Category: Posts
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Hampton History Matters II
Available at amazon.com https://amzn.to/3yzMUBr The famous sandy beaches and first-class boardwalk of Hampton, New Hampshire often overshadow its long and robust history―that is, until Hampton History Matters. In the style of its predecessor (volume I, 2017), this latest collection of stories from local historian Cheryl Lassiter is an eclectic and entertaining sampling of the history […]
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Hampton’s Old Town Hall
Engineering sketch of the old Hampton Town Hall, 1892. For nearly two centuries, New Hampshire towns had taxed their citizens to support the Congregational ministry. Each town hired its pastor and paid his salary, and it owned and maintained the meeting house where both church services and town meetings were held. A growing revolt by […]
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Goody Cole and the Enchanted Oven
By any measure, Goodwife Eunice Cole of Hampton was a dreadful person. She was argumentative, foul-mouthed, and generally impossible to get along with. Even with the threat of physical punishment, she refused to change her behavior. Unfortunately, she lived at a time—the 17th century—and in a culture—Puritan—where being a cantankerous old shrew was not in […]
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Heyday of the Hampton Players
Above: The Hampton Players cast of “Harvey,” 1957. Courtesy of the Hampton Historical Society. If the early history of amateur dramatics on the Seacoast proves anything, it’s that Shakespeare was right: all the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players. Literally. It’s hard to imagine that the region in the […]
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The short history of the Miss New England contest at Hampton Beach
1925 Miss New England Hazel Houghton of Lowell, Massachusetts (l) and second place winner Dorothy Dobbins of Methuen, Massachusetts (r). (Haverhill Gazette). In 1924, more than two decades before the advent of the now-iconic Miss Hampton Beach beauty pageant, the Hampton Beach Board of Trade sponsored a photo contest to determine who was the “most […]
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Hampton’s History in Maps
The New England towns that dotted Captain John Smith’s 1616 map (above) didn’t really exist, but a sixteen-year-old English prince named Charles had taken the liberty of replacing Smith’s indigenous place names with English ones, most of which did not survive the era of Puritan migration. As to the future site of Hampton, located on […]
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The ‘phew’ in the meeting house
Hampton, New Hampshire. Built in 1797, the fifth town-owned Congregational meeting house—where the ‘phew’ incident took place—was converted in 1844 to secular public use only. As the town hall (shown above), the building was altered a number of times and assumed its final appearance in 1888, when, according to town historian Joseph Dow, it was […]
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Leora Philbrick Bristol of Hampton, New Hampshire
Leora Philbrick Bristol of Hampton, New Hampshire had a reputation in her family as “no shrinking violet.” Born in 1887, with bloodlines that stretched back to the town’s earliest years, on her 18th birthday she married Frank Bristol, a divorced man 12 years her senior. It was an act that most parents of the time […]
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When tea rooms were a thing
By the early 1920s, America’s tea room craze was on. A triad of cultural forces—women’s rights, automobiles, and Prohibition—had combined to make tea rooms as ubiquitous then as Starbucks is today. The first establishments were cozy little restaurants opened by women for women. They were socially acceptable for a woman to own, and at a […]
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The Silhouette Lady of Hampton Beach
After falling out of fashion in the 1970s, the black-paper silhouette portrait seems to be making a comeback, if its 6,200 search results on the handcraft site Etsy.com are any indication. With roots in ancient Greek pottery painting, silhouettes first appeared in the early 18th century as “shades,” an art form in which likenesses were […]
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Uri Lamprey, “Old Seaweed” of Hampton
His political cronies called him “Old Seaweed.” The town historian lauded him as a man of “great business ability and forethought.” But to Uri Lamprey’s political enemies he was a dictator, thug leader, Copperhead, seller of Peruvian guano, a hard line Democrat who callously looked the other way at the issue of slavery. It was […]
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Lady Tavern keepers of Hampton
Lady Tavern Keepers of Hampton, New Hampshire Second only in importance to the meetinghouse, taverns in colonial New England were charged with meeting the public’s expectations of hospitality. To accommodate travelers, every town was required by law to provide a tavern, also known as a “public house of entertainment,” and those that failed to do […]
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The Hampton Saltworks
