Essex County, Massachusetts - Chapter 46, 1888

Legal And Penal

The Colonial Period. - Our legal policy was, in general, based upon the laws of England, but it was moulded by a wise and cautious exercise of authority, according to our exigencies and circumstances. The royal charter of March 4, 1628, which Governor John Winthrop brought out with him, created a corporation styled: "The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England." By this charter the seat of government was transferred to these shores, and the corporators were permitted to make their own laws and to choose their own rulers - to make " laws and ordinances not contrary or repugnant to the laws and statutes of the realm." The charter held the company to be British subjects, and was granted in the hope of increasing the royal domain and of augmenting the national wealth. It, then, conferred only such powers as were necessary to the company's existence, business and business prosperity, other matters being reserved for adjustment at home.

The Great Court. - Our fathers, however, interpreted the instrument in its freest sense; for they early felt an urgent need of a high and wide range of authority, so great was the tide of emigration, and so many and varied were the interests involved. Under it the colonists turned their prow ocean-ward, and spread their sails for a prosperous voyage upon an untried sea. Their polity of church and State was new and peculiar. Although they based their laws upon the English code, they ignored its authority ; in fact, in one instance at least, they denied it - they disfranchised all but members of churches, and the magistrates had power to determine or select what churches. Their laws reached public and private relations, and not only such crimes as were known to common law, but many recognized in the Hebraic code. They proposed a State dependent upon the church, where the elders and clergy were at the head, the reciprocal of their former relation, where the church was dependent upon the State, and the king the head. The entire administration of the government was held or controlled by clergymen, who sought to imitate the regal action of the supreme authority of Israel. They made no distinction in courts or court actions - civil or criminal, at law or in equity,

This court was at once the great source of law and justice. For the first few years, it consisted of the Governor, Deputy-Governor, eighteen assistants and the freemen, but in 1684 the number of freemen so increased, and the inconvenience and danger, from leaving their homes exposed to Indian barbarities, during their absence, were so great, that the town chose deputies to represent them in all matters, but the choice of officers, wherein the freemen sent their votes by proxy. The court was legislative, judicial and executive. It held quarterly sessions, and enacted the laws. The assistants were chosen by the freemen, and were the magistrates, who with the Governor constituted the Great Quarter Court. The Governor and assistants, as council, were the executive head. For about ten years the court exercised discretionary powers, hearing and determining all cases, and "seems,'' says a writer, "to have been more disposed to puuish the religious than the civil offender."

Ipswich's Influence. - During the decade, whatever may have been the methods or results, it cannot be denied that Ipswich was an important factor. Next to the metropolis, she was the seat of wealth and learning, and, therefore, of power. Her voice was potent in every department of the government. There was Winthrop, the son of our Governor, the founder of our municipality, a man of learning and wealth, and a governor in embryo himself; Dudley, who had already been Governor one term ; Bradstreet, a man of vast executive and business ability ; Saltonstall, a gentleman of business enterprise, of wealth and culture, of pure and just sentiment, the first American abolitionist; Denison, the man of war and continually in the public service; and Ward, a man of polished learning, profound in divinity and law, the compiler of the Colonial Magna Charta. The mere mention of these names was like " the sweet influence of the Pleiades," and the sentiment of Ipswich citizenship with such leaders worked like destiny.

The Demands of Growth. - But the State grew rapidly in population and business interests, and the jurisdiction of the Court as largely and rapidly expanded. The people at length became alarmed at such exercise of courtly power, and cried for a legal code resembling Magna Charta. The deputies feared that "great damage to our State" mightaccrue, if the magistrates should " proceed according to their discretion." Accordingly, committees were appointed at various times to frame a code. They failed to meet the approbation of the Court ; even the great Cotton Mather, who reported a " copy of Moses his judicials, compiled in an exact method," did not succeed. It remained for the committee, of which Rev. Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, was the leading, active and efficient member to perform the work. The work, however, was not published till 1641, The delay was occasioned by a desire to prepare a code commensurate with the need and adapted to the public temperament and our institutions. It was a herculean task, but Mr. Ward performed a thorough work. His great ability, his broad learning, his legal training and practice and his peculiar cast of mind, made him the fittest, and his work shows it. He embodied one hundred civil and criminal laws. The civil laws were far in advance of English law at the time ; they have been adopted in new codifications from time to time since ; and some are in force at present, after a period of nearly two centuries and a half. In the criminal code he followed Moses in a great measure, but he distanced England in mildness, and for scope was far in advance of his time. He thus embodies personal rights :

"No man's life shall be taken away, no man's honor nor good name shall be stained, no man's person shall be arrested, restrained or dismembered, nor any ways punished, no man shall be deprived of his wife or children, no man's goods or estate shall be taken away from him nor any ways endamaged under color of law or countenance of authority, unless it be by virtue or equity of some express law of the country warranting the same, established by a General Court and sufficiently published, or in case of a defect in a law in any particular case, by the Word of God. And in capital cases, or in cases concerning dismemberment or banishment, according to that word to be judged by the General Court."

