posted 11-04-2010 11:52 PM            

I am wondering if this manuscript has ever been published?

I OCR’d the TOC & the first couple of chapters:

Chapter                                             Page

1. First E-William The Settler              1
   
2. ...Then William His Son                5
   
3. Gentleman Joseph                        11
   
4. Moultons Make Their                     15
   
5. Federalist Ferment                        22
   
6. Silversmiths—And To Spare            29
   
7. Sheffield and Shopkeeping              36
   
8. Mr. Towle and Mr. Jones                 43
   
9. Craftsmanship Incorporated            49
   
10. Two Gentlemen of the Old School    60
    
11. Solid Management, Solid Silver        66
    
12. Mr. Kinsman and Mr. Nock              76
    
13. Co-Captains Navigate a "Taut Ship" 81
    
14. A Heritage on Trial                        92
    
15. Towle Today                               99
    Acknowledgments
    Bibliography

FIRST WILLIAM THE SETTLER
CHAPTER I

Authorities disagree as to William's age when he took the momentous step of sailing as "servant to Captain Page", according to the ship's roster. Captain Page was in command of the ship. William's age is given as seventeen in some accounts but twenty in others. At all events he did not remain a servant long as, on the lengthy and dangerous voyage, he employed some time both pleasantly and profitably in courting the captain‘s daughter, Margaret Page. his wooing could not have taken place while strolling around the deck or leaning over the rail to watch the waves; as a young and able-bodied stripling, he must have been called upon to do many services around the ship tesides waiting on the captain's family. However, he managed to change his condition from servant to prospective son-in-law and he and Margaret were married not long after the ship's arrival in Ipswich.

Most of the ship's passengers stayed only a few months in Ipswich, since the little colony was crowded with emigrants and food was becoming scarce. Mr. Henry W. Moulton who compiled the "Annals of the Moulton Family" states positively that Captain Page, with members of his family, moved from Agawam to Newbury, in 1635. Two historians of Newbury, John James Currier and Joshua Coffin, do not name either Page or Moulton in their lists of the first arrivals in Newbury from Ipswich, but Coffin does mention the fact that there were some persons who cane in the group "whose names are not known with certainty". Page and Moulton may have belonged to this anonymous number.

Elder Parker, lately of Newbury, England, led this band a few miles along the coast to the Indian territory of Quascecunquen, north of Agawam, soon to be named Newbury in honor of their leader. The ship entered the river, now named the Parker, passed the sandy bulwark of Plum Island, and proceeded slowly through low marshlands, still brown even in May, to a small beach where the passengers disembarked. One Nicholas Noyes, it is said, was the first passenger to leap ashore; in this day, a long line of Noyeses occupies a segment of the Newburyport telephone directory. Also, Newburyport history bristles with Noyeses.

The time of the Newbury settlement was the era of the Great Migration. Hundreds of colonists left England chiefly because of the religious persecutions of the period, but also to secure land for themselves and their descendants, rather than to remain tenants of the lords of the English manors. They were welcomed almost with ardor by the Great and General Court of Boston, as the Assembly of the Massachusetts Bay Colony grandly styled itself. The policy of the early governors was to remove as many of the new arrivals north as rapidly as possible, so the Court handed out grants of land most generously to whomever was qualified to receive them. By taking up land along the coast. the emigrants would serve as a buffer against the French who were pushing south from Canada Newbury was strategically located in this politically-motivated effort and more over had great possibilities for farming and husbandry, as the leaders of the expedition to Quascacunqucn correctly assumed.

The Newbury leaders, at this time, were unquestionably Elder Parker and his nephew, James Noyes, with whom Elder Parker, a bachelor, made his home. The minister, it is said, had "a most delicate and sweet voice", but he never hesitated to raise it in behalf of his convictions. He demanded that he and a committee of parishioners of whom he approved, to the number of seven, should direct the affairs, not only of the church but of the town as well. Because "selected" in this way, they became known as selectmen this procedure was not peculiar, of course, to Newbury. Newbury had a number of residents whose voices may not have been as musical as Parker's, but whose ideas were quite as adamant. They argued that the government of the settlement, if not the church, should be placed in the hands of chosen representatives of the people. The question of citizenship in the perish was also an issue. The quarrel raged for years and the General Court in Boston was several times called upon to settle knotty points.