(Above: Mid-19th century view of a Cape Cod saltworks wind-driven pump, which supplied sea water to the evaporation vats. The Hampton windpump owned by David Nudd would have been similar. Library of Congress.) In 1840 the Eastern Railroad was built through Hampton, New Hampshire, bringing a new era of commerce to the area. As it […]
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Pardoning Goody Cole
Hampton, New Hampshire, 1938. Three hundred years since its founding and 257 since the death of the accused witch Goodwife Eunice Cole, the town had grown to nearly 2,000 inhabitants. Almost everyone in this small, close-knit community was a descendant of at least one early settler, and some were descended from five or more founding […]
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More Than a Poet’s Fancy
The poet John Greenleaf Whittier of Haverhill and Amesbury, Massachusetts, spent many a summer on the New Hampshire seacoast. Well-acquainted with its natural beauty, history, and local legends, he penned a number of ballads set in the Hampton area. His visits to the shore gave us “Hampton Beach” (1843) and “The Tent on the Beach” […]
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The Cold Water Army
Wine connoisseur Benjamin Franklin once said, “If God had intended man to drink water, He would not have made him with an elbow capable of raising a wine glass.” But for typical Americans of his era, drinking alcohol was more than a mere exercise of the joint between the humerus and ulna: it was becoming […]
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The unusual life of Chester Grady
Born in 1894, Chester Grady’s life spanned the first three-quarters of the 20th century. His prime years were pillared by world wars, shotgunned by economic depression, and energized by a dynamic new culture of music, films, and radio. He was a gifted tenor, a stage and club performer who lived and worked in New York […]
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Horseless in Hampton
An anecdote passed down in the early 20th century by Reverend Edgar Warren of Hampton, New Hampshire, says that the first horseless carriage to appear on the streets of town was brought in 1878 by Loring Dunbar Shaw, a fireman with the Boston Fire Department and the son of local residents Dearborn and Clarissa Shaw. […]
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The Hampton Beach Secessionists
Hampton Beach in the 1890s was still enjoying its classic Hotel Era, with hats and gloves and German cotillions and everybody in bed and asleep by 10 p.m. Separated from the main village by three miles of farms, woodlands, and bumpy roads, the beach was usually left to its own devices, unless threatened by squatters, […]
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A very good business, while it lasted
“Now for a while we shall buy & sell to get gain instead of trying to teach the young.” Brave words for a young woman with no previous business experience in any era, but they were written in 1859, a time when the doorway to employment opportunities for women was as narrow as it had […]
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First women officeholders in Hampton NH
In 1872 the adult male citizens of New Hampshire received from their government the right to vote for women candidates in local school board elections. It wasn’t an earth-shattering development, and the measure passed by with little attention paid to it. A few eyebrows were raised the following year when several citizens’ petitions for the […]
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Seacoast Citizens Soldiers at Saratoga
On the afternoon of September 6, 1777, Colonel Jonathan Moulton of Hampton received orders to ready his regiment of citizen soldiers to march to Bennington, Vermont, where they would place themselves under the command of the intrepid General John Stark. Since Moulton’s promotion to commander of the New Hampshire Third Regiment of Militia two years […]
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NH History Matters: February’s Birthstone
“Wear amethyst and from passion and care you will be kept free.” February’s birthstone is the clear-headed sobriety stone, AMETHYST. Ancient Greeks associated its purple color with Bacchus, the god of wine, and they wore amulets of amethyst to prevent drunkenness. So beware, if you’re planning a night of drunken debauchery, leave the amethyst jewelry […]
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How Hampton Voted in the Revolution
First page of the Hampton Association Test with signatures, dated June 4, 1776. Courtesy of the New Hampshire State Archives. In 1738, while Hampton was exercising its taxing authority upon residents no longer wishing to pay the minister’s portion of the town tax, America’s future egregious taxman, George William Frederick, was born in London. As […]
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NH History Matters: January’s Birthstone
January’s birthstone is Garnet. Although not as sought after as the ruby gemstone, garnets are treasured for their protective powers. Even Noah carried a large carbuncle garnet aboard his Ark. Tradition says that when worn as an amulet, the garnet gemstone protects its wearer against poisons, fevers, wounds, bad dreams, and depression. Garnet in New […]
