The Founding of the South Parish of Andover
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Founding of the South Parish of Andover When South Church’s sanctuary and steeple were completed in 1860, they stood as a source of reverence and pride for the new town of Andover. Just six years earlier, the citizens of the three parishes comprising greater Andover voted to divide into two new towns. The South and West Parishes paid the North Parish (which would become the town of North Andover) for the privilege of carrying on the name. South Church’s new building was actually the fourth meetinghouse at the same location. The first was built in 1709, following the incorporation of the South Parish. Therefore, the roots of South Church and the South Parish of Andover are intertwined with those of the towns of Andover and North Andover. The First Settlers The Pilgrims who brought their dream of building Congregational Churches to New England also initiated a burst of settlement, and by the 1630's the coastal towns of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were becoming crowded. Impatient settlers from towns such as Salem, Beverly and Salisbury began to venture inland, cautiously following rivers with strange native names like Merrimack and Shawshin. Many of them risked settling illegally in uncharted territory. The Colony’s governing Great and General Court in Boston attempted to control the exploration and settlement of the wilderness by dispatching surveyors to inspect and map potential farming and fishing lands. The Court would then routinely publicize these available lands, and upon petition by qualified citizens, issued charters authorizing their settlement in a safe and orderly fashion. In 1634, surveyors explored and mapped one inland tract of fertile land called Cochichawicke Plantation, on the south shore of the Merrimack; and in 1641, a party of settlers from Newbury, Agawam (now Ipswich) and Rowley were granted a charter to settle there. They brought their families and belongings through the wilderness and settled just southwest of Great Pond (now Cochichawick Lake) on what we know today as North Andover Common. Their first priority was to build a garrison house; a fortified two-story stockade filled with weapons and food, and large enough to accommodate everybody in an emergency. Then they went about building their homes and preparing fields by chopping trees and clearing away brush and rock. These hardy settlers who escaped religious persecution in the Old World established a bible-centered theocracy in their part of the New World. Motivated by what they considered a sacred covenant to create Cities of God out of the wilderness, the Puritans adhered to a strict Calvinist fundamentalism in every facet of their lives. The Court and the Governor enforced rigid religious and civic control over the growing network of settlements. In 1644, the fast-growing Colony was divided into four counties; Suffolk, Norfolk, Middlesex and Essex (which included Cochichawicke Plantation on its eastern frontier); each with its own courts and militia regiment for protection. The survival of any new settlement was dependent on attaining township status as quickly as possible. In order to be recognized as a town, a settlement had to comprise at least 10 freeholders (A family’s freehold included a homestead in the settlement and outlying farmland.), a meetinghouse for worship and town business, and an able and orthodox pastor. Only then would the Great & General Court consider a settlement’s petition to become a town. 1 By 1645, the settlers had built their meetinghouse named First Church of Christ at Cochichawicke, and recruited a pastor, and the following year the Court recognized Andover (named for the English home of some of the settlers) as the Colony’s 37th town. By 1650, 25 freeholding families populated the town of Andover. However, as newcomers continued to arrive, land distribution became increasingly complicated. In addition to a home lot of four to ten acres near the meetinghouse, each freeholder also received three outlying plots specified as meadow, wood lot, and land for planting. Since Andover’s meetinghouse was located in the northeast corner of the large township, newly assigned plots were primarily to the south or west, and increasingly distant from the settlement. New arrivals were granted plots which could be several miles away. Travel by foot to and from one’s homestead in the settlement could be time-consuming and dangerous. This hardship was compounded by the fact that Andover itself was already remote from the coastal markets for crops and livestock. Under these circumstances, it became necessary for many of Andover’s farmers to maintain two homes; one near the meetinghouse, and a second one built discreetly on one’s farmland. Typical among wilderness towns, Andover passed laws to enforce community security by forbidding anybody from building his home more than a half mile from the meetinghouse. At first, outlying homes were accommodated periodically