Garden Volunteers Needed! Join us on Wednesday mornings, 9am-12 noon. This is a great way to help the museum and learn from experienced gardeners. If you're interested, please call Kristen at 978-462-2681 or email info@newburyhistory.org. This garden will host a plant sale at the upcoming 44th Annual Garden Tour, June 10 & 11. Buy your garden tour tickets before June 1 for earlybird pricing!

"The Appellation of WITCH..."

Psychic Madam Jane Hooper in 18th century Newburyport

By Bethany Groff Dorau

On June 8, 1798, the following strange obituary appeared in the Newburyport Herald, “DIED - at the Almshouse, a person known by the name of Madam Hooper, aged about 80, for many years a terror to weak and superstitious minds, who honored her with the appellation of WITCH.”

Newburyport Herald And Country Gazette, published in Newburyport, Massachusetts on Friday, June 8th, 1798

The Newburyport death records are equally mysterious:

“HOOPER, Jane, Madam. May 16, 1798”

Much of what can be known of Jane Hooper and other women who practiced the psychic arts in 18^th century Newburyport must be gleaned from the few exaggerated and sometimes fantastical reports of their activities that were published after their deaths. In the case of Jane Hooper, however, the Essex Journal and New Hampshire Packet newspaper wrote, during her lifetime, a lengthy piece on the influence of local fortune-tellers, including Jane Hooper, who the anonymous writer refers to only as Madame H____ and Goody (Goodwife) H____. “Among the other prophetesses of the present day, after Moll Pitcher, who justly claims precedence of all the fortune-telling tribe, is Goody H___ of this town. She has long been celebrated for her oracles, and excels others of that science, and in the discovery of stolen goods and the art of fortune-telling…” 

Moll Pitcher, another Essex County psychic, was reported to have predicted the advent of the telephone and sky-scrapers. 

Moll Pitcher of Lynn, whose fame as a reader of tea leaves inspired Whittier’s 900-line poem in 1832, had more in common with Jane Hooper than second sight (or chicanery, depending on who you asked). They both had Lord Timothy Dexter as a regular client. Dexter, whose decisions were often governed by astrologers and the interpretation of dreams, is rumored to have sought out Madam Hooper after he had been robbed of some produce. His (male) astrologer, unable to come up with a plausible culprit, suggested that he consult with Hooper, who told him where to look for his stolen fruit. Once it was found, Dexter was a true believer, and consulted Hooper on personal and business matters until her death in 1798. Despite the long journey to Lynn, Dexter turned to Moll Pitcher for advice after Hooper’s death. 

Lord Timothy Dexter, from an 1805 engraving.

Jane Hooper’s life is as mysterious as the source of her knowledge. Aside from the announcement of her death, there is no description of her background or appearance until 1825, by which time one can assume a certain amount of exaggeration. The article in the Newburyport Herald, however, was written by Samuel Knapp, who was 15 when she died, and so his claims of having known her are believable. “The writer of this article remembers (a woman) absolutely believed by a great portion of the credulous, to have practiced the arts of witchcraft…(Hooper) was a woman of extraordinary appearance - she was short, but stout, and had a strongly marked face, large greenish eyes, prominent nose, and a large mouth with a perfect set of double teeth all along her jaws - the grinders and incisors were alike. She came to that town in 1759 or 60 and was probably the appendage of a Scottish officer in Amherst 's army.” Several other contemporary sources shared the belief that she had followed the Newbury soldiers home from Quebec after the death of General Wolfe during the French and Indian War.

Jane Hooper is likely not her real name and may have been an attempt to associate herself with the prominent Hooper family of Marblehead and Newburyport. To add to the mystery, she came with trunks full of expensive, if old-fashioned, clothes that she wore for the rest of her life. “The wardrobe she possessed on her arrival was so abundant as to have lasted during her life. Paduasoys (rich silks), or brocades, made in the fashion of the day of her youth, were slovenly worn at all times. To this she added a deep cape bonnet - and this singular costume assisted, no doubt, to keep up, in young minds, the belief that she was as different from other persons in her mind as in her outward appearance.”



