John Hale House (Hale Farm), c. 1694, Beverly, MA: Echoes of the Witch Trials - History Bites: N.E.

Hale Farm has been in the heart of Beverly Center for more than 330 years. Owned and managed by Historic Beverly, the property takes its name from Reverend John Hale, who was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1636 and came to Beverly to preach when it was still known as the Bass Riverside of Salem. The site consists of a 1694 structure built for Reverend Hale, Beverly's first minister, which stands on just under an acre of open land with trees and other plantings. Located about 25 miles northeast of Boston, Hale Farm is a short walk from Beverly's commercial center and the waterfront. The Hales and then their Bancroft descendants owned the property until 1937. At one point, the family owned 100 acres, including what is now Dane Street Beach. The John Hale House, notes Historic Beverly, is an example of a first period home that was added to and remodeled over time as customs and technology changed. The evolving use of the house and land during its 330-year history reflect broader cultural and economic changes. In 1664, Reverend John Hale came to Bass Riverside as minister and lived on this site in an existing parsonage. He was the founding minister of the First Church of Beverly. Reverend Hale's salary, according to Historic Beverly, was 70 pounds plus his firewood and the right to pasture his animals on common land. In the early 17th century, Bass Riverside was that part of Salem north of the Bass River. Life in the area revolved around farming, fishing, and maritime trade. Beginning in 1650, area residents partitioned to have their own church and in 1668, Bass Riverside became Beverly, due in large part, according to Historic Beverly, to Reverend Hale's efforts and good character. Beginning in 1677, Reverend Hale bought land adjacent to the parsonage and in 1694, Beverly deeded the parsonage to Hale, who replaced her with the more spacious and modern dwelling. Reverend Hale built the original core of the house seen here, which featured a simple layout of four rooms, two downstairs and two upstairs. According to Gordon Harris, writing for the online Historic Ipswich, in 1690, Reverend John Hale, then 54 years old, was asked by the governor of Massachusetts, William Phipps, to accompany the campaign against the French in Quebec as chaplain. Reverend Hale willingly agreed, Harris writes, and returned home later that year, but a crisis soon erupted that would test his convictions. It was in January 1692 that the witch hysteria began in Salem. Reverend Hale was Harvard educated, but he was no stranger to cases of witches, notes Gordon Harris. As a child, he had witnessed the execution of Margaret Jones, the first of 15 people to be executed for witchcraft in New England during the years 1648 to 1663. Margaret Jones was a midwife and healer from Charlestown and, according to Governor John Winthrop's journal, was accused by some of her patients, who stated that she told them they would never heal if they refused to take her medicine. When her patients' illnesses and injuries didn't heal, many began to suspect Jones of witchcraft, leading to her accusation in 1648. The evidence used against Jones, according to Rebecca Beatrice Brooks, writing in the Massachusetts History blog, was gathered using Hopkins' witch-hunting manual, The Discovery of Witches, published just a year earlier, which advises watching a witch for a period of 24 hours to see if the witch's imp, a demonic spirit that takes the form of a small animal, communicates with her. Margaret Jones was watched on May 18, 1648, and Governor Winthrop stated an imp appeared, quote, in the clear daylight. According to Gordon Harris, in March 1692, the new minister, Samuel Paris, at Salem Village, present-day Danvers, called upon the senior minister, John Hale, to evaluate a case of several girls who exhibited symptoms that he feared resembled the work of a witch. Reverend Hale had previously participated in witch trials as an expert, notes Harris, and after looking into the matter, Hale concluded, as had Paris, that witchcraft was at work in Salem. In October of that year, however, the Reverend Hale's own wife, Sarah Noyes, was accused of witchcraft. Harris writes that Hale had his wife hidden away, and his opinion changed to opposition, joining the protest of some of his fellow area ministers. Reverend Hale asserted that Satan had tricked the Puritans, notes Harris, and thus excused the judges, witnesses, and himself from complete blame, but made a plea for forgiveness, which he published in Immodest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft. The book was written at Hale Farm. Such was the darkness of that day, writes Reverend Hale, the tortures and lamentations of the afflicted, and the power of the former precedents, that we walked in the clouds and could not see our way. This room, like the parlor across the hall, was part of the 1745 addition by Reverend John Hale's grandson, Colonel Robert Hale Jr. When Reverend John Hale died in 1700, the family homestead passed to his son, Robert, who expanded the homestead to 18 acres. Upon Robert's death in 1719, his son, Colonel Robert Hale Jr., inherited and modernized the family homestead. Historic Beverly notes that, also in 1745, Colonel Hale added the front section of the house with the gambrel roof. He excavated a cellar where evidence of a buttery has been found, added the present staircases, and built an addition of two rooms down and two up, along with the gambrel roof that allowed for rooms on the third floor. Colonel Hale, according to Historic Beverly, was a highly prominent and versatile figure in colonial Massachusetts, serving as physician, politician, military commander, and high sheriff. Hale earned his title of colonel leading colonial forces. He commanded a regiment during the famous 1745 siege of Lewisburg in Nova Scotia during King George's war. Colonel Hale married Elizabeth Gilman in 1723. Tragically, during a deadly epidemic in the 1730s, his wife and two of his young daughters died within days of each other. Only one daughter, Elizabeth, survived to adulthood, and when Colonel Hale died in 1767, he left Hale Farm to Elizabeth and directed that on her death, it was to pass to his grandson, Robert Hale Ives. Historic Beverly notes that, as well as the farm, Colonel Hale's will included four enslaved people, Rose and Caesar, both adults, and two boys, Aesop and Hector. While Historic Beverly does not know if all were related or lived on this property, it is aware that Aesop, later as a free man, worked for a schooner owner and shared financial and communal ties with Juno Larkham, a formerly enslaved woman of mixed African-American and Native American descent, who was associated with the prominent Larkham family of Beverly. Writing for the online edition of Yankee Magazine, David Bell reports that, in 1774, at age 55, Juno filed a freedom petition and charged her enslaver, David Larkham, with trespass and assault after he threatened to sell several of her children to the American South. While her official court case was dismissed following David Larkham's death in 1775, Juno ultimately declared freedom for herself and her children, successfully living out her life independently. From 1782 to 1845, the property was rented to tenant farmers, raising Indian corn and rye. One of the home's occupants during this time was Peter Hill, cousin of President Andrew Jackson. In 1845, Hale farm passed to Robert Hale Ives' grandson, Thomas P. Bancroft. According to Historic Beverly, Bancroft followed the emerging fashion of summering on the coast by converting the family farm into their summer home. Tenant farmers had given way to gardeners. He was a He married Hannah Putnam, daughter of Supreme Court Judge Samuel Putnam, and grandniece of the U.S. Secretary of State Timothy Pickering. The last years of his life were spent at Hale Farm. Fields that once grew corn and rye became lawns and gardens, planted in the manner of a summer estate. Plantings, notes Historic Beverly, included beech trees imported from England, some of which survived into the 21st century. Part of the change from tenant farm to summer estate, Thomas and Robert Hale Bancroft expanded the house by adding a servant wing and created a nursery on the third floor of the old house. The last children to live here were Eleanor and Elizabeth Bancroft. In 1937, they sold the remaining acreage, which was developed into the surrounding neighborhood. The Beverly Historical Society purchased the house, and later acquired from the Beverly Improvement Society, the rear yard, which included the Bancroft beech trees.