Showing posts with label Salisbury MA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Salisbury MA. Show all posts
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Robert Leslie Pike Salisbury Massachusetts Modern Apollo Belvidere
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Mary Follansbee Wigglesworth and Captain Edwin John Colby
Captain Edwin John COLBY (1812-1859) born in Salisbury, Massachusetts son of John COLBY and Dolly BAGLEY
Originally given the name Lorentz Spitzenfiel Colby, List of Persons Whose Names Have Been Changed in This Commonwealth Feb. 26, 1814.) He appeared in the census in 1850 in Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts. (SOURCE: 1850 Massachusetts Census. Salisbury, Essex County, page 20. Age 38.) He died on 19 DEC 1859 at Bremen-Vegesack, Weser, Germany.
Originally given the name Lorentz Spitzenfiel Colby, List of Persons Whose Names Have Been Changed in This Commonwealth Feb. 26, 1814.) He appeared in the census in 1850 in Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts. (SOURCE: 1850 Massachusetts Census. Salisbury, Essex County, page 20. Age 38.) He died on 19 DEC 1859 at Bremen-Vegesack, Weser, Germany.
Name: Edwin J. Colby
Capt. Edwin John COLBY and Mary Follansbee WIGGLESWORTH were married on 2 MAY 1836 in Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts.
Page 3 Newburyport Herald Newburyport, Massachusetts Tuesday, May 10th, 1836
Children were: John Edwin COLBY, Mary Elizabeth COLBY, Ada Josephine COLBY, Joanna Alice COLBY.
Friday, November 8, 2019
The Women of Dover John Greenleaf Whittier
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| Robert Pike (1616-1706) |
The following is a copy of the warrant issued by Major Waldron of Dover in 1662 The Quakers as was their wont prophesied against him and saw as they supposed the fulfillment of their prophesy when many years after he was killed by the Indians To the constables of Denier Hampton Salisbury Newbury Rowley Ipswich Wenham Lynn Roxbury Dedham and until these vagabond Quakers are carried out of this jurisdiction
You and every one of you are required in the King's Majesty's name to take these vagabond Quakers Anne Colman Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose and make them fast to the cart's tail and driving the cart through your several towns to whip them upon their naked backs not exceeding ten stripes apiece on each of them in each town and so to convey them from constable to constable till they are out of this jurisdiction as you will answer it at your peril and this shall be your warrant Richard Waldron Dated at Dover December 22d 1662.
This warrant was executed only in Dover and Hampton At Salisbury the constable refused to obey it He was sustained by the town's people who were under the influence of Major Robert Pike (picture above) the leading man in the lower valley of the Merrimac who stood far in advance of his time as an advocate of religious freedom and an opponent of ecclesiastical authority He had the moral courage to address an able and manly letter to the court at Salem remonstrating against the witchcraft trial.
See Genealogy Magazine Lydia Perkins Wardwell
Poem by John Greenleaf Whittier
The tossing spray of Cocheco's fall
Hardened to ice on its rocky wall,
As through Dover town in the chill, gray dawn,
Three women passed, at the cart-tail drawn!
Bared to the waist, for the north wind's grip
And keener sting of the constable's whip,
The blood that followed each hissing blow
Froze as it sprinkled the winter snow.
Priest and ruler, boy and maid
Followed the dismal cavalcade;
And from door and window, open thrown,
Looked and wondered gaffer and crone.
"God is our witness," the victims cried,
"We suffer for Him who for all men died;
The wrong ye do has been done before,
We bear the stripes that the Master bore !
"And thou, O Richard Waldron, for whom
We hear the feet of a coming doom,
On thy cruel heart and thy hand of wrong
Vengeance is sure, though it tarry long.
"In the light of the Lord, a flame we see
Climb and kindle a proud roof-tree;
And beneath it an old man lying dead,
With stains of blood on his hoary head."
"Smite, Goodman Hate - Evil!-harder still!"
The magistrate cried, "lay on with a will !
Drive out of their bodies the Father of Lies,
Who through them preaches and prophesies!"
