Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast Part 30

Little Harbor, north-west of the fort, is the reputed site of the first settlement at Marblehead. On Gerry's Island, which lies close under the sh.o.r.e, was the house of the first regularly ordained minister; the cellar and pebble-paved yard were, not long ago, identified. Near by, on the main-land, is the supposed site of the "Fountain Inn," which, like the "Earl of Halifax," has its romance of a n.o.ble gentleman taken in the toils of a pretty wench.[167] Sir Charles Frankland, collector of his Majesty's customs, visits Marblehead, and becomes enamored of the handmaid of the inn, Agnes Surriage. He makes her his mistress, but at length, having saved his life during the great earthquake at Lisbon, she receives the reward of love and heroism at the altar as the baronet's wedded wife. Arthur Sandeyn, who was the first publican in Marblehead, was allowed to keep an ordinary there in 1640. The port was fortified after some fashion as early as 1643-44.

I had pointed out to me the spot where the _Const.i.tution_ dropped anchor when chased in here by two British frigates in April, 1814. They threatened for a time to fetch her out again; but as Stewart laid the old invincible with her grim broadside to the entrance of the port, and the fort prepared to receive them in a becoming manner, they prudently hauled off. The battle between the _Chesapeake_ and _Shannon_ was also visible from the high sh.o.r.es here, an eye-witness, then in a fishing-boat off in the bay, relating that nothing was to be seen except the two ships enveloped in a thick smoke, and nothing to be heard but the roar of the guns. When the smoke drifted to leeward, and the cannonade was over, the British ensign was seen waving above the Stars and Stripes.

Poor, chivalric, ill-starred Lawrence! He had given a challenge to the commander of the _Bonne Citoyen_, and durst not decline one.[168] At the _Shannon's_ invitation, he put to sea with an unlucky ship, and a mutinous crew fresh from the grog-shops and brothels of Ann Street. He besought them in burning words to show themselves worthy the name of American sailors. They replied with sullen murmurs. One wretch, a Portuguese named Joseph Antonio, came forward as their spokesman. His appearance was singularly fantastic. He wore a checked shirt, a laced jacket, rings in his ears, and a bandana handkerchief about his head.

Laying his hand on his breast, he made a profound inclination to his captain as he said:

"Pardon me, sir, but fair play be one jewel all over the world, and we no touchee the specie for our last cruise with Capitaine Evans. The Congress is ver' munificent; they keep our piasters in treasury, and pay us grape and canister. Good fashion in Portuguee ship, when take rich prize is not pay _poco a poco_, but break bulk and share out dollar on drum-head of capstan."[169]

[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMES LAWRENCE.]

Already wounded in the leg, Lawrence was struck by a grape-shot on the medal he wore in honor of his former victory. His words, as he was borne from the deck, have become a watchword in our navy.[170] Samuel Livermore, of Boston, who accompanied Lawrence on this cruise out of personal regard, attempted to avenge him. His shot missed Captain Broke.

Lawrence hearing from below the firing cease, sent his surgeon to tell his officers to fight on. "The colors shall wave while I live!" he constantly repeated. He was only thirty-four; sixteen years of his life had been pa.s.sed in his country's service. His figure was tall and commanding, and in battle he was the incarnation of a warrior.

When Mr. Croker read the statement of the action in the House of Commons, the members from all parts interrupted him with loud and continued cheering. Perhaps a greater compliment to American valor could not have been paid than this. The capture of a single ship of any nation had never before called forth such a triumphant outburst.

The oldest burial-ground in Marblehead is on the summit and slopes of the highest of its rocky eminences. Here, also, the settlers raised the frame of their primitive church; some part of which, I was told, has since been translated into a more secular edifice. At the head of a little pond, where a clump of dwarfish willows has become rooted, is a sheltered nook, in which are the oldest stones now to be seen. This was probably the choice spot of the whole field, but it now wears the same air of neglect common to all these old cemeteries. A stone of 1690 with the name of "Mr. Christopher Latimore, about 70 years," was the oldest I discovered.

As I picked my way among the thick-set head-stones, for there was no path, and I always avoid treading on a grave, I came upon a grave-digger busily employed, with whom I held a few moments' parley. The man, already up to his waistband in the pit, seemed chiefly concerned lest he should not be able to go much farther before coming to the ledge, which, even in the hollow places, you are sure of finding at no great depth. On one side of the grave was a heap of yellow mould, smelling of the earth earthy, and on the other side a lesser one of human bones, that the spade had once more brought above ground.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GLIMPSE OF THE SEAMEN'S MONUMENT AND OLD BURIAL-GROUND.]

After observing that he should be lucky to get down six feet, the workman told me the grave was destined to receive the remains of an old lady of ninety-four, recently deceased, who, as if fearful her rest might be less quiet in the midst of a generation to which she did not belong, had begged she might be buried here among her old friends and neighbors. Although interments had long been interdicted in the overcrowded ground, her prayer was granted. An examination of the inscriptions confirmed what I had heard relative to the longevity of the inhabitants of Marblehead, of which the grave-digger also recounted more instances than I am able to remember.

I asked him what was done with the bones I saw lying there, adding to the heap a fragment or two that had fallen unnoticed from his spade.

"Why, you see, I bury them underneath the grave I am digging, before the folks get here. We often find such bones on the surface, where they have been left after filling up a grave," was his reply. This did not appear surprising, for those I saw were nearly the color of the earth itself.

Seeing my look directed with a sort of fascination toward these relics of frail mortality, the man, evidently misconstruing my thought, took up an arm-bone with playful familiarity, and observed, "You should have seen the thigh-bone I found under the old Episcopal Church! I could have knocked a man down with it easy. These," he said, throwing the bone upon the heap, with a gesture of contempt, "are mere rotten things." Who would be put to bed with that man's shovel!

