130 Topsfield Road, the William Wallis House (c. 1800-20)

The Ipswich accessors site gives a date of 1720 for the Wallis house at 130 Topsfield Rd., but the mass and depth of the house, and paired chimneys are typical of late Georgian and Federal-era construction. The decorative interior reflects early 20th-century improvements. The right-side fireplaces are of the Rumford style and are supported by a massive rectangular brick structure containing a brick arch. This large farm was granted to Ensign Nicholas Wallis in 1639, and it appears to have stayed in the family until a descendant of William Wallis, the presumed builder of this house, sold it in 1875. The ancestry of William Wallis has not yet been established.

Structural observations

The primary (front) block of the house, before additions were built all at the same time, as indicated by the continuous massive stone wall foundation. The basement framing was cut with a band saw. Circular saws were in common use in sawmills in the United States by the middle of the 19th century. The depth of the side of the house is much deeper than would be found in a house constructed before the middle of the 18th century.

This house has two chimneys, but they are not symmetrically arranged. Paired chimneys became popular in the late 18th Century. The right chimney is supported by a massive brick arch, generally found in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Rumford fireplaces are found throughout the house, and were common from 1796, when Count Rumford first wrote about them, until about 1850. The upstairs bedroom fireplace surrounds are Federal in appearance; the parlor appears to have been fashioned as a replica of an earlier period, and its fireplace surround is Georgian in character. The room opposite has an ornate Victorian-era fireplace surround.

History of the property

Ensign Nicholas Wallis (1633-1711) was born in Ipswich to Robert and Rebecca Wallis, who were among the first settlers in Ipswich. Land at this location for a large farm was granted to him in 1639. He married Sarah Bradstreet. Sarah Bradstreet Wallis was born in 1638 in Ipswich (now Rowley) . Her parents were Humphrey and Bridget Bradstreet. Sergeant Robert Wallis 3, son of Ensign Nicholas Wallis and Sarah Bradstreet, was born March 12, 1661. His mother, Sarah Bradstreet Wallis, was born in 1638 in a section of Ipswich that became Rowley. Her parents were Humphrey and Bridget Bradstreet. In 1697 Sargent Robert Wallis held the position of Surveyor of highways. He served as a selectman in 1719-20. In that year, seats were appointed to him and his wife in the Meeting House. Joining many of the town’s distinguished leaders in the Men’s Third Row was Sergeant Robert Wallis. In the Women’s seat across the alley were the leading women, including the wife of Robert Wallis.

Thomas Franklin Waters wrote that in 1667, Nicholas Waters was among a group of men who proposed to build a dam at the location of the Mill Road bridge. “Sar. Nicholas Wallis,” whose farm is now owned by the Brooks heirs, received permission in March 1686-7 “to improve the water by damming in the river against his own land not exceeding three feet for building a fulling mill or mills, provided he do it within a year and a half.” Sergeant Wallis did not improve his privilege. In March. 1696-7, John Adams, Sen., his son John, Jim, and Michael Farley Jun. petitioned the Town for permission to build a dam, and operate a grist mill and a fulling mill.”

In 1875, James Griffing sold part or all of the property to John H. Gilbert in two transactions, but no structures are listed. (Salem Deeds 946:31). The deed states: “…premises devised to me by my mother, by will approved May 6, A.D. 1851.” The Ipswich Library’s Birth and Deaths record books list a Mary Hannah Griffing whose father was William Wallace, and her mother Theresa Panquet from Quebec. View Mary Hannah Wallace Griffing’s gravestone at the Old North Burying Ground

Sources:

• Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony Volume II by Thomas Franklin Waters
• Hammatt Papers: Early inhabitants of Ipswich, Mass. 1633-1700 by Abraham Hammatt
• Richard Hydren
• An American Family History
• Probate Records of Essex County
• Ipswich Vital Records: Births
• Ipswich Vital Records: Marriages
• Ipswich Vital Records: Deaths