In his "Body of Liberties," it is said, there was "a notable disregard of English law," which had sorely discomforted the Puritan temper, and the work was annotated with chapter and verse in the Bible - their sure palladium of both civil and religious liberty.

Other Courts. - Moreover, as population, business, personal complications and infelicities increased, the necessity for other tribunals became apparent. Accordingly, the General Court March 3, 1636, relieved the Court of Assistants, or " Great Quarter Court," by establishing an Inferior Quarter Court, which held four terms annually - one term in each of these places: Ipswich, Salem, Cambridge and Boston. The judge was such magistrate or assistant as lived in or nearest the town where the Court was held, assisted by " Commissioners," as they were called, who were appointed by the General Court from a list of nominations by the several towns. The judge and four commissioners constituted the full Court, and himself and two commissioners a quorum. The jurisdiction of the Court extended to all matters ecclesiastical, and sometimes to family infelicities - divorces - and the settlements of estates; to civil controversies, wherein the damage or debt was less than ten shillings, and to criminal cases not involving life or banishment.

Ipswich Court. - The original act establishing this Court was changed June 2, 1641. Four Quarter Courts were held in Ipswich and Salem for this county by all the magistrates of both these i)laces sitting together. This Court exercised the jurisdiction before exercised by the Great Quarter Court, except trials for life, limb or banishment, and cases whose damage exceeded one hundred pounds, wherein the Oreat Quarter Court had concurrent jurisdiction.

To this Court was attached, September 9, 1639, a recorder's office, and October 7th of the next year Samuel Symonds, of Ipswich, was appointed for the jurisdiction of the Ipswich Court. Previous to this the records of deeds and the conveyances of real estate were recorded in the records of the town. The office of recorder was, after a while, blended with the office of the clerk of the Court, and Robert Lord, then, by virtue of his office as clerk, succeeded Mr. Symonds. By the first act Newbury was placed in the jurisdiction of Ipswich ; by the second, Salisbury and Hampton.

Court Offices. - The first court at Salem June 27, 1636 ; the first at Ipswich probably soon after, though no records appear " till from the year 1646," when, March 31, Eobert Lord, of Ipswich, was clerk. The judges were appointed May 25, 1636, and those for Ipswich were Messrs. Dudley, Dummer, Bradstreet, Saltonstall and Spencer. The sittings of the court at Ipswich were twice a year, - March and September, - till by Quo Warranto, 1684, the colonial government was arrested and the courts suspended, to be resumed 1689, after the removal of Andros, and in 1692 superseded by authority of the province charter with Sir William Phipps as Governor,

JuRiSDiCTiOK. - These courts laid out highways, licensed " taverns," guarded the orthodoxy of the church, admitted freemen, probated estates, recorded deeds and adjudicated upon the most important concerns in the county. During the period, Ipswich enjoyed an eminence, advantage and influence second to none but the metropolis, where the highest tribunals always sat. She was a legal centre, and was the home of lawyers, judges and the colonial law-giver.

CouRT-HousE. - During this period, it is probable, there was no court-house, and that the meetinghouse was used instead. Their civil life was under the patronage of their religion, was subservient to it, and wore a sanctity that gave it a proper place in the house of God. In that house they counseled together "after lecture," they voted the minister's salary, they elected church-officers, they chose the seven-men, the clerk and the treasurer, they raised moneys, and arranged the municipal concerns, they counseled for war, they stored their munitions, they worshipped in arms, they made it a watch-house, they meted out justice and exposed the criminal for punishment. The meeting-house to that practical people was serviceable next to their homes; it was the emblem of righteousness, justice and equal rights - God's proper peerage. They wore out their houses, we remodel ours to conform to fashion.

Jail. - There was but one prison in the colony before 1652. That year, May 22d, the Court ordered one to be built at Ipswich, and September 26Lh, the seven-men contracted with Henry Binder and Thomas Rowell to construct it. It was to stand near the watch-house, - a site near the First Church, - and was to be of the " same hight and wyndes." They were to make three floors of joist thick set and well bound with partition above and below the sides and ends, stud and stud spaces, and to clap-board the house round and shingle it, and to daub its whole wall, all but the gable ends, and to underpin the house and make doors and hinges, and hang the doors and fit on locks, which said house shall be finished with all the appurtenances, drawings, iron-work for the doors and nails by the 15th of May next, at their own proper cost and charges, without allowance for help or diet for their reasing, in consideration of which they shall have for their worth £40 out of country rate by the first of the next March. Theophilus Wilson was keeper in 1656, and received a compensation of £3 a year, 5s. for each prisoner, and further, each prisoner was to pay his board if he was able to do so ; if he was not able, he was to be kept on bread and water. The prisoners were required to work, and the seven-men were required by law to furnish hemp and flax for that purpose. Another prison, or house of correction, was built about 1684. This was ordered to be built by the Quarterly Court, and the expense was to be borne by those towns that sent juries to Ipswich.

