Pages

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Captain Richard Davenport and Elizabeth Hathorne - Salem Witch House

 From Salem Patch by Melissa Davenport Berry


310 Essex Street’s long forgotten owners Captain Richard Davenport and his wife, Elizabeth Hathorne Davenport (ancestor of acclaimed Salem native Nathaniel Hawthorne)



While the Witch House in Salem, Mass. is certainly famous for its connection to Judge Corwin and the witch trials of 1692, it was 310 Essex Street’s long forgotten owners Captain Richard Davenport and his wife, Elizabeth Hathorne Davenport (ancestor of acclaimed Salem native Nathaniel Hawthorne), who helped establish the sound moral foundation upon which the New Jerusalem was built. Richard Davenport arrived in Salem in 1628 aboard the English ship Abigail. Already a skilled soldier, he went on to become an important military officer in the developing colony.

Before leaving England, Richard was betrothed to Elizabeth Hathorne, sister of William Hathorne. His duties were to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony and set up house for his new bride. While many settlers perished with a broken spirit from scarcity of food and sickness, Richard endured his first bitter cold New England winter. During the summer of 1630, the Arbella, flagship of Winthrop’s Fleet, brought his new family.

The couple wed and life began in their new Naumkeag home: it was a “roughhewn dirt floor wooden structure with a roof solidly thatched and stone fireplace.” William Hathorne married Anne Smith, and they lived in Dorchester for their first three years in the colony, while he groomed himself for greatness. Meanwhile, Richard was “zealously engaged in agricultural operations,” and like many early Salem planters, he learned from the local Naumkeag tribe that the abundant herring were more useful as corn fertilizer than an evening meal; they called it “fishing the fields.” The problem of light was also solved by their new friends, as Rev. Higginson recorded after a visit to a native wigwam: “the pine trees cloven are so full of moisture of turpentine and pitch they burn as clear as a torch.”

Soon after settlements were established, their names were changed to suit Puritan ideals. Naumkeag was now Salem, Hebrew for peace. In 1636 William Hathorne joined the Davenport clan in Salem. Their wives shared domestic duties and their children played together. Richard and William served jointly in town affairs, tasked with establishing boundary lines and appraising land and properties. William was a magistrate, and court records indicate that Richard benefited handsomely when convicted men were sentenced to serve time on his farms.

 Richard Davenport and Thomas Lathrop shared land in the Farms and managed the day-to-day operations of the planters. Chosen as overseer of the herdsmen, Richard noted in town records that he “contracted Keeper of the Cattle for 36 ponds per ann.” Also a member of the “train band,” Richard had strong ties with its captain, John Endicott, a “hothead Puritan” instigating acts with "indiscreet zeal."

John Endicott

During a drill in 1634, Endicott entered the field, grabbed the flag and cut out the patron cross of St. George with his sword.  Endicott’s defiant act against “popish relics of superstition” made clear his desire to sever customs and binds to “Episcopacy England.” Endicott’s Separatist vision was clear: “we stand on our own soil... which we have won with our swords, which we have cleared with our axes, which we have tilled with the sweat of our brows, which we have sanctified with our prayers to the God that brought us hither!”

Richard became best known in Salem as Ensign Davenport, and he named his daughter Truecross to honor that which Nathaniel Hawthorne called “the first omen of that deliverance which our fathers consummated.”



This Pious Empire was officially emerging; however, there were a few who did not agree with such purist lifestyles. The Crown-sponsored colony Merrymount (Quincy), ran by Thomas Morton, was far less virtuous. This Pagan paradise, rich in merriment, prosperous in fur trade and swarming with native ladies, was a den of erotic energy. The most famous feature, an 80-foot-tall maypole, drew the attention of the “great swelling fellow Endicott.”




Endicott huddled up his men, headed by Richard, and raided the land of good cheer. He “rebuked them for their profannes,” chopping down the “Calf of Horeb” and renaming the fairy kingdom “Mount Dragon.” In his journal, William Bradford noted there was no bloodshed as the boys were too drunk and Morton, “lord of misrule,” too well connected. He was exiled and eventually escaped back to England.

Richard moved forward into more serious matters threatening the New World — the Native Americans. The friendly relations he had once forged came to an end. The holy war against the Pequots not only involved colonists, but other tribes as well. Richard served as lieutenant and second-in-command to Captain Trask in the campaign. The soldiers "being resolved, by Gods Assistance, to make final Destruction of them," waged a bloody battle, and Richard came close to death: “seventeen arrows were shot into his coat of mail, and he was wounded in unprotected parts of his person.”

In 1638 the colonies and native tribes established a treaty, but peace reigned for only a short while. During this time, Richard was elected to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.




William was delegated speaker for the New England Confederations, along with Simon Bradstreet, where he served for many years.

Richard, now a “man approved for his faithfulness, courage, and skill,” was appointed to command the colony’s chief fortress, Castle Island, and did so until his tragic death by lightening in June 1665. Elizabeth and the children remained in Boston. “The whole country mourned the loss and Court granted his family favors and lands.”

As it turns out, in 1715, the notorious Judge Jonathan Corwin was succeeded by Addington Davenport, a descendant of the Richard and Elizabeth. While the Davenport-Hawthorne dwelling may be nothing more than a ghostly structure standing in our collective imagination, the lifeblood of their ancestors is alive and well, just like the New Jerusalem they created: “They were soldiers by nature and instinct, and to the end. United in early service, separated by the course of their lives, they were united again in death.”

Salem witch house

Lydia Wardwell Perkins Quaker Newbury, Ma

My Article From the Newburyport News:



While the horrors of the Salem witch hysteria are widely known, some years before a less infamous trepidation, the Quaker persecutions, swept the colony during “one of the darkest blots in time.” Several Quakers seeking religious liberty in the Massachusetts Bay Colony suffered torture, and even the scaffold, at the hands of the Puritans. Absence from local parish services typically resulted in a summons, the consequences of which included heavy fines, whippings, or banishment. One Quakeress, Lydia (née Perkins) Wardwell made a stark declaration of protest in response to her summons, appearing skyclad in Newbury as a "sign" of the spiritual nakedness of her persecutors.

Yes, it’s true; Newbury can boast of its very own Lady Godiva. Unfortunately, she could not pull off her impromptu burlesque show in a house of worship without getting the strap. Though most historians question her sanity, Lydia’s motives for disrobing resembled the signs acted out by Hebrew prophets, a doctrine taken very seriously by both the Puritans and the Quakers. Her bold act was no doubt driven by the abuse and torture inflicted upon her family and friends by the Puritans.

Lydia's husband, Eliakim Wardwell of Hampton, N.H., was repeatedly harassed, bullied, and stripped of his assets because of his Quaker faith. He endured the stocks on more than one occasion, and records show that on April 8, 1662 , he was fined for his absence from church.  In addition to these offences, the Wardwell home was also the scene of a conflict while the couple harbored Wenlock Christison, a notable Quaker who was jailed in Boston with Mary Dyer and William Leddra in 1661. Though he escaped the scaffold, Christison was banished from the Mass. Bay Colony.

