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Saturday, November 30, 2013

The Case of Quaker Elizabeth Richardson and George Washington's Ancestral Lines

In my Quaker research I found this case and will further investigate Elizabeth Richardson and her history in England as a Quaker. 

According to an article published in the Washington Times 17th century Maryland was rich in witchcraft history. There are cases noted in archives and one is a local folk tale that has become Maryland’s most popular witch lore.

These earlier witchcraft cases recorded in the Maryland State Archives* were tragic, some even resulted in executions. The cases were always based on some ridiculous charges of superstition.

However, for Elizabeth Richardson witchcraft was just a convenient cover up to dodge any problems with Puritan authorities. In 1658, the ship Sarah Artch bound for Maryland out of England claimed they a supposive "Sea Witch" on board, but what they really had was a Quaker.   

Edward Prescott, merchant/co-owner and John Greene, ship master ordered the crew to execute Elizabeth Richardson after it was brought to their attention they were ferreting a Quaker.

The laws for any vessel transporting Quakers into the colonies was a 100 pound fine and a major hassle from the Puritan Republic

After "fashioning a hangman's noose slipped around her neck and dropped her from the yardarm"  Prescott and Greene assumed it was smooth sailing

What was not suspected by Prescott and Greene was for passenger John Washington, great grandfather of George Washington, to lodge a complaint for the hanging of Elizabeth Richardson for witchcraft on his ship.
Washington felt it was an outrage, and filed a complaint to Josias Fendall, governor of the Maryland province. Fendall had Prescott arrested and set a court date for October 4 1659 and sent a correspondence to Washington summoning him from Virginia. He desired Washington to bring all witnesses who were present at the execution of Elizabeth. Washington's son was to be baptized that day and requested to have court moved to the next morning and promised to appear. Images from  George Washington Blog


Bottle seal of John Washington found at his original home site in Virginia below
The summons reply from Archives of Maryland Volume 41 Washington to Fendall: Court records from Archives of Maryland Volume 41




Fendall did not change the court date to the following day and followed through with the interrogation of Prescott who claimed although he was the ship owner, Master Greene, along with his crew "were ready to mutiny" and he had no choice. Prescott was acquitted and no further charges were brought against him in this matter.

According to records John Washington came to Virginia as early as July of 1659. He brought a wife and two children, and a son was born in September. It is a pretty straight story that he lodged a complaint against the ship's captain for the execution of a passenger, Elizabeth Richardson, as a witch. Mr. F. A. Winder (London Athenaeum, July 19, 1890) notes that two of the Washingtons had by marriage the name Elizabeth Richardson, one being a grandaunt of the immigrant. 

BUT there is an article "John Washington on a Trading voyage in the East Country," by W. G. Packard





















And Next this one












*Other cases of Witchcraft Aboard the Charity bound for Maryland from England hanged an old woman named Mary Lee after she was accused of sorcery. Her supposed crime: summoning a relentless storm that some on board blamed on “the malevolence of witches.” (1654)
Oct. 9, 1685, in Calvert County. Rebecca Fowler was hanged after a jury found her guilty of “certain evil and diabolical arts called witchcrafts, enchantments, charms [and] sorceries.”
Hannah Edwards of Calvert County, was acquitted in 1686 of similar charges.

"17th Century Witches at Sea" William H Cooke
"The Mayflower Bastard: A Stranger Among the Pilgrims" by David Lindsay"Crimes and Punishments in Early Maryland" by Raphael Semmes
"The English Colonization of America During the Seventeenth Century" by Edward Deffield Neill
"The History and Topography of the United States of North America: Brought Down from the Earliest Period"
"Witchcraft A Part of Marylan's Past" Washington Times Sunday, October 10, 2004
Witch Hunts in the DC Area - Older Than You Think
"The Washingtons Of Warton" Tuesday, July 29, 1890 New York Tribune (New York, New York)
"Washington Arms Seen at Warton" Saturday, January 25, 1913 San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, California)
"Early Washington's" Sunday, January 4, 1931 Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana)
"Old World Offers us Reminders of Our Heritage" us of Sunday, May 19, 1957 Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts)
"Christ Church Files Stars and Stripes" Wednesday, August 11, 1926 Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey)
The Nation Volume 52

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Quakers in Newbury MA

By Melissa Berry @ Newburyport News

---- — “The tale is one of an evil time,
When souls were fettered and thought was crime.
And heresy’s whisper above its breath
Meant shameful scourging, and bonds and death.”
— John Greenleaf Whittier


As we enjoy this season of good food and drink, as well as the liberty to choose which local house of the Lord we fancy, we can be thankful that Puritan tyrants no longer patrol our pastures as they did in our ancestors’ day.  

In Newbury, the early settlers ran into conflict with Puritan authority over ecclesiastical differences. Quakers especially were in the hot bed, and anyone that harbored the “cursed sect” would feel the fiery fury of local officials. These aggressively “bloodthirsty” and “extremely fanatical” men were not open to compromise. When dealing with dissenters, in the words of John Proctor, Puritan “justice would freeze beer.”

When the Quakers came to the Colonies, they brought with them a spiritual democracy that threatened the Puritan aristocratic system. Their simplistic faith had an absence of clergy, creed and sacrament; moreover, they gave women equality. The head honchos like Endicott and Hawthorne labeled them “dangerous intruders invading our borders” and “wandering vagabonds.” Despite the tenacious efforts of the magistrates who wanted to eliminate the “vile heretics,” which included branding, whipping and cropping, the Quakers just kept coming, and the good folk of Newbury were more than willing to board and support them.

Phelps Farm

In the summer months of 1658, the farm of Robert Adams played host to two Quaker missionaries, William Brend and William Leddra. The Phelps family of Salem held a secret Quaker meeting, and Adams escorted the guest speakers to the gathering. See Hannah (Baskel) Phelps Phelps Hill - A Quaker Woman and Her Offspring Unfortunately, word got out and the constables came to break up the assembly and haul in all the “quaking heretics.”

