Recorded History and Gloucester Vessels

Pigeon Cove merchant David Wallis Babson acquired in 1820 the considerable acreage on Halibut Point that became known as Babson Farm. Up until 1840 this area was part of Squam Parish in the Town of Gloucester. Tax records of 1823 show that he continued to operate his fish market in Pigeon Cove and that he owned the boat Criterion, 8 years old, 30 tons, valued at $350.

Note on David Babson's Boat Criterion
Squam Parish Valuations, 1823
Gloucester City Archives

It would be interesting to know whether Criterion was part of his commercial enterprise, catching or trading fish. I brought the question to Erik Ronnberg, Maritime Curator at the Cape Ann Museum, who had studied a text from the period at the Sandy Bay Historical Society. Based on Criterion's tonnage he surmised it would have been a Chebacco boat rather than a schooner. He produced from his files this unique illustration of contemporary vessels by a local young man who gave business instruction to aspiring fishermen. Erik values it as one of the clearest depictions in existence of a Chebacco boat.

Watercolor illustrations in Jonathan Parson's Exercise Book, 1833
Schooner at left, Chebacco boat at right
Courtesy of the Sandy Bay Historical Society

Our conversation took in a literary novel we both admire, set in Pigeon Cove in the early nineteenth century, Peter Gott, Cape Ann Fisherman. The story draws on the same economic relationships, hardships at sea, and village character that we can imagine surrounding Criterion.

Cape Ann garnered its first regular news reporting when the Gloucester Telegraph began publication in 1827. Three years later it carried a petition for incorporation of the Pigeon Cove Harbour Company envisioning the construction of a stone breakwater, with signatory David Babson among those "employed and interested in the Boat Fishery there carried on."

Excerpt from Gloucester Telegraph, August 7, 1830

I was not able to find newspaper references to Criterion. It may have passed from existence by the time the Telegraph came into print in 1827. If it was still in service, we might at least appreciate that it didn't generate headlines as being lost at sea.

Erik advised visiting the regional office of the National Archives in Waltham for the possibility of finding fuller information on Criterion. Among its collections are registrations of vessels submitted by the Gloucester Customs Officer who routinely visited local coves and harbors to monitor import duties. While it was not unheard of for Gloucester coasters to bring back undeclared goods from Canadian ports, the main focus of supervision was on vessels larger than the Criterion's 30 tons.

The United States Customs Service at the time was the primary source of revenue for the federal government. It maintained two types of records: registrations for ships engaged in or capable of foreign trade, and enrollments of smaller vessels. Only the lists of registrations were forwarded to Washington, DC and preserved in the National Archives. Hence Criterion is not mentioned in the Essex Institute publication Ship Registers of the District of Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1789-1875 (1944) derived from those lists.

Early records for small vessels such as Criterion are scarce but fortuitously mentioned in the Town of Gloucester Valuations. Through the extraordinary diligence of City Archives Committee volunteer Stephanie Buck all the local vessels between 1797 and 1859 have been indexed on a searchable digital data base enumerating name, owner, age and tonnage. She extracted the information page by page from assessors' records like the one pictured above in City Hall vaults. The volumes from 1860 forward changed to a very large format inconducive to the limited storage space at City Hall and are presently in the basement of the Cape Ann Museum where Stephanie works as Librarian/Archivist. Those volumes have yet to be winnowed for their vessel listings.

Stephanie Buck with Fred's compilation

Stephanie's husband Fred came in to the Museum initially to help her as a volunteer but soon joined the staff as the Photo Archivist. In response to people's frequent inquiries on family history and the Gloucester fleet he transcribed the vessel listings published annually by Procter Brothers from 1869 through 1906, compiling in a simple digitally-searchable format the port's registrations and captains. Stephanie notes that "there is a ten-year gap [1859-1869] between my stopping and Fred's starting. Somebody could fill in that gap, if they felt like it." She savors opportunities to help with discoveries. "Anybody who is studying their family genealogy loves to have the little tiny details of their great-great-grandfather."

Stephanie will be retiring next month after fifteen years as the Museum's Librarian/Archivist. Fred passed away in February, having summoned over recent years every moment and ounce of energy to fulfill requests despite failing health.

Fred and Stephanie Buck
the wedding day of their oldest daughter

Local author Paul St. Germain recalls the couple's unstinting support on his book projects. "Fred was something of a magician, not only searching out the photographs but fixing them so they look good. You know Fred's sense of humor. Shall we say acerbic? I'd show up and the banter would go back and forth. But he was more than solicitous, more than helpful. Anything you asked him he'd be happy to do--'But I can't do it now! I've got this other project!' The amazing thing is he not only knew what he had in the archives but he had amassed so much metadata on each photograph. I'd get an email from him at two o'clock in the morning with a couple of pictures. 'I came across this. This might be good.'

