Richard Tarr 153 was born about 1645 in Wales, England225 and died in 1732 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States226 about age 87.
General Notes: R
Research Notes: ockport VR states he was first settler of town in 1690, from Wales, England.
Town of Sandy Bay, a history of Rockport, Massachusetts, by Marshall W. S. Swan, Published for the Town History Committee, by Phoenix Publishing, Canaan, New Hampshire, 1980 (NEHGS, F74/R68S92)
p 4: "Only by the early 1690s did Sandy Bay get its first family, the Richard Tarrs from Saco, Maine.
p 16: It was during his (Parson John Emerson) pastorate that the Richard Tarr family became Rockport's pioneer residents.
History of the Town of Rockport, Rockport, Mass, printed by Rockport Review Office, 1888, (NEHGS, F74/R68/H57/1888)
p 31: "We now come to the period of the first settlement of what is now called Rockport, then Sandy Bay. In 1690, according to the most authentic records of the first settler, Richard Tarr with his wife and two children, John and Richard, who, it is supposed were born in Marblehead, moved from the latter place to this Cape. As there is no record of these children at Marblehead, it remains doubtful where they were born; it is conjected that they were born in England or Wales. Most of his children were born after 1688 or 1690. Richard Tarr was taxed for the first time in 1693, The writer is of the sixth generation, in direct descent, in the following order: Richard Tarr, Benjamin Tarr, Benjamin Tarr, Jr, Jabez Tarr, Reggy Tarr, Lemuel Gott, son of Reggy Tarr (Gott). Richard Tarr built his log cabin just to the westward a short distance from Benjamin Knight's house on the Late Dea, Reuben Brooks' land. Some of the old remains, such as a cellar, were in existence there till within a few years, and perhaps could be found yet. In 1697 he had liberty form the town to enclose three or four acres where his house stood, and use the same for a few years. In 1701, he had ten acres granted him for supporting Arthur Churchill for life. He also had grants afterwards. In a deed of Benjamin Tarr, dated July 1757, allusion is made to one of these grants as being granted to him and his brothers, William and Caleb, as it was late;y to his father, Richard, to secure the town from being at town charges for his mother. Richard Tarr made his will in 1732, but it seems that the widow's income was not sufficient for her support.
Alluring Rockport, An unspoiled New England Town on Cape Ann, by George Willis Solley
p. 21: IV First Settlers, Sandy Bay (Rockport) was first settled by a venturesome fisherman named Richar Tarr, a Welshman who, with his wife and two sons, John and Richard, came in a pinnace from Marblehead in 1690. As he rounded the mighty rocks of the Headlands, and saw the shining sands of the beautiful harbor, and , landing, drank of the fountain, he said, "This is the place for me!" He built his first log cabin on the brow of the hill above the beach. Tradition says it was on the lot of No. 113 Main Street. He claimed the land on the left of the town brook, and owned rights in the first mill erected there. He gave the land for the first burying ground, and his Memorial Stone, raised by the town to the First Settler of Sandy Bay, is in the upper corner of the grave yard, above the beach, near Mill Lane. Richard Tarr was a man of striking looks and personality, having great vitality and resourcefulness of character, qualities which have re-appeared in his numerous descendants for two hundred and thirty-four years, in every phase of activity connected with the life of Cape Ann.
From Town on Sandy Bay, a history of Rockport, Massachusetts, by Marshall W. S. Swan, WHS-F74/R68/S92:
P. 19-
JUST WHEN was Rockport founded? It was officially incorporated on February 27, 1840, on being set off from Gloucester by the Massachusetts legislature. Rockport's earliest surviving building is quite possibly part of the house at 188 Granite Street and may date from 1675-76. Some land lying in today's Rockport. however, may have been granted as early as 1658. The first extensive land grants, though, were made on February 27, 1688, when the qualified voters decided to distribute their common lands "at ye Cape."
