Week 36 (Sept. 3-9): Tradesman

 I always celebrate the skills of craftsmanship which have been part of many families in my ancestry.

So I look at some early settlers in Massachusetts. First was my great times 8 grandfather, Joseph Brown Sr. (1640-1694) a "Turner." These days a turner is often considered a wood worker on a lathe. But I prefer considering he might have been a potter, using a kick wheel to create the many bowls, mugs, and jugs that households and inns and other businesses might use. 

He lived in Andover, Essex County, Massachusetts Colony.

His son was Benjamin Brown (a yeoman and miller). Benjamin has a lot more interesting information on Ancestry because his original house was sold and enlarged and it stood until now (Google Street Map to follow)

There is extensive information about the bridge, the dam, the mill and who owned what. But I'll just touch on a few highlights.

Benjamin must have either owned a small farm (yeoman) or was considered an adjunct to a more substantial man. But since the original house was built by him, I'm voting for his small farm, as well as his working for the more substantial man as a fulling miller.** The home/farm was sold to Caleb Warner after his death ...and that is the name on the house since then.

Source: https://historicipswich.org/caleb-warner-house-50-mill-rd/

50 Mill Road, the Caleb Warner house (1734)

Just before you cross the triple stone arch Warner’s Bridge that connects Mill Rd. in Ipswich to Asbury St. in Hamilton, you can see on your left the large house built by Caleb Warner in 1755. Within it is an earlier home assembled of two structures before 1734, the year that Caleb Warner came into possession of the property. No records exist that would indicate exact construction dates of the two older sections on the right side of the house. We know that tanners operated on both sides of the river as early as 1667. Conceivably, one or both of those structures may have been part of the 1697 fulling mill. 

It is possible that Benjamin Brown, who sold the property to Caleb Warner, may have constructed or lived in the small house as early as 1720.

Caleb Warner house, photo from the early 20th Century. The enlarged house was constructed in 1755, and the dormers were added in the 19th Century. The right side of the house is older and has two smaller structures that were constructed before 1734, probably First Period. The smaller right entry door would have been the left side of the earlier “half house.” (see photo in gallery)

The living room is to the right after entering the left front door, (the tiny door seen to right of main entrance) and has fine hand-planed wall panels around the fireplace. Its large summer beam and corner posts are encased with bead-edge boards, suggesting a Georgian structure, built no earlier than 1734, the year when Caleb Warner purchased the property, but no later than 1755 when the full floor plan as we see it today was completed.

The Caleb Warner house faces the triple stone arch Warner Bridge which connects Mill Rd. in Ipswich to Highland St. in Hamilton. A (sic ?) was constructed in 1829, and in 1856, the present day bridge was reconstructed. 

Probate in 1735 at Benjamin Brown's death gave the occupation/crafts of his son and brothers.  Older brother Joseph was a cordwainer, brother John was a yeoman and turner, Lt. Samuel was a house carpenter and Benjamin's only son Benjamin Jr. was a tailor. His daughter Hannah became my 6 times great grandmother.

Apparently still standing at 50 Mill Rd, Ipswich, MA...Google Earthview, 2019

**  from Wikipedia: A Fulling Mill -

From the medieval period, the fulling of cloth often was undertaken in a water mill, known as a fulling mill, a walk mill, or a tuck mill, and in Wales, a pandy. In these, the cloth was beaten with wooden hammers, known as fulling stocks or fulling hammers. Fulling stocks were of two kinds, falling stocks (operating vertically) that were used only for scouring, and driving or hanging stocks. In both cases the machinery was operated by cams on the shaft of a waterwheel or on a tappet wheel, which lifted the hammer.
Driving stocks were pivoted so that the foot (the head of the hammer) struck the cloth almost horizontally. The stock had a tub holding the liquor and cloth. This was somewhat rounded on the side away from the hammer, so that the cloth gradually turned, ensuring that all parts of it were milled evenly. However, the cloth was taken out about every two hours to undo plaits and wrinkles. The 'foot' was approximately triangular in shape, with notches to assist the turning of the cloth.

Today's quote:

“The most appalling quality of water is its strength. I love its flash and gleam, its music, its pliancy and grace, its slap against my body; but I fear its strength.”  Scottish mountaineer and poet Nan Shepherd