History of Amesbury - Merrill.org

HISTORY OF AMESBURY. 283
meeting house, but " voted to adjourn the present meeting at
Widow Esther Colby's Innholder immediately." It was, no
doubt, a cold . day, and having no means of warming the large
meeting house, it was thought best to adjourn to more comfort-
able quarters. When they had again assembled, it was "Voted
to raise the sum of forty eight thousand four hundred pounds
by a tax on the polls and estates within this town a sum suffi-
cient to purchase 199 12 lbs of beef called for for the use of the
army to be drawn out of said ^48,400 the remainder to defray
the charges of the town."
"At the same meeting voted to raise two thousand pounds
in hard money or paper money equivalent to hire the men
called for." Twenty-one men had just been called for to serve
three years or during the war. This vote was subsequently
reconsidered and the matter left to the selectmen to hire the
money.
This money was hired of townsmen mostly, and on the list
are the names of several women who loaned money to the
town for war purposes, viz. : Rebecca Kelley, ^75 ; Widow
Hannah Kelley, ^128; Widow Tabitha Barnard, ^280. The
noble wives and mothers of those days were devotedly patriotic
and contributed in every possible way to the support of the
cause and the comfort of the poorly paid soldiers.
Col. Jonathan Bagley died December 28th. He was one of
Amesbury's most prominent men and had been of great service
during the war in obtaining men for the army. His first appear-
ance in public affairs was as a juryman in 1 740, but his prog-
ress was rapid, for in 1 743 we find him chairman of the select-
men. In 1758 he was elected representative and eleven times
afterward. There was hardly an office which he did not fill
and that very credibly. He was in the old French war and
was quite a military man. At his death he was a large land-
holder and gave away in his will nearly a thousand acres.
He owned the farm at the Pond hills, where his father, Orlando
Bagley, the clerk, lived, and gave it to his son, Orlando Bag-
ley, who held it until his death. He was, probably, a great
grandson of Orlando Bagley, who came with the first eighteen