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The Ipswich Fright: Terror Strikes a Town Even When the British Aren’t Coming

In the days after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, a general panic seized the population around Boston. Would the British regulars march to other towns, murdering their inhabitants and burning their homes? Nowhere was the fear greater than on the North Shore, where a fast-spreading rumor caused the Ipswich Fright.

Hundreds of frightened Ipswich citizens fled their homes, filling the roads with carts carrying what household goods they could grab. Their panic spread to the nearby towns of Newbury, Newburyport, Beverly, Salisbury and even Haverhill, Mass., 20 miles to the west.

John Greenleaf Whittier

The rather ignominious show of fear might have been forgotten, save for John Greenleaf Whittier. He immortalized the Ipswich Fright in 1866 with a story about it in his Prose Miscellanies.

Whittier described the Great Ipswich Fright as “the way in which the woof of comedy interweaves with the warp of tragedy.”

The Ipswich Fright

Ipswich, in the days of revolution, was a steady, conservative town solidly behind the patriot cause, wrote Whittier. Midway between Salem and the ancient town of Newburyport,

…the traveller on the Eastern Railroad sees on the right, between him and the sea, a tall church-spire, rising above a semicircle of brown roofs and venerable elms; to which a long scalloping range of hills, sweeping off to the seaside, forms a green background.

The John Whipple House in Ipswich

On April 22, the able-bodied men and boys of Ipswich had marched off to Cambridge after the Battles of Lexington and Concord three days earlier.

Rumors flew that the soldiers would come out again, and they would burn, kill and destroy everything that came in their way. Coastal towns had special concern that the British would attack from the sea.

So on that morning, old men, women and children rushed to the village green to hear the news.

“A rumor, which no one attempted to trace or authenticate, spread from lip to lip that the British regulars had landed on the coast and were marching upon the town,” wrote Whittier. “A scene of indescribable terror and confusion followed.”

Carrying Off Goods

Thomas Franklin Waters reported that someone had seen two small vessels standing in the Ipswich River. “We may be sure there was fright with good reasons at the farms on Castle Hill and Castle Neck,” wrote Waters in Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1917.

View from Castle Hill

People hid their valuables, piled their household goods into ox carts and headed north to New Hampshire.

Diarist John Tudor described the scene that followed. “[M]en and horses driving past, up and down the roads…People were in great perplexity; women in distress for their husbands and friends who had marched. …All confusion, numbers of carts, etc., carrying off goods, etc.

Contagion

The rumor quickly spread to Beverly that the enemy had massacred every man, woman and child in Ipswich. The scene repeated itself.

At mid-afternoon in Newburyport, the town had assembled to hear the details of the Battles of Lexington and Concord., according to a later account in the Newburyport Herald. Parson Carey was opening the meeting with a prayer when a rider named Ebenezer Todd rushed up. “Turn out, turn out, for God’s sake,” he cried, “or you will be all killed! The regulars are marching on us; they are at Ipswich now, cutting and slashing all before them!”

The people of Newbury ran to Salisbury, while the people of Rowley ran to Newbury. The people of Haverhill fled in boats across the Merrimack River to Bradford.

Many spent the night in empty houses in Salisbury. The houses were empty because their inhabitants had fled farther north into New Hampshire.

Woof of Comedy

During the Ipswich Panic, one woman threw her silver down her well. A man hid his private documents under a stone and stood guard in his home with a musket.

Another man put his family into a boat to find safety on Ram Island. Through the evening dusk he imagined the enemy pursued him. An infant started crying in the stern of the boat.

“Do throw that squalling brat overboard,” he said to his wife. “Or we shall all be discovered and killed.”

A woman ran four or five miles up the river. She stopped to take a breath and nurse her child, when she found to her great horror that she had brought the cat instead of the baby.

The Newburyport Herald also reported,

In another instance, a Mr. J. L. seeing Mr. C. H., a very corpulent man, standing at his door with his musket loaded, inquired of him if he was not going. “Going! No.” said he, “I am going to stop and shoot the devils.”

Not until the next morning did most of the refugees learn the truth. Some, however, found out earlier. According to Whittier, a young man from Exeter, N.H., happened to be staying in Ipswich.