by freeholders and older children in order to tend crops and protect livestock from packs of wolves and other threats. However, over time entire families began to move onto their farmland, and only periodically returning to their home lot to attend worship, go to market, and take care of other business. Outlying settlement became so widespread that some of Andover’s chosen (elected) town offices such as Constable and Surveyor were split into two positions; one for the north and one for the south. By the 1660’s, the Abbot, Ballard, Chandler, Lovejoy and other families had settled on their outlying land in the south, near the Shawshin River. A Climate of Fear Although Indians had always been a constant presence; passing through on moccasins or snowshoes, hunting small and large game, camping on the banks of the Merrimack; unlike in many other frontier towns, they had never posed a serious threat or caused more than periodic anxiety. However, this all changed with King Philip’s War. Although Andover was remote from the fighting, several deadly Indian raids beginning in 1675 nearly led to its abandonment. Almost overnight, militias were marching through the town, sentries were stationed everywhere, and numerous garrisons and blockhouses went up, especially near the banks of the Merrimack where Indians frequently landed menacingly in large numbers of canoes. Andover’s selectmen strenuously enforced the home site restrictions, and a town meeting vote in 1680 forbade living apart from the settlement around the meetinghouse under any circumstances. A climate of anger, mistrust, and near-constant fear permeated the town and would remain for years, although in different forms. The restrictions over where families could live put a new focus on the location of Andover’s meetinghouse. Although it was still exactly where the first settlers had put down roots forty years earlier, the location now seemed arbitrary and unfair to all but the earliest arrivals whose farmland was nearby. Many of those farming in the south or west now had to walk a few miles each way over rough and dangerous paths. For six days of the week, this was bad enough. However, with two Sabbath services, and the time between them necessary for the care of farm animals, many families were forced to make the round trip twice on Sundays. Although church membership was not mandatory, attendance was; and those not present were subject to fines. 2 It was also becoming clear that Andover’s population was outgrowing its meetinghouse. Those with distant farms used this problem as an opportunity to argue that a new larger meetinghouse should be built in a more central location. Those who lived in and around the village, including Pastor Thomas Barnard, vehemently opposed even the discussion of such a move. Although the meetinghouse issue was debated at length in town meetings, every vote deadlocked and no compromise could be found. Largely based on the location of their farms, Andover’s citizens staked out their positions, and a tense and occasionally volatile impasse prevented any resolution. On every level, the very destiny of the English colonies seemed to be under attack. Growing impatient with its investments in the new world, the crown in 1685 revoked the royal charter, which had granted self-rule to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. As available land became scarce, disputes began to spring up in all forms between colonies, counties, towns, individuals and interests of all kinds. Lawsuits over boundaries, roads, ferries, liability, property damage, petty quarrels, and even witchcraft claims became commonplace. Then a fast-spreading smallpox epidemic in 1690-1691 turned neighbor against neighbor, stoked the flames of paranoia and fear up to a frightening level and turned the region into fertile ground for a wave of hysteria which surpassed anything the townspeople had experienced. Witchcraft Unleashed During the spring of 1692, neighboring Salem Village (now Danvers) experienced an explosion of witchcraft hysteria, fueled by its pastor Rev. Samuel Parris. Accusations, imprisonment, trials and hangings all became regular occurrences. Andover citizen Joseph Ballard unwittingly brought the hysteria home when he sought help for his ailing wife by recruiting several girls from the Village who were said to have the power to detect and cure disease. After visiting Mrs. Ballard at their home, the girls claimed that several neighbors had bewitched her. Like Rev. Parris, Andover’s Rev. Thomas Barnard welcomed the opportunity to confront the evil hand of the devil in his parish, and invited these afflicted girls to stay and help identify witches in their midst. He fueled the hysteria by holding fiery prayer meetings in which experienced accusers (who he would bring into Andover for this purpose) used his own touch test to expose witches among the population. During the touch test, the accused were forced to lay their hands on an afflicted person. If the affliction appeared to suddenly improve, this implied guilt.