Sometimes such high affairs excited the tiny settlement, but a good scandal gave more zest to the village gossips who ordinarily had nothing more thrilling to dwell upon than the arrival of a stranger on horseback or the birth of twin calves to Farmer Ilsley's cow. How delightfully shocking then when some villains (teenagers probably) broke into the meeting-house and destroyed the enclosure and benches where some of the young; women of the parish had been given permission to sit during the services--a privilege which was evidently hotly resented. And then there was the shocking conduct of Mistress Hugh March and Mistress William Chandler who actually wore sill: hoois and scarves to meeting. Their husbands were summoned before the magistrates without delay and had to prove that they were each worth over two hundred pounds apiece, which affluence made such a display quite lawful.

It is doubtful whether William Moulton's wife would have been eligible for such luxuries since he remained in a lowly position during his stay in Newbury. Although married--happily, it seems--to a captain's daughter, his fortunes did not brighten until he removed, with his father-in-law's family, north to Hampton, in the present State of New Hampshire. Two of his brothers, Thomas and John Moulton– who seems to have preceded him across the ocean--had settled there on grants of land side by side, and it may be that this circumstance had something to do with the change of residence.

In Hampton William prospered, acquiring a house, fields, pasturage, and herds of sheep and goats. His first grant of land was for only ten acres, while Capt. Page was allotted forty. This was in accordance with the ruling in London that each person who brought forty pounds with him should have two hundred acres; the less money, the fewer acres.

But William, sadly enough, did not live many years to enjoy his improved condition. He died in 1663 at the age of forty-seven "of a long and wasting illness", probably tuberculosis. He left his wife and nine children his house and barn were given to his oldest son, James, but his widow was assigned half of the double house and two orchards for her lifetime or until she remarried. The two oldest sons were instructed to give her sufficient hay for her cattle and annually to provide her with twenty loads of wood, twenty-five bushels of corn, fourteen of wheat, and five "of a good grade of malt for brewing beer". To each of his children he bequeathed a favorite horse and one or more cows, besides sums of money. The last item of the will reads as follows: "I do appoint concerning my child which is yet unborn, that, if God give it life until it comes to the age of fourteen, it shall choose a guardian and then my two sons, Joseph and Benjamin shall pay unto the said child the sum of five pounds to be improved in the hands of said guardian for the profit of said child until it comes of age."

It is gratifying to think of William Moulton coming to this wild country empty-handed and a mere toy, then prospering even if in a small way. His must have been a fortunate life, blessed with sufficient wealth, reliable children, and a wife for whom he felt the tenderest affection, judging by the anxious care he expressed for her in his will.

THEN WILLIAM HIS SON
CHAPTER II

Why he made his way to Newbury, we can only conjecture, His brothers were doing well in Hampton, but perhaps they demanded too much from their young sibling. His mother had re-married and there were two or three younger children crowding the farmhouse. Possibly he and his step-father did not get along amiably. But family affairs may not have entered into it at all--it may only have been the adventurousness of youth and the desire to mare his own may that caused him to leave his birthplace. At all events, he set off by himself with his legacy and the interest that had accrued to it in his pocket and arrived shortly at the ferry in Newbury, across the Merrimac River from Amesbury.

Whoever sees the place now can hardly conceive of it as it was in William's day, a tiny but flourishing community, with an inn, a tannery, a that-building yard, and several houses. The houses must have had barns, live-stock, and well-kept fields belonging to them. Today, in order to find the ferry landing, one follows a country dirt road which rapidly becomes an overgrown footpath and shortly all trace of that is lost among underbrush, tall stalks of wild asters and goldenrod, and third or fourth-growth trees closing in and hiding all view of the river. The wilderness has taken over!

But, who knows? With the present need for housing a new real estate development may mushroom there at any moment, producing a twentieth century version of the ancient Amesbury Ferry settlement.

At the tannery, located on the river at Bartlott's Cove, near the situation of the present Newburyport water works, William got his first job, the very unromantic one of “thawing” and curing hides. The Bartlett brothers who ran the tannery were important members of that tiny community which also contained Chases, Merrills, Poors, and Woodmans, all names which are still familiar in west Newbury or have been until fairly recently. William doubtless realized his good fortune in being employed by the leading citizens. Of course he had to work long hours, but he evidently had time to become acquainted in the neighborhood. On one of the outlying farms lived the Webster family (ancestors of the famous statesman, Daniel Webster) who had a young daughter, Abigail. William decided that Abigail would wake him a good wife and, after some time of courtship, they were married in 1685, ten days after his twenty-first birthday.

