IN THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY VOLUME II. A HISTORY OF THE TOWN FROM Rev. BY THOMAS FRANKLIN WATERS PRESIDENT OF THE IPSWICH HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE IPSWICH HISTORICAL SOCIETY IPSWICH, MASS. 1917 PREFACE The first volume of Ipswich history, entitled Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1633-1700, was published in 1905. It was received with so much favor that I have been encouraged to continue my study and research to the present day. To the end that the book may be interesting to many readers, beside students of history, and may be something more than a series of disconnected annals, the topical method, followed in the first volume, has been continued. I have endeavored to portray as graphically as possible the changing life of the community in successive periods, in the common course of Town affairs and in critical periods of Colonial and National existence, and have not hesitated to make frequent excursions into the contemporaneous history of other towns to secure illustrative material. The churches have had such an important place, that their history has been made a prominent feature, and as their records are liable to destruction or loss, copious abstracts have been made that the essential facts may be preserved. The extensive fisheries and commerce, which formerly employed many men and gave thrilling and romantic interest to the daily life but are now almost forgotten, have received careful study. The history of the schools, especially that of the old Grammar School, and the Ipswich Seminary, so widely famous in its day, has been told at length. The field of Ipswich genealogy, however, is so vast and intricate and so much material for students is so readily available in the published Vital Statistics and in the family his |