On the Massachusetts North Shore
(This story was made possible by research conducted by Christopher Challender Child and Marblehead historian Bob Booth.) In 1764, Marblehead's Second Congregational Church's minister, Simon Bradstreet, moved into a new mansion house with his wife Mary (née Strahan) Bradstreet, whom he had married in 1738. They were accompanied by an African American enslaved woman called… Continue reading Chance Bradstreet, a “Negro boy” enslaved in Ipswich.
Legendary Ipswich native Jake Burridge had a century of sailing stories to share with you.
On March 6, 1659 a young man named Robert Cross dug up the remains of the Agawam chief Masconomet, and carried his skull on a pole through Ipswich streets, an act for which Cross was imprisoned, sent to the stocks, then returned to prison until a fine was paid.
At Harris Farm the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery Regiment, assembled with Ipswich soldiers, drove the Confederates into the cover of the woods, eventually ending with a Northern victory. The battle claimed over 2000 lives.
On July 14, 1681, Sarah Whipple Goodhue left a note to her husband that read: "Dear husband, if by sudden death I am taken away from thee, there is infolded among thy papers something that I have to say to thee and others." She died three days after bearing twins. This is the letter to her husband and children.
On May 23, 1692, a complaint for witchcraft was filed against Sarah Buckley and her widowed daughter Mary Witheridge. The "bewitched" girls of Salem Village claimed that the women's specters had attacked them. Held in shackles in the cold crowded jail, both were acquitted in January,1692
As the young boys who arrived with the first settlers of Ipswich approached adulthood, they developed a fondness for hard liquor and rowdiness, which frequently landed them in court.
We received the sad news today of the death of Mary Ellen Lepionka on October 7, 2024. Mary Ellen wrote prolifically about the Native Americans who lived in our area before European colonization and their descendants. In her professional career, Mary Ellen Lepionka taught social sciences at the college and high school levels, after which… Continue reading Remembering Mary Ellen Lepionka
In the first half of the Eighteenth Century, Col. Thomas Berry was the most conspicuous citizen of the Town, "Autocrat of his time, Magistrate, Military leader, Physician and Statesman."
Private Joseph Stockwell Manning grew up in Ipswich, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on December 1, 1864, a year and two days after an incredible act of bravery at Fort Sanders, Tennessee. in November, 1863.
Christopher and Sarah Bidlake, who married in Ipswich, Massachusetts, were the common ancestors of the Bidlack family of Windham County, Connecticut. The above sketch of Windham Center in the 1830s is by John Warner Barber. Sarah Bidlake was the daughter of John Fuller and Elizabeth (Emerson) Perrin, and a granddaughter of Thomas Emerson who was born… Continue reading Christopher and Sarah Bidlake
Nicholas Manning immigrated from England to Salem, MA, as early as 1662. He was later joined by his youngest brother Thomas, who became the common ancestor of the prominent Manning family of Ipswich.
On October 30, 1789, Washington passed through Ipswich on his ten-day tour of Massachusetts. Adoring crowds greeted the President at Swasey’s Tavern (still standing at the corner of Popular and County Streets) where he stopped for food and drink.
The concepts of freedom about which Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence originated from the pen of the Rev. John Wise of Ipswich: "The origin of civil power is the people...and when they are free, they may set up what species of government they please."
Many of these glass plate negatives taken by George Dexter (1862-1927) and Edward Darling (1874 - 1962), were stored away for a century.
Charles Wendell Townsend, M.D. was attracted by the natural beauty of Ipswich. He built a summer house overlooking a wide expanse of salt marsh with open sea to the east. From here he wrote a number of books, including Beach Grass, Sand Dunes and Salt Marshes, and the Birds of Essex County.
Historic Ipswich 