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Nantucket Historical Association Officers and Staff
NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OFFICERS
President, Leroy H. True Vice-Presidents, Albert G. Brock, George W. Jones, Alcon Chadwick,
Albert F. Egan, Jr., Walter Beinecke, Jr., Mrs. Merle T. Orleans Honorary Vice-President, Henry B. Coleman Secretary, Richard C. Austin Treasurer, John N. Welch Councillors, Leroy H. True, Chairman
Robert D. Congdon, Harold W. Lindley, terms expire 1979; Miss Barbara
Melendy, term expires 1980; Donald Terry, Mrs. H. Crowell Freeman, terms expire 1981; Miss Dorothy Gardner, David D. Worth, terms expire 1982. Historian, Edouard A. Stackpole Editor: "Historic Nantucket", Edouard A. Stackpole; Assistant Editor,
Mrs. Merle Turner Orleans.
STAFF
Oldest House: Curator, Mrs. Kenneth S. Baird
Receptionists: Mrs. Margaret Crowell, Miss Adeline Cravott Hadwen House-Satler Memorial: Curator, Mrs. Phoebe P. Swain
Receptionists: Mrs. Irving A. Soverino, Mrs. Richard Strong. 1800 House: Curator, Mrs. Clare Macgregor
Receptionist: Miss Barbara Nathan Old Gaol: Curator, Albert G. Brock Whaling Museum: Curator, Renny Stackpole
Receptionists: Frank Pattison, James A. Watts, Patricia Searle,
Rose Stanshigh, Alice Collins, Clarence H. Swift, Mary Lou Campbell Peter Foulger Museum: Curator and Director, Edouard A. Stackpole
Receptionists: Mrs. Clara Block, Everett Finlay, Mary J. Barrett,
Richard Strong Librarian: Mrs. Louise Hussey Nathaniel Macy House: Curator, Mrs. John A. Baldwin
Receptionists: Miss Dorothy Hiller, Mrs. Alfred Hall Archaeology Department, Curator, Mrs. Roger Young Old Town Office: Curator, Hugh R. Chace Old Mill: Curator, John Gilbert
Millers: John Stackpole, Edward G. Dougan Folger-Franklin Seat & Memorial Boulder: Curator, Francis Sylvia Friends Meeting House-Fair Street Museum: Curator, Albert F. Egan, Jr. Lightship "Nantucket": Curator, Benjamin S. Richmond
Shipkeeper: Richard Swain Greater Light - Receptionists: Dr. Selina T. Johnson, Florence Farrell Building Survey Committee: Chairman, Robert G. Metters Hose Cart House: Curator, Francis W. Pease
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
Published quarterly and devoted to the preservation of Nantucket's antiquity, its famed heritage and its illustrious past as a whaling port.
Volume 26 January, 1979 No. 3
CONTENTS
Editorial—The Preservation of Historic Landscapes
The Macy Fish Lot Share—Nantucket in Microcosm by Jean R. Merriman Replicas of Memorial Brass
Hospital Thrift Shop Demi-Centennial by Robert Carrick The Diaries of Obed Macy, Nantucket Merchant and Historian by Edouard A. Stackpole Walter Folger Known as "The Greatest Astronomer in America" in 1821
Gift Items
Nantucket Quintuplets by Theodore C. Wyman
Legacies and Bequests/Address Changes 2
5
7
11
13
19
25
29
30
31
Historic Nantucket is published quarterly at Nantucket, Massachusetts, by the Nantucket Historical Association. It is sent to Association Members. Extra copies $.50 each. Membership dues are—Annual-Active $7.50; Sustaining $25.00; Life—one payment $100.00 Second-class postage paid at Nantucket, Massachusetts Communications pertaining to the Publication should be addressed to the Editor, Historic Nantucket, Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts 02554.
T h e P re se rv a tio n o f H i st ori c L a n d sc a pe s
THE PROBLEM OF preserving the historic character of Nantucket Island has become a common concern. While the Historic Districts Act has given us a definite control of the old Town, the growth of population has brought about a definite threat to the outlying land, and certain Island landscapes are in danger of being forever destroyed. It is sad to contemplate that what has been the birthright of Nantucketers is becoming the tarnished prize of a commercial world.
There are portions of this Island which deserve to be preserved for their historic value, apart from any ecological or esthetic claim. Quite aside from the scenic beauty and as the habitat for wildlife, these areas represent an historic setting which, once destroyed, may never be ours again.
The work of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation has been a decided factor in such preservation, but the task of acquiring all this land is too great for the stalwart workers in that remarkable organization. The opportunities inherent in the so-called Kennedy Bill have become bogged down in political debate. It would appear that the next step is an appeal to governmental action, but from a different direction.