The Causes. - The causes determined in these courts have already been indicated. These may be noticed as illustrative: In 1633 a man was fined ten pounds and to wear a badge marked "Drunkard" during the discretion of the court, for drunkenness and undue familiarity with his neighbor's wife, and she was fined fifteen shillings for drunkenness. In 1637 William Schooler was examined by the magistrates here on a charge of murder. After a year he was convicted and hanged at Boston. In 1639 " lewd attempts" were punished by whipping. In 1663 a woman was sentenced, for perjury, to stand at the meeting-house door on " lecture day," with "for taking a false oath" conspicuous upon her garments. In 1665 a woman was tried for burning Gen. Daniel Denisou's house. She was acquitted of arson, but was fined for theft and whipped for lying. In 1667 a man was prosecuted for digging up Masconnomet's bones and sporting with the skull on a pole. In 1677 a highway robber was sentenced to be branded and fined. In 1684 a burglar was sentenced to be branded with B, to pay treble damages and receive fifteen lashes. During this period there were several arraignments for witchcraft, but no convictions. This glance of the trials presents a picture not so pleasing to contemplate as we might wish, but still it is such as in the nature of things we might expect.

Governors. - Simon Bradstreet and Thomas Dudley. Deputy-Governors. - Simon Bradstreet, Thomas Dudley, Samuel Symonds, John Winthrop, Jr. Governor's Council. - Andros'. - Samuel Appleton, ten years between 1681 and 1692. Colonial Secretaries. - Simon Bradstreet and Daniel Denison. Speaker of the

House. - Daniel Denison. Commissioners of the United Colonies. - Thomas Dudley, Simon Bradstreet and Daniel Denison. Assistants. - Samuel Appleton, Simon Bradstreet, Daniel Denison, Thomas Dudley, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Samuel Symonds, John Winthrojj) Jr. Justices Inferior Quarter Court. - Samuel Appleton, Simon Bradstreet, Daniel Denison, Thomas Dudley, Sir Richard Saltonstall, John Spencer, Samuel Symonds. Begistrar of the Court. - Samuel Symonds. Clerk of the Court. - Robert Lord. Deputies. - John Appleton, fifteen years ; Samuel Appleton, nine years; William Bartholomew, five years; Thomas Bishop, one year; Thomas Boreman, Sr., one year; Humphrey Bradstreet, one year; Simon Bradstreet, one year; Thomas Burnham, two years ; Daniel Denison, ten years: Daniel Epps, three years; George Giddings, twelve years ; John Giddings, one year; John Goodhue, one year; William Goodhue, eight years; Thomas Howlett, one year; William Hubbard, eight years ; Robert Lord, one year ; Richard Lumkin, two years ; Joseph Metcalfe, eight years ; John Perkins, one year; Moses Pingrey, one year; Robert Paine, three years; Lyman Stace, three years; John Spencer, one year ; Samuel Symonds, six years ; Jonathan Wade, two years ; John Whipple, twelve years ; Samuel Whinsley, one year.

Biographical. - Most of the parties named above are sketched in Early Settlers; Daniel Denison in Martial and Military ; Sir Richard Saltonstall in Business ; here it is proper to speak briefly of Robert Lord, John Appleton, Jr., and Thomas Wade, who were the clerks of the Ipswich Courts for the Colonial period.

No name is oftener met in the Colonial records for this section than Mr. Robert Lord's. His life was occupied in the details of the courts. By virtue of his ofiice as clerk, he was also registrar of probate. His clerkship covered a period of forty-seven years - from September, 1636, to August 21, 1683. He was born about 1602 or '3, and appears to have been son of widow Katherine, who came with her sons to Ipswich as early as 1635. He married, about 1630, Mary Wait, who, with eight children, survived him. He was made freeman March 3, 1635-36, deputy to the General Court March 12, 1636-37, and was on a committee to raise fifteen hundred pounds for the Colony. He fixed the boundaries of towns and private lands, was clerk of court a year in Norfolk before the establishment of that county ; was clerk of the Salem Court in June, 1658; in 1649 was town-sealer of weights and measures; March 30, 1652, was empowered by the magistrates to " issue all executions in civil and criminal cases;" was "searcher of coins" in 1654; was sheriff of the Ipswich Court till March 27, 1660, when he was superseded by his son, Robert. He was also clerk of writs, whose duty it was to issue attachments, summons, replevin, etc. He made his last entry July 13, 1683, and on or before August 21st closed his mortal record. He was a good penman

Mr. Lord's successor was Johk Appleton, Jr., who received the appointment August 21, 1683. The appointment was confirmed September 25th, and held till April 18, 1698. Mr. Appleton was born in Ipswich October 17, 1652. He married, November 23, 1681, Elizabeth Rogers, daughter of Rev. John, fifth jwesident of Harvard College. He was lieutenant of a company of foot-soldiers, and rose to colonel, and was feofiee of the grammar school and clerk of writs. He was clerk of the new court established by President Joseph Dudley, 1686, was town clerk. Representative to the General Court, member of the Governor's Council from 1698 to 1722 inclusive, county treasurer many years. Judge of Probate thirty-seven years from October 23, 1702, and chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas from 1702 to 1732. He wrote a bold, legible hand, remarkably modern, and was a superior clerk. He did much to reduce the former practice to the modern and exact form, and was the first to use printed blanks. He died September 11, 1739, wealthy, respected, honored.

