The History and Traditions of Marblehead by Samuel Roads – Nicholson

Chapter III.
The year 1648 was one of the most momentous in the 
entire history of Marblehead. Early in March tlie town of 
Salem ordered : " That Marblehead with the allowance of 
the General Court shall be a town, and the bounds to be to 
the utmost extent of the land which was Mr. Humphries 
farme and soe all the land to the sea." On the 2d of May, 
1649, the General Court granted the petition of the 'inhab- 
itants, and the town was duly incorporated as follows : 
" Upon the petition of the Inhabitants of Marblehead for 
them to be a town of themselves, Salem having granted 
them to be a town of themselves, and appointed them the 
bounds of their town which the Court doth grant." 

Shortly after the separation from Salem, a meeting of the 
inhabitants was held, and the following town officers were 
chosen, or, as the record quaintly expresses it, " these men 
were chosen for the towns business : — 

" Seven men or selectmen. — Moses Maverick, Samuel 
Doliber, Francis Johnson, Nicholas Merritt, John Peach, 
Senior, John Deverox, John Bartoll." 

" To gather Mr. AValton's Pay. — James Smith, Joseph 
Dohber." 

This was probably the first meeting of the inhabitants 
after the action of the town of Salem, though there is no 
recoi'd of the date on which it was held except that of the 
year. 

The earliest date in the records is that of a meeting held 
December 22, 1648, when it was " agreed by the Towne 
that all such as are strangers fishing or employed about fish, 
shall pay unto the Towne for their wood and flake stufe and 


18 THE HISTORY AND TRADITIONS 

other conveniences, the sum of ten shillings a year for every 
man." By the records of this year, it appears that the in- 
habitants acted as an independent town before obtaining 
the act of incorporation, and that in anticipation of the 
event they were busy in settling and arranging their affairs, 
as befitted an orderly and law-abiding township. The 
swamp running from John Leggs' to Timothy Allen's was 
laid out into eight lots, and divided among the inhabitants. 
A rate was made for the meeting-house, and John Hart was 
authorized to collect it, and to " take what corse the law 
will afford against any such inhabitant as shall refuse to 
pay." 

In order that there might be an equal way of " main- 
taining the ordinance by Mr. Walton," it was agreed, "that 
a rate should be established according to requite." This 
rate was to include strangers "who have benefit by the plan- 
tation by fishing, and make use of wood and timber, and 
enjoy the benefit of the ordinance." Mr. Walton was to 
have forty pounds for his services this year, and the sum of 
eighteen pence was ordered to be added to every man's 
rate, for his wood. 

The common lands were divided equally among the in- 
habitants, according to their former common shares, the rec- 
cord of the meeting concluding as follows : — 

" That there might be an equal proceedinge had having 
respect to families according to their former common shares, 
finding the comons but littell as we conceive to paster not 
more than fifty head of cattell, or cows, accounting a horse 
or mare as two cows, two yearling cattell for one cowe, four 
goats or sheep to a cowe, a steer or bullock of two years ould 
as a cowe, the number of families in the plantation being 
44, thus limited : — 

James Smith and Rowland, 1 Henry Stacey, ^ cow, 

cowe, Will. Chicliesster and Sam. Carr- 
Samuel Doliber, 1 cowe, witheu, 1 cow, 

John Gatchell, H cowe, David Carrwithen, 1 cow, 


OF MARBLEHEAD.19 

Edmund Nicholson, 1^ cows, 
------

OF MARBLEHEAD. 27 

voted that " all these fifteen or sixteen houses built in Mar- 
blehead before ye year 1660, shall be allowed one cows 
common and a halfe." 

In 1675 the war between the Massachusetts colonists and 
the Indians, known as King Philip's War, broke out. The 
fort was accordingly put in order and the .three great guns 
which had been granted by the General Court were placed 
in a proper position for defense. The daring atrocities com- 
mitted by the Indians during this terrible war were such as 
to send terror to the stoutest heart. The war began by an 
attack made by the Indians on the town of Swanzey, where, 
after slaughtering the cattle and plundering the houses, 
they fired on the inhabitants, killing and wounding several. 
The troops of the colony marched immediately to Swanzey, 
and upon their appearance the Indians fled, marking the 
course of their flight by burning the buildings, and fixing 
on poles by the way-side the hands, scalps, and heads of 
the whites. 

