others the distinguishing title of "old planters." The grant of a
thousand acres, comprising the five farms above mentioned, was always
known as "the Old Planters' Farms." The first proprietors of them,
and their immediate successors, appear to have arranged and managed
them in concert,--to have had homesteads near together between the
head of Bass River and the neighborhood of the "horse bridge," where
the meeting-house of the Second Congregational Society of Beverly, or
of the "Precinct of Salem and Beverly" now stands. Their woodlands and
pasture lands were further to the north and east. An inspection of the
map will give an idea of the general locality of the "Old Planters'
Farms" in the aggregate--above the head of Bass River, extending
northerly towards "the river," as the Ipswich River was called, and
easterly to the "great pond," that is, Wenham Lake. Conant, Woodbury,
and Balch occupied their lands at once. I have stated how Trask's
portion of the grant went into the hands of Scruggs, and then of John
Raymond. Palfrey is thought never to have occupied his portion. He
sold it to William Dodge, the founder of the family of that name,
known by way of eminence as "Farmer Dodge," whose wife was a daughter
of Conant. A portion of the grant assigned to Conant was sold by one
of his descendants to John Chipman, who, on the 28th of December,
1715, was ordained as the first minister of the "Second Beverly
Society." He was the grandfather of Ward Chipman, Judge of the Supreme
Court, and for some time President, of the Province of New Brunswick,
and whose son of the same name was chief-justice of that court. He was
also grandfather of the wife of the great merchant, William Gray,
whose family has contributed such invaluable service to the
literature, legislation, judicial learning, and general welfare of the
country. The Rev. Mr. Chipman was the ancestor of many other
distinguished persons. The house in which he lived is still standing,
near the site of the church in which he preached. It is occupied by