Robert Adams was a tailor. He had lived and was married in England. Some say that his native place was in Devonshire, others that it was in "far distant Holderness in County York." Before he expatriated himself there were born to him (first) John and (second) Joanna, in 1634. These children, with his wife, accompanied him to Salem, where he landed in 1638, removing to Newbury in 1640. Nine children were born to him, and he was a man of "good estate." He was a freeman and a leading church member. He died in 1682-3. The date of Joanna's birth is not known, more than it was in 1634, but she was alive in 1701.
When and where Launcelot and Joanna met and loved can be imagined by my readers to suit their individual fancy; the records of Essex county are silent on the point. That it was not at balls and 5-o'clock "teas" can be set down as certain, since not a pound of tea or coffee was drank in Newbury in the entire seventeenth century. Probably the customs of the Puritans prevailed. Launcelot walked from Ipswich to Newbury at proper intervals, attended meeting with the old folks, watched the solemn deacon on the front seat (there were no pews in the Newbury church) turn the hour-glass when the sermon began, to see that the minister preached the requisite and prescribed time, and listened to the Rev. Mr. Parker as he discussed the burning question of the time, "Is sanctification necessary to faith and justification?" Anyway the courtship was successful, and on the 4th day of January, A. D. 1654, according to our style (1653, according to the old, for the Puritan year began March 25th), Launcelot and Joanna were married by Mr. Adams, a magistrate, ministers not having the authority at that time to join persons in wedlock. She was then just twenty years of age. We can well suppose her husband was a few years older.
The family of Adams having united with that of the Grangers, it may be well to tell here what more is necessary for us to know about them. Robert Adams lived, as I have said, until October 12, 1682, when he, dying, was buried at the "lower green." We find the records of his will and the inventory of his estate. The former is dated March 7, 1681-2, and proved at Salem 28th, 9th month, 1682. His second wife, Sara, widow of Henry Short, by whom he had no children, and his various descendants are each remembered. He bequeaths "to daughter Joanna, wife of Launcelot Granger, one cow," and again "to daughter Joanna Granger my pewter tankard and a pewter bowl." As she was then in far-distant Suffield, with almost impassable rivers and woods and hills between her and the old home, it may be doubted if she ever received the cow. The inventory shows Robert to have been a man of thrift, possessed of no little property for those days--indeed a man, as he is said to have been, of "good estate." He was a farmer as well as a tailor, and his homestead was just across the salt marshes from Kent's Island, hardly two thousand feet away. He left:
One hundred and forty acres, including orchards, valued at œ600
Live stock valued at 94
Furniture valued at 222.17
Total, œ916.17
Prices, it must be remembered, were low, having greatly fallen since 1640; œ222 would represent a good deal of furniture, and his house was more than well furnished for the times. Robert Adams must have been a fairly substantial citizen, and living in a style and with a comfort beyond the average of his neighbors.
If you sail south from the mouth of the great river Merrimac, which formerly formed the northern boundary of Newbury, through Plum Island Sound, which lies between that island and the main land, you come in about three miles to another river of fair proportions and navigable for boats of small dimensions. Its shores today are lined with charming sloping fields, with broad meadows, and salt marshes. Comfortable farmhouses and great spreading trees dot the landscape, suggesting plenty and rural success and happiness. Two miles or so up this river crosses the bridge of the ancient highway from Ipswich to Newbury. At the north end of this bridge is the "lower green," the spot where the first comers landed and built their homes and meeting-house. A mile yet farther up the marshes broaden out, and in their midst rises a great island, rocky and high. On this island have stood houses and barns for over two hundred and fifty years; here have lived and died generations of people. This river is the Parker River, and this island is Kent's Island, with which we have now to do. At this late day the steam cars cross its eastern end, and from the flying train you can see the very site and the ruined chimneys of the first family home in America of the Grangers.
In 1647 the town of Newbury (by the laws of the times the town was the first owner of the soil, which it gave away to actual settlers) set off to Richard Kent, Jr., this rocky island. It contained the two hundred and fifty-eight acres of upland, besides much meadow. It was a choice place, as Coffin in his work says "the meadow land was most valuable." This was not only because of the luxurious grasses which grew on the salt meadows, but also because of the great expense attending the clearing of the uplands. This island was a favored spot, and to it the Kents have clung even to this day, its present owners being Edward Kent, Esq., and his three brothers. It was, in the early days, entailed upon the eldest son, but in 1741 unexpected trouble came. In that year the owner of the island, intent only on the scriptural command "to increase and multiply," and fearing not the expense and tribulation of courts and juries, became the father of twins, whom he named Joseph and Stephen (Kent). In due course the old man died, and the twins each claimed the land. Naturally the interested parties could not themselves decide which was born first, and the testimony of intelligent witnesses was invoked. But it seems even they disagreed, and an appeal to the courts was had to decide between the twins. Two juries disagreed, and a settlement by judicial process seemed impossible. The Legislature was finally asked to intervene, and the General Court passed a bill ordering the island to be sold for the benefit of the twins and a brother still younger. Now the land has drifted back into the peaceable possession of four brothers, who hold it amicably as tenants in common.
The road which skirts along the north shore of the Parker River runs from the "lower green" far into the interior. As it passes Kent's Island, the nearest shore of which is perhaps a quarter of a mile away, another road turns off, and, descending to the marsh, crosses the lowlands till it reaches the island. Then, turning to the left, it climbs the hill, passing between stone walls and orchards until it ends on one of the highest points of the island, just in front of the present mansion of the Kents.
Just before you reach the latter spot you notice to the left an old gateway in the stone wall, and back from the road some thirty-five feet the cellar of an old house. In the center of the excavation is a huge pile of bricks, the ruins of the old chimney. About on the grass lie immense beams, the timbers of the old house. These are of oak, some of them sixteen inches in diameter. Behind the cellar the land descends suddenly to the salt marsh, across which can be seen the higher land of the main shore. This is the site of Launcelot Granger's old home, and these are the ruins of the house to which he took his bride from her father's farm in sight across the meadow.
This house (torn down in 1884) was built by Richard Kent, Jr., in 1653, and after it was vacated by Launcelot (about 1674) was occupied by the Kent family. It was, as I have said, a house of the best class then built in the colony. It was forty-eight feet long by twenty-two wide, two storied with an attic. Between the inner and the outer shell the house was lined with brick up to the top of the first story--a protection against the Indians, who were most troublesome in the early days. Indeed, Mr. Kent shows a musket with which an Indian was killed upon the Island. In the east end of the house was the "great" or "company" room, with its large fireplace and closet in the chimney. At the other end was the kitchen, with its still larger fireplace, its oven, and large milk and cheese pantry. Behind was the usual "leanto," which was also provided with a fireplace and chimney closet. The second floor, which projected a foot beyond the lower, was divided practically the same as the latter. It was in all respects a typical house of colonial New England, with all the features to be found in those of the better class, and it is accurately represented in the picture which forms the frontispiece of this book. It will always be a matter of regret that the old house was destroyed, but of pleasure that a picture of it was taken before it was demolished. Had it stood it would have been a place of pilgrimage for those who are descended from its first occupant.
Here Launcelot lived from January, 1654, until at least the summer of 1674, when he started for Suffield. Here all his children were born; here was the cradle of the family, its first abiding-place, its first hearthstone. The spot is worthy of a visit from all who take interest in their ancestor. It can be best reached by the traveler from Newburyport, whence a carriage and driver will quickly take one over the three miles of good road which leads to Kent's Island.
