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.