Recent Posts: Historic Ipswich

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…

Establishment of the Ipswich Mills as a Global Leader in Hosiery

by Stephen Miles, 1/1/2026, Ipswich Historical Society Board Member 1986-1989; President 1989-92; Member Ipswich Historical Commission Richard Candee, Director of Preservation Studies at Boston University, presented a lecture on “The Industrial Heritage of the North Coast” on Sunday, February 9, 1986, at the Heard House (the Ipswich Museum), Main Street in Ipswich. This lecture was…

Bridging Cultures, January 22, 2026

The Ipswich Refugee Program works in cooperation with a local refugee resettlement agency to help several newly arrived immigrant/refugee families get settled in Ipswich. welcome them into our community and to support their efforts to establish independence and self-sufficiency in a new country and culture. Join the Ipswich Refugee Program on Thursday, January 22, at…

2026 Winter Wellness Sampler,  January 23 – March 20, 2026

Winter Wellness Sampler is back for its 4th year! Join us for a seasonal series designed to help you move through the darkest, coldest months with care, curiosity, and connection. This year, we’re returning to the Ipswich Town Hall gym in the heart of Ipswich at 25 Green Street. From sound healing and meditation to…

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 Story Behind the Story of Wigwam Hill

As a researcher on Indigenous history here, I was captivated by this account, both for its romance and its tragedy. Who were these people? Where did they come from and where did they go? Why was all that happening and what did it mean?

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.

Wreck of the Falconer, December 17, 1847

On December 17, 1847 the brig Falconer, loaded with bituminous coal, wrecked at Crane Beach during a fierce winter storm. A dozen of the crew and passengers are buried in a common grave at the Old North Burying Ground.

PTSD in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Great Migration brought nearly 14,000 Puritan settlers, unprepared for the hardships and trauma that awaited them. Building a new society in the wilderness induced transgenerational post-traumatic stress culminating in the Salem Witch Trials, which some professionals describe as mass conversion disorder.

No “Bait and Switch”

Photo by David “Stoney” Stone Letter: The headline “Bait and Switch” in the November 25 article about the Ipswich Mills Dam was eye-catching but very misleading. Read this article at the Ipswich Local News.

The Great Dying 1616-1619, “By God’s visitation, a Wonderful Plague.”

An estimated 18,000,000 Native Americans lived in North America before the 17th century. The arrival of 102 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and the settlements by the Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritans a decade later were accompanied by the demise of much of the native population of North America.

History of the Ipswich Volunteer Fire Department

In 1642, it was ordered that every Ipswich householder shall have a ladder in constant readiness for fire. For the next 150 years, the town relied on the men in town to hurry to the alarm with buckets to save people and goods, and to fight the fires. In 1785, fire wardens were chosen to…

County Street, Sawmill Point, and Bare Hills

The town voted in 1861 to build County Street and its stone arch bridge, connecting Cross and Mill Streets. A Woolen mill, saw mill, blacksmith shop and veneer mill operated near the bridge.

General Daniel Denison

Daniel Denison became Major General of the colonial forces and represented Ipswich in the general court. He was remembered with high esteem by the people of Ipswich well into the 19th Century. You can visit Denison’s grave at the Old North Burial Ground.

1894: the Year that Ipswich Burned

At about 1:30 am, Police gave the alarm that Central Street was on fire.The citizens of Ipswich tumbled out from their beds and faced as wicked a night as the town has ever seen. Four months later the other end of downtown burned.

Historic Survey of the Ipswich Mills Dam

Inventory No: IPS.9009: Ipswich Mills Hosiery Manufacturing Company Dam. Survey Form F (structure) submitted to the Massachusetts Historical Commission, Recorded by: Ted Dattilo for the Public Archaeology Laboratory, Inc., May 2024. Received by the Mass. Historical Commission on Nov. 12, 2024 Historical Narrative: The history of the dam and how it relates to the development…

The 1774 Ipswich Convention “To Consider the Late Acts of Parliament”

Notifications were posted in Salem to gather at the Town House to appoint representatives to meet at Ipswich, on September 6, 1774 along with the representatives of the other towns in the county, to consider “to consider and determine on such measures as the late acts of Parliament, and our other grievances render necessary and expedient.”

When John Adams Took a Long Walk in Ipswich

“I feel unutterable anxiety. God grant us wisdom and fortitude! Should the opposition be suppressed, should this country submit, what infamy and ruin! God forbid. Death in any form is less terrible!”

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.

Winter Walks in the Dunes at Castle Neck

Crane Beach and all of Castle Neck are protected by the Trustees of Reservations. Pitch pine and scrub oak rise from the masses of marsh grass, sage green hudsonia and dune lichen lining the trails that wind through the dunes.

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.

Green Crabs in the Salt Marsh

Recipe For Disaster is a six minute video about the explosion of European Green Crabs in the Great Salt Marsh. The mission of GreenCrab.org is to develop markets and promote consumption of green crabs to mitigate their invasive impact.

Early American Gardens

Isadore Smith (1902-1985) lived on Argilla Road in Ipswich and was the author of 3 volumes about 17th-19th Century gardens, writing under the pseudonym Ann Leighton. As a member of the Ipswich Garden Club, she created a traditional seventeenth century rose garden at the Whipple House.

Lucy Ardell Kimball

Born in the Hart House, Miss Kimball was a graduate of the Manning High School, class of 1894. She died in 1980 at the age of 105, after teaching first grade for 45 years.

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.

The Willowdale Mill

In 1829, Dr. Thomas Manning of Ipswich constructed a 6′ tall dam and mill on the Ipswich River along Topsfield Rd. Workers were provided housing a the large stone house. In 1884 the mill building burned and much of the stone walls for the mill building collapsed. 

The Clock Tower at Hamilton First Church

In 1843, the Hamilton meetinghouse was turned 90 degrees to face the Bay Road, and the present bell was installed in the belfry. In 1888 a clock manufactured by E. Howard & Company of Boston was added to accompany the bell.

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