Hello from Bawstawn
Hello from Bahst’n.
We finally got in our hotel room at 1:35am, Saturday. After getting lost in the morning, and finding a wonderful breakfast café in Andover in the process, we retraced our steps and went on to Salem. Everywhere in Salem are reminders that witches once walked their streets, and that a notorious judge once ordered an even more notorious “witch” to be put to death, on evidence less than flimsy.
Also in Salem is the Peabody Essex Museum, devoted to things related to men and the sea. Their exhibits include beautiful examples of trade goods from around the world that found their way into Salem, which in the 17th and 18th centureies was an international port of trade. They have also worked a trade with Hubei, China, receiving at the Salem end a complete two story home of a well to do Chinese merchant family. The home was occupied by family members for some 300 years, until it was brokered in the 1980’s. For mom and I, it was sobering to realize how primate life still is for some in China (and the rest of the world).
Then it was on to the birthplace of Nathaniel Hawthorne and the House of the Seven Gables, made famous by Nat. The house was the largest in Salem for a period of time, but was actually rather cramped, except for the sitting room and the master bedroom.
The “comfort cot” was between the house and the bay, distant enough steps to allow the bay breeze to carry off its’ wafting emenations.
Sunday morning was spent in the Lynnfield Ward, with a top rate Gospel Doctrine teacher, and a very ethnically diverse membership. A nice experience. Then a short drive to Saugus, from where, in 1637, your earliest known ancestor in America, George Knott, was sent by Governor Winthrop, as one of ten men commissioned to establish the community of Sandwich, on Cape Cod. It turns out that several of your early kinfolk moved from Saugus to Sandwich.
We visited the Saugus Iron Factory, a national treasure. It was built in the early 1640’s. Within 15 years it became the producer of 1/7th of the iron ore production in the Western world. By the time the factory was 20 years old, it was bankrupt and shut down. We learned that many skilled workers were imported from Wales, England and Scotland. That may turn out to be relevant to the search for the elusive father of Thomas Tobey
(Recall that Thomas Tobey married Martha Knott, daughter of the aforementioned George Knott).
As far as finding anything new about Thomas Tobey or his ancestors, to quote a Jewish friend: Bupkis. But we’re keeping on the search. Tomorrow we head for Kittery, Maine, where a James Tobey was living at the same time Thomas Tobey was in Sandwich.
From there, we head up to Windsor, Vermont, to Joseph Smith’s birthplace.
On our way back, we’ll stop by the Congregational Church in Hampton, New Hampshire. The church and the city were founded by your ancestor Stephen Bachiler, and possibly to Concord, New Hampshire to the Historical Society Museum, where a chair owned by Stephen Bachiler is on display. You should know that Stephen, whose first American Church pastorate was in Lynn, MA, about 5 miles from our hotel, was twice excommunicated from the Church for preaching seditious sermons, the tenor of which was that there should be a strict separation between Church and State. You may also remember that at age 76, he took as his fourth wife ( he outlived the first three) the widow Mary Beadle Bailey, aged 26, and a prominent person of questionable moral repute. His mental competency was questioned as a result of that nuptial encounter, particularly when Mary became large with child, the seed for which was implanted by a near neighbor of the Bachilers. The Massachussets court recognized Mary’s acts by awarding her a scarlet “A”. When thereafter the courts would not grant Stephen a divorce. In fact, they ordered him to continue to live with Mary. Declining their edict, he took the next available option, to wit: he returned to England, and to his grave. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote of their encounter, romanticizing and renaming the dramatis personae. Thus Mary became Hester Pryne and the Reverend Bachiler became the Reverend Dimmesdale.
One day this week we will then drive to Glouchester, MA (about 15 minutes from our hotel) to view the Congregational Church where Joseph Smith’s grandparents worshipped. The church has been rehabilitated and is being rededicated. The local members of the LDS Church have been invited to join the celebration.
We’ve been watching a bit of TV to keep up with the New Orleans situation. We’re praying for those folks.
To Jim: Please, if you can, move this over to Wrightclan.net. I’ll let Jon know it’s there.
Love,
Dad