History of Newburyport from the earliest settlement of the country to the present time. With a biographical appendix

Appendix

. BY MRS. E. VALE SMITH. NEWBURYPORT: 1854. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by E. VAJLE SMITH, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. boston: PRESS OF DAMKELL AND MOORE, 1G Devonshire Street.

Preface

. As there are extant, two partial Histories of Newburyport, it may perhaps be considered a presumptuous and superfluous work to add another. But neither of the works alluded to, even aim to give a complete history of Newburyport. Mr. Cushing's work, published twenty-eight years ago, covers only a period of sixty-two years, from 1764 to 1826 — leaving one hundred and fifty years since the settlement of what is now called Newburyport, to be accounted for. Mr. Coffin's " History of Ould Newbury," contains some direct, and much incidental information concerning Newburyport; but treats with exceeding brevity, periods of the greatest interest in the history of the town ; and is also combined with much that has no particular interest to citizens of Newburyport. It is therefore believed that a History, which comprehends the whole period of time since the occupation of the land by white settlers to the present — with only so much of collateral history as shall suffice for a right under standing of our own, is called for ; and if faithfully performed, will not prove a useless addition to the literature of Essex County.

As a history of any place or people should contain within itself every essential fact bearing upon the character or fortune of the place or people described, — no matter how much other books contain on the same subject — it may become necessary, in delineating the progressive life of Newburyport, to narrate some things which to the

PREFACE.

. older inhabitants may appear trite and familiar, but which are nev ertheless component parts of its history, and could not be excluded without injuring the unity of the work. For the same reason we shall introduce some brief description of the state of the surrounding country, and even cross the seas to find the source of changes which affected the happiness and destinies of our ancestors. It will be readily perceived by the intelligent reader that the his tory of a seaport town is essentially different from that of an inland one : the latter has comparatively little connection with foreign countries, while the former is continually affected by the policy as sumed by even distant nations. This is peculiarly the case where extensive commercial relations have been sustained, as in Newbury port.

And then circumstances demand of the historian who would faithfully delineate the times, a somewhat extensive acquaintance with the foreign policy of other nations, extending the area to be explored, and increasing the labor of the writer, but furnishing for the reader a variety of topics, the absence of which is apt to mark with monotony the records of country towns, remote from all external influences. The principal authorities consulted in the preparation of this work have been Bancroft's History of the Colonization of the United States ; the Massachusetts Historical Collections ; the Massachu setts Historical and Genealogical Register ; Pitkin's Civil and Political History of the United States ; Allen's and Warren's do. ; Allison's and Russell's Histories of Europe ; White's History of New England ; Parish's do ; Histories of Newbury, Lynn, Rowley, Ports mouth, Plymouth ; Histories of the Indian Wars, and Naval Histories ; National, State, County, Town, and City Records and files ; Custom House, Church, and Society Books ; the Records of Incorporated Institutions, Historical Sermons, and Addresses ; private journals, accounts, letters, and unpublished manuscripts ; legal proceedings, deeds, affidavits, &c, together with the personal narrations of the intelligent aged ; and nearly complete files of the newspapers pub lished in Newburyport since 1773.

PREFACE.

. V For files of these papers, we are indebted to Capt. Richard Coffin, of Newbury, and Messrs. Morse and Brewster, of the "Daily Herald," of this city. We have also received particular assistance through the courtesy of Dr. Shurtleff, of Boston, who placed in our hands an early copy of the published " Records of the Governor and Company of ye Massachusetts Bay;" and to Chas. Lowell, D. D , of Cambridge, Col. Samuel Swett, and Hon. Geo. Lunt of Boston, for biographical, and other papers of value ; to E. Wood Perry, Esq., of New Orleans, for original letters of Washington, &c. ; to Eleazer Johnson, Esq., (city clerk,) for assistance in examining Records; to Dr. D. S. Blake, for collection of statistics ; to Joshua Coffin, Esq., (author of the History of Ould Newbury,) for interesting facts as certained since the publication of his book ; to many others also, we are under obligations for similar favors.

To publish the long list of names of all the persons who have thus evinced their interest in this work, would appear ostentatious from th?ir number. We return to all such friends our sincere thanks, assuring them we need no printed memento to keep them in our grateful remembrance. For the striking sketch of Judge Parsons, we are indebted to his son, Prof. Theophilus Parsons, of Cambridge ; it is considered a very striking likeness by those who well remember the original. Mr. Milton, every one who ever saw him, will recognize at the first glance. The View of Newburyport was originally published nn the 30th of November, 1774 ; it was " sold, framed, glazed, and colored by Ben. Johnson and Geo. Searle," aad " was taken from a point just above the powder-house." (The powder-house then stood on the south westerly side of Frog pond, near the old burying hill.)

The Tonnage Table will be found partially deficient during some few years ; the Custom House records for that period are missing, which accounts for the deficiency. Some typographical, and other errors, will be found in the " Errata," at the close of the book. Newburyport, Mass., June, 1854. GENERAL INDEX Introduction. Period I. Settlement of Newbury, (now New buryport,) 1635-1764 Appendix to Period I. Period II. Incorporation of Newburyport. and Revolutionary War, 1764-1783 Period III. Commercial Prosperity, - - 1783-1806 Period IV. Successive disasters, Commercial Re strictions— Fire— War, - 1807-1815 Period V. Peace, but not Prosperity, - - 1815-1835 Period VI. Resuscitation, Annexation, City Char ter, - - - - • - - - - 1835-1854 Miscellany. Ecclesiastical Sketches. Biographical Notices.