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 THE OLD SOUTH PILGRIMAGE 
 TO NEWBURYPORT. 
 
 By Edii'in D. Mead. 
 
 I'rom the Editor's Table of the New I';n(;lani> Macjazink, July, 1900. 
 
 0\' the Fourth of July, 1854, the 
 city of Newburyport gave a 
 great reception to her sons and 
 daughters who were resident abroad. 
 It was a famous festival, with return- 
 ing sons and • daughters, reminis- 
 cences and rhetoric and toasts ga- 
 lore ; and among the toasts was the 
 following: "The City of Boston — as 
 we look around this dav. we involun- 
 tarily ask, what would she have been 
 without Newburyport?" How many 
 sons the historic old town had in Bos- 
 ton half a century ago we do not 
 know. The speaker who responded 
 to tlie toast of "New York" on that 
 Fourth of July said that there were 
 three hundred in that city. However 
 it may be with sons and daugh- 
 ters, we think that Boston has never 
 in a single day sent down to New- 
 buryport so many people interested 
 in her history as will go there on the 
 Old South Pilgrimage, on Saturday, 
 June 23. For Newburyport has been 
 chosen by the Old South Historical 
 Society as the goal of its historical 
 pilgrimage this year. 
 
 It is the fifth annual pilgrimage to 
 which the young people of this enthu- 
 siastic society invite their friends. 
 We have carefully noticed these pil- 
 grimages year by year in these pages, 
 because they are of interest to a wider 
 circle than that of the young people 
 of Boston. Young students of his- 
 tory in a hundred places, to whom 
 our pages go, share in these Old 
 South pilgrimages in imagination ; 
 and we have all these in view in writ- 
 ing. The first Old South pilgrimage, 
 in the summer of i8q6, was to old 
 Rutland, Massachusetts, the "cradle 
 of Ohio"; the pilgrimage in 1807 was 
 to the homes and haunts of Whit- 
 
 tier by the Alerrimac ; that of i8q8, 
 to the King Philip country. Mount 
 Hope, on Narragansett Bay ; and last 
 year's pilgrimage was to Plymouth. 
 Many hundred pilgrims, young and 
 old, — for fathers and mothers and 
 teachers go, have joined in these 
 annual excursions ; and many hun- 
 dred will go from Boston to old New- 
 buryport on the June Saturday, to 
 which the Old South young people 
 look forward as one of their red- 
 letter days. 
 
 "There are three towns," say.s Dr. 
 Hohnes in "Elsie V'enner," "lying in 
 a line with each other, as you go 
 ■flown east,' each of them with a Port in its 
 name, and each of them having a peculiar 
 interest, which gives it individuality, in ad- 
 dition to the Oriental character they have 
 in common. I need not tell you that these 
 towns are Newburyport. Portsmouth and 
 Portland. The Oriental character they 
 have in common exists in their large, 
 square, palatial mansions, with sunny gar- 
 dens round them. The two first have seen 
 better days. . . . Each of them is of that 
 intermediate size between a village and a 
 city which any place has outgrown when 
 the presence of a well-dressed stranger 
 walking up and down the main street 
 ceases to be a matter of public curiosity 
 and private speculation, as frequently hap- 
 pens, during the busier months of the year, 
 in considerable commercial centres like 
 Salem. They both have grand old recol- 
 lections to fall back upon, — times when 
 they looked forward to commercial great- 
 ness, and when the portly gentlemen in 
 cocked hats, who built their now decaying 
 wharves and sent out their ships all over 
 the world, dreamed that their fast growing 
 port \vas to be the Tyre or the Carthage of 
 the rich British colony. Great houses, like 
 that once lived in by Lord Timothy Dex- 
 ter, in Newburyport. remain as evidence of 
 the fortunes amassed in these places of old. 
 ... It is not with any thought of pity or 
 depreciation that we speak of them as in a 
 certain sense decayed towns; they did not 
 
75470 
 
 1^' ,,^" 2 
 
 THE OLD SOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO NEW BURY PORT 
 
 fulfil their early promise of expansion, but 
 they remain incomparably the most interest- 
 ing places of their size in any of the three 
 northernmost New England states." 
 
 Tlie beginnin^^ of that one of the 
 three Ports with which our Old South 
 pilgrims are concerned dates back 
 almost as far as the beginning of 
 ]»oston. In the shi]) Mary and John, 
 which sailed from the Thames to 
 Massachusetts in 1634. came Rev. 
 Thomas Parker, Rev. James Noyes 
 and a large company of their friends. 
 Most of them went to Agawam. now 
 Ipswich, where thev remained until 
 the spring of 1635, when thev re- 
 moved together to a place on the 
 river called by the Indians Ouasca- 
 cunquen and now called Parker 
 River. On May 6, 1635, the House 
 of Deputies passed the followmg 
 order: "Ouascacun(|uen is allowed 
 by the court to be a plantation . . . 
 and the name of said plantation shall 
 be changed and shall hereafter be 
 called Newberry." It was at New- 
 bury in England that Rev. Thomas 
 Parker had preached before he came 
 to Massachusetts ; and the settlers 
 thus honored their first pastor in 
 naming their town. 
 
 There were no roads throuirh the 
 forest. The settlers came by water 
 from Ipswich, in open boats, through 
 Plum Island Sound, and u]) the 
 Parker River, landing on the north 
 shore of the river in a Httle cove 
 about one hundred rods below the 
 ])resent bridge. Nicholas Noyes, the 
 l)rother of Rev. Jsfmes Noyes, was 
 the first person who leaped ashore. 
 Mere on the Sabbath, under a majes- 
 tic oak. Mr. Parker preached his first 
 sermon ; and at the close of the ser- 
 mon a church covenant was agreed 
 upon. Mr. Parker was chosen 
 j)astor; and James Noyes was 
 chosen teacher. I'he two men were 
 cousins. Cotton Mather, in the A/a"-- 
 nalia, says of them: "Thev taught in 
 one school (in England) : came over 
 in one ship ; were pastor and teacher 
 of one church; and Mr. Parker con- 
 tinuing aKva\s in celibacx-, thev lived 
 
 in one house till death separated them 
 for a time." Their first residence in 
 Newbury was at the Lower Green ; 
 but on the removal of the meeting- 
 house, in 1646, to the Upper (ireen, 
 Mr. Noyes built a house on what is 
 now known as Parker Street, and 
 lived there until his death in 1656. 
 Mr. Parker continued to live in the 
 house with the widow and her chil- 
 dren until his own death, in 1677, in 
 the eighty-second year of his age. 
 For many generations the Xoves 
 family continued to reside here, the 
 last occupant, Mary, Coffin Noyes, 
 having died in 1895; and the house, 
 the oldest in Newbury, still stands in 
 good preservation. The two men 
 who thus first ministered together 
 to the Newbury church were both 
 Oxford scholars and able theo- 
 logians. The cathechism composed 
 by Noyes for the use of the Newbury 
 children is reprinted bv Cofifin in his 
 history of Newbury. Parker early 
 distinguished himself by writing two 
 important Latin books, Dc Tradiic- 
 tiouc Pcccatoris and Methodns Devinae 
 Gratiae; and when old and blind, "the 
 Homer of New England," he had a 
 memorable controversv with Presi- 
 dent Chauncy. 
 
 The first meeting-house stoo<l 
 on the Lower Green. Near it 
 was the first graveyard. The 
 earliest burials were not appropri- 
 ately marked, and cannot now be 
 identified. The oldest inscription 
 that can be deciphered reads: "Here 
 lyes y*^ body of William Dole aged 
 58 years died Janry y^ 29th 1717-8." 
 This William Dole was the son of 
 Richard Dole, who came to Newburv 
 from Bristol. England, in 1631), 
 and who was the ancestor of Rev. 
 Charles F. Dole, to whom our young 
 people owe so much for his books on 
 good citizenshi]), of Nathan Haskell 
 Dole, the poet and critic, and i)f Gov- 
 ernor Dole of Hawaii. 
 
