This is some more information that will be included in my forthcoming 800-900 page, tenth book, titled, An Early Industry of Household Wares: The Red Earthenware of Salem Village, South Danvers, Peabody and Salem, Massachusetts. This post touches upon three separate subjects, although all equally as important, and all related to production in the Salem and South Danvers area.
1) It may not be widely known today that there were some red earthenware potters from South Danvers (Peabody), Massachusetts, who died at the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775. This broadside documents those deaths, which was published in Ezekiel Russell's (1743-1796) Salem Gazette, or Newbury and Marblehead Advertiser, on Friday, April 21, 1775. The potters are highlighted in red with the headline "A Bloody Butchery, by the British Troops; or the Runaway Fight of the Regulars."
The broadside reads in part, “...On Thursday the twentieth past, the bodies of eleven of the unfortunate persons who fell in the battle were collected and buried at Medford. And on Friday, the bodies of Messrs. Henry Jacobs, Samuel Cook, Ebeneezer Goldthwait, George Southwick, Benjamin Deland, jun., Jonathan Webb and Perley Putnam of Danvers, who were likewise slain fighting in the Glorious Cause of Liberty and Their Country on the nineteenth of April, were respectfully interred among their friends in the different parishes belonging to that town (South Danvers)…”
Mr. Proctor first erected suitable buildings, built in 1768 the house in Canal Street (in Gloucester), then brought his bride (Elizabeth Epes Proctor; 1743-1817) from Danvers and established himself as a miller and potter, and engaged extensively in the manufacture of red earthenware, which at the time was in general use for all domestic purposes. His mill was considered a triumph of mechanical engineering, and by its peculiar construction was made to accomplish a very great amount of work with a comparatively small expenditure of power. He also had a cooperage for making hogsheads, barrels and other utensils, and a forge for light iron work and repairing. He established and carried on a fishing business, sending his vessels to the Grand Banks (northwest Atlantic Ocean), and also built several vessels for fishing and other purposes, employing some of them in the foreign trade, but particularly for shipping fish and red earthenware to southern ports and the West Indies; and on the return voyage the vessels brought back cargoes of foreign produce, cocoa, and corn for his mill, and frequently goodly sums of money.”
The Clark family eventually influenced production in a number of locations in New England in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, especially in New Hampshire and Vermont, with lesser known businesses in Orford, New Hampshire and Brownington, Vermont. The Clark family can also be traced back to Hugh Clark (1612-1693) in Watertown, Massachusetts, who migrated to Massachusetts from London, England in 1638."
However, while visiting the Wadsworth Cemetery in Danvers last night to see Reverend Clark's gravestone, where I found him buried beside the graves of his wife and daughter, as well as Peter (1673-1751) and Deborah Hobart (1678-1759) -- I was surprised with the information written on Peter Hobart's grave. The grave read, "Here lyes Buried the Body of Mr. Peter Hobart; Deacon Sometime of ye South Church Braintree. Died at Salem-Village June 14 A.D. 1751 AEtat 78."
Furthermore, I also learned that the Clark and Hobart families are intertwined by marriage so it was not by chance that Captain Peter Clark's family ended up in Braintree around 1743, but instead there is a connection between Braintree and Salem Village. I was surprised to learn this connection, which I have not previously found in publication.
I also visited a few other cemeteries in Danvers related to Salem Village (Rebecca Nurse Homestead Cemetery and the Putnam Family Cemetery), and the Clark, Proctor and Putnam names are found in all of these cemeteries, among other known eighteenth century families.
Note: There will be more information published about the Clark family in my forthcoming tenth book, although in the meantime - see these two previously published books from my book series:
1) A City on the River: The Early Red Earthenware of the Hartford, Connecticut Area: https://historicbeverly.net/product/a-city-on-the-river-the-early-red-earthenware-of-the-hartford-connecticut-area/
2) An Influential Family of Early Potters: The Clarks of New Hampshire and Related Businesses: https://historicbeverly.net/product/an-influential-family-of-early-potters-the-clarks-of-new-hampshire-and-related-businesses/
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