indicating that our people had cut

loose from England and set up for themselves financially as

well as politically. The same day there was appropriated $180

"in lieu of what money may be Carryed of by those that attend

public worship in other places." This is the highest amount

that I find recorded for that purpose. Certainly the test was a

severe one for the young pastor. He had now given to the

parish almost ten years of his early prime, but about one-third

of the financial strength of the parish went elsewhere. Two

years later Dr. Parker Cleaveland was appointed a committee to

"remonstrate against the Petition of David Pearson and others

to be incorporated as a Presbyterian Society in Byfield." Party

feeling ran high. In December of that year or thereabouts " a

quantity" of the glass of the new meeting-house was smashed

by rowdies, and eleven persons pledged themselves to advance

$8.98 immediately to replace it. The building probably could

not be heated, and this petty act of vandalism in the winter

would perhaps prevent meetings until the glass was replaced.

The next year, that is, April 29, 1800, the parish voted to peti-

tion the General Court for leave not to assess those who attend

"another society " (no doubt that of Mr. Sleigh), so long as

they " support a Publick Teacher of Piety and Morality." The

list of the men attending this society is attached. It includes

six Pearsons, three Adamses, six Dummers, three Moodys, two

Titcombs, four Longfellows, four Woodmans, three Turners,

and three others - thirty-four in all; also " Lemuel Noyes and

John Thorla who usually Attend Publick worship with an incor-

porated Baptist Soc." The list shows how strong the new

movement was socially as well as financially. But less than

thirteen months later it appears from a vote of May 18, 1801,

that the separate but unincorporated religious society in By-

field had 11 for more than a year discontinued the stated Pub-

lick worship of God." The movement that had held out so

long and had seemed so strong had suddenly collapsed. Inci-

dentally this last vote shows that the statement which has been

made that the new society was a Presbyterian society is strictly

speaking incorrect. It was commonly termed Presbyterian,

and the members applied for incorporation, but the old society

protested, and they never got it. Reuben Pearson said that

they went down because they didn't get " a draw-rin " minister.

Probably another factor contributing to the result was that the

parent church had what Mr. Pearson would have called a very

"draw-rin " minister. His opponents gradually came to see

that the Lord had sent to the parish a minister of rare gifts and

graces, one whose ministrations they could not afford to miss.

" Never," says Dr. Withingion, " was an opposition so formi-

dable, so completely lived down by prudence and time." Mr.

Benjamin Colman, the younger - his father the first Dea.

Benjamin Colman had died in 1797 - bought the seceders'

meeting-house and moved it to where it now stands south of

the present parsonage. Here the building that was erected

amid so much contention has peacefully served -three genera-

tions. It will subsequently in th-is history call for an honorable

mention.

BYFIELD MANUFACTURES AND INVENTIONS.

The Revolution quickened the American mind in many direc-

tions. One result was a great impetus to manufactures. In

these our little parish took a leading place. In 1794 what is

said to have been the first incorporated company for the manu-

facture of woollen goods in the United States, erected a mill at

the already historic "Falls. It was probably this mill which

led the spot to be termed, as it still is, " the Factory'." Shortly

after the factory was erected President Dwight visited this

region and wrote of the enterprise in his " Travels": "A fac-

tory for making woollen cloth has been established in Newbury

which seems likely to be successful time will prove." Mr.

Currier's "History of Newbury" traces minutely the vicissi-

tudes of the property since, 1794 through some twenty sales and

leases, or an average of about one in five years. The Schofield

brothers, Englishmen, deserve honorable memory as the me-

chanical leaders in this work, as well as William Bartlett,

Theophilus Parsons, and the others who furnished the money.

Rev. Jedediah Morse, of Charleston, should also be gratefully

mentioned, for he befriended the English strangers and intro-

duced them to the Newburyport capitalists. Dr. Morse may

have interested Dr. Parish in the enterprise and so have helped

bring it to Byfield, for the two Doctors were literary partners.

In 1794 Jacob Perkins of Newburyport, under his patent of

January 1 of that year, made in Byfield the first nails by-

machinery in America, and instantly, according to a Newbury-

port advertisement, brought down the price of nails twenty per-

cent. Up to that time the man who would build a house must

give a large contract to the blacksmith a good while ahead, so

that he might have time to slowly forge by hand each nail, one

by one, for all the building. Near the close of the century John

Lees smuggled in from England a carding-machine, and from

time to time other machinery was brought over piece by piece

and put together here, and so at " the factory " the first cotton

goods were manufactured in a factory in America. Contrary

statements have been made, but I think that what I have

written is correct. The " Standard History of Essex County,"

page 319, has a careful statement of rival claims, and that ac-

count was written by a Byfield man after consulting a daughter

of John Lees, Mrs. Joseph Goodhue of Newburyport. In that

woollen and cotton mill the great inventor, Paul Moody, learned

his mechanical a, b, c, and showed the stirrings of his genius,

and I suppose Moody's coadjutor, John Dummer, owed a similar

debt to our historic factory. In 1804 Thomas Larkin came

from Salem and set up a snuff factory on the Parker that has

been operated by his family to this day.

October 25, 1803, Paul Pillsbury of Byfield patented a corn-

sheller to take the place of the old shovel or bit of a scythe that

had hitherto been used to scrape off the kernels. Pillsbury's

corn-sheller proved very popular. September 22, 1808, Mr.

Pillsbury patented a machine for grinding bark. The machine

is minutely described in the specifications. Some of its parts

were a knife and a brake to separate the bark into small pieces,

and a large conic wheel with teeth in diagonal rows set in a tub

of corresponding form with teeth running diagonally the reverse

of those on the wheel, and the teeth toward the bottom were

more numerous and smaller to grind the bark finer and finer.

At the bottom were scrapers to scrape the bark off and direct it

into a spout. Up to that time bark had been slowly and waste-

fully crushed and bruised "by rolling it over a sort of mill-

stone fitted to an axle and drawn by a horse." By the new

mill a man could grind a cord of bark in an hour. The inven-

tion was promptly recognized as a great boon to industry and

the inventor sold his patent for $2,000, " a large sum for those

days," but the purchasers failed, and Mr. Pillsbury never re-

ceived one cent for an invention that had cost him much toil

of head and hand, and that contained the principle " of all the

cast-iron mills for the grinding of bark, corn, spices, and the

like." Mr. Pillsbury will come before us again in this history

as benefiting his fellow-men with his inventive genius, but he

was destined, like so many of his brother inventors, never to

receive any pecuniary compensation at all comparable to the

value of his inventions. Not far from this time Enoch, Boynton

invented a reel for spinning silk. There was great enthusiasm

in the cultivation of the mulberry, and Mr. Boynton's invention

no doubt kindled yet higher hopes of lucrative returns. Cer-

tainly there was a wonderful development of inventive genius

at this time in the old parish, and it won a remarkable position

as the cradle of useful inventions. Perhaps the Academy, the

water-powers, and the stimulating intellect of the pastor, all

contributed to produce a mental condition favorable to these

achievements. The industries of Byfield were then very diver-

sified. During this period, or possibly earlier, Jedediah Stick-

ney had a scythe mill, where Mr. Dummer's saw-mill is, now

and there were two or more tanneries in the parish, and several

cooper-shops.