 I'rom Bristol also came in that same 
 year John, Richard and Percival 
 Lowell, the first of that great Lowell 
 familv which for more than two cen- 
 
THE OLD SOUTH PHXIRIMAGE TO NElVBURVPOh'T 
 
 3 
 
 Inries lias played so distin.ijuishcd a 
 part in New Eno:lan(l. Rev. John 
 Lowell was the first pastor of the 
 l^'irst Parish in Newburvport. His 
 son was the eminent Jndg^e John 
 Lowell, who in the convention that 
 framed the Constitution of Massa- 
 chusetts in 1780 secured the adop- 
 tion of the clause which abolished 
 slavery in the State. Judg'e Lowell 
 was the father of Francis Cabot 
 Lowell, for whom the citv of Lowell 
 was named and who was the father of 
 John Lowell who founded the Lowell 
 Institute in l)Oston ; he was also the 
 father of Charles Lowell, the eminent 
 mitiister of the West Church in P)OS- 
 ton and father of James Russell 
 Lowell. The fine mansion whicli 
 Judije Lowell built for himself on the 
 liif^di Street in Newburvport. and 
 which he sold to Patrick Tracy for 
 £10,000 in 1778. when he removed 
 to Boston, still stands. Here in 1782 
 Mr. John Tracv entertained the 
 Marquis de Chastellux and other 
 distinguished Frenchmen. M. de 
 Aiontcs(|uieu (a .^-randson of the au- 
 thor of the "Spirit of the Laws"), the 
 P.aron de Talleyrand (not to be con- 
 founded with the distinguished Tal- 
 leyrand) and M. de \'andreuil, — 
 whose impressions of Newburvport 
 at that time nia\- be found in the 
 books. 
 
 The Tracy family pla\ed a verv ini- 
 ])ortant part in Newburvnort in the 
 last century. Its head was Patrick 
 Tracy, who came to New En,q;lan(l 
 from Ireland early in the eiij'hteenth 
 centurv and ])ecame a wealthy mer- 
 chant and shi]:)owner in Xewbury- 
 ])ort. Just before Patrick Tracy 
 boug'ht the Lowell house for his 
 son John, he built for his son Na- 
 thaniel the fine mansion on State 
 Street which, now transformed into 
 the Public Library and housing;" ap- 
 ])roi)riately tlie Old Newburx- His- 
 torical Society, has perhaps a "greater 
 wealth of historical associations than 
 any other buildinsj in Newburvport. 
 Nathaniel Tracv, after sTfraduatiniX 
 from Harvard Colleefe and takincT a 
 
 supplementary course at Yale, bejj^an 
 business at Xewburyi)ort in 1772, in 
 partnership with Jonathan Jackson, 
 who that same year married his 
 sister, Hannah Tracv, and built for 
 himself the house on Hijjli Street 
 afterwards famous as the home of the 
 eccentric Lord Timothv Dexter. 
 Nathaniel Tracv's transactions were 
 enormous, and his q'enerosity was un- 
 stinted. Durine^ the Revolutionarv 
 War he contributed over $160,000 
 from his own private resources for 
 the support of the g^overnment. He 
 fitted out a great fleet of jjrivateers, 
 the first of which sailed from New- 
 buryport in August, 1775. He was 
 the principal owner of 24 cruising 
 ships, carrying 340 guns, and nav- 
 igated by 2,800 men. Thev captured 
 120 vessels, which, with their car- 
 goes, were sold for nearly $4,000,- 
 000; and with these prizes 2,225 
 men were taken prisoners of war. 
 louring the same period, Mr. Tracy 
 was the i)rincipal owner of 1 10 mer- 
 chant vessels, valued with their 
 cargoes at nearl\- three million dol- 
 lars. He owned several houses, in 
 addition to the mansion on State 
 Street. Among them was the old 
 Craigie House in Cambridge, for- 
 merly Washington's headquarters 
 and afterwards the home oi Long- 
 fellow, and the famous old stone 
 hcjuse in Newburv known as the 
 Pierce House. This house, built 
 about 1670. before King Philip's 
 War, long occupied bv ancestors of 
 President Pierce, is one of the revered 
 places in Newbury. "The great 
 ])orch of this old house," writes 
 Harriet Prescott Spofiford (in a de- 
 lightful article about Newburyport, in 
 Harper's Ma;^a.-jinc for July, 1875), "'^ 
 said to be the m<ist beautiful archi- 
 tectural s])ecimen in this nart of the 
 country, although it doul)tless owes 
 l)art <^f its beaut \- to the mellow and 
 \arie(l coloring which two hundred 
 years have given it." To the old 
 stone house the Old South voung 
 folks will doubtless pilgrimage. Here 
 .Vathaniel Tracv, broken-hearted and 
 
THE OLD SOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO NEIVBURYPORT. 
 
 discouraged, his fortune lost, spent 
 the last ten years of his life, and here 
 he died in 1796. It is with the man- 
 sion on State Street, however, whefe 
 he lived so magnificently, that we 
 chiefly associate him. Thomas Jef- 
 ferson was his intimate friend and 
 was his guest here for some time in 
 1784, sailing with him from Boston 
 for England in Mr. Tracy's ship 
 Ceres. It was in this house, then in 
 the hands of Hon. Jonathan Jacl>:son, 
 that Washington was lodged during 
 his visit to Newburyport in 1789; and 
 the same apartments were occupied 
 by Lafayette during his visit in 1824. 
 Nathaniel Tracy's portrait hangs in 
 the old building; and there too hang 
 photographic copies of the old por- 
 trait of Patrick Tracy and of the por- 
 traits by Copley of Jonathan Jack- 
 son and his wife, now owned bv the 
 Jackson familv in Boston. 
 
 
 "Ould Newbury" embraced within 
 its limits the present towns of New- 
 bury, Newburyport and West New- 
 bury. It was one of the largest 
 towns in the colony. The area of the 
 township was nearly 3®,ooo acres. 
 The extreme length of the town from 
 the mouth of the Merrimac to the 
 farthermost western boundarv was 
 nearly thirteen miles, and the width 
 at the broadest paft was six miles. 
 The first settlement, as we have 
 noticed, was at the Lower Green, on 
 Parker River ; but the maritime vil- 
 lage which in a few years sprang up 
 at the mouth of the Merrimac rapidly 
 outstripped the farming settlement. 
 It was not, however, until 1764, just 
 before the Stamp Act, that Newburv- 
 port received a separate organiza- 
 tion. West Newburv became an in- 
 dependent town in 1819. 
 
 The annals of old Newbury during 
 its first century are like the annals of 
 a hundred old New England towns. 
 They are chiefly church annals ; but 
 Indian alarms, militia, mills, farms, 
 fishing, taverns, taxation, shipbuild- 
 ing, Quakers, Baptists and witches 
 
 play their part. The church in New- 
 buryport seems to have been the 
 most democratic in the whole colony, 
 its members, while most respectful to 
 their ministers, most jealous of any 
 assumption of ofificial authority. 
 Lechford in Boston in 1642 wrote: 
 "Of late some churches are of opinion 
 that any may be admitted to church 
 fellowship that are not extremely ig- 
 norant and scandalous, but this they 
 are not very forward to practise 
 except at Neivbury." This was the 
 way the democracy looked to out- 
 siders. It is edifying to read of its 
 struggles in detail in Cofifin's history. 
 In 1637 the town sent its contin- 
 gent to the war against the Pequots 
 — the little army pausing on its march 
 to discuss whether it was living under 
 a covenant of grace or a covenant of 
 works. This was only two years after 
 the founding of the town. Year by 
 year the records give us glimpses of 
 all sorts into the Newbury life — its 
 nobilities and severities and triviali- 
 ties. In 1639 Anthony Somerby was 
 granted four acres of upland "for his 
 encouragement to keepe schoole for 
 one yeare." In 1653 the town "voted 
 to pay £24 yearly to maintain a free 
 school to be held at the meeting- 
 house, the master to teach all chil- 
 dren sent to him so soon as they have 
 their letters and begin to read." 
 "Tristram Coffyn's wife Dionis was 
 presented for selling beer," at Cof- 
 fyn's ordinary in Newbury, "for three- 
 pence a quart." Having proved, 
 "upon the testimonv of Samuel 
 Moores, that she put six bushels of 
 malt into the hogshead, she was dis- 
 charged." It was a question of giv- 
 ing strong enough beer for the 
 money ; the law fixed the price at 
 iwo-pence a quart, four bushels of 
 malt to the hogshead. This was in 
 1653, six years ,jfter Tristram 
 CofTyn came to Newburyport from 
 Haverhill, where and at Salis- 
 bury he had lived since 1642, 
 when, with his wife, mother, two sis- 
 ters and five children, he came to 
 Massachusetts from Devonshire. 
 
THE OLD SOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO XEWBLKYPORT. 
 