So into the forest they held their way,
By winding river and frost-rimmed bay,
Over wind-swept hills that felt the beat
Of the winter sea at their icy feet.
The Indian hunter, searching his traps,
Peered stealthily through the forest gaps;
And the outlying settler shook his head,
"They're witches going to jail," he said.
At last a meeting-house came in view;
A blast on his horn the constable blew;
And the boys of Hampton cried up and down
"The Quakers have come !" to the wondering town.
From barn and woodpile the goodman came;
The goodwife quitted her quilting frame,
With her child at her breast ; and, hobbling slow,
The grandam followed to see the show.
Once more the torturing whip was swung,
Once more keen lashes the bare flesh stung.
"Oh, spare ! they are bleeding !" a little maid cried,
And covered her face the sight to hide.
A murmur ran round the crowd : "Good folks,"
Quoth the constable, busy counting the strokes,
"No pity to wretches like these is due,
They have beaten the gospel black and blue!"
Then a pallid woman, in wild-eyed fear,
With her wooden noggin of milk drew near.
"Drink, poor hearts !" a rude hand smote
Her draught away from a parching throat.
"Take heed," one whispered, "they'll take your cow
For fines, as they took your horse and plough,
And the bed from under you." "Even so,"
She said ;"they are cruel as death, I know."
Then on they passed, in the waning day,
Through Seabrook woods, a weariful way;
By great salt meadows and sand-hills bare,
And glimpses of blue sea here and there.
By the meeting-house in Salisbury town,
The sufferers stood, in the red sundown
Bare for the lash ! O pitying Night,
Drop swift thy curtain and hide the sight !
With shame in his eye and wrath on his lip
The Salisbury constable dropped his whip.
"This warrant means murder foul and red;
Cursed is he who serves it," he said.
"Show me the order, and meanwhile strike
A blow to your peril !" said Justice Pike.
Of all the rulers the land possessed,
Wisest and boldest was he and best.
He scoffed at witchcraft ; the priest he met
As man meets man ; his feet he set
Beyond his dark age, standing upright,
Soul-free, with his face to the morning light.
He read the warrant : "These convey
From our precincts ; at every town on the way
Give each ten lashes." "God judge the brute!
I tread his order under my foot!
"Cut loose these poor ones and let them go;
Come what will of it, all men shall know
No warrant is good, though backed by the Crown,
For whipping women in Salisbury town!"
The hearts of the villagers, half released
From creed of terror and rule of priest,
By a primal instinct owned the right
Of human pity in law's despite.
For ruth and chivalry only slept,
His Saxon manhood the yeoman kept;
Quicker or slower, the same blood ran
In the Cavalier and the Puritan.
The Quakers sank on their knees in praise
And thanks. A last, low sunset blaze
Flashed out from under a cloud, and shed
A golden glory on each bowed head.
The tale is one of an evil time,
When souls were fettered and thought was crime,
And heresy's whisper above its breath
Meant shameful scouring and bonds and death!
What marvel, that hunted and sorely tried,
Even woman rebuked and prophesied,
And soft words rarely answered back
The grim persuasion of whip and rack!
If her cry from the whipping-post and jail
Pierced sharp as the Kenite's driven nail,
O woman, at ease in these happier days,
Forbear to judge of thy sister's ways!
How much thy beautiful life may owe
To her faith and courage thou canst not know,
Nor how from the paths of thy calm retreat
She smoothed the thorns with her bleeding feet.
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
The Spanish Gold Mystery
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| This article is transcribed from Boston Globe article written by Willard Francis De Lue (1890-1989) historical writer and editor. Photo with story published December 1951 |
But some will remember Ezekiel True*--a great place for Trues in Salisbury town; and if Mr True were around today he could tell them about the Spanish Gold--and also tell them with a twinkle in his eye of how there came to be quite a flurry over it, back 50 years ago.
Of course, Salisbury Point and neighboring Amesbury Ferry village where different sort of places in the days when the Spanish Gold was buried here.
How far back that was I don't know; antiquarians would have to tell us that. But it was in the times when there still was a lot of shipping in the Merrimac and when two quiet villages of today were humming with industry.