[H]e mounted his horse and followed after the retreating multitude, undeceiving all whom he overtook. Late at night he reached Newburyport, greatly to the relief of its sleepless inhabitants, and hurried across the river, proclaiming as he rode the welcome tidings. The sun rose upon haggard and jaded fugitives, worn with excitement and fatigue, slowly returning home ward, their satisfaction at the absence of danger somewhat moderated by an unpleasant conscious ness of the ludicrous scenes of their premature night flitting.

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Learn more Revolutionary history in this complete guide to Revolutionary War sites in New England. Brought to you by the New England Historical Society. Click here to order your copy in paperback, here to order an ebook.

Images: Whipple house By Elizabeth B. Thomsen – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28573446. View from Castle Hill By John Phelan – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11189622. This story updated in 2025.

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Anne Hutchinson Takes the Fall for John Cotton

The story of how the Puritans punished Anne Hutchinson for heresy is told often; less so the way John Cotton escaped the blame for the controversy that caused her banishment.

She was a woman, he was a man. She was a strident, outspoken midwife. He was a gentle, conciliatory theologian, the most important in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

She was home-schooled and self-taught. He had a B.A. from Trinity College and a master’s and bachelor of divinity from Emmanuel College at Cambridge. His knowledge of languages was said to be phenomenal.

Cotton’s teaching about salvation sparked the Antinomian Controversy of 1636-38, a monumental event in the fledgling society. Hutchinson was banished for her role in it; Cotton paid little price.

Historian Charles Francis Adams wrote that in the early colony, ‘there was in truth no episode more characteristic, more interesting, or more far-reaching in its consequences, than the so-called Antinomian controversy.’ As a result of it, the Massachusetts Puritans committed to strict religious conformity.

John Cotton

John Cotton by John Smibert

John Cotton was born Dec. 4, 1585 in Derbyshire, England. After 14 years of study he was ordained, and at 27 he became the minister at St. Botolph’s Church in Boston, Lincolnshire. His fame as a scholarly, persuasive preacher spread. But he believed the Anglican Church clung to too much popery, and he clashed with the Anglican hierarchy.

Starting in 1632, Cotton hid in the Puritan underground for about 10 months. The leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony sent him letters urging him to join them. He would be the only eminent clergyman in the colony. He and his wife set sail from England in 1633. Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone were also aboard.

Anne Hutchinson and her family, including her brother-in-law, the Rev. John Wheelwright followed Cotton to America a year later. They had been devoted to Cotton and his teachings in Lincolnshire.

Antinomian Controversy

Cotton taught salvation is a free and private gift of God, a departure from the prevailing Puritan belief that it is something a person must earn by obeying God’s laws. He drew a battle line, claiming faith in Jesus got you to heaven, not just obedience.

It seems odd today that people could get so worked up over that difference. Historians have pointed out its larger meaning: The Puritan leaders were trying to create a perfect theocracy in a howling wilderness. They thought everyone needed to toe the line, and their survival was threatened by people who took off on a private quest for grace.

Henry Vane

Hutchinson, Wheelwright and a growing number of colonists followed Cotton’s teaching. And then there was Henry Vane, the aristocratic young governor of Massachusetts. He encouraged Hutchinson to hold meetings at her house to review sermons, discuss scripture and pray. Vane came to Hutchinson’s home for those meetings, which drew as many as 60 people.

Historian Michael Winship believes that Vane and Cotton, not Hutchinson, were the key players in the Antinomian controversy. Vane was well connected in England and able to help or harm Massachusetts. Cotton presided over the biggest and most active church in New England. That was why the disagreement was so explosive: It was led by two of the most important men in Boston, and it undermined the Puritan establishment.

Banishment and Compromise

Anne Hutchinson stands trial

By 1636, Puritan ministers began to question whether Hutchinson and Cotton were orthodox enough. Their questions spilled into an open debate as ministers argued with each other through their weekly sermons. Tensions rose and the General Court called for a day of fasting.

Magistrate John Winthrop got involved and decided to run against Henry Vane for governor. Winthrop won in 1637.

