The town of Ipswich was established on August 5, 1634, from common land called Agawam. On October 18, 1648, that portion called the "Village" at the New Meadows was set off as Topsfield. The boundary line between Ipswich and Topsfield was established, February 28, 1694.
History of Essex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men edited by Duane Hamilton Hurd, J. W. Lewis & Co., 1888
In 1705, the Hamlet was granted by the town of Ipswich one acre of common land for a burial-place. This was, the next year, exchanged with John Dane for one-half acre, which is a part of the present burial-ground. This lot was described in the deed as bounded by the southeasterly side of the road leading to Wenham, fronting on said road eight rods, southerly on land of John Hubbard ten rods, and on the easterly end, eight rods, and on the northerly side, ten rods, by Dane's land.
John Dane, the grantor, died in 1707, and was buried in this lot; the stone erected to his memory bears the oldest date of any in the cemetery. The inscription is
Memento mori, Fugit Hora.
Here lyes ye body of John Dane, Sen.,
who departed this life
December 23d, 1707,
in the 65th year of his age.
This John was the son of a John Dane who emigrated to this country about 1635. He was born in Ipswich about 1644, and lived at the Hamlet. In 1692 he was a juror in witch cases. He married Abigail Warner, and was an ancestor of the Dane family residing in this town.
The rod or perch or pole is a surveyor's tool equal to 5 1⁄2 yards.
The Salem witch trials were between February, 1692 and May, 1693.
Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts by William Richard Cutter, William Frederick Adams, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910
John Dane, son of John Dane (2), died December 23, 1707, "in ye 65th year of his age." (Gravestone at Hamilton). Married, December 27, 1671, Abigail Warner, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth (Denne) Warner, of Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Children:
1. John, born November 29, 1681.
2. Daniel, born about 1689: see forward.
3. Susannah, born March 6, 1685-6, buried March 24, 1687.
4. Nathaniel, born June 27, 1691, died June, 1760; married first, 1712, Elizabeth Potter; married second, March, 1716-17, Anna Low, who died February, 1730-1; married third, December 23, 1732, Esther Kimball, of Wenham, Massachusetts.
5. Abigail, born December 15, 1673; married, March 27, 1705, Joseph Crackbone, of Cambridge.
6. Rebecca, born September 18, 1676.
7. Elizabeth, born March 6, 1678-9.
Europeans who made the voyage to America faced a difficult journey of several months.
Early European settlers in the American colonies were mostly farmers and craftsmen. They had to work hard to provide daily neccesities for themselves.
New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 8
John Dane's Narrative, 1682.
A small volume in the handwriting of John Dane, of Ipswich.... The book contains 132 leaves, is 34 inches wide, and 6 inches long, and is bound in parchment, with a lappet On the inside of the cover is written in a large hand:
Philemon Warner, Junr,, his Book, given him by his grandmother Warner, Janry 20th 1741:
On the first leaf is the following memorandum:
This John Dane was from England, Doct Phillemon Dane's father, of Ipswich. I remember ye Doct. 60 or 70 years agoe, pr Phile. Warner, 1770.
...The volume contains two narratives, one in rhyme and the other in prose, and some religious meditations and advice to the author's children, in rhyme. It also contains minutes of sermons by Mr. Dennison, Mr. Hubbard, and Mr.. Gerrish, in the handwriting of one who signs himself John Dane, probably the son of the first owner. There is also some short hand. The prose narrative. . .contains all the facts found in the rhymed one, with additional particulars.
It will be seen that it is deficient in dates. But it gives the places of residence of the family in England, besides other important facts and interesting descriptions. It is otherwise valuable in giving us an insight into the character and sentiments of persons in Mr. Dane's condition in life, in his day.
The writer of the narrative, it seems, came to New England before his parents. He appears to have arrived here in the spring or early part of the summer, but in what year is not known, and after a short stay at Roxbury, to have settled in Ipswich. Mr. Felt finds him at Ipswich in 1638. His father had a house lot granted to him there, "entered 9th 2mo. 1639."
Sarah Dane, dau. of the narrator, m. 23 Sept. 1668, Daniel Warner, and was probably the "grandmother Warner" mentioned above.
Her son, Philemon Warner, b. 2 Feb., 1675, m. 27 April, 1696, Abigail Tuttle, and had Philemon jr. b. 17 Jan., 1697, who
might well remember his great uncle the Doctor, who was living in 1716.
Mr. Dane in his will says:
My will is that my sons John and Philemon have my books and manuscripts, and that Philemon divide them, and John chuse.
I suppose, from appearances, that this book fell to the share of John, who may afterwards have given it to his sister Sarah Warner.
Mary White Rowlandson,Talcot
was captured by Native Americans
during King Philip's War
(1675-1676).
Essex County, Massachusetts was created on May 10, 1643 by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, when it ordered "that the whole plantation within this jurisdiction be divided into four sheires."
Lush forests in Colonial America allowed settlers to build wooden homes.