 His Newburyport home was opposite 
 Carr's Island, by the ferry. "He 
 was a royaHst and was, so far as 
 I can ascertain," writes liis descend- 
 ant. Joshua Cofifin, the Newburyport 
 antiquarian, to whose history we owe 
 so much, "the only one of the early 
 settlers of Newburv who came to 
 America in consequence of the suc- 
 cess of Oliver Cromwell." In 1659 
 he went to Nantucket, where he pur- 
 chased for himself and his associates 
 many thousand acres of land, becom- 
 in£^ the head of the gfreat Nantucket 
 Cofifin family. His son, Tristram, 
 was perhaps the builder of the fa- 
 mous old Coffin house at Newbury- 
 port, which dates from the middle of 
 the seventeenth centurv and which 
 has belonged to the Cof^n family, 
 generation after generation, ever 
 since. Perhaps the house was built 
 by this Tristram's wife's first husband, 
 and thus Tristram got his wife and 
 the good house together. The Old 
 Newbury Historical Society is at this 
 time considering the making of this 
 venerable house its headquarters. 
 The first Newbury centennial was 
 celebrated in its front yard, in 
 1735 ; and in the old homestead, 
 where he was born, in 1792. and 
 where, in 1864. he died. Joshua Cof- 
 fin prepared his historv of Newbur}-. 
 One of the large elms on the place 
 was planted by his father on the dav 
 when he was born. In his early life 
 he taught school in Haverhill and 
 elsewhere, and one of his pupils was 
 \\ hittier, whose well known lines. 
 "To My Old Schoolmaster," are ad- 
 dressed to him. The last words too 
 of \\'hittier's letter written for the 
 celebration of the two hundred and 
 fiftieth anniA'ersary of the settlement 
 of Newbury, in 1885, were these: 
 "Let me, in closing, pay something 
 of the debt T have owed from boy- 
 hood, by expressing a sentiment in 
 which I trust everv son of the ancient 
 town will unite: Joshua Cofifin, his- 
 torian of Newbury, te'acher, scholar 
 and antiquarian, and one of the earli- 
 est advocates of slave emancii~)ation: 
 
 May his memory be kept green, to 
 use the words of Judge Sewall, 'so 
 long as Plum Island keeps its post 
 and a sturgeon leaps in Merrimac 
 River.' " The old South pilgrims 
 will look on no house more venerable 
 than the old Cofifin house; and they 
 will remember that Charles Carleton 
 Cofifin, who gave so many Old South 
 lectures and wrote so many books 
 for young Americans, was a descend- 
 ant of old Tristram, whose wife, 
 Dionis, sold good beer for three- 
 pence a quart. 
 
 One and another were fined for 
 entertaining Quakers. Aquila Chase 
 and his wife are presented and ad- 
 monished for picking peas on the 
 Sabbath day — the justice who ad- 
 monished them not divining that 
 their descendant far on, Salmon P. 
 Chase, would be chief justice of the 
 United States. "Nicholas Noyes's 
 wife. Hugh March's wife and William 
 Chandler's wife were each presented 
 for wearing a silk hood and scarfe," 
 but were discharged on proof that 
 their husbands were worth £200 
 each. Elizabeth Morse, the alleged 
 "witch," was condemned to death by 
 the Court of Assistants at Boston for 
 her sinful behavior, "instigated by 
 the Divil," but was saved by the firm- 
 ness of Governor Bradstreet. Here 
 IS an entry that gives a glimpse into 
 the church life: "October 18. 1700: 
 voted that a pew be built for the min- 
 ister's wife by the pulpit stairs fin the 
 new meeting-house], that Colonel 
 Daniel Pierce shall have the first 
 choice for a pew. and Major Thomas 
 Noyes shall have the next choice, and 
 that Colonel Daniel Pierce esquire 
 and Tristram Cofifin esquire be im- 
 powered to procure a bell of 400 
 pounds' weight." In 1714 Rev. 
 John Tufts published a tune-book, 
 which was sold for sixpence. It was 
 tlie first publication of the kind in 
 New England, containing twenty- 
 eight tunes. This at a time when four 
 or five tunes — York, Hackney. St. 
 ]\Iary, Windsor and Martyrs — were 
 the only tunes known in most places. 
 
THE OLD SOUTH FfLGRIMAGB TO NEW BURY PORT. 
 
 was certainly an ambitious enter- 
 prise. 
 
 Before the Revolution Ncwbury- 
 port had become a great shipbuilding- 
 centre ; in 1772, ninety vessels were 
 built here. But the Revolution and 
 the drain of men for the Essex regi- 
 ments checked the prosperity of the 
 place. Newburyport became a sepa- 
 rate town just in the exciting Stamp 
 Act times ; and the Newburyport 
 town meetings in the ten years before 
 Lexington were almost as energetic 
 as those in Boston. Newburyport 
 made a bonfire of her British tea be- 
 fore Boston pitched hers into the har- 
 bor. The rector of St. Paul's Church, 
 Rev. Edward Bass, afterwards first 
 Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts, 
 was occasionally hooted in the streets 
 as a Tory. Rev. Jonathan Parsons, 
 in the Old South Church, closed one 
 of his sermons in the spring of 1775 
 with an appeal to such of his hearers 
 as were ready to enlist to step out into 
 the broad aisle. Ezra Lunt was the 
 first to come forward ; and before the 
 meeting broke up there had been 
 raised within the church the first vol- 
 unteer company organized for service 
 in the Continental army, which after- 
 wards under Captain Lunt rendered 
 good service at Bunker Hill. It was 
 at Newburyport that the expedition 
 for the capture of Quebec, under Ben- 
 edict Arnold, in 1775, embarked on 
 board ten transports, and set sail from 
 the Merrimac for the Kennebec. The 
 troops were quartered in the town for 
 several days, and the ofificers, Arnold, 
 Aaron Burr, Morgan, Dearborn and 
 others, entertained by leading citi- 
 zens. On Sunday the troops, with 
 flags and drums, marched to the Old 
 South Church to hear their chaplain 
 preach. Of Newburyport's sufferings 
 during the Revolution some idea 
 may be gained from the fact that 
 twenty-two vessels, carrying a thou- 
 sand men, which left the town during 
 those years, were never afterwards 
 heard from, some perishing in storms 
 and some in combat. The city's trade 
 and commerce had hardlv revived 
 
 after the Revolution when the em- 
 l)argo in 1807 and the great fire of 
 181 1 struck their crushing blows. 
 
 We have spoken of Washington's 
 visit to the town in 1789. He was es- 
 corted by cavalry from Ipswich. 
 When he reached the dividing line 
 between Newbury and Newburyport, 
 a halt was made and an ode of wel- 
 come sung by a large chorus. In the 
 town an address prepared by John 
 Quincy Adams, then a student in the 
 office of Theophilus Parsons, was de- 
 livered, to which Washington re- 
 plied ; and there were fireworks, a re- 
 ception and great festivities. We 
 have a description of the town 
 at about this time, by President 
 Dwight of Yale College, who visited 
 it in T796. 
 
 "The town." he wrote, "is buiU on a de- 
 clivity of unrivalled beauty. The slope is 
 easy and elegant; the soil rich; the streets, 
 except one near the water, clean and sweet; 
 and the verdure, wherever it is visible, ex- 
 quisite. The streets are either parallel or 
 right-angled to the river, the southern 
 shore of which bends here towards the 
 southeast. . . . There are few towns of 
 equal l)eatUy in this country. The houses, 
 taken collectively, make a better appear- 
 ance than those of any other town in New 
 England. Many of them are particularly 
 handsome. Their appendages also are un- 
 usually neat. Indeed, an air of wealth, 
 taste and elegance is spread over this beau- 
 tiful spot, with a cheerfulness and bril- 
 liancy to which I know no rival." 
 