No doubt he was on the colony’s ten-most-wanted list, and Hampton’s Rev. Seaborn Cotton felt it his duty to “keep the wolves from his sheep.” Cotton, with “truncheon in hand, led a party of order-loving citizens” to the house of Wardwell, seized Christison, and shuffled him off to jail. Christison moved to safer territory in 1665, eventually settling in Talbot County, Maryland. He was elected to the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly and later inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s hero in “John Endicott,” one of three dramatic poems in a collection called “New England Tragedies.”
As Cotton confiscated lands from the Wardwell estate and bankrupted them with heavy fines for non-attendance of Sabbath services, Lydia managed to muster strength, a true testimony to her faith. She witnessed the heinous punishments inflicted by the courts, who viewed Quakers as “dangerous social outlaws.” Several of her friends were hanged or tortured:  their ears severed, and their tongues and body parts bored and branded with hot irons. Those sentenced to jail were often denied food and water.
Lydia was present in Dover, N.H. when three women who had refused to attend church were stripped naked to the waist, tied to a cart, and, though the weather was "bitter cold" that day, paraded around several local towns.   Eliakim Wardwell did not shy away from verbalizing his two cents on the matter. After calling the reverend a brute, back in stocks he went.

While the public flogging was administered, the Rev. Mr. Rayner "stood and looked and laughed at it.”
Lydia was also pursued by the church to answer for her absence from communion. By the time she was summoned for “separating from the church and teaching false doctrine” (Newbury Records), she well understood her fate with church elders. But surely her exhibitionist act was barely imaginable to the pious Puritan elite. She, being “a chaste and tender woman of exemplary modesty,” must have jolted quite a reaction from the locals. One account notes that the church meeting was so disrupted they could not reconvene nor assemble order. On the records of the court at Salem (Quarterly Sessions Court for Essex County), her sentence for the outburst was recorded as follows:

May 5th, 1663. Lydia Wardwell on her presentment for coming naked into Newbury meeting house. The sentence of the court is, that she shall be severely whipt and pay the costs and fees to the marshall of Hampton for bringing her. Costs, ten shillings, fees two shillings and sixpence.
After the session, Lydia was lugged off by Ipswich lawmen and taken to a tavern, the Joseph Baker House. “Amid a large circle of men and boys,” she was tied to a rough post and "lashed to the satisfaction of the crowd of onlookers" (Ipswich Chronicle Report).  One can only imagine the scene of pathetic prigs sipping ale and leering pitilessly while the constables who whipped her “tore her bosom as she writhed.”

To dodge the fussbudget herds and avoid further abuse, the Wardwells moved to Shrewsbury, N.J. after Lydia’s shocking protest. Eliakim became one of the first Quaker ministers in the town. Perhaps the family rested some satisfaction on the fact that the judgment of Heaven would fall upon their persecutors (a belief shared by the Puritans). It is bemusing to think that the Puritans, who left Mother England to escape similar persecution, would exact such brutal tactics of torment on the pacifistic Quakers.

Even more of a mystery is the whereabouts of Lydia’s petticoat. According to the story, she was wrapped in cloth and shuffled off to Hampton very abruptly. Her garments were left for safekeeping with fellow friend of the light Gov. John Easton, who perhaps stood outside to cheer his prophetess on. Though her petticoat may never be found, Lydia Wardell certainly taught us that the naked truth is always better than a well-dressed lie.

A Quality Brew Coffin History Newbury, MA & Nantucket

My Articles Published in Newburyport News and  Beverly Patch:

Beer has been a part of American culture since our ancestors first arrived. In fact, the ship Arabella left England with 10,000 gallons of beer and 120 casks of malt to make good cheer in the New World. A good pint will cure what “ales” you, plus it prevents scurvy and other diseases. Harvard students low on dough paid tuition fees in wheat and malt to supply the campus brew house. Early records indicate that it was mandatory for every town to establish a licensed ordinary or else incur a fine. At the time, inn holding was considered a very reputable occupation, and Newbury had a top-shelf resort operated by Tristram and Dionis Coffin, who the records indicate were licensed for business on May 26, 1647.

            The Coffins ran a ferry on the Newbury side of the Merrimack, receiving "two pence a person out, and two pence back, and four pence a beast.” The original structure is no longer standing, and to set the record straight, Tristram, Jr. rather than his father owned the historical “Coffin House,” located on 14 High Road (1678) in Newbury. Many sources list this as the location of the tavern, which is incorrect. Records indicate the Coffins owned forty acres across from Carr Island. In later years, the road to the Inn, known as Coffin Lane, was located on the west side of present day Jefferson St., down by the shore of the Merrimack River.


            In 1645, the government passed regulations requiring that "every person licensed to keep an ordinary shall always be provided with good wholesome beer of 4 bushels of malt to the hogshead, which he shall not sell above 2 pence the ale quart. Whosoever failed to comply with the provisions of this law should forfeit for the first offence forty shillings & for the second offence shall forfeit their license." In general, Puritan laws were not open to interpretation, and those who stepped out of bounds were hauled in for examination.

            In spite of the regulations, Dionis decided to tap into a new recipe for beer that was stronger and stouter than her competitors’ brew. One source suggests she consulted “Hodder’s Arithmetic,” exclaiming, "as four is to two, so is six to three… I'll have better beer than my neighbors and be paid for it— A fig for the law." Her magic elixir made quite a splash, and even at the illegal price of 3 pence a quart, it sold well.

           Local officials heard the buzz about the chichi ale, which brewed trouble for Dionis, who was presented a summons for overcharging. She appeared in court in September 1653, ready to do battle, assert fermentable trust in her barley pop, and serve these officials a cold one. Mr. Samuel Moore gave testimony that she did indeed mix “six bushels of malt into each hogshead,” which was more than the law allowed, but he asserted that she produced a better quality brew and therefore should be allowed to charge a premium price. The issue was resolved quickly and all charges were dropped— perhaps she slipped the city elders a jug or two.

            According to Bethany Groff, a local historian and direct descendent of Dionis (9th great grandmother), “Dionis’s brewery is one of the first accounts of women business records, and she defended her product for its quality and higher prices, as crafters of home brew still do today.”  In this way, Dionis set precedence for future entrepreneurs as well as her female ancestors. Her daughter Mary Coffin Starbuck industrious and held many titles, among them “the Great Merchant.” Mary also became the first Quaker minister of Nantucket, playing a pivotal role in converting the whole colony to the Quaker faith.


Lucretia Coffin Mott

Lucretia Coffin Mott, also a Quaker minister, abolitionist, and suffragist wrote, “The exercise of women talents in this line, as well as the general care which devolved upon them in the absence of their husbands, tended to develop… and strengthen them mentally and physically.”

            The Coffin family produced as many exceptional offspring as there are distinct craft brews in this country. Perhaps the Puritan lifestyle was simply not free-flowing enough for the first Coffin line. Instead, they found a locale that sourced freedom, eventually establishing Nantucket along with the Starbuck, Macy, and Folger families. Tristram, Sr. became Chief Magistrate for Nantucket; however, Tristram, Jr. settled in Newbury, and so did several generations thereafter and held many high positions locally.



            Thankfully, the brewing industry continues to prosper in Newburyport. Natives Bill Fisher and Chris Webb, who just opened Newburyport Brewing Co. at 4 New Pasture Road, are certainly carrying on in the tradition of Dionis Coffin. Their three debut brews are Plum Island Belgian White, Newburyport Pale Ale, and Green Head IPA, “The Beer That Bites You Back.”
 Visit www.nbptbrewing.com for more info.

Find out more about the Coffin House and other local historic sites at: www.HistoricNewEngland.org.

 http://www.islandregister.com/rcoffin/pg1_25.html

Puritan Hair - Massachusetts


Ipswich Chronicle May 2, 2013


Back in the day, head fashion became a hairy scene in the Mass Bay colony. The magistrates launched an aggressive campaign on the matter, and several ministers “wigged” out in sermons, using Biblical references to shame their flock. This focus on fancy fashion and kinky hairdos was not taken lightly by the Puritans. Social order and convention were necessary for survival, and individual expression or adornment was considered a sin and a crime.


