church was considering the problems at its feuding satellite congregation in Salem Village. “After some agitation,” the church record noted, “the church agreed” to having George Burroughs preach there. The disagreement in the village would escalate in unexpected directions, but for now Mary celebrated by composing an acrostic based on her own name, using the “Y” as an ampersand (&).
M ay I with Mary choose the better part,
A nd serve the Lord with all my heart,
R escue his word most joyfully
Y live to him eternally.
E verliving God I pray,
N ever leave me for to stray.
G ive me grace thee to obey
L ord grant that I may happy be
I n Jesus Christ eternally.
S ave me dear Lord by thy rich grace
H eaven then shall be my dwelling place.
Philip attended with her and at this point did not object to the lack of Church of England services. He had even signed the 1680 petition to the selectmen desiring a new, larger meeting house for Salem (as did Francis Nurse and Mary’s brother William Hollingworth, among others).
On March 4, 1682, Eleanor paid off the last of the £250 mortgage to Cromwell “in money and goods in hand,” and the Blue Anchor was wholly her own. In July Mary gave birth to daughter Susanna (who died young), and in the following year Philip was appointed a constable at the yearly town meeting. One of his duties was to collect taxes (Eleanor Hollingworth’s was three shillings). This caused problems when Philip and some of the other tax collectors neglected to collect from fellow Jerseymen away at sea even though their families resided in Salem. Some of the men, he said, had moved away. Part of the problem may have been based on the fact that a medieval charter had exempted Jersey “from all manner of Taxes, Imposts, and Customs in all Cities, Market-Towns, and Ports of England,” which a second ancient charter extended “to all Places within the King’s Dominion beyond the Seas.” Some Jerseymen, like Thomas Baker of Ipswich, were openly scornful of local law. When served with a warrant in 1679, he refused it, “saying he did not care for all the laws in the country.” When told that he would be brought before Major William Hathorne for his refusal, he scoffed that “he would not be tried by that white hat limping rogue.”
The Salem selectmen sued for the delinquent taxes in 1684 and confiscated a plot of land from English in lieu of payment. He bought it back in 1685 when he also purchased William Dicer’s house-lot when William and the contentious Elizabeth moved to Maine.
Philip’s tendency to sue others for overdue debts had already ruffled a few feathers. This practice was common enough in Jersey, where the laws made it more necessary, but in Massachusetts even when a debtor thought he had made arrangements to pay, Philip would sue and often had the debtor arrested—even other Jersey folk. In addition, the year before the selectmen’s lawsuit, he had purchased the house and land once belonging to Mary’s uncle Captain Robert Starr on the lot northwest of the Blue Anchor. Philip removed the old building and began constructing the largest mansion in town. During a time when most families lived in one room and a garret and the larger homes had two rooms on each of two floors, English’s Great House (as it would be called) must have been a topic of fascination and envy.
Philip ordered an L-shaped house, with each of its upper levels projecting over the one below. House wrights raised an oak frame, filled the exterior walls with brick between the timbers, and then covered them with clapboards on the outside and plaster on the inside. Even the cellars were completely finished, from the stone floors to the plastered ceilings. Masons built many hearths leading to the great central chimney stack and constructed more than one oven in the kitchen. The ground floor contained pantries and parlors, a counting-house (Philip’s business office), and possibly a shop (though that may
M ay I with Mary choose the better part,
A nd serve the Lord with all my heart,
R escue his word most joyfully
Y live to him eternally.
E verliving God I pray,
N ever leave me for to stray.
G ive me grace thee to obey
L ord grant that I may happy be
I n Jesus Christ eternally.
S ave me dear Lord by thy rich grace
H eaven then shall be my dwelling place.
Philip attended with her and at this point did not object to the lack of Church of England services. He had even signed the 1680 petition to the selectmen desiring a new, larger meeting house for Salem (as did Francis Nurse and Mary’s brother William Hollingworth, among others).
On March 4, 1682, Eleanor paid off the last of the £250 mortgage to Cromwell “in money and goods in hand,” and the Blue Anchor was wholly her own. In July Mary gave birth to daughter Susanna (who died young), and in the following year Philip was appointed a constable at the yearly town meeting. One of his duties was to collect taxes (Eleanor Hollingworth’s was three shillings). This caused problems when Philip and some of the other tax collectors neglected to collect from fellow Jerseymen away at sea even though their families resided in Salem. Some of the men, he said, had moved away. Part of the problem may have been based on the fact that a medieval charter had exempted Jersey “from all manner of Taxes, Imposts, and Customs in all Cities, Market-Towns, and Ports of England,” which a second ancient charter extended “to all Places within the King’s Dominion beyond the Seas.” Some Jerseymen, like Thomas Baker of Ipswich, were openly scornful of local law. When served with a warrant in 1679, he refused it, “saying he did not care for all the laws in the country.” When told that he would be brought before Major William Hathorne for his refusal, he scoffed that “he would not be tried by that white hat limping rogue.”
The Salem selectmen sued for the delinquent taxes in 1684 and confiscated a plot of land from English in lieu of payment. He bought it back in 1685 when he also purchased William Dicer’s house-lot when William and the contentious Elizabeth moved to Maine.
Philip’s tendency to sue others for overdue debts had already ruffled a few feathers. This practice was common enough in Jersey, where the laws made it more necessary, but in Massachusetts even when a debtor thought he had made arrangements to pay, Philip would sue and often had the debtor arrested—even other Jersey folk. In addition, the year before the selectmen’s lawsuit, he had purchased the house and land once belonging to Mary’s uncle Captain Robert Starr on the lot northwest of the Blue Anchor. Philip removed the old building and began constructing the largest mansion in town. During a time when most families lived in one room and a garret and the larger homes had two rooms on each of two floors, English’s Great House (as it would be called) must have been a topic of fascination and envy.
Philip ordered an L-shaped house, with each of its upper levels projecting over the one below. House wrights raised an oak frame, filled the exterior walls with brick between the timbers, and then covered them with clapboards on the outside and plaster on the inside. Even the cellars were completely finished, from the stone floors to the plastered ceilings. Masons built many hearths leading to the great central chimney stack and constructed more than one oven in the kitchen. The ground floor contained pantries and parlors, a counting-house (Philip’s business office), and possibly a shop (though that may
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