 We get another interesting glimpse 
 of the old town half a century farther 
 on in Colonel Higginson's "Cheer- 
 ful Yesterdays." Higginson, a young 
 radical of twenty-four, became the 
 minister of the First Religious Soci- 
 ety at Newburyport in 1847, ^"^^ 
 preached there for two years, quickly 
 becoming active in the temperance 
 agitation, the peace movement, the 
 woman's rights movement, social re- 
 form and antislavery. He writes in 
 his reminiscences: 
 
 "The parish, which at first welcomed me, 
 counted among its strongest supporters a 
 group of .retired sea-captains who had 
 traded with Charleston and New Orleans, 
 
THE OLD SOUTH PILCKLMACli TO NTAl'IUKYPORT. 
 
 and more tlian one of whom had found 
 himseh' obHgcd, after saihng from a south- 
 ern port, to put back in order to eject some 
 runaway slave from his lower hold. All 
 their prejudices ran in one direction, and 
 their view of the case differed from that of 
 Boston society only as a rope's end differs 
 from a rapier. One of them, perhaps the 
 (juietest, was the very Francis Todd who 
 had caused the imprisonment of Garrison 
 at Baltimore. It happened, besides, that 
 the one political hero and favorite son of 
 Newburyport, Caleb Gushing — for of Gar- 
 rison himself they only felt ashamed — was 
 at that moment fighting slavery's battles in 
 the Mexican war. It now seems to me 
 strange that, under all these circumstances, 
 I held my place for two years and a half. 
 Of course it cannot be claimed that I 
 showed unvarying tact: indeed. I can now 
 see that it was quite otherwise: but it was 
 a case where tact counted for little; in fact. 
 I think my sea-captains did not wholly 
 dislike my plainness of speech, though they 
 felt bound to discipline it: and moreover, 
 the whole younger community was on my 
 side. It did not help the matter that I let 
 myself be nominated for Congress by the 
 new 'Free Soil' party in 1848, and 
 stumped the district, though in a hopeless 
 minority. The nomination was Whittier's 
 doing, partly to prevent that party from 
 nominating him. . . . Having been, of 
 course, defeated for Congress, as I had 
 simply stood in a gap, I lived in Newbury- 
 port for more than two years longer, after 
 giving up my parish. This time was spent 
 in writing for newspapers, teaching private 
 classes in different studies, serving on the 
 school committee and organizing public 
 evening schools, then a great novelt}-. 
 The place was, and is, a manufacturing 
 town, and I had a large and intelligent 
 class of factory girls, mostly American, 
 who came to my house for reading and 
 study once a week. In this w'ork I en- 
 listed a set of young maidens of unusual 
 abilit3\ several of whom were afterward 
 well known to the world: Harriet Prescott. 
 afterwards Mrs. Spofford: I>ouisa Stone, 
 afterward Mrs. Hopkins (well known for 
 her educational writings) ; Jane Andrews 
 (author of "The Seven Little Sisters,' a 
 book which has been translated into 
 Chinese and Japanese): her sister Caroline, 
 afterward Mrs. Rufus Leighton (author of 
 "Life at Pup^et Sound'): and others not 
 their inferiors, though their names were 
 not to be found in print. I have never en- 
 countered elsewhere so noteworthy a 
 group of young women, and all that period 
 of work is a delightful reminiscence. My 
 youthful coadjutors had been trained in a 
 remarkably good school, the Putnam Free 
 School, kept by William H. Wells, a cele- 
 brated teacher: and I had his hearty co- 
 operation, and also that of Professor 
 
 Alpheu> Crosby, <jne of the best sciiolars 
 in New England, and then resident in 
 Newburyport. With his aid I established a 
 series of prizes for the best prose and 
 poetry written by the young people of the 
 town; and the first evidence given of the 
 unusual talents of Harriet Prescott Spof- 
 ford was in a very daring and original es- 
 say on 'Hamlet,' written at si.xteen, and 
 gaining the first prize. I had also to do 
 with the courses of lectures and concerts, 
 and superintended the annual Floral Pro- 
 cessions which were then a pretty feature 
 of the Fourth of July in Essex County. On 
 the whole, perhaps, I was as acceptable a 
 citizen of the town as could be reasonably 
 expected of one who Iiad preached himself 
 out of his pul])it." 
 
 This was the Newburyport which 
 Mary Hemenway, the founder of the 
 Old South work, used to visit as a 
 girl. She was Mary Tileston then. 
 Her mother's family had Newbury- 
 port roots : and her father, Thomas 
 Tileston, was from Haverhill — a 
 Merrimac Iviver man. In her youth 
 she spent one happy winter in Nevv- 
 l)uryport ; and to the last she had a 
 warm affection for the old town. 
 
 The first history of Newburyport 
 was a little book by Caleb Gushing, 
 "The History and Present State of 
 the Town of Newburyport." pub- 
 lished by its youthful author in 1826. 
 In 1845 came "The History of New- 
 bury. Newburyport and West New- 
 bury." by Joshua Coffin, to which we 
 have referred; and in 1854 "The His- 
 tory of Newburyport,"by Mrs. E. Vale 
 Smith. "( )uld Newbury," the charm- 
 ing volume of historical and bio- 
 graphical sketches, by John J. Currier, 
 with its hundred and more pictures 
 of all the interesting Newburyport 
 places and persons, appeared in 1896. 
 We have mentioned the article by 
 Mrs, SpofTord in Harper's Magaciiic 
 for July. 1875; and a fine illustrated 
 article upon the historic old town bv 
 Ethel Parton was published in the 
 New England Mag.\ztne for Oc- 
 tober. 1891. The Old South pilgrims 
 therefore will have no lack of good 
 reading about Newburyport. 
 
 The Old South young people 
 would be fortunate if thev could se- 
 
8 
 
 THE OLD SOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO XEJVBURYPORT. 
 
 cure the author of "Ould Newbury" 
 as one of their speakers at the little 
 celebration after their luncheon on 
 the June Saturday. Interesting in- 
 deed would be the talk in which he 
 could indulge. He could tell of the 
 graves of the famous fathers and 
 mothers in the First Parish burying- 
 ground in Newbury, in the Old Hill 
 burying-ground. the New Hill bury- 
 ing- ground and Oak Hill. He could 
 recite a score of curious old epitaphs, 
 like this upon Daniel Noyes at New- 
 bury : 
 
 "As you are, so was I. 
 God did call and I did dy. 
 Now children all. 
 Whose name is Noj'es, 
 Make Jesus Christ 
 Your only choice." 
 
 One descendant of one of the New- 
 buryport children named Noyes is 
 Mrs. William Dean Howells. As Mr. 
 and Mrs. Howells are spending the 
 summer at Annisquam, just across 
 the bay from Newburyport, they 
 should certainly be invited to join in 
 the pilgrimage. The antiquarian 
 could tell of poor Rebecca Raw- 
 son, whose romantic tale Whittier 
 has preserved for us in "Margaret 
 Smith's Journal," who, betrayed by 
 an adventurer pretending to be the 
 nephew of Lord Chief Justice Hale, 
 was swallowed up at last, in 1692, by 
 an earthquake, in Jamaica — a fate 
 more tragical than that of Agnes Sur- 
 riage, with her Lisbon earthquake. 
 He could tell of the sundry earth- 
 quakes which seem forever to have 
 been shaking Newburyport itself in 
 those early days. He could tell how 
 in 1695 a party of Indians fell upon 
 the home of Francis Brown on Tur- 
 key Hill, tomahawked a girl standing 
 at the front door, and took nine 
 women and children away captive. 
 He could tell of the house, now stand- 
 ing, at Turkey Hill, built in 1748 by 
 Colonel Moses Little, who led four 
 companies to Bunker Hill, and who 
 was officer of the day when Wasliing- 
 ♦on took command of the armv at 
 
 Cambridge. He could tell huw 
 Colonel Moses Titcomb served under 
 Pepperell at the siege of Louisburg 
 in 1745; and how Nathaniel Knapp 
 brought home from the second siege 
 of Louisburg in 1759 the great cast- 
 iron bomb-shell which now stands on 
 the stone post at the street corner 
 where he once lived. He could tell 
 of the great congregation which 
 thronged the old meeting-house in 
 Market Square in 1755 to give Colonel 
 Titcomb and his men its blessing as 
 they marched for Crown Point ; and 
 of Mr. Lowell's sermon from the text, 
 "Moses, my servant, is dead," when, 
 a few months later, the gallant 
 Colonel's body was brought home. 
 He could tell of the great feast be- 
 side the meeting-house, with the 
 broiled ox, when Quebec was cap- 
 tured. He could tell of Captain 
 Davenport and his Newburyport 
 compan}^ on the Plains of Abraham 
 when General Wolfe was killed ; and 
 of the old Wolfe Tavern, which 
 Davenport built just afterwards, with 
 the portrait of Wolfe swinging as a 
 sign from a lofty pole, — which tavern 
 in the Stamp Act days became the 
 great centre of sedition, a veritable 
 Green Dragon Tavern for Newbury- 
 port. He could tell how Benjamin 
 Franklin visited the town in 1754. and 
 studied the effects of the lightning 
 which struck the steeple of the old 
 meeting-house. He could tell how 
 Paul Revere cast the great bell which 
 until just now hung in the belfry of 
 St. Paul's. He could tell of the" old 
 farmhouse at Indian Hill, which Ben 
 Perley Poore, who loved it so well, 
 made a veritable historical museum. 
 He could tell the history of the great 
 elm on Parker Street, about which 
 Hannah Gould wrote her loving 
 verses. He could tell of the Wheel- 
 wrights, — Abraham, the artilleryman 
 and privateersman of the Revolu- 
 tion, one of the last who wore in 
 Newburyport knee-breeches and long 
 stockings ; and the energetic William, 
 who founded steamship lines and 
 built railroads in South America, and 
 
