The story of Sarah Dillingham, wife of John Caldwell is of a loving and most thoughtful life.One of the first children born in Ipswich, and then orphaned, she became a "woman of qualities" that caused her name to never be forgotten. The years entrusted them with eight children and countless Ipswich descendants. Their home on High Street still stands.
Category: People
Choate Island and Rufus Choate
Choate Island was originally known as Hog Island, and is the largest island in the Crane Wildlife Refuge and is the site of the Choate family homestead, the Proctor Barn, the White Cottage, and the final resting place of Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Crane. There are great views from the island summit of the Castle Neck dunes and Plum Island Mount Agamenticus in Maine.
John Winthrop Jr., Here and Gone
John Winthrop the younger was the son of Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop, and led the settlement of Agawam in 1633 (renamed Ipswich in 1634), accompanied by 11 men.
Jane Hooper, the Fortune-Teller
Jane Hooper was in 1760 a Newburyport "school dame" but after she lost that job she found fame as a fortune-teller. When the Madame made her yearly visit to Ipswich, the young and the old called on her to learn of their fates.
Daniel Hovey
At the foot of Hovey Street along the Ipswich River is a plaque dedicated to the memory of Ipswich settler Daniel Hovey, whose home and wharf were across the river on what is now Tansey Lane.
Remembering Susan Howard Boice
by Beverly Perna (reprinted from 2016) Sue Boice died on July 16, 2013, but word got around town slowly that she had passed. I didn’t know until August 24th when a friend called and asked me to go to a Native American memorial for Sue, hosted that morning at Wolf Hollow by her longtime friend Joni… Continue reading Remembering Susan Howard Boice
Adele “Kitty” Crockett Robertson
Kitty Robinson began writing for the Ipswich Chronicle in her 50s, and when she died unexpectedly in 1979, flags in Ipswich flew at half mast. Kitty's daughter published "Measuring Time…by an Hour Glass" and "The Orchard" from her newspaper articles and personal memoirs.
Freedom for Jenny Slew
Jenny Slew was born about 1719 as the child of a free white woman and a black slave. She lived her life as a free woman until 1762 when she was illegally enslaved by John Whipple. Jenny Slew is believed to be the first person held as a slave to be granted freedom through trial by jury.
The Hanging of Elizabeth Attwood, who Murdered Her “Bastard Child”
In June, 1720, Elizabeth Attwood was convicted in the Ipswich Court on the charge that she "delivered of a male bastard and that she concealed the death."
Paul Revere’s Not So Famous Ride Through Ipswich, December 13, 1774
On the cold icy morning of December 13, 1774, Paul Revere headed out on a 60 mile gallop from Boston along the Old Bay Road through Ipswich to warn the citizens of Portsmouth that British troops may be landing.
Nathaniel Ward (1578-1652)
Ward emigrated to Massachusetts in 1634 an served for two years as the minister in Ipswich. His "Body of Liberties" established a code of fundamental principles of government. Ward's book "The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America" was published in England in 1647.
Arthur Wesley Dow’s Images of Ipswich
Ipswich artist Arthur Wesley Dow (1857 – 1922) was one of the town's most famous residents. View his paintings, ink prints,and a slideshow of over 200 cyanographs.
The Defiant Samuel Appleton
In 1687, a warrant was issued for the arrest of several Ipswich men for being "seditiously inclined and disaffected to his Majesty's government." The 62-year-old Major Samuel Appleton scorned the appearance of submission and remained imprisoned in the cold Boston Jail through the winter.
Theodore Wendel’s Ipswich
Theodore Wendel (1859–1932) was an Impressionist artist who lived for thirty-four years in Ipswich, where he painted the village, bridges, farmlands and landscapes, and left behind a magnificent collection of paintings of his adopted home town.
The Temptations of John Dane, a Declaration of Remarkable Providences
This handwritten narrative from 1682 is the personal memoir of John Dane, who immigrated to Ipswich by 1638.
Building Wooden Ships
Shipwright Harold A Burnham comes from a family who have been building wooden boats in Essex MA for several generations. Produced by Blake Road Productions LLC for the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