When the law boys arrived, chaos broke out, and perhaps the distraction of finding their wives in the midst of this devil’s den allowed Adams to sneak his guests out and bring them back to Newbury. However, it would not be long before the authorities would track them down. Captain Gerrish and the minister paid a call on their buddy Adams, and despite their best efforts to resolve things amicably, Brend and Leddra were turned over to Salem Court. Adams paid the fines, but his friends faced a different fate.
Picture of Quaker Trial from Laura George



The tragic events that followed were nothing short of extreme cruelty. Confined to the Boston jail, Brend and Leddra were starved and repeatedly beaten with a three-pitched rope until they were on the brink of death. The disapproving sentiment of the public reached Endicott. Knowing he had to intervene, Endicott sent in a surgeon. Russell L. Jackson asserts that the aged Brend, with help from an “unseen Healer,” rose from his sick cot as he still had more light to spread and preach about in New England.

In August 1659, Thomas Macy (see Powow Preacher Spats with Puritans) was prosecuted and fined 30 shillings for hosting four Quakers. Two of his guests, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson, would later be executed upon the gallows on Dec. 27, 1659. (Visit The Thomas Macy Home-Colby House



Fed up with the Puritan government, Macy “shook the dust from off his feet” and departed to Nantucket, where the iron hand of these despots did not reach. Thomas left “because he could not in justice to the dictates of his own conscience longer submit to the tyranny of the clergy and those in authority” (Macy Papers). His journey was a spiritual sign of deliverance as he, his family, Isaac Coleman and Edward Starbuck survived a fierce storm that raged like the Furies on their open boat.

Others like Coffin, Swain, Pike and Folger joined Macy on Nantucket. Allen Coffin noted that, while it was not an Elysium, the island was indeed blessed with “plenty’s golden smile” and “a refuge of the free.” Thanks to these brave, forward-thinking men, Nantucket became the first settlement to enjoy complete separation of Church and State.

On March 16, 1663, John Emery was presented to the court at Ipswich and charged with entertaining Quakers. The whole ordeal caused quite a buzz, and Rev. Parker showed up with a posse, demanding some answers. Sarah Emery asserts: “At this period one can scarcely depict the commotion such an incident must have caused in the secluded and quiet settlement of Quascacunquen, on the banks of the winding Parker, or appreciate the courage evinced by John Emery and his wife in thus rising above popular prejudice, and fanatical bigotry, and intolerance.” For this offence, the court fined Emery four pounds, plus costs and fees.

While we are grateful to live with religious freedom, we must also be grateful that our ancestors’ spirit, courage and light was not extinguished despite the tyrannical terror of dark Puritanical forces.
Happy Thanksgiving! Thank You to the Port Library Archives and Cheryl Follansbee.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

William Chandler and Eleanor Phelps Andover, MA

Here is the old burial ground in Andover a wonderful shot taken by Barbara Poole Life from the Roots


"The solemnization of marriages from the arrival of the first settlers to 1686, the expiration of the first charter, was performed by a magistrate, or by persons specially appointed for that purpose. If a clergyman happened to be present, he was asked to pray.—1687, April, the first marriage by Rev. Mr. Francis Dane, William Chandler and Eleanor Phelps. —1687, May, Stephen Barker and Mary Abbot, the first marriage by Rev. Thomas Barnard." Taken from History of Andover, from its settlement to 1829 by Abel Abbott
From Abbott Family "The house, otherwise known as the Margaret Ward House, was built by Captain Thomas Chandler (older brother of Hannah (Chandler) Abbot) before 1673. His daughter, Hannah, and her husband, Captain Daniel Bixsby, continued to occupy it after the death of her parents. The sixty-acre farm extended to the Shawsheen River." "Three generations of Bixsbys have occupied the house. Other occupants were William Abbott, who married a Bixsby, Jeduthan Abbott, and Amos Abbott (1786-1868), a member of the House of Representatives from 1840-1849 (member of the Whig political party). Compiled by Ernest James Abbott


Chandler-Bigsby-Abbott House, 88 Lowell Street.
William Chandler born May 28, 1659 son of Thomas Chandler and Hannah Brewer Chandler
Eleanor Phelps born daughter of Edward Phelps and Elizabeth Adams
Married  Apr 21,1687
Children:
William Chandler born July 20 1689 married Susanna Burge
Eleanor Chandler born January 23 1688 married Seth Walker
Benjamin Chandler  married Hannah Dutton
Moses Chandler married Anne Sanborn
The church record of Westford, Massachusetts, has this entry: "Admitted 10 Nov. 1728, Eleanor Chandler, widow."
William Chandler served in the town as constable, grand jury man, town office officer south part and a record here "William Ballard and William Chandler are chosen surveyers for the south end of the town and Serjent ffarntted (?) Dudley Bradstreet for the north end of the town, who have full power to call forth the inhabitants of the town two days this year at any time the sur-veyers shall think fit"

January 1678 John Frie Jr, Richard Barker Sr, William Chandler, John Barker and Christopher Osgood was chosen selectmen for the year ensuing.

Now I found some records that involve both William Chandler, Sr and his son William Chandler, Jr. relating to an inn or ordinary. There was some disputes and showdowns between the families on this and here are the details from Court Records and from Historical Sketches of Andover. Now this is a long document, but as the author Sarah Loring Bailey points out "William Chandler's license is an interesting document, and curiously illustrative of the customs of the time and of the aspect of things in Andover. It will be noticed that the sign of his house was the horse-shoe, chosen, doubtless, from the occupation of the Chandlers — blacksmiths. It was the custom then to designate shops, public houses, and places of resort, not by numbers, but by hanging out a sign. A large town had a great variety of signs (as was the custom in England), the " anchor," the " bel!," the " horse-shoe," etc. The only mention found of any such sign at Andover is this of the horse-shoe :
 