THE OLD SOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO K EWBLRYTORT. 
 
 wliose generous bequest now pays 
 the expenses of Newburyport boys at 
 the Institute of Technology. He 
 could tell of Lord Timothy Dexter, 
 who rated himself "the first in the 
 East, the first in the West, and the 
 greatest philosopher in the known 
 world." of his book, 'Tickle for the 
 Knowing Ones," and his grotesque 
 home, with its wooden statues, on 
 High Street. He could tell of Tris- 
 tram Dalton, one of the first two 
 senators elected to Congress from 
 Massachusetts, — of his mansion house 
 still standing on State Street, and his 
 farm on Pipe Stave Hill. "I do not 
 recollect any establishment in our 
 country, ".wrote Samuel Breck, who 
 visited him there in 1787, "that con- 
 tained generally so many objects 
 fitted to promote rational happiness. 
 From the piazza or front part of his 
 country house, the farms were so nu- 
 merous and the villages so thickly 
 planted that eighteen steeples were 
 in view." A visiting Frenchman 
 wrote: "He has fine apples, grapes 
 and pears ; but he complains that 
 children steal them, an offence readily 
 pardoned in a free country." Mr. 
 Breck observes rightly that "he was 
 unluckily elected" to the Senate. 
 "Home, that dear home where so 
 much felicity had been enjoyed, was 
 forsaken — temporarily, as they first 
 supposed, but everlastingly, as it 
 turned out." It is a melancholy 
 story, — Eben F. Stone, the Newbury- 
 port scholar, has told it best, — ending 
 at last with the grave in St. Paul's 
 churchyard. 
 
 Pipe Stave Hill lingered pleasantly 
 through life in the memory of Presi- 
 dent Felton of Harvard, the great 
 Greek scholar, who was a Newbury- 
 port boy, and who at the Newbury- 
 port celebration in 1854 said: "The 
 old training field, where an ancestor 
 of mine distinguished himself as 
 sergeant in a militia company, was to 
 me another Campus jNIartius ; the 
 beautiful Merrimac flowed, in my im- 
 agination, like the broad and bound- 
 less Hellespont of Homer ; and Pipe 
 
 Stave Hill rose like the (irecian 
 Olympus to the sky." 
 
 General Greely, who is now at the 
 head of the Weather Bureau, and is 
 therefore depended upon to give the 
 Old South pilgrims a rare June day, 
 is a native of Newburyport ; and on 
 his return voyage, after his terrible 
 Arctic sojourn, his ship first neared 
 the coast ofif the mouth of the Mer- 
 rimac, giving him for his first sight of 
 his own country the outlines of his 
 boyhood hills. 
 
 Many indeed have been the famous 
 lives which in one way or another 
 have touched Newburyj)ort. The 
 Old South pilgrims will think chiefly 
 of old Samuel Sewall, George White- 
 field. Theophilus Parsons. Caleb 
 Gushing, William Lloyd Garrison, 
 Whittier, James Parton and Harriet 
 Prescott Spofiford. Mrs. Spofford 
 still lives at the lovely home on Deer 
 Island in the Merrimac, to which the 
 old chain l^ridge, the first American 
 suspension bridge, leads, ^^'hittier's 
 loving sonnet to her husband, "R. S. 
 S. at Deer Island on the Merrimac," 
 will be remembered. James Parton's 
 home was on High Street, and his 
 grave is at Oak Hill. For nearly 
 twenty years Parton lived in Newbury- 
 port ; and the Old South young peo- 
 ple will be glad to be reminded, at this 
 centennial of Jeft'erson's election, that 
 his first work in Newburyport was his 
 Life of Jefiferson. which still remains 
 the best popular life. 
 
 On High Street too stands the old 
 home of Caleb Gushing. Gushing 
 was born in Salisbury in 1800, but the 
 family removed to Newburyport in 
 1802, and there, with the interrup- 
 tions brought by his public life, he 
 lived until his death in 1879. His 
 public life was indeed varied and dra- 
 matic. He represented Newburyport 
 in the legislature, and he was her first 
 mayor. He was four terms repre- 
 sentative in Congress, was minister 
 to China and minister to Spain. He 
 organized and was the colonel of the 
 only regiment that went from Massa- 
 chusetts to the Mexican A\^ar. He 
 
10 THE OLD SOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO NEWBURYPORT. 
 
 was a justice of the Supreme Judicial 
 Court of Massachusetts, attorney gen- 
 eral of the United States, and one of 
 the American counsel before the 
 Geneva tribunal. He was nominated 
 by President Grant to be chief justice 
 of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, but for political reasons was 
 not confirmed. 
 
 As famous a lawyer as Caleb Gush- 
 ing in his day was Theophilus Par- 
 sons; and his Newburyport house, 
 dating from 1789, and therefore of 
 just the same age as our national gov- 
 ernment, also still stands in good 
 preservation. No one did more than 
 he to secure the adoption of the na- 
 tional constitution by Massachusetts. 
 There studied in his Newburyport law 
 office, among others, Rufus King, 
 Robert Treat Paine, son of the signer 
 of the Declaration of Independence, 
 and John Ouincy Adams. A satirical 
 poem written by Adams at Newbury- 
 port created some consternation 
 among the young ladies there, whom 
 under fictitious names it described. 
 In 1806 Theophilus Parsons became 
 chief justice of the Supreme Court of 
 Massachusetts. 'His thoughts upon 
 his deathbed were of his judicial 
 duties ; and his last words were, "Gen- 
 tlemen of the jury, the case is closed 
 and in your hands." 
 
 Henry Sewall, of Coventry, Eng- 
 land, sent his son Henry to New Eng- 
 land in 1634, and shortly after came 
 himself. They were among the first 
 settlers of Newbury. In 1646 the son 
 married Jane Dumnier of Newbury, 
 and soon after went to England. 
 Samuel Sewall, their eldest son, was 
 born there in 1652. He came to 
 Newbury with his mother in 1661 — 
 his father had returned before — and 
 during his boyhood pursued his 
 studies under the direction of the 
 Rev. Thomas Parker, who resided in 
 the Noyes house, just across the way 
 from his own home. He graduated 
 from Harvard College in 1671 ; and 
 four or five years later was married 
 by Governor Bradstreet to Hannah 
 Hull, the daughter of John Hull, the 
 
 master of the mint and coiner of the 
 famous pine tree shillings. His life 
 was chiefly lived in Boston, and his 
 dust lies in the old Granary burying- 
 ground. He was one of the judges 
 of the special court for the trial of the 
 "witches" — for whose condemnation 
 he did public penance in the Old 
 South Church; and in 1718 he be- 
 came chief justice of the province. 
 His famous Diary is a unique reflec- 
 tion of the period. It shows in many 
 places how lovingly he remembered 
 Newburyport. He once expressed 
 the opinion that the millennium would 
 begin somewhere in the vicinity of 
 Oldtown meeting-house. The Diary 
 gives us the tender address which he 
 delivered at the grave of his mother. 
 The inscription on the stone that 
 marks the grave of his father and 
 mother in the old Newbury burying- 
 ground was undoubtedly written by 
 him. Pathos and humor jostle each 
 other in Samuel Sewall's IDiary ; and 
 the pilgrims will laugh at the follow- 
 ing letter written to Rev. Timothy 
 Woodbridge of Hartford in 1721, a 
 year after the death of the great 
 judge's second wife, — which takes us 
 back to his Newbury school days: 
 
 "I remember when I was going from 
 school at Newbury, I have sometimes met 
 your Sisters, Martha and Mary, at the end 
 of Mrs. Noyes's Lane, coming from 
 Schoole at Chandler's Lane, in their Hang- 
 ing Sleeves: and have had the pleasure of 
 Speaking with them: and I could find in 
 my heart to speak with Mrs. Martha again, 
 now I myself am reduc'd to my Hanging 
 Sleeves. . . . To cherish me in my ad- 
 vanced years (I was born March 28. 1652) 
 Methinks I could venture to lay my Weary, 
 head in her Lap, if it might be brought to 
 pass upon Honest Conditions. You know 
 your Sister's Age, and Disposition, and 
 Circumstances, better than I doe. I should 
 be glad of vour Advice in my Fluctuations. 
 S. S." 
 