" Most of the settlements were surrounded by thick for- 
ests, and as the Indians lived intermixed with the whites, 
the former were acquainted, of course, with the dwellings 
of the latter, and all the avenues to them ; could watch their 
motions, and fall upon them in their defenseless and un- 
guarded moments. Many were shot dead as they opened 
their doors in the morning ; many while at work in their 
fields, and others while traveling to visit their neighbors, 
or to places of worship ; their lives were in continual jeop- 
ardy ; and no one could tell but that in the next moment 
he should receive his death shot from his barn, the thicket, 
or the way-side. Defenseless villages were suddenly at- 
tacked, the houses burned, and the men, women, and chil- 
dren killed or carried into captivity." ^ 

Williams, Saml. Nicholson, John Bartlett, William Poat, George Darling, 
Josiah Codnar, John Roads, Jr., James Watts, Wm. Lightfoot, Philip Har- 
ding, Widow Boatson, Robt. Johnson, Saml. Walton, Josiah Gatchell, AVm. 
Brown, John Marriatt, Widow Stacie. 
1 Hinton's United States. 
-----

OF MAEBLEHEAD. 41 

was chased one night by a corpse in a coffin, and shortly 
after sickened and died ; of the poor fellow who was 
chased by his Satanic majesty himself, seated in a carriage 
and drawn by four white horses ; and of the young fisher- 
man who arrived home in the night, and meeting the young 
woman to whom he was betrothed, gave her a few of the 
fish he had caught, only to see her fade away and vanish 
from his sight. The next morning the heart-broken lover 
learned that the girl he loved had died during his absence, 
and became convinced that he had seen an apparition. 
What the ghost did with the fish has never been satisfac- 
torily explained. 

Of the events of the intervening years between 1709 and 
1714 little can be ascertained.^ A few years previous an 
Episcopal church had been gathered, and a parish organ- 
ized, and during the year 1714 a church edifice was erected. 
The funds for the erection of the building were subscribed 
by thirty-three gentlemen who pledged themselves in various 
sums to the amount of £175. The list was headed by Col. 
Francis Nicholson, who subscribed ^625, and the remainder 
was made up by various captains of vessels in sums vary- 
ing from £2 to £12 each. The frame and all the mate- 
rials used in the construction of the building were brought 
from England. The first rector was the Rev. William 
Shaw, who arrived and took charge of the parish on the 
20th of July, 1715. 
------

184 THE HISTORY AND TRADITIONS 

captured witliout the firing of a gun on either side. As 
soon as Tucker saw the ship in the distance, he knew her to 
be a British frigate, and boldly sailed up to her. Disguising 
his own ship with English colors, he prepared for action, 
and, having obtained a commanding positioii, hoisted the 
American flag and ordered an instant surrender. The com- 
mander of the British frigate, seeing that resistance was in 
vain, struck his colors. The prize was subsequently sold for 
£103,000, the sale of the coal and provisions found on board 
increasing the amount to nearly one hundred and twenty 
thousand pounds. 

In the mean time. Commodore Manly, who two years be- 
fore had been captured by the British and sent to prison, 
was exchanged. Upon regaining his freedom, he at once 
assumed command of the privateer Cumberland. While 
cruising in her, he was captured by the British frigate Po- 
mena, and carried into Barbadoes, where he and his officers 
were impi'isoned. All their applications- to obtain paroles 
were rejected. They finally succeeded in effecting an es- 
cape, and seizing a sloop, sailed for Martinico, where they 
arrived in safety. Manly was afterwards in command of 
the privateer Jason, which had been captured from the Brit- 
ish shortly before his escape. While on a cruise, during 
the month of July, he was attacked by two British priva- 
teers, one of eighteen guns, and the other of sixteen. In 
the engagement which ensued, Manly behaved with great 
bravery, and reserved his fire until he came close up with 
his adversaries. Running between them, he first discharged 
a broadside into the eighteen-gun vessel, killing and wound- 
ing nearly thirty of her crew. He then gave her consort 
the other broadside, when both vessels surrendered, and be- 
came his prizes. 

In July, Commodore Tucker, in the Boston, sailed on a 
cruise in company with the frigate Deane, commanded by 
Captain Nicholson. On the 15th they captured the priva- 
teer Enterprise, of seventeen guns and eighty men, and 
shortly after the sloop-of-war Mermaid, a tender of the frig- 
ate Vigihmt. During a part of the time, the Boston and 
Deane were accompanied by the United States frigate Con- 
federacy. A large number of prizes were taken during this 
cruise, thirteen of which were taken by the Boston alone 
without the assistance of the other frigates. Among their 
captures was the ship Earl of Glencairn, mounting twenty 
guns, with a cargo of dry goods, the invoice of which 
amounted to .£40,000, besides four hundred barrels of pro- 
visions, and fifty puncheons of rum. They also took the brig 
Venture, bound from Madeira to New York, with one hun- 
dred and fifty pipes of Madeira wine ; and four British pri- 
vateers, which were sent into Philadelphia,

source: https://archive.org/stream/historytradition00road/historytradition00road_djvu.txt