In 1689, Lieut. John Osgood was innholder. The following is a petition 2 made by him to the County Court, to renew his license for keeping a public house : — " To THE Honored County Corte now sitting at Salem : — " I move to your Honers to renewing license ffor keeping a Pub-lick house, & I would have waited upon the corte personally but a bizness of a publick nature hinders me : that is the comitee off molitiah are this day to make up the account about our soldiers & I have sent here-with my sone to pay the ffees : the granting of which will serve him who is yours to serve in whatsoever he may John Osgood. " Andover 27 : 9. 89 " [Granted]
A rival innkeeper was William Chandler. Capt. John Osgood made complaint to the Court against him, that he " did retail & sell sider or strong drinke without License at his owne dwelUng." Chandler produced evidence that he had a license and was acceptable to many of his townsmen, if not to all. The proofs of his license was as follows : — 1 A name used afterwards for the seller of all kinds of merchandise. 2 Court Papers, vol. xlviii., p. 74. 8 County Court Papers, vol. xlvii. " William Chandler Senior is recommended to y^ next County Court at Ipswich as a ffit man to keep a publick house of entertainment in the town of Andover and until the foresaid Court is licensed to sel Sider, bear, wine and strong liquor by me one of his Majesty's Council of his territory for New England ffebruary y' 2, 1686. JoNA Tyng." The proofs of his townsmen's good-will, and their wish for the success of his inn, is as follows : — " The humble petition of William Chandler to his Majesty's honoured Court of Sessions for the County of Essex now Sitting in Ipswich this 14 day of September i68j humbly sheweth : — '' That whereas your petitioner some time since obtained liberty from one of the Councill to keep a publick house of entertainment and that falling short I mayd my address to his Excellence by some friends who understanding my case induced these gentlemen to wright to the honoured Mr. Gedney and frome him to be communicated to the honered justices of Salem wherein he did expect they should grant me my License which accordingly they did while this Sessions; for the which I Render them hearty thanks and now I having in some measure fited myself for that worke and agreed with Captain Radford what customs to pay for the yeare, and it being the desier of many of my neighbors I should keep a publick house of entertainment as will appear by their subscriptions under their hands and the great complaynt of strangers that there is no house of entertainment upon that rode leading from Ipswich to Balrica and also my own necessity arising in regard of that money I was fined at Salem which I borrow'ed and have not pay'', all which considerations move to renew my License for this yeare : which will oblige your petitioner for ever as in duty bound to pray. William Chandler." Wee w-hose names are hereunder Righten : doe testifye : that we live upon the Rode at Andover that leadeth from Ipswich and the Townes that way to Baliraca and have often heard strangers much complain that there was no publick house of entertainment upon that Rode, but they must goe a mile and a elfe out of there way or goe without refreshing or else intrude upon privit houses which that neighborhood have found very burdensome. And we doe 1 County Court Papers, vol. xlvii., p. 56. humbly pray that WilUam Chandler Senr. whose house stands convenient may be allowed for that worke John + Lovejoy, his marke. Joseph Wilson Thomas Johnson Thomas Chandler William Johnson," Another petition for Chandler has the signatures of thirty-five citizens of Andover ; but in 1690 some of his opponents sent in the following petition/ rather discreditable to their townsman : — " From Andover ye 28 : i, 1690. " To the honered Court now sitting at Ipswich ^i off this instant March i6qo. " Wee your most humble petitioners in the name of many more, if not of most of the town do make our address to your honors to exert so much of your power and authority as may release us of the matter of our greivance wch is grown so much an epidemicall evill that overspreads and is like to corrupt the greater part of our towne if not speedily prevented by your help : viz to put a stopp to William Chandler's license of selling of drink, that had been licensed formerly by authority: he had indeed y^approbation of the selectmen that were pickt out for that etid in his first setting up : y^ were men spirited to give him their approbation to such a thing, and indeed at his first setting up he seemed to have some tendernesse upon his conscience not to admit of excess nor disorder in his house ; but custom in his way of dealing and the earnest desire of money hath proved an evil root to him actively and effectively to others, for through his over forwardness to promote his own gaine he hath been apt to animate and to entice persons to spend their money & time to y* great wrong of themselves and family they belong to ; and to that end will encourage all sorts of persons both old and young to spend upon trust, if they have not money, & to some he will proffer to lend them money to spend rather than that they should be discouraged from such a notion ; ser\'ants & children are allowed by him in his house at all times "^ unseasonable by night and day, sometimes till midnight and past & till break of day, till they know not their way to their 1 County Court Papers, vol. 1., 74. 2 William Chandler was not alone in being complained of for this offence. Thomas Johnson, a constable, was charged with " allowing a barrel of cider to be drunke in his house at unseasonable hours by young people." One of the habitations, and gaming is freely allowed in his house by which means the looser must call for drink w*^*^ is one thing y' will uphold his calling : Many such pertiklers might be instanced and easily proved, but we be willing for brevity's sake to omitt much of what might be said of the like nater, but be
sure if he be not restrained from the selling of drink our town will be for the greatest part of our young generation so corrupted thereby that wee can expect little else but a cours of drunkenness of them ; and what comfort will that be to parents to see such a posterity coming on upon the stage after them ? To this wee whose names are underwritten as your humble petitioners doe attest by our hands hereto. Christopher Osgood James Frie John Frie sen Joseph Lovejoy John Frie jun Samuel Frie Samuel Blanchard Benjamin Frye Ephraim Foster Samuel Rowell Joseph Robinson Thos Osgood " But the friends of William Chandler had got the start in the matter of petitioning, as appears from a record
appended to this petition : " This petition came not to the vicwe of the Court tnitill after another was approved of" The " other " referred to was doubtless the following certificate to the good order of Chandler's house : — " William Chandler senr of Andover hath kept a house of pub-lick entertainment for some considerable time past & hath kept good order in s** house (soe far as wee are informed) & being an infirm man & not capable of hard Labour & deserving of approbation for his continuance in that employment we cannot but judge him a meet p'son for it & his house convenient for travellers. " Dated Andover ye 21^' March 1689-90

Another source that has more info and the Will of William Chandler The Chandler Family: The Descendants of William and Annis Chandler who Settled in Roxbury, Mass., 1637 by George ChandlerThe Andover Townmen recently published an article by Bill Dalton Dalton-column-Innkeepers-dispute

Taken from The Andover Preservation site Historic Preservation
Original owner: William Ballard
Used as a boy's school 1796-1815 - Master Porter's School for Boys
Themes: agricultural, architectural, community development, education

This house is made up of three parts, of different periods and ownership. William Ballard owned house on this site in 1635, although oldest part of present structure dates from ca. 1660. First period architecture - 2 rooms and loft, chimney on outside/west side; later 4 small rooms - 2 upstairs, 2 downstairs added north end.

