The Ghost of Harry Maine

Harry Maine — you have heard the tale;
He lived there in Ipswich Town;
He blasphemed God, so they put him down
With an iron shovel, at Ipswich Bar;
They chained him there for a thousand years,
As the sea rolls up to shovel it back ;
So when the sea cries, the goodwives say
“Harry Maine growls at his work today.”

Old Ipswich Town, by James Appleton Morgan

There’s an old Ipswich legend about a fellow named Henry Maine and his traveling companion Andrew Diamond, who arrived in 1671 in Ipswich from the Isles of Shoals where they had fished and owned a house together. The Wharf and the Necks were busy in those early days. Ships were coming and going from the Isles of Shoals, where Ipswich merchants had established a fishing station. Diamond prospered in Ipswich, built several wharves, and owned a profitable fleet of shipping boats in a partnership with Francis Wainwright. He died well-respected and quite wealthy.

Henry Maine, better known as “Harry,” as the questionable legend goes, turned to plundering wrecked ships for a living, an enterprise he may have practiced before coming to Ipswich. Such persons were known as “wreckers,” and Harry is said to have been the worst kind, a “mooncusser,” who on pitch-black nights would build bonfires on the beaches, causing ships to go off course and be dashed apart on the breakers. Another technique was to lead a horse along the beach holding a “Judas lantern,” imitating the appearance of ship bobbing in the water. Harry and his partners would plunder the wrecks for their cargo, and it was rumored that they would finish off any victims they found still alive (although it is more likely that they assisted the shipwreck victims before plundering their cargo). The sandbar extending from Plum Island known as the Ipswich bar was the scene of Harry Maine’s hideous crimes.

The team of wreckers were eventually caught and tried. Legend says that as punishment Harry was sentenced to be chained to a stake at the Ipswich Bar, doomed to shovel sand for eternity (or at least until he drowned). When waves crashed over the bar during storms, locals would say “The Devil is raising Old Harry,” or “Old Harry’s growling again,” or “Harry Maine grumbles at his work today.” His yells of rage could be heard for miles around.

Unfortunately, the people of Ipswich were not through with Harry Maine. Over the years, Harry’s house was repeatedly ransacked and the yard was dug up at night by people looking for the money that he had supposedly buried, but nothing was ever found.

In one version of the story, a man dreamed for three successive nights about the location of the treasure. On a dark night, he set off with a spade to the spot he recognized from his dream. He began digging and unearthed an iron bar lying beside a flat stone. As he began prying on the stone, an army of black cats appeared and glared at him with eyes of fire. The poor man grabbed the bar and whirled it about. The feline guardians disappeared as quickly as they appeared, but icy water began pouring into the hole, preventing the treasure from being uncovered. The shaken man leaped out of the hole still holding the bar, which he later fashioned into a latch. It provided service on an Ipswich door for many years, and perhaps still does!

The uneasy spirit which haunted the old house greatly alarmed any unfortunate persons who attempted to live there. One day, the ministers of the Town assembled at the house and prayed, and henceforth the uncanny doings ceased. After leaving Ipswich, Harry Maine’s ghost moved on to Plum Island, seeking his body. People living on the island became afraid to venture out on stormy nights, convinced that his evil ghost was there, somewhere, digging in the dunes.

Ipswich folks remained wary of the old house, and it was eventually torn down. and some believed that Harry’s ghost haunted the neighboring home of Jabesh Sweet. The house at 32 Water Street was built in 1713 and stands in front and to the left of the site of Harry Maine’s house. I had the opportunity to walk through the Jabesh Sweet house and chat with the owner, who assured me that it was not haunted by Harry Maine or anyone else. They excavated the yard to build a shed that sits near the former location of Harry’s house, and no chest of gold was found.

Harry Maine, his house, and the supposed treasure are long gone but never forgotten in Ipswich folklore.

A good tale, but…

In Volume 1 of Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Thomas Franklin Waters wrote, “William Roe, a fisherman from the Isle of Shoals…built a house but soon was moved to dwell elsewhere, and disposed of it to two other fishermen from the Isle of Shoals, Andrew Diamond and Henry Maine, June 13, 1673 (Ipswich Deeds 3:267). Nothing more is known of this Henry Maine, and his interest was acquired by Diamond. But he is without doubt the flesh and blood original of the mythical Harry Maine, whose mysterious but unknown crimes brought upon him such awful punishment.” Waters added that “The Harry Maine house, though of later date, stands on land once owned by Maine.” The house is no longer standing.

Furthermore, there is no record of Harry or Henry Maine in the extensive Records and files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts. It seems that an ancient legend about the Devil, sometimes referred to as “Harry” became conflated with Henry Maine. When James Appleton Morgan wrote “Ipswich Town,” the crime Harry Maine had committed was blasphemy. It wasn’t until 1884 that Samuel Drake wrote that Harry Maine was a smuggler and a wrecker in A Book of New England Legends. In 1896, Charles Skinner’s “Myths and Legends of Our Own Land” sealed Harry Maine’s legacy as a mooncusser.

Isaac Ross conducted research on Henry Maine, and found the following 2 documents:

A house and land on one of the Isles of Shoals was sold on Nov. 2, 1668, to Henry Maine and Andrew Diamond. In June 1673 the two men bought the property on Water St. in Ipswich from William Row (ref.) for £40. In 1681, Henry Maine or his son Henry purchased two properties in Marblehead.

On Sept. 1, 1687, Henry Maine of the Isle of Shoals, “administrator to the estate of my father Henry Maine” transferred to William Goodhue “in consideration of the balance of debts for goods bought by my father, to the full value of forty-one pounds…half part of a house and land in the town of Ipswich, which was purchased by Andrew Diamond and Henry Maine jointly of William Row” (Salem Deeds 78:51). Interestingly, the deed wasn’t recorded until 1739, a year after Henry Maine Jr., now living in Marblehead, transferred his property in Marblehead and on the Isles of Shoals to his son Thomas, “for parental love and affection.” (Salem Deeds 77:180). Henry Maine Jr. died in 1748.

Sources and Further Reading:

• Waters, Thomas Franklin: “Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony“
• New England Folklore, “Harry Main and the Black Cats from Hell“
• Drake Samuel: “A Book of New England Legends” published 1901
• Antiquarian Papers: James Appleton Morgan, “Ipswich Town” published 1880
• The Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder, Volumes 3-4 (Record of deed transfer from William Roe of Ipswich to Henry Maine and Andrew Diamond, 1673)
• Keenan, Alice: Ipswich Yesterday
• Maine Historical and Genealogical Register
• The Essex Institute Historical Collections
• Garcerella, Stephen, Spooky Trails and Tall Tales in Massachusetts
• Grey, Spencer: “Mooncussers And Wreckers Of Chatham“