e-Newsletter | August 20, 2021 |
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An Old Newbury Treasure Enhances the MOON's Collection
In June, museum collections committee member Marie Vander Sande alerted us to "an important 18th century flagon from the Third Church of Newbury, Massachusetts" that was going to the auction block on July 11th at Butterscotch Auction Gallery in Pound Ridge, NY. Committee member Wanda Blanchard and staff members Kristen Fehlhaber and Susan C.S. Edwards immediately began to research the piece and to determine its provenance.
The Third Church of Newbury separated from the First Church in 1725 and was established by the General Court in December of that year. Services took place in a new meeting house located at the foot of Fish Street in Market Square. (Image courtesy of Currier's History of Newburyport, Mass., 1764-1905.)
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The Flagon measuring 12.5 inches tall with a 6-inch diameter at its flared base is a handsome vessel that would have been used to hold the communion wine. Flagons were also used to hold the water needed at the font for a baptism.
The names of four prominent Newbury men are boldly engraved on the drum of the flagon: The gift of Mr. {Moses Gerrish / John Greenleaf / Makepeace Horton / Jeremiah Pierson} / To the 3d Church in Newbury / January th 1727 - 8. Our next task was to determine why these men had given this important gift to the fledgling new church. The answer to this question lay in an 18th century volume in the collections of the Newburyport Library Archival Center.
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The flagon has a splayed and reeded foot rim, a double-dome lid with a turned finial, a "chairback" thumbpiece and a double-scroll handle.
Close up of flagon inscription as noted above.
From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury.
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John Lowell and His Book
The Reverend John Lowell was born in Boston, although his great-grandfather was among the early settlers of Newbury. He was called as the pastor of the Third Parish of Newbury in 1726, five years after his graduation from Harvard, and he held the position until his death in 1767. Lowell has been described as bookish and mild mannered, a man who believed that a sacred bond existed between a minister and his congregation.
In 1737, he created a record book for the “Third Church of Christ” incorporating all official documents from the inception of the parish such as the church covenant drafted by the Rev. Caleb Cushing of Salisbury, church meetings and votes, gifts to the church, baptisms, and marriages. The book provides a detailed history of all official church events.
On page 53 of Lowell's book are the names of Gerrish, Greenleaf, Horton, and Pierson. They were admitted to Full Communion in the church in December 1727. Full communion in 18th century New England meant "those converted 'saints' who had been admitted to partake of the sacraments," according to the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. These men and women were pledged to obey the covenant of the church and to prove themselves worthy. Full communion could be revoked upon heresy, apostasy and schism.
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About the two book entries: The second entry on page 77 (above) of John Lowell's book listing presented to the church gives the name of the donors of the flagon. Admissions to Full Communion for the year 1727 through December 31 (below). Note the numbers after the names of Moses Gerrish, Makepeace Horton and Jeremiah Pierson. This denotes that they were given a Psalm book. John Greenleaf had no number which may indicate that he was not likely a head of household. Other Greenleafs were also members of the church. (Courtesy images.) |
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Once provenance was established, there were a few questions still to be answered – who made the flagon and was it English or American? The 1720s is early for American pewter. According to pewter dealer Wayne Hilt, the English exported substantial amounts of pewter to the colonies. The total value in pounds sterling exceeded all other exports.
Imported pewter was fairly inexpensive and often colonial pewterers would melt down the English pewter and fashion new pieces. Many of the extant colonial era pieces are actually made from English pewter.
Based on the form of the flagon and the touchmark, Wayne Hilt identified the Third Church flagon as being the work of William Newham, London and Nottingham, who worked between 1708-1728. There are several examples of Newham's pewter in American museums and church collections including a similar pair of flagons in Haddam, Connecticut.
Not all ecclesiastical pewter was made for that purpose. There is evidence that pewter made for domestic use was often contributed to churches for use in communion services.
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The touchmark of William Newham is a rose and a thistle on a single stem. |
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On Sunday, July 11, collection committee member Monica Reuss graciously agreed to bid on the flagon on behalf of the museum, and we were the successful bidder, responsible for returning this important 18th century artifact to Old Newbury.
When the museum reopens, the flagon will be placed on exhibit in the gallery, Space Light and Ornament: Meetinghouses of Old Newbury.