In 1696, William Foster purchased westerly end of south part of house form William & Eleanor Phelps Chandler - house then on Reservation Rd. 1750, moved across Shawsheen on causeway (No. bridge then) and attached to William Ballard House here. Thus, original house enlarged 1750. Two large rooms and loft brought from old Foster home (latter Shattuck Farm) - chimney enlarged.

For 22 years, William Foster Jr. kept school for boys not wishing Phillips Academy's classical course or to qualify boys to enter P.A. 25 boys lived here. In 1800, north end added to house for more dormitory and classroom space; 6 rooms and loft plus 2 small rooms on west (one is present kitchen) and 4 large square rooms.

LATER: 1) Homer Foster's farmhouse. 2) then owned by Francis Foster, assessor's rec. 1951. 3) William Phillips Foster and John Franklin Foster, owners. Students' names have been scratched on some of the windows. House has chimney 14 feet square. William Foster was secretary of Friendly Fire Society, 1829, and his initialed, personalized fire bucket is still to be seen.
Below from Find A Grave added by Donna and Bill Contact

Here lyes ye Body
of Mr. William
Chandler; who
Decd. Octobr 27th
1727, in ye 67th
Year of his Age.

From Andover Ma Town Meetings Records 1656-1709

The particular grants of land and meadows granted to William Chandler. granted to him ten acres of land on the hill on the south side of his house, five acres whereof was granted to William Ballard, for a house lot and four acres to himself for his house lot and one acre for his new field division bounded on the west with the house lot of Andrew Allen, on the southwest with a great red oak on the southeast with a white oak and on the east with the land of Mr. Dane, on the northeast corner with a stump. Granted to him seventeen acres of land for his division land above little Hope bridge bounded on the north with a brook and a high red oak stump, on the west with a hill, on the south with a great clump of rocks, close by the river and on the east with Shawshin river. Granted to him two acres and a half of meadow: on the south side of Shawshin river a.ainst Bilrekay meddows, between the meadow which was John Remington's and the meadow of George Abbot Senior. Granted to him all the meadow between George Abbot Sen. and the brook which runs out of the meadow of Andrew Foster in the east of Shawshin River, with all the meadow on the south side of that brook from the river to a clump of asps, where the brook and the.upland meet, with the meadow on the north side of that brook from the river to the •here the brook and the upland meet with a bit of meadow on the east side of Shawshin iver against Pole Hill. All these parcels are granted for three acres and a half be it irore or less.

Sold to William Chandler 3 times, a parcell of land which is a lane between two parcells of land that was his fathers to pay the town thirty shillings per acre for what it appears to be according to usually manner.

At a lawful town meeting the 11 of February 1663, granted to William Chandler a gore of land on the east (?) side of Shawsheen River, by the old clay pit, whereof two acres is granted him for public charges and if there be above two acres, he is to allow the town for it what they shall so meet and in case, the town shall afterward see occasion to build a mill there, he shall resign to them so much of the convenience of it as shall be judged convenient to set a mill thereon, and allow him so much land elsewhere for it.

Granted and laid out to Andrew Allen five acres of swamp land adjoining to his houselot and the swamp land of William Chandler bounded on the northwest corner with a white oak, on the southwest corner with a white oak, on the northeast corner with a stake.

For More Info

Andover Historical Society 
North Andover Historical Society 
Historical Homes in Andover 
Dane
Thomas-Chandler
West
Minerdescent.com


Artist unknown, 1896 Oil on canvas 57" x 77" Collection of the Andover Historical Society

Monday, November 25, 2013

Abel Phelps and Eunice Wilder

by Melissa Berry

Eunice Wilder and Abel Phelps married June 1, 1797
Abel Phelps  son of Edward Phelps and Martha Farnsworth
Birth  July 29 1771 
Death  April 30, 1825  Leominster, Massachusetts

Eunice Wilder daughter of David Wilder and Lucy Joslin
Birth  November 22, 1771
 Death 1834

Children of Abel and Eunice
Sumner Phelps  Born September 8 1797
Abel Phelps Born  February 22, 1801
David Wilder Phelps Born March 29, 1779

Abel attended Lawrence Academy in Groton MA graduated 1820 from "Catalogue of the officers and students of Lawrence academy: from the time of its incorporation." 







Date: May 29, 1845  

Paper: New Hampshire Patriot and State Gazette (Concord, NH) 









  


David Wilder book: "The History of Leominster, Or the Northern Half of the Lancaster New Or Additional Grant: From June 26, 1701, the Date of the Deed from George Tahanto, Indian Sagamore, to July 4, 1852"

On the 3d of March, 1842, a charter was granted by the General Court, whereby N. F. Cunningham, a native of the adjoining town of Lunenburg, Abel Phelps and Alvah Crocker, two native sons of this town, but residing, the one in Boston and the other in Fitchburg, together with other business and persevering men, were authorized to construct a rail road from Charlestown through the Northeasterly part of this town to Fitchburg. The capital stock (not to exceed $1,500,000) was taken up, and generally by those who were able to pay, the road was judiciously located and thoroughly made, the land damages were seasonably and honorably adjusted, and in little less than three years, viz: in the forenoon of Feb. 10, 1845, the road was opened, the " iron steed" came puffing, snorting and smoking along, and the joyful sound of the whistle was heard for the first time at the depot in the North Village, by the multitude there assembled as witnesses.
At that moment an important change took place in relation to the temporal affairs of the inhabitants of this town. From that moment we were placed within two hour's ride of the city of Boston. Since then men and their families may breakfast at home, go to the city and transact business, or dine with and visit their friends, and be home to tea. Truly, as was written by another on a very different subject " Old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new."