Jane Hooper may have cut a strange figure around Newbury(port), but until the last years of her life, she seems to have been treated with deference. Shortly after she arrived, she set up a school in her house on Bromfield Street, then the outer edge of Newburyport, and “formed a thorough acquaintance with the people… she had access to every house and made frequent visits to numerous families.” It was only after she grew restless and ill-tempered at the tedium of running a school that Hooper began to make her living telling fortunes, though Knapp credits her early success not to psychic ability, but to keen powers of observation. She could “read the character even of a child at a glance.” 

Fortune-telling cards were popular in late 18^th century New England. These use verses copied from the 1793 best-seller Every Lady’s Own Fortune-Teller.

Hooper shared another skill with Moll Pitcher. She understood that people whose lives were intimately, and precariously, connected with the sea were a superstitious lot. Both of these women, with little else to trade on, could exercise a great deal of power in their community, for good or ill, by predicting the impact of weather, wind, and waves. One young Ipswich sailor (Hooper had annual office hours in Ipswich) recalled that she said to him, “you’ll go to sea – you’ll encounter a seven-day gale of wind – a great gale – but don’t you be afraid, for not a soul’ll be lost.” Later, off the coast of Cape Cod, the young sailor gathered courage as a storm arose. “I put all my trust in Witch Hooper’s words and didn’t have a mite of fear.”  Similarly, Moll Pitcher was responsible for the desertion of much of the crew of the ship Massachusetts. “The greatest part of them left the ship in consequence of a prediction by an old woman, a fortune teller, Moll Pitcher of Lynn, that the Massachusetts would be lost, and every man on board of her. Such was the superstition of our seamen at that time, that the majority of them believed the prophecy...”

Back to Jane Hooper. In Knapp’s version of events, as the years passed, Hooper continued to be restless and ill-tempered, attracting an increasingly rough crowd to her Bromfield Street house, but although Knapp calls her a bawd, or woman of loose morality, “such was the fear of this woman that the grave fathers of the town…unequalled in their exertions to exterminate vice, did not dare assail her.” It is possible that her house became a brothel, and that the “Madam” in her death notice is an indication of this. Certainly, her death in the almshouse indicates that she had run out of options in any line of work as she neared 80.  

The Almshouse on the corner of Federal and Prospect Streets, built in 1794, would have been newly built at the end of Jane Hooper’s life.

Jane Hooper passed into legend in Newburyport, and commentators generally described her variously as a con artist and an eccentric. What most failed to consider is how a single woman with no family or connections managed to maneuver herself into a position where she was both respected and feared. One exception to this is Sarah (Smith) Emery’s description of Jane Hooper in her daughter’s 1879 Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian, who offers insight into the freedom, unusual for a woman of her time, that Hooper enjoyed. “Thus the witch carried matters with a high hand, visiting where she chose, generally acting her own pleasure without much regard to the wishes or convenience of others, few venturing to cross one whom so many considered as possessing supernatural powers. This reputation was artfully sustained.”     

Added Night! Fashion Night Out: Girls' Style from the Civil War to 1900 Wednesday, May 10, 2023, 6:30 pm

Museum of Old Newbury, 98 High Street, Newburyport

We've added another night! Our ever-popular fashion series continues with a focus on Girls' Style from the Civil War to 1900. Free for members, $10 for non-members.

The Heirloom Gardner - Traditional Plants and Skills with John Forti, May 18, 6:30 pm.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 166 High St., Newburyport.

363,000 Facebook followers can't be wrong! Join us for a refreshing look at traditional plants and skills for the modern world with garden historian and ethnobotanist John Forti. It's also a great lead-in to the upcoming Garden Tour on June 10 & 11. He will be selling and signing his book. $10 members, $20 non-members.