A “Roundhead” man with closely cropped hair was safe and godly. The General Court in 1634 issued “a burning theme of pulpit address” stating long hair “should by no means lie over band or doublet collar.” No proper Christian man would want to look like a “ruffian, varlet, and a vagabond.”

Governor Endicott imposed legal pressure to submit to a balding lifestyle: long hair was “uncivil and unmannerly” and “corrupts good manners.” Punishment would certainly be issued if hair was not cut to a civil frame.

Harvard College became an evil fortress in regards to shagging. The youth were cited for provoking evil with their long hair, even in the “pulpits to the great grief and fear of many Godly hearts in the Country.” Clearly, the stakes were high, and long hair became a penal offense. Rev. Rogers’s nephew Ezekiel, who attended the college, was cut out as sole heir of his estate for not trimming his mane.

Newcomers to the colony were warned about all things abominable. On board the Fame, Henry Vane and Lord Leigh cut off their lovely locks in preparation. Rev. John Cotton commended them for honoring God by shortening their hair, which demonstrated a “complete reformation by bringing it to the primitive length and form.”

Apparently the community of Ipswich did not take the hair policy very seriously. In 1651, a citation records “intolerable excess and bravery for bold apparel and head dress.” Puritan women were targeted for their puffed-up hairdos. 


However, they were willing to pay a high price for fashion. Several trunks landed in town, supplying all sorts of illegal garb and headdress, including combs, ribbons, scarfs, and other contraband. In 1679, records again note the “manifest pride openly appearing among us by some women wearing boarders.” These women were no doubt sporting “heartbreakers,” which set out like butterfly wings over their ears.

The proper hair attire for women was a neat bun and cap, called a “cornet,” or “Dutch coif.” 


Any mischievous locks or flirty curls were a sure sign of evil, a “wile of the devil.” In April of 1682, warrants were issued against young local girls for "folding their hair, frizzing and knots, and for wearing silk scarves." A total of eight girls, two of them servants, were arrested and made to crop their sultry, sinful styles.


A sermon by Increase Mather served up a stern message to these femme fatales, calling them “Apes of Fancy.” His disapproving words rang out from the pulpit: “Will not the haughty daughters of Zion refrain their pride in apparel? Will they lay out their hair, and wear their false locks, their borders, and towers like comets about their heads?” This reference was to a hair accessory known as a “commode,” a wire lace frill that kept the hair erect when attached to a smaller cap.

The wearing of wigs was a sin as well, and Samuel Sewall was in knots over the issue. His diary notes a visit to cousin Josiah Willard, inquiring about his wicked wig. He informed him that artificial hair was against the laws of God; God ordained our hair, and we are not to put that in question. Regardless, Willard liked his new look and made it clear he would not give it up.


In Sewall’s instance, God chose to leave him hairless. His courtship with Madame Winthrop parted ways when she could not entice him to cover his cold head with more than a velvet cap. She suggested enhancing his wooing charms by paying more attention to his own appearance, which included wearing a wig like his competition. However, Sewall was content with God’s design and rested that his Maker would send him another dame.

In their attempts to control every aspect of daily life, the Puritans were concerned with all modes of personal appearance and clothing choice. The Puritan fashion police would certainly have a field day with the outrageous hair styles seen these days. Surely Lady Gaga would easily earn herself 50 lashings and a day in the stocks for each of her crazy hair contraptions.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Lucretia Derby: Feisty formidable and ahead of her time


Great article by Brigid Alverson Photos by Barbara Poole
 Among ancient court records in the Philips Library, Emily Murphy has discovered a bit of human drama, a story that she calls "'Law and Order,' 17th-century style" about a woman who went after justice as methodically as any TV detective.

Lucretia Derby would probably have been remarkable in any era, but in the late 17th century she was truly unusual. Lucretia Derby's descendants are much better known than she is. The Derbys of the 18th century were prosperous merchants in Salem. Her great-grandson, Elias Hasket Derby, was the first millionaire in America.

Murphy, a graduate student at Boston University, is writing her dissertation on the Derby family, but was frustrated that there were so few female voices, partly because no personal papers have survived from the 18th century.

"The one thing I was really hoping to find was a strong woman's voice," said Murphy, who also works as a ranger at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, "and when I flipped open those court records, I said 'Wow, there she is.'"

Lucretia Hillman and Roger Derby were married in 1668 in Wessex, England, and immigrated to New England in 1671, when Lucretia was expecting their second child. They spent a few months exploring the countryside, then bought a plot of land in Ipswich.

The fact that the Derbys could do that so soon after their arrival suggests they had some money before they came. Another clue is that just three years later, in 1674, Lucretia offered all her silver as surety for a neighbor, Samuel Hunt, so he would not go to jail in a legal dispute.

"Having silver in one's house was an important way of displaying your social status in 17th-century British culture," said Murphy. "They either had enough money that they could come to America without selling off their plate, or started acquiring it soon after they came to America."

Roger Derby was a soapmaker, which was a lucrative business in the 17th and 18th century because soapmakers often made candles, as well. However, soap and candles can only be manufactured in cool weather, so it made sense for the Derbys to have a second source of income.

"Ipswich had a waterfront and, therefore, easy access to trade with Salem and Boston," explained Murphy, adding that it was Lucretia, not Roger, who took advantage of that opportunity by running a shop at a time when women had no legal rights and could not enter into contracts.

From the descriptions of the goods Lucretia sold, Murphy concluded that this was not a small trade between women, but a true general store. Her inventory included ribbons, blue linen, ivory combs, paper, three dozen bone-shaft knives and a barrel of smoking pipes - goods that would have been bought by men, as well as women.

Lucretia was not serving as a "deputy husband," as many wives did when their husbands went to sea. Roger wasn't at sea; he was right in the house, making soap. Nor did Lucretia simply work behind the counter in her husband's store. The records make it clear that she was the one who traveled to Boston to choose the goods to be sold.

We have a catastrophe to thank for that part of Lucretia's story.

"In 1679, there was a dreadful fire in Boston," explained Murphy. "The Derbys had two bales of goods and an iron furnace in a warehouse awaiting shipment to Ipswich."

In the court case that followed, the goods were referred to as Lucretia's and the furnace as Roger's. Lucretia had contracted with brothers John and Samuel Dutch to transport the goods from the Boston warehouse to Ipswich.

After the fire, Lucretia and Roger traveled to Boston to survey the damage.

"Lucretia was not about to stay at home doing laundry while her husband saw to business affairs," said Murphy. "She was actively occupied in this business."

The warehouse owner's slave, Mingo, told the Derbys all their goods had been saved, but the Dutches claimed that one bale and part of another had been lost.

Lucretia wasn't buying that account. The Derbys found a pair of lamps at Samuel Dutch's house. Suspiciously, Samuel Dutch refused to let Lucretia look inside his chest.

At that point, Lucretia started going house to house, asking people where they had bought their handkerchiefs and lace, her suspicion growing as people produced items just like the ones of which she was awaiting delivery.

There was circumstantial evidence, as well: "Since the fire at Boston, [the Dutches] have risen mightily and have been able to pay their debts long due, and supply their family with good and new things," testified Lucretia.

In his deposition, one John Hadly describes Lucretia catching Samuel Dutch in an apparent lie.

"Lucretia Derby said 'Sam, you have been taken notice of that, since the fire, you have risen very much and have sold several goods as silver lace. Prithee, Sam, tell me where hadst thee that silver lace that is so much talked of.' Samuel Dutch answered that he Bought it at Boston & thought it was on ye book still. 'So, Samuel, thy wife said today that you had it of a woman at Passadaway in an old Debt & could get nothing else,' said Lucretia Derby."