His successor as registrar was Thomas Wade, who served from April 18, 1689, to June 18, 1692. Mr. Wade was born in Ipswich in 1650 to Jonathan Wade, one of the wealthiest men in the Colony, He married Elizabeth Cogswell February 22, 1670, who, with nine children, survived him. He was town clerk some nine years, was chosen clerk of writs July 29, 1684. After the Andros revolution, he was chosen, March 25, 1690, " clerk of probate," was made military captain in 1689, and in 1692 was a retailer of liquor - a polite ofiice at that time. He was a justice in the Court of General Sessions of the Peace. His last military service was to lead the Essex Middle Regiment against the Indians in April, 1696, He died October 4, 1696, at the age of forty-six. He was an excellent penman, and a worthy man. " When he fell," says Felt, "death had *a shining mark.'" Colonel Nathaniel Wade, of Revolutionary fame, is supposed to be a descendant of his.

Resistance to Tyranny. - The Colonial period would be very incomplete without a notice of those noble patriots who "knew their rights and dared maintain them," against the tyrannical measures of Andros. Ipswich at that time was the foremost town in the county ; she was wealthy and influential. She could not brook the abolition of the people's government and the usurpations of regal power. She was outspoken and determined, and, therefore, incurred the particular enmity of the regal vassal. Andros and his subservient council ordered that the towns choose " commissioners " who should aid the selectmen in laying a tax of " a penny on the pound - four and a sixth dollars on the thousand. This order sapped the vital principle of the Colonial Government, and was, therefore, extremely obnoxious to the colonists.

They had hitherto paid no taxes but those ordered by their own deputies; but now the House of Deputies, or the General Court, was abolished, and men of adverse tendencies ruled. Ipswich recognized the violation of principle, and sounded the clarion note of resistance. It was not the amount of the tax nor the purpose, in this case, to which it was to be applied - little or much the tax, wise or unwise the purpose, it was all the same; the principle was wrong^ and must not obtain. Where there is no representation, there can be no just taxation."

A town-meeting was called for August 23, 1687, and the evening before, a few leading men assembled at the house of John Appleton, located on a site near the depot, to counsel what was best to be done in the trying emergency. Among them was Eev. John Wise, patriotic, pious, learned and very able, who used to assert " Democracy is Christ's government in Church and State." That little Colonial Congress, a prototype of the Provincial a hundred years later, perceived the gravity of the situation ; they felt its boding, but duty, pressed thtm more. The ancestral lamp, whose light illumined their hearts and minds> burned brightly, their sacrifice in the Indian struggle, their love of home and freedom and the hope of re. alizing the former in the sunlight of the latter, nerved them to action, strengthened their purpose and armed them with power. They planted; the fruit was gathered in the Revolution, and we are partakers of it. They counseled resistance to the unrighteous demand, and Mr. Wise prepared (he sentiment to be presented to the town-meeting the next day. The town voted as follows :

"That considering the said act doth infringe their liberties as free born Euglisli subjects of his Majesty, and by interfering with the statute laws of the land, by which it was enacted that no taxes should be levied upon the subjects without the consent of an Assembly chosen by the freemen for assessing the same, they do, therefore, vote they were not willing to choose a commissioner for such an end without such a privilege ; and they, moreover, consent not that the selectmen do proceed to levy any such rate until it be appointed by a general assembly concurring with the Governor and Council."

Immediately and heavily swept the besom of power. Samuel Appleton, sketched in Early Settlers of this town, a member of Andros' Council, was already under a £1000 bond for refusing to concur with the council's action. Rev, John Wise, John Appleton, brother of the above Samuel, John Andrew, Robert Kinsman, William Goodhue and Thomas French, were arrested, cast into prison in Boston and denied the privilege of habeas corpus. They langui^-hed twenty-one days in prison after the trial, and were fined from £50 to £15 each, including costs, which the town afterwards, injustice and in honor, paid.

To that memorable town-meeting, Mr. Wise, counseling resistance, said : " We have a good God and a good King; we shall do well to stand to our privileges." When the patriots were on trial, a member of the tyrannical council exclaimed, " You have no privileges left you, but not to be sold as slaves." Two

" The latter and more stormy spectacles and brighter glories and visible results of the age of the Revolution, have elsewhere cast into shade and almost covered with oblivion the actors on that interesting day, and the act itself, - its hazards, its intrepidity, its merits, it:! singularity and consequences. But you will remember them and teach them to your children."

The Provincial Period. - During the transition period from colony to province, under both the President and Council and the Governor and Council, the administration of justice was unstable in method. The charter, creating " The Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England," was signed October, 1691, and arrived with Sir William Phipps as Governor in May, 1692. But hardly had the new Governor entered upon his career, when occurred that strangest of delusions, the Witchcraft tragedy, making the wildest and saddest chapters in our New England history.