EVENTS IN THE PARISH.

Meanwhile Byfield did. other things as well as make inven-

tions and increase her manufactures. February 4, 1800, a parish

meeting was held, Joseph Pike being moderator, in which it

was voted

. . . to set apart the twenty-Second Day of Feb. Current [Wash-

ington's birth-day] as a day of Solemn mourning before God

under his just Displeasure in removing by Death General George

Washington. . . .

Voted that the Day be Ushered in by tolling the Bell one hour

Beginning at Sunrise.

2 Mr. Parish to be asked to deliver an Oration Calculated to lead

our rninds into a Suitable train while Contemplating this great Event

of Divine Protidence.

3 Rev. Isaac Smith [Master of Dummer Academy] to open with

prayer.

4 All Skilled in musick . . . to unite in performing musick adapted

to this mournful occasion.

The pastor's oration was eloquent and Nx,orthv of the occasion.

As one reads it he feels that those who heard it must have been

moved to frequent applause. Speaking of Washington's retreat

from New York the orator said:

The American contest, the Liberties of Mankind, appeared to

tremble in the scale of events; the voice of popular zeal had sunk

almost to the whisper of submission. The Commander in Chief

remained unmoved. Thou-h he knew when to retire; yet like the

blast of the trumpet, it was to return with increasing fury. The aston-

ished Delaware bore him back to victory: the triumph of Trenton

roused the country to a sense of their own free gave the mortal stab

to oppression; broke the sceptre of despotism. Like the sun obscured

by clouds, but not extinguished, he continued the same in every

exigence.

The parish celebrated the centennial by putting the parson-

age in thorough repair. The parish had now got its heart

and purse well open, and it voted the very next year "to

repair the meetinghouse at an estimated cost of $6oo.oo."

Joseph Pike superintended the affairs, and the net cost was

$759-56, including $10.00 by which the parish kindly reim-

bursed Alr. Pike for a $10.00 counterfeit bill that he had taken

while acting as their agent.

THE PASTOR

Mr. Parish had now been pastor sixteen years, the rival

society had died out, the parsonage and meeting-house had

been put in thorough repair, and everything indicates that the

church and parish were in a very flourishing condition. His

Alma Mater recognized his worth by bestowing upon him the

degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1807, and so henceforth let us

call him Dr. Parish. He was pre-eminently a pulpit orator.

Some of his sermons were carefully written out -- all were

carefully prepared, but his usual custom, which was very un-

usual for a Congregational minister in his day, was to preach

with only brief notes; yet Rev. Joseph Emerson, the teacher,

his bearer for nearly three years, said that he could not dis-

tinguish the extemporaneous from the written part of one of

Dr. Parish's sermons, so finished were his unwritten utterances.

Aunt Molly Stickney had a wonderful memory and used to go

home from his preaching and write down his sermons and edify

those in various families who might be detained at home by

reading the sermons aloud to them, and Dr. Parish, it is said,

if he wished subsequently to refer to one of his sermons would

consult Aunt Molly. Dr. Parish's style as a preacher was clear,

and his thought interesting, instructive, and evangelical. His

sermons remind the reader of his contemporary the elder Presi-

dent Dwight. In a sermon preached in 1815 at the ordination

of Enoch Pillsbury, a native of Byfield and a brother of Paul

Pillsbury the inventor, Dr. Parish spoke as follows of careful

preparation for the pulpit:

"The hasty sermons are the most popular." As often as I hear

such remarks I feel pity or contempt. Such remarks have no truth.

It is not true that people of plain good understanding judge less cor-

rectly the goodness of a sermon than a congregation of scholars. . . .

Never did I know a week of study to be lost for lack of discernment in

the hearers. . . . They do perceive [emptiness in a preacher], they do

know when their minister brings from his treasury things new and

old . . . they do know when they learn things before unknown to

themselves.

Dr. Parish in these words illustrates his own practice, and

he experienced to the full that appreciation by the hearers of

careful preparation which he encouraged his young brother

to anticipate. As he spoke in the pulpit his thought and style

seem to have been suffused with a fire of holy eloquence that

kindled the heart of every hearer. His preaching was his

people's pride, and in my childhood long, after his death his

surviving parishioners would speak of it with exultant enthusiasm

as though the like could hardly then be heard. He was the

most noted and popular preacher in all the region. Once a

year the meetinghouse was opened at night for his anniversary

sermon; the parishioners all came bringing their candles to

light up the house, and the people from all the neighboring

towns flocked to hear him, so that there was a long array of

horses and vehicles in all directions outside the church. There

was an eager demand for his published sermons, as the adver-

tisements in those years in the Newburyport Herald show. At

least twenty-four of his sermons and addresses were published

during, his life, and after his death a volume was issued con-

taining twenty-one of his sermons, nearly all of which had not

been printed before. So high was his reputation as a preacher

that even after Andover Seminary was opened theological stu-

dents continued to study with him as had been the custom

in New England before there were special schools for that

purpose.

Dr. Parish's political position brought him into connection

with the history of the nation. With the accession of Thomas

Jefferson in 1801, the government of the country passed from

Federalist to Democratic control, and a policy of friendship to

France and of hostility to England followed. Dr. Parish be-

lieved the accession of the Democratic party to power to be a

great national calamity, and that Mr. Jefferson was utterly unfit

to be President, and he spoke as he felt. He took for his text

on Thanksgiving Day, 1804, "When the wicked beareth rule

the people mourn," and he said that there was reason to mourn

because of the man who held the first office in the country.

He especially denounced what he deemed the antiscriptural

sentiments of the President. He said "the controversy is not

with us the controversy is between the Holy God and Mr.

Jefferson." A landmark in the development of the Democratic

policy was, the embargo of December 22, 1807. This embargo

prohibited all foreign commerce. As a result the exports fell

from $49,000,000 in 18O7 to $9,000,000 in 1808. While nom-

inally directed against all foreign trade, the embargo was really

aimed at Great Britain and was an attempt "to starve her into

a change of policy," but it was a boomerang which hurt our

own country vastly more than it could any foreign nation. It

was most crushing to New England because that section led

in foreign, commerce. The fisheries were abandoned, vessels

were tied up to the wharves and dismantled, ship-building

ceased, there was no sale for agricultural products, and gloom

enshrouded seaport and country alike. When I was a boy

Byfield still retained a vivid memory of the distress caused by

the embargo. Although he was only the pastor of a small

country parish, the eloquence and the clear cut position of Dr.