The tide had turned against Cotton and his followers. Vane returned to England. Wheelwright was banished Wheelwright and Anne Hutchinson was tried for sedition.

Cotton, meanwhile, quietly papered over his differences with the other Puritan ministers. Hutchinson by 1638 was banished and excommunicated, and her supporters were disenfranchised, disarmed, excommunicated or banished. They followed her to Rhode Island, where Roger Williams encouraged her to settle.

Aftermath

John Cotton continued as pastor of his church in Boston and led the establishment of Congregationalism in New England. He wrote books, gave sermons and corresponded with prominent men in England. The ministers and magistrates of Massachusetts overlooked his earlier transgressions.

Winship explained why:

The earliest chroniclers of the controversy writing from the late 1630s to the 1640s had political reasons to magnify her importance. They wished to draw attention away from the parts played by leading and still important men.

Cotton caught a cold while crossing the Charles River to preach to Harvard students late in 1652 and died on December 23. He is buried in King’s Chapel Burying Ground. His daughter Maria married Increase Mather, the son of Richard Mather; they had a son named Cotton Mather. John Cotton’s widow married Richard Mather.

John Wheelwright went on to found Exeter, N.H. Anne Hutchinson and six of her children left Rhode Island when Massachusetts threatened to take it over. She and five of her children were massacred by Indians in what is now the Bronx, N.Y., in 1643. Vane was beheaded for high treason in 1662 after Charles II was restored to the monarchy.

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Moses French Leads the Paper Money Riot in New Hampshire in 1786

Today, banks have lobbyists and economists to convince the central banks to create money. In 1786, no such niceties existed. That created an economic mess in New Hampshire, where farmers and tradesmen could not get credit. So a New Hampshire farmer, Moses French, led a small army determined to force the government to adopt an easy money policy.

Samuel Livermore (L) and John Sullivan.

In 1786, the currency situation in New Hampshire was chaotic. With the American Revolution over, the state operated on its own. The New Hampshire government had to decide what money to recognize and honor and what had no value.

In an early attempt to keep the peace, the Legislature ruled that all currencies would be acceptable in trade and for payment of taxes. That resulted, perhaps predictably, in debts paid with useless paper currency and the printing of currency as needed. Then many currency holders began refusing to part with the cash they expected to hold value. They also refused to accept payment in other currencies that they doubted. Rhode Island faced a similar situation, settled in court.

Moses French

With no cash to circulate, the economy — other than bartering — grew sluggish. Colonial governments had typically issued “bills of credit” to help increase the money supply. These bills, similar to modern currency, were accepted for payment of debts and taxes.

Frequently there was a great tug of war over whether bills of credit should be issued, as they tended to deflate the value of the British pound. Wealthy merchants who sat on a pile of pounds typically opposed the creation of bills of credit as it would reduce their wealth. In New Hampshire, those merchants tended to live on the Seacoast.

However, in the chaos and straitened circumstances after the war, the citizenry needed a reliable supply of currency. The British certainly weren’t sending any.

$1 Colonial currency from the Province of New Hampshire.

The Legislature had considered issuing bills of credit to ease the crisis, and 30 towns had endorsed a petition demanding the government do just that. The Legislature, meanwhile, still sided with those who already had a pile of money.

Enter Moses French. Some 200 New Hampshire men elected him to head their band. They then rode to Exeter to prod the Legislature to allow bills of credit — at the point of their guns.

Standoff

On Sept. 20, 1786, Moses French presented the petition to the Legislature at Exeter and a three-way standoff ensued. Samuel Livermore, leader of the General Court, appointed a committee to meet with the protesters on the issue. John Sullivan, leader of the Senate, disagreed. He led the Senate in declining to join the meeting. Sullivan, a Revolutionary War general, had been richly rewarded by the French for his service (and his votes in the early Congress). Likely he had no dire need of a local currency.

Moses French, meanwhile, arrived with junior Revolutionary War officers from Londonderry and other western parts of the state.