Date: January 28, 1846  

Paper: New Hampshire Sentinel (Keene, NH) 




Also see book "Boston & Maine Railroad System: Statutes of Massachusetts relating to Boston & Maine railroad and leased lines"


Date: June 14, 1845  

Paper: Vermont Journal (Windsor, VT)





  From The New England Farmer, Volume 4 By Thomas Greene Fessenden

real estate of Abel Phelps late of Leominster, dec'sd, in the county of Worcester, as will raise the sum of 1500 dollars, for the payment of debts and charges-—Said estate is pleasantly situated in the north part of said Leominster, on the road to Lunenburg, and would accommodate both the farmer and the mechanic. For particulars, inquire of Wilhingtoo Ic Phelps, Congress street, Boston, of Sumner Phelps living on the premises, or of the subscriber. DAVID WILDER, Adm'r. Leominster, Dec. 6, 1825.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Women Organized Against Slavery 1688-1870

A Share from author & historian Larry Ceplair and a chapter his unpublished manuscript 

Following the women’s national antislavery convention, the Grimké sisters (Angelina & Sarah) began their relatively short lecturing career, in Massachusetts. Between June and November 1837, they spoke on the average of four times a week, in sixty-seven towns, to some 40,000 listeners.1 They inspired thousands of women to sign petitions and hundreds to join or organize antislavery societies. John Quincy Adams credited them “for a vast proportion of all petitions coming from their sex in New England, on the subject of Texian annexation,”2 and at least twenty-five new female antislavery societies formed in Massachusetts during their sojourn there (May 1837-April 1838).

Lidian Jackson Emerson (September 20, 1802- November 13, 1892) Daughter of Charles Jackson and Lucy Cotton Jackson. Second wife of of American essayist, lecturer, poet and leader of the nineteenth century Transcendentalism movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
In Concord, following the Grimkés second appearance there, in early September, Lidian Jackson Emerson (1802-92), the second wife of Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote to her niece:
They have passed [this] week in Concord and been well received. They dined & took tea with [me] one day and it was a pleasure to entertain such angel strangers – pure & benevolent spirits are they. I think that I shall not turn my attention from the abolition cause till I have found whether there is not something for me personally to do and bear to forward it. I hope you will read any books or papers on the subject that you may meet with – if you can do nothing more for the oppressed after you have considered their case and become interested in it you can pray for them.3
She became one of the most active members of the newly formed Concord Female Anti-Slavery Society, and, according to her daughter: “She read the papers faithfully and their pro-slavery tone made her hate her country. She learned all the horrors of slavery and dwelt upon them, so that it was as if she continually witnessed the whippings and the selling away of little children from their mothers.”4 She also participated in their petition campaigns.

Garrison and fellow abolitionists George Thompson and Wendell Phillips, seated at table, daguerreotype, ca. 1850–1851


In Bolton, however, matters proceeded more slowly. Octavia Gardner described events there:
Until within two years, the subject of Abolitionism was not agitated, or perhaps named, at all, about us, or if named, but with sneers, by those who scarce knew its meaning. The first lecture was given here by Misses Grimké . . . . I was surprised at the general attendance of the people on the occasion of their Lecture for I knew there was prejudice among them in relation to the subject. It gave satisfaction & about twelve came forward & acknowledged themselves interested, sincerely, in the Anti Slavery Cause. I thought this a good beginning & a foundation & opening for a regular Society, & proposed it to them at the time, but they thought it inexpedient, & declined, urging as a reason, that the subject had not been generally discussed & public opinion was in opposition, & a society could not be supported satisfactorily to them. Misses Grimké lectured in many of the adjacent towns & those interested in them followed them & seemed much gratified. . . . Last autumn we had another lecture & a small society was formed, consisting of about twenty, men & women, & I hope that the result will prove it expedient as successful, but my fears are as numerous as my hopes.
Unfortunately, Gardner continued, “I am not free myself to act. My parents both of them were ever opposed to the subject of Anti Slavery.” She felt herself torn between her duty toward her parents and her duty toward the cause: “‘I’m in a strait betwixt the two.’”5

An increasing number of men joined the throngs of people eager to hear the Grimké sisters speak, and, inevitably, the question of the propriety of mixed audiences listening to female lecturers arose. It should be noted, however, that the critical case against women speaking in public, to mixed audiences was closely intertwined with antipathy toward Garrisonian abolitionism.

Catharine Esther Beecher (September 6, 1800 – May 12, 1878) Daughter of prominent New England minister the Rev. Lyman Beecher and Roxanna (Foote) Beecher. The first public attack came from Catharine E. Beecher (1800-78), the eldest daughter of Lyman Beecher (1775-1863), a long-standing foe of Garrison. (See Chapter Seven.) She noted, in a family circular letter: “I am just finishing a little vol[ume] entitled ‘An Essay on Slavery & Abolitionism with reference to the duty of American Females’ – done at father’s request & he is rejoicing over it greatly as it contains all he has been wanting to have said & could not get a chance to do it himself.”6

1Gerda Lerner, The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Rebels Against Slavery (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967), 227.
2John Quincy Adams, Speech: John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, Upon the Right of People, Men and Women, to Petition . . . (Washington, D. C.: Gale and Seaton, 1838; New York: Arno and New York Times, 1969), 78.
3Lidian Jackson Emerson to Sophia Brown, September 9, 1837, in Delores Bird Carpenter, ed., The Selected Letters of Lidian Jackson Emerson (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1987), 60-61. See also, F. B. Sanborn, Recollections of Seventy Years (Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1909), 2:378-79, 446.
4Ellen Tucker Emerson, The Life of Lidian Jackson Emerson, Delores Bird Carpenter, ed. (Boston: Twayne, 1980), 83-84.
5Octavia Gardner to Ann Phillips, May 7, 1839, in Irving H. Bartlett, Wendell and Ann Phillips: The Community of Reform, 1840-1880 (New York: Norton, 1979), 198-200.
 6The letter is not dated, but appears to have been written in April 1837. It is in the Acquisitions Department, Stowe-Day Library, Hartford, CT.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Carolyn Heard Peatfield-Short Newbury MA

A Share from Laurie Short Jarvis A Part One of Series on Newbury Ancestors


Carolyn Heard Peatfield-Short and granddaughter Laurie Short Jarvis
I am no genealogist by any stretch of the imagination, but I have always had an interest in local history, family stories, and especially old pictures.  I was heavily influenced by my grandmother Carolyn Heard Peatfield-Short. (b 3 Jan 1913 - d. 9 Dec 2009) married April 1931 George Granville Short Sr:  (b. 26 Nov 1910 - d.29 Mar 1970)  She loved all those things too. She was forever taking pictures, telling me about her family and my grandfather's family.  Although I never seemed all that interested when I was a child, it must have absorbed into my pores and somehow recorded a cellular memory until I was ready to learn.

