John Dunton Stops in Ipswich

John Dunton was a bookseller and publisher in London. He was also the gay Lothario immortalized by Pope in the Dunciad. He married one of the sisters of John Wesley's wife and of Defoe's wife on August 3, 1682. They seemed to share a Bohemian tendency together calling each other Philaret and Iris. When their honeymoon was over they settled at the Black Raven in Prince's Street, London, where they lived a carefree life for two years. Monmouth's insurrection in 1685 led to a depression in the book trade and Dunton left his loving spouse and sailed for New England to sell his books. Leaving Gravesend in October 1685, he arrived in Boston four month's later. He sold his books, visited Cambridge and paid his respects to Eliot in Roxbury. Soon he arrived in Ipswich to stay with Mr. and Mrs. William Stewart, a visit he describes in a letter to his wife:

"My landlady, Mrs. Wilkins, having a sister at Ipswich which she had not seen for a great while, Mrs. Comfort, her daughter (a young gentlewoman equally happy in the perfections both of her body and mind) had a great desire to see her aunt, having never been at her house nor in that part of the country; which Philaret, having a desire to see, and being never backward to accommodate the Fair Sex, profers his service to wait upon her thither, which was readily accepted by the young lady, who felt herself safe under his protection. Nor were her parents less willing to trust her with me.

"All things being ready for our ramble, I took my fair one up behind me and rid on our way, I and my Fair Fellow Traveller to Mr. Steward's whose wife was Mrs. Comfort's own aunt: whose joy to see her niece at Ipswich was sufficiently Expressed by the Noble Reception we met with and the Treatment we found there; which far outdid whate'er we could have thought. And tho myself was but a stranger to them, yet the extraordinary civility and respect they showed me, gave me reason enough to think I was very welcome. It was late when we came thither and we were both very weary, which would not excuse us from the trouble of a very splendid supper, before I was permitted to go to bed; which was got ready in so short a time as would have made us think, had we not known the contrary, that it had been ready provided against we came. Though our supper was extraordinary yet I had so great a desire to go to bed, as made it to me a troublesone piece of kindness. But, this being happily over, I took my leave of my Fellow Traveller, and was conducted to my apartment by Mrs. Stewart herself, whose character I shant attempt tonight being so weary but reserve till tomorrow morning. Only I must let you know that my apartment was so noble and the furniture so suitable to it, that I doubt not that even the King himself has oftentimes been contented with a worser lodging.

"Having reposed myself all night upon a bed of Down, I slept so very soundly that the Sun, who lay not on so soft a bed as I, had got the start of me and risen before me; but was so kind however as to make me one of his first visits, and to give me the bonjour; on which I straight got up and dressed myself, having a mind to look about me and see where I was: and having took a view of Ipswich I found it to be situated by a river, whose first rise from a lake or Pond was twenty miles up, breaking of its course through a hideous swamp for amny miles, a harbor for bears; it issueth forth into a large bay, where they fish for whales, due east over against the Island of Sholes, a great place for fishing. The mouth of that river is barred. I is a good haven town. Their Meeting House or church is built very beautifully. There is a store of orchards and gardens about it and good land for Cattel and husbandry.

"But I remember I promised to give you Mrs. Stewart's character &, if I hadn't, yet gratitude and justice would exact it of me. Her stature is of a middle size fit for a woman. Her face is still the magazine of beauty, whence she may fetch artillery enough to Wound a thousand lovers; and when she was about 18 perhaps there was never a face more sweet and charming -- nor could it well be otherwise for now at 33 all you call sweet and ravishing is in her Face; which it is as great a pleasure to behold as a perpetual sunshine without any clouds at all; and yet all this sweetness is joined with such attractive vertue as draws all to a certain distance and there detains them with reverence and admiration, none ever daring to approach her nigher or having power to go further off. She's so obliging courteous and civil as if those qualities were only born with her, and rested in her bosom as their centre. Her speech and her Behavior is so gentle sweet and affable, that whatsoever men may talk of magik therein none charms but she. So good a wife she is she frames her nature to her husband's: the hyacinth follows not the sun more willingly than she her husband's pleasure. Her household is her charge. Her care to that makes her but seldom a non-resident. Her pride is to be neat and cleanly, and her thirst not to be Prodigal. And to conclude is both wise and religious which makes her all I have said before.