 Hanging sleeves were over-sleeves 
 worn by children ; the old judge is 
 joking about his second childhood. 
 What answer came to this letter we 
 do not know. Evidently the suit did 
 not prosper : for Samuel Sewall the 
 next rear married the Widow Gibbs. 
 
THE OLD SOUTH mx: RIM AGE TO MlW'Bl'KYI'ORT. ii 
 
 It is interestino- to note in this con- 
 nection that the judg-e's sister, Annie 
 Sewall, married WilHam Long-fellow, 
 the first American ancestor of the 
 great poet ; for the Longfellow fam- 
 ily, too, had its roots in Xewlnu-v. and 
 "Brother Longfellow" comes often 
 into Samuel Sewall's Diary. 
 
 In truth, we begin to think that al- 
 most everybody has roots more or 
 less deep in Newburyport. Edward 
 Everett Hale, whom the Old South 
 young people love and revere so 
 deeply, and who is going with them 
 on their pilgrimage, has roots there 
 — his great-great-grandfather having 
 been Samuel Hale of Newburyport. 
 One Thomas Hale came to Newbury 
 in 1637 or 1638. He had a son 
 Thomas and a grandson Thomas. 
 This third Thomas weighed five hun- 
 dred pounds and had "a strong and 
 sonorous voice that could be heard at 
 a great distance." He was captain 
 of the militia and justice of the peace, 
 and "kept an ordinary and sold rum" ; 
 but he was not the ancestor^ of Ed- 
 ward Everett Hale. That ancestor 
 came to Newburyport from Beverly ; 
 l)ut his coming makes us think that 
 the Beverly Hales and the Newbury- 
 port family were related. Samuel 
 Hale and Richard Hale were two of 
 the hundred or more people who in 
 1745 united to form the Presb}-terian 
 (Old South) Church, under Rev. 
 Jonathan Parsons. 
 
 On Sunday morning, September 
 30. 1770. George Whitefield died in 
 Newburyport, at the residence of 
 Rev. Jonathan Parsons, on School 
 Street. It was just thirty years from 
 the day (September 30. 1740) when he 
 first preached in Newburyport, in the 
 old meeting-house in Market Square, 
 where Rev. John Lowell was then 
 ministering. He preached there 
 many times afterwards, always to 
 great throngs. It is perhaps White- 
 field's death and burial in Newbury- 
 port that have made the town most 
 famous round the world. If the Old 
 South young people are led by their 
 pilgrimage to new studies of the life 
 
 and influence of this great man, they 
 will receive at least one real inspira- 
 tion. Perhaps no other man ever 
 preached to such great multitudes or 
 affected nndtitudes so deeply. His 
 power touched England and America 
 alike, and iMigland and .\mcrica alike 
 mourned his loss. In London, be- 
 fore thousands, John Wesley preached 
 his funeral sermon ; and our young 
 students will read the j)oetical tributes 
 of Charles Wesley and of Cowper. 
 Seven times he visited America. 
 Samuel Adams and his sister as chil- 
 dren heard him preach on Boston 
 Connnon ; he died in the same year 
 that Samuel Adams and the Boston 
 town meeting gave the orders which 
 sent the British regiments from their 
 town to Castle William. "I would 
 fain die preaching," Whitefield 
 once said ; and practically he 
 did. He arrived at Newbury- 
 port, almost exhausted, late on 
 Saturday, from Portsmouth and 
 Exeter, where he had been preaching 
 great sermons to great crowds. 
 Neighbors and friends, eager to see 
 him. thronged about the parsonage 
 and, just as he had taken a candle and 
 was retiring to his chamber, even 
 pressed into the hall to hear him. 
 He paused on the staircase, holding 
 the candle above his head, and, al- 
 though weak and ill, spoke on to 
 tliem "until the candle burned away 
 and went out in its socket." The 
 next morning he was dead. On 
 Tuesday his funeral was held in the 
 Old South Church, which had been 
 founded as a result of his preaching; 
 and in a vault beneath the pulpit he 
 was laid to rest. The Bible that he 
 used in the church is carefully pre- 
 served and still used on special oc- 
 casions. The house in which he died 
 still stands, next to the house where 
 Garrison was born ; but it is now a 
 tenement house and not the parson- 
 age, and the l)road hall where the 
 people gathered and the staircase 
 from which Whitefield gave his last 
 message are gone. 
 
 As great an influence as White- 
 
12 THE OLD SOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO NEJl'BURYPORT. 
 
 field's was to be exercised by the boy 
 born under the shadow of the Old 
 South Church in December. 1805. 
 The young people will read anew of 
 the poverty and struggles of young 
 William Lloyd Garrison, of his faith- 
 ful mother, of his brief days at the old 
 Grammar School on the ^lall, of how 
 he earned his board by helping Dea- 
 con Bartlett, of how he led the "South 
 End" boys against the "North End- 
 ers," and how he swam across the 
 river to Great Rock. He joined the 
 choir of the Baptist church while yet 
 a boy. The first psalm tune he ever 
 learned was the 34th Psalm: 
 
 "Through all the changing scenes of life, 
 In trouble and in joy," 
 
 which our pilgrims should sing as part 
 of their programme ; and "Wicklow" 
 he first heard at the singing-school in 
 Belleville (part of Newburyport). 
 "where there were lots of boys and 
 pretty girls." To the end of his life 
 he sang these tunes, with "Corona- 
 tion," ""Hebron," "Ward." "Den- 
 mark," "Lenox" and "Majesty," 
 each Sunday morning. How by and 
 by he got a chance to set type in the 
 Herald office ; began soon to write 
 communications to the paper ; and in 
 1826 established a paper of his own, 
 The Free Press, which he edited for a 
 year, then leaving Newburyport for 
 Boston, — these things the young folks 
 know. He was a most skilful and 
 accurate printer, and he celebrated 
 tlie sixtieth anniversary of his appren- 
 ticeship, in 1878, by visiting New- 
 buryport and once more setting type 
 in the office of the Herald. He put 
 three of his own sonnets into type 
 with amazing rapidity and without a 
 single error. It is in The Free Press 
 that we have his first words on slav- 
 ery. He commends a poem which 
 denounces slavery ; and in an editorial 
 on the approaching "Fourth of July," 
 with suggestions for the orators, he 
 says: "There is one theme which 
 should be dwelt upon, till our whole 
 country is free from the curse — it is 
 
 SL.WERY." 
 
 "Our Country, Our Whole Coun- 
 try, and Nothing but Our Country" 
 was the motto chosen for The Free 
 Press. The motto of the Liberator, 
 founded five years later, was "C)ur 
 Country is the World — Our Country- 
 men are Mankind." That measured 
 the young reformer's advance. It 
 was a Newburyport friend, Isaac 
 Knapp, who was associated with Gar- 
 rison in foimding the Liberator. 
 When the New England Antislavery 
 Society was formed in 1832, three of 
 the twelve who formed it were from 
 Newburyport or Newbury. Whittier 
 said that "the town must be regarded 
 as the Alpha and Omega of antislav- 
 ery agitation, beginning with its abo- ^ 
 lition deacon and ending with Garri- 
 son." Its abolition deacon was Ben- 
 jamin Colman, who as early as 1780 
 was in hot controversy on the sub- 
 ject. It was gratifying to Garrison to 
 know that John Lowell, author of the 
 freedom clause in the Massachusetts 
 Constitution, was born in Newbury- 
 port ; and he might have remembered 
 that Samuel Sewall in 1710 published 
 a tract against slavery, entitled "The 
 Selling of Joseph." "In 1716," the 
 old judge says in his Diary, "I es- 
 sayed to prevent negroes and Indians 
 being rated with horses and cattle, 
 but could not succeed." When the 
 thick of the fight with slavery came, 
 Garrison found church doors closed 
 against him in Newburyport as well 
 as elsewhere ; and some of his sharp 
 invectives are against his native place. 
 Yet in the midst of his persecutions 
 by friends and foes alike, his love for 
 his birthplace found expression in the 
 followino- sonnet: 
 
 '\N'helher a persecuted child of thine 
 Thou deign to own, my lovely native 
 
 place! 
 In characters that time can not efface. 
 Thy worth is graved tipon this heart of 
 
 mine. 
 Forsake me not in anger, nor repine 
 That with this nation I am in disgrace: 
 From ruthless bondage to redeem my 
 race. 
 And save my country, is my great design. 
 
THE OLD SOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO NEWBURYPORT. i? 
 
 How niucli soe'er my conduct thou dost 
 blame 
 (For Hate and Calumny belie my 
 course), 
 Aly labors shall not sully thy fair fame; 
 But they shall be to thee a fountain- 
 source 
 Of joyfulness hereafter — when my name 
 Shall e'en from tyrants a high tribute 
 force." 
 
