Puritan Women making dinner, ca. 1630
HISTORY OF SANDY
BAY , MASSACHUSETTS
BAY COLONY
Imagine…you’ve been here in Massachusetts England
You
and the 13 other men have been cutting timber and building log cabins, and now
you have finished harvesting the vegetables you grew. You’ve been cutting firewood like mad lately,
because you think it’s going to be cold this winter in that little cabin. Even with the 13 men and the cow… and the
chickens.
You’re
the only Englishmen you have seen since you arrived. A few Indians have come by, and one even
spoke a little English!
You wonder, why is it that you wind up here in what they
call “Gloucester Plantation” with not a white soul around, and these Indians
show up and one knows some English?
Where do these guys get exposed to English in this God-forsaken,
rock-strewn piece of nowhere?
The year is 1623. You’ve heard
from the Englishmen living down at Plymouth Plantation that winters here are
------ words that Puritans do not use!
Back in Dorset
Shire, England , a group
called themselves the Dorchester Company decided they would gather up their
funds and send a boat to the New World . They gathered £800, enough to buy a small
boat and load it up with a crew, and 14 others who would form a new plantation,
wherever they landed. The plan was to
land the 14 and some cattle and chickens, and then they would start to build
houses and start a small farm. The
sailors would lay out the drying racks (stages) for drying fish, then get to
work harvesting all the cod they could carry.
When winter grew near, the boat and crew returned to England ,
leaving the settlers to settle.
Other boats were heading for many other destinations
along the New England shoreline in those
years. Some landed at Monhegan Island Province of Maine Piscataqua River
Another settlement sprang up in Nantasket, and Marblehead , and Weymouth .
In 1624 the Dorchester Company sent two ships to
re-supply and conduct fishing, but they were anxious to make some money, and
this colony business was slow music
for them. Imagine—setting these guys up
to grow stuff, others to catch fish, in this place called America . Is it going to be a moneymaker?
They
stayed with it another year. They sent two ships again in 1625. With some women, more cows, and more
chickens.
Women.
Imagine. We should have thought
of that before!
All this time, more English ships were landing, bringing
settlers to the New World . Plymouth Company, who bankrolled the starving
Plymouth Colony, was anxious to provide a little variety amongst those very
religious, strait-laced Puritans. They
decided to send the Reverend Lyford, who had religious views a little more
liberal than the Plymouth
group. This Rev. Lyford was a nice guy, but
he had been caught in what might today be considered an “indiscretion” with a
woman not his wife.
When he arrived in Puritan Plymouth, he was like the
skunk at the picnic. This band of very
religious, very stern and severe men and women would have no part of him.
Rev. Lyford and the gentleman who was his traveling
companion were bounced, and went to Nantasket.
Back in England Dorchester Company sought a man of
stature to govern the people in Gloucester Plantation, so they chose a notable
named Roger Conant. They sent him to
take over as governor. When Conant
arrived in Massachusetts Bay, he heard that Rev. Lyford was looking for a place
to settle, so he asked him to join him in Gloucester .
In those days, in order for any plantation to become viable,
in addition to farmers to farm, women to cook and bear children, you needed a
minister. Religion, and a church, were
absolutely vital. Going to church every
Sunday, usually all day Sunday, was not optional.
Now the small settlement had cattle, farmers, a minister
and a governor. These first Gloucester
settlers were not Puritans. In fact, some had had some problems with
drunkenness.
However, by 1625 the Dorchester Company found that the
whole venture was a losing proposition and they abandoned it. Some of the settlers went back to England , and Conant and some of the group picked
up everything, including their small homes, and moved to Naumkeag, which is now
Salem .
More ships were arriving every few weeks, and landing
settlers here, there and everywhere, and New England
was growing. While Conant and most of
the early arrivals had moved to Salem and to New London , down in what was called Connecticut ,
more Englishmen arrived in Gloucester
and began to carve out farms and send boats to sea to harvest the rich bounty
of fish.
