At noon, a "midnight darkness" had fallen on Essex County. Candles were lighted, and fowls went to roost. By the next morning, dark ash lay four or five inches thick.
Category: Stories
The Battle of Middle Ground, July 3, 2005
Gather all ye noble men and listen to my song. I know you have more pressing things But this shouldn’t take too long. Our tale occurs on slippery sand at a place called Middle Ground.
Sarah Goodhue’s Advance Directive, July 14, 1681
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.
The Rev. John Wise of Ipswich
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."
The Story of Agnes Surriage, the Marblehead Tavern Maid
In 1742, the 26-year-old king’s collector visited Marblehead, and fell in love with the young tavern maid, a poor fisherman's daughter ten years younger than himself.
The Hanging of Ezra Ross and Bathsheba Spooner, July 2, 1778
In 1778, sixteen-year-old Ezra Ross of Ipswich was condemned to death for the murder of Joshua Spooner of Brookfield. Spooner's wife Bathsheba became the first woman executed in the newly-created United States of America. Ezra Ross is buried in an unmarked grave at the Leslie Road Cemetery.
John Eales, Beehive Maker
The inhabitants of Newbury perceived bee-keeping as a new and profitable industry, but needed someone with experience. John Eales, an elderly pauper who had been sent away to Ipswich, was returned by the Court to Newbury to assist them in their efforts. An old English customs was his assistants "telling the bees" when their keeper died.
Haselelponah Wood
Obadiah Wood married 35-year-old widow Haselelponiah, whose scriptural name means "A shadow falls upon me," the only person in modern history with that name. Haselelpony Wood's tombstone is located at the Old North Burial Ground in Ipswich.
The Reluctant Pirate from Ipswich, Captain John Fillmore
John Fillmore of Ipswich was taken prisoner in 1723 by the pirate Captain Phillips. After many months he and three other prisoners overcame their captors, seized command and sailed the ship into Boston. "Captain" John Fillmore became a legend in his own time.
The Courtship and Marriage of William Durkee and Martha Cross
William Durkee, an indentured Irish Catholic, and Martha Cross, the daughter of Robert Cross of Chebacco parish were servants in the household of Thomas Bishop in Ipswich. When Martha became pregnant by William, they were both presented for fornication. The court ruled that they be punished and get married.
Seating in the Meeting House
The question of greater and lesser dignity, carrying with it the question of higher or lower seats, became so vexing that the task of “seating the congregation” was laid upon the Selectmen.
Ipswich Bluff
The hotel at Ipswich Bluff on the southern tip of Plum Island was a favorite destination of locals in the late 19th Century, who took the steamer Carlotta from the Ipswich wharf with Capt. Nat Burnham.
Building a Ship in Essex
By the early 1840s, Essex no longer had its own fishing fleet, but had turned to year-round shipbuilding, fostering a symbiotic relationship with the successful fishermen in Gloucester.
The Shatswell Fife and Drum Corps
In the fall of 1928, the Shatswell School Fife and Drum Corps was born. About 18 boys were signed up. All that autumn and through the winter the boys rehearsed in earnest. On May 30, 1929, the Shatswell Fife and Drum Corps made its first appearance in the Memorial Day parade.
The Knobbs
The Knobbs is a small beach in a stretch of salt marsh on the west side of the Ipswich section of Plum Island. On the Atlantic side was the Kbobbs Beach Life-Saving Station, replaced in 1947 by a camp for children who had been victims of polio.
Gettin’ Away on the ‘Pike
In the first half century of the automotive age, a weekend trip to the country for Boston folks often meant driving to Ipswich on the Newburyport Turnpike and renting a cabin not too far from the shore.
Historic Ipswich 