Sullivan finally agreed to meet the rabble and explain his position. It would be improper, he said, for the government to meet and discuss issues with the men while under threat of violence. Further, he noted, he would summon the local militia to disperse the crowd. This he did. More than a thousand militiamen came to rescue the members of the Legislature. After a full night holed up in its meeting house at gunpoint, they finally went home

No one was injured in the insurrection, and several of the leaders were taken prisoner. All, however, eventually left the matter behind them with an apology. Charges were later dismissed.

With the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788, the issued died once and for all. The nation’s founding document prevented states from issuing bills of credit — a power given only to the federal government.

This story last updated in 2022.

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The Circus Comes to Newburyport – and Scandalizes its Upright Citizens

When the circus came to Newburyport, Mass., in 1810, it wasn’t viewed as a completely respectable form of entertainment. Those who planned to watch did so with some trepidation about the effect on their reputation.

Circuses started in Europe in the 1760s and began as horse-riding exhibitions. By the late 1700s they arrived in America with exotic animals, acrobats and clowns had been added to the mix.

Growing up in Newburyport in the 1790s, Sarah Anna Emery’s mother, Sarah Smith Emery, recalled some of the most important events and colorful stories of her time. They included the tale of the circus that came to town and her brave decision to attend.

The Circus Comes To Town

“The third of May, the first circus that ever visited Newburyport came into town; an Italian troop, Messrs Cayetano and Co.,” she wrote.

circus She then described how men set up a board pavilion in an unoccupied lot between Pleasant and Harris streets. They then furnished it with seats in the pit, which surrounded the ring. Above the ring perched a gallery, which had boxes comprising the dress circle, and a musicians stand.

The circus scheduled its exhibitions for Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Doors opened at 3:30 p.m. and the performance started at 4:30 p.m. Tickets cost $1 to the boxes, 50 cents to the pit and children under 10 got in for half price.

“This was a most respectable and fine looking company,” she wrote. “Their horses were splendid animals [and] all the appurtenances in the best style.”

The company had a problem, though. It advertised grand military maneuvers by eight riders, but it only had six.

And so, wrote Sarah, “upon their arrival at the Wolfe Tavern they applied to Mr. Stetson to fill the cortege. He referred Cayetano to Samuel Shaw and David Emery, as two of the best military riders in the place. These gentlemen hesitated respecting joining such a show, but by the solicitation of friends their scruples were overruled. The matter was kept secret; only a select few knew ‘of their intention, and the uniform would prove a perfect disguise.”

Wrath of Heaven and Its Judgments

Sarah Smith Emery had her doubts about going because of the feebleness of her uncle, Col. Bartlett. “But my uncle insisted upon my going,” she wrote. “He was curious to hear about it, wished he could see Sam and David ride, [and] he knew they could sit their horses with the best of them.

“My plans came near being reversed, through the conversation of a band of callers on the morning prior to the Wednesday afternoon performance, which I had engaged to attend. Little suspecting that I had any special interest in the play, these pious women invoked the wrath of Heaven, and its most awful judgments upon the company and all who should patronize them, calling the circus performers ‘A mean, low set of foreigners, their presence was a disgrace to the town.” They wondered the selectmen should grant them a permit. ‘No one of the least respectability would think of showing themselves in such a place as this circus.’

“Abashed, I reported to Uncle Bartlett. He declared the talk all nonsense, and bade me go. Finding that my Uncle Peabody and Sophronia were going and that most of the elite had purchased tickets, I ventured to dress for the occasion. Mr. Emery escorted me to a private entrance on Harris Street, where we joined Mr. and Mrs. Shaw. The gentlemen having conducted us to a box, went to don their uniform.

Wisdom, Wit and Beauty

“We were soon joined by General Peabody and his daughter, and Dr. Prescott and his daughters. Col. Greenleaf occupied the next box. I soon espied Mr. Moses Colman and his son Jerry in the pit, and as seat after seat and box after box filled with the wisdom, wit, beauty and fashion of the town and vicinity, I leaned back in my seat, satisfied with my company, and glad that to please my uncle and David I had not been over scrupulous.

