Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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The early records of Ipswich dis- close the active interest of the founders in the public schools. In the founding of a Puritan common- wealth sometimes called a “Bible Commonwealth,” the settlers were determined that their posterity should secure all the benefits of ed- ucation and from the beginning learning and religion were united. Intelligence and virtue were the re- sults. The grammar school, early es- tablished, had for its teacher the renowned Ezekiel Cheever, after- wards called to the Boston Latin School. The funds of the grammar school since appropriated to the Manning School were greatly bene- fited by the bequest of Little Neck. The colonial records of seven- teenth century Ipswich revealed many of the hardships of the found- ers of our Commonwealth. The first houses were probablv made of logs, the roofs were thatched, and many a pitiful story is learned of their destruction in the early years by fire. Tn a self-supporting community such as colonial Ipswich, the many necessities of life were oroduced within the town itself. The virgin soil, redeemed by extreme toil, yielded the staple crops of which corn was the most important. The sawmill came into early use as did the hemp-mill and the malt-kiln, and upon the banks of the Ipswich river were found many pioneer in- dustries. From the beginning an ex- tensive fishing industry gave many a livelihood. Fishing stages were maintained at Jeffries Neck and as far as the Isle of Shoals. We have many records of the so- cial life of Colonial Ipswich, and while the Puritans are often pic- tured as cold and austere, the story of a young man, found guilty of making love to his neighbor’: daughter without her parent’s con- sent and fined five pounds, is suffi- cient proof of the human weakness of the times. The visitor to Ipswich in 1685 also tells of the lively circu- lation of news and his trip to Row- ley to witness a football game in which the players were barefooted. In a brief sketch of colonial Ips- wich it is possible to mention only a few events which are of great im- portance, and a few of those men whose lives have left a profound in- fluence and impression. The early military records tell of the part played by the men of Ips- wich in disarming the Sagamore of the Merrimac and the beginning of the long military record of Denison, son-in-law of Governor Dudley and later a Major-General of the colony. William Hubbard, minister of the church at Ipswich, has left valuable narratives of King Phillin’s War. Hubbard was a member of the first class to graduate from Harvard, and is described — “for many years the most eminent minister in Essex County and superior to all his con- temporaries as a writer.” The terrible destruction to life and property during King Phillip’s War has been recorded by Mr. Hub- bard, and the part plaved bv the town of Ipsv ich is worthy of note. There were several men from Ips- wich killed at Bloodv Brook in the ambuscade laid by the Indians. Major Samuel Appleton of Ips- wich early took the field and be- 23

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Court so decreed. Ipswich derives its name from Ipswich in “Old Eng- land,” in acknowledgement of the great honor and kindness done to our people who took shipping there. The first English to visit Agawam came in 1611, but it remained for Captain John Smith, the celebrated explorer and colonist, to leave us a detailed account of Ipswich and vicinity. Smith in 1614 describes Agawam’s many hills planted to corn and Plum Island to the East with its groves of Mulberry trees. William Wood in his “New Eng- land Prospect” describes Agawam as “one of the most spacious places for a plantation.” Thus the perma- nent settlement by John Winthrop and others can easily be understood. Even the historian of the Pilgrim colony at Plymouth relates that in the very first winter of 1620, some of the Pilgrims urged removal to Agawam because of its excellent harbor, better ground, and better fishing. The settlers of Ipswich were men of intelligence and sterling char- acter. John Winthrop. at twenty- eight years of age the leader in the settlement of 1633, was a graduate of Trinity College, a member of the bar, and a veteran of the English navy. A man of culture, he gath- ered about him in the first settle- ment others of eminent parts, which made Ipswich from the beginning a town of rare quality. The Rev. Nathaniel Ward, author of the “Simple Cobbler of Aga- wam,” was the first pastor of the church organized in 1634. The life of Ward is the history of an irrecon- cilable Puritan, summoned before Archbishop Laud for non-conform- ity and roughly excommunicated. Ward, with hundreds of others, found a field for usefulness in New England, and when he was sixty- four years of age, we find him here in Ipswich. The Rev. Nathaniel Ward is the author of the code of laws known as the “Body of Liber- ties,” the first code of laws estab- lished in New England. A very witty mfin, Mr. Ward remarked to Cotton Mather that he had only two comforts to live upon, the one in the perfections of Christ, the other, in the imperfections of Chris- tians. Richard Saltonstall was another who came early to Ipswich and par- ticipated in a prominent manner in the affairs of Ipswich. Governor Thomas Dudley made Ipswich his early home, and his daughter Anne married Simon Bradstreet, after- wards Governor of the colony, and was the first woman to write poetry in the new world. One of the original developments in the Massachusetts colony was the senaration of the colonv into towns. There was nothing in the land the Puritan left that contained such an institution, and as Jefferson re- marked of the New England towns, “thev are the vital principle of their government.” The towns ordered their local affairs, disposed of land, and elected officers, and the town meeting supplied a definite neces- sity in the exercises of government. In the development of town govern- ment and the town meeting, Ips- wich, because of its members and wealth, played a notable part. 22

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cause of his ability was promoted to command all the troops of Massa- chusetts Bay. The Reverend Thomas Franklin Waters relates of the hardships and losses sustained by this old town in the long: struggle with the Indians. Many a story of the Narragansett campaign was told about the fire- sides of Ipswich two hundred and fifty years ago. The restoration of the Stuart Charles the Second brought thirty years of uncertainty for the colo- nies. The colonists were a part of the traditions of the Long Parlia- ment and friendly to the men who deposed the Stuarts. The political conception of Mass- achusetts was based on the idea that the charter left no right to the crown other than those actually re- served. Charles the Second sent his Commissioners to New England to enforce all laws, and their presence was at once resented. The colonists deemed the Commissioner’s actions unwarranted intrusions on their po- litical sovereignty. It is said that all persons took the liberty to abuse Edward Randolph, agent of the king, and the demand made that Massachusetts surrender its charter was seriously debated in the colony. On December 20, 1686, Sir Ed- mund Andros arrived in Boston ac- companied by one hundred soldiers and supported by the English fri- gate, “The Rose,” with his commis- sion as royal governor of the Mass- achusetts Bay and all of New Eng- land. Andros demanded the church- es to open their doors to the Church of England out of which the found- ers had fled. He claimed all land for the King of England and finally ordered the levying of taxes for the maintenance of his own govern- ment. The following year, August of 1687, the warrants were executed levying a tax, not in itself exces- sive, and ordering the towns to ap- point a collector, who, with the selectmen, should assess each town’s quota. The Rev. Washington Choate, in an address delivered nearly fifty years ago on the Andros Remon- strance has this to say of the most important period in the town’s his- torv, “Out from the century and a half which lies between the settle- ment of Agawam under the leader- ship of John Winthrop, the son of Massachusetts’ first governor, and that dividing line of colonial and national life the War of the Revo- lution, there arises before us one decade in which occurred the event which calls for the loval remem- brance of each successive genera- tion.” The General Court, at the time of the Restoration of Charles the II, had reasserted the rights of the Massachusetts Colony under its Charter, — those essential privilieges of a democracy within the limits of a Puritan commonwealth, the rights of the freemen to select their own governor, judges, and representa- tives, and to assess and collect taxes by their own officers. 24