The 44th Annual Newburyport Garden Tour

June 10 & 11, 10am -4pm

The perfect gift for Mother's Day! Enjoy exclusive access over two days to a new selection of 11 private gardens in Newburyport, Amesbury, Newbury, and Rowley. Early bird pricing through May 31: $20 members, $35 non-members. One ticket is good both days. Get your tickets today.

Familiar Finds from the Museum Archives

a blog by Sierra Gitlin, Administrative Assistant

At the Museum of Old Newbury, we maintain an extensive archive of records and documents pertaining to local government offices, business, clubs, families and individuals. We have a receipt for payment to Moses Kimball who whitewashed the schoolhouse in 1779, ledger books from ships and shipyards spanning the 18^th and 19^th centuries, transcripts of speeches delivered at the Fortnightly Club, and the City Improvement Society's 1905 survey of our many noteworthy trees, among other gems. Recently, I was asked to find some promotional materials for the Newburyport Chamber of Commerce. They needed images from Newburyport’s past that they could enlarge and use as displays for their upcoming Annual Meeting on May 18. Of course, every time you open a box (or closet, drawer, or cabinet) at the Museum of Old Newbury, there’s bound to be an interesting surprise inside. But I was stunned and delighted by what I found in the gray archival box labeled “Newburyport Business and Industry.”

Cover image of promotional booklet “Climate for Growth”



It was a strange feeling to find the very familiar looking cover of a promotional booklet called “Climate for Growth,” produced in 1978 by the Newburyport Economic Development Commission under Mayor Richard Sullivan.  Although the booklet was published by Newburyport Press the year I was born, the illustrations were immediately recognizable, even though I’d never seen them. “Could it be?” I thought to myself as I looked closer, and carefully flipped to the table of contents. There it was: "Cover and Art Illustrations by Barbara Frake." 

They had been drawn by my own mother, nearly 50 years earlier, when she was a recent graduate of Boston University’s Fine Arts program, living in Newburyport to take advantage of cheap rent and a thriving community of artists and musicians. I was stunned that during my regular workday at the Museum, I had just happened upon my mother’s artwork. I took a picture and immediately texted her to see if she remembered working on that book. “Oh yes,” she said, “I had to draw so many teeny little bricks,” and recalled that she had spent several months on it.

International Light, Inc. at 17 Graf Road and M.V. Electroplating Corp. at 5 Greenleaf St. in the Industrial Park, featured in “Climate for Growth”

Designed to attract new industry to Newburyport after many years of decline for the port which was no longer among the busiest in the country, the booklet highlighted Newburyport’s economic, demographic, geographic, and historical resources. The then-12 year old Lord Timothy Dexter Industrial Green was featured prominently, as were City Hall, Plum Island Airport, Towle Silversmiths, and local schools and attractions. Some of the drawings’ subjects are unchanged, enduring gems of architecture like the High School atop Mt. Rural. Some will remember that Towle Silver was wrapped from head to toe in ivy back then, but otherwise looks the same. The Industrial Park’s facilities, which by today’s standards appear at best, dated, and at worst, kind of an eyesore, were at the time the height of mid-century modernity, and were deftly captured in painstaking detail by my mother’s pencil, down to the 1970s typefaces of their signs.

The current Towle Office Building on Merrimac Street.

Without meaning to suggest, of course, that my mother’s art was anything but an ideal vehicle for showcasing an industrial park, I couldn’t help but wonder why they would hire an illustrator rather than just printing photographs. The answer, of course, which I was slow to realize: photo editing software did not exist yet! So in order to show the buildings looking their best, without power lines, parked cars, or other obstructions, and with tidy plantings, perfect lawns, trees in bloom, etc., an artists’ renderings gave them flexibility they’d otherwise lack to make something ordinary (like a manufacturing facility) look specific and inviting. Similarly, the inside cover of “Climate for Growth” advertises the City’s “Diversified, Tasteful Architecture,” and shows the Dexter Mansion, the Customs House, the Superior Court at Bartlet Mall, plus the Newburyport Lighthouse all grouped together - a photographic impossibility made real through the artist’s imagination.  