“This was prior to the formation of brass bands. The music, consisted of some half dozen performers on the bugle, clarinet, bass-viol and violin. Various airs had been played while the audience were gathering. As the moment arrived for the performance to commence, at a bugle call, in dashed the eight horsemen, in a showy uniform in single file; they rushed around the ring, then followed a series of splendid feats of horsemanship and military tactics. I do not think I should have known either Mr. Shaw or Mr. Emery had they not given a little private signal. They did themselves great credit, rode better even than the trained equestrians. Cayetano was highly delighted, and was most profuse in his encomiums and compliments.”

Buffoonery and Horsemanship

“The military exercise over, Master Tatnal performed several gymnastic feats. He was followed by Master Duffee, a negro lad who drew down the house by feats of agility leaping over a whip and hoop.

“Mr. Codet signalized himself in feats of horsemanship. Mr. Menial, the clown, amused the audience by buffoonery and horsemanship. Mr. Cayetano executed on two horses the laughable farce of the “Fish woman, or the Metamorphosis.” With a foot on each horse he rode forward, habited as an immensely fat fish woman, in a huge bonnet and uncouth garments. Riding rapidly round the ring he divested himself of this and several other suits, ending in making his final bow as an elegant cavalier.

And Still More Horsemanship

“The young African next performed feats of horsemanship and vaulting, danced a hornpipe, and other figures, ending by dashing’ round the ring, standing on the tips of his toes. The horse, Ocelot, posted himself in various attitudes, danced and took a collation with the clown.

“Mr. Cayetano performed the Canadian Peasant, and feats of horsemanship with hoops, hat and glove, terminating by the leap of the four ribbons separated and together. Mr. Cayetano performed the pyramid, young Duffee on his shoulders as “Flying Mercury.” Then came the Trampoline exercise by Messrs. Menial, Codet, and the young African; somersaults over men’s heads and a leap over six horses.

“The next scene was the Pedestal ; the horse of knowledge posted in different attitudes. The performances concluded with the Taylor riding to Waterford upon the unequalled horse Zebra, by Mr. Menial, the clown. This was a most laughable farce, Zebra being a Jack trained to the part. This elicited a storm of applause, and the play ended with cheer after cheer. The circus gave universal satisfaction, and from Newburyport they went to Exeter, intending to make an Eastern tour.”

Source: Sarah Anna Emery of Newburyport in 1879 published the memoirs of her mother, Sarah Smith Emery, and called them Reminiscences of a Nonagenarian. This story was updated in 2022.

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Tabitha Tenney – New Hampshire’s First Best-Selling Author

For the 50 years after 1799, Tabitha Tenney of Exeter, N.H., was the best-selling novelist in the country, though she wasn’t necessarily proud of that fact.

The story of her wildly popular novel, Female Quixotism, probably has its origins in her early life in Exeter. She was born in 1762, the daughter of Col. Samuel Gilman, a prominent Exeter citizen. Gilman served as an elder in the First Church in Exeter under Pastor Daniel Rogers.

Illustration from the 1825 edition of Female Quixoticism by Tabitha Tenney

Rogers’ daughter Martha was one year older than Tabitha, and Patty and Tabby, as they were known, were well-acquainted if not exactly friends.

Tabitha had five younger siblings, and she most likely put off marriage to help raise them following her father’s death. Patty, meanwhile, had a long, but unrequited, infatuation with the first preceptor of Phillips Exeter Academy, William Woodbridge. By 1788, both women were marriage-eligible and motivated to find a husband.

Dr. Samuel Tenney, 10 years older than Patty and Tabby, had moved to Exeter from his home town of Newbury, Mass. He happened to be an eligible bachelor, too. Tenney had served as a surgeon in the American Revolution with George Washington, and he returned to Exeter with an eye toward politics and marriage.

Sense and Sensibility

Both Tabby and Patty vied for his affections, though they were unlike in many ways – a Sense and Sensibility duo. Patty was sensibility – romantic, dramatic, sensitive, and fanciful. Tabby was sense – practical, reserved and somber.

In her diary, Patty talks about both women being friendly with Dr. Tenney. On one occasion he jauntily escorted them both home from an evening out. When he flirted with Patty, she found similarities between his flirtation and scenes from popular, romantic novels she was reading.