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Puritans to Parades – Christmas in Hampton
Of the 221 towns and 13 cities in New Hampshire, only the settlers of the original four—Hampton, Exeter, Portsmouth, and Dover—can claim to have once banned Christmas. For those 17th century Puritans, the holiday was a pagan ritual rife with excesses of merrymaking, drinking, dancing, and binge eating. Like the Pilgrims of Plimoth Plantation, they […]
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Ephraim Marston, a New Hampshire Colonist
The supernatural horror film The Witch, written and directed by a southern New Hampshire native, follows a family of outcasts as they encounter forces of evil on their New England farm. Its strength lies in its realistic portrayal of Puritan culture poised on the knife’s-edge of wilderness, where fear of Indian attacks, long periods of […]
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To Thanksgiving
As I reflect upon my blessings this Thanksgiving, please know that you – my readers – are at the top of my list, along with family and amazing friends, both old and new, near and far away. I enjoy hearing from you, to know your thoughts on my writing and the stories I’ve told. In […]
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The King’s Evil in Hampton NH
In 1657, Mary Green of Hampton, New Hampshire developed a deep, running sore on her lower leg that at times robbed her of the ability to walk. The infection had to be treated, but, as her father Henry would soon learn, there was no one in town with the skill to diagnose, let alone cure, […]
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Constables of Hampton
Up until the second decade of the twentieth century, constables were a regular feature of civic life in Hampton. They were ordinary men from the community, chosen each year at the town meeting to keep the peace and collect the taxes. Originally an important official, the constable eventually became obsolete as his duties were taken […]
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Ode to Joe Billy Brown
When wealthy Boston carpet dealer Joseph Ballard bought the Lafayette Road estate of his Leavitt in-laws in 1831, he had no idea that a future namesake would one day become one of the most popular and controversial selectmen ever voted to office in Hampton, New Hampshire. Ballard and his wife Clarissa, the daughter of tavern […]
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Hampton History Matters I
The famous sandy beaches and first-class boardwalk of Hampton, New Hampshire often overshadow its long and robust history. In this eclectic collection of stories, historian and columnist Cheryl Lassiter invites readers behind the scenes for a fascinating look at some of its lesser known residents and surprising events. “The town [of Hampton] is a fascinating […]
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The Queens of Hampton Beach 2017
Congratulations! to the 2017 Miss Hampton Beach, Emily Durant of Hampton, who received a $200 photo package courtesy of the Hampton Historical Society. Congratulations also to the Junior Miss winner, Lauren Brophy of North Hampton, and the Little Miss winner, Siena Szarek of Pelham, Massachusetts. Karen Raynes and I wish them the best of luck […]
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The Mysterious Sadie Belle Lane
This wonderful photo of Sadie Belle Lane and that of her house (below) were found in the collections of the Hampton Historical Society. No one knows how or when they were acquired, but a note on the digital version states they were once in the possession of a woman who was doing research on […]
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Hampton Beach Hotels
The Great Boar’s Head bluff, rising prominently above the shoreline at the northern end of Hampton Beach, was once part of the Great Ox Common, an area of land that in 1641 the founders of Hampton reserved “to the world’s end” as common pasturage for their oxen. But times and traditions changed, the Common passed […]
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Early Fire Companies of Hampton
The founding of Hampton, New Hampshire’s fire department rightfully belongs to the early twentieth century, with the formation of a beach fire precinct in 1907, a village fire precinct in 1909, and, in 1912, a volunteer company comprised of a chief, captain, lieutenants, clerk, and twenty “members.” These century-old associations, however, were not the town’s […]
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Tramps in Hampton NH
“The successful hobo must be an artist,” wrote Jack London in The Road, a collection of stories about his life as a teenage tramp in the 1890s. London’s “artist” was a man who could spin a convincing tale of misfortune and woe in exchange for a handout at the doors of America’s kitchens. The writer […]
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Early Women’s Rights Advocate Nancy Towle of Hampton NH
“She is an instrument of much evil in the world,” wrote Nancy Towle, an itinerant evangelical preacher from Hampton, New Hampshire. Towle was referring to women in general, and laid the blame for their condition squarely at the doorstep of an educational system that taught women to see themselves as “subordinate beings.” Towle was born […]
