In troduction

Water, Stone and Sky, Time and Space

In Gloucester all have a long relationship.

And man as well has a relationship with each.

Each has a story.

From the Beacon atop the Governor’s Hill

one can see the whole harbor.

All are In the Harbor now.

Safe perhaps from life’s raging storms.

Act I

Quiouhamanec

Notes: (Before 1607-1619?) Quiouhamance was the name attributed to the indigenous leader of the village that Champlain interacted with in 1606

When I look out

I can not but remember that day

When the ship arrived.

I should have recognized it for what it really was.

A harbringer.

The man who came a shore was a man

He called it a beautiful Port

And he came bearing gifts.

But I should have recognized it for what it really was

The arrival of Messamouet was surely not a good sign

He would bring enemies

they would kill him in less than a year

They would kill Nanepashemet as well.

But not until the real enemy was revealed

The gift that killed.

We dropped.

We could bury some sitting in their graves

But soon there were not enough left to dig.

I’ve heard it said that when the Adventurers landed

And fished this port 

building in the remains of my village

It was as if no one had ever inhabited it.

We still do, We are still here.

Sitting in the ground.

Thomas Gardner

Notes: (1592-1674) Gardner was left in charge of The Dorchester Company settlement during their first Winter season of 1623

I remember the ship leaving the harbor

Tylly told me that our stowage was full

And that perhaps we had found Cod Heaven

Its off to Bilbao he said its where the market is great 

and I’ll be back before the spring.

Its a beautiful port

Build a stage , build a house

Grow corn.

Abraham Robinson

Notes: (?-1645) Came to Gloucester around 1630. Settled in Annisquam.

I see an altar.

My father saw an altar too. 

My grandfather was the architect.

An altar of earth thou shall make unto me.

I will come unto thee and I will bless thee.

He has blessed me with over a hundred years of life.

God has blest this place as well with the Schooner

The Trees to build them

The men to make them 

And the sons to sail them.

So I see a  Southern sky and fair winds

‘Roud the point

Nor East we go.

Isabel Babson

Notes (1579-1661) Gloucester midwife of fame.

I see Women.

Old Women, young women, women just born.

Gloucester shall be a Mother port.

That night Margaret Prince came to me I tried everything

but in the end all I could do was testify against William Browne.

I do not  lie beneath the stone so marked.

I still ask why?

William Stevens

Notes: (c1590-c.1667) In Gloucester by 1640. Selectmen and later representative in the General Court.

I see the so called Reverend Blinman leaving

And I must admit I shed a tear.

A tear of joy.

Though its true that he took half the village with him.

Good riddance.

Yes, he built the cut

But we all did our part.

It didn’t dig itself.

In the end I think he was more worried about

Profit than our souls.

We carried on.

I kept building ships 

And I kept speaking up.

I served my town.

I served the Bay colony.

But I would not serve Charles.

That cost me a month in jail and twenty pounds.

Joseph Somes

Notes: Died in the Great Swamp Fight in 1675

What was supposed to be my life.

But I was young, I was able

And I followed Applelton through the snow

into the Great Swamp

All the way to the Narraganset Fort.

There we traded their atrocities with our atrocities.

We burned homes ,killed men, women and children

And for me it was over in a flash.

And for what?

In the the end my brother got six acres of land for my allotment

And me a life cut short.

Margaret Prince

Notes: (c. 1626-1706) Gloucester Resident. Accused of Witchcraft in 1692.

I’ll tell you what I did not see.

I didn’t see what Ebeneezer saw.

No Frenchmen, No Indians, No ghosts.

When Appleton fired a silver bullet to disperse the spectres,

Ebeneezer wasn’t done.

He seemed to be the one possessed.

He brought the girls from Salem here to Gloster

to discover the source of his mother’s fits.

They pointed their finger at me.

I’m innocent I said.

They said they saw a coffin.

Elizabeth testified that my ghost said I had killed Mrs. Duncan 

and inflicted Mrs. Babson.

I wouldn’t hurt a soul for a thousand worlds.

They indicted me anyway, for witchcraft.

Andrew Haraden

Notes: (1658-1683) In 1724 a gang of pirates and freebooters under command of the notorious John Phillips infested New England waters.In April, 1724, the sloop Squirrel of Annisquam, commanded by Andrew Haraden, while engaged on a fishing voyage was taken by Phillips

I see the Squirrel.

Brand new, full sails

a handsome a schooner as ever made.

No wonder the dreaded pirate Phillips

Instantly eyed her as a prize.

Sometimes though stories get embellished.

I did not kill him.

But I was there.

Fillmore struck the first blow with an axe

and Cheeseman finished him off with a hammer.

We sent his head in a Pickle Jar to Boston.

Peter Allen

Notes: Lost at Sea 1716

Home

I see home.

I was lost like twenty others

In four ships

returning home filled with fish 

from Cape Sable 

on a Sabbath day in October.

Two months before we had lost two ships more.

A Deadly business.

But now were home.

The sun rises to the east.

It’s time to make our home a town.

Abraham Robinson Jr. 

Notes: Fought against the French and the Wabanaki Confederacy in the 1720’s

I see how she Schoons

….and what they did 

to try and prevent it.

And what I did.

I petitioned for a ship

And I traded their depravities

With my own.

God help me…

Access to the fisheries

And she schoons on.

Thomas Riggs. 

Notes: Arrived in Gloucester 1681. Portions of his house still stands. Gloucester Town Clerk for over fifty years

As a Writer, I see a complete sentence.

Or perhaps one followed by a comma,

Trained as a Scrivener that too was my job.

Writing for you, writing for me.

In that employ, I became the Town Clerk, Later, A Selectman and ultimately our representative to the General Court.

The Finest days employed as a SchoolMaster,

the worst was when Andros looked to take away our rights

For our city’s refusal to pay his taxes

I was fined forty Shillings.