Dutch then threatened to "trounce" Lucretia unless she dropped the case, but she retorted, "No, Samuel, I shall never doe that ... "

Despite Lucretia's detective work, the court only found that Dutch could not account for some fine English linen, and fined him 54 shillings.

"So many people posed possible origins [for the goods], the court said there was no positive evidence they had stolen them," said Murphy.

Moving to Salem

The Derbys also show up in the Ipswich court records for quite another reason. Nearly every year they were summoned to court for not attending "meeting."

They were fined more than 100 pounds in all, and threatened with prison. In 1677, the court seized four acres of their land, which suggests a certain stubbornness on their part.

Not only did they lose land and money, but without certification that he was a churchgoer, Roger could not vote.

While other researchers have concluded from this that the Derbys were Quakers, Murphy is not convinced.

"The laws on the books were very specific about Quakerism," she said, "and the Derbys are never directly prosecuted for Quakerism."

They may have been members of another dissenting sect, or they simply may not have liked the local minister, Thomas Cobbett, a sternly orthodox Puritan.

Maybe they were simply ahead of their time.

"Looking forward to the 18th century," said Murphy, "the Derbys seemed to personify the rising merchant class that really didn't place much emphasis on churchgoing or the rights of franchise that churchgoing would bring, instead relying on gaining wealth and marrying into the best families."
In 1679, the Derbys moved to Salem, buying a plot of land near the current site of the Salem Public Library. Salem was more tolerant of religious dissenters, so the Derbys may have felt more comfortable there.

There were no more summonses for non-attendance, and Roger Derby was elected constable in 1689. He was also a surveyor, looking over the local roads and arranging repairs. Meanwhile, Lucretia ran her business as before.

The Derbys were no strangers to the local courts, however, mainly because of their run-ins with Quaker merchant Thomas Maule. The first incident was Lucretia's complaint that he was abusing his Irish maidservant, Joan, beating her and forcing her to work on Sunday.

Lucretia and Roger found someone who was willing to buy Joan's indenture, but Maule would not sell, so the Derbys took him to court.


"I had to do with her as she was a stranger and my fellow creature, seeing her so much wronged," said Lucretia.

Messy business

In 1685, the tensions between Maule and the Derbys came to a head with a defamation-of-character suit Murphy describes as "spectacular."

It is impossible to say whether the problems arose because Lucretia's business was more successful than Maule's, or because of her willingness to speak her mind or, perhaps, because the Derby's children were among a group who threw stones at Maule's house and called him names.Whatever the cause, Maule brought six separate actions against the Derbys, asking a total of 3,000 pounds in damages. That was an enormous amount, at the time, more than six times the Derbys' net worth.
In the suit, Maule accused the Derbys of calling him a cheater and a "secret devil" and claimed their accusations forced him to move. One action was for the Derbys calling Maule a rogue and crying out on the street, "There goes the rogue!"

Another, which was only for five pounds, was leveled at Roger "for beating said Maule in front of the magistrate."

Maule also claimed that the Derbys accused him of behaving improperly with Joan, the Irish maid.
"While the accusation that he 'had to do' with Joan was probably gossip," explained Murphy, "others were about Maule's character." The "secret devil" accusation, she added, hinted at something more unsavory.

Because he could not put up surety for the 3,000 pounds, Roger Derby spent nine days in jail. The matter then went to arbitration but, according to Maule, the Derbys refused to follow the arbitrator's decision.

"For Roger, the issue is not the fact that he was imprisoned, but that Maule was boasting to others that he would use this action to ruin their reputation and, therefore, their business," said Murphy.
A good reputation was as important as good credit to a tradesman, and the Derbys did not take this insult lightly. In 1686, they sued Maule, saying they were losing money because of him. The court found in the Derbys' favor this time, but the records do not show much Maule had to pay in damages.

Women's place

Lucretia died in 1689, at the age of 46, leaving Roger with the care of the family's six children. Two years later, he married Elizabeth Hasket, a widow, with two children, who had also run a business. Roger and Lucretia's son, Richard, also went into business, and he became the father and grandfather of the better-known Derbys of Salem.


Murphy's research touches on a field that is starting to get more attention from historians - the true place of women in early American society.

"Lucretia is taken seriously as a shopkeeper, even to the extent of making contracts with merchants and shippers in Boston, which, in theory, she was forbidden to do," said Murphy.

On the other hand, because of her protected status as a woman, Maule had to sue both the Derbys.
"It's difficult to accuse a woman alone for anything less than a capital offense," said Murphy.While the conventions of 17th-century society held that women had no place in the private sphere, the reality was somewhat different and, as more women became active, there was a backlash.

"I think the backlash was beginning," said Murphy. "I think you can see it in the Maule case. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if she had lived through the witchcraft trials."
Murphy's research brings to life a time that was different in some ways, not so different in others.
"It's not just numbers," she said, "it's people and life and death and trying to make a living. The exact same struggles we're dealing with today, they were dealing with in the 1670s, except they had no central heating, no bathrooms, no antibiotics ... So in addition to having to make ends meet, they also had so much less control over the world than we do today.

"Once people get to understand the similarities, then we can start to look at the differences and, hopefully, make people appreciate what it was that has built the American character from the 17th century, and how we reached where we are today."

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Mary Perkins Bradbury - Salem Witch Escapee

Melissa Berry the Newburyport News Old Salem Village lost many innocent lives during the witch hunting era. The manufactured delusions brought forth at the witch trials preyed upon one Salisbury woman named Mary Perkins Bradbury. Sentenced to die on September 9, 1692, she must have had a higher power on her side, as she was spared from that perilous place of no return, the gallows.
Mary was fingered by her accusers before the hysteria started. A host of personal grudges made her the supernatural scapegoat of a family feud. There was conflict between her and the Carrs; the most venomous was Ann Carr Putnam, an influential instigator during the witch hunts. Carr’s allies, including the Endicotts, were among the malicious circle adding fuel to the growing fire.
View the case file & court records. To add insult to injury, some of the indictments brought against Mary were twenty years old. The superstitious squabble fed on the hysteria brewing in Salem. While a little common sense may have prevented the whole debacle, all attempts from pastors, legions of townspeople and a high-profile husband could not sway her conviction. At the time of her sentencing, the matriarch was 72 years old and in delicate health.
By all accounts, the Bradburys were pillars of the community. Mary ran a successful butter business out of her home in Salisbury. The Rev. James Allen testified that she was “full of works of charity & mercy to the sick & poor.” Her husband, Thomas Bradbury, was a school master, town representative, associate judge, and captain of a military company. He was described as one of the “ablest men in Massachusetts during his life.” Mary’s ordeal began in May of 1692 when she was named a tormentor of Ann Putnam, Jr. and the other afflicted girls who were casting wild accusations, setting the stage for adults. A batch of butter sold to Captain Smith became suspect. The spread became rancid during a voyage, but more coincidental was the contaminated testimony from the Carr boys and Samuel Endicott. They claimed Mary’s voodoo butter made them ill and insisted that she had unleashed a storm that “lost our main mast and rigging and fifteen horses.” Her specter even haunted them on “a bright moonshining night.” Mary was also accused of causing the death of John Carr by “dethroning his reason” and leaving him “weakened by disease, with disordered fancies.” Ann Putnam, Jr. included spectral evidence provided by John Carr’s ghost confirming this. The real skinny was that John had been slighted in love by Jane True, Mary’s daughter. He pined away for many years and lived a most dismal existence. Another love triangle spread more bad blood when James Carr was passed over by Widow Maverick, who fancied Mary’s son William. James testified that, after his visits to see the widow, he felt “a strange manner as if every living creature did run about every part of [his] body ready to tear [him] to pieces.” He also claimed that, in the night, Mary came to his bedside as a black cat.
Though the ringmaster, George Carr, was long passed, his scorn with Mary was rekindled by his son Richard’s testimony. According to him, Mary transformed herself into a “blue boar” and attacked his father’s horse, causing George to fall outside her home one Sabbath. Zerubabel Endicott came forward to support the ridiculous accusation that Mary had sent her spectator to “dart at Carr.” It’s too bad the horse could not testify and expose the truth behind their reckless gamboling. William Carr, the only sane one from the tribe, came to Mary’s defense, giving testimony to diminish the manic fantasies of his family’s plot. Sadly, it did not have much effect on the court’s noticeably partisan stance. In fact, all efforts to save Mary fell short. Mary’s husband gave a heart-wrenching plea for her innocence. He noted her “wonderful” abilities in industry and motherhood, the eleven children they lovingly shared, and her “cheerful spirit, liberal and charitable.” He asked for compassion for his aged wife who was “grieved under afflictions” and could not speak for herself, hoping the petition signed by 117 district members would speak for her. There are no official records available to explain how Mary escaped the rope, but there are many entertaining rumors among Bradbury descendants. Dr. Howard Bradbury passed on the story that Mary’s nephew from Boston appeared before Constable Baker in a phosphorescent devil's costume, prompting him to release her. In Ancestry Magazine, Catherine Moore suggests that Mary’s husband bribed the jailers and staged a break out with help from a muster. The disappearance of Samuel Endicott added another mysterious twist to these events. He went missing around the time Mary got out of jail. After seven years of not turning up, he was finally declared dead. In 1711, the governor of Massachusetts issued compensation via monetary payment of £20 to the heirs of Mary Bradbury. Although most families were eventually pardoned, this empty gesture was rarely accompanied by true atonement. The men of the cloth were the real transgressors, and dirty laundry always rings out in the wash. Fourteen years later, Ann Putnam, Jr. came clean in front of the church assembly, as pious crimin
als who fall into the mud must eventually clean up their act.