Parish were so well known that he had the honor to be chosen

by the Federalist Legislature to preach the election sermon of

1810. Before the appointed time for the delivery of the sermon

the government had passed into the hands of the Democrats,

and the Federalist Governor who was still in his chair would

in a few days resign his office to Elbridge Gerry, the Demo-

cratic Governor-elect. Under the fiery invective of Dr. Parish,

the hostile Legislature indicated its rage and resentment by all

sorts of disturbances and attempts to disconcert and silence its

castigator, but he would only pause and look at his audience

with his piercing eye until his voice could once more be heard,

and then go on. The Legislature refused the customary com-

pliment of a request of the sermon for publication, but it was

published by a friend and eagerly and widely read, and an ex-

asperated foe gave portions of it a still wider circulation under

the title of "Infernalism." It even found its way to Senator

Hayne of South Carolina, and was quoted by him in his ora-

torical duel with Webster in the United States Senate. In that

sermon he says of the proclamation of the embargo, "the

heralds of the general government passed through our towns

. . . before them was the garden of Eden behind them is

the desert of Sodom;" and again, "The Athenians sent their

best men into exile, into more humane only relieve them from

office . . . but they never made apostacy, infidelity, and shout-

ing hosannas to the Moloch of the age passports to the highest

offices of the state." Can we wonder that a Legislature that

was thus denounced did not listen with unruffled composure?

The war of 1812, followed with its disasters on land and won-

derful victories on the water. It was prolonged with increasing

burdens and suffering until 1814, when the first abdication of

Napoleon enabled Great Britain to concentrate her strength

against the little republic. Throughout the war Dr. Parish

seems to have used his pulpit to denounce the administration

although chiefly on week day occasions like the annual fast.

Dr. Parish's Fast Day Sermon of April 8, 1813, upon the text,

"Put up thy sword," closed with the words, " When the hour

of final retribution shall arrive . . . how will the supporters of

this anti-Christian warfare . . . endure the fire that forever

burns, the worm that never dies, the hosannas of heaven while

the smoke of their torments ascends forever and ever. Amen."

When peace was proclaimed he preached an eloquent sermon,

in which he portrayed the folly, misery, and guilt of war, and

its inconsistency with the gospel. He denounced "the patriotism

which produced the war," and urged his people "to correct

[their] patriotism by the light of [the] gospel and the example

of his Son." The original manuscript of this sermon belongs

to Mrs. Forbes. It is the only sermon of Dr. Parish in manu-

script that I have met. While all might not endorse the verdict

of the sermon upon that particular war, I wish it might be

published, for I think it would promote "peace on earth."

During the interval between 1804 and 1814 he severely ar-

raigned the dominant party in many, another sermon besides

those that I have quoted. Through the press many of his

sermons reached a much larger audience. The following ad-

vertisement from the Newburyport Herald of April 19, 1811,

indicates the eager demand for his political discourses:

Dr. Parish's Fast Sermon is now in Press, and will be published

with all possible despatch. Subscription papers are left at the Insurance

Offices.

Another advertisement reads:

DR. PARISH'S

Sermon,

THIS DAY PUBLISHED

And will be ready for Subscribers at the

Bookstore of Thomas & Whipple, at 2'o cl'k,

A Sermon,

PREACHED AT BYFIELD,

On the Annual Fast,

April 11, 1811,

Text,

"Babylon the great is fallen," &c.

However pure his motive, we should all, I suppose, think

such political invective as he uttered unwise in a minister of

the gospel, and I think that he subsequently came to be of the

same opinion, for he withdrew altogether from politics and said

of it, "Politics is like the smallpox; nobody catches it but

once."

Unlike some able preachers, Dr. Parish also excelled as a

pastor. He continued the good old custom of catechisms the

children, and he did this in the public schools as well as the

homes. In visiting his people he used to drive about the parish

in as inferior-looking an old chaise as the community could

show. His visits were a delight to young and old. On my last

call upon the late Mrs. Thompson she told me how he used to

lay his hand upon her head when he called at her childhood's

home and say, "My little lamb;" and the old lady of ninety

related the reminiscence of her childhood with emotion, so that

it seemed as though she still felt the pressure of her loving

pastor's hand. It was then an essential mark of hospitality

to give the minister ardent spirit. Mr. G. D. Tenney has a

beautiful mug brought from Canton with a hole through the

side which has a history. Families commonly drank New

England rum, but they were careful to, furnish the minister

with the West India article. On one occasion Mr. Tenney's

family saw the Doctor coming, and put a hot poker into the

mug, of liquor to heat it, and in their hurry put the point of the

poker through the mug, hence the hole. The late James Jewett,

when a little boy, followed Dr. Parish from house to house up

Warren Street, and saw him drink at each call, and thought he

must take very little at each place or else have a big stomach.

My Stickney ancestors still lived in his day, as they had for

generations before, on Long Hill. When my great-grandfather

saw him coming he would go out and swing open the gate and

stand with his hat under his arm until the minister had driven

through, while my great-grandmother would hasten to make a

bowl of hot egg-nog and draw the great arm-chair up to the

fire. As the Doctor drank the beverage he would say in his

deep voice, "This is good, it is victuals and drink too." Cate-

chising, kindly conversation, a chapter from the holy word and

prayer, would fill up the visit, which ended all too soon, but left

a halo behind the man of God as he departed.

Dr. Parish was full of practical wisdom, and all that con-

cerned the welfare of all his people concerned him. After he

died one of his parishioners lamented, "I have lost my best

adviser in my business;" and another, Joseph Pike, looking

back over a life of fourscore years, said, "His like for both

worlds I never knew." As for spiritual results, Dr. Withington

testified, "The continual dew of a divine blessing is an expres-

sion which best describes the effect of his instructions." Not

long before his death my mother, then a young, girl of seven-

teen, went down to the parsonage to talk with her pastor about

joining, the church, her mother accompanying her. He said to

her, "Mary, I wish there were many more to take this step."

I quote the remark because it illustrates his desire for his peo-

ple's salvation. My mother was the only one to unite with the

church at that time, and she was the last one that Dr. Parish

received.

Dr. Parish was a diligent author as well as preacher and

pastor. In connection with the Rev. Jedediah Morse he pub-

lished a gazetteer of the world in 1801, a history of New Eng-

land in 1801, and a geography in 1810. The gazetteer and the

geography passed through many editions in England, Scotland,

and Ireland as well as America, and were translated into French

and German. In connection with the Rev. Dr. David M'Clure

he published in 1811 a life of President Wheelock, the founder

of Dartmouth College. He also published a geography of the

Bible in 1813. I can testify from personal acquaintance with

these books that their wide and prolonged popularity was well-

deserved.

It is not surprising to learn that a man who accomplished

so much should often give the young the motto, "Be covetous

time." It was a motto to which his whole life conformed.

His application and what he accomplished were the more re-

markable because his health was never robust, and he was sub-

ject to almost daily paroxysms of pain which physicians could

no more remove or explain than those of King Alfred, but head

apted himself to his limited strength. If he was to make a

special effort at night he refrained from animated conversation

throughout the day. His mind also was kindly elastic, more

than rising in spontaneous energy to the equal of any unusual

demand, so that he used to say that he had most leisure when

he had most to do. He also always took time by the forelock,

so that Sunday never found him unprepared.

His usual salary during the later years of his ministry was

$350 plus $75 for wood. He had a family of five children --

just half the number that Providence granted to each of his

predecessors. He supported his family honorably, and I doubt

not gave away generously, but like those predecessors he was a

thrifty country gentleman, and left, it was said in my childhood,

an estate of $12,000, a property which seemed very large in

those days in Byfield. It was commonly understood that his

accumulations came from his books.

