Marblehead, Massachusetts

“ We have a number of fine Marblehead men here in captivity, all staunch friends of their country's cause. I well remember since that period, that it was told us, that peace between [Pg 128] America and England was concluded; and that one of its conditions was giving up the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland. This alarmed the Marblehead men more than the report of burning their town; they raved and swore like mad men. "If that be the case," said they, "I am damned—Marblehead is forever damned—and we are all damned; and damnation seize the peace-makers, who have consented to this condition." ”

“ The custom house was removed to Salem, but the people of that town refused the honor conferred on them by the tyrant who ruled the destinies of England and the colonies.
The inhabitants of Marblehead offered the free use of their warehouses to the merchants of Boston. The Colonial Assembly stood by the people.
Then England passed an act of parliament annuling the charter of Massachusetts. The people were declared rebels, and the governor was ordered to send to England for trial all persons who should resist the royal officers. ”

“ Little wonder it is the haunt of tourists, for it presents a picture in its old-time beauty that modern architecture can never duplicate. [Pg 8]
In the historic town of Marblehead, in Massachusetts, is one of the most interesting of old-time homes,—the Colonel Jeremiah Lee mansion, built in 1768, and considered at the time of its erection the finest house in the Colonies. It was designed by an English architect at a cost of ten thousand pounds, and the timber and finish used in its construction were brought from England in one of the colonel's ships. ”

“ In 1636 was built at Marblehead, in Massachusetts, the first American slave-ship; it was called the Desire, and was intended for the African slave-trade, in which most of the European nations were then engaged directly or indirectly. The first cargo of African slaves brought into Massachusetts was by the Desire, on the 20th of May, 1638. Many of the most prominent men purchased slaves out of this cargo; so that Massachusetts was a few years only behind Virginia in the introduction within the English settlements on this continent of this unfortunate race of slaves. ”

“ Marblehead is served by the Boston & Maine railroad, and by electric railways connecting with Salem, Lynn and Boston. It is a quaint old town, with a number of houses dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries. ”

“ In view of this the writer of the ballad addressed the following letter to the historian:
Oak Knoll, Danvers, 5 mo. 18, 1880. My dear Friend; I heartily thank thee for a copy of thy History of Marblehead. I have read it with great interest and think good use has been made of the abundant material. No town in Essex County has a record more honorable than Marblehead; no one has done more to develop the industrial interests of our New England seaboard, and certainly none have given such evidence of self-sacrificing patriotism. I am glad the story of it has been at last told, and told so well. ”

“ Even at the present day, when the “Neck” is overrun by the too-civilized cottager, to whose gilded ease [64] summer life everywhere most patiently conforms, Marblehead is one of our coast wonders,—a fortress perennially held by beauty, and dedicated to her use; but let the reminiscent gaze wander back a century and a half, and how entirely fitted to the requirements of fancy would it find the quaint town, the vagrant peninsula, and serenely hospitable harbor! ”

“ He jotted down in his diary very briefly what he saw and heard in Marblehead: "About 5000 souls are said to be in this place, which has the appearance of antiquity; the houses are old; the streets dirty; and the common people not very clean. Before we entered the town we were met and attended by a com'e, till we were handed over to the Selectmen, who conducted us, saluted by artillery, into the town to the house of a Mrs. Lee, where there was a cold collation prepared; after partaking of which, we visited the harbor, etc." Lafayette, Monroe, and Jackson have been entertained in the same house. ”

“ Robert Hooper, who erected this colonial mansion, though a man of lowly birth, was a wealthy merchant who lived in Marblehead. He possessed great prudence and sagacity, so that he rose to be a man of power and for a period of years practically monopolized the fishing industry of Marblehead. During his life there, he entertained in a most lavish way, rivalling Colonel Jeremiah Lee, not only in grandeur of equipage but in liberality as well. ”