Every householder and every man, "upward of one and twenty years of age" who had been born in the town and was still living and paying taxes there, was to receive a six-acre parcel, chosen in a lot drawing. Eighty-two units were laid out from Lane's Cove, around "holybut point," past "piggion cove," to today's Millbrook in Sandy Bay. Thus ended the embargo of 1668 against settlement at the Cape. Restrictions there were: against selling, against hunting or hounding cattle or swine, and against insufficient fencing. These restraints stemmed from the town's longtime practice of using future Rockport as an open summer feeding ground for all dry cattle, nonworking oxen, and all horses except those "for the saddle or collar." Scarcely had the lots been laid out, however, than they began to change hands, thus inaugurating Rockport's still thriving real estate business.
None of the I688 land grants was immediately taken up by homesteaders. To the Richard Tarrs of Saco, Maine, belongs the honor being Rockport's first family. The town dates its settlement from their arrival at Sandy Bay sometime in the opening years of the 1690s. Who were they, those first corners? Richard was forty-five or forty-six when they arrived, and Rockport's first lady, Elizabeth Dicer Tarr, was twenty-four or twenty-five. The couple had probably been married in Saco or nearby, where her father owned land abutting Tarr's. The older groom was seemingly a widower with two youngish sons, William and John, who came along with their father; stepmother; and possibly their half sister, Elizabeth, horn January 10, 1690, or more likely 1690/91. At the age of eighty-four Richard Tarr deposed that he and his family lived on their farm in Maine "till the Indian Wars began in Sixteen Hundred Ninety Two." There he had earned his livelihood as a lumberman, having hired a sawmill to which he hauled logs from the surrounding Maine forests. The founder father came to Sandy), Bay, according to his great-grandson Jabez in 1840, to "be near to help load the wood coasters, which belonged to Gloucester and freighted wood from here... and also to go as a hand for them when wanted." To begin with, the Richard Tarrs had only a small shelter indeed, possibly acquired from transient woodcutters. On the slope behind what is now 113 Main Street, they settled clown and biblically multiplied upon the land. In 1930 a marker was erected there to commemorate Rockport's first home.
What was it like, that community to which the Tarrs had made their way?
From Parson Emerson in July 1690 one learns that Gloucester had sent fifteen volunteers for service against the French in Canada. Another seven had been drafted "to the Indian Wares." When forty-seven more were called up, Cape Anners were distressed at being Ieft unprotected militarily and deprived of stout hands to get in hay and harvest, "so that wee must of necessity be forced to kill our cattell and [are] in great danger of being famished." The town's oldest extant tax list (1693) consists of eighty-five names. Richard Tarr's 12 shillings, 8 pence put him well into the lower half of the payers. That only six sloops, one boat, and one shallop were taxed is evidence that fishing was not yet the major source of income. The shipbuilding being carried on at Gloucester may later have lured Rockport's second family to town. The only church was four to five miles from Sandy Bay off joined only in November 1709 at the age of forty-two when her children, ranging in age from eighteen to six, were also baptized and taken into membership. Despite long-standing regulations, the Tarrs' new hometown paid no schoolmaster until 1698. There was one mid-wife but no doctor other than the minister. Sick but still mobile citizens went as far as Lynn for treatment.
Houses at Cape Ann were not log cabins but of the seventeenth-century English construction still to be seen throughout Essex County. Gloucester records of 1668 speak of Hugh Rowe's house with its "daub" sides and ends and thatched roof. The interiors were scantily furnished by modern standards. Surviving inventories, including the one from Richard and Elizabeth Tarr's own cottage, remind readers of the heap of living it took to make a pioneer house a home. As late as 1713 the town was still paying bounties of 30 shillings for grown wolves killed within Gloucester. As for bears, antiquarian Ebenezer Pool, writing in the mid-nineteenth century, spoke of a bear talked about by Henry Witham "some 120 years" ago. It had been driven into the water and killed by the latter's "Uncle Babson." Presumably, someone spotting its skin drying on a peninsula beside the cove at Sandy Bay dubbed the place "Bearskin Neck."