Barbara Frake's illustration, left, and the original photos she used, right.

Opportunities for illustrators like my mother, whose skill in architectural renderings and graphic design would soon be made obsolete by the advent of software like CAD and Adobe Photoshop, were still plentiful in the 1970s and early 1980s. I also found a 1981 fold-out business directory produced by the Chamber of Commerce. On its cover, a group of tourists young and old look off in the direction of Merrimac Street from Market Square, with three slightly abstract depictions of the buildings across Water Street in the background. Many will remember the slogan “Newburyport. Love at First Sight,” situated above her illustration as the directory’s headline, a simple, monochrome cover created when “cut and paste” involved an Exacto knife and rubber cement. My mother’s style was casual, friendly, detailed, yet restrained, and she drew from photographs she took and had developed at the drive-up Fotomat in Port Plaza or the Kodak store on Pleasant Street. 

Left: 1981 Chamber of Commerce Business Directory, Right: Reference photo for “Newburyport. Love at First Sight” brochure.

While digital photo editing and desktop publishing software have certainly made creating promotional materials easier and cheaper, human illustrators imbue advertising with homegrown style and personality. My mother says she really enjoyed working on the Climate for Growth project and many others, mostly for banks and other area businesses. The City of Newburyport was her main focus for several years. She still has shoe boxes full of photographs she took to draw from, a time-capsule of downtown street scenes most people wouldn’t have bothered to capture given the expense of buying and developing film. “When computers made it quick and easy to create precise plans and renderings, I stayed with my fine art background and have been drawing and painting commissions of many subjects, hopefully with a human touch that computers haven’t (yet) mastered,” my mother says. 

Pleasant St in the mid-1970s. Photo by Barbara Frake.

While most artists dream of having their work in a museum, having it tucked away and shelved inside an archival box isn’t exactly the fantasy. Still, my mother, who arrived in Newburyport before Urban Renewal, is proud to have helped promote Newburyport and play a small role in its revitalization. While most of her work now involves portraits, horses, landscapes, and an occasional boat, she loves Newburyport as an inspiring treasure-trove of amazing architectural details, and thinks it’s wonderful that ephemera like an events calendar from 1981 are being kept here at the Museum. They are all part of the fabric of the community, and help preserve the stories, people, and places that make us who we are…which is precisely what we at the Museum of Old Newbury are working hard to do.

Rhubarb and Raisin Pie

My grandmother, Mary Noyes Poore, who sadly had died long before I was born, left a few favorite recipes which I grew up eating. One was for rhubarb and raisin pie, from the Larkin Cookbook, published early in the 1900’s. In the spring I remember my mother stepping outside the back door to cut stalks of rhubarb from several plants which grew like weeds on our hillside. By itself it was unbearably sour, but mixed with sugar, flour, eggs, and raisins it was a delicious pie. The same cookbook also had a recipe for salmon loaf, which we had frequently, and could “stretch” a can of salmon to feed 5 people, by adding enough crackers and eggs. - Jean Muzrall Uhlig, volunteer newsletter copyeditor par excellence.

Ingredients:

3/4 c. raisins

2 c. rhubarb cut small (8 or 9 stalks)

1 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. flour

1 egg (I use 2)

Dough for a double crust pie - home-made or store-bought

Mix sugar, salt, and flour. Add to slightly beaten egg(s). Mix rhubarb and raisins. Add the egg mixture and mix well. Pour into a dough-lined pie plate and cover with a top crust. Bake 400 degrees for 40 minutes. Makes 1 pie.

Click the image to do the puzzle

"The Fortune Teller"(detail) by Pietro Longhi, 1750s. Image courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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