Dr. Parish was a little man with a deep voice and a piercing

eye. His motions were quick, his mind decided quickly, and

he was prompt to utter his decisions. His wit was keen,

severe at times, but he was ordinarily kindly and fluent in

conversation so that he was charming, company, but there was

a native dignity in him that involuntarily impressed all who met

him a child of his parish who subsequently became a clergy-

man said, recalling the pastor of his boyhood, "I always felt

an inch or two taller if Dr. Parish had spoken to me." The

daughter of Dr. Tucker of Newbury who, like her father, did

not sympathize with the theology of Dr. Parish, made this entry

in her diary: "Jan., 4. 1790, Afternoon Parson Parish called

and drank tea with us. He is a little sociable man and quite

agreeable in conversation." John Quincy Adams in his diary

under date of December 29, 1787, was severely critical of Dr.

Parish's mind and manners, but Mr. Adams was just from

Harvard and seems to have been unable to think that any good

thing could come out of the infant frontier college of Dart-

mouth. Dr. Parish's people had so profound respect and affec-

tion for him that it seemed to them the most natural thing in

the world to give him the leadership in everything. A lady who

had lately moved into the parish said of the Ladies' Benevolent

Society of that day, "Do you call this a female society with Dr.

Parish for President, Dr. Parish to decide the disposition of the

funds, and Dr. Parish to open the meetings with prayer? Dr.

Parish is reported to have said that he had never heard a mem-

ber of his church offer prayer. Probably it would have been

better for their development if he had insisted upon throwing

more responsibility upon his people, but his overshadowing

prominence in all their religious life is due to their choice

rather than his own assumption.

REVIEW OF EVENTS IN THE PARISH RESUMED.

Mr. Parsons' son Eben had long before left his father's house

to seek his fortune, with his worldly goods in a bundle in one

hand and his shoes in the other --to save wear; but as he

went away from Byfield he said, "When I get money enough

I am coming back to buy that Dummer pasture and live there."

Providence wonderfully prospered him, so that in 1801 he could

buy the "Dummer pasture," and in 1802 erect the noble man-

sion which has been the pride of the old parish for a century.

A check-book found in the attic of the mansion in recent years

shows that the massive walls alone cost him $85,ooo.oo, but

tradition says that he paid for the place with the profits of a

single voyage of one of his ships. He could not have the joy of

welcoming his parents to his new home, for they had both

already entered "the house not made with hands," but his

filial piety named the estate "Fatherland Farm." Mr. Parsons

at that time lived on Summer Street in Boston, where he had

considerable land including a pasture for two cows, but he

made frequent visits to Byfield, driving out in a coach with

liveried servants. After the death of his wife in 1810 he made

Fatherland Farm his home until his own death in 1819 at the

age of seventy-three. Mr. Parsons set a tempting table, and

some Byfield Munchausen said that Dr. Parish wore a path so

deep from the parsonage to, Fatherland Farm going over to

eat turkey dinners that only the hat of the little minister could

be seen as he walked along the path; but however often he

went we may be sure that his genial wit and heavenly wisdom

were accepted by his host as a full recompense for the bounti-

ful hospitality. For several years Mr. Parsons' entertained

the Trustees of the Academy annually with a "generous"

dinner. He was a great benefactor of Byfield and the country

at large by his enthusiasm in agriculture. He imported choice

breeds of cattle, sheep, and swine, also improved varieties of
grain and grasses, and scions of foreign fruit, and ornamental

trees and shrubs. The beautiful mantel-piece of Italian marble

with its exquisite agricultural reliefs in the parlor at Fatherland

Farm was given to him by the Massachusetts Agricultural So-

ciety in grateful recognition of his services to agriculture.

Two years before his death Mr. Parsons offered to give the

parish a new bell "from eight hundred and fifty pounds weight

and upwards." The parish unanimously accepted the proposi-

tion in a beautiful letter expressing their appreciation of his

generous offer of

a bell of sufficient magnitude to be heard by the Inhabitants thereof

in all their dwellings thereby aiding that uniformity and punctuality in

assembling in the House of God so desirable to the friends of order

and public worship, praying that the consolations of the Gospel may be

his support and comfort in his declining years . . . and that he may

hereafter reap his full reward in that heavenly Temple . . . where the

inhabitants . . . need no such help to call them to the more pure and

perfect worship of God.

At the same time Mr. Parsons gave the parish a piece of

land to enlarge their burying-ground. Toward the close of his

life he engaged in a game of chess, with Sir William Hunting-

ton of England, each sending his move alternate by "the

slow sailing mail packets." Both were experts in chess, and the

moves and counter moves had already lasted three years when

the death of Mr. Parsons" ended the game."

With the new century there came a great quickening of

the missionary spirit, and Dr. Parish and his people were in the

forefront of the forward movement. I have found in one of our

Washington homes the Massachusetts Missionary Magazine for

1804. This book affords interesting proof of the missionary spirit

of Byfield. Dr. Parish was one of the editors of the magazine;

and lie and at least nine of his people were members of the

Massachusetts Missionary Society, then in its fifth year, which

published the magazine. Its pages show, that the "Cent Institu-

tion," whose members were ladies that have a cent a week to

missions, received that year " from ladies in Byfield " $15.44,

that two ladies of Byfield also forwarded through Mr. Solomon

Stickney to the Massachusetts Missionary Society, $1.45, and

that Dr. Parish sent in "from his society" $19.30; so there is

acknowledged from Byfield, in all for missions in that volume,

at least $36.19. This was six years before the American Board

was formed. Certainly such a record so early in the mission-

ary movement is highly commendable.

From February, 1803, to April, 1805, wood was sold from

the Newbury Fund land amounting, to $1,139.03, and during,

that time there was paid out to Moses Colman for rum for the

wood auctions on one occasion $1.17, and on another occasion

$1.50. By such sales of wood the fund has grown from genera-

tion to generation.

In 1806 the parish voted "to choose a large and respectable

committee to . . . enforce the laws of this Commonwealth for

the due observance of the Lord's Day." A committee of

twelve was chosen, with the name of Joseph Pike first, and

the assessors were desired to use their influence to have the

members of the committee made tithing-men by the towns

of Newbury and Rowley. The same year the Newburyport

Turnpike from Newburyport to Boston was opened. It ran

through Byfield and no doubt absorbed some Byfield money.

The cost was $417,000.00, and there was never, it was said,

but one sale of stock made. Straightness was the one thing

aimed at, in utter forgetfulness that it is no farther to go

around a hemisphere than to go over it, and that the former

journey is vastly easier. So steep were the grades, especially

in Topsfield, that soon no drivers could be found bold enough

to drive its whole length, and the great enterprise that had

cost so much and awakened such golden anticipations fell flat.

There is an interesting account of it in the "Standard History

of Essex County," page 35.

Even in the midst of the war neither politics on the one hand

nor the spiritual side of religion on the other could absorb the

energies of the Byfield pastor and his flock; hence they formed

"the Moral Society" of 1814, with forty-five members and Dr.