Rockport's first family faced other hardships as well. Down on the Tarrs swooped the scourge of witchcraft, for Cape Ann did not escape "the prodigious war made by the spirits of the invisible world." Before the battles were over, eleven women were dragged to the bar of justice for assorted "diabolical acts." In July 1692 the twenty-four year-old Ebenezer Babson, his aging mother, and bachelor household were beset "almost every night" by skulkers, as the jittery John Emerson wrote to the Mathers in Boston. The "devil and his agents" required some sixty militiamen from Ipswich before they mysteriously evaporated-an episode which later inspired Whittier's jingly narrative, "The Garrison of Cape Ann." Subsequently, Babson denounced two of his female neighbors. Others charged included Richard Tarr's mother-in-law, Elizabeth Austin Dicer, committed to prison at Ipswich. On December 15 he personally signed a bond for yet another local victim. I t is the earliest surviving document fixing him as a resident of Gloucester and speaks well for his courage during a time of public hysteria. If mother Dicer did return to live with her daughter's family after her release, such tales she must have had to tell.
Less menacing were the hampering ordinances on cattle, fencing, registration of horses, ringing swine, restricting geese, and dividing rams from ewes to prevent ill-timed conception. There were decrees governing catching, "pickling," and drying fish to offset the lamentable "ill-reputation on this Province and the fishery of it." Above all were strict controls on thatch banks, timbering, and sawmills. As incentive pay informers received half the fines levied against violators.
Despite all this, the Richard Tarr family stuck it out at their house on the slope above "Davissons Run." To the joy of grandmother's release from prison was added another daughter, Honor, on May 20, 1693, quite possibly the first white child born in Rockport. She was followed by Richard in 1695, Joseph in 1698, Benjamin in 1700, and others in the new century: Caleb (1703); Samuel (1706); Abigail (1709); and Sarah, who arrived on September 11, 1716, when her father was seventy and her mother forty-nine. All were baptized in Gloucester's first parish church. In March 1697 Richard Tarr was permitted to fence in three or four acres "against the house he lives in at Sandy Bay." Although this was not an outright grant, he was never called on to surrender it. In 1701 he was allowed an-additional ten acres, provided he looked after the aged and impoverished Arthur Churchill, a former associate in Maine. Subsequently other acreage was acquired and developed by Rockport's proliferating first family.
Next the Pools
The end of the decade signaled change. The town purchased from belated Indian claimants a clear title to the whole area-some ten thousand acres-for £ 7. Even before 1700 the isolation had begun to ease. Transient fishermen stopped over at Pigeon Cove, Long Cove, and the Straitsmouth district, and there were lumbermen and loaders with whom Richard Tarr was associated. A rash of land transfers had broken out following the grants of 1688, harbingers of settlers to come. In 1695 John Babson received two or three acres at "the strait mouth point to set up fishing upon"; in 1696 Joseph Eveleth got six acres "at the Cape," his grant referring to "the house that was his father's." The General Court in 1699 awarded Straitsmouth Island to Capt. James Davis, because he had been "at much charge and expense in the late wars." That March, John Day bought land in the Loblolly Cove-Emmons Point area, only to sell it in 1704 to William Cogswell, who may have put up one or two lean-tos for Chebacco fishermen. The
possibly at Gloucester's dame school, set up "to learn children to read, knit, and sew."