 The tribute from Newburyport 
 came on the 22d of February, 1865, 
 when, after the passao;e of the thir- 
 teenth amendment, forever abohsh- 
 ing slavery in the United States. Gar- 
 rison, responding^ to the greeting' and 
 invitation of his old townsmen, de- 
 livered an address to an audience 
 which packed the City Hall to over- 
 flowing and received him with great 
 enthusiasm. It was for this occasion 
 that Whittier wrote his noble Eman- 
 cipation Hymn. 
 
 The most important episode of Gar- 
 rison's editorial career in Newbury- 
 port was his discovery of Whittier. 
 One day he found under the door of 
 his ofifice a poem entitled "The Exile's 
 Departure," signed "W." Whittier's 
 sister had sent it without her brother's 
 knowledge. Great was the young 
 poet's amazement when, working with 
 his father by the roadside mending a 
 stone wall, the Free Press containing 
 his verses came into his hands. An- 
 other poem followed ; and then the 
 young editor drove out to East 
 Haverhill to find his new contributor. 
 The story is w^ell known ; and this 
 was the beginning of Whittier's poet- 
 ical career. 
 
 Whittier's own associations with 
 Newburyport were intimate. "Al- 
 though i can hardly call myself a son 
 of the ancient town," he wrote, "my 
 grandmother, Sarah Greenleaf, of 
 blessed memory, was its daugh- 
 ter, and I may therefore claim to be 
 its grandson. Its genial and learned 
 historian. Joshua Coffin, was my first 
 school-teacher, and all my life I have 
 lived in sight of its green hills and in 
 hearing of its Sabbath bells. ... Its 
 history and legends are familiar to me. 
 I seem to have known all its old wor- 
 
 thies." He recalls proudly how "more 
 than two centuries ago, when Major 
 Pike, just across the river, stood up 
 and denounced in open town meeting 
 the law against freedom of conscience 
 and worship, and was in consequence 
 fined and outlawed, some of New- 
 bury's best citizens stood bravely by 
 him ;" and how "the Quakers 
 whipped at Hampton on the one hand 
 and at Salem on the other, went back 
 and forth unmolested in Newbury." 
 "Among the blessings which I would 
 gratefully own," he wrote, "is the fact 
 that my lot has been cast in the beau- 
 tiful valley of the Merrimac. within 
 sight of Newbury steeples. Plum 
 Island, and Crane Neck and Pipe 
 Stave hills." In the home of his 
 cousin, Joseph Cartland. in Newbury- 
 port, he spent many of his later days. 
 A score of his poems touch Newbury- 
 port ; and it is he who has transfig- 
 ured the old town. Thomas Macy, 
 in his memorable race from the 
 sheriff and the priest, in "The Ex- 
 iles," glided in his boat past Deer 
 Island's rocks and Newbury's spire. 
 In thinking of "The Swan Song of 
 Parson Avery," we remember that 
 "Parson Avery sailed from Newbury, 
 with his wife and children eight," and 
 that, after the wreck, "in the stricken 
 church of Newbury the notes of 
 prayer were read." "The Double- 
 headed Snake of Newbury" is based 
 on a tale which descends from Cotton 
 Mather. In "Miriam" we have the 
 beautiful picture of the view towards 
 Newburyport and the ocean from 
 Powow Hill, beside the poet's Ames- 
 bury home. "The Bay of Seven 
 Islands" is associated pleasantly with 
 Harriet Prescott Spofford and her 
 home "among Deer Island's imme- 
 morial pines." and tells of the trag- 
 ical fate which l)efell the brave young 
 skipper who sailed from the Alerri- 
 mac's mouth and never again came 
 back. The "Tent on the Beach" was 
 pitched on Salisbury beach toward 
 the Hampton meadows. "The 
 Hampton river winds through these 
 meadows, and the reader may, if he 
 
14 THE OLD SOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO NEW BURY PORT. 
 
 choose, imagine my tent pitched near 
 its mouth, where also was the scene 
 of the 'Wreck of Rivermouth.' The 
 green bhif¥ to the northward is Great 
 Boar's 'Head ; southward is the Merri- 
 mac with Newburyport hfting its 
 steeples above brown roofs and green 
 trees on its banks." The reader will 
 remember that at the close of "The 
 Tent on the Beach," when the singer 
 had sung "The harp at Natiu^e's ad- 
 vent strung," and the traveller had 
 said: "Allah il AllaUr 
 
 "He paused, and !o! far, faint and slow. 
 The bells in Newbury's steeples tolled 
 The twelve dead hours." 
 
 The little poem entitled "Our State" 
 was written for the dedication of a 
 new schoolhouse in Newbury ; and 
 there could be no better hymn for the 
 (^Id South pilgrims in their program 
 than its last three verses. 
 
 Nowhere else is the spirit of White- 
 field, "whose memory hallows the an- 
 cient town," so impressively revealed 
 as in "The Preacher," greatest of the 
 Newburyport poems, and one of the 
 greatest of all of Whittier's poems: 
 
 "Under the church of Federal Street, 
 Under the tread of its Sabbath feet. 
 Walled about by its basement stones, 
 Lie the marvellous preacher's bones. 
 No saintly honors to them are shown. 
 No sign nor miracle have they known: 
 But he who passes the ancient church 
 Stops in the shade of its belfry-porch, 
 And ponders the wonderful life of him 
 Who lies at rest in that charnel dim. 
 Long shall the traveller strain his eye 
 From the railroad car, as it plunges by. 
 And the vanishing town behind him 
 
 search 
 For the slender s])ire of the Whitefield 
 
 Church; 
 And feel for one moment the ghosts of 
 
 trade. 
 And fashion, and folly, and plesaure laid. 
 By the thought of that life of pure intent. 
 That voice of warning yet eloquent. 
 Of one on the errands of angels sent." 
 
 "The Prophecy of Saiuuel Sewall" 
 will unite in the minds of the Old 
 South pilgrims the Old South Meet- 
 
 ing-house in Boston, in which the old 
 judge did penance for his part in the 
 witchcraft courts, and his boyhood 
 home, to which they go on the June 
 Saturday. It gives beautiful pictures 
 of the Newbury hills and homes, and 
 rhymes the famous prophecy which 
 "the Judge of the old Theocracy" 
 IM'onounced for Newbury. The Old 
 South pilgrims will like to compare 
 the poet's version with the judge's 
 own words, as we have them in his 
 "New Heaven upon a New Earth ;" 
 and as they come away they will all 
 pray that the grass may ever be green 
 on ' the Newbury hills, the doves 
 happy in the trees, and Christians 
 plentiful in the homes. 
 
 "As long as PhDU Island shall faithfully 
 keep the commanded Post: Notwithstand- 
 ing the hectoring words and hard Blows of 
 the proud and boisterous Ocean; As long 
 as any Salmon or Sturgeon shall swim in 
 the streams of Merrimack : or any Perch, or 
 Pickeril in Cram Pond : As long as the Sea 
 Fowl shall know the Time of their coming 
 and not neglect seasonably to visit the 
 Places of their Acquaintance; As long as 
 any Cattel shall be fed with the Grass 
 growing in the Meadows, which do humbly 
 bow themselves beforeTurkie Hill; As long 
 as any Sheep shall walk upon Old Totvn 
 Hills, and shall from thence look down 
 upon the River Parker, and the fruitful 
 Marshes lying beneath; As long as any free 
 and harmless Doves shall find a white Oak 
 or other Tree within the Township, to 
 ])erch. or feed, or build a careless Nest 
 upon; and shall voluntarily present them- 
 selves to perform the office of Gleaners 
 after Barley- Harvest ; As long as Xafitre 
 shall not grow Old and dote; but shall 
 constantly remember to give the rows of 
 Indian Corn their education, by Pairs; so 
 long shall Christians be born there: and 
 being first made meet, shall from thence be 
 Translated to be made partakers of the In- 
 heritance of the Saints in Light. Now. 
 seeing the Inhabitants of S^ewhiiry. and of 
 \'c7i' llngland. upon the due Observance of 
 their Tenure, may expect that theii" Rich 
 and gracious LORD will continue and 
 confirm them in the Possession of these 
 invaluable Privileges: Let us have grase, 
 ivherchy ivc may serve God acceptably zvith 
 Re-<rrence and godly Fear. For our Cod is a 
 consnmiiii' Fire.^' 
 
Old South Leaflets. 
 