On a gra.s.sy knoll, on the brow of the hill, is a marble monument erected by the Marblehead Charitable Seamen's Society, in memory of its members deceased on sh.o.r.e and at sea. On one face are the names of those who have died on sh.o.r.e, and on the east those lost at sea, from the society's inst.i.tution in 1831 to the year 1848. On the north are the names of sixty-five men and boys lost in the memorable gale of September 19th, 1846. This number comprised forty-three heads of families; as many widows, and one hundred and fifty-five fatherless children, were left to mourn the fatality.

The grave-digger told me that brave Captain Mugford had been buried on this hill, but the spot was now unknown. I could well believe it, for never had I seen so many graves with nothing more than a shapeless boulder at the head and foot to mark them. Many stones were broken and defaced, and I saw the fragments of one unearthed while standing by.

There is no material so durable as the old blue slate, whereon you may often read an inscription cut two hundred years ago, while those on freestone and marble need renewing every fifty years. General Glover's tomb here is inscribed:

Erected with filial respect to The Memory of The HON. JOHN GLOVER, ESQUIRE, Brigadier General in the late Continental Army.

Died January 30th, 1797, Aged 64.

Many of the old graves were covered with freshly springing "life-everlasting," beautifully symbolizing the rest of such as sleep in the faith. From the Seamen's Monument, at the foot of which some wooden benches are placed, is seen a broad horizon, dotted with white sails. I never knew a sailor who did not wish to be buried as near as possible to the sea, though never in it. "Don't throw me overboard, Hardy," was Nelson's dying request. There are clumps of lone graves on the verge of some headland all over New England, and one old grave-yard on Stage Island, in Maine, has been wholly washed away.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LONE GRAVES.]

In allusion to the loss of life caused by disasters to the fishing fleets from time to time, an old man with whom I talked thought it was not greater than would occur through the ordinary chances of a life on sh.o.r.e. It is wonderful how a sea-faring population come to a.s.sociate the idea of safety with the sea. Earthquakes, conflagrations, falling buildings, and like accidents are more dreaded than hurricanes, squalls, or a lee-sh.o.r.e.

By an estimate taken from the _Ess.e.x Gazette_, of January 2d, 1770, it appears that in the two preceding years Marblehead lost twenty-three sail of vessels, with their crews, numbering one hundred and sixty-two souls, without taking into account those who were lost from vessels on their return. There were few families that did not mourn a relative, and some of the older inhabitants remember to have heard their elders speak of it with a shudder.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "SITTING, St.i.tCHING IN A MOURNFUL MUSE."]

These are the annals that doubtless suggested Miss Larcom's "Hannah Binding Shoes," and the long, lingering, yet fruitless watching for those who never come back. The last shake of the hand, the last kiss, and the last flashing of the white sail are much like the farewell on the day of battle.

FOOTNOTES:

[150] Captain Goelet calls it an island.

[151] Treville was the man thought most worthy by Napoleon to lead his fleet in the long-meditated descent on England.

[152] "Address to the Electors of Bristol."

[153] "Philosophical Transactions," vol. lxiv., part ii.

[154] A headland of Boston Harbor is named for him, Point Allerton.

[155] "Moses Maverick testifieth that in the yeare 1640 or 41 the toune of Salem granted unto the inhabitants of Marblehead the land we now injoy, with one of Salem, to act with us, wh acordingly was acordingly attended unto the yeare 1648, in which yeare Marblehead was confirmed a toune, and to that time yt never knew or understood he desented from what was acted in layeing out land or stinting the Comons, and have beene accounted a Toune, and payd dutyes accordingly as it hath been required. Taken vpon oath; 19: 1mo 73/4.

"(Original Doc.u.ment.) WM. HATHORNE, _Affit._ Vera Copia, taken the 25 of May, 1674, by me, Robert Ford, Cleric."

[156] Relics of Indian occupation have been found in Marblehead at various times. There is a sh.e.l.l heap on the Wyman Farm, on the line of the Eastern Railway, quite near the farm-house.

[157] A bill against piracy was ordered to be brought in March 1st, 1686; March 4th the bill pa.s.sed.

[158] The first mention of Marblehead in the colony records I have seen is of two men fined there for being drunk, in the year 1633.

[159] "New England Historical and Genealogical Register," 1870, p. 57.

[160] I have seen the date of 1766 a.s.signed for its building.

[161] Think of Copley painting these two canvases, eight feet long by five wide, and in his best manner, for 25!

[162] These portraits are now in possession of Colonel William Raymond Lee, of Boston.

[163] It is not settled who is ent.i.tled to the authorship of the word "Gerrymander," for which a number of claimants have appeared. The map of Ess.e.x, which gave rise to the caricature, was drawn by Nathan Hale, who edited the _Boston Weekly Messenger_, in which the political deformity first appeared.

[164] The old frigate _Boston_ was captured at Charleston in 1780 by the British. In 1804 Tom Moore went over to England in her, she being then commanded by Captain J. E. Douglas.

[165] William P. Upham, of Salem, has written a memoir of Glover.

[166] Son of Major Stephen, of Newbury.

[167] See "Old Landmarks of Boston," pp. 162, 163.

[168] It has been erroneously stated that Bainbridge accompanied Lawrence to the pier and tried to dissuade him from engaging the _Shannon_. They had not met for several days.

[169] This fact was established by Geoffrey Crayon (Washington Irving) in one of his philippics against Great Britain, of which he so slyly concealed the authorship in the preface to his "Sketch Book."

[170] "Don't give up the ship."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE HOE, ENGLISH PLYMOUTH.]