History of Amesbury - Merrill.org

HISTORY OF AMESBURY. 2 99
and the low, soft land must be raised, requiring bank walls, and
the steep bluffs will wash down, filling the road at every storm
which, with the causeways needed, will swell the expense to a
very great sum.
Fifth :
One
hundred and sixty rods of interval land is over-
flowed in the Bradstreet farm occasionally, and must be raised
and stones and wood must be brought for that purpose at great
expense.
In the foregoing I have given the substance of the principal
objections, as the length of the report prevents its insertion
entire.
The committee took the worst possible view of the route,
as the facts subsequently showed. Instead of crossing the inter-
vale on the Bradstreet farm, it was located on the high ground
where it was easily worked without stones and timber. In fact,
many difficult points were shunned, and the road proved less
expensive than was anticipated, and more desirable.
Aug. 26th. A town meeting was held and Deacon Orlando
Sargent was engaged to keep Fanny Mingo's son, who was
about five years old, till twenty-one years of age for nine pounds,
and the boy was bound to him by the town.
Nov. 3d. At a town meeting this day the trouble with Mr.
Hibbert was settled by his abating his writ and the town
abating his unpaid taxes.
The following are the principal supporters of Mr. Hibbert
under the name of Presbyterians, viz. : Benjamin
Lurvey, Wil-
liam Lurvey, Benjamin Merrill, Joseph Hoyt, Timothy Currier,
Barnard Currier, Enoch Currier, Daniel Tuxbury, Daniel Quinby,
Eliphalet Lowell, Timothy Challis, Ebenezer True, Oliver
Titcomb, Richard Morrill, Thomas Moody, David Tuxbury,
Isaac Tuxbury, Daniel Wait, Moses Tuxbury and Marchant
Cleaves.
It is possible that some of Mr. Hibbert's followers had been
induced to leave the old society in consideration of his preach-
ing without pay, which he had agreed to do. It was known as
the "Free Society," which feature sustained it for a while. The
old society could not afford to lose so many paying members,
and this fact added to the bitterness of the contest.