"Every time I went in I'd let Stephanie know what I was looking for, which was usually captions for the photographs. I'd work at the big round table in back. She'd come over every now and then to drop off books or documents. 'You might find this useful,' she'd say, even before I asked her about a particular subject.

 

 

 

 

 

Recorded History, Valuations, and "Cow Rights"

Evening, Pigeon Cove, engraving by Kruseman Van Elten, 1873 ¹

Permanent settlement of Cape Ann centering on the most arable land where the Rte 128 rotary now sits led to the incorporation of Gloucester in 1642. Distributions of common land slowly grew and dispersed the population so that in the days of entwined civic and religious government the original parish became the First Parish. Land on the north side of the Cape was parceled out by grants of 6-acre lots to all male citizens in 1688. Sales and consolidations over the next twenty years put the ownership of Halibut Point and its uplands within the farms of William Woodberry and Samuel Gott, on the order of fifty acres each. ²

Methodical study of Vital Statistics, Deeds, and Probate Records can produce an interesting record of who lived on the land. The nature of those people and what they actually did remains a more elusive subject enriched by the beginnings of newspapers and tax assessment records in the nineteenth century.

The 1800-1830 volume of Squam Parish Valuations ³

At the beginning of the nineteenth century Halibut Point existed in the Town of Gloucester's Fourth, or Squam Parish, which extended from Riverdale to about Rowe Avenue in Pigeon Cove. As of 1823 the Halibut Point property boundaries had not changed greatly. The eastern portion was owned by Joshua Gott ⁴ and the western by David Wallis Babson. ⁵ The assessor's  Valuations summarize the worldly dimensions of these men in terms of their taxable holdings.

Joshua Gott, 1823

The assessor records Joshua Gott with modest circumstances, taxed for 6 acres of mowing and tillage valued at $240. He also notes 4 Cow Rights worth $120. Evidently most of his land was not considered productive, unlike the bottom land acquired by David Babson.

David Babson, 1823
The upper half details property at Pigeon Cove,
the lower half at Halibut Point

David Wallis Babson of Gloucester married into the Wheeler family (The Old Castle), operated a fish market in Pigeon Cove, and in 1820 purchased the western side of Halibut Point that ultimately contained the Babson Farm Quarry and the Old Farm Inn as well as lowlands across Granite Street. His 1823 Valuation points to the diversity and prosperity of his enterprises. He owned 23 Cow Rights worth $690 as compared to $800 for his house, barn and gardens; $800 for 20 acres mowing and tillage; $560 for 56 acres of woodland.

What exactly were Cow Rights? First I consulted Ann Banks, who had begun research as a member of the Gloucester Archives Committee.

Ann Banks

Ann had discovered a deed transferring one Cow Right in the Sargent Pasture at Done Fudging (the ferry landing behind the present day high school)  to the overseers of the Poor Farm when it was founded there in 1821. This suggested to Ann that the Cow Right was either a share in a corporation or the legacy of a Commoner's pasturing grant from colonial times.

Part of a document deeding a Cow Right in 1821

The Cow Rights held by Babson and Gott were quite valuable, and evidently gave them access to pasture land that was not their own property per se. Possibly they were entitled to graze cattle on public land in Dogtown Common, although that would seem to be an untenable distance to walk cows daily to and from milking in the barn.

In trying to find a fuller account of Babson's and Gott's Cow Rights I received generous research assistance from legal secretary Ann McKay of Gloucester and the staff of the Essex Law Library, adjunct to the Salem Registry of Deeds and Courthouse. They turned up illuminating accounts of British and colonial traditions, as well as related decisions of the General Court, but not specific references to local practice. At the time of Babson's and Gott's decease Cow Rights were not mentioned in probate of their estates.

