the requisite materials. Throughout the whole of this compilation he has endeavored to make a broad distinction between fact and tradition, and to relate nothing as fact, which he does not believe to be true. Strype in his annals says, 'I have chosen to set down things in the very words of the records and originals, and of the authors themselves, (rather than in my own, without framing and dressing them in more modern language,) whereby the sense is sure to remain entire as the writers meant it, whereas by affecting too curiously to change and model words and sentences, I have observed the sense itself to be often marred and disguised.' This is the course that the compiler has taken. He has endeavored to give as accurate a representation as possible, of the character of the inhabitants of Newbury and their transactions, for over two hundred years, and has been desirous, in the language of Tacitus, 'sine ira, sine studio,' without fear, favor, or affection, neither 'to extenuate, nor aught set down in malice.' He is well aware that his statements in many places do not agree either with the tradition, or the belief, of many of the inhabitants of the town, or with history. Where he has been obliged to differ from common opinion, he has done so for reasons, which to him appeared entirely satisfactory, and has been pleased to find that the instances have been very few where fact and tradition do not substantially agree. It is however much to be lamented, that so small a number of the first settlers were in the habit of recording the transactions of the day, and that the journals or diaries of those who made a record, should have been in so many instances lost or destroyed. Mr. Anthony Somerby, the first school-master of Newbury, the ancestor of all of that name in this country, and one of our best and most useful citizens, kept a diary of passing events, as I have been informed by those who have seen it, but of which no trace can now be found. An aged lady, one of his descendants, informed me that he versified the whole book of Job. Numerous instances might be given where valuable papers in large quantities, have been destroyed, because they were 'so old that nobody could read them.' 'All are not such,' and among the many persons, who have in various ways rendered valuable assistance in the compilation of this work, the author cannot forbear mentioning the names of Messrs. Robert Adams, reverend William S. Bartlet, Daniel Dole, Moses Davenport, George Danforth, doctor Ebenezer Hale, doctor E. G. Kelley, Tristram Little, Josiah Little, Moses Pettingill, esquire, Horatio G. Somerby, of Boston, and Charles Toppan, of Philadelphia, to whom he tenders his warmest acknowledgments for the interest they have manifested in the work, and the aid they have afforded toward its completion, and to all others not mentioned by name, who have rendered any assistance. If, as is undoubtedly the case, he has made any mistakes, or omitted any necessary or valuable information, he will be greatly obliged to any person or persons, who will correct those mistakes, or supply those omissions, as it is his intention still to continue to collect information, in order that some future historian may be able to supply his deficiences, and at some future day may prepare a work, which will do justice to the reputation of 'Ould Newberry.' The sources whence the compiler of the present history has derived his materials, are almost innumerable, and to specify them all, would require a small volume. The principal are the colonial, province, state, county, town, church, and parish records. The town records have been well kept, and with the exception of a few missing leaves of the first book, are full and accurate. The records of the first church commence in 1674, the preceding transactions of the church, having been to all appearance intentionally destroyed; a loss very much to be regretted, but which has in part been supplied by copious quotations from the county records. Some persons may suppose, that too many pages are occupied with the ecclesiastical affairs of the town. It should be remembered that in no other way could the peculiar traits in the character of our ancestors be fully developed. It was the religious doctrines that they had embraced, and the consequent principles of religious and civil liberty, which they could not enjoy in their own land, that induced such a company of gentlemen, merchants, and mechanics, to emigrate from the populous and cultivated towns of their father land, to this then wilderness, and exchange, as many of them did, the sword, the awl, the needle, and the yard-stick, for the hoe, the axe, the anvil, and the plough; and to omit a sufficient allusion to their religious principles and their actual development in practice, would be to narrate effects, and not notice the causes which produced them. No one can justly appreciate the character of our forefathers, and the sacrifices they made for their posterity, without a knowledge of those principles, which, like a main-spring, set every thing in motion. But enough has been said on this subject. Our attention for a few pages will be given to affairs more secular. The town of Newbury was originally one of the largest towns in the county. It was about thirteen miles long, and about six miles broad in the widest place, and contained about thirty thousand acres, of which nearly two thousand are covered with water. In 1764, it was divided into two towns, Newbury and Newburyport. In 1771, a province valuation was taken, and in 1781, a valuation was taken by the state, in which Newbury and Newburyport stood thus. 14 45 1450 Shops separate or adjoining other buildings. Barns. All other buildings of £ 5 value and upward. 113 1-2 Acres of tillage land. of English and upland mowing. of pasturage. Tons of vessels, of 5 tons burthen and upward. Horses and mares, 3 years old and upward. 2380 86 3-4 Oxen, 4 years old and upward. Newburyport also in 1781, had ten distil and sugar houses, three rope walks, thirty-nine ware-houses, and eighty-seven thousand nine hundred superficial feet of wharf. Newbury also had in 1781, sixteen grist, saw, fulling, and slitting mills, one thousand one hundred and six acres of fresh meadow, three thousand one hundred and sixty-seven acres of salt marsh, made one thousand four hundred and thirteen barrels of cider, had eight hundred and fifty-two acres of wood land, three hundred and three acres of unimproved land, and thirty-five acres of land unimprovable, had ten colts, two years old, fourteen colts one year old, three hundred and one neat cattle three years old, three hundred and ninety, two years old, three hundred and fifty-five, one year old, and two thousand three hundred and seventy-six sheep and goats. In 1819, West Newbury was set off and incorporated as a separate town. The state valuation for 1840, is as follows: 80 1-8 161 141 453,812 2,397 1-2 13,456 All other buildings and edifices of the value of $20 and upward. Superficial feet of wharf. Tons of vessels and small craft of 5 tons bur- 2496 1-2 Acres of English and upland mowing. 