Abigail oust have been a prudent and thrifty wife for William, as Old Newbury records show, was taxed, in 1688, for two houses, one horse, one ox, two cows, and six sheep. The house where they lived was on the Terry Road; when it was torn down in the middle of the nineteenth century, the date l683 was found, carved on one of the rafters. It had been abandoned many years, but a later Moulton--not one of the Goldsmith line--rescued the old doorstone and had it installed at the entrance of a grand new dwelling built on Moulton Hill in the l880s. This edifice was constructed of wood, but had many attributes of a medieval castle with turrets, towers, and battlements, causing Moulton Hill to be re-christened Castle Hill, a name which still clings to it, although the "castle" has long since disappeared.

William soon branched out from the tannery. He managed a small store and erected a mill for making fuller’s earth, a clay-like substance used to clean dirt and grease from wool. He also bought land near the rocky caves of Devil's Den where limestone had been found, and converted it by burning, into the quicklime needed by Colonial masons. And, most significantly for this story, he built a smithy, providing the community with the services of both a blacksmith and a "whitesmith", one who worked with tin or pewter, also finishing and polishing iron.

Here, for the first time, the mention of silver comes into the Moulton legend, but it seems to be only a legend, unverifiable by fact. There is a well-known tradition that this William made small silver articles at this forge, such as shoe and knee-buckles, silver buttons, and an occasional silver spoon as well, employing an itinerant smith versed in such craftsmanship. However, no piece of silver with his mark has ever been found and, in the inventory of his estate, no mention of goldsmith tools is given.

There is no doubt whatever about other activities of William's busy life. He was influential in the establishment of Queen Anne's Chapel of the Church of England, in West Newbury. The church of the Puritan majority in Newbury fought vigorously against allowing Her Majesty’s religion to be recognized. Eventually the General Court in Boston gave reluctant consent to the erection of a chapel and William helped the Bartletts to build it, in great haste lest the permission he withdrawn. The little chapel which, when Finished, had only fifteen members, was denied an ordained minister to preach there and hold services, for some time. Since the tithing-men of Newbury were zealous in seeing that all residents of the town attended worship every Sunday and the powerful First Church was several miles from the ferry settlement, there may have been other reasons than doctrinal fervor behind the plan for a near-by chapel. Even our hardy ancestors may have enjoyed sleeping a little late on a Sunday morning! But it would be unfair to attribute such unworthy inclinations to William and the Bartletts. They were evidently ardent and sincere believers in the doctrine and creed of the Church of England. William even believed in giving his Indian employee the advantages of religion, as one of the names on the chapel roster was that of "Dinah-Indian servant of William Moulton. Joined in 1698". It was most unusual to have an Indian enrolled on a parish record.

It cannot be said that the chapel flourished for there was much acrimonious argument with members of the First Church and even vandalism against the building. Moreover the clergyman sent to officiate in its pulpit were not of the best caliber. Queen Anne, however, as a gracious patroness, sent it a gift of some church silver. Eventually the diocese transferred the charter to St. Paul‘s Church in Newbury and the chapel, deserted, by its congregation, fell into decay. The silver was also transferred to St. Paul’s and was stolen from there many years later. In the present Belleville Cemetery a beautiful Gothic cross in stone marks the place where Queen Anne's Chapel once stood.

As the l7th century drew to a close the long struggles of the French and Indian wars began. Cleverly incited hy the French, Indians who had fled north from advancing English settlers, new returned on vengeful raids. Maine, New Hampshire, and the new settlements west of Boston witnessed shocking massacres, but the eastern seaboard of Massachusetts suffered only a few attacks. One, however, was in West Newbury, uncomfortably close to the Amesbury ferry. A band of Indians descended on a remote farmhouse after the men had driven into town with a cartload of produce. The women and children were herded off by warriors who first killed a baby and set fire to the house. One girl, however, escaped to give the alarm and the militia assembled under the command of Captain Stephen Greenleaf, an old hand at Indian warfare. Following his strategy, the men hid near a ford and surprised the savages as they attempted to cross with their prisoners. All the women were rescued, although some died later from their injuries. The town rewarded Captain Greenleaf with forty pounds for his leadership in the action and for the wound which he received at the time. William Moulton and his son Joseph, then only fifteen, served in a similar expedition in l709 under Captain Thomas Noyes, to search out and destroy bands of Indians raiding north of the Merrimac. (Captain Noyes reports that there were nine Moultons in "my particular company"). A band of these Indians had already attacked and burned Haverhill in l708, carrying off a cousin of Abigail Moulton's named Hannah Dustin, her son, and several other persons. Hannah must have been a most redoubtable female as, under her leadership, the captives turned the tables an their foes by killing and scalping them as they slept around their campfire. Afterwords the prisoners found their way here in the Indians' canoes.

