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

with