house near by early in the present century. The Allen Baker farm house was purchased by Mr. Ephraim Brown and inherited by his son Thomas, whose widow and son own and occupy the historic spot to-day. JONATHAN WADE'S GRANT. The next farm in the earliest period was Jonathan Wade's. He received a grant in 16341 of "two hundred acres at Cheboko, haveing Mr. Winthrop's farm on the northwest, Mr. Samuel Dudley's northeast, and a creeke called Chebacco Creeke on the Southeast." On April 1, 1654, he made an "indenture" to Henry Bennet of his farm called and known by the name of said Wade, his farm, and given him by ye town of Ipswich." It was bounded by land of Mr. Samuel Symonds on the north, the land of Mr. Saltonstall on the east, and of Mr. Rogers on the west, and a creek on the south containing about two hundred acres with houses, etc.? Henry Bennet sold the farm, now called Bennet's farm, to Col. John Wainwright for £800 in 1697, March 14.3 Its bounds are as before except that it is specified that Major Saltingstall's farm is "now in ye tenure of Isaack Fellows," two hundred acres with dwelling houses, barns, etc. The Wainwrights were of an illustrious family. The first of the name, Francis, was a soldier in the Pequot war and afterward a wealthy merchant. He bought thirty acres of the John Lee grant, as has been mentioned. His son John, who bought the Bennet farm, was a prosperous merchant, a colonel of a regiment, and justice of the Sessions Court. He died in 1708, in his 60th year, and his sons John and Francis received the farm. John attained wealth, honor and influence. He was representative from 1720 to 1738, Clerk of the House eight years, and was always a conspicuous figure in public affairs. He was Town Clerk, Justice and Colonel as his father had been before him. In 17534 (Feb. 1), Colonel John Wainwright, Mary his wife, and his mother, Christian, sold sixty-five acres, "reaching to the Great Creek," to Pelatiah Kinsman. In March, 1754,5 Mr. Kinsman bought forty-three acres more, with a dwelling house and barn, bounded by John Day's land and Francis Wainwright's. 1 Town Records. 2 Ipswich Deeds, 1: 228. Essex Co. Deeds, 12: 157. 4 Essex Co. Deeds, 101: 28. 5 Essex Co. Deeds, 101: 25. He extended his domain yet farther in 17631 by the purchase of another tract, "beginning near the North Gate by the road," also 66 a piece of orcharding containing three-quarters of an acre bounded at John Day's line, westerly about nine rods, etc," in all containing seventy-eight acres. The Wainwrights all had residences on East Street, and their farm properties were occupied 'by their tenants. But Pelatiah Kinsman was a true son of the soil, a direct descendant of the famous Quartermaster Robert, who figured so grandly with Rev. John Wise and the others in resisting the Andros tax. His son, Aaron, succeeded and his son, Aaron, hale and hearty, in his 97th year, has lived and toiled all his long life on this broad and sightly domain. DUDLEY-SALTONSTALL FARM. When Jonathan Wade's farm was granted in 1634, the farm that bounded his on the northeast was owned by Mr. Samuel Dudley. When he sold to Bennett in 1654, it was owned by Richard Saltonstall, though occupied by Isaac and William Fellows. Mr. Saltonstall was the foremost citizen of his time in many respects, of noble birth, of great wealth, of preeminent distinction in political affairs, but his residence in our town was short and the majority of his best years was spent in England. On the occasion of the marriage of his son Nathaniel, then residing in Haverhill, with Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. John Ward of Haverhill, and granddaughter of Rev. Nathaniel Ward of Ipswich, in 1664, he conveyed to his son, with other lands, the farm at Chebacco, containing about one hundred and fifty acres. On April 6, 1731,3 Thomas Berry, attorney for the heirs of Nathaniel Saltonstall, sold to Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, the farm commonly known as Day's farm, occupied by John Day, in Little Chebacco, for £1850. Mr. Rogers was the pastor of the Ipswich Church, the son of Reverend John Rogers, who was also pastor of the church all his life, grandson of Rev. John Rogers, President of Harvard College, and great-grandson of the first emigrant, Nathaniel, pastor from 1638. He turned his bargain to excellent advantage, by dividing the original farm into two, making the highway to Castle Hill, the 2 Ipswich Deeds, II. 1 Essex Co. Deeds, 113: 35. 3 Essex Co. Deeds, 79:203. dividing line. In earlier times, it is evident that this was only a cartway through the farms, with gates and bars at the dividing walls or fences of each farm; and in the following century, remembrance remains of the great grandmother of the late Manasseh Brown going to town from the Argilla Farm, when the road was only a dim track through the woods. She used to say that she could cover with her apron, the sapling oak, which still survives by the Bath Spring, a gnarled and misshapen wreck. Fifty years ago the owner of the land it occupied resolved to cut it down, and it was saved by an appeal to the County Commissioners to change the line of the road to include it in the public domain. The eighty-four acre tract on the southeast side of the road with the dwelling and barn, the worthy minister sold to John Day, the occupant, for £1696-10s. on April 9, 1733. The deed mentions a cartway reserved, through the upland, and "the gravelly nole near where the school-house now stands." He kept the other part nine years and then sold it for £1250, to Stephen Smith,2 excepting the way from Colonel Denison's farm to the road or way leading to Castle Hill. John