The provenance of Cow Rights gives depth and color to anyone interested in forming a deeper picture of life for the earliest generations here. ⁶ John S. Webber describes in 1885 how the consolidated purchase of Cow Rights in 1846 enabled George Rogers to amass property for the upscale development of Bass Rocks. ⁷ I am indebted to Professor Dan Beaver of Penn State University for summarizing his own research in the Gloucester City Archives. ⁸



Driving cows at Folly Cove toward Halibut Point, early 20^th century
Courtesy of Sandy Bay Historical Society, Hale/Clements Collection
 

Notes and Sources 

1. Image from eBay, Internet.
2. Allen Chamberlain, Pigeon Cove, Its Early Settlers & Their Farms, 1940.
3. The Valuations are preserved in the vaults of Gloucester City Hall by the Archives Committee.
4. See Notes from Halibut Point Babson Farm, 1/12/2017.
5. See Notes from Halibut Point The Gott Ancestry, 1/5/2017.
6. See John J. Babson, History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Including Rockport, 1860; William L. Davisson and Dennis J. Dugan, "Land Precedents in Essex County, Massachusetts," Essex Institute Historical Collections, October 1970; Allan Greer, "Commons and Enclosure in the Colonization of North America,"  The American Historical Review, April 2012; and Barry C. Field, "The Evolution of Individual Property Rights in Massachusetts Agriculture, 17th—19th Centuries,"  Northeastern Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, August 1989.
7. John S Webber, In and around Cape Ann.
8. The thoughtful reply of Professor Dan Beaver:
Thanks for your note. Unfortunately, the specific institution of "cow rights" took place later in Gloucester's local history than my study, so I have no specific information about it, nor does the term occur in the part of the First Book of Town Records--basically the record of the local land court--that I've worked on. So what follows is speculation on my part that may have occurred to you already, rather than resources in the form of books or articles on the subject. Still, some general discussion of the questions you listed may be helpful.

Although "cow rights" don't appear in the early records, several local ordinances in the 1640s and 1650 involved the management of local cattle and the officers responsible for it. The longer history of "cow rights" should certainly take these ordinances into account as well as the clear evidence of common grazing lands, including a stint that imposed fines for the introduction of any cattle "taken in" from other townships, other than those intended for the direct use of town members. In my opinion, a "cow right" would have entailed a specific use of and access to common lands, possessed by a member of the town or corporation of Gloucester (or their assigns/tenants), and defined either in the public records of the corporation or by custom (as something so obvious it didn't require a record; this seems unlikely by the late 1700s/early 1800s, but still possible). It also seems unlikely that the nature of the "right" would be routinely spelled out in the probate process, though this could happen in cases of disputed rights. Otherwise, I think you can assume that the "right" was exercised within the territorial confines of the Gloucester corporation, with matters of use and transfer subject to the same limitations as those attached to other property rights in the corporation.

As far as a law literature is concerned, you could usefully consult the extensive literature on the history of stinting common lands in the Atlantic common law tradition. A "cow right" in this context becomes only one local variant of this longterm effort to control/limit access to and use of common grazing lands. I hope this is somewhat helpful, and I'm sorry that I can't offer anything more specific from my own work.
 
 
 
 
 

Recorded History

Until the separate incorporation of Rockport in 1840 Halibut Point had for two hundred years formed the northern tip of Gloucester on Cape Ann. Paths of inquiry for the early settlement and affairs of Halibut Point therefore lie in records pertaining to the Town of Gloucester.

Left: Selectmen's Records, 1756-1781
Right: Town Records, 1753-1800

In the current exhibition Unfolding Histories at the Cape Ann Museum you have a chance to see how unusually rich the existing records are. Various volumes, documents, and artifacts on display represent more than a storehouse of antiquarian facts, more even than a trove of unique community treasures. A quiet moment with this array conveys the solemn beauty of church.

The Selectmen's Records, opened to the minutes of May 19, 1766, authorizes expenditures for "a cask of Powder to be used toward expressing our Joy for the repeal of the Stamp Act by Parliament." The Stamp Act had been one of the 'taxations without representation' that  provoked colonial Americans to revolt from England.

In the margin of the Town Records revolutionary debate on April 21, 1775 you will notice a paroxysm in the hand of Selectmen's moderator Captain Peter Coffin that "American Blood was spilt at Lexington by British Robbers."

Exhibition curator Dr. Molly Hardy

Unfolding Histories curator Dr. Molly Hardy has appreciated Gloucester's long timeline since spending childhood summers here in her grandmother's colonial-era house. She evolved professionally to a position with the eminent American Antiquarian Society in Worcester and will soon succeed Stephanie Buck as Librarian-Archivist of the Cape Ann Museum. Like many researchers in New England lore she marvels at the breadth of resources preserved here in the private collections of the Museum and in the Gloucester City Archives. She credits a significant initial conserving impulse to "antiquarians in our midst in the mid to late nineteenth century."

South steps of Gloucester's rebuilt City Hall, 1874. *
I believe City Clerk John J. Somes sits at lower left.