When my grandmother died in 2009, I inherited boxes, bags, albums and scrapbooks full of what a lot of people considered junk, but they were her most prized possessions.  Even though she had to give most all of her worldly possessions away after moving out of her home (first, elderly housing and eventually to a nursing home) she kept certain priceless things with her at her bedside until her death at 96.  Among these gems, special old photographs and a 1890's scrapbook that belonged to her mother.  In addition, many little seemingly insignificant trinkets.  After her death, these items were dispersed to family members and myself. which I tossed into bins and stored away.

 Engagement Picture Carolyn & George Granville Short, SR

As I collected the treasured items from my grandmothers nursing room bedside,  I realized that the family and all its history she preserved was far more valuable than any monetary. This was something she possessed and no one could ever take away from her.  All her stories and passion for it came rushing back.  Her obsession for history was all recorded in her scrapbooks which she started putting together in 1931 when she 'went housekeeping' with my grandfather.  She put together a scrapbook from news clipping and other events from that date until her death. Even with her developing blindness she insisted that a nursing assistant read the local newspaper to her and help her cut out the articles she wanted to paste in her last scrapbook. She donated the majority of them all to Newbury Council on Aging before she passed. After her death, I did try to retrieve them and unfortunately hey had been dispersed or discarded.  One woman saved as many as she could, in her barn.  She was a friend of my grandmother.  I was able to retrieve only the 60's through present day. The older ones had disappeared.

I spent the winter after her death going through the bins of her things that I had stored away.  Her whole life, and that of my family unfolded in front of me a little at a time.  I had stated a family tree on ancestry.com in 2000, but never followed through with it and lost interest.  I returned to the website and found it still intact. and then I started piecing together the information and papers that my grandmother had left for me.  Seemingly insignificant papers became huge clues and valuable documents.  Piles of photos contained answers to mysteries.  Stories that had gone in one ear and I thought, gone out the other, were actually absorbed in through my pores and had never left.  I could hear her voice telling me that same old story for the 100th time.  I am glad she bored me with those old stories now.

Benjamin Lee Jarvis--Grandson
Although my family members were not statesmen or scholars, they played an integral role in the settling of Newbury,  New England and this country.   The generations of farmers, fishermen, clammers and factory workers all contributed to building a strong foundation here in this community. The majority of the Short family branch were seamen, including fishermen, captains, ship builders,  Among the roles---Plum Island Life Saving men, Coast Guard, in the First Navy of the Civil War. There were several generations of navy men, including my father and his brother. Our branch of the Short family Tree is said to end with my generation. My grandfather was the only male he had 2 boys and they had 2 girls each.  No next generation male to carry on the name.  I want my children to know who they came from and I am proud of Newbury history and all my ancestors who resided here.

Short House Newbury MA


Wednesday, November 20, 2013

THE QUAKER COMMUNITIES IN ALBEMARLE Part 2 Friends Early Meetings

A Share from The Hill Family of Chowan County by Anne L. McCarthy
Also refer to Gwen Boyer Bjorkman
http://ancestoryarchives.blogspot.com/2013/06/hannah-baskel-phelps-phelps-hill-quaker.html



The land configurations of Albemarle made the area attractive and accessible.  Laced with small streams, creeks, and deep rivers, the easy access by water into the untamed region offered ports for ocean-going ships able to take the settlers' products directly to Caribbean ports and to the other colonies.  Abundance of water also aided the farmers with their crops and for their homes (Fig. 12).  The Chowan, Perquimans, Pasquotank, and Little Rivers were linked with the smaller streams making a veritable water highway throughout the area.  The source of these rivers was the Great Dismal Swamp, where the color of the water was a deep red, caused by the waters passing through the roots of the cypress trees.  The water, however, was perfectly clear, tasted by no means unpleasant, and was quite wholesome.  It had a diuretic effect on those who drank it, and prevented agues and fevers, or so it was claimed.  Filled with the perils of virgin forests, native Indians, wild animals, insects, snakes, and reptiles, this area south of the Great Dismal Swamp was also more isolated from the English authorities. 

Figure 12.  Map of Albemarle region.

      Following the first landowners who settled along the main rivers and shores of Albemarle Sound, new arrivals were finding homesites father up near the heads of the four main rivers.  When the word spread that this was a place where people were able to worship in freedom and that the Virginia government had less influence in the region, the Quakers in southern Virginia came to Albemarle in increasing numbers.  They were an industrious, plain, sober, and hardy people who had already endured much hardship and privation.  They were soon joined by other Quakers from the New England colonies who had heard that new Quaker settlements were being started in the south (Fig. 13).  One of these couples who came in the 1660’s was Henry and Hannah (Baskel) Phelps from Salem, Massachusetts (Fig. 14).  The records of the Quaker Chuckatuck Monthly Meeting in Isle of Wight County list the deaths in the James Hill family from 1674 to 1677.  One of these deaths was probably his wife, but which wife is not clear --Rachel, Elizabeth, or Ann.  James Hill later married Hannah Baskel, widow of Nicholas Phelps and Henry Phelps.  James Hill died after 1681 and is recorded in the Diary of William Edmundson, the Quaker Missionary who visited him in Isle of Wight County and had known him previously in Ireland.  James Hill was Deputy to the Duke of Albemarle in Virginia.  Records show that Hannah Hill, his widow, later claimed head rights for Samuel and Martha Hill for importing them into Carolina from York Co., Virginia, indicating a family relationship. Among those who came from the Charlestown settlement in southern Carolina were Patrick Henley, John Culpeper, and Edward Mayo who had come originally from Barbados in the Caribbean.

