Marblehead in 1700 - The Marblehead Museum and Historical Society

Left hand of the ould waye according as thee trees are marked and soe to Runn: fower Rodd wyde: untill
wee com to: the bridg: and then to goe fower Bodd wyde :until wee Com to the litle gate: that standeth In
the south feeld ffence: and then wee have determined that the waye shall Runn; throgh at that gate uppon
a strayght lyne vnto an ould tree that lyeth neere that common hye waye: in the sonth ffeeld and soe to goe
alone the waye: as it is now ufed: through the south ffeeld unto the mill dam: and the breath of the whole
waye through the south ffeeld to be one Rodd wyde And that this is owre Joynt agreement: wee have heare
unto sett oure hands this 24 of April!: 1666
William Hawthorne
Henry Bartholomew
Richard Rowland (his mark)
Samuel Ward:*
*Salem town records, volume 2, page 81.
The bridge had already been built by William Flint and John Neale for the town of Salem at an expense of
five pounds.
After the new road, leading by the present lead mills, was laid out in 1737, this was called the old road
to Forest river. Years later the road running around Legg's hill to the Lynn road was laid out and that
part of the old road leading easterly of Legg's bill, through "the dungeons," went out of use.
The ancient highway to the Neck through the Devereaux farm was laid out in 1670. Its beginning on the
main highway through the town is now Smith street. This old way continued to be used as the only way
to the great neck until 1721. This was probably the nearest way over high land, the pond and marsh east
of the Devereaux house rendering it inexpedient to construct a road there in the primitive days. In the
autumn of 1720, a new way to the Neck was agitated, and a petition signed by "a considerable number" of
the inhabitants of Marblehead, was presented to the court of general sessions. It stated that the “ancient" way
was encumbered and stopped up, and the prayer requested that the encumbrances be removed or a change
made in the location of the way. Dec. 27, 1720, the court ordered that Capt. William Bowditch, Capt John
Gardner and Capt. Theophilus Burrill be a committee to lay out a way of two rods in width in the old
way or in a new location.* At the same court, the committee reported, Jan. 18, 1720-1, that they had
laid out said way two rods wide and provided that the town or proprietors of common lands in
Marblehead should hang a gate at each end of the new road. This report was confirmed by the court on the
last-named date.† Accompanying the petition was a plan, now on file in the office of the county
commissioners,‡ which is reproduced as the frontispiece of this number of the Historical Collections. Besides
the ways, it shows the location of the Devereaux house and barn, and upon the Neck (which is not drawn to
scale and is lacking in shape) are shown the dwelling houses, fish houses and fish flakes, and along the shore are
four boats and fishing vessels.
*Court of General Sessions records, volume 1719-1727, page 40.
†Court of General Sessions records, volume 1719-1727, page 45.
‡County Commissioners Plans, book 2, plan 4. The original plan measures 14 1/2 X 11 3/4 inches.
Forest river was so called from the earliest settlement. Above the little bridge at Legg's hill the stream was
called Frost-fish brook in 1681 and 1711.
The ocean off this territory was called ye sea, from 1674 onward.
In the sketches that follow, after 1700, titles and deeds referred to pertain to the houses and land
adjoining and not always to the whole lot, the design being, after that date, to give the history of the
houses then standing.
James Darling House. George Darling, sr., of Salem, yeoman, who was one of the Scots brought to New
England in 1651, bought this lot of about twenty acres of "Moses Maverick and one of the Peaches"
before June 14, 1677, when he was living in this house which he had erected thereon.* He died in the
summer of 1693, having in his will, given his estate to his wife Katherine for her widowhood, and the house
and this lot of land to his son James Darling. The house, garden, orchard and remainder of the lot were
appraised at ninety-five pounds. James Darling was a shoreman and lived here. He owned the lot in 1716,
the house having probably been gone fifteen years.
*Essex Registry of Deeds, book 14, leaf 303; Marblehead town records.
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