“ Notwithstanding the rain and sleet which rendered the cold weather uncomfortable in the extreme, the streets of Marblehead were filled with an excited throng of people. Wives and mothers and fathers and children were represented there in the dense crowd, all anxious to speak a farewell word to the soldiers on their departure. The first companies to leave town were those commanded by Captains Martin and Boardman, which marched to the depot and took the half-past seven o'clock train for Boston. Captain Phillips' company took the train which left Marblehead about an hour and a half later. ”

“ And now to Marblehead, by road or by rail as [156] one chooses. Perhaps the pleasantest route is from Lynn or Salem by electric car. By either route, the ride is a pleasure, and although little remains to tell of Agnes in her girlhood, there is much that is quaint and picturesque; and to visit the old town is well worth one’s time. Arrived at Marblehead, the visitor walking down the main road to Orne Street, and ascending the hill to the old burying-ground, will see by the wayside the old houses, “set catty-cornered,” as the quaint old saying is, and the bright gardens. ”

“ On the morning after the departure of the companies, thirty more men left Marblehead to join them. The greatest enthusiasm prevailed throughout the town, and men everywhere were ready and anxious to enlist. ”

“ But Marblehead is unique; there is nothing like it on this side of the water.
A GROUP OF ANTIQUES.
I was struck, on entering the place, with Whitefield's observation when he asked where the dead were buried; for the great want appears to be earth. But a further acquaintance revealed more pleasant inclosures of turf, orchards, and garden-spots than its gaunt crags seemed capable of sustaining. The town may be said to embrace two very dissimilar portions, of which the larger appears paralyzed with age, and the other the outgrowth of a newer and more thriving generation. ”

“ The little town of Marblehead, Ohio, located in a peninsula in Lake Erie is peopled largely by Poles and Slovaks who find employment in the large stone quarries. Around them are prosperous farms, large orchards and vineyards. ”

“ THE DEATH OF MARLBOROUGH AS A TOWN
Could this poor village have survived had the courthouse not burned? It was an unhappy contrast to the vision of a town governed by “benchers of the guild hall,” bustling with mercantile activity, swarming on busy market days with ordinaries filled with people. This fantasy may have pulsated briefly through the minds of a few. But, after the abrogation of the Port Act in 1710, there was little left to justify the town’s existence other than the courthouse. ”

“ Rude houses placed informally and connected by lanes and footpaths, the courthouse attempting to dominate them like a village schoolmaster in a class of country bumpkins, a few outbuildings, a boat landing or two, some cultivated land, and a road leading away from the courthouse to the north with another running in the opposite direction to the creek—this is the way Marlborough must have looked even in its best days in 1708. ”

“ Within the garden was the summerhouse built by Mercer in 1765. From the east windows and steps of the house and from the garden could be seen the Potomac, curving towards the bay, and the flailing “drivers” of the windmill near the Potomac shore.
The excavated and written records of Marlborough are a microcosm of Virginia colonial history. They depict the emergence of central authority in the 17th [Pg 179] century in the establishment of the port town as a device to diversify the economy and control the collecting of duties. ”

“ Marblehead offered the use of its wharves to the Boston merchants; Salem averred that it would be lost to all feelings of humanity were it to raise its fortunes on the ruins of its neighbor. Newburyport voted to break off trade with Great Britain, and to lay up its ships. Connecticut, as her wont is, when moved by any vital occurrence, betook herself to prayer and humiliation, first, however, ordering an inventory to be taken of her cannon and military stores. ”

“ Marblehead affirmed that the proceedings of the brave citizens of Boston, and of other towns, in opposition to the landing of the tea, were rational, generous and just; that they were highly honored for their noble firmness in support of American liberty, and that the men of the town were ready with their lives to assist their brethren in opposing all measures tending to enslave the country." Under date of December 3, the people of Roxbury voted that they were in duty bound to join with Boston, and other sister towns, to preserve inviolate the liberties handed down by their ancestors. ”