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Woman on the MOON
Confessions of an Inbred Townie...a blog by Bethany Groff Dorau
I have a mouth on me, as you may have noticed. It was a constant source of amazement to my bemused and very proper relatives that I ever managed to get a graduate degree or hold down a real job. And then there are the tattoos. Heavens.
When, a few months shy of my eighteenth birthday, I talked a tattoo artist into inking my upper right arm in a design made from the initials of my friends, Aunt Emily pursed her lips and tutted. “You look like something out of National Geographic,” she said. My mom was genuinely sad but could only come up with this paean to opportunity lost: “Well, you’ll never be a secret agent now.”
But back to my mouth. Last Saturday, I attended the annual meeting of the Sons and Daughters of the First Settlers of Newbury, a group dear to many of my family and friends. The term “family” gets weird here, as everyone at the Sons and Daughters calls each other “cousin.” The newsletter is addressed as such. Everyone wears their most researched Newbury ancestor on their name tag (just the male ancestor, though there are no rules about whether the descent is through a male or female line). I have never submitted the paperwork to join this venerable organization, though I am eminently qualified. I am descended from no less than 52 of the first European families on the list.
And so, I sat myself down at a table at lunch. “Hello, cousins!” I exclaimed. One gentleman looked confused, searching for my ancestor on my handwritten name tag (I was a late registrant). “Oh, I’m a Poore,” I said brightly. He peered at me over his glasses. ‘Which one?’ he said. ‘The inbred townie one,’” I replied, laughing. Me and my mouth. It went over like a lead balloon.
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But, well, it’s true. My Poores are not a dynamic people. We live in the Poore House on the Poore Farm on Poore’s Lane. Have for seven generations.
The Poores have covered the globe, founded banks, mined for gold, sailed ships and…stayed within the same square mile as their parents and married their cousins. Guess which branch I descend from? I remember overhearing a conversation between Aunt Emily and her sister, Louise, as they pored over the family tree. “We’re lucky we don’t have seven fingers,” said Louise. “And crossed eyes,” said Emily, and they giggled, crossing their eyes, two very dignified woman who were little girls again only with each other. Their parents were fourth cousins.
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Emily Noyes Poore, age 2, and Louise Curtis Poore, age 3, 1920. (Courtesy photo.) |
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My relationship with genealogy is complicated. It is undeniably problematic. For generations, it has been used by many in the service of exclusion. Elites have always kept the best records. Their villages were less likely to be emptied during pogroms, or their names changed to be more palatable to an immigration official or to allow an unrelated orphan to get on a ship with a refugee family. It has been used both offensively and defensively, to claim privileges not personally earned, but also to bar the door to others.
Throughout the 20th century, my family was terribly poor, beset with tragedy and hardship, but we always had the name, and a good joke. “Poore by name, poor by nature,” Aunt Emily would say, even as she suffered from the lifelong effects of scant childhood nutrition. There was no indoor plumbing in the Poore House until 1949, but we were “impoverished gentry.” At least we could be proud of our ancestors. And yet…
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The Poor and Poore spellings were used interchangeably well into the 20th century.
One of several other Poor(e) houses was occupied by the family for eight generations, and served the town as a tavern for over a century. Captain Jonathan Poore kept the tavern until 1806 when the Boston and Newburyport Turnpike diverted traffic to a new route.
It was finally demolished in 1890. The sign is in the collection of the Museum of Old Newbury. From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury. (Courtesy photo.)
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The speaker at this event was Susan Harvey, whose master’s thesis was to find all the ways that Newbury (including Newburyport, West Newbury and Byfield) was involved in slavery. She is an excellent speaker, her stage presence honed by many years as a teacher. She and her husband are descendants of Newbury’s English settlers. She has charts, lists, data, all the things we history people love. Her conclusion, which may be no surprise to you, is that whoever that man is on your name tag, he, and his descendants in Newbury(port), profited from enslavement of other humans.
The news was quite well received, I must say. Only one man asked to see what proof she had that his ancestor had benefitted from slavery. A few wanted to make sure she knew that their ancestors were abolitionists. Others seemed to accept that the same family line from which their strong chin or their aquiline nose has passed down, also bequeathed to us the legacy of a deeply divided country, centuries of violence, racism and grief.