But the Indian alarms were not allowed to interfere with the business of every day, in the settlement. William was apparently never idle. After a few years he bought a house downstream from the ferry, on Fish Street, afterwords State, in the more built-up portion of Newbury, but he seems to have worked mainly at the smithy where he is said to have made gold beads--quite an art, in those days, and a popular adornments for ladies. There could not have been an active market for diamonds or other precious stones, so gold beads were the fashionable jewelry then and were highly valued. In old hills, a string of gold beads is often mentioned as a legacy for a daughter, grand—daughter, or a favorite niece.

David Burnan of Connecticut describes the process of making these ornaments in a "Receipt For Making Gold Beads" reprinted in an article by Mrs. Dean Fales in the January 1965 number of the Essex Institute historical Collections, as follows: "First, after your gold is plated down, boil it out in alum and water & then scouer it with sand. (Rule for plating: Allow 9 pennyweight of gold to he made about 3 feet in length which will cut out 53 beads of a cannon size, which ought to be 11 inches and a half long when finished). Then cut it out & punch out the centers and then half hollow them & then anneal them & hollow them up & then rub them down & then cramp them & than charge them & then solder them & then boil them out & then file them up & then polish them &then anneal them & then color them & then boil them out in clean water & then burnish them & then open the holes to a suitable bigness & then they are completed which ought to weigh, when done, about 4 pennyweight, 8 grains, which comes to 30 shillings (at 7 spr. Bwt & 3d per grain) and 20 shillings for making them which comes to 50 shillings for a necklace." (Copied from Shop Records of Daniel Burnap, clockmaker, by Penrose Hoopes, Hartford, l958).

Probably each goldsmith had his own "Receipt" for making beads, but, as this quotation shows, it was no simple nor easy task. Some of the bead necklaces had charming clasps exquisitely engraved, but these, like the heads, rarely bore a maker' mark.

William sired nine children, of whom five were boys. Batt, the eldest son, moved to Amesbury and worked as a carpenter; Joseph remained at the smithy until he was thirty-five when he moved to the Fish Street house; William was a weaver and seems to have also gone to Amesbury; while the fourth sen, Jonathan, stayed on the family property at Moulton hill as a farmer. The last son died young.

William died in 1732, leaving a considerable estate for the times of 1433 pounds sterling, as well as household furnishings, real estate, and the tools used in his many occupations--but no goldsmith tools. In spite of his numerous holdings and interests, he styled himself in his will simply as "Trader".

GENTLEMAN JOSEPH
CHAPTER III

Against these arguments stand the possibility that the marks of the two Josephs are so similar that they could easily be confused; that small pieces of silver such as buckles and buttons rarely bore the marks of their maker; that teaspoons bearing the elder Joseph's mark may not have survived, having been lost or melted down, as often happened; that the goldsmith's tools may have been given to his sons prior to his death; and that he did not call himself "Goldsmith" in his will, evidently preferring the more aristocratic appellation of "Gent1eman". The old knowledge that silver-bearing ore was mined at "Watts' Hole" (not to be confused with "Watts’ Cellar", near Market Square, Newburyport) part of the Moulton property at the Amesbury Ferry, tends to strengthen the plausibility of Joseph I's claim.