Taken From Harvard Crimson Article 1997
Some truly notable descendants of Thomas and Mary (Perkins) Bradbury include Ralph Waldo Emerson 1832 and the astronaut Allan Shephard. Notable descendants of John and Judith (Gater) Perkins of Ipswich include Franklin D. Roosevelt '04, Calvin Coolidge, Millard Fillmore, Max Perkins, Archibald Cox, the Harvard law professor, Lucille Ball, Montgomery Clift, Anthony Perkins and Tennessee Williams. --Martin E. Hollick, reference librarian for the Widener and Lamont libraries
http://archive.org/details/englishancestryo00port

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Phelps at the Finish (Andover Phelps Family)

By Charlotte Helen Abbott Andover Historical Society 8/18/1905

After examination of the early proprietor's books, and the deeds of those who first parted with the  land taken by Edward Phelps, I find that he bought the lot of Job Tyler in North Parish, and the division lots that fall to it after that date brought his outlying land north and east of Blanchard's lots,  and near Haggetts pond.  But he bought more of Russe and Chandler, which brought his holdings nearer the West meeting house.  Samuel Hutchinson and others took the North Parish lots, so that in the days of Samuel and Francis Phelps, the surviving members of migrations were all located around Haggetts pond and in the Merrimac woods, and having intermarried with Danes and Chandlers and Mooar, we can guess that the last holdings of Chandler Phelps; one fourth of a mile north of the church, and that of Joshua, grandfather of the late residents of this estate near the pond and the Lowell railroad, indicate the main holdings in West Parish.  John Godfrey, of lpswich, also sold 40 acres to old Edward in 1666,  apparently held by mortgage from Job Tyler, so when we, sometime in the future, proceed to locate the Tyler lots, something more definite will be found of the North Parish home of  the first arrivals of the Phelps infants.
 
Samuel Phelps and his wife, Priscilla Chandler lost the eldest Samuel at Lake George 1750.  His brother, Joshua, born 1738, married Lois Ballard, a daughter of old Deacon Hezekiah Ballard and Lydia Chandler, so related closely to many allied families here - Dane, Holt, Deacon Nathan Abbot, and many others, who may not know how it is they are cousins to Phelps blood.
 
Henry Phelps married Mary Ballard, a cousin of his sister-in-law, Hannah married Benjamin Mooar of Lewiston, Me., and Priscilla married PhiIemon Dane (called Daniel in the Phelps book). These are best known to us from continued residence.  The children of Joshua include Lois, wife of lsaac Blunt, Jr., represented still by Charles Blunt and the family of the late Samuel, Hannah married Nathan Abbott, and one of her children was our faithful carpenter Nathan, who was well known in my childhood on the list of Abotts and Clement's men. The only son who survived, Joshua Phelps, born1774, died in 1801, and his wife, Mary Gilson of Pepperell, of a family allied to other lines here, lived to 1856.  In the next generation we are all familiar with the quiet lives at the old homestead still standing in the West Parish, a fine model of its style, held by Joshua, wife Dorothy Watson, from Sandwich, N. H. He was the third of the name to hold the estate, where he died in 1873 at 76, she passing at 84 in 1880.  After a life of journeying to and fro across the country. Joshua died here from an accident, in 1886, a single man following his brother Asa, who died in 1862, in California.  Mrs. Gilman and her sister Dorothy Phelps, were the last to hold the most ancient of the Phelps' estates in direct line. Samuel Phelps, son of Joshua, was a blacksmith, latest at Syracuse, N.Y.  Mary married Levi Bean in 1819, Lydia married Jonathon Abbott, Jr., Henry, born 1807, and his wife Eliza, Merrill, well known by her remarkable strength which sustained her through long years of sorrow and care, and who recently died in North Andover with her daughter, represent the Joshua line.  Henry Phelps and Mary Ballard saved Mary who married Joseph Chandler in 1806, in the line of Mrs. Peter Smith, and Chandler Phelps, who died at 82 in 1868.

Most of Chandler Phelps' life was spent, I should judge, on what very likely was the oldest holding in West Parish of the early Samuel, if I can judge from legacies of heirs and sales to the neighbors, before his day.  He married twice, Lydia Parkhurst, a Chandler cousin, and mother of the children, and again Hannah Frye Ballard, daughter of Hezekiah.  Only two children grew up, Herman, wife Esther Merrill, and Jacob, who died at 31, leaving a widow, Rebecca (Chandler) who married John Russell of Wilton, N.H.  Herman is represented by Frank Chandler Phelps, wife Abbie T. Hardy, and several in the tenth generation in his family, and a brother, Herman, and wife AlIen Ward, I have with three children and not traced outside as yet.  Frank Phelps has our banner family in the line holding this name, though there is plenty of the blood line. Samuel, Francis, and his wife Phebe Holt, an aunt of Dane Holt on Prospect Hill farm, born 1722, had by their alliance a chance for a large and long-lived family. The Phelps' book says he lived awhile in Hollis, N. H. and died in Pepperell, Me.
 
So many errors cling to this line, that I hesitate to back up this statement till verified.  The date of his death l758, at 38, and the widow's second marriage (by book) with Thomas Marshall, very likely determined the home of the children who "pop up" unexpectedly in Tewksbury, Mass., when they were old enough to marry.  Timothy of Hollis and Hanover, N. H., Phebe, born 1750 outside of Andover, so here in Andover at 16, in 1766 warned by authorities as to her lack of claims on pauper accommodation, in case she came to grief, (a great benefit to genealogists was this sweeping warning out of Essex County in 1766), and Joseph, born 1748, of whom the book and I agree mainly in the two wives he annexed, Ruth French and Isabel Isabel Dutton, and he lived in Tewksbury.  His sister Phebe, the warned maiden, married Jacob Foster of Andover, who owned the farm up on the North Andover line near the Richardson stables, latest of the lucky descendants of Andrew Foster and his witch wife Ann, whose cottage stood on the training field.  No pauper in her ranks.
 