The raw records survived storage in the old wooden Town House, and in the vault of the first City Hall when it burned to the ground in 1869. They provided material for John J. Babson's epic History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Including the Town of Rockport (1860). Babson was eased in his monumental study by a municipal grant to hire a team of women with legible script: "It was also voted that a sum not exceeding four hundred dollars be placed at the disposal of John J. Babson Esq. for the purpose of transcribing the records of the town and arranging the Town papers and preparing an index for them with the concurrence of the Selectmen." Town Records May 7, 1849. * The transcription in precise, flowing handwriting is a boon to modern researchers in the City Hall Archives.

1646 excerpt from the original Town Records
as seen on the City of Gloucester website

A year ago Gloucester hired its first professional archivist with duties split between the Sawyer Free Library and Gloucester City Archives. Katelynn Vance has filled that position with a zealous effort. Over the last year, eight volumes from the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries have been conserved and digitized at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts. Funding for this project was provided by private donations given to the Gloucester City Archives. A grant was recently submitted to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners requesting additional funds to continue the conservation and digitization of the oldest Gloucester records. Access to the digitized records is currently available on the Gloucester City Archives website, http://gloucester-ma.gov/index.aspx?NID=957.

Dr. Hardy applauds the digital scanning because of the greater access it gives researchers while sparing fragile originals further wear and tear. "But that doesn't mean we don't need the original materials. There's an aura about them which I believe in deeply. There are also very practical things that you can't tell from a digital surrogate, such as size, binding, and paper or parchment materials.

"Objects clearly deserve a kind of reverence. They capture time. They're vessels. You share human qualities. The marginalia. Look at the case of Captain Coffin. He had to get a little note in there. That's not exactly pertinent to the Town Record. It's an editorial moment for him. If you just wrote a transcript of the official record you'd miss that.

"As I take over the Librarian position I'm very interested in the history of collecting here, how things came to be here, particularly in the Museum. City Hall is more a repository for its own records. Why so much stuff ended up here, I need to learn a lot more about that."

* Courtesy of the Gloucester City Archives Committee.

Tuxedo Birds

Razorbills

"Any alcids?" comes the greeting from someone arriving with spotting scope and Downeast parka at the Halibut Point parking lot as you're trundling back from the shore with reddened cheeks, mittens, tripod and telephoto lens. It's partly an informational inquiry and partly an affable sniff for kindred conversation. How you manage that invitation opens or closes an esoteric portal to camaraderie, like an insider's handshake.

Recognizing the term gives you momentary cachet in the encounter. A quick review of recent sightings buys further credibility. But you might not cross the bridge into fraternity short of rendering a phlegmatic report on the prospects for the day, faintly seasoned with the absurdity of forsaking comfort for uncertain success in glimpsing and identifying these largely pelagic birds.

Alcids make you think of flying penguins. They feather themselves only in black and white. They can be distinguished by the shapes of their bills as well as plumage variations but seldom come close enough for clear discernments. Often it is severe weather, especially nor'easters, that brings them inshore for a glance between wave crests at plump-bodied long-winged avians trying to adjust to the storm. Truth to tell, birders on a seawatch often park obliquely to the coast and cradle their scopes in the car window. But you can't do that in the State Park.

Conditions of salty wind and rain discourage photography. On a fair day, however, in late fall or winter you have a reasonable chance of seeing alcids from Halibut Point drumming along single file toward the horizon. To the unaided eye they appear as flashes separated from the whitecaps by the rhythmic linearity of their flight. Occasionally a vivid speck enlarges closer in on the water surface, then dives for an improbable time and distance. How it manages to appear and disappear often confounds careful observers.

I took up the allure of alcids this year with the aid of my new 500mm zoom lens. It gives an aspect of being on safari. I scan systematically with binoculars to locate prospects then jump to the camera's viewfinder to try to pinpoint the desirable dot in sea or sky. I anticipate an exposure balance for the highly contrasting surfaces of the plumage, and of the surroundings. I hope that whatever success I may have in accepting failure and disappointment may benignly influence my general demeanor

Alcids go about their business in the depths of the ocean with wings as necessary for swimming as for flying. They come to land only at nesting time. The simplicity of their markings and their extreme environmental adaptation seem to set them apart from other bird families. But how much more or less remarkable are they than sparrows and peacocks?

In the gallery below you can ponder the subtleties of following the alcid clan. I'm still at it, eyes peeled for a puffin.

Common Murre

Thick-billed Murre

Dovekie

Razorbills

Black Guillemot, adult non-breeding plumage (Oct-Feb)

Black Guillemot, juvenile

Black Guillemot, adult breeding plumage (Feb-Sep)