Witchcraft. - For years before this date there had been trials for witchcraft in Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania ; there were trials in Boston, Charlestown and several before the Ipswich courts, but the records of the latter show no convictions. The Rowley ministers. Rev. John Wise, of Chebacco Parish, and, we may j^resume, the Ipswich ministers generally, opposed the proceedings. But at this time it seems as if a tidal wave from all the seas at once had rolled in upon our " stern and rock-bound coast." It was a terrible culmination. The prisons in Salem, Cambridge and Boston were crowded. It seems as if "the i^rincipalities and powers and rulers of darkness " had conspired to reign. The entire populace was delirious and enthralled ; society agonized and struggled to be free. Almost everybody suspected his neighbor, and on the slightest provocation was likely to be accused.

At this time, when the delirium was wildest, Sunday, May 29, 1692, Ephraim Wildes, constable of Topsfield, came to the home of James Howe, Jr., whose site was, or was near, the nativity of Rev. Nathaniel Howe, the celebrated divine of Hopkinton, and took into custody the wife and mother as a witch.

She was charged with sundry acts of witchcraft, done or committed on the bodies of Mary Walcott and Abigail Williams and others of Salem Village, now Danvers. She was examined the next Tuesday at the house of Nathaniel Ingersoll, of that place. She plead 7iot guilty, denied all knowledge of the matter, and testified that she had never heard of the girls, Mary and Abigail, till their names were read in the warrant. But in the court they fell down, they cried out, they were pinched and pricked, and they accused Mrs. Howe. She was remanded to prison in Boston to await the action of the jury of inquest. Her case was called June 29th and 30th. The jury heard the testimony of twenty-three persons - eleven for and twelve against her. Of those against her, one quarreled . with Mr. Howe about some boards, and his cows, in consequence, gave less milk; three others gave the history of a child that for several years had had "fits," and in them would call "Goody Howe," and cry out, "There she goes, there she goes, now she goes into the oven, etc; " another would not loan his horse to Mr. Howe, and the horse strangely died ; another, several years before, had some rails broken by Goody Howe without her approach to them ; another refused to attend upon her preliminary trial, and his "pig jumped up and fell dead; " five others opposed her admission to membership in the church, and were concerned in the loss of two mares. Of those for her. Rev. Samuel Phillips and Rev. Edward Payson, gospel ministers of Rowley, had seen the insane girl and the families concerned, and entirely dissipated the theory of withcraft. Deborah Hadley had been a neighbor to Mrs. Howe for twenty-four years ; Daniel, John and Sarah Warner about twenty years ; Simon and Mary Chapman, and Joseph and Mary Knowlton about ten years, and they each testified to her neighborly courtesy, to her conscientious dealings, to the faithful observance of her promises, to her Christian-like conversation and character. Her father-in-law, then ninety-four years old, who had known her for thirty years, testified to her daughterly conduct in leading him in his feebleness and blindness, and her loving attention to him, and to her exemplary home character as wife and mother. She was, nevertheless, condemned, and July 19th following executed upon Gallows Hill, Salem. The good Christian woman fell a victim to the prevailing, wild infatuation.

These proceedings, to us who are removed two hundred years, seem at first unaccountable, mortifying and persuasive of disowning our fathers, and of forgetting the period of their folly ; but the Hon. Joseph Story, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, after surveying the field, considering the circumstances, weighing the conditions and balancing the conclusions, wrote, - "Surely our ancestors had no special reason for shame in a belief which had the universal sanction of their own and all former ages, which counted in its train philosophers as well as enthusiasts, which was graced by the learning of prelates as well as by the countenance of kings, which the law supported by its mandates, and the purest judges felt no compunctions in enforcing."

On September 9, 1710, Mrs. Howe's daughters, Mary and Abigail, the only survivors of the family, petitioned the General Court for indemnity, making the cash expenses of the imprisonment £20, yet "yt ye name may be Repayard, are content if your honors shall allow us twelve pounds." The sum was duly allowed and paid in 1712.

in this period was the Probate, which the Governor, by authority of His "Majesties Royal Charter" - authority more implied than expressed and at the time sharply questioned, but fully confirmed in 1760 - established for the counties June 18, 1692. Their oflicers he appointed July 21st, following.

There were during this period eight judges, three of whom were Ipswich men : John Appleton, Thomas Berry and John Choate, and eight registrars, of whom four were Ipswich men : Daniel Rogers, Daniel Appleton, Samuel Rogers and Daniel Noyes.

Thomas Berry was Hon. Thomas Berry, M.D. He was the fourth judge, and officiated from October 5, 1739, to September 14, 1756. He was born in Ipswich in 1695. His father was a graduate of Harvard College, and came to this town in 1687; his mother was Margaret Rogers, who was second daughter of President Rogers, and after the death of her husband about 1697, when Thomas was about three years old, married Hon. John Leverett, F.R.S., President of Harvard College. Thomas was a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1712. He married his cousin, Martha Rogers, second child and oldest daughter of Rev. John, of Ipswich, who was the eldest son of the present. She died August 25, 1727, and he married Elizabeth Turner, daughter of Major John, of Salem.