Joseph Phelps, by his first wife, Ruth French, left Ruth, wife of Ephraim Foster, Francis of Danvers, wife Hannah Dandee.  Isaac, born 1778, died on a voyage to the West Indies, Joseph, who married Rebecca Abbott, daughter of Moses Abbott and Elizabeth Holt, Jonathan, who married Abigail Abbott, her sister, lived on Salem street many years, dying at 88 in 1866, Samuel and wife Sally Brooks, of Lexington, Elisha and Mary French of Northfield, Mary, wife of Amos Sheldon of Danvers and Shirley, Jacob and wife Rebecca Reed, of South Natick, these were children of Ruth French, adding two infants who died.  She saved the Phelps name.  By second wife, Isabel Dutton, Lydia, wife of a Jonathan Abbott not placed by book, Timothy, who married Dorcas Chamberlain of Dedham, Theodore, Joel, our veteran shoemaker, who lived on Central street so long, marrying twice, but left only one heir James, Hannah, born 1801, not traced, Henry, 1806, married Lydia Foster and moved to Dedham.  There, look at that record and think that all but two of the seventeen matured and thirteen were married.  We all know the happy home the sisters had together so long on Salem street, Elizabeth Holt Phelps, Belinda Jane, children of Joseph, and who kept a very successful club dining-room for students, and cut gowns for the maidens who graduated from abbott and Punchard.  Hannah Holt Phelps, of this happy, hospitable group of cousins, still survives, and resides with her eldest son, Rev. George Gutterson, whose record as an olive tree almost equals his great-grandfather's.  Her sister, Priscilla, wife of Richard Moore, so long resident, all these we have known in joy and sorrow, friends of our fathers and of us the middle-aged Abbotts and Holts and Chandlers.  These Phelps from old Henry down always had things happen to them, and I cannot do justice to the romance of the incidents kept for the family ear alone, that might fill this bare outline of a virile, long-lived gifted race of Salem Quakers.

Hannah (Baskel) Phelps Phelps Hill - A Quaker Woman and Her Offspring

Gwen Boyer Bjorkman is a genealogical researcher. This article first appeared in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, v 75 no 4 (Dec 1987). It won the 1987 Family-History Writing Contest of the National Genealogical Society. It is usually difficult to document the lives of colonial women. As a category, they left few legal documents. Yet through sundry records, it is possible to reconstruct the life of one remarkable woman - Hannah (Baskel) Phelps Phelps Hill. One does not read about Hannah in standard histories of early America, yet she held the first Quaker meeting in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in her home in Salem and later opened her home to the first Quaker meeting in the Albemarle settlement of Carolina. She was truly the Proverbs 31 Lady. After all these years “her children (will now) rise up and bless her saying: ‘Many daughters have done noble, But you excel them all!’ Despite her accomplishments, however, Hannah did not set out to be a noble heroine. She emerges in history as a young woman - human and alone, as far as family is concerned. The search for Hannah began in the records that men have left to chronicle the past. Before 1652, she came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England. An undated deposition of one Jane Johnson provides the only record of Hannah’s maiden name, Baskel. It reveals that, at the time of the deposition, Hannah was the wife of Nicholas Phelps but at the date of “coming over on the ship,” she was in the company of his brother, Henry. The document labels her a “strumpet.” Obviously, Hannah was a woman of independent mind not inclined to conform to the dictates of convention. This trait was to her blessing, scorn, and persecution. 
 "'Deposition of Jane Johnson: Saith yt: coming ov’ in the ship with Henry Phelps and Hannah the now wife of Nich: Phelps: Henry Phelps going ashore the ship lying at the Downes: Hannah wept till shee made herselve sick because mr Fackner would not suffer her to goe ashore with Henry Phelps: and Henry came aboard late in the night, the next morning mr Falckner Chid Henry Phelps and Hannah and said was it not enough for y’ to let Hannah lay her head in y’ lapp but must shee ly in ye Cabbin to and called Hannah Strumpet and this deponent saith farther yt she saw Henry Phelps ly in his Cabbin. Y when he was smocking in the Cook roome tobacco Hannah tooke the pip out of his mouth, etc., etc.'
One Henry Phelps arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634 on the ship Hercules, under John Kiddey, Master. His destination was said to be Salem. However, the Phelps family may have been in Salem before this date. It is known that Eleanor Phelps, mother of Henry and Nicholas Phelps, had married Thomas Trusler of Salem and that they were members of the first church in Salem in 1639. One historian holds that Trusler probably came to Salem in 1629, when a kiln for the burning of bricks and tiles was built, and that he continued this business until his death in 1654. There has been found no record of a previous wife or children for Trusler in Salem, so it is possible that Eleanor married him in England and came to the Bay Colony with him and her five Phelps children. Eleanor mentions in her 1655 will 'the legacy bequeathed by my Late husband to his Daughter in England.' Trusler’s will has been lost. The inventory of his estate has been preserved.”

