A history lover’s triangle
By Dorothy V. Malcolm/ Correspondent
Thursday, January 26, 2006
This article originally appeared in the Hamilton-Wenham Chronicle and the Ipswich Chronicle

From the Crusades to the American Revolution and any other civil conflict throughout history, the discord is usually the result of the God-and-money dichotomy. Even the Puritans, who yearned to worship as they pleased and fled their motherland to do so, ended up quibbling over parishes, clergy stipends, almshouses and taxes.
            The Ipswich Historical Society proved the point last week when they hosted a lecture on the triangle of towns of Ipswich, Hamilton and Essex with the latter two seceding from the flagship settlement. With funding from the First National Bank of Ipswich, the informational consortium of the three town’s historical societies assembled at the Heard House in Ipswich for a chronology and history of the three towns.
            To a standing-room-only crowd, Ipswich Historical Society Executive Director Bonnie Smith introduced Bill Varrell, who gave a brief history of Ipswich. Varrell explained that John Smith had come through Ipswich in 1614, and then the French, while it was still a Native American community called Agawam. When it became a puritan settlement in 1633, Agawam was anglicized to Ipswich. Each puritan family/parishioner was issued a 3- or 4-acre lot to farm, which had to be near the church. Everyone’s proximity to the church was not only a priority, it was mandatory and all were expected to pay for the upkeep of the clergy.
            Varrell further explained that as the town of Ipswich grew, many of the early inhabitants found land near the Ipswich River, which was particularly fertile and thus began Ipswich’s suburban "sprawl." When these people prospered, they built their own houses farther and farther from the church. These pockets or zones that were a distance from the church were called hamlets.
    The revolt of Ipswich’s hamlet
            Arthur "Butch" Crosbie of the Hamilton Historical Society explained that the definition of a hamlet was a "village that has no church."
            This hamlet of Ipswich, later called Hamilton, prospered and Crosbie relayed many facts and anecdotes on the town’s history with a PowerPoint presentation accompanying his talk. One of the town’s oldest houses on Bay Road (now Route 1A) was Brown’s Tavern, built around 1660. Not only was Brown’s a pub for thirsty laborers, it was also a mail stop and stagecoach stop for travelers.
            As time and progress advanced in the little hamlet, mills were built and these became essential, both to the town’s commerce as well as to family life. The mills in Hamilton lasted for two centuries with old Yankee families, the Dodges, Smiths and Norwoods owning and operating them. There were mills for wool and cotton as well as mills to clarify wines and beers, among other operations.
            Crosbie explained why and how the hamlet wanted and needed to secede from Ipswich: "In 1712, about 40 families were in the hamlet. Some were going to church in Wenham. But those going to church in Ipswich faced some hardships getting there, especially in the winter cold and snow, having to cross [several bodies of] water to get to church in Ipswich."
            The second reason for the break, Crosbie explained, was over taxes. "They had to pay taxes to the town of Ipswich and support the clergy. They asked the church and the town to be given their own area and their own church." Eventually, that became the as the Hamlet Church. Dr. Samuel Wigglesworth ministered to the parish for more than a half century. When the respected Dr. Wigglesworth died, the Rev. Manasseh Cutler ministered to the parish for the next 52 years. In 1783, at a size of 7,800 acres, the hamlet officially separated from Ipswich. Schools were established and in the 19th century, that new invention, the locomotive, came to town.
             "Manasseh Cutler was a staunch Federalist and wanted to name the town after Alexander Hamilton," said Crosbie. So the town of Hamilton is not named after a hamlet of Ipswich, but after the new country’s secretary of the treasury. So proud is Hamilton of its namesake and its origins, that the Hamilton Historical Society will be host to an important exhibit due to travel across the country in 2006. From March 8-28, the Alexander Hamilton Exhibit will be held at the Hamilton Historical Society.
    Chebacco becomes a challenge
            The old area of Ipswich known as Chebacco has a rich history based on its maritime legacy. Courtney Ellis Peckham, curator of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum, presented a slide show and discussed the fishing and shipbuilding industry that made Essex shine. The hamlet of Chebacco (now Essex) was started around 1634 and its first immigrants were also puritans. In 1635, the good ship Angel Gabriel left England and brought the Burnham, Choate, Perkins, Cogswell and Goodhue families and many others to its shores. The new inhabitants of Chebacco, like those in the hamlet (Hamilton), had the most difficult time getting to church and voiced their concerns to Ipswich.
            "They wanted their own minister," Peckham said, "because they were concerned about the moral fabric of the people. Remember, these people were puritans! But Ipswich didn’t want to lose the tax support money from the people in Chebacco parish."
            Evidently, the women of Chebacco parish wouldn’t have it and took matters into their own hands in 1680. Indignant and infuriated, they took up the challenge and "engaged men from other towns, like West Gloucester, to start building a new church," said Peckham, thus precluding the men of the parish from breaking the law. They got their church; seemingly, the shipbuilders weren’t the only movers and shakers in town.
            Shipbuilding was such a success, boats were made during and for the American Revolution and the "Chebacco Boat was the vessel that put Essex on the map," she said. Not only did the parish prosper from shipbuilding, but fishing and farming were additional mainstays of the town.
            Peckham said that the method of doing business with shipbuilders was simple. "Having a ship built meant it was done with a handshake and no written terms," she said. Their financial arrangements were simple: one-third down, one-third at launch, and one-third after the first fishing season. These were the financial terms of the shipbuilding ’contract.’ And it had been done that way for generations."
            As Chebacco thrived, Ipswich’s former prosperity had begun to wane compared with the movers and shakers of the shipbuilding business. Peckham illustrated Chebacco’s growing exasperation with Ipswich that led to its secession. Paupers were becoming a grave issue in the late 18th century and as time went by, Ipswich had experienced an interruption of fortune, and almshouses were established for the poor and indigent. Yet again, the inhabitants of the hamlets had to pay toward the upkeep of Ipswich, particularly its almshouses as well as its clergy.
            A petition to secede from Ipswich was established due, in part, to its "pauper" situation. Not only was Chebacco beholden to Ipswich to support the clergy a century before, now they felt they were obligated to the poor of the town. They petitioned to start their own church but Ipswich prohibited them from doing so. In fact, it was proscribed that any man of Chebacco parish who built and established a church would have been in direct violation of Ipswich law.
            In 1819, Chebacco was incorporated as the town of Essex and by the 20th century, Essex went on to enjoy the benefits and productivity of 15 shipyards in operation. In 1976, as a major Bicentennial project, the Essex Shipbuilding Museum was founded.
            The original settlement of Ipswich had its share of headaches and handled the dissenting situations in the same manner they would have in England. But this was a new land. New ideals and new energies were forged into golden opportunities for English immigrants to reinvent themselves on these new shores. The triangle of Ipswich, Hamilton and Essex exists today only geographically. Each town has prospered and generated individual achievements and progeny that have made Essex County proud, to this very day.
     Dorothy V. Malcolm is a freelance writer and proprietor of Atelier Panache in Essex.