Parish for President, some of the officers and members being

from outside the parish bounds. The preamble to the con-

stitution says, " . . . our beloved country is shrouded in dark-

ness. . . . But the crisis demands more than tears. Profanity,

Intemperance and Sabbath-breaking have risen to an awful

height." They proposed to use " persuasion and caution" as

"the first and chief means," but if these proved ineffectual, "to

aid and strengthen the arm of the law." I give the sixth

article in full because it shows the progress of temperance

sentiment and also an effort to curb extravagance in funerals:

VI, We agree to forbear from the unnecessary use of ardent spirits,

particularly on social occasions, and when transacting public business,

and at funerals. We will further, use our influence to prevent the

appointment of funerals on the Sabbath, when consistent with safety,

and to discountenance unreasonable expense in entertainments on these

occasions, and in mourning dress.

In 1813 the Philendian Society of Bradford, composed of

young, ladies, opened a school at Great Rock which is about

a mile from the Byfield station and the parish line. The school

however, no doubt drew pupils from within the parish. "Here,"

says the "Memorial of Bradford Academy," "was missionary

work indeed, among the poor and illiterate where there was

no sound of a churchgoing bell, where the Sabbath was dis-

regarded and the claims of a divine law almost ignored."

There were however in that region some good Christian fami-

lies. Dr. Parish gave the enterprise warm endorsement. He

closes a letter dated April 28, 1813 and addressed to Miss Mary,

Hasseltine with the words,

Accept my highest respects for your society, and the cordial assur-

ance of all that aid and support of the contemplated school, which my

feeble health and other duties will permit.

With great respect I am, yours,

E. PARISH.

In this school mental education and morals received attention,

but the supreme aim was to bring, pupils to Christ. Miss

Abigail C. Hasseltine, who was subsequently to be the emi-

nently successful teacher in Bradford Academy for nearly half a

century was the first teacher, and "when her health temporarily

failed because of her excessive devotion to the work, her sister

Mary, followed her for three years, she was succeeded by a

young man from Phillips Academy. So great a blessing

attended the labor of these devoted youth that "the whole

aspect of the village" was changed.

1816 was long noted as "the cold year." I suppose that

to have been the year of which the tradition still lingers in

Byfield that there was frost every month. Coming so soon

after the war it must have added to the hardness of the times.

For a wonder Byfield did not have the first Sunday-School,

for it was not until 1818 that the church recommended "the

opening of a Sabbath School."

About 1806 a female seminary the first, it is said, in the

State -- was opened in the Sleigh meeting-house which, as has

been already stated, had been removed to its present location.

The life of this seminary only covered some fifteen years, but,

in that short space it included on its roll of pupils some of the

noblest names in the missionary and educational annals of,

America, such as Ann Hasseltine, afterwards Mrs. Judson,

Harriet Atwood, better known as Mrs. Harriet Newell, Miss

Zilpah Grant, and Miss Mary Lyon. The school and the

parish had such an odor of sanctity that as far away as Bangor

Byfield was thought as near heaven as any spot on earth. The

School was most flourishing when the Rev. Joseph Emerson

was Principal, which was about the period from 1818 to 1821.

It was in this last year that Mary, Lyon was a pupil in the

school. That woman, of whom it has been said that hers "was

the most, fruitful life lived by any woman in the nineteenth cen-

tury," said that she owed more to Mr. Emerson than to any

other teacher. After his death she used to refer to him as

"my beloved teacher, now in heaven." May providence long-

spare the structure that has such associations with choice and

saintly womanhood as the old Byfield Seminary building!

The introduction of a stove into the meetinghouse proved

a long and difficult problem. In Dr. Parish's fourth year, the

parish had voted to give up space for "Building a Brick Stove

provided the parish know no Cost in building the Same and

the Parish have the liberty of removing sd Stove whenever they

think best." Probably nothing came of this vote, but, on Jan-

uary 9, 1822, some thirty-one years after, they again grappled

with the problem and "Voted To place a Stove in the Meet-

ing House the present season." "Voted To raise $75.00 for

that purpose: Voted The money be immediately assessed:

Voted Treasurer authorized hire money for the immediate pur-

chase." The need seems to have been urgent; probably there

was a cold snap. The stove was put in, and Capt. Daniel Noyes

was paid $18.80 for building "a chimney to the meeting-house."

But their troubles as to the stove were not over, for a year

later it was "Voted To Choose a Committee of three to take

such measures to conduct the smoke from the Stove as they

may think proper." As lately as my boyhood the meeting-

house was poorly heated, and my grandmother used to stop

at our house to replenish her foot-stove to make herself com-

fortable during the services.

The hereditary military spirit of the parish found expression

September 22, 1823, in the formation of the Byfield Rifles, "the

first independent rifle corps of the United States," with eighty-

six members. Major Dudley from West Point was its efficient

drill master, and Ira Stickney of Long Hill, then a young, man

of twenty-six years, its martial-looking, and able captain. Its

standard, which is still preserved by Mrs. J. C. Peabody, was

surmounted with a tomahawk. Possibly that is the very stand-

ard which was presented by the students of Dummer Academy

to the Company six months after its formation. At the bi-

centennial of Newbury in 1835 the Company showed itself a

model " in appearance, drill and deportment." So high was

its reputation, and so much coveted was membership in it that

two young men who lived on Fruit Street in a house just outside

the parish line slept in some building within the line to be eli-

gible to its ranks. Its last commander was Capt. Green Wildes,

whom I well remember as beloved by young and old. It was

disbanded about 1845; but it fostered that military spirit which

blossomed and fruited again so vigorously in 1861.

In 1824 the parish voted that twenty men who were specified

by name be a permanent choir with power to elect their leader;

but it was added, "you come however cannot forbear remarking

that so far as has come to their knowledge Capt. Ira Stickney

has the year past given the most pleasing, satisfaction as a leader

of the singing in publick." So Captain, afterwards Major,

Stickney who was then only twenty-seven was already at the

head of military and musical matters in the parish, and had that

warm place in the hearts of his fellow-parishioners which he

never lost. The vote continued that the choir have power to

enlarge their number, but should use no instrument but a bass-

viol -- was a violin thought too frivolous? It was also voted

"that those ladies who have of late sat in the singers Pew are

respectfully invited to continue in the seats." If it had as many

women as men the choir would be forty strong. Under its

efficient chorister it must have led the service of public praise

with noble effect.

October 6, 1825 -- the week before Dr. Parish died -- a cele-

bration was held where the present station village is, under the

auspices of the "Old Standing Company," in honor of the sur-

viving "revolutionary soldiers of that vicinity." There was a

procession in six sections conducted by two marshals. Rev.

Mr. Braman of Georgetown offered prayer, and this was followed

by a hymn written for the occasion by Rev. Dr. Parish. As

this hymn was one of the last productions of this honored pastor

of our parish I think my readers will be glad to have it given

entire:

Our country heard the march of foes,

And in her mighty strength arose;

She called her sons, we heard the word,

Nor feared the wrath of George the Third.