Day bequeathed his farm to his sons. Nathaniel sold his half to Abner, Jr., a worthy man, Deacon for many years of the South Church,3 and he deeded to his son John, in 1814, one undivided half of three undivided quarters of the farm, "that my grandfather purchased of Rev. Nath. Rogers." It was owned later by Asa Stone, and is still the property of his heirs. The old farm house stood very near the site of the present dwelling. DENISON'S FARM. The pedigree of the breezy hill top farm, now occupied by Mr. Herman H. Story, begins with the grant of 150 acres to Daniel Denison, the soldier of the town, whose skill in military affairs was so great that he became the commander-in-chief of the colonial forces. His townsmen had such supreme appreciation of his value as a leader in the stormy times, when Indian assaults were always dreaded, that £24-7s. was raised by popular subscription annually for many years. A most pretentious man, withal, very proud of his dignity as civil magistrate and local aristocrat. Record remains of a most unseemly dispute between the pompous 1 Essex Co. Deeds, 89: 46. 2 Essex Co. Deeds, 107: 226. Essex Co. Deeds, 147: 285. Essex Co. Deeds, 204: 266, June 25, 1814. soldier and the gentle Deputy Governor, regarding a boundary between their lands. It culminated in an open quarrel over a load of hay, and the common people enjoyed the delectable sight of a suit-at-law between the two foremost men, which was settled in a kindly grant of the Town to Mr. Symonds to make good what he relinquished to pacify his overbearing neighbor. It continued in the Denison family a hundred years and more. John Denison sold in 17431 (Sept. 21), to Francis Cogswell, Tanner, "the full two-thirds part of ye farm called Dennison's farm, whereon I said Francis now live, containing about one hundred and thirty-eight acres-bounded northeast by Jacob Smith's land, south by Stephen Smith's land," etc. Francis Cogswell bequeathed his wife Elizabeth the use and improvement of one-half his real estate, but gave all his real estate to his son Francis. His inventory3 includes "a fustin coat, 4s, pair of velvet britches 16s, silver watch 106s, 8d. blue jacket, 6s, 8d. 2 wiggs, 5s. a negro boy called Cato £36-5s. 4d. the schooner Deborah & boat & all appurtenances, £80-0-0-0. the old schooner Dolphin & boat & all appurtenances, £66-13-4.” The stately Francis with wig and watch, blue jacket and velvet britches represents one extreme of the social scale of that day, the black slave boy Cato, the other. The old Denison farm continues to be occupied by people that interest us, but no figure attracts us more to-day than the humble chattel, clattering down from Town horseback and up through the lane to the hill top farm. The second Francis4 remembered his wife Elizabeth with "a suit of suitable mourning after my decease," and his sons Francis and Joseph with his real estate. The third Francis5 left a wife Anstice and two sons Francis and Joseph, to whom his estate was divided in 1793, and Joseph died in 1791, and his half of the estate continued to his heirs, Ebenezer and Joseph. The brothers, Ebenezer and Joseph, succeeded, and Ebenezer's sons Ebenezer and Joseph owned and occupied the estate for many years. NATHANIEL WARD'S FARM. The Denison farm on the hill-top was bounded by Mr. Ward's Essex Co. Deeds, 88: 17. 2 Probate Records, 333: 440, Feb. 25, 1755. 3 Probate Records, 334: 424. 4 Probate Records, 351: 645, June 6, 1772. ย land on the northeast. We may regret that the location is so vague, and allusion to it so rare, for Mr. Ward was a grand figure in the early days. Rev. Nathaniel Ward, as he is better known, was the first Pastor of the struggling church, a man who had tasted hardship in common with his Puritan brethren in England, who found poverty and sickness and trouble in the new life here, but who did grand work in foundation laying for the new commonwealth. One very affecting incident in his history is the letter he wrote to John Winthrop, Jr., about the year 1635. In the postscript, he writes, "I heare Mr. Coddington hath the sale & disposall of much provision come in this shipp. I intreate you to do so much as to speake to him in my name to reserve some meale & malt & what victuals els he thinks meete, till our River be open; our Church will pay him duely for it. I am very destitute, I have not above 6 bushells corne left & other things answerable." I incline to identify the Ward farm with the northern part of the Charles Smith or John Lowe farm, though it may be included in the farm, known as the Randall Andrews farm. What pathetic interest attaches to the land, which was planted and watched with anxious care, from early springtime to the glad harvest by the poverty-stricken minister, who prayed and toiled that his harvest might be ample to secure him against another experience of such pinching want! BISHOP-WELLS-TILTON FARM. The land now included in the Charles Smith and adjoining farms was owned at a very early date by Thomas Bishop, who sold 80 acres upland and meadow to Thomas Wells in 1644. Matthias Button sold Wells 13 acres upland and meadow, bounded by widow Lumpkin's farm at Sagamore Hill, in the same year. Dea.. Symond Stone of Watertown, who had taken Sarah, Richard Lumkyn's widow, to wife, sold Mr. Wells forty acres more in 1654.3 Sagamore Hill was originally apportioned in small tillage lots to a considerable number of owners, as we have seen already in the case of Heart-break Hill. No record of sale remains, but it is evident that in a few years they were absorbed into the Lumkyn and adjoining farms. 1 Ipswich Deeds, 1: 419. 2 Ipswich Deeds, 1: 435. * Ipswich Deeds, 2. |