In order to effect such action it is obviously necessary to establish definitions of what constitutes an historic landscape, then to identify and record these sites that fall within those definitions. We may readily establish an old farm, as an example of our agricultural traditions; a wide range of heathland, where the sheep once roamed — the first means of livelihood for the very first settlers of this Island; the "pond country" where the first homesteads were created and the earliest homes built; the stretches of white beaches, which became so important in the first attractions to those visitors who established Nantucket as a premier vacation spot; the glacial hill country that brings a distinct Island character to the landscape; all these demand preservation before it is too late!
Nothing may establish the pattern of "living history" more than the preservation of these segments of our historic landscapes — to demonstrate the evolution of Island life from the days of the original inhabitants to modern times. Could not the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington bring its influence and power into the present scene? Nantucket is a unique American community in which the historic background still exists. Can it be protected? Will it be?
—Edouard A. Stackpole
Photo by Clay Lancaster The Macy House on Tattle Court.
T h e Ma c y F i s h L o t S h a re
N a nt uck et i n M ic ro co sm
by Jean R. Merriman If one wishes to thoroughly understand the history of old Nantucket houses and their ownership, he must go back to the early days when the land was divided among the original proprietors or their heirs. A study of land which begins with its acquisition by its first owner, traces its development through division, construction of dwelling houses and their subsequent transfer from occupant to occupant will provide an insight into many facets of island life, not only as it was lived then but also as it continues today.
This study concerns the nineteenth Fish Lot Share which was "set off' to heirs of Thomas Macy, an original proprietor who was born in Chilmark, England in 1612 and died on Nantucket in 1682. "Laid out" in 1717, the Fish Lot Division 1 consisted of twenty-seven shares. It extended from Fair Street east and west and averaged one hundred and sixteen feet in width, north and south. According to Henry Barnard Worth 2 , the Fish Lot Division was the most important one laid out on the island and soon became densely populated as the settlement gravitated from the original site at Cappamet Harbor to the area adjacent to the Great Harbor.
The nineteenth Fish Lot Share is bounded by Fair Street on the east and by Pine Street on the west. On the north it is bounded by Darling Street, the name somehow acquired because of John Darling who owned Number Ten Darling Street from 1785 to 1796, although the street had been cut through by 1760. (A part of the twentieth share may also be included on the street's south side.) On the south is Farmer Street, cut through in 1791, but on its northwestern end, there is also a portion of the eighteenth Fish Lot where the dwellings at Number Seven and Number Five stand. Macy's Lane was opened to Fair Street in 1758.
Imagine, if you will, a rectangular field of tall grass, perhaps some scrubby pines and other vegetation common to the moors, barren of dwellings nearby and tied only to the clustered settlement at Wesco Acres and the Great Harbor by a narrow rutted road called Fair Street. Place on it now the Great Macy Lean-to dwelling house which some time after 1717 was laboriously carted or rolled all the way from "Wadacoumit" and reinstated in its functional and serene simplicity at the eastern end of the Fish Lot, its steeply pitched roof high on the south side to admit the warmth of the sun and twice as long on the north for shelter against the bitter winds of winter. This dwelling was the home of Thomas Macy (1687-1759), third son of John and grandson of the first Thomas.
8 HISTORIC NANTUCKET
The male Macy line was carried on by only one son, John, who was born at Salisbury, Massachusetts in 1635 and died on the island in 1691. Fortunately, however, he sired four sons and it was they who fell heir to the nineteenth Fish Lot Share when it was laid out on Wesco Hill. Although Thomas was the first to utilize its availability, others soon followed.
On February 16, 1748, Richard Macy (1689-1779), brother of Thomas, gave to his daughter Judith and her husband, Jonathan Bunker, (married in 1742) a piece of land on Wesco Hill of which part was in the nineteenth share and part was in the twentieth share. Now known as Number Ten Darling Street, it too was soon constructed as a lean-to dwelling and faced south.
In 1755, Thomas Macy was growing old and in March of that year, devised his will which in addition to other bequests, stipulated that his wife, Deborah (Coffin) Macy, was to have a life right to his dwelling house except for the west lower room which was to go to his daughter, Deborah, and her heirs and assigns forever. Deborah, who became the second wife of Benjamin Coffin, the Schoolmaster, in 1762 at age 36 was also to have one-quarter acre of land "where my dwelling house stands".
It is of interest that Isaac Coffin (1764-1842), Principal Assessor and Judge of Probate, was her son and that Lucretia (Coffin) Mott (17931880), abolitionist of Philadelphia, was her granddaughter by her son, Thomas.
Two years, later, on June 14, 1757, Thomas and his brethren, namely Richard, Jabez and the heirs of John (1675-1751), agreed to divide several tracts of land which they owned in common, including the nineteenth Fish Lot Share. It was concluded that Richard would have the western end, Jabez would take the piece next joining to Richard's tract, then next the heirs of John and, finally, Thomas would have the piece bounded on the east by the highway (Fair Street).