Figure 13.  Map of Albemarle.  Early sites of Quaker meetings in Perquimans and Pasquotank Counties are shown.



Figure 14.  Hannah (Baskel) Phelps Phelps Hill Smith was typical of the Quaker lady shown here who would have testified at the Meeting.  She was the first Quaker woman to organize a meeting in her home in Albemarle.
      On February 6, 1665, the first group of six freeholders met beneath a giant oak tree on the banks of Hall's (Hill's ?) Creek in Pasquotank Precinct1 to organize community affairs.  William Drummond, one of those present at that meeting, had been appointed the first Governor of Albemarle in 1664  by Gov. Berkeley, acting on orders of the Lord Proprietors.  George Catchmaid of Perquimans was chosen Assembly Speaker.2  Samuel Pricklove and George Durant were probably also among the original six at the meeting.  Both served as local officials and were the first two settlers of the area (Fig. 15).  The isolation of Albemarle and the independent nature of it's people were factors contributing to unstable government in the young colony in its first years of existence. 


Figure 15.  Map of early Albemarle plantation owners in Perquimans County.  Some owners were second or third generation owners with names derived from subsequent marriages.  The homes of Samuel Pricklove and Henry White are clearly shown.


In 1676 Drummond returned to Virginia where he became actively involved in Bacon's Rebellion.  He was an ardent supporter of Nathaniel Bacon and thereby angered Governor Berkeley.  When the rebellion was put down after Bacon’s death from illness, the Governor made Drummond the first of the rebels to pay the price for their disloyalty to his authority.  Drummond was sentenced to be hanged.  Mrs. Drummond and the children were put out of their home and were left wandering in the swamps near starvation. 
      The Lord Proprietors next named Samuel Stephens as Governor of Albemarle.  He served from 1667-1669.  Stephens was born in Jamestown in 1629 and was the first governor of any colony to be born in America.  He was married to Frances Culpeper, the sister of Lord John Culpeper.  When Stephens died in1669, she married Governor William Berkeley.  After Berkeley's death in 1677, she married thirdly Phillip Ludwell, Governor of Charlestown, in 'south' Carolina.3  Stephens had owned a tract of 4,000 acres of land in Albemarle which was sold upon his death to John Hill of York County.   In 1693 this same tract of land was sold by John Hill's son, Samuel Hill of Warwick Co. and his wife, Mary, to Governor Seth Sothel (Southwell).
      Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia had reverberations in Albemarle.  Some of Albemarle's residents had been active in the Virginia revolt, and they returned to Albemarle to continue stirring up discontent there.  John Culpeper, who had come to Pasquotank in 1675 from the Charlestown settlement where he had been accused of inciting the people against their government, was one of these.  He left Pasquotank in 1676 to become Nathaniel Bacon's lieutenant during the rebellion in Virginia.  When the revolt was put down, he escaped to Albemarle, where he continued to sow seeds of discontent. 
      Disagreement between the early settlers who bought their lands from the Indians and those who had received land patents from the Lord Proprietors was an underlying cause of dispute.  In addition, conflict between Quakers and non-Quakers, while government attempts to restrict export of tobacco (the money crop) also resulted in discontent.  Nine Friends were fined and imprisoned in 1680 for refusing to bear arms.  Samuel Hill of Warwick was one of these men.  
 When unrest in Albemarle broke out in Culpeper's Rebellion, in 1677, Thomas Miller, an apothecary from Pasquotank, was serving as Deputy Governor in place of Thomas Eastchurch.  The rebels, led by John Culpeper, arrested Gov. Miller and Customs Collector, Timothy Biggs, and took over the government.  In Pasquotank  County, Culpeper is proudly claimed as America's first governor of a free people in this country and Albemarle as the first independent colony in the new world.4  Culpeper's widow, Sarah Mayo, daughter of Edward Mayo, again married in 1693 to Patrick Henley, the earliest Henley ancestor of the family that later became closely associated with the Hills.
      Bacon's and Culpeper's Rebellions came perilously close to the members of the Hill family.  As Quakers they did not take active roles in the insurrection, but they were closely associated with the officials who did.
      For the first thirty years Albemarle was governed by independent men, and Quakers served in all levels of political office.  While there was a steady conflict for governmental control in Albemarle between members of the established church and the Quaker faction, the Quakers dominated in early Pasquotank.  John Archdale followed Culpeper as Governor from 1694-1696.  He was a Quaker and a Lord Proprietor, having purchased John Berkeley's share.  When a law was passed requiring officeholders to take an oath to serve the English crown, the Quakers, who believed oaths should be made only to God, met opposition and were prohibited from holding public office.  From that time on their influence waned.
      In this new setting life was a constant challenge for survival.  Families were more isolated and vied with the Indians for sustenance off the land.  Living on lands bought from the Indians meant they were living among the natives.  Early on the Quakers learned how to treat the Indians with respect and to coexist with them.  In the process their children acquired the Indian skills of living with nature.  In the next generation these were skills that enabled the young men to lead their people into newer untouched lands to the west.
      In Albemarle life spans were short.  With little medical resources other than the remedies handed down from generation to generation and surrounded by accidental risks, fevers, poisonous snakes and wild animals, men and women often were suddenly widowed and left with small children to care for without a home-maker or protector-provider.  The widowed remarried quickly and often, some having three or four wives or husbands in their lifetimes.  New marriage partners often came from within the small circle of neighboring families.  These families came to be linked by intermarriage many times over.  Marriage occurred at a young age for girls in particular.  They learned the skills of home-making as a necessity to assist their mothers.  Providing food, clothing, and health care for a family in the wilderness was no easy task and required the help of every hand at an early age.  Without a pair of hardworking parents, a family could not survive.  Families were large and children learned early to contribute to the work.