88 1-2 4,084 1-2 Acres of pasturage. 2,011 1-2 346 6,947 3-4 41 The three towns also raised in 1840, eight hundred and eleven bushels of wheat, one thousand two hundred and forty bushels of rye, six thousand and seventy-three bushels of oats, fifteen thousand six hundred and thirty-five bushels of Indian corn, and three thousand one hundred and sixty-six bushels of barley. There were also in Newbury, three thousand eight hundred and twentyfive and one half acres of salt marsh, and two thousand eight hundred and sixtyfive and one half tons of salt hay cut on the same. Newbury also had two carding machines, two fulling mills, and one and a half saw mills. Since the first settlement of the town, that part of it now called Newburyport, ance. has witnessed great changes, not only in its business, but in its external appearIn the printed programme of the procession, which honored general Washington with an escort in 1789, a conspicuous place was assigned to the 'distillers,' who were then a numerous body of men. At that time there were ten or twelve distilleries in the town, and six rope walks. Now there are but one of each, and manufacturing, a new and rapidly increasing business, is taking the place of the West India trade, by which it once rose to great wealth. In 1796, doctor Dwight thus writes: 'Newburyport is probably the smallest township in the state, including only six hundred and forty acres. It lies on the southern shore of the Merrimac. The town is built on a declivity of unrivalled beauty. The slope is easy and elegant; the soil rich, the streets, except one near the water, clean and sweet; and the verdure, wherever it is visible, exquisite. The streets are either parallel, or right angled, to the river; the southern shore of which bends, here, towards the south east. None of them are regularly formed. Still there is so near an approximation to regularity as to awaken in the mind of a traveler, with peculiar strength a wish that the regularity had been perfect. For myself I was not a little mortified to see so fair an opportunity of compassing this beauty on so exquisite a spot finally lost. As it is, however, there are few towns of equal beauty in this country. The houses taken collectively, make a better appearance than those of any other town in New England. Many of them are particularly handsome. Their appendages also unusually neat. Indeed, an air of wealth, taste and elegance, is spread over this beautiful spot, to which I know no rival. . . From the tower of the church belonging to the fifth Congregation, a noble prospect is presented to the spectator. On the west and south, spreads an extensive champaign country, ornamented with good farmers' houses, orchards, and cultivated fields, and varied by a number of beautiful hills. Behind them rise, remotely, two mountains, finely connecting the landscape with the sky. On the north flows the Merrimac, visible about four miles; exhibiting two islands in its bosom, near the point, where it first appears; and joining the ocean between two sand banks, on which are erected two movable Light houses. On the North shore stand the towns of Salisbury and Amesbury. Behind this the country rises gradually, parted into a variety of eminences; one of them, which from its appropriation by the savages, is called Powow hill, particularly handsome. Over all these ascends at the distance of twenty-five miles, the round summit of Agamenticus. North eastward, the Isles of Shoals appear at the distance of eight leagues, like a cloud in the horizon. Eastward the ocean spreads illimitably. At a small distance from the shore, Plum Island, a wild and fantastical sand beach, is thrown up by the joint power of winds and waves into the thousand wanton figures of a snow drift. Immediately beneath is the town itself, which with its churches and beautiful houses, its harbor and shipping, appears as the proper centre of this circle of scenery, and leaves on the mind a cheerfulness and brilliancy, strongly resembling that, which accompanies a delightful morning in May. Newbury contains five parishes, in which are five congregations and a society of Friends. It is all settled in plantations, formed especially along the Merrimac of excellent land under good cultivation. The surface is generally pleasant, and remarkably so on the borders of the river from some of the eminences.' These eminences, of which the doctor speaks, are principally in West Newbury, and are called Pipe-stave, Crane-neck, Archelaus, Old-town, and Indian hills. With the exception of the summit of Old-town hill, the land on all the swells in Newbury, is of the first quality. The Indian-hill farm, owned by colonel Benjamin Poore, is in a high state of cultivation, and received in 1843, the premium of two hundred dollars, from the committee of the agricultural society, who deemed it the best managed farm in the county. Newbury has also the honor of having the first incorporated academy in the state, the first toll-bridge, the first chain bridge, the first incorporated woolen factory; and the first vessel that displayed the American flag in the river Thames, was the Count De Grasse, commanded by captain Nicholas Johnson, of Newburyport. Many other interesting facts might be mentioned, for which I have no room. I will only add, for the information of the reader, that a brief sketch of the life of doctor John Clark, whose portrait is prefixed to this work, may be found in Thacher's Medical Biography. See also page 391. The wood cut of the first parish meeting-house, built in 1700, and demolished in 1806, is not an exact representation. It was drawn from the recollection of one person, by another, who never saw it. The roof was originally constructed with four gable ends or projections, one on each side, each containing a large window, which gave light to the upper galleries, where the young people sat. The children sat on a seat in the alley, fixed to the outside of the pews. Before the pulpit and deacon's seat, was a large pew containing a table, where sat the chiefs of the fathers. The turret was in the centre, and the bell was rung and tolled in the centre of the broad aisle. Originally, the space within was open to the roof, where were many ornaments of an antique sculpture and wainscot, and was, in the day of it, a stately building, but long before it was torn down, a steeple was substituted for the turret, the dormar windows were removed, and the roof thus made plain,'* as it appears on the third page. The reader of the following pages, will make the following corrections. Page 244, ‘June seventeenth, 1774,' should be placed in 1775. On page 270, for 'captain Michael Smith,' read 'captain Samuel E. Bailey.' On page 363, for 'tattle,' read cattle.' On page 285, add reverend Daniel P. Pike, pastor.' Other errors the intelligent reader will undoubtedly notice, in the following sketch of Ould Newberry. Reverend doctor Popkin. |