More public offices and more land came to John Pool, but in November 1716 his wife left him for greener pastures. She was succeeded in 1717 by Sarah Dodge, who died in February 1718, and in June 1719 by Elizabeth Holmes of Salem, who survived a year and a half. Last came widow Abigail Ballard of Lynn, Pool's fourth wife in five years. She rejected his initial proposal but changed her mind. In recognition of her reversal, they named their son (1722) Return. In later years "Turn's orchard" was a familiar spot for Sandy Bay youngsters. At least one daughter, Abigail, was also born to the couple
History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann, including the Town of Rockport, by John J Babson, 1860
RICHARD TARR.-Tradition has preserved an account of this settler ; which states that he was born in the west of England about 1660, and settled in Marblehead soon after 1680, where he married his wife Elizabeth. A person of this name, of Saco, was a petitioner to Sir Edmund Andros for confirmation in the possession of land he bought there, three years before the time of his petition, of John Seilye, fisherman. The date of our settler's first appearance in town is not known. All of his children born after 1690 are recorded in our books ; but his will shows that he had two who were born before that year. In April, 1697, he had a grant of a piece of land, for three or four years, where his house stood; and, in 1701, another grant, of ten acres, with the condition annexed, that he should support "old Father Churchill " for life. This land was situated in Sandy Bay, near Davison's Run. He died about 1732 ; leaving an estate of £399, and the following children : William ; John ; Elizabeth, born in 1691; Honour, 1693 ; Richard, 1695 ; Joseph, 1698 ; Benjamin, 1700; Caleb, 1703; Samuel, 1706; and Sarah, 1716. WILLIAM married. Elizabeth Felt in 1708, and had several children; but none of the name now in town trace back to him. JOHN was intending marriage with Elizabeth Heans of Marble-head in 1714; and, by his wife Elizabeth, a daughter of the same name was born in 1719. RICHARD married Grace Hodgkins, Feb. 20, 1722 ; and had by her Hazelelponi,* born in 1722 ;
*( I think few of my readers will remember ever before to have met with this name, unless they are familiar with a portion of the Bible not much read.-See 1 Chron. iv. 3.)
and William, 1724. JosErIt married Sarah Sargent, July 28, 1719 ; and had a daughter Abigail, and three sons - Joseph, Benjamin, and Nathaniel - born before 1726. He removed to Parker's Island, Georgetown, Me. ; where descendants are still living. BENJAMIN married Rebecca Card, Feb. 4, 1724. His posterity includes the larger part of all who now bear the name on the Cape. One of his sons (Benjamin) died about 1814, aged eighty-eight, having had several children. Daniel Barber, one of them, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War; and died April 16, 1840, aged eighty-six. Jabez, another, was also a soldier in the same war ; and died Nov. 25, 1844, aged eighty-five,-the last of the Gloucester soldiers who fought on Bunker Hill. Moses, the next son, was lost at sea in the privateer ship " Tempest." CALEB TARR had a wife Martha and twelve children. He died about 1752 ; leaving a son Caleb, who settled at the Harbor. SAMUEL, the seventh and youngest son of Richard Tarr, married Elizabeth Williams, Oct. 12, 1726, by whom he had four sons before 1739 ; when he was drowned in Sheepscot River, Me. Three other Tarrs besides the one mentioned above were lost in the "Tempest,"-James and William, sons of James; and Henry, son of Henry. Another Richard 'Tarr appears in town in 1722. He married Sarah Beal at Beverly in 1719 ; and had a son Richard, born here in 1722. Ile is supposed to be the same Richard who was killed by Indians at Fox Islands in 1724.*
* (The town of Rockport has erected it granite monument, with an appropriate inscription, to the memory of Richard Tarr, its first settler, on the spot which tradition has marked as that of his burial. This spot was his own land; and, having been enlarged and enclosed, became finally the Parish Burying-ground).