He rose to great distinction as medical doctor, and "he was eminently distinguished for his energy and activity in public affairs as well as his own." He was colonel of militia, representative to the General Court, justice of the Court of Common Pleas, judge of Probate, and many years of the Executive Council. In 1749 he was active in re-establishing the grammar-school. It is said he kept a chariot, with servants in livery, and made other display of wealth and rank. He died August 10, 1756, at the age of sixty-one years. The inscription on his tomb is, -

Hon. John Choate was son of Thomas, and born in Chebacco Parish, July, 1697. He was educated at the Grammar School. He married March 3, 1717, Miriam Pool, probably of Gloucester. He lost all his children during the prevalence of throat distemper in 1735. He was a colonel of militia; a representative to the General Court for fifteen years between 1730 and 1761, inclusive; justice of the Court of General Sessions from 1746 till his death ; justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and for the last ten years chief justice, successor to Judge Berry; judge of Probate from September 14, 1756, to February 5, 1766. He was chairman of the committee that built the Choate Bridge, which, because of his enterprise, energy and usefulness to the town, was called by his name. He died February 5, 1766. By his will he emancipated two slaves, and gave £12 for a communion service for the South Church, of which he was an honored and worthy member. His estate was valued at quite £3000, He was a man of sound judgment, enterprising, firm and energetic, and a faithful public officer.

Hon. Daniel Rogers was registrar from October 23, 1702, to January 9, 1723. He was second son of Rev. John Rogers, M.D., fifth President of Harvard College, and was born September 25, 1667, fitted for college under Master Thomas Andrew, of the Grammar School, and graduated at Harvard, 1686. He married Sarah Apj^leton, daughter of Captain John and sister of Hon. John. He was the fourth teacher of the Grammar School, and succeeded Master Andrew. He fitted fifteen young men for Harvard. He was feoffee of the Grammar School, town clerk, judge of the Court of Sessions of the Peace. He perished on the marshes, in a snow-storm, returning fr /m Newbury, December 1, 1722,

Hon. Daniel Appleton was registrar from January 9, 1723, to August 26, 1762. He was born in Ipswich, August 8, 1692, the fourth child of Judge Appleton, and nephew of Daniel Rogers, registrar. He married Elizabeth Berry, daughter of Thomas Berry, of Boston and Ipswich, and sister of Dr. Thomas, who was judge of probate. He was a colonel, a feoffee of the grammar school, was named in the act of its corporation in 1756, was several years Representative to the General Court, and was justice of the Court of Sessions of the Peace. He died August 17, 1762.

Hon. Samuel Rogers was the sixth registrar, holding from August 26, 1762, to September 29, 1773. He was born in Ipswich, August 31, 1709, the youngest often children of Rev. John. He was nephew of Daniel, the fourth registrar, and grandson of President John, of Harvard. His mother was Martha Whittingham, great great-granddaughter of William, who married Katherine Calvin, sister of John the Reformer, and who was a Puritan refugee and compiler of the famous Geneva Bible.

He studied in the grammar school, and graduated at Harvard, 1725, when he was sixteen years old. He studied medicine and had a successful practice. He was town clerk, colonel of militia, justice of the Court of Sessions of the Peace, and Representative to the General Court. His death occurred December 21, 1772, at the age of sixty-three. He employed clerks; his office was well kept. His nephew, Hon. Daniel Rogers, who was son of Richard, a captain in the Revolutionary War, and also a justice of the Court of Sessions of the Peace, was acting registrar, during his last sickness and for some time after his death.

Daniel Noyes, Esq., was the eighth registrar, and occupied the office from September 29, 1775, to May 29, 1815. He was born in Newbury-Byfield, January 29, 1737, to Joseph and Elizabeth (Woodman) Noyes, and was fifth in lineal descent from Nicholas, a brother of Rev. James, Newbury's first minister. He graduated at Harvard in 1758, and adopted Ipswich as his home. He was master of the grammar school from 1762 to 1774 inclusive, and again in 1780 and 1781. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress, 1774-75; . Representative to the General Court, 1775 ; was postmaster, 1775, succeeding Deacon James Foster, and the last under the province and the law of 1711 ; was on committees of correspondence and safety, during the Revolutionary period ; was grantor of permits under the non-importation act ; was feoff"ee of the grammar school ; was delegate to the convention that ratified i he State Constitution, with Michael Farley, John Choate and John Cogswell; and was justice of the peace and quorum in 1797. He is said to have been '' methodical and accurate," and "the faithfulness and ability with which he discharged his various duties deservedly gained for him high and extensive respect," He died March 21, 1815,

Early Records. - The early probate records were kept by the registrar in his private custody, and usually in his dwelling-house, which was his oflSce. After 1722, the office was in the court-house, Ipswich, but the records were kept at the registrar's home. This practice obtained through this period and practically till 1817.