However, this may be, Joseph I, son of William II, was born in l694. He married Mary Noyes of Newbury, worked as a blacksmith (and possibly a silversmith) at the Amesbury Ferry until he was 35 when, in 1729, he moved to his father‘s Fish Street house. Fish Street was the chief commercial and residential street of the town, much more of a civic centre than the small ferry settlement. It appears from the records that William bought the land and then built the house, probably employing his son Batt as the carpenter. 1 Until the Newburyport Five Cent Savings Bank was erected in l927 the house still (stood though much altered from its original appearance. Many people still remember it as having an apothecary‘s shop (Charles L. Davis, proprietor) on one end, next to a provision store. Then came a doorway where one entered a square hall with good paneling and a graceful arch framing the narrow staircase with two turns and landings--the only remaining traces of its former elegance. Judging by these small evidences of careful and attractive interior decoration, the house must have had considerable charm originally. The other side housed a small store which had various proprietors, ending as an electrical supply place. How—much of this dwelling William and Joseph occupied is uncertain, but there is some evidence that a forge was set up on their premises behind the house.

By the middle years of the eighteenth century the Colonies had become much more settled and prosperous so that articles of luxury and expense found a ready market. Joseph not only fashioned the gold beads which almost all the Moultons made, but also maintained a jeweler’s and "notions" store where he sold such novelties as shawls, purses, fans, snuff-boxes, tobacco boxes, patch boxes (used to carry the tiny ornamental black patches with which ladies coquettishly embellished their faces), and masks "in the Venetian style".2

That Joseph's store was profitable is proved by one small but significant fact. ln 1737 a tax of 30 shillings was imposed on the owners of a coach or chaise. This tax could scarcely have brought riches to Newbury's treasury since only six carriages were registered in the town, the fourth one of the group being Joseph Moulton’s chaise. The tax only survived for three years. At about this time he seems to have acquired the title of Captain, perhaps honorary, perhaps in humorous recognition of his service as an Indian fighter in his early youth.

As Joseph flourished, so did the town. Newbury had begun to build ships not long after its settlement and this enterprise increased tremendously as the years went on. The ships were sent off on lengthy and profitable voyages to Great Britain, France and the West Indies. A new class of wealthy merchants and ship-owners set about building themselves more spacious and handsome houses than the simple old farm structures dating from the early days of Newbury’s establishment. There are several of these fascinating "transitional" houses still to be seen in Newbury and Newburyport, notably the Dalton Club on State Street and the Short House in Newbury, the latter now fortunately owned by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

The increase in population and affluence sharpened the division between the town’s two sections whose inhabitants had entirely dissimilar occupations and interests. In old Newbury the emphasis was mainly on animal husbandry and farming as it had been since the beginning, with a few ventures into fishing which included salting or drying the catch; but in the newer part of town, the "Port" near the Merrimac River and the harbor, the greater part of the population was employed in ship-building and other trades connected with shipping (such as rope and sail making) and with the voyages of the ships themselves. Discontent was rife among the "waterfront people" who were determined to separate from the old town and become a different community. This was at last accomplished in l764 by act of the General Court and a large segment of Newbury became Newbury Port - as it was then spelled. (Old Newbury, in the local vernacular, is often referred to as Oldtown). By and large the change was accomplished quite peaceable in spite of the hot words and violent threats which had preceded it.

This important event, however, Joseph Moulton never saw. He had died in 1756, 8 years before the partition, a prosperous and respected citizen of the still-united town, although it seems that he never held public office. Status was evidently of great moment to him, for, as has been said, in his will he signed himself "Joseph Moulton, Gentleman", a distinction which neither his forebears nor his descendants claimed. Lest this stiff word leave an impression of a rather pompous individual riding proudly about in his chaise and deigning to salute only those whom he considered his equals or superiors, let us also remember that he was a hard-working blacksmith and had been a rugged soldier at fifteen.

posted 04-22-2012 03:31 PM            

I was excited when I recently came across this post as I have been looking for a copy of this manuscript for a few months now. I know who wrote it and will get that information posted as soon as I can go through my notes and locate the information. I have been trying to get my hands on a photocopy of at least chapter 12 (I'd love a photocopy of the whole thing, but that one chapter is the most critical). Let me know if you'd be willing to work something out. Either way, I'll repost with the author's information soon.

David

posted 04-29-2012 10:20 PM            

I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. My wife has family in from out of town and I was a little preoccupied.

I have recently been in correspondence with Jessica Gill, the archivist at the Newburyport, MA public library and she might have some additional information for you.

David

posted 05-09-2012 09:58 AM            

I just heard back from Jessica Gill at the Newburyport Archives and she confirmed that she may be able to help you.

David