“ Whether the city is named from Marlborough in Wiltshire, or, as seems more probable, because of early spellings “Marlberg” and “Marlbridge,” from the presence of marl in the neighbourhood, is uncertain. Settlers from Sudbury in 1665 took possession of a hill called by the Indians Whipsuffenicke and gradually hemmed in the Christian Indian village of Ockoocangansett (or Ognoikonguamescitt) , on an adjoining hill still bearing this name. The town was incorporated in 1660. It was destroyed by Indians in March 1676, during King Philip’s war, and was abandoned for a year. ”

“ Winthrop tells us how the storm-tossed voyagers went upon the land at Cape Ann, and regaled themselves with store of [Pg 256] strawberries. Boston was settled. The little colony gave its left hand to Salem, and its right to Plymouth. It waxed strong, and no power has prevailed against it.
POWDER-HOUSE, 1755.
Little Harbor, north-west of the fort, is the reputed site of the first settlement at Marblehead. On Gerry's Island, which lies close under the shore, was the house of the first regularly ordained minister; the cellar and pebble-paved yard were, not long ago, identified. ”

“ George Andrews and Peter Beach, somewhat less distinguished, were perhaps the only full-time residents from among the first grantees. After 1708 Thomas Ballard and possibly William Barber were also householders.
Thus, few of the ingredients of an active community were to be found at Marlborough, the skilled craftsmen or ship’s chandlers or merchants who might have provided the vitality of commerce and trade not having at any time been present. ”

“ The Virginia colonists’ dream of corporate communities was not to be realized.
Most of the towns either died entirely or struggled on as crossroads villages. A meager few have survived to the present, notably Norfolk, Hampton, Yorktown, and Tappahannock. Marlborough lasted as a town until about 1720, but in about 1718 the courthouse and several dwellings were destroyed by fire and “A new Court House being built at another Place, all or most of the Houses that had been built in the said Town, were either burnt or suffered to go to ruin.” ”

“ In Mercer’s concern with the Ohio Company and westward expansion they reflect a colony-wide trend as population increased and the need grew for more arable land and areas in which to invest and escape from economic limitations. They show that the war with the French inevitably ensued, with its demands on income and manpower, while following this came the enforcement of trade laws and the immediate irritants which led to rebellion. So Marlborough gives a sharp reflection of Virginia’s history prior to the Revolution. ”

“ John Howard of Marblehead, who was one of the militia men under arms, stated in his recollections of the affair at the North Bridge that there were eight military companies in Marblehead at that time, comprising nearly the whole male population between sixteen and sixty years of age. They were all promptly assembled under Colonel Orne, to the number of a thousand men. Their orders were “to station themselves behind the houses and fences along the road prepared to fall upon the British on their return from Salem, if it should be found that hostile measures had been used by them ”

“ I do not wish to take one leaf from the laurel of the great Defender of the Constitution; he rests at Marshfield, beneath the honors he fairly earned. But we have put in his place a man far more practical than he was; we have put in his place the hardest worker that Massachusetts ever sent to the Senate of the United States [applause] ”

“ Marblehead, with all its romance of ancient days, is only about sixteen miles from Boston as the automobile [Pg 286] flies, but you pass a good many sweet things first. We went through Somerville, got lost there, and were guided in every direction but the right one by a plague of boys not much bigger than the "dimes" they didn't earn. Jack simply won't look at maps when in the car, or inquire; expects to find his way by instinct, and somehow generally does. (Are all men like that?) Crossed the Mystic River, and got on to the velvet surface of the Revere Beach Parkway. ”

“ But with neither courthouse nor port activity nor manufacture, the town became a paradox in an economy and society of planters.
Remote and inaccessible, uninhabited by individuals whose skills could have given it vigor, Marlborough no longer had any reason for being. It lingered on for a short time, but when John Mercer came to transform the abandoned village into a flourishing plantation, “Most of the other Buildings were suffered to go to Ruin, so that in the year 1726, when your Petitioner [i.e., Mercer] went to live there, but one House twenty-feet square was standing.” ”