Thomas Manning was the son of legendary Dr. John Manning and the grandson of Dr. Thomas Manning. He went to England for his medical training, as did his father, and returned in 1799 with a sample of the smallpox vaccine, which he cultured and made available to other members of the medical profession. Thomas Manning’s wife, Margaret, was the daughter of wealthy John Heard, whose home is today’s Ipswich Museum, and who surely helped to build this Federal-style home. The house is legendary in Ipswich as a stop on the Underground Railroad. A trap door in a rear room has a hand-made ladder to a small brick chamber in the basement, where fugitive slaves are said to have hidden. Dr. Manning also constructed the Willowdale dam to power a mill that made wool blankets for soldiers in the Civil War. In his will, he provided money for the town to construct the former Manning High School on Central Street. After his death, the house became the parsonage for the Congregational Church.
Margaret Manning died in 1829, and when Dr. Manning died on February 3, 1854, at the age of eighty, his will bequeathed the greater part of his estate to establish “a High School in the town of Ipswich, which should be free to the youth of the town of both sexes.” Four years later, Margaret’s brother, Augustine Heard, deeded the home to the Congregational Church as a parsonage. Today, this house is a private residence.
Dr. Thomas Manning (1775-1854) bought this lot from Robert Wallis in 1799 (171:65) and built the house at 19 North Main St. He married Margaret Heard, daughter of John Heard, on May 24, 1807. She died Aug. 13, 1829, at age 46 years.
Dr. Manning was a pioneer in the use of the smallpox vaccine in America. After importing a sample in 1799 from England, he carried out a successful test on his family members and distributed the vaccine without payment to other practitioners, purposefully breaking the monopoly held by Professor Benjamin Waterhouse of Harvard.
Dr. Manning built and operated the mill and dam at Willowdale at the site of Foote Brothers Canoes. He invested in the Lace Factory on High St. and played a prominent role in town events. He died on February 3, 1854, at the age of eighty, bequeathing the greater part of his estate to the Town for the purpose of establishing “a High School in the town of Ipswich, which should be free to the youth of the town of both sexes.” His son, Joseph E. Manning, contested the will on the ground that his father was incompetent to make such an instrument, in which he failed to receive his proper share, and the will was disallowed. But to fulfill his father’s wishes in part, he conveyed in 1857, securities of an estimated value of $10,000 to the Trustees of the School.
Members of the Manning family lived in the house until 1858, when it became the First Church parsonage. Rev. Robert Southgate succeeded Rev. David Kimball in 1851 and remained the Pastor until 1868. The ladies of Ipswich, under the leadership of Mrs. Southgate and Mrs. Lucretia Perkins, formed an association at the beginning of the Civil War, forwarding supplies to the hospitals for care of the wounded through the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC) and the United States Christian Commission (USCC), civilian relief agencies established to coordinate aid for Union troops. Augustine Heard, the brother of Margaret Heard Manning, gave $10,000 along with his nephews for the relief of soldiers.
Thomas Franklin Waters described this house in the two-volume Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, published in 1905:
“The Arthur Abbott homestead was inherited by his son Philip Abbott, who sold the house and land, to Robert Wallis, Jan. 17, 1799 (171: 65), and he to Dr. Thomas Manning, who built the mansion, now used as the Parsonage of the First Church, Jan. 17, 1799 (185: 146).” (Vol. 1)
“Mr. Augustine Heard conveyed to the Parish on June 11, 1858, the family mansion of the late Dr. Thomas Manning, which he had recently purchased from Joseph E. Manning, son of the deceased. He prescribed in the deed of conveyance that it should be used only as a Parsonage, and that there should never be any building erected “between the dwelling now standing thereon, and the said land of said Cowles and within seventy feet of said Main Street.'” (Vol. 2)
In the 1960s Donald Fowser purchased this rundown Federalist-period house and restored the house with authentic moldings and a curved veranda overlooking a beautiful garden.
The Rev. David Kimball of First Church became pastor in 1805 and served for over 40 years. He was a staunch abolitionist whom William Lloyd Garrison referred to as “zealously affected in our cause.” He built his home, still standing, facing the north side of the church. The New England Anti-Slavery Convention assembled at Boylston Hall on May 27, 1834. William Oakes, Esq., Ipswich’s famous botanist, was appointed vice president, and the Rev. David Kimball was named an officer. The Thomas Manning house became the new parsonage after Rev. Kimball’s retirement.