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The Party Boss of Hampton
Back in an era when Republicans ruled the political roost in New Hampshire, John Garrison Cutler of Hampton Beach was one of the party’s leading bosses. Born in Exeter in 1833 to free blacks Rufus E. and Anna Cilley Cutler, he began his working life at his father’s Water Street store, later opening a billiards […]
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A Fundamental Flaw (Part III)
In this final installment, Roby’s checkered career as a justice. Justice of the Court of Sessions New Hampshire received its name with the grant to Captain John Mason on November 7, 1629. Mason poured his own money into improving his grant, but when he died unexpectedly in 1635, his widow informed his tenants that they […]
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A Fundamental Flaw (Part II)
Roby’s brushes with witchcraft, role as a father in trying circumstances, and a risky confrontation with the church. Brushes with witchcraft Soon after settling in Hampton, Roby and his family encountered the purported maleficium of their neighbor Unise Cole, with whom they were already acquainted from their days in Exeter. From early on, Cole may […]
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A Fundamental Flaw (Part I)
Henry Roby of Hampton, New Hampshire stands out as one of the most intriguing minor figures in 17th-century New England. The fragmentary record of his life portrays an industrious colony-builder who demanded respect, but through some fundamental flaw in his character had failed to actually earn it. He abused the power of his position, disregarded […]
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A fascinating, year-by-year, winner-by-winner portrait, not only of these iconic summertime contests, but of Hampton Beach itself. The book’s stories and historic photos are guaranteed to bring back happy memories to long-time beachgoers, former contestants, their families, and fans, as well as bring delight to those whose own history with the beach is just beginning. […]
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Winnacunnet Remembered
Winicowett, Winnicummet, Winnacunnet. However you spell it, this Abenaki place name has a skeleton in its wigwam. Although variously translated as “beautiful place of pines,” “pleasant place of pines,” and “beautiful long place,” no one really knows what the word signifies, or—judging by the variant spellings—how it was pronounced by the Native Americans who passed […]
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Prince of Winnacunnet Road
Anna May Cole was a favorite Hampton Academy teacher. Born in Maine in 1865 and brought to Hampton, New Hampshire as an infant, she lived for much of her life on the Winnacunnet Road homestead of her Page ancestors who had settled in Hampton in 1639. Teaching ran in the family line—her mother Susan Page […]
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The Enticing of Ann Smith
A TALE OF VVITCHCRAFT IN OLD HAMPTON The consequences of bad mothering are subjects of ancient and enduring interest. The all-consuming and overbearing mother—who is at heart a terrifying hag—is a staple leitmotif of folktales like Beowulf, Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. One of the finest modern examples is the 2009 animated film […]
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The Checkered Past of Hampton’s Trolley Tycoon
Wallace D. Lovell of Newton, Massachusetts holds a special place in the history of the development of Hampton Beach. Lauded as an ambitious man with “imagination and vision,” he was the driving force behind the construction of the street railway in 1897, the Casino in 1899, and the wooden ‘mile-long’ Hampton River bridge, which opened […]
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The Traveling Bowling Alley
Writing in the Hampton Union newspaper in the 1930s, historian Caroline Lamprey Shea informed her readers that the Puritans of Hampton, New Hampshire had kept a bowling green in a field near the lower end of the road to the sea (Winnacunnet Road). Now, Puritans aren’t remembered for their tolerance of games and other time-wasting […]
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The Dudley Dynasty of Beach Queens
Beauty contests, it seems, have always been with us. The ancient Greeks gave us the story of Hera and her stepdaughters Athena and Aphrodite, three goddesses who wanted to know which of them was the fairest of all. Hera’s husband Zeus wisely refused to get involved, and instead appointed a shepherd prince to settle the […]
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100 years of Carnival Queens & Miss Hampton Beach
Like fried dough, henna tattoos, and trips to the arcade, Beach Queens have long been an important part of the summer rituals at Hampton Beach. What started out as a way to sell raffle tickets with the Queen of the Carnival contest, open to all women, had by the 1940s evolved into the Miss Hampton Beach beauty pageant, for which only young, single women were eligible.