The hastened march with panting breath,

The fields of battle, blood and death,

We oft endured to save our land

From a fell tyrant's bloody hand.

The mighty God went with our host

No soldier will presume to boast,

He gave success, he crushed our foes,

And still his favor he bestows.

The scene how changed! Instead of toil,

And blood, and burning towns, and spoil;

We sit around the festal board,

And praise the goodness of the Lord.

An oration which was deservedly praised as "spirited and

patriotic" was delivered by John Bayley, a member of the Com-

pany. In that oration he says of the organization, "So ancient

and honorable has been our existence that the mouldy records

of time furnish no clew to date an anniversary." So this Com-

pany was not the Byfield Rifles, but an old militia organization

which began in the early days for protection, as the oration

elsewhere shows, against the Indian. "An excellent dinner"

was spread in "Mr. John Pearson's Hotel" "in good style."

The venerable survivors of the Revolution who were the guests

of honor were Richard Kent, Oliver Goodridge, Moses Chase,

Joseph Brown, Aaron Rogers, Josiah Adams, Joseph Floyd,

Nathaniel Pearson. It illustrates the broad spirit that Dr.

Parish had fostered that the first of the seven volunteer toasts

should have been "By the President. Foreign Missions, though

at present like the cloud that the servant of Elijah saw, may

they like that spread till they cover the whole earth." The

entire celebration seems to have been characterized by enthusi-

asm and good taste, and to have been admirably fitted to honor

the heroes of the day and to promote patriotism.1

PROMINENT PARISHIONERS.

I speak but briefly of the Preceptors of Dummer Academy,

for I hope that the one who now adorns the preceptorship --

Mr. Horne -- may in the near future give the world a worthy

hisotry of the institution. Master Moody was followed by

Master Smith. I wish that alongside of Mr. Cleaveland's some-

what depreciatory estimate of Mr. Smith in his centennial ad-

dress there might be put the revelation of his character and

the tribute to his worth in President Woods' sketch of Pro-

fessor Cleaveland. He writes in that sketch: "The Preceptor

of the Academy at this time was the Rev. Isaac Smith, who

though esteemed inferior to his immediate predecessor, the

renowned and eccentric Master Moody as a disciplinarian and

teacher of Latin and Greek, was regarded as much his superior

in general scholarship and polite culture, having had the ad-

vantage of a residence of several years in England, and of a

large library which he had collected there. No institution could

be better for one who was disposed to make improvement."

Mr. Smith was followed in succession by Dr. Allen, Dr.

Abbott, Mr. Adams, and Dr. Cleaveland. One of Dr. Allen's

pupils was Benjamin Apthorp Gould, who revolutionized the

Boston Latin School. The writer of this history cherishes a

1 An Address Delivered October 6, copy before me belongs to Mr. W. H

1825, to the Old Standing Company in Morse.

Byfield &c. Newburyport, 1825 -- The

grateful regard to Dr. Gould not only as the editor of the edition

of Virgil which was a delightful text-book of his school days but

also as his kind personal friend. Dr. Gould was an enthusiastic

admirer of his teacher, Dr. Allen. Dr. Abbott and Mr. Adams

were both worthy men. Mr. Adams was a native of Georgetown,

and a great-grandson of Captain Abraham and Anne (Long-

fellow) Adams. The school prospered during his brief admin-

istration, which was cut short by his premature death. Mrs.

Adams was his invaluable coworker for his pupils in the home

and greatly endeared herself to, them. She was a Wheelwright

of Newburyport; so Mr. Isaac W. Wheelwright was not the

first of his family to lay Byfield under great obligation. The

memorable Preceptorship of Dr. Cleaveland began in 1821, but

as it was destined to continue its beneficent career until 1840,

it seems more proper to defer extended mention of him to a

later period.

The home of Thomas Gage, Esq., is now the Georgetown

Almshouse. His name is very prominent in the parish records.

He represented his town in the Legislature for at least fifteen

terms, and wrote the excellent history of Rowley which bears

his name.

These pages have shown how worthy a part Joseph Pike

took in parish affairs. The cellar of his house is on the hill

north of Mr. Daniel Dawkins', on the west side of the road. He

was a descendant in the sixth generation from John Pike the

emigrant. One of this John's sons was "the worshipful Major

Robert Pike " of Salisbury, the friend of Quakers, witches, and

all oppressed people. Major Robert is said to have been" a

man of great decision of character," and our Joseph had this

family trait. When Luther Moody, came into the parish as

a young man, an older person gave him this advice, "Moody,

if you want to succeed you must have firmness -- I don't mean

obstinacy, like Joe Pike's." Mr. Pike said once, "They

all hate me, but I notice that when they get into trouble

they all come to me." He had a large family of worthy chil-

dren. His sons all left Byfield, but his daughters all married

in the parish and had many children. Maj. Ira Stickney and

the two brothers, Rev. M. P. and Mr. S. W. Stickney, who will

receive notice in the next chapter were among his grandchil-

dren, and Mrs. G. H. Dole who is with us in the summer,

Mrs. Daniel Dawkins, Mr. Brunswick Stickney the noted lawyer

of Vermont, and the writer of this history are some of his great-

grandchildren.

Dr. Parker Cleaveland lived on Warren Street between Mr.

Charles Nelson's large barn and the road. He was born in

Ipswich, October 14, 1751, and began the practice of medicine

in Danvers at the early age of sixteen. At nineteen he removed

to Byfield. When his country called to arms he promptly

responded, serving as surgeon. His father and two of his

brothers were with him in the army, his father being chaplain.

After a year's service he returned to Byfield, where he practised

in all some fifty-five years. He was an eager and life-long,

student in his profession and a wise and devoted practitioner.

The town and the parish called him to fill many an office. He

served as justice of the Peace for forty years, represented the

town in two legislatures, and was a member of the State con-

stitutional conventions of 1780 and 1820. Only two others had

the honor to sit in both of these widely separated assemblies,

one of them being John Adams, who between the two conven-

tions was President of the United States. Dr. Cleaveland was

deeply interested in theological questions and was a steadfast

Christian. He is said to have had too much dignity and too

little tact for the highest success, but I never heard his name

mentioned by those who knew him save with high respect.

He is best known as the father of his namesake the distinguished

Bowdoin professor. He died February 10, 1826.

Paul Pillsbury lived where Mr. Herbert Witham does. The

house, that precious memorial of pioneer days, has already

been described, and two of Mr. Pillsbury's earlier inventions

have been mentioned. He was a native of West Newbury, but

in his early manhood he inherited his Byfield home from his

uncle Mr. Dickinson - my grandmother used to speak of the

house as the Dickinson house. Mr. Pillsbury was one of a

family of seven sons and one daughter. The family was marked

by unusual strength of mind and character. More than one

besides Paul showed remarkable mechanical ability. One was

the father of Parker Pillsbury the abolitionist; two others,

Enoch and Phineas, were clergymen. I have quoted from Dr.

