THE OLD ARGILLA ROAD.

THE SCHOOL ORCHARD AND MR. HUBBARD'S CLOSE.

GOVERNOR Winthrop's Journal records that, in March 1633, John Winthrop, his eldest son, headed a little company of thirteen men in making a formal settlement at Agawam. But there had been squatter settlers, who were ordered away by the General Court on Sept. 7, 1630,1 and they may have made their homes in our neighborhood for a number of years, and have made some strong impression on the raw edge of wilderness life. Certain it is, that when the first pages of our Town Record were written in 1634, allusion is made to many localities as already well known and bearing definite names. "The highway to Cheboky" or Juboque, is one of these, and it is easily identified as the later "road to Argilla" or "the Argilla Farm."

The majestic hill, whose base is skirted by the ancient road, is 66 commonly known as Hart break Hill." The tidal creek that intersects it is alluded to, as known by the name of Labour-invayne, and the other small river or creek that flows up from Essex River is mentioned as Chebacco Creek, and "commonly known" by that name. Sagamore Hill and Castle Hill also find place in

the Records.

These names are of romantic interest. Heart-break is suggestive of the loneliness and homesickness which may have come to some primitive settler, looking off over the blue ocean toward the English home. I know that certain deeds of a century ago allude to it as Hard-brick Hill, and so it is named on a Town-map of 1830; but a century of uniform allusion to it as Heart-break, precedes this matter-of-fact epoch, and Heart-break it shall still be, an enduring memorial of the sadness of many of our Puritan ancestors. Labour-in-vain bears witness to the fruitless toil of some unknown pioneer, in thrusting his heavy canoe against its swift

1 Mass. Bay Records.

current, and reminds us as well of the severe labor which was characteristic of the earliest times.

Chebacco, or Cheboko, or Jeboke, was the best the English tongue could do toward preserving the name, by which the Indians had called the pleasant region, stretching from the creek to the beach; and Sagamore Hill is a monumental memorial of Masconnommet, who made formal sale of the territory occupied by the town, and who once held undisputed sway over a large area. Here, for ages no doubt, the red men dwelt, but they have left no trace save their stone weapons, their shell heaps and the blackened stones that reveal the site of their wigwams, and an occasional skeleton. Castle Hill may have been named by some emigrant, who was glad to find on these shores some likeness of the stately English castles; and Wigwam Hill was the summer home of generations of Indians.

Emerging from the period of mystery and romance the old road speedily took on historic definiteness. Planting lots, pastures and great farms were apportioned, and houses began to be built. The names of settlers began to be associated with definite localities. Families sprang into being and struck their roots so deep and flourished so well, that nine generations have continued to till their acres, and spend their quiet lives hard by the ancestral home.

In

The phenomenal interest which attaches to many localities along its whole length is manifest at the beginning. Turning from County Road the land on the left corner, reaching beyond the Tilton barn, and extending through to Poplar Street was known for nearly two centuries as the "School Orchard." Mr. Robert Payne purchased this lot, estimated as containing two acres with a house, of Richard Coy, attorney to Samuel Heifer in 1652. the succeeding year, 1653, he, "att his own proper cost and charge, built an edifice for a grammar school," upon part of the land thus purchased, and in October 1653, he executed a deed of the whole property to feoffees, who were to hold it in perpetual trust for the use and benefit of the Grammar School. The famous Ezekiel Cheever was duly installed in the house, and he began his preparation of the Ipswich boys for Harvard College in the new schoolhouse, which, as we infer from certain old deeds, was on the corner diagonally opposite from the meeting-house of the South Church. Other gifts of Little Neck and the great School Farm in 1 Ipswich Deeds, v: 269, 270.

the Chebacco parish gave an unusual endowment, and the Ipswich School sprang at once into conspicuous notice.