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100 Years at the Beach
After 10 months of squeezing 100 years of history into a one hour documentary film, Karen Raynes and I are excited to finally be bringing this program to the public!
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The Franklin Hotel Round Pool Table
In the 18th century the game of billiards, or pool, was popular with the colonial gentlemen of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and billiards tables were commonplace in their taverns. In New England, however, the general attitude about the game was summed up in a letter to the Boston Evening Post in 1757. Every sort of […]
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Hampton’s Country Doctor
A merchant tailor at the turn of the 20th century said he could tell a man’s profession by the clothes he wore. A doctor’s clothes, he stated, were “generally clean and well preserved” but reeked of iodoform (an antiseptic) and more often than not a small vial of morphine tablets could be found tucked into […]
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The 1923 Carnival Cottage
…where’d it go? During the thirty-nine years from 1915 to 1953, Carnival Week at the beach was a Labor Day holiday tradition. Created by the Hampton Beach Board of Trade to extend the summer season, it was a week-long exhibition of vaudeville, games, parades, fireworks displays, and, until 1940, the Queen of the Carnival contest […]
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Splendid Articles of Baseball
Twenty-first century baseball historians are an unromantic lot. By exposing as myths Abner Doubleday’s invention of baseball and Alexander Cartwright’s “father” status, they’ve altered our view of the game and stripped away some of its mystery. Lucky the fans of 100 years ago, their joy undisturbed by the modern day historian’s dull realities. By the […]
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Authors at the Inn
Mark your calendars and save the date! On Friday, May 13, 2016 from 6-9 pm the Victoria Inn plays host to another popular Authors at the Inn book sale and signing. Sponsored by The Hampton Historical Society, the event brings together the best Seacoast-area authors in the history, mystery, legends, and lore genres (I’ll update you […]
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The Year of the Monkey, 1692 Style
IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT OUR PRESIDENTAL elections always fall in the Year of the Monkey, a Chinese astrological cycle rife with the potential for all manner of monkey business—trickery, discord, even chaos to the point of pandemonium. The year 1692 had been a Monkey year, too, one that in New England fully lived up to […]
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Puritan superstition confronts an indomitable will in this richly researched, ground breaking biography of Goodwife Unise Cole, the woman known as the Witch of Hampton. Unise Cole’s story has great appeal for anyone interested in the history and mystery of the New England witchcraft persecutions and their aftermath. Beginning with her death in 1680, Cole […]
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The Lady Quill Drivers
In the week preceding the June 14, 1899 inaugural issue of the Hamptons Union newspaper, John Templeton’s Exeter News-Letter gave notice that Charles Francis Adams of Massachusetts, “an experienced newspaperman, though young in years,” would soon be publishing a newspaper from his offices above D.O. Leavitt’s grocery store in Hampton. Templeton could afford to welcome […]
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Discussion Questions for Book Clubs
Some readers asked me to post a list of discussion questions for Marked: The Witchcraft Persecution of Goodwife Unise Cole (formerly titled The Mark of Goody Cole). Here they are, in no particular order: Do you think the people of Hampton were justified in their treatment of Unise Cole? Did any part of Unise Cole’s […]
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Captain Samuel Sherburne
-Tavernkeeper, Early Patriot, and Indian Fighter- During its first 145 years as a town, Hampton had accommodated twenty-six licensed tavernkeepers within its bounds. Among that number was Captain Samuel Sherburne, a man just two months older than Hampton itself. Born in 1638 at Little Harbor (now Rye), Samuel was the grandson and heir of Ambrose […]
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A WWI ‘Gentleman Volunteer’
A volunteer ambulance driver in World War I was not selected for his ability to bind a wound or repair his temperamental transport vehicle. As one recruiter put it, “a volunteer must be a man of good disposition possessed of self-control – in short, a gentleman.” Fitting the bill was handsome, outgoing, nineteen-year-old Clark College […]
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The Witch of Hampton
It’s my guess that most people in town would not be surprised to learn that the most frequently asked questions by visitors to the Tuck Museum, especially around this ghostly time of year, are those about Goody Cole, the Witch of Hampton. For the benefit of those who might not have heard of Hampton’s […]
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Jack is Back!