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| From Infant Boat Industry grew along the Merrimack |
...Back in the 1800's the Ferry district had more children in its schools and paid more taxes than any other village in Amesbury.
And about the same time Salisbury Point (annexed to Amesbury in 1836) was the thriving business center of historic old Salisbury town.
There were shipyards and fish wharves and docks and boat building shops all along the river front. In 1810 42 vessels were built here and in others parts of Amesbury town; and though the building of large vessels fell after the Civil War, in the 1880's there were still seven boat builders at Salisbury Point who between them turned out annually around 2500 dories for the Grand Banks fishing fleets.
Both the Ferry Village and Salisbury Point have boat shops and yards to this day. But the glorious old times are now only memories-things put down in books.
And though the Ferry does have its hat factory the two villages are mostly just nice residential places that have only taken on a serene contented look.
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An old ironside drawbridge with its gates still hanging hopefully, though it is tight sealed by the unbroken topping on the road leads out from the Ferry village over the tide-swirled river mouth.
At its easterly end the Point greets the traveler with both piety and patriotism---a white church giving its benediction from one side of the road and a historical monument bringing stirring memories in a little park on the other.
"Alliance Park" runs the inscription on a tablet set in a grassy place in the parks birchen grove.
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| Alliance Park see more photos at Amesbury Dedicates Park To Hackett Shipyard July 22 1930 |
.....the Hacketts--skillful and conscientious workmen--and William especially was known as one of the smartest ship wrights along the New England coast. So here they fashioned the Alliance and saw it slide into the Merrimac--to become part of John Paul Jones' fleet in European waters, where it took several engagements and was for a time under Jones' command.
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I rang the bell of a house just near the Alliance marker.
"I am looking for some long time resident of the Point," I explained to the lady who answered. "Someone who might know where the Blaisdells lived fifty years ago."
"Now let me think," said she, after she had taken time to get fresh pies out of the oven. "I wonder if Mrs Merrow wouldn't know."
But, it so happened that Mrs Merrow did not. Mrs Merrow--Mrs Daniel B Merrow SR-- did not. And she was puzzled and provoked about it (and about not knowing of the Spanish Gold) because she was born at the Point ad freely confessed to remembering back a few years. Her house is one of the long arc of the white village homes that look out onto the river....
"I will find out about this Blaidell house," said Mrs Merrow. Ad find out, she did, with a little telephoning.
It was down at the far ed of the Village; so I continued on, interested to look at it. The Blaisdell house was the house with the Spanish Gold.
The story had its beginning sometime back in the days when shipping lay off in the stream ad seafarers roamed the village streets. Perhaps some local historian can supply all the details of it; for all I know is that a stranger once turned up at Mrs. Adam Wadleigh's sailors boarding house and some how departed again.
But in after a few years the word got around that the mysterious stranger had hidden a bag of Spanish doubloons in Mrs Wadliegh's cellar. A lot of digging was done for it but the gold was never uncovered.
Eventually the house became the property of Captain Joathan Blaisdell, a Civil War veteran of the town. In 1901 it was occupied by his daughter Lavinia.
Now comes Ezekiel True, called in by Miss Lavinia to make some repairs. And True remembering the gold story, saw a chace to have some fun.
"See you're working down at Lavinia's," said a friend.
True said he was, but was a bit more mysterious about it.
"Just doing a little job there...diggin' around some..."
Later he dropped a few hints about the Spanish gold.
So the story flew through town, "Lavinia Blasdell's having Zek True digging for gold in her cellar."
There was so much fuss that it eve made the newspapers.
Where the road forks to the east ed of town a couple of old square houses stand on the left of it, with a two story boat shop between them.
Lets see now! One of these was the former Wadleigh-Blaisdell House, But which? The gray house beyond the big red middle chimney?
Mrs Merrow had said, "the one before the boat shop. That would be No 4.
But I'll let the Point people settle that matter to their own satisfaction. And then if the present owner of the treasure ever decides to have a gold-digging party, I'd appreciate an invitation to take a hand in it!