By 1838, the anti-slavery movement was gathering strength in Ipswich. The Anti-Slavery Society held its meetings in the Methodist vestry. The Ipswich Female Anti-Slavery Society met at Mrs. Jabez Farley’s house and at the home of Lucy Caldwell at 16 Elm Street, the house which is now featured at the Smithsonian. The Methodist Church allowed anti-slavery meetings, but the more ardent Abolitionists split away to form the Methodist Wesleyan Church, meeting in Mr. Hammatt’s Hall on North Main Street. The churches reunited several years later
The cellar of the Thomas Manning house is very large and includes a number of brick storerooms. A trap door in the floor of a small room in the rear of the house has a ladder where you can descend into a small chamber. A steel door opens into another small chamber, which has a small square opening in the foundation that leads to the backyard. Fugitive slaves were hidden from bounty hunters and would be taken after dark to the river behind the house, where they would float down to the wharf and board freight ships to Nova Scotia.
“The Underground Railroad in Massachusetts” by Wilbur H. Siebert identified three underground routes starting from Salem and diverging northward: one through Danvers, Andover, and South Lawrence; another through Danvers, Georgetown, and Haverhill; and a third through Beverly, Ipswich, Newburyport, and Amesbury.
“From Salem, three Underground trails diverged to the northward, one through Danvers, Andover, Frye Village, South Lawrence, and across the New Hampshire line; another by way of Danvers, Georgetown, and Haverhill into the same state; and the third by way of Beverly, Ipswich, Newburyport, and Amesbury to Seabrook, New Hampshire. At Beverly, Dr. Ingalls Kittredge, a graduate of Harvard in 1820, was an indefatigable manager of the Underground service. From 1836 on, he lived at the corner of Cabot and Federal streets, where both his house and purse were always open to the refugees. In Ipswich, there were zealous workers, and at Newburyport, we know of three by name. Captain Alexander Graves, Mr. Jackman, and Richard Plumer. He lived in a two-story frame house at No. 63 Federal Street, with a barn in the rear, and went at night in his spring wagon with his son Wendell Phillips, a lad of eight or nine years, to the south end of the bridge over Parker River for the fugitives brought there by the men from Ipswich.”
There’s no mention of who the Ipswich “men” were. I’m curious if it may have actually been the wife of Thomas Manning, Margaret Heard. This is a good mystery for us to explore.
The names of the Underground Railroad agents in Ipswich are not known, nor is it known if Dr. Manning was working with them. Ipswich legend is that they made their escape on the River behind the house, but there are records of escapees being taken on the Bay Road to the Parker River bridge in Newbury, where they were transferred to Richard Plummer of Newburyport and hidden underneath bags of grain in his cart. There are legends in Newburyport of “an intricate tunnel system” under the Old Burying Ground, beneath the center of town to the wharf area, and indeed, an old tunnel was discovered recently during an excavation.
Thomas Manning / Old Parsonage, 19 North Main Street Preservation Agreement
This house is protected by a preservation agreement between the owners and the Ipswich Historical Commission. Protected elements include:
- Exterior front and side facades
- Central frame including primary and secondary members
- Wooden architectural elements, including stairway, doors, paneling, and other elements of the front and rear halls and the first floor right rear room.
Biography of Dr. Thomas Manning
“THOMAS MANNING (John-Joseph-Thomas-Richard) was born February 7, 1775, at Ipswich, Mass. He was a physician and a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is believed that he practiced for a short time in Marblehead at the beginning of his career, but he soon located in Ipswich and remained a successful physician there to the time of his death. He was among the progressive members of his profession and the first doctor who introduced inoculation for kine pox in his vicinity, his experiments being completely satisfactory. He was a justice of the peace, and on June 1, 1802, was commissioned surgeon of the 2d regiment, 2d brigade, and 2d division of the State militia. In advancing the business interests of the town, he was energetic. By will, he left a large sum of money to found the Manning School at Ipswich, and this, under the wise oversight of his nephew, Richard H. Manning, and others, became an established and highly successful institution, which has enjoyed an excellent reputation to the present time. He married on May 24, 1807, Margaret Heard, born 1783, who died August 13, 1829. She was the daughter of Hon. John Heard; her mother’s maiden name, according to an old manuscript, was Sarah Staniford. Dr. Manning died Feb. 3, 1854, at Ipswich.”
Further reading:
- MACRIS: Old Parsonage, Dr. Thomas Manning house
- T.F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, vol. I, p. 333,
- T.F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, vol. II, pp. 449, and 518.
- T. F. Waters, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony Vol. II: Willowdale Mill
- 19 North Main Old Parsonage Preservation Agreement
- The New England Quarterly: Underground Railroad
- Dr. Manning’s windmill
- 36 North Main Street, the Dr. John Manning house (1769)
- 31 South Main Street, the Dr. Joseph Manning house (1727)
- C. W. Dixon, “Smallpox”
Historic Ipswich 