Parish's sermon at the ordination of Enoch. Paul was the first

one of his Company to enlist for the war of 1812. His physical

strength was wonderful; he once shouldered and carried a

cannon weighing seven hundred pounds. As to religion he

was thought to be a freethinker; but if my memory serves me

he was in my boyhood a regular churchgoer. His most noted

invention was a machine for making shoe-pegs. The shoe-

maker used to saw off pieces of maple wood and then split

and whittle out his pegs. One day Mr. Pillsbury happened

to be in the manufactory of his neighbor Mr. Moses Stickney

the father of Rev. M. P. Stickney and Mr. S. W. Stickney -- the

shop is now the summer residence of Mr. George H. Dole, but

it stood then on the flat-iron space in front of Mr. Dawkins'.

Mr. Stickney was laboriously whittling out pegs and he said to

his caller, " Pillsbury, you can invent anything, why don't you get

up a machine for making pegs? " The remark proved a seed

sown in fruitful soil. For three years Mr. Pillsbury brooded and

toiled over the problem, and piece by piece he mortgaged all his

farm for money to carry on his investigations, but the result was

the peg machine that revolutionized the shoe business and con-

ferred a great boon on his fellow-men. Strange to say he never

patented the machine -- yet it is not so strange when we think

of the processes to be gone through and the -- expense and his

straitened circumstances. But even without a patent he had

so large a sale for his pegs that he was able to redeem his farm

from every encumbrance. He used to sell his pegs for eight

cents a quart or$2.00 a bushel. He became known by the un-

dignified, but not uncomplimentary term "Peg" Pillsbury.

Mr. Pillsbury's house was a museum of machines that he in-

vented for war and peace, for the quiet homestead and the

California gold mine. Like his father he had a family of seven

sons and one daughter. He was a severe parent, and his boys

left home as soon as possible. One of them, Oliver, put on

two suits of clothes one Sunday morning, and left the house

under the pretext of doing some household chore and went to

sea, where he rose to be captain. He did not return for nine

years, when the greeting, I am glad to say, was most affectionate

on both sides. The only daughter was a girl of rare excellence

of mind and heart. She was graduated at Bradford Academy,

and became a most devoted and successful teacher of the blind

in Boston and Marietta, Ohio. Mr. Pillsbury's second wife was

the widow of Benjamin Pike, the mother of Gen. Albert Pike.

She was beautiful in person, gifted in mind, and a sincere

Christian, a devoted mother to her stepchildren. Mr. Pillsbury

lived to be so old that I have hardly known in which period to

describe his life. He died January 1, 1868, at the advanced

age of eighty-eight years and eight months, being, at his death

the oldest man in town. I remember him as a tall, powerfully

built man, much bent from age, and leaning upon his staff,

with white locks and well-preserved conspicuous teeth. All

my recollections of him are very pleasant. He was still busy

with this and that invention, and very kindly saw fit to make

me his confident. Would that I had appreciated my oppor-

tunity and had drawn from his rich stores of reminiscence!

Capt. Daniel Chute was an influential and worthy parishioner

in the pastorates of both Mr. Parsons and Dr. Parish. He was

parish clerk for thirty-three years. He was born in 1722, and

died in 1805. His home was that of the late James C. Peabody,

who was his great-grandson. His wife, Mrs. Hannah (Adams)

Chute, must have been a woman of queenly mind and heart,

for Dr. Parish said of her, that "next to Geo. Washington he

knew none more fit to govern this nation than she."

The second Dea. Benjamin Colman was a very, enterprising

citizen. He was born July 27, 1752, and died February 2o,

1847, at the great age of ninety-four. He was one of the

twenty-eight boys with whom Master Moody began the Acad-

emy. He married Mary Chute of Byfield, and lived where

Miss Lucy Tenney does now. In 1805, he bought the Sleigh

meeting-house and fitted it up for a school. The advertise-

ment which I give in the appendix announces it as for " both

sexes," and Mr. E. P. Searle tells me that he attended there,

but at the height of its renown it was a female seminary,

and there is reason to doubt whether boys were admitted at

any time until after Mr. Emerson's departure. At one time Mr.

Colman lived in the lower part, while the school was kept in

the second story, which was reached by an outside stairway.

Mr. Colman moved from there to Boston, and kept a boarding-

house. From Boston he returned to Byfield, and built him a

new house and barn. The house is the present parsonage; he

also built, or bought and moved there another building, in

which he sold "West India goods and groceries." This third

building was moved to a spot opposite the meeting-house, and

became the first Byfield vestry. It was subsequently moved to

Georgetown, and is the dwelling-house now occupied by Mr.

Ernest Adams. It is said to have taken six barrels of rum to

dig the cellar of the new house and erect the buildings. At

one time Mr. Colman also had a shoe factory near Colman's

Spring. The building was afterward moved, and is now the

house of Mr. Daniel Dawkins. Deacon Colman was also

postmaster.

Deacon Colman's brother Moses was born November 19,

1755. He was mentioned in the chapter on Mr. Parsons minis-

try for his patriotic ministrations to the suffering soldiers at

Valley Forge. He lived on the old Colman homestead until

the house was burned March 27, 1827. The fire was caused by

the carelessness of a maid who swept out the brick oven with a

broom and then set the broom against the house outside -- but

there were embers in the broom. After the ancient mansion

was burned he bought the place where Mr. Charles F. Knight

now lives, and lived there until his death August 27, 1837, in

his eighty-second year. He was a farmer and butcher. He is

noted for his enormous weight, three hundred and sixty-five

pounds, -- a pound, he said, for every day of the year. He said

he would rather die of a feast than a famine. He had a wagon

specially made for him with a very low body. On this he used

to ride about his farm. A small boy slept with him one bitter

cold night, and dare not lie against him lest his big partner

should turn and crush him, and so he shivered all night for

Mr. Colman was such a mountain that the bed-clothes sloping

from him did not touch the boy. He had a bedstead as well as

a wagon made for his own particular use. Once in his old age

the giant rolled out of bed and they had to bring in a great

barn door and roll him upon that, and then lift up the door

and replace him in bed. He deserves double credit that de-

spite his obesity he manifested a true Colman enterprise. He

was large-hearted as well as large in body. He used to hail

passers by and ask them to come in and get something to eat.

I am greatly indebted to his grandson, Mr. J. C. Colman, who

loved him dearly, for reminiscences of this interesting man.

THOSE WHO WENT OUT FROM BYFIELD.

Byfield continued to send out those who were influential in a

broader sphere. Alfred W. Pike was Joseph Pike's youngest son.

He became an eminent teacher, and was always interested in

ambitious boys. I know of one such boy whose meagre library

was augmented by more than one choice book, the gift of Mr.

Pike. In 1826 he entertained the Byfield Rifle Company with

"a sumptuous breakfast." Although he was an enthusiast in

his profession and had some rare qualifications for it, he did not

stay long in one place. Mr. Cleaveland said that he had it

"many admirable qualities," but "certain unfortunate idiosyn-

crasies." Dr. Richard Spofford, of Newburyport, said that it

was always a query in Alfred W. Pike's mind whether God made

him or he made God. Miss Hannah F. Gould wrote the follow-

ing sportive epitaph upon him:

Here Alfred, 't is said,

Rests his logical head,

From the noise of each wearisome elf;

For having declined all the verbs he could find,

He took to declining himself.