"In the next place I suppose yourself will think it reasonable that unto Mrs. Steward's I should add her husband's Character: whose worth and goodness do well merit. As to his stature 'tis incling to tall: and as to his aspect, if all the lineaments of a sincere and honest-hearted man were lost out of the world, they might be all retrieved by looking on his face. He's one whose bounty is limited by reason, not be ostentation; and to make it last he deals discreetly; as we sowe our land not by the sack but by the handful. He is so sincere and upright that his words and his meaning never shake hands and part but always go together. His mind is always so serene that that thunder but rocks him asleep which breaks other men's slumbers. His thoughts have an aim as high as Heaven tho their residence be in the Valley of a humble heart. He is not much given to talk though he knows how to do it as well as any man. He loves his friend and will do anything for him except it be to wink at his faults of which he is always a severe reprover. He is so good a husband that he is worthy of the wife he enjoys, and would even make a bad wife good by his example.

"Ipswich is a country town not very large, and when a stranger arrives, tis quickly known to every one, It is no wonder then that the next day after our arrival the news of it was carried to Mr. Hubbard, the Minister of the town, who hearing that I was the person that had brought over a great venture of Learning, did me the honor of making me a visit at Mr. Steward's, where I lay, and afterwards kindly invited me and my fellow traveller to his own house, where he was pleased to give us very handsome entertainment. His writing of the History of the Indian Warrs shews hime to be a person of good parts and understanding. He is a sober, grave and well accomplished man -- a good preacher (as all the town affirm, for I didn't hear him) and one that lives according to his preaching.

"The next day I was for another ramble in which Mr. Steward was pleas'd to accompany me. And the place we went to was a town call'd Rowley, ling six miles North-East from Ipswich, where most of the Inhabitants had been Clothiers. There was that Day a great Game of Foot Ball to be playd, which was the occasion of our going thither: There was another Town that playd against them, as is sometimes Common in England: but they played with their bare feet which I thought was very odd: but was upon a broad Sand Shoar free from Stones, which made it more easie. Neither were they so apt to trip up one anothers heels, and quarrel as I have seen em in England."

The Stewart House was later known as the Caleb Lord House. It was located on the south side of High Street. On the 1641 diagram of Ipswich (see below), it is shown as the Solomon Martin and John Hassell Lot. On an 1872 map (see below), it is shown as C. Lord. Martin was a resident of Andover. John Hassell was the original grantee of his lot. It was acquired by Philip Fowler who sold Roger Darby, "sope-boyler" his dwelling and two acres on the "south side of the Street, commonly called Hill St," January 16, 1672 (Ips. Deeds 4:74). The Darby's or Derbys were Quakers, much persecuted for their faith. They removed to Salem and sold their estate to William Stewart, March 25, 1692 (Ipsw. Deeds 5: 492) Stewart apparently resided there prior to purchasing.

William Payne of Boston and Elizabeth, his wife, only daughter and heir of William Stewart, sold to Rev. Jabez Fitch, the Pastor of the First Church, July 7, 1704 (17:34). He purchased the Solomon Martin Lot as well. Later he moved to Portsmouth, N.H. and sold to Job Harris, Nov. 22, 1727 (46:151). Harris sold 18 rods in the corner of the estate with the house to Caleb Lord and Daniel Lord, March 25, 1751 (120:41). It remained in that family into the early 1900's according to Thomas Franklin Waters (Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1910). This is probably the one owned by the Stewarts.

1841 Map                                                                1872 Map

The above is compiled from:

 History of Ipswich, Essex, and Hamilton by Joseph Felt, published Cambridge, Charles Folsom, 1834.

Little Pilgrimages Among Old New England Inns by Mary Caroline Crawford, published Boston, L. C. Page & Co., 1907.

Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony by Thomas Franklin Waters, published Ipswich, Ipswich Historical Society, 1905.