She also did not view Tabby as her favorite friend. She called her “a person peculiarly disagreeable to me – not from any injury she ever did me, but there is a certain something in her manner with which I am ever difficulted.”

In the end, Dr. Tenney chose serious Tabitha to marry over the flighty Patty. The Tenneys then went to Washington in 1800 when he won election to Congress (he served three terms through 1806). Tabitha left nothing specific to shed light on her feelings for Patty.

However, her novel, which highlights the lives of two privileged girls and their approach to marriage, seems to examine the differences between herself and Patty.

Female Quixotism

The novel portrays the comedy and chaos that surround the attempts of its central character, Dorcas Sheldon, to find true love. Dorcas resembles Patty in many ways. An ardent reader of romances, she accepts as truth the plots in which lovers, often star-crossed, fall instantly in love, complete with flowery prose and over-the-top proclamations of devotion.

Dorcas bounces from one suitor to the next. Some, solid but unromantic, could not excite her imagination. Others, gallant and story-book handsome, only want her for her father’s fortune. Finally, Dorcas comes face to face with the perception that others have of her: she is highly regarded and loved for her generous spirit and good nature, but hopelessly naïve and childlike in her expectations for romance.

Though scholars have pointed out that the name Dorcas translates to Tabitha in Aramaic, the portrait of Dorcas matches Patty much more closely than Tabitha.

The Samuel Tenney house still stands in Exeter, N.H.

Tenney wrote two books in addition to the novel: a cookbook and The Pleasing New Instructor, or, An Introduction to the Speaker Consisting of Select Prose and Verse. The second book, a primer for young girls, includes a collection of essays and articles for young people on how to live their lives. With regard to reading, it instructs: “Let your reading be solid and select. Indiscriminate reading will divide and perplex the thoughts. Light and trifling reading, though it amuse, will relax and enervate the mind. It is our wish to direct your attention to a different, more extensive kind of reading.”

Do as I say…

Oddly, her wildly popular novel, which carries the full title Female Quixotism: Exhibited in the Romantic Opinions and Extravagant Adventures of Dorcasina Sheldon, is anything but the type of book she counseled young people to read. It is fictional, funny, diverting and satirical.

By the end of the book, Dorcas and her friend have traveled divergent paths. Dorcas’ best friend has married and settled with a solid man, yet their marriage has flaws and tension. Dorcas, herself, remains unmarried. She commits herself to spending the rest of her life reading fiction and wishing it fact. She cautions her friend against letting her children go down this path:

“If you should ever be blessed with daughters, let me urge you, by all the regard you must feel for their best interest and happiness, to copy in their education the plan pursued by your excellent mother. Withhold from their eye the pernicious volumes, which, while they convey false ideas of life and inspire illusory expectations, will tend to keep them ignorant of everything really worth knowing, and which, if they do not eventually render them miserable may at least prevent their becoming respectable. Suffer not their imaginations to be filled with ideas of happiness, particularly in the connubial state, which can never be realized. Describe life to them as it really is, and as you have yourself found it, chequered with good and evil.”

Tabitha Tenney, Authoress

In real life, both Tabby and Patty ended their days as single women living in Exeter. Patty never left and Tabby returned after her husband’s death in 1816. People respected Patty for her kindness, piety and her needlework. Tabitha, too, had a reputation for her needlework.

Her novel, meanwhile, left her with a complicated legacy. In her 1785 memoir A Few Reminiscincces of My Exeter Life, Elizabeth Dow Leonard recalls Tabitha Tenney because: “authoresses . . . did not grow as now thick as blackberries.

“I blush to say, with all my pride in the rich achievements of my native village, I never read Female Quixotism. Those who did read it pronounced it superlatively silly,” wrote Leonard.

In fact, Leonard reported that Tabitha Tenney tried to have the book taken out of print. She decided she didn’t like it because it seemed to encourage frivolous reading rather than discourage it. She didn’t succeed, however.

Fred Lewis Pattee, a scholar in American literature, noted it was probably the most popular book in America for nearly 50 years. It went through five printings and was still in print in 1852. That’s when Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, taking away the crown of best seller from Tabitha Tenney.