It is interesting to read about the first families of Gloucester , and the
amazing mobility of people, up and down the coast. Many would arrive and live in Gloucester , then move to New London
on the Thames River ,
or to New Gloucester and Yarmouth , in Maine Province Gloucester .
Richard Tarr and his family arrived at Sandy Bay in
a tiny boat in 1690 after sailing from Saco , Maine , then to Marblehead . He is said to be the first settler of Sandy Bay
Gravestone of Richard Tarr, Rockport’s first
citizen, b. Bristol, England, ca.1646, d. Sandy Bay, 1732.
He and his family lived alone in the little cabin he
built, on what is now Main Street .
About ten years later John Pool and his wife Sarah and five children moved from
Beverly . This was 1700. Rockport had just taken off, because John
Pool was a man of many talents. He
dammed up Davison’s Run and built a sawmill where the present Mill Dam is. He had workers dig out the area that is now
the Mill Pond. He built the first frame
house in Rockport, and by 1710 was shipping fine hemlock timber down to Boston to build Long
Wharf
Dam to provide water power for John Pool’s
sawmill.
This is the 2013 version. Brass plaque at front
right is shown below.
“The Mill Pond—a grist mill privilege granted
to John Pool, 2 December 1701.”
Pool became a rather wealthy man, but his wife Sarah
died, and he married another, and she died.
Then another, and she died. Then another, and she lived, and in 1724
John Pool went to his rest and was buried at the foot of King Street , with all his wives.
In 1754 there were some 300 people living in Sandy Bay ,
and they didn’t like walking all the way to Gloucester ’s First Parish or to Annisquam’s
Third Parish for church every Sunday.
Especially during the snowy months.
They petitioned for a meeting house and a parson, and in 1754 they became
the Fifth Parish.
About this time the disease of throat distemper (now
called diphtheria) hit Sandy
Bay and other parts of Gloucester . This deadly
disease swept through the village, killing children in nearly every family.
Richard Tarr and John Pool walked through this
forest, now called the Town Forest, atop Pool’s Hill. Notice the glacial till—granite boulders left
over from the ice age! Notice also—no
hemlock. Pool cut them all down.
The Revolutionary War was disastrous for Cape Ann . British
Navy ships conducted numerous raids all along the coast and made any kind of
shipping of merchandise dangerous and costly, and fishing also became much more
difficult and dangerous. This all
resulted in tremendous economic doom for Cape Ann ,
and much of the population had a hard time feeding themselves. However, many of the local seafarers went to
sea as privateers, raiding other ships and generally raising hell. Some made a lot of money, but most did not,
and many were lost at sea.
There was a short time after the war’s end when the
situation persisted, but then things started to improve. Ocean shipping returned, more jobs appeared,
fishing became much more productive, farmers were able to sell and ship their
goods. By 1823 in Sandy Bay Sandy Bay ,
and by 1840, Rockport, would be the fastest growing part of Cape
Ann .
Continued next month. Learn about Rockport when it becomes a town on its own,
and Hannah Jumper and her raid, and more!
Sources:
Marshall,
John W., Burnham, Newell, Dennis, Henry, and Cleaves, Levi, compilers; History of the Town of Rockport, as
comprised in the Centennial Address of Lemuel Gott, M.D., Extracts from the
Memoranda of Ebenezer Pool, Esq., with interesting items from other sources.
1888 Rockport , MA
Babson, John J., History
of the Town of Gloucester , Cape Ann, Including
the Town of Rockport Gloucester ,
MA
Morley, Arthur P., Rockport,
A Town of the Sea. 1924. Cambridge ,
MA
This history was part of the October
meeting of Rockport’s History Book Club.
If you live in Rockport or nearby, join us for our next meeting, on
Wednesday, December 4, 2013. Because of
Thanksgiving we must move from the regular last Wednesday in the month to the
next Wednesday, which is in December. The Subject is The American Labor
Movement, 1900-2013.
Read any book that interests you on the Labor
Movement during any part of 1900 to now--- Taft Hartley, John L. Lewis, the
IWW, CIO, the ILGWU, Strikebreakers, FDR and Labor, Eugene V. Debs, Frances
Perkins--- whatever suits you!