Pumpkin Jack is back in town! A gravedigger by profession (squirrels burials are his specialty), he loves any kind of digging, and especially road deconstruction – the more bumpy and bothersome the better – and he couldn’t wait to see our guys digging up Route One and High Street here in the beautiful ‘burg of […]
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Hampton’s Argonauts
In the mid-nineteenth century some anonymous wit applied the term “Argonaut”—from the Greek epic of Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece—to the tens of thousands of men and women, including thirteen from Hampton, whose own passionate seafaring quests for things of gold begot the California Gold Rush of 1849. Our Hampton Argonauts were descendants of […]
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A House of History, Mystery, Legend, and Lore
Hampton is a very strange, very haunted town, a place where fact and fiction tangle together like lobster traps in a hurricane. And judging from the content of the locally-produced literary efforts on file at the Historical Society, the people like it that way. This fact v. fiction conundrum is no more evident than in […]
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Hampton’s Founding Documents
For such a little state, New Hampshire has an amazingly large and complicated history, especially during the early days when it seemed that everybody and their minister wanted a piece of her soil. So it’s not surprising that the myth of the state’s ‘four original townships chartered by the General Court of Massachusetts’ continues to […]
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The Millionaire, the Minister, and the Museum
It was the 1920s, the war to end all wars had been fought and won, prosperity was rising, morals were relaxing, and a rush of innovations was creating a new mass consumer culture in America. Amid all the ‘roaring’ going on in the country, significant changes were taking place in Hampton, too. The population was […]
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The Boy Aviator at Hampton Beach
In his brilliant new book The Wright Brothers, historian David McCullough reminds us that in 1903, when the two bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio proved to the world that powered flight was possible, America was not entirely onboard with the idea that machines could fly. Wilbur Wright made his first public flights in front of […]
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The Case of the Stolen Turnips
In the late fall of 1670, Hampton planter John Fuller discovered that someone had pilfered about twenty bushels of his unharvested turnip crop. John Hancock, Fuller’s partner in the patch, swore that if he could prove who did it, the “taker of them” would be prosecuted. The taker, as it turned out, was a prominent […]
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Hampton’s First Postmaster
Originally posted on HISTORY HAPPENS:
By Cheryl Lassiter (Reposted from the Hampton Union, original print publication, April 7, 2015.) The Post Office. You either love it, hate it, or find no practical modern use for it. Yet there was a time, let’s say two centuries or so ago, when it was The Post Office Department… -
(Another) Goody Cole Story Surfaces at the Museum
Originally posted on HISTORY HAPPENS:
In the archives of the Hampton Historical Society reside the yearbooks and associated records of the now-defunct Hampton Monday Club (1907-2007). Produced by a group of civic-minded women who took their record keeping seriously, it is an impressive historical collection that spans nearly the entire 20th century. There are lists… -
The Tuck Museum Turns 90 in 2015
Originally posted on HISTORY HAPPENS:
Tuck House, 1925. Happy first day of 2015! This year marks the 90th anniversary of the Hampton Historical Society and Tuck Museum, founded in 1925 by Reverend Ira S. Jones and others. To celebrate this milestone the Society has planned several events throughout the year. Also, this summer museum visitors… -
Panning for Gold in Hampton’s History
Originally posted on HISTORY HAPPENS:
“There’s gold in them thar hills,” as the saying goes. So, too, with historical research, in which the paydirt is information. Like panning for gold, research requires the patience to scour objects for hours on end “looking for color” – a gold mining term for determining the presence of oro.… -
Sweet & Spooky at Marelli’s Market
Just wanted to share some photos of the Sweet & Spooky book signing event, taken by Karen Raynes. The turnout was light, but we had a lot of fun! Karen Raynes and Marcia Buber of Marelli’s Market served cider, cookies, and Halloween treats. We listened to the recording of The Ballad of Goody Cole written […]
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VICTORIAN TAVERNWALK TOMORROW OCT 11, 2014 2-5 PM
Just a reminder that tomorrow, Saturday, October 11, the Hampton Historical Society will present its second-ever tavernwalk in downtown Hampton! The first walk in October 2012 was an astounding success, and we are hoping to have a repeat of that accomplishment in 2014. Please come out for an afternoon of Hampton history and samples of […]
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Small Towns Are the Best!
