History of Amesbury - Merrill.org

140
"Humbly Sheweth,
HISTORY OF AMESBURY.
That yo r Petition 1,
is now in Prison und r an Execution for the
Nonsatisfaction of the arrears of the rates comitted to him to
collect whitest he was Constable of Amesbury. That your Peti-
tion 1' has
Lately mett with great losses, haveing had his house
plundered by the Indians, and has been visited with much sick-
ness through the holy afflicting hand of god upon him, besides
sundry of the persons from whome many of s d arreares be due
are both dead & removed out of y e Towne. Now Forasmuch
as yo r poore petition 1" by
the providence of God is reduced to
a necessitous condition, and wholly uncapacitated, by reason of
his confinement, to doo any thing for himself & family or
y e paym 1 of s d arreares for y e present, he therefore humbly
entreats the favor of this high & hon ble Court to Consider the
premisses, by being pleased to grant unto him two or three
yeares space for paym 1 therof, as also for areleasm 1 from his
confinem 1 .
"And yo r petition 1"
as in duty bound shall Ever pray, etc,
u Joh?i Hoite."
"Voted upon Reading the Petition, above s d that s d Peti-
tion r is granted his Request provided he give security to m r
Treasurer to pay s d money within two years into the Treasury,
March 8th 1694-5 past in the affirmative by the house of Rep-
resentatives & sent up to the hon r able Lt Governor & Council
for consent. Nehe??iiah Jewett, Speaker."*
The probability is that he never paid the arrears, as he was
killed within two years of his release, on returning from a visit
to his daughter Dorothie, living in Andover.
This year is, also, noted for the famous descent made upon
Haverhill, in which thirty-nine persons were carried off or killed,
and among the prisoners was Hannah Dustin, whose heroism
has been handed down to us in history. Her memory will be
perpetuated by the monument which has been erected near the
spot where the massacre occurred.
Feb. 2 2d. A road was laid out from thirty rods west of
'•Cobler's Brook" to the river, at a place called "Jamaco
* See D. W. Hoyt's work on the Hoyt genealogy.