This story was updated in 2022.

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James Jewett Finds the Shaker Way on a Windy Hill in Enfield, N.H.

By the time the American Revolution broke out, it was clear that James Jewett marched to the beat of his own drum. Living in Hopkinton, N.H., in 1776, he refused to sign the association test.

The Continental Congress, having opened hostilities with Great Britain, directed each colony to have its citizens sign a document. It declared allegiance to the new American government. Though they varied somewhat, a representative sample of the test declared the signer would risk life and fortune to oppose the British. The documents’ purpose was to show Congress acted with the peoples’ support.

A depiction of the Second Continental Congress voting on the United States Declaration of Independence.

Those who refused to sign had a number of reasons. Some were ardent loyalists. Others declined for fear that doing so would cripple their business interests. And some noted that while they would not themselves sign they had paid for a soldier to serve in their stead.

Some, like James Jewett, were pacifists.

The treatment of the non-signers varied. In some colonies, citizens faced the threat of beatings and violence if they didn’t sign. In most of the colonies, only those who expressed their support for Britain received any penalty. Often they were pressured to leave.

James Jewett

James Jewett started life in Rowley, Mass., in 1745. He would later move to Exeter, N.H., and then Hopkinton, N.H. After the Revolution, he moved to Enfield, N.H., ,where he worked as a laborer.

Shaker Bridge in 1908

In 1793 he was working on a stone bridge in Enfield when he encountered Zadok Wright. Wright, a Shaker from Vermont, traveled with several other Shakers.

Jewett had been searching for a different way of life. So he invited the men to his home on the hillside in Enfield. There, the tenets of the Shaker life so appealed to Jewett and his wife Molly that they converted to Shakerism. They also founded the Shaker colony – the ninth of 18 eventually established.

He found Shaker practices attractive. They included equality of the sexes and races, celibacy, pacifism and communal ownership of property to create a heaven on earth.

So for the next 11 years, the Jewett family home hosted services and Shaker gatherings, which attracted large crowds.

Jewett Family History

The Jewett family history tells of some of his experiences:

“The wicked lookers-on of that day called these zealous souls by many nick-names, among which were the “New Lights,” “Come Outers ” and “Merry Dancers.” Stories were circulated of the queer things that were done by the Shakers. Some of these were black stories and some were shaded to suit the company that listened. Sometimes they were more mirthful than malicious.

“The Shakers now held their hour of worship at the residence of James Jewett. Here the faithful and unfaithful congregate. For 11 years the old “Shaker Hill ” resounded with more singing and shouting and shaking than has ever been heard, since that date, throughout the whole town of Enfield. In those meetings, the voice of God was the voice of the people.

Shaker dance and worship

“It was quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. To attend this meeting men and women would travel for miles. In summer it was on foot or on horseback, and in winter it was sometimes on an ox sled.

“James Jewett had a singular visitor from the State of Maine. … He called on his New Light brother Jewett, and received faith.

“This man says he was suddenly taken from his chair by some unknown power and spun like a top. He whirled out of the house, down to the shore of the Mascoma Lake, and then back to the same place again. This confirmed him in his faith and he became a zealous preacher of the gospel. It was an odd way to ordain a minister, and yet no more singular than it was to strike a man with blindness and throw him to the ground, in order to convert him.”

Enfield Shakers

James Jewett became a zealous advocate of the new religion, and he opened his house to all who embraced the faith. According to the family history, “to this day his name rests upon the memory without a tarnish, and the Society in Enfield speak of him with deep affection.”

Enfield Shaker Historic District

Jewett practiced Shakerism until his death in 1804. The Shaker community continued to grow and prosper long after his death. It grew to hundreds of members who managed more than 200 buildings over 3,000 acres of land.

The community finally faded away in 1923, though a museum still exists at the site.

[Note: An alert reader notes the Jewett family history got a few things slightly wrong. Shakers weren’t New Light Baptists or Come-Outers, and the religious ceremony lasted more than an hour.]

Images: Enfield Shaker Historic District By Neil.m.young – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21584227.