Nicholas Phelps House. From Sidney Perley's The History of Salem Massachusetts, Vol. II.
What did Hannah find in her new home in Salem? She found independent-minded people who, like herself, were interested in change. She also found others who rigorously opposed any thought contrary to theirs. Since all political and social life was centered in the church, religion was the arena for the excitement of dissent. Roger Williams had a short pastorate in Salem, around 1634, before being banished to Rhode Island. Robert Moulton, a Phelps neighbor, has been excommunicated from the Salem church in 1637 for antinomian heresy during the Wheelwright controversy. Between 1638 and 1650, nine people from Salem were tried at Quarterly Court for heretical opinions, and five of the nine were women. Lady Deborah Moody, a church member since 1640, was charged with Anabaptism in 1642; rather than recant, she moved to Long Island. Samuel Gorton was tried in Boston, jailed there, and sent to Rhode Island for his Separatists beliefs. Eleanor Trusler also was taken to court, in April 1644, for her Gortonist opinions, saying, “our teacher Mr. Norris taught the people lies.” Governor Winthrop was advised to bind her over to Boston Court as an example others might fear, lest 'That heresie doeth spread which at length may prove dangerous.' At the Trusler trial, one Casandra Southwick testified that Eleanor “did question the government ever since she came. This was Salem in Hannah’s day.The shipboard romance alleged between Hannah and Henry Phelps did not result in their immediate marriage. Instead, Henry married (or had been married) to another woman, by whom he had a son, John (born about 1645), while Hannah married his brother Nicholas. Historians have not always treated the latter kindly - he has been called “a weak man, and one whose back was crooked” - but it can be argued that he had a strong spirit much akin to Hannah’s. They had two children (Jonathan, born about 1652, and Hannah, born about 1654) with whom they lived on the Trusler farm in “the woods” about five miles from the meetinghouse in Salem. Situated at the site of the modern town of West Peabody, the farm had been devised to Nicholas and Henry jointly, in 1655, by their mother. It was in the late 1650’s that the Phelps became involved in Quakerism. The Society of Friends, or Quakers, had been founded in England in 1648 by George Fox; and its teaching were brought to Boston, in July 1656, by two female missionaries. However, it is believed that books and tracts by Fox and other Quakers might have been brought to the colony in earlier years. In 1657 William Marston, a Hampton-Salem boatman, was cited by having Quaker pamphlets in his possession. There is a passage in a letter written in 1656 from Barbados by Henry Fell, which provides the earliest mention of Quakerism in Salem. In Plimouth patent, there is a people not so ridged as the others at Boston and there are great desires among them after the Truth. Some there are, as I hear, convinced who meet in silence at a place called Salem.” Another passage bearing on this Salem group is found in Cotton Mathers Magnalia: “I can tell the world that the first Quakers that ever were in the world were certain fanaticks here in our town of Salem, who held forth almost all the fancies and whimsies which a few years after were broached by them that were so called in England, with whom yet none of ours had the least communication.”
       In 1657, the invasion of Massachusetts by Quakers began when visiting Friends from England landed in Boston Harbor and were immediately imprisoned. If the group at Salem had been meeting quietly for several years, they went public when - on Sunday, 27 June 1658 - a meeting was held at the home of Nicholas and Hannah Phelps. This was the first Quaker meeting of record in the colony. Two visiting Friends at that meeting, William Brend and William Leddera acknowledged that they were Quakers and were sent to prison with six Salem residents who were also in attendance. Nicholas and Hannah were fined.
            Quaker meetings continued to be held regularly at the Phelps home in defiance of the law. In September 1658, Samuel Shattock, Nicholas Phelps, and Joshua Buffum were arrested and sentenced by the court to prison, where Nicholas was “cruelly whipped” three times in five days for refusing to work. Within months, Nicholas and six neighbors were called before the court again. This time they were banished on pain of death with two weeks being allowed to settle their affairs. It was at the end of May 1658, that Phelps and Shattock sailed for Barbados with the intention of continuing on to England to present the matter before parliament. However, because of the unsettled state of affairs in England they were not to return until late 1661.
            In the meanwhile, Hannah was left in Salem with the care of the farm and their two small children. The Quaker meetings continued to be held at her home, and she was fined every year from 1658 to 1663 for nonattendance at the Salem Church. In the fall of 1659 she with five others from Salem went to Boston to give comfort to two visiting Friends from England who had been sentenced to death for their faith and defiance of the laws of the colony. She and her group were arrested and imprisoned also. On 12 Nov, two weeks after the execution of the five condemned Friends, the Salem party was brought forth to be sentenced for 'adherence to the cursed sect of the Quakers' and “theire disorderly practises and vagabond like life in absenting themselves from theire family relations and runing from place to place without any just reason.” They were admonished, whipped, and sent home.
           Upon Hannah’s return, her house and land were seized by the Salem Court in payment of the fines levied against her and Nicholas. Henry came to the rescue of his sister-in-law, arguing that the court could take only the half of the property belonging to Nicholas. He managed to obtain control of the entire farm and allowed Hannah and the children to remain there. Did Henry now become interested in his sister-in-law, since his brother was in England, or did he now become interested in the Quaker teachings? There are no records of Henry’s being fined for Quaker leanings. One thing is clear from the records: where Henry had once been a respected part of the community, he was now suspected. At the Quarterly Court of 26 June 1660, Major William Hawthorn was ordered to inquire after the misuse of John Phelps by his father. Henry Phelps of Salem, was complained of at the county court at Boston, July 31, 1660, for beating his son, John Phelps, and forcing him to work carrying dung and mending a hogshead on the Lord’s day, also for intimacy with his brother’s wife and for entertaining Quakers. It was ordered that John Phelps, son, be given over to his uncle, Mr. Edmond Batter, to take care of him and place him out to some religious family as an apprentice, said Henry, the father, to pay to Mr. Batter what the boy’s grandmother left him, to be improved to said John Phelps’ best advantage. Said Henry Phelps was ordered to give bond for his good behavior until the next Salem court, and especially not to be found in the company of Nicholas Phelps’ wife, and to answer at that time concerning the entertaining of Quakers. The testimony seems to imply that Henry Phelps was living with his brother’s wife and holding Quaker meetings. The charges were expressed even more bluntly at the November 1660 Quarterly Court: Henry Phelps, being bound to this court to answer a complaint for keeping company or in the house with his brother’s wife, and appearing, was released of his bond. Upon further consideration and examination of some witnesses, which the court did not see meet for the present to bring forth in public (Was this when the deposition of Jane Johnson was taken?), and the wife of Nicholas Phelps not appearing, said Phelps was bound to the next court at Salem. He was ordered meanwhile to keep from the company of his brother Nicholas Phelps’ wife. Hannah had final say on the subject. At Salem Court, 28 June 1661, Thomas Flint and John Upton testified that, coming into Henry Phelps’ house on a Sabbath-day evening, they heard Hannah say that 'Higgeson had set the wolves apace.' John Upton asked her if Mr. Higgeson sent the wolves amongst them to kill their creatures and she answered, “The bloodhounds, to catch the sheep and lambs.” She was sentenced to be fined or whipped, and one William Flint promised to pay the fine. Political events soon eased the Phelps’ persecution - albeit slightly. The days of Cromwell and the Puritans were over in England in 1660. A new parliament proclaimed the banished Prince Charles as king, invited him to return from exile, and placed him on the throne of his father. As Charles II, he read - and sympathized with - the petition of those Quakers in England who had been banished from Massachusetts. That document contained a list of the sufferings of 'the people called Quakers,' and Number 15 stated, “One inhabitant of Salem, since banished on pain of death, had one-half of his house and land seized. On 9 September 1661, Charles II issued an order to the Bay Colony to cease the persecution of Quakers and appointed Samuel Shattock to bear the “King’s Missive” to Boston. No mention was made of Nicholas Phelps’ return at that time, although the historian Perley claimed “they returned together, but Mr. Phelps, being weak in body after some time died” It is known that Nicholas and Hannah were together again in Salem by June 1662 when, at the Quarterly Court, “Nicholas Phelpes and his wife were presented for frequent absence from meeting on the Sabbath Day. Hannah was fined alone in 1663. On 18 July 1664, Henry Phelps sold the property that he and his brother had inherited from their mother in 1655, and he, Hannah, and the children left Massachusetts. Many of their friends had departed already for Long Island or Rhode Island, but some had journeyed to far-off Carolina, where a new settlement was beginning on Albemarle Sound. It was the latter colony to which Henry and Hannah headed. Preseumably they married in a Quaker meeting before setting off by ship with what possessions they had left. In 1660 a few Virigians had crossed into the Albemarle region, then