Other Courts. - Other Province Courts were established by act of November 25, 1692, - High Court of Chancery, which did not receive regal sanction. Superior Court nf Judicature, ox as it was commonly called "Superior Court," having one chief-justice and four associate justices, taking the place of the Court of Assistants, and exercising appellate jurisdiction from Inferior Court, holding two sessions annually, one at Salem in November, and the other at Ipswich in May, a court which under the constitution became the Supreme Judicial. Inferior Court of Commoii Pleas for Essex County, having original jurisdiction in all actions of real title and all civil actions where the debt or damage was forty shillings or more, an appellate jurisdiction from justices of the peace in civil cases, and presided over by four justices, a court which, in 1859, became the Superior; Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace which June 26, 1699, became General Sessions of the Peace, presided over by justices of the peace fur the county, "or so many of them as are or shall be limited in commission of the peace," and having original jurisdiction in all cases not given to the Superior Court, and not triable before single justices with appellate jurisdiction from them. This court granted licenses and laid out highways, etc. In 1804 its criminal jurisdiction was transferred to the Court of Common Pleas, and in 1827 it became the County Cummissioners' Court. Commissioners of justices of the peace were authorized at the same time.

Newbury in September, and at Salem in December. Thus Ipswich during this period retained her courtly prestige, as shown by the frequency of court sessions and the supremacy of their jurisdiction, whereby she was a peer among her sister towns and executed a commanding influence.

Eepresentative Men. - The representative men of the town for this period were among the ablest men of the times. We append as good a list as we are able to obtain : Justices of the Superior Court : Eichard Saltonstall, twenty years from 1736, and Wait Winthrop twenty-five years from 1692, nine of which he was chief justice. Special, Dr. Thomas Berry and Ezekiel Cheever, the famous Ipswich Grammar-schoolmaster, Justices of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas : John Appleton, Dr. Thomas Berry, John Choate ; Special: John Wainwright, David Appleton and Samuel Rogers. Justices of the General Sessions : Samuel Appleton, Daniel Eppes, Thomas Wade, John Wainwright, Francis Wainwright, Nehemiah Jewett, John Whipple, John Appleton, Amnii Ruhami Wise, Dr. Thomas Berry, Andrew Burley, Daniel Appleton, John Choate, Samuel Rogers, Joseph Appleton and John Baker. Sheriffs: Major Francis Wainwright, Major Daniel Denison, John Denison and Richard Saltonstall. Councilors to the Governor : John Appleton, twentysix from 1698 ; Dr. Thomas Berry, seventeen years from 1735, and John Choate, five years from 1761. Simon Bradstreet, Richard Saltonstall, Ezekiel Cheever and John Wainwright. Speakers of the House: Nehemiah Jewett, three years, 1693, 1694 and 1701. Clerk of the House: John Wainwright eight years, beginning 1723. Provincial Congressmen: Michael Farley and Daniel Noyes. Bepresentatives : Daniel Appleton, five years; John Appleton, one; Dr. Thomas Berry, three ; Andrew Burley, two ; John Caleffe, two ; John Choate, sixteen ; Stephen Choate, four ; Thomas Choate, four ; Francis Cogswell, three ; Jonathan Cogswell, one; Benj. Crocker, three; John Crocker, one ; Daniel Eppes, one; Samuel Eppes, one; Michael Farley, fourteen ; Thomas Hart, two ; Dummer Jew^ett, two ; Nehemiah Jewett, sixteen ; Nathaniel Knowlton, nine ; Daniel Noyes, one ; Abraham Perkins, one; Richard Rogers, three; Samuel Rogers, three ; Nathaniel Rust, one ; Simon Stacy, one ; Daniel Staniford, three ; William Story, two ; Francis Wainwright, one; John Wainwright, nineteen; Nicholas Wallis, one ; Ammi R. Wise, two ; John Whipple, one. Framers of the State Constitution: Daniel Noyes, Dummer Jewett, Stephen Choate, John Crocker and Jonathan Cogswell.

Jail. - In 1751 the town voted to petition the Court of General Sessions " that the late prison be effectually repaired and established as heretofore as a prison and a house of correction." In 1760 a committee reported that the town petition the same court to have a house of correction built here, and to permit the dissolute poor of the town to be put in the

It is needless to comment upon notable cases. Since the arch fiend lied to Eve, our first parents stole the forbidden fruit, and Cain killed his brother, neither era nor people has been exempt from crime ; one age exemplifies another. Our forefathers had a specific mission, a glorious cause, and they were true to their calling. They wrought nobly and well; but to err is human ; we embalm their purpose, their deeds, their renown ; we bury their errors in oblivion.

The Constitutional Period. - The constitutional period opens with the adoption of the State Constitution in 1780. The representatives to 1817 were John Choate, five years ; John Crocker, one ; John Heard, one , Joseph Hodgkins, of Revolutionary fame, seven years; Dummer Jewett, one; John Manning, ten ; John Patch, four ; Joseph Swasey, another of Revolutionary fame, eight ; John Treadwell, two; and Nathaniel Wade, our most noted officer in the Revolution, twenty-two. Speakers of the House, - Joseph Story, 1811-12, and Otis P. Lord, 1854. President of the Senate, Samuel Dana, 1811-13. Justice of the Superior Court, Otis P. Lord, 1859-75, and of the Supreme Court, from 1875 till his resignation in 1882.