I love living in a place where a body can call you up on the phone and say “I’d like to buy your book for my granddaughter’s birthday…how can I get it from you?” and a couple of hours later, there you are, hand-delivering the book to her home! Jeannette is a life-long resident of […]
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Map of Historical Tavern Locations in Hampton
Right-click the map to save a copy to your computer, or use the Save and Print tools under your browser’s File menu. The book in which this map appears, “A Meet and Suitable Person: Tavernkeeping in Old Hampton, NH, 1638-1783,” is available at Amazon.
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History Saved by the Bees
Stephen Bachiler’s honey bees were in a tizz. Their hive had been invaded by bees from a foreign stall, one that Bachiler had promised to deliver to John Winthrop, Jr. in Ipswich. It was a gift from Winthrop’s father in law, presumably Reverend Hugh Peters of Salem, the stepfather of Winthrop’s second wife Elizabeth Reade. […]
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FAQs and NBTOQs about Goody Cole
Some readers have asked for a list of frequently asked questions about Goody Cole, so here it is. I added a few NBTOQs (never before thought of questions) to the list as well. If you have any other questions about Goodwife Cole, you can post them here and I will try to answer them for […]
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Pumpkin Jack Arrives in Hampton!
Mothers, lock your doors and hide the kids! With a modus operandy of stealin’ Halloween candy, Jack arrived in our fair town aboard the 11:59 Phantom Express from Boostown. Word is he intends to stay until he’s eaten all the candy in town! Can Hampton survive his voracious sweet tooth? Will our candy ever be […]
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The Gilded Troches
None of the intrepid men and women who originally settled Hampton were born in America, so to get here, at one time or another they had to cross the Atlantic in a small, leaky, rat-infested wooden ship. If they were anything like modern humans, they would have seriously demanded their money back, and nearly all […]
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Visit to ‘Tapping Portsmouth’ Exhibit at Strawberry Banke
As an exhibit designer, I am more interested in the production and staging of an exhibit than its content. This is truly a lovely exhibit with a nice variety of material objects to ogle. The mock-up of a brewing stand (sans burner) is a clever touch. Click any image to open the gallery. This was […]
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Bones on the Stones
My friend Karen Raynes introduced me to this unique 1745 ‘Grim Reaper’ headstone, which resides in the Southside Cemetery in York, Maine. This is the most unique headstone image I have ever come across. Research by the Graven Images investigators has thus far yielded only negative information. We don’t know the name of the stone […]
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Tales and Ales at Swett-Ilsley Tavern in Newbury, MA
May 9, 2013 I trekked south over the Merrimac River to Newbury with my friends Betty Moore, Director of the Tuck Museum in Hampton, and Elly Becotte, author of Answering the Call: Hampton, New Hampshire in the Civil War, for an evening of 17th century entertainment at the c. 1670 Swett-Ilsley Tavern. The tavern, which […]
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Old Hampton Tavernwalk
SIN TODAY, REPENT TOMORROW! The tickets are now out in the world for the very first Old Hampton Tavernwalk. You can pick one (or two or three…) at any of the 3 participating taverns – Old Salt, 401 Tavern, and Galley Hatch. They are also available at the Tuck Museum, 40 Park Ave, during regular […]
Cheryl Lassiter 