called Chowan. By charters of 1663 and 1665, Charles II granted to eight proprietors a tract of land which was to lie between the present states of Virginia and Florida, a vast tract that was named Carolina, and colony which had already spring up there was designated Albemarle County. Another settlement was begun at Cape Fear in 1664 by a group from Barbados and New England; their area became the county of Clarendon. By 1664, however, the latter group had deserted the Cape and moved to Albemarle. Fittingly, the first record found of Hannah in Carolina spotlights her religious activities. In 1653 one William Edmundson converted to Quakerism in England; and from 1661 he was recognized as leader of the Irish Quakers. He first visited America with George Fox as a traveling Friend in 1672. While Fox went to New England, Edmundson traversed Virginia; about the first of May 1672, he ventured down into Carolina. Two Friends from Virginia accompanied him as guides but became lost, saying they had “gone past the place where we intended.” Edmundson found a path that “brought us to the place where we intended, viz. Henry Phillips’ (Phelps) House by Albemarle River. It is Edmundson who accounts for the life of Henry and Hannah during the years in which legal records are silent. “He (Phelps) and his wife had been convinced of the truth in New England, and came there to live, who having not seen a Friend for seven years before, they wept for joy to see us.” Some scholars have interpreted this passage in Edmundson’s journal to mean that Henry and Hannah were the only Quaker family in Albemarle in 1672. However, evidence does exist of another couple, Christopher and Hannah (Rednap) Nicholson who had become Quakers and had been persecuted in Massachusetts. The Nicholsons had arrived in Albemarle Sound, probably by 1663, and were neighbors of Henry and Hannah Phelps. (See Nicholson Family-Part II) It is also known that Isaac and Damaris (Shattuck) Page came to Albemarle from Salem, after both had been fined as Quakers. Edmundson’s journal also reveals that the first recorded Quaker meeting in Albemarle was held at the Phelps’ home, just as the first recorded Quaker meeting at Salem had been sponsored by Nicholas and Hannah. Edmundson said, “it being on a first day morning when we got there. I desired them to send to the people there-a way to come to a meeting about the middle of the day.” Hannah opened her home yet again to the “Lord’s testimony,” as brought by the visiting Friends. Following the visit of Edmundson, Fox himself came to Albemarle in November 1672, stopping first at Joseph Scott’s home by Perquimans River, where he held a meeting, and then “we passed by water four miles to Henry Phillips (Phelps) house” and held a meeting there. Edmundson returned to Albemarle in 1676, and again the faithful Hannah appears in his journal.
He took our journey through the wilderness, and in two days came well to Carolina, first to James Hall’s (Hill’s) house, who went from Ireland to Virginia with his family. His wife died there, and he had married the widow Phillips (Phelps) at Carolina, and lived there; but he had not heard that I was in those parts of the world. When I came into the House, I saw only a woman servant. I asked for her master. She said he was sick. I asked for her mistress, she said she was gone abroad. so I went into the room, where he was laid on the bed, sick of an ague with his face to the wall. I called him by his name, and said no more; he turned himself, and looked earnestly at me a pretty time, and amazed; at last he asked if that was William? I said yes.
Between Edmundson’s journeys of 1672 and 1676, Henry died and Hannah married James Hill. James was probably a convert of Edmundson in Ireland or Virginia, since they knew each other by first name. In November 1676, The Lords Proprietors had issued commissions to men designated as deputies in Albemarle. James Hill, Esq, was deputy of the Duke of Albemarle. During Culpeper’s Rebellion in 1677, Hill and one Thomas Miller escaped, and a guard of soldiers was put at his house. Promptly on his return from Virginia, he, along with Francis Jones and Christopher Nicholson, was arrested. Hannah Phelps Hill was again in the thick of conflict.
The Quakers drew up a “Remonstrance” to the proprietors protesting their treatment, outlining the above acts, and declaring they were “a peaceable people.” It was signed on 13 September 1679 by twenty-one Quakers, including Jones and Nicholson, together with Joseph Scott, Isaac Page, and Jonathan Phelps, son of Nicholas and Hannah. Under their signatures, it was written that most of the subscribers “have been Inhabitants in Carolina since the years 1663 and 1664. The Quakers had not been persecuted in Carolina previous to this time, but it is recorded in the minutes of Perquimans Monthly Meeting that about the fourth or fifth month of 1680, nine Friends were fined and put into prison for refusing to bear arms in the muster field. Among those nine were five of the signers of the 1679 remonstrance - including Jonathan Phelps and Samuel Hill, son of James.
Hannah’s devotion to religion did not prompt her to neglect her family, however. She appears again in court records to champion the cause of her grandchildren. In the intervening years, her daughter Hannah had twice wed - first to James Perisho and second, in 1697, to George Castleton. On 30 March 1680, it was ordered by the Lords Proprietors that one hundred acres of land be laid out, for “James Perishaws Orphants,” for the transportation of two persons, namely their parents “James and Hannah Perishaw.” However, complications arose involving this second husband, Castleton; and Hannah Phelps Hill went to court to protect her grandson’s property.
The first hint of the family troubles appears in the court records of October 1685:“Wheras George Castleton hath absented himself from the County and Imbezled the estate belonging to the Orphans of James Perisho deceased. It is therefore ordered that no person or persons buy any cattle belonging to the said orphans or any part of the estate of the said Castleton and that Jonathan Phelps gather the corne and measure the same and deliver the one half to Hannah Castleton and secure the other half til further order.”
Castleton apparently returned to the county and problems continued. In October 1687 the court ordered “that Hannah Castleton the wife of George Castleton doe repaire home to her husband and live with him and that if she departs from him any more it is ordered that the majestrates doe forthwith use such meanes as may cause her to live with her husband.”
The younger Hannah apparently did not live long past this point; she is not mentioned at attending the wedding of her daughter on 5 August 1689, although the grandmother Hannah did. In October of that year, the older Hannah appeared in court, concerned for the welfare of Hannah, Jr.’s son by her first husband.
At a Court Holden for the precinct of Pequimins at the house of Mary Scot on the first Monday being the 7th of October 1689. Hannah Hill Grandmother to James Perishaw hath petitioned this Court to have the management of the stock belonginge to the sd. James Perishaw, It is therefore Ordered that after the last of this instant October the sd. Hannah Hill take into her custodie the Stock belonginge to James Perishaw, and manage the same for the childs Care, putting in security for the same.”
For his proprietary land rights, Hannah’s son Jonathan took out a patent in 1684, covering four hundred acres near Robert Wilson on the west side of the Perquimans River. In his will written in 1688, he gave this four hundred acres (where he lived) to his son Samuel. In 1692, Robert Wilson and John Lilly, executors of Jonathan Phelps, went to court to divide the property. The suit was continued in 1693, when Hannah Hill petitioned for “hur Halfe of ye plantation”; and it was ordered that “Shee be posesed with it.” This patent was renewed by Samuel Phelps as son and heir in 1695.
All of Albemarle’s early land records have not survived. However, it is commonly accepted in the history of Perquimans County that the land Henry Phelps lived on, when Edmundson paid him the visit in 1672, was the land on the narrows of the Perquimans River that was granted to his grandson, Jonathan Phelps, in 1694 - and that part of this grant became the town Hertford. This should be partly true. It was Hannah Phelps’ grandson, Jonathan Phelps, who became owner of the property; but without recorded wills or deeds, the details of the property’s transfer are cloudy.
Since Hannah was the only one of the original family still living in 1694, it was she who proved rights for fifteen persons transported into the county of Albemarle. They were: “Henry Phelps (her second husband), Hannah his Wife (herself), John Phelps (Henry’s son). Jonathan Phelps (her son), Hannah Phelps junr (her daughter), Robt. Pane, James Hill (her 3rd Husband), Saml. Hill (son of James Hill), Mary Hill, Nathanl. Spivey and his wife Judity, John Spivey, Sarah Spivey, Anne Spivey, (and) Jonathan Phelps his freedom.”
This document implies one other situation not otherwise documented: After the death of Nicholas, Hannah’s son by him was apparently bound to his uncle - and her second husband - Henry. Once Jonathan’s servitude expired, in North Carolina, he was eligible for his own grant. The fifteen rights named in the forgoing document amounted to 750 acres. At the time of the survey in 1694, Hannah assigned the first six rights to her grandson, Jonathan Phelps, who was then seven years old, eight rights to her grandson, Samuel Phelps, age ten, and the last right to Robert Wilson, the executor of the estate of her son Jonathan.
Hannah, who outlived her three husbands and her two children, had now provided for her grandchildren. She had seen the establishment of the Quaker meetings and Quaker life in Albemarle.
"A 1709 letter of Mr. Gordon, a Church of England missionary, stated that the Quakers then numbered “about the tenth part of the inhabitants” of Carolina. And in Perquimans Precinct, he said, they “are very numerous, extremely ignorant, insufferable proud and ambitious, and consequently ungovernable.” It is because she was proud, ambitious, and ungovernable that one is now able to document the life of Hannah and her children.