His pupils in the Newburyport Academy showed their regard

for his memory by erecting the stone which marks his grave in

the new cemetery.

On Thurlow Street, beyond old Mr. Kneeland's, but within

Moses Colman

1755-1837

the limits of Byfield, there is, I am told, a cellar where a family

named Savary once lived. One of that family is said to have

become king of the Bonin Islands -- a small group in the Pacific

Ocean, southeast of Japan. This is the only son of Byfield

thus far that has worn a crown.

John Foss is said to have lived on North Street. He was,

captured by the Algerine pirates and held by them for several

years. On his release he wrote a book which reached a second

edition. Though it has small literary merit, it gives a graphic

picture of the sufferings which befell such captives.

Judith Stickney of Long Hill was the daughter of Amos

Stickney, the niece of Benjamin, the revolutionary patriot, and

the aunt of Maj. Ira Stickney. She married Simeon Dan-

forth and with him emigrated to Ohio. The journey took six

weeks and it seemed to her mother like a funeral to have her

only daughter leave for that wilderness whose soil was reddened

by so many desperate encounters with the Indians, some of

them so disastrous and disheartening to the white pioneers; but

Judith Stickney's stock took deep root in that western land, for

she bore fourteen children, seven times as many as her mother.

Prof. Parker Cleaveland was born in his father's house on

Warren Street, January 15, 1780. He fitted for college with

Master Smith in Dummer Academy, and was admitted to

Harvard in 1795. Both his pastor and his teacher followed the

lad with wise and kindly letters. The former wrote: "You

must do violence to your own feelings not to be a scholar.

Excuse my apprehensions, if I suggest that your religious

interests are more exposed, and men of sensibility are disposed

to conform to their associates. This amiable disposition is

often a snare. Irreligious companions are dangerous." Mr.

Smith's counsels were characteristic of a teacher: "My prin-

cipal fears are, lest your easy temper and cheerful disposi-

tion should make your contemporaries too fond of you, and

induce them to court your society oftener than may be con-

venient. I do not wish you to be a recluse; but at all events,

I would teach my classmates and companions at college that

I must be master of my room and my time, and I would not

allow of encroachments upon either, too frequently or at im-

proper hours. They will respect you the more, when they see

you resolved not to give way to impertinent visits, but to keep

the ends of the seminary where you are placed in view, and

steadily pursuing them." Mr. Cleaveland found what, proved

to be his life-long home and work in his appointment to be

Professor in Bowdoin College in his twenty-sixth year. Miner-

alogy and chemistry became his specialties. When he left

college, he did not know that there was more than one kind

of rock in the world, but he became the highest authority in

mineralogy in America, if not in the world. "I well re-

member," said his, half-brother the Rev. Dr. John P. Cleave-

land, "the forenoon of a warm day, in the first week in June

in 1811 when he made his first visit to the Devil's Den in

Newbury. . . . It had been visited once before by a Professor

from Harvard, and once by some Professor from foreign parts;

but its riches were reserved for my brother's eye. He returned

to my father's house with one or two candle-boxes filled;

and my mother's kitchen was at once turned into a laboratory,

and the floor strewed with fragments of every variety which

the den yielded . . . No miser ever worshipped his money

as he did these specimens. Many of them which I helped

him reduce and pack up that day have long had a place in

French, German, and Russian Cabinets." Professor Cleave-

land was a fascinating lecturer. His style was clear, simple,

and orderly, and his illustrations and experiments felicitous;

his dress was very plain, but he had great natural dignity,

and at the same time a vein of playful humor; permeating all

was an enthusiasm that made him forget himself in his subject.

Mr. Northend, who was a pupil of Professor Cleaveland, on what

proved to be his last visit to our house, July 2, 1902, said of

his teacher, "We all loved Professor Cleaveland. I suppose I

went to Bowdoin on his account. Dr. Dwight of Portland [son

of President Dwight of Yale] was a trustee and once at an

examination put in a question. Professor Cleaveland at once

put another. Dr. Dwight asked a second question, when the

Professor said, 'Dr. Dwight, I prefer to examine my own
students.' At the end of the examination he said to Dr.

Dwight and the class, 'I wish to explain my conduct. I think

an honest teacher the best examiner of his class. If he is

not honest, you had better get another teacher.'" Professor

Cleaveland's scientific writings won him the commendation of

men like Goethe, Brewster, Davy, Berzelius and Cuvier, mem-

bership in sixteen scientific and literary societies, including

those of the principal cities of Europe, and offers of professor-

ship in many institutions including Dartmouth, Princeton, and

Harvard. His students delighted in his transatlantic fame, but

were a little troubled by the calls that came to him from more

noted institutions that could offer larger salaries, but nothing

could ever induce him to leave his beloved college amid the

pines of Maine. With all his learning and with a piety of

equal genuineness, he had a fear of physical harm that was at

once ludicrous and pitiful. He would not cross a bridge until

he had personally inspected it and long before his death he

gave up the journey to Boston because he was obliged to make

a "tedious detour through the upper counties to avoid the

long and dangerous bridges on the lower route." The late

Dea. S. S. Gardner of this city (Washington, D. C.), who

like Mr. Northend was Professor Cleaveland's pupil, once told

me that, "When a friend expressed surprise that a scientific

man like him should take refuge in a thunder shower on a

feather bed upon an insulated bedstead in the cellar he replied,"

'If you knew as much about electricity as I do you would be

as frightened as I am."' He was a public-spirited citizen and

beneath a somewhat stern exterior he carried a warm heart

that delighted in kind deeds. Although not a clergyman he

was very religious. In addition to family worship he spent

a short season each morning in private devotion whose savor

was manifested in all the work of the day. He was in the

harness that he loved until the end. When he grew too fee-

ble to walk to his lecture room he went in his chaise, though

his limbs were "swollen, his chest suffused and his sight,

almost gone." In these closing days of physical weakness the

charm of his lectures continued and not a student was willing

to lose a single one. He lectured two days before his death,

the next day he was too feeble to do so, but the following

morning he was getting ready to meet his students, "when at

a few minutes after eight o'clock his discharge came from the

only Power from whom he would accept it." This was Friday,

October 15, 1858. He was in his seventy-ninth year and had

been Professor in Bowdoin fifty-three years lacking eight days.

He has a fitting memorial in the Brunswick cemetery, a massive

block of granite, but his noblest monument is in the minds and

characters that he moulded. A visit to Brunswick after Pro-

fessor Cleaveland's death called forth from his illustrious pupil,

Mr. Longfellow, this tribute to his memory:

PARKER CLEAVELAND.

(Written on revisiting Brunswick in the summer of 1875.)

Among the many lives that I have known,

None I remember more serene and sweet,

More rounded in itself and more complete

Than his who lies beneath this funeral stone.

These pines that murmured in low monotone,

These walks frequented by scholastic feet,

Were all his world: but in this calm retreat

For him the teacher's chair became a throne.

With fond affection memory loves to dwell

On the old days when his example made

A pastime of the toil of tongue and pen.