The school was kept for many years on the spot first selected. During the 18th century, its location is somewhat uncertain, but at the beginning of the 19th century, it was housed in the square hipped-roof school-house, which occupied the corner of the lot, on the County Road and the road to Argilla. Men of the finest character, Cheever and Andrews, Benjamin Crocker, Thomas Norton, Daniel Dana, Joseph McKean, Major Burnham and a host of others labored faithfully in the discharge of their high duties. Many young men went from its humble rooms to college, and out into high places in the world.

Down to the year 1835, the "School orchard" was leased to responsible parties for tillage land, but in that year, the old schoolhouse was moved to its present location, and the land was divided into house lots. Payne Street was laid out, and all the land was sold. A number of the substantial farmers of the South Parish, Abner Day, Josiah Brown, Ephraim Brown, Joseph Brown Jr., Joshua Giddings, John B. Brown, Winthrop Boardman, and Aaron Kinsman Jr., secured a lot on the southwest corner of Payne Street, and built a row of horse sheds for Sunday shelter, in place of an older row opposite the Cushing house. The schoolhouse continued to be used until 1874. Thus the interests of education and of religion were long subserved by this two-acre lot.

How the unknown Samuel Heifer came into possession of this land is not recorded; but in a schedule of his estate, which the Deputy Governor Samuel Symonds filed with the officials of the town, there is indubitable allusion to it in the item:

a parcel of ground, containing one and a half acres, abutting on the East side thereof upon the lower end of Mr. Wm Hubbard's close before his town-house, and the rest of the said parcel is surrounded with highways, which said parcel was part of Mr. John Winthrop's six acre lot there, granted him by the freemen of the Town "-granted by Winthrop to Symonds by deed date Oct. 24, 1638.2

This deed performs double service. It connects this location with Winthrop and Symonds, and reveals that Mr. William Hubbard owned and occupied as his town residence the adjoining property, now owned by Mr. Gustavus Kinsman. No other allusion

to this estate occurs until 1674, June 3d, when an Indenture was made between Rev. Wm. Hubbard and John Richards, a merchant of Boston, of his dwelling house and homestead, and other lands.1 This was followed by a mortgage deed of Mr. Hubbard to Richards, as agent for Major Robert Tompson of London, in 1677,2 and by a deed of sale, dated March 5, 1684, to the same party, of his "" Messuage or Tenement . . . with the Orchard, Garden and pasture behind the same, and Cornefield before the same, contayneing by Estimation Seaven acres, with other lands," for £480.

A century later, June 16, 1788, Robert Thompson of Elsham, Great Britain, sold Mr. John Heard, "eight acres, adjoining land belonging to the Grammar School, beginning at the East corner by the road leading to Capt. Jabez Treadwell's, then by the road leading to Isaac Burnham's, thence back in the same to the land first described."3

. Mary, the daughter of John Heard, sold to Augustine Heard an undivided half of the land, with a barn, called the "Pinckin close" containing seven acres, and Augustine Heard sold the lot "commonly called the Pynchem lot,". to Ebenezer Caldwell on Nov. 1, 1851.5 Captain Caldwell erected the spacious buildings, and at the decease of his widow, the estate was sold to Mr. Gustavus Kinsman.

This fine property, still substantially of the same size as the original grant, derives intense interest from the Hubbard ownership. Mr. William Hubbard was a citizen of the finest character. His son, William, was a member of the first class which was graduated from Harvard College, in 1642. Entering the ministry, he was invited to become colleague with Mr. Cobbet, the Pastor of the Church, in 1656. He married Margaret, the daughter of Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, took up his abode in the homestead, and in due time became its owner. He continued in the ministry until 1703, when infirmity compelled his retirement, and he died the following year, aged eighty-three. He attained especial eminence as an historian, and his History of New England, for which the Legislature voted him £50, was subsequently published, and is still a work of recognized value. But his financial troubles are best re

membered.

He had no thrift in the handling of his affairs, and was contin

1 Ipswich Deeds, 1:10.

2 Ipswich Deeds, 4:182.

3 Essex Co. Deeds, 149: 206.

4 Essex Co. Deeds, 329: 233.

5 Essex Co. Deeds, 452:104.