Then on March 16, 1759, four days before he died, Thomas gave to his daughter Anna and her husband, Richard Worth, a piece of land lying in the nineteenth and twentieth Fish Lot Shares containing thirty rods, bounded on the east by the highway and on the west by the land belonging to the heirs of his brother John. There, on the corner of Fair and Darling Streets, they built their dwelling house.
The next house to be built was Number Eight Darling Street when in 1765, Jabez Macy (1683-1776) gave to his son, Daniel Macy, a piece of land which was one-half of his share and was the piece "where the said Daniel's house now stands".
THE MACY FISH LOT SHARE 9
About this time, access to the well or pump began to receive much attention: Jabez reserved a passway, seven feet wide, for his son, Jethro, to pass or go across. A passway, later to be called Pump Lane, which could be entered from Pine Street was connected to it and perhaps both joined up to Macy's Lane. Scattered throughout the old deeds is the mention of the right to use the well or pump.
The fifth house to be erected was located on the present site of Number Twelve and Fourteen Darling Street: In November, 1767, Jonathan Bunker gave his daughter Deborah and her husband, Silas Bunker, a piece of land which had been given to him by his father-in-law, Richard Macy, and was the northwest part of the land on which "my dwelling house stands".
Seven Farmer Street was built about this time for Thomas Bunker sold Christopher Swain the land on which his dwelling house "now stands" in 1768. This property was actually located in the eighteenth Fish Lot of which three-quarters was set off to the Bunker family.
At the close of the eighteenth century, probably no more than these six houses stood on the Fish Lot. However, there is a question of whether Jethro Macy had built a small house at the rear of Daniel's dwelling; and a question of when a small dwelling was erected along Macy's Lane to the east of the Thomas Macy Lean-to. Among others, Obed Macy II lived there for a time. Nor is it clear when Forty-one Fair Street was built, though most likely, it was around the turn of the century.
In addition, some authors have written that Forty-three Fair Street was built by Jethro Pinkham in the last part of the eighteenth century. However, Isaac Coffin3 in his 1799 LIST OF STREETS, stated: "Farmers Street - from the northeast corner of Jethro Pinkham's dwelling house on Fair Street extending to the westward by Christopher Swain's dwelling house to Pine Street". Thus it would appear that Pinkham's house was located on the south side of Farmer Street.
In any event, the activity in the nineteenth century presents a vastly different picture: The ownership of the Macy Fish Lot by Macys had largely been terminated by death, intermarriage with other families or removal from the island so that the familial, almost clan-like atmosphere had vanished. The early houses fell on hard times through disrespect, disrepair and even removal or demolition. Builders now found a market for their specialty as they shifted houses about, altered others to "improve" them and crowded new ones into unused pockets of land.
10 HISTORIC NANTUCKET
Eleven houses were added during this century, most notably Number Six Darling Street which was built about 1819 by William W. Macy who received the land through descent from John Macy, his greatgrandfather.
Three houses disappeared in this period: Silas and Deborah Bunker sold their property to John Elkins, husband of Sarah Mayo, when they removed from the island in 1778. In time, it passed to the heirs of Obed and Seth Mayo, was purchased by Louisa C. Macy who then sold it to John K. Sears, a builder, in 1842. What did he do with the old house? After building Twelve Darling Street in 1842, he and Albert Tobey built Fourteen Darling in 1843.
Richard and Anna Worth sold their property at the corner of Fair and Darling Streets in 1779 to Abishai Barnard, 2nd just before removing from the island and after passing through a number of hands, it was purchased by Benjamin Robinson, a builder, in 1831. He built Thirtyseven Fair Street as a residence for himself but when was that old house removed? The 1858 map prepared by William Coffin shows a building which would correspond to a now non-existing Number Two Darling Street. Was that the Worth house? The corner is vacant now.
Robinson also purchased the Thomas Macy house which was used as a carpenter's shop at one point and the small dwelling on Macy's Lane which he bought from Lydia Barnard. It too is gone now although it was shown on the 1858 map.
It is hoped that this sketch of the nineteenth Fish Lot Share's history shows the merit of studying the Fish Lot Division as units and that in time, the story of the other Fish Lots will become available.
NOTES
The documentation for factual information which has not been footnoted may be found at The Peter Foulger Museum in the file of house histories prepared by the writer.
1. Nantucket County Registry of Deeds, Proprietors' Book of Plans, Number One, pp. 2 and 56.
2. Henry Barnard Worth, NANTUCKET LANDS AND LANDOWNERS, page 204.
3. Nantucket County Registry of Deeds, Book 24, page 136.