If I’m honest, I love genealogy, but not because it’s pretty or entitles me to a single thing in this world. I love it because it is key to understanding the ways that most human communities have formed over time. Family stories are a basic building block of identity. And there is no way to understand early New England without knowing how families intertwined and interacted. I love genealogy because it is a way to access the past in a complicated and nuanced way.
Twenty years ago, when I started working at Historic New England’s Newbury museums, I traced my ancestral connection to the houses primarily to be able to have a quick rejoinder to the descendants who came expecting special favors. It came with a (mostly) internal eye roll. “You’re a descendant of Tristram Coffin? Me too. And about four million other people.” And then, one afternoon, a family rolled up for a tour of the Coffin House. Because of the color of their skin, I didn’t ask them if they were members of the Coffin family. They announced that they were descendants of Tristram and Judith, and after I kicked myself for the assumptions I had made, we played the cousin game (seventh cousins, once removed). They were joyfully, ecstatically in love with their complicated history, revealed first through DNA and then through deep research.
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I regret my narrow view of the importance of these connections. With new technology, new research, new information, we have the tools to throw open the doors of our understanding of family, not to obscure the past, but to shine a light on it, to acknowledge the legacy of cruelty and courage, triumph and tragedy. It is one other way to stand in the river of human experience with our eyes wide open. And as Aunt Louise would have pointed out, the Poore family motto is actually, “Pauper non in spe,” or “Not poor in hope.”
Words to live by, cousin.
The Poore motto image, from Fairbairn's Book of Crests, 1905 ed. Courtesy photo.
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Learn about upcoming programs, register, find Zoom links and catch up on previous presentations here. All of our virtual programs are free, however donations are gratefully accepted to help defray speaker fees.
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Over 175 people registered for last night's presentation by Colleene Fesko, an appraiser on the hit PBS television series Antiques Roadshow since its inception 25 years ago.
Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904) was a prolific painter of landscapes, still life and exotic portraits of tropical birds and flowers. Perhaps most iconic, are his salt marsh paintings of New England centered around Newbury's Great Marsh.
During the program Colleene touched on Heade's tidal scenes around Newbury's Great Marsh and discussed his work as a Luminist painter. Click here to watch.
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Monday, October 11, 2021
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Race & Slavery Symposium
Wilkie Center for the Performing Arts, Governor's Academy
Presented by the Museum of Old Newbury
Partnering Sponsor: The Governor's Academy
Scholars and historians scheduled to present include Manisha Sinha, Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut; John Stauffer, Sumner R. & Marshall S. Kates Professor of English and of African and African American Studies at Harvard; Kabria Baumgartner, Dean's Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at Northeastern University; Allegra di Bonaventura, Associate Director of Graduate Programs at Yale Law School; James DeWolf Perry, Principal Historical Consultant for Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, former Executive Director at Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery; and Keidrick Roy, PhD candidate in American Studies at Harvard University, to name a few.
Registration and additional information to follow.
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Puzzle Me This...
Watercolor on paper
Birthplace of Cornelius Conway Felton (1807-1862)
Cornelia Perrin Stone (1855-1940)
Although the simple birthplace no longer stands, the site is designated by a marker along Main Street in West Newbury. Felton graduated from Harvard in 1827 and served as its President from 1860-1862.
From the collections of the Museum of Old Newbury.
Click on image to begin.
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Something is Always Cooking at the Museum
A traditional appetizer from long-time Museum of Old Newbury Board Member, Emily Hoffman. The melted goodness is always popular with guests, as well as "just the family."
Reggie's Wedgies
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped black olives
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions or chives
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 package English muffins, split
Mix first 6 ingredients. Spread about 2 tablespoons of mixture on 1/2 of muffin. Bake at 350ºF until golden brown. Cut into quarters. Serves 6 to 8.
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During this difficult period of COVID-19, we rely on your support more than ever. We continue to develop new, online programs for you to enjoy and keep us connected and look forward to in-person events as protocols for safety loosen. We hope, if you are able, that you will consider a donation to the museum. Thank you for your continued support.
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Museum of Old Newbury
98 High Street
Newburyport, MA 01950
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