Some of Our East Coast TownsRitchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
History
Some of Our East Coast Towns
Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
East Anglia (England) -- Description and travel
THUS writes the poet Whittier, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of
the City of Haverhill in America. Most of us know there is a Haverhill
in England, where resided Mr. D. Gurteen, who died recently in his
eighty-fourth year, one of the grand old men—occasionally met with—who
have spent all their lives in promoting the best interests, moral and
pecuniary, of the community amongst whom they live. He was born when
Haverhill was in a state of decay, its chief manufacture, that of silk,
having dwindled all to nothing. He has almost rebuilt the place, and
made it one of the most prosperous of our East Anglian towns. Haverhill,
in a remote corner of East Anglia, is intimately connected with the
American Haverhill. That was founded by the grandson of a well-known
Haverhill clergyman—Rev. John Ward—one of the early Puritans who suffered
for conscience sake, and against whom Romanising archbishops like Laud—in
whose seat the present Archbishop of London tells us he is proud to be
placed—made constant war. John Ward, whose monument is still to be seen
in Haverhill Church, had a descendant named Nathaniel, who was educated
at Cambridge, and went out into the wilderness of New England rather than
remain the victim of persecution in the old country. He was a ripe
scholar, and a man of great practical ability, a Puritan of the Puritans,
who helped to mould the character and make the laws of the people of whom
he became the minister. The hardy settlers, who had hitherto toiled in
hope, overjoyed at Ward’s coming, insisted on naming their
plantation—hitherto called Pentucket, after the Indian tribe who had
lived there till bought out by the whites—Haverhill, from the birthplace
of their honoured minister. In the recent celebration Haverhill in
England was not forgotten. Mr. Alderman Gurteen and the rector were
invited. The rector could not go. Mr. Alderman Gurteen could, and he
crossed the Atlantic, bearing with him an address, handsomely got up, to
the New England Haverhill. He was received with open arms, and on his
return was honoured with a dinner in the Town Hall, presided over by his
respected father, Mr. D. Gurteen, J.P., and there he delivered himself of
his American experiences, and was listened to eagerly by a sympathetic
audience, among whom I had the good luck to be one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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