Richard Tarr's Will
"In the name of God, Amen the seventh day of January Anno Domine seventeen hundred and twenty nine. I Richard Tarr of the Town of Gloucester in the County of Essex in the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England Yeoman being sick and weak in body but of perfect mind and memory thanks be to God; Therefore calling to mind the mortality of my body an knowing that it is appointed for all men once to Die; do make and ordain this my last will and Testament: that is to say Principaly and first of all I give and commend my soul to the hands of God that gave it and my body I commend to the Earth to be buried in decent Christian burial at the Discretion of my Executor nothing doubting but at the General resurrection. I shall receive the same again by the mighty Power of God; and as touching such worldly Estate where with it hath Pleased God to bless me in this life. I give bequeath and dispose of the same in manner following: I give bequeath unto Elizabeth my dearly beloved wife all my whole Estate in Houses Land chattle and moveables of all sorts whether in Gloucester or elsewhere In possession or Reversion with all my Rights in any undivided lands in Gloucester aforesd or Elsewhere during the whole term that she shall remain my widow freely and absolutely to be disposed of by her as she shall see fit and meet excepting such legacies and bequeathments as shall be hereafter mentioned. But in case she shall Cause to marry again the whole of my Estate real and personal I do give and bequeath unto my Children to be equally divided among them; and that immediately upon her marriage, Excepting such part of my Estate as the law will give her.
Item I give to my son William Tarr five pounds in money to be paid him by me Executrix here after mentioned together with all my wearing clothes and Apparrel.
Item I give and bequeath unto my son John Tarr five shillings only to be paid by my Executor as aforesd he having already received his portion.
Item I give unto my son Richard Tarr five shillings only to be paid by my Executrix as affore he having likewise received his portion allready.
Item I give unto my son Joseph Tarr five shillings only (crossed out) to be paid by my Executrix
Item I give unto my son Beni Tarr five shillings only to be paid likewise by my Executrix he having received his portion allready.
Item I give unto my son Caleb Tarr five shillings to be paid him likewise by my Executrix
Item I give unto my son Samuel Tarr five shillings to be paid him by my Executrix.
Item I give unto Henery David Elizabeth Davis and Hannah Davis children of my daughter Elizabeth Davis deced. to each of them five shillings a piece to be paid by my Executrix.
Item I give unto my daughter Honnor Wonson five shillings only she having received her Portion allready to be paid to her by my Executrix.
Item I give unto my Daughter Sarah Tarr five shillings to be paid to her by my Executrix.
Item Lastly do I as afore unto my beloved wife Elizabeth all my Goods and chattle all and singular my Land Tenaments + Messuages and all my moveables and all my Real and personal and Personal (crossed out) Estate as aforesd under the afore mentioned Restrictions and do hereby make constitute and ordain her my sole and alone Executrix of this my last will and Testament and do hereby utterly disallow revoke and Disv null all and Every other Testament will Legacy and bequest and Executors- by me in any way before named willed and bequeathed satisfying and confirming this only and no other to be my Last will and Testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand an seal this Day and Year above mentioned."
Richard Tarr
Noted events in his life were:
• Atl. Birth: Alt. Birth, Abt 1690. 153
Richard married Elizabeth Dicer.153 Elizabeth was born about 1668.153
Children from this marriage were:
i. Elizabeth Tarr (born on 10 Jan 1689/90 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States - died on 29 Dec 1724)
ii. Honor Tarr (born on 20 May 1693 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States)
iii. Richard Tarr (born on 26 Aug 1695 in Sandy Bay, Essex, Massachusetts, United States - died on 22 Jun 1724)
iv. Joseph Tarr (born on 16 Jan 1697/98 - died before 1769 in Georgetown, Sagadahoc, Maine, United States)
v. Benjamin Tarr (born on 9 Apr 1700 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States - died about 1783)
vi. Caleb Tarr (born on 4 Jul 1703 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States - died in 1752)
vii. Samuel Tarr (born on 25 Jun 1706 - died on 26 Jun 1739)
viii. Abigail Tarr (born on 11 Jun 1709 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States - died before 1732)
193 ix. Sarah Tarr (born on 11 Sep 1716 in Rockport, Essex, Massachusetts, United States)
Richard next married Unknown.
Children from this marriage were:
i. William Tarr (died about 1739)
ii. John Tarr