 The Directors of the Old South Studies in History 
 ask the attention of schools and of all students of Ameri- 
 can history to the Old South Leaflets. These leaflets are 
 reprints of important original papers, accompanied by 
 useful historical and bibliographical notes. They are 
 edited by Mr. Edwin D. Mead. They consist, on an 
 average, of sixteen pages, and are sold at the low price of 
 
 five cents a copy or four dollars per hundred, simply 
 enough to cover the cost of publication. The Old South 
 Work, founded by Mrs. Mary Hemenway and still sus. 
 tained by provision of her will, is a work for the education of the people, and especially 
 the education of our young people, in American history and politics; and its promoters 
 believe that few things can contribute better to this end than the wide circulation o* 
 such leaflets as these. The aim is to bring valuable historical documents, often not 
 easily accessible, within easy reach of everybody. It is hoped that professors in our 
 colleges and teachers everywhere will welcome them for use in their classes, and that 
 they may meet the. needs of the societies of young men and women now being or- 
 ganized in so many places for historical and political studies. There are at present 
 one hundred leaflets in the series, and others will rapidly follow. The following are the 
 titles of those now readv : — 
 
 1. The Constitution ov the United 
 States. 
 
 2. The Articles ok CoNFEDERArioN. 
 
 3. The Declaration of Independence. 
 
 4. Washington's Farewell Address. 
 
 5. Magna Charta. 
 
 6. Vane's " Healing Question." 
 
 7. Charter of Massachusetts ISay, 
 1629. 
 
 8. Fundamental Orders of Connect- 
 icut, 1638. 
 
 9. Franklin's PiJitf of Union, 1754. 
 
 10. Washington's Inaugurals. 
 
 11. Lincoln's Inaugurals and Eman- 
 cipation Proclamation. 
 
 12. The Federalist, Nos. i and 2. 
 
 13. The Ordinance of 1787. 
 
 14. The Constitution of Ohkj. 
 
 15. Washington's Circular Letter to 
 THE Governors of the States, 1783. 
 
 16. Washington's Letter to Benjamin 
 Harrison, 17S4. 
 
 17. Verrazzano's Voyage. 
 
 18. The S\viss Constitution. 
 
 19. The Bill of Rights, 1689. 
 
 20. Coronado's Letter to Mendoza, 
 1540. 
 
 21. Eliot's Narrative, 1670. 
 
 22. Wheelock's Narrative, 1762. 
 
 23. The Petition of Rights, 1628 
 
 24. The Grand Remonstrance, 1641. 
 
 25. The Scottish National Covenant, 
 1638. 
 
 26. The Agreement of the J'eopi.e, 
 164S-9. 
 
 27. The Instrument ok Government 
 
 >6S3- 
 
 28. Cromwell's First Speech, 1653. 
 
 29. The Discovery of America, from 
 THE Life of Columbus by his Son, Fer- 
 dinand Columbus. 
 
 30. Strabo's Introduction to Geog- 
 raphy. 
 
 31. The Voyages to Vinland, from 
 the Saga of Eric the Red. 
 
 32. Marco Polo's Account of Japan 
 AND Java. 
 
 33. Columbus's Letter to Gabriel 
 Sanchez, describing the First Voyage 
 AND Discovery. 
 
 34. Amerigo Vespucci's Account ok 
 his First Voyage. 
 
 35. Cortes's Account of the City of 
 Mexico. 
 
 36. The Death of De Soto, from the 
 "Narrative of a Gentleman of Elvas." 
 
 37. Early Notices of the Voyages 
 of the Cabots. 
 
 38. Henry Lee's Funeral Oration on 
 Washington. 
 
 39. De Vaca's Account of his Journey 
 to New Mexico, 1535. 
 
 40. Manasseh Cutler's Description 
 of Ohio, 1787. 
 
 41. Washington's Journal of his Tour 
 to the Ohio, 1770. 
 
 42. Garfield's Address on the North- 
 west Territory and the Western Re- 
 serve. 
 
 [Over] 
 
OLD SOUTH LEAFLETS. 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 0014 077 750 ft 
 
 43. George Rogers Clark's Account 
 OF THE Capture of Vincennes, 1779. 
 
 44. Jefferson's Life of Captain Meri- 
 wether Lewis. 
 
 45. Fremont's Account of his Ascent 
 of Fremont's Peak. 
 
 46. Father Marquette at Chicago, 
 
 1673- 
 
 47. Washington's Account of the 
 Army at Cambridge, 1775. 
 
 48. Bradford's Memoir of Elder 
 Brewster. 
 
 49. Bradford's First Dialogue. 
 
 50. WiNTHROP's " Conclusions for the 
 Plantation in New England." 
 
 51. "New England's First Fruits," 
 1643. 
 
 52. John Eliot's "Indian Grammar 
 Begun." 
 
 53. John Cotton's " God's Promise to 
 his Plantation." 
 
 54. Letters of Roger Williams to 
 Winthrop. 
 
 55. Thomas Hooker's "Way of the 
 Churches of New England." 
 
 56. The Monroe Doctrine. 
 
 57. The English Bible. 
 
 58. Letters of Hooper to Bullinger. 
 
 59. Sir John Eliot's "Apologie for 
 Socrates." 
 
 60. Ship-money Papers. 
 
 61. Pym's Speech against Strafford. 
 
 62. Cromwell's Second Speech. 
 
 63. A Free Commonwealth, by John 
 Milton. 
 
 64. Sir Henry Vane's Defence, 1662. 
 
 65. Washington's Addresses to the 
 Churches. 
 
 66. Winthrop's "Little Speech" on 
 Liberty. 
 
 67. The Bostonian Ebenezer, by Cot- 
 ton Mather. 
 
 68. The Destruction of the Tea, by 
 Thomas Hutchinson. 
 
 69. Description of the New Nether- 
 lands, BY Adrian Van der Donck. 
 
 70. Debate on the Suffrage in Con- 
 gress. 
 
 71. Columbus's Memorial to Ferdi- 
 nand AND Isabella. 
 
 72. The Dutch Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 73. The Battle of Quebec. 
 
 74. Hamilton's Report on the Coin- 
 age. 
 
 75. William Penn's Plan for the 
 Peace of Europe. 
 
 76. Washington's Words on a Na- 
 tional University. 
 
 77. Cotton Mather's Lives of Brad- 
 ford and Winthrop. 
 
 78. The First Number of the Liberator. 
 
 79. Wendell Phillips's Eulogy of 
 Garrison. 
 
 80. Theodore Parker's Address on 
 the Dangers from Slavery. 
 
 81. Whittier's Account of the Anti- 
 slavery Convention of 1833. 
 
 82. Mrs. Stowe's Story of " Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin." 
 
 83. Sumner's Speech on the Crime 
 against Kansas. 
 
 84. The Words of John Brown. 
 
 85. The First Lincoln and Douglas 
 Debate. 
 
 86. Washington's Capture of Boston. 
 
 87. Morton's Manners and Customs 
 OF the Indians, 1637. 
 
 88. Hubbard's Beginning and End 
 OF King Philip's War, 1677. 
 
 89. Founding of St. Augustine, 1565. 
 Menendez. 
 
 90. Amerigo Vespucci's Account of 
 HIS Third Voyage. 
 
 91. Founding of Quebec, 1608. 
 
 92. First Voyage to the Roanoke, 
 1584. 
 
 93. Settlement of Londonderry, N.H. 
 
 94. Discovery of the Hudson River. 
 
 95. Pastorius's Description of Penn- 
 sylvania, 1700. 
 
 96. AcRELius's Description of New 
 Sweden. 
 
 97. Lafayette in the American Rev- 
 olution. 
 
 98. Letters of Washington and La- 
 fayette. 
 
 99. Washington's Letters on the 
 Constitution. 
 
 100. Robert Browne's " Reformation 
 without Tarrying for Any." 
 
 101. The Introduction to Grotius's 
 " Rights of War and Peace." 
 
 102. Columbus's Account of Cuba. 
 
 The leaflets are also furnished in bound volumes, each volume containing twenty ' 
 five leaflets: vol. i., Nos. 1-25; vol. ii., 26-50; vol. iii., 51-75; vol. iv., 76-100. Pric^ 
 per volume, $1.50. Title-pages with table of contents will be furnished to all pur- 
 chasers of the leaflets who wish to bind them for themselves. 
 Single Leaflets, 5 cents ; $4.00 per 100. 
 
 DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, 
 Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass. 
 
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 Conservation Resources 
 Lig-Free® Type I 
 
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 nF CONGBESS 
 
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 * 7014 077 750 A