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| "Ames Wharf on Merrimac River - Salisbury Point". From ebay sale |
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| Plank Road Salisbury, Massachusetts Built in 1866 to cross salt marshes leading to beach. Beach Road was laid over the early planks as remnants have been found during road work. A local legend maintains that a ship that was supposed to go to Newburyport pulled in to Salisbury and hid gold under the plank road. see Essex County Landscape Report |
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| Merrimac Hat Company were Lavania Blaisdell worked. |
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| Hackett House o the Point from Legendary Locals of Amesbury book published by Margie Walker |
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| *Ezekiel True (1840-1931) son of Samuel True and Mary Adams. He married Mary Currier (1840-1919) |
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| Amesbury Daily News April 13 1931 |
Friday, November 23, 2018
Ellen Dorcas Stearns of Salisbury Remembered
Newspaper clip Amesbury Daily News, published in Amesbury, Massachusetts on Thursday, October 29th, 1942 and photo of Nell on her 90th birthday and another of her family and friends gathering for a photo on her day of birthday celebration
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| This photo of the extended Stearns family was taken in 1935, at Nell’s 90th birthday celebration at the Elm Street house. Shown here, first row, Florence Swett Chisholm Morrill, Polly Richards, Ellen Dorcas Stearns, Howard Oliver Stearns, Jr. and Howard Oliver Stearns, Sr. Back row, Roy Richards, Ethel Swett Williams, Roy Richards Jr., Nettie Florence Gould Stearns, Fannie Stearns Swett, Mr. George Morrill, Marion Swett Richards, Mr. Williams, William Dennett Stearns. Ethel, 50, in the back row holding Roy Jr., looks in the peak of health, but died four days after the photo was taken. |
Friday, September 30, 2016
Hook's Ferry Amesbury Massachusetts and History of the Hook Family
Photo from "The Ancient Ferry ways to the Merrimack" by William D Lowell Read at the Annual Meeting of the Historical Society of Old Newbury (Now Newbury Museum) October 26, 1893, by Miss E. A. Getchell
Fiery Family Feud over Ferry Rights
According to records Capt. Humphrey Hook, son of William Hooke and Elizabeth Dyer was the ferryman about the time of his marriage to Judith March, daughter of Capt. John March and Jemima True, daughter of Henry True and Israel Pike of Salisbury, Massachusetts.
Captain John March was granted the ferry on Oct. 25, 1687 through a petition he filed March, Sept. 23, 1687. James Carr, whose family controlled the ferry rights remonstrated against it, stating that the first bridge at Carr's island cost more than £300; that the ferry at George Carr's death (1683) was worth near £400, and that the injury to him by March's ferry was £50 or £60 a year. Mr. March in a letter to the town of Salisbury offered to be at one half the expense of making their part of the road passable to the ferry.
Captain March was a prominent figure and the leading petitioner for the “Iron Works” of Amesbury and Salisbury, granted in 1710.
From History of Amesbury Joseph Merrill
November 9 1730
Mentioned in 1732
Capt John March was son of Captain Hugh March and Sarah Moody, daughter of Caleb Moody and Sarah Pierce, Hugh March was son of Hugh March and Judith Knight one of the settlers of Newbury, Massachusetts. American Ancestors has all the probate records
Children of Capt Hook and Judith March:
Daughter Jemina Hook (1703-1740) married Jacob Blaisdell, son of John Blaisdell (s. of Henry Blaisdell and Mary Haddon) and Elizabeth Challis (d. of Philip Challis and Mary Sargent)
Daughter Judith March (1705-1747) married Timothy Currier, son of Thomas Currier (s. of Thomas Currier and Mary Osgood) and Sarah Barnard (d. of Nathaniel Barnard and Mary Barnard).
John Hooke (1708-1749) Any information please post
William Hook is son of William Hooke and Eleanor Knight, widow of Lt Col. Walter Norton killed by Pequot Indians while on a trading expedition
From Colonial Soldiers and Officers in New England, 1620-1775
Humphrey Hook, William Hook, Thomas Hook and Giles Elridge named, among others, for " planters and undertakers " of Agamenticus and Cape " Nedock. The following is from the History of Amesbury by Joseph Merrill 1880
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