County Buildings. - A new court-house was completed in the early part of 1795. It cost $7000 of which the town paid half. In 1794, May 1, a committee was empowered to confer with the county, and sell the old court-house. The new court-house served till 1855, when upon the removal of the courts that year, it was sold to the Methodist Society, removed and converted into a chapel. After the erection of their present beautiful and commodious church edifice, they sold it in 1862 to Mr. Curtis Damon, who removed it to Depot Square, where it now stands, and converted it into a store.

A new stone jail was built here by the county in 1809-10, which was occupied February 2l8t, of the latter year. It cost $27,000, and was a model for security and convenience. It stood on the premises of the present " County-House " and " Hospital," as they are called, and served its purpose well till 1866, when it was sold to the Eastern Railroad Company, who used it to arch a roadway just east of the Merrimac River bridge, at Newburyport. The "County-House," or house of correction, was occupied in 1828, when the old one, at Norton's Bridge, where Messrs. Stackpole's soap-manufactory stands, was discontinued. The " Hospital," or the receptacle for the chronic insane was erected about 1841 or 1842. Some two or three years ago in connection with the reformatory, a workshop, one hundred by thirty feet, was erected.

The first probate repository, as such, was occupied December 15, 1817. It was built of brick and fireproof, forty feet long, twenty-eight wide and one story high, and cost $3700. During the early part of this period the records were kept in the registrar's private dwelling, while his office was in the new court-house. From 1795 to 1815 the repository was also in the court-house. At the latter date both the records and the office retired to the dwelling of Nathaniel Lord, the registrar, to come forth in 1817 to occupy the safe repository till 1852 when by order of the county commissioners they were removed to Salem. The building is now the property of the Odd Fellows, and contains a drug-store, the post-office and the Odd Fellows' Hall in an added story.

Two of the registrars of this period have been Ipswich men, - Nathaniel Lord, 3d, and his son George E.)bert, whose biographical sketches close this chapter.

The only court held here now is trial-justice Bell's. The attorneys and couuselors-at-law are Hon. Charles A. Sayward, Edward P. Kimball, Esq., John R. Baker, Esq., James Brown Lord, Esq., who are natives here and Hon. George Haskell, is a native of Newburyport.

This decadence is entirely attributable to the country's growth in population, the consequent extension of business and change of business centres-

Biographical. - Nathaniel Lord, 3d, was the ninth registrar, and his service covered a period from May 29, 1815, to June 12, 1851. He fitted for college with Daniel Dana, D.D., son of Rev. Joseph, his pastor, and he graduated at Harvard in 1798. His graduation exercise was a poem, and the subject, "Astronomy." In his class were Dr. Chan - ning. Judges Story and Fay, Dr. Tuckerman and Rev. Prof. Emerson, who may be considered the first to devise and put in practice a curriculum of study and discipline especially designed for and adapted to female education and culture.

He married, at Ipswich, Eunice Kimball, daughter of Jeremiah and Lois-Choate Kimball. His children were Nathaniel James, born October 28, 1805 ; Mary, born July 17, 1807, died March 11, 1846 ; Lois Choate, born July 9, 1810 ; Otis Phillips, born July 11, 1812 ; Isaac, born July 2, 1814, died April 1, 1816 ; George Robert, born December 16, 1817, - three of whom were lawyers, of whom one was an eminent judge. His wife died April 9, 1837, and he married, September 6, 1838, Mary Holt Adams, daughter of John Adams, Esq., of Andover.

Mr. Lord was scholarly ; he never relinquished the study of the classics. He had the habit of a student ; he was mathematically exact, careful in verbal distinctions ; also methodical and accurate ; and when in Judge White's tenure of office it was determined to improve the old methods, to multiply new and remodel old forms, Mr. Lord's taste, judgment and learning were requisite, and the present practice of the Court attests his good sense and foresight.

He had no taste for public life. He delivered a Fourth-of-July oration when a young man ; welcomed General Lafayette to Ipswich in 1824 ; presided at the town's bi-centennial celebration in 1834 ; he was a justice of the peace and quorum; was one year, 1823, selectman and several years on the school board.

He fell from his chair, at home, and died October 16, 1852. His residence was on High Street ; his estate is now known as the " Lord Mansion." The house was built in 1728 by Rev. Nathaniel Rogers.

George Robert Lord, Esq., was the eleventh registrar. He is a son of the last mentioned registrar, and was born as there stated. He was registrar from February 14, 1853, to February 27, 1855, soon after the advent of the American, or Know-Nothing, party to power. He is an excellent penman and exemplary recorder. He has spent most of his life in the service of the courts. He is employed now where he has for vears been - in the office of the Clerk of Courts.