SAMUEL PRICKLOVE: AGITATOR
      Samuel Pricklove was one of the first residents of Perquimans Precinct, arriving even before settler George Durant, in 1662.5  Pricklove was the first known purchaser of Indian lands in Albemarle and held a grant from Governor Berkeley of Virginia for a large tract on the Perquimans River near Durant, where the two men became life-long friends.  Pricklove had moved from Nansemond County in Virginia with his wife, Rachel Lawrence, whose brother, Thomas Lawrence, was one of Nathaniel Bacon’s supporters in Bacon’s Rebellion.  Pricklove held the offices of Registrar of deeds and Clerk of the Inferior Court under the administrations of two early Quaker Governors of Carolina in the 1650’s: Governor William Drummond (executed by Governor Berkeley in Bacon's Rebellion) and Governor Archdale.6
      Both Pricklove and Durant took part in the Culpepper Rebellion of 1677 and assisted in "leading the rabble" to depose the Deputy Governor Thomas Miller.  For this crime of activism, Pricklove was sentenced to have his right ear amputated and be banished from the colony.  The sentence was never carried out because Miller was deposed.  Samuel Pricklove died in Perquimans County in 1692.7  He and his wife left two sons, Samuel and John.  John Pritloe and his wife, Elizabeth, had six daughters, all of whom married men of substance and influence in Albemarle:
·         Priscilla married John Sanders
·         Judeth married Abram Sanders, son of John Sanders of Virginia
·         Rachel married Robert Wilson, son of a Virginia Burgess
·         Elizabeth married William Elliott
·         Rebecca married Zacariah Chancy
·         Leah married Joseph Smith
      Leah and Joseph Smith were the grandparents of Mary Smith, wife of William Hill.  John Smith, brother of Mary Hill, was one of the founders of Richmond, Indiana. 
      Basil Sanders, who left 860 acres of land in Chowan County to a William Hill of Antigua in 1721, was likely the son of one of the above Sanders couples.
 The early Quaker communities were models of life based on their Christian beliefs.  The Quaker believed that God speaks directly to the human heart, and that no ministers or priests are needed to receive the blessings of God, which are available to every man and woman.  They believed in the equality of men and women.  They used no hymns or outward manifestations in their worship, keeping silent until a person felt moved by God to share a message.  The Quakers tithed.  They refused to take an oath of any kind, as they owed their allegiance only to God.  They believed in simplicity which strips away the accretions of the centuries and used the term Thee because Jesus used Thee to His Friends.  The appellation, Quaker, came from their enemies who accused them of Quaking in the presence of God, which they did.5
      The Quaker dissenters in England had been prohibited from attending the public schools there, leading the Friends to establish their own schools to provide their young people with the education and religious precepts of their faith.  A high priority was placed on having the best teachers and schools possible in order to preserve their sect.
      The Quaker Meeting House had two sides separated by partitions which could be removed for general meetings.  The men had their meetings on one side and conducted their affairs with their own appointed committees.  The women, treated as equals, had their own meetings and committees to deal with their own particular concerns.  Each group assigned overseers to monitor the conduct of their members, arrange for disputes between members to be settled in a peaceful and fair manner, and to "look into and approve or disapprove" of the appropriateness of the intention of members to marry.  The poor and orphaned children were provided for by funds set aside in each meeting from tithes for that purpose, and new homes were arranged for the orphans where they would be clothed, fed, and taught a trade.
      In the frontier communities the safety and welfare of the people depended on the cooperation of all and a commitment to the good of the community.  Because they lived in primitive circumstances and close proximity to the Indians from whom they had bought their land, the Quakers took care to treat the Indians fairly and to learn their ways of survival off the land.  They set up schools for the native children to help them come to understand the ways of the white man.  The earliest religious meetings in Albemarle were held in the homes of their leaders.
       While the Quaker communities continued to grow in North Carolina and in Isle of Wight Co., Virginia, there remained a lingering unease over the tight control of the mother country affecting both the settler's religious and economic lives.  Young men were being conscripted into the militia to fight Indians on the western borders of Virginia and North Carolina and brought home with them news of the beautiful, undeveloped lands in the western parts of those states.  The Quakers were assessing their local problems and the possibility of starting new settlements in the west (Fig. 16). 



Figure 16.  Map of Quaker Meeting Sites in Perquimans County.  Marked are the sites of Meeting Houses and the Plantations of early Friends living nearby.  From: Perquiman’s county Historical Society Year Book, Hertford, NC., 1973.

      Concerned with the question of slavery, they knew they could not operate their farms without slave help.  They preferred living in frontier areas where they were free of the social pressures of concentrated population.  Albemarle was becoming quite populated.


HENRY WHITE
      One of the earliest Quakers in Pasquotank County was Henry White who had come from Isle of Wight County, Virginia, around 1670.  He had purchased lands at the head of Little River where a preparatory meeting had been established as early as 1663.  White served as Registrar for Little River Meeting and for the Pasquotank Monthly Meeting which included four other meetings besides Little River.  He served on the North Carolina Higher court and for short periods of time on the Precinct County Court.
      White gave land for the building of a school alongside the meeting house which was the first school built in North Carolina, and he taught in that school.  A poem White wrote in 1698 as a teaching tool for his students came to light at Guilford College in Greensboro, NC.  This long poem is said to be the oldest extant work of poetry from the southern states.  It apparently was used as a form of communication with other Quaker meetings in various regions and to instruct his pupils with a religious message of the Quaker faith at the same time.
      As a young man White had attended school in Isle of Wight County, where his father made a living as a cooper and served as Justice of the Peace.  His grandfather, Henry White, had lived on Queen's Creek in York County, north of Williamsburg. 
      In 1631 Governor John Harvey determined to secure the area between the James and York Rivers by building a palisade across the peninsula between Archer's Hope (College Creek) and Queen's Creek.  Incentives were offered to any settler who would relocate to that area to defend and protect the development of the area.  Fifty acres were offered to each man who would relocate there for the first year, twenty-five acres for a second year.  This may have been the incentive for families like the Whites and the Hills to spend a short period at Queen's Creek in York county, later returning to the counties south of the James River.