Portrait of a Bostonian 

The John Singleton Copley painting of John Erving is part of the artist's significant body of work in Boston portraiture in the pre-Revolutionary period. Copley painted Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and John Hancock. He also painted several of the Erving children and extended family. His talents were in demand among the elite of Boston.

The Erving portrait was included in the Erving Town History published in 1983; if other images of him exist, they are not widely known. A small copy is framed in the Erving Town Hall. The original painting can be seen "up close and personal" in the Smith College Museum of Art, side by side with the portrait of his wife, Abigail.

Erving was approaching 80 when he sat for this painting. He had lived more than 10 years since Abigail's death, and would live more than 10 more. He had accomplished much, and would soon navigate the revolutionary period, and come out with his fortunes reasonably intact. The wig and fine clothing he chose for this portrait speak of wealth and British style. He is respected, about to pick up his quill and answer an important letter.

His grandchildren were growing up in Boston, Connecticut, and Maine in the 1770s, and by the time he died at 94 there would be descendants in England and Scotland as well. They would include merchants, men of science, and diplomats. John Erving outlived a son, two daughters and two sons-in-law, in addition to one daughter who died as an infant. Though still living, two sons who evacuated to England at the start of the Revolutionary War would never return to Boston.

John Erving made his fortune in shipping and in real estate. He was a very wealthy and powerful man. His position in the colonial government gave him the ability to purchase undeveloped land in western Massachusetts. The land he bought that would eventually bear his name, the Town of Erving north of the Millers River, remained nearly untouched until after his death. He made a profit on land he acquired in the towns of Wendell, Orange, Royalston, Granville and Gardner, and passed some to his heirs.

We can gain some insight into John Erving's state of mind as he drew to the end of his life by the words of his son, William, who would have been a witness to his father's decline. William wrote this request to his executors in his own will:

"whereas our Family have been known for a long time to have laboured under a severe Nervous Disorder which terminated for some time before previous to their Death in a Depreciation of their reason and Understanding. Item. And whereas I am at Present visited with all symptoms of that disorder that used to attend my Father, and as I have no reason to suppose but that my mind will be like an old worn out Lock as his was previous to his death and as I have all the reason to suppose that my mind will relapse into the same way. It is my will that if it should so happen and that in consequence of it, in my behaviour I do nothing Injurious to myself or fortune that they would consider me as a human being and indulge me in all things that may be requested to my comfort and Happiness."

John Erving's will mentions several valued servants, whom we may believe insured his comfort and happiness. 

 

 John Erving Meets Phillis Wheatley

      Or Did He?

African slavery was a fact of life in Colonial Boston. Black house servants or dock workers were not notable. It is hard to believe that many of the wealthy class did not have a connection to the profitable trade in African lives. Many prominent New England families had ties to the plantations on the Caribbean islands or in the American south. If they did not have an ownership interest, they supplied them with processed fish that would not sell elsewhere. They imported their molasses or rum. Or they simply prospered from free enslaved labor at home.

So it was not remarkable when the child of six or seven, whose age was reportedly marked by her missing front teeth, was sold to the family of prominent taylor John Wheatley in 1761. They gave her the name of the ship that brought her from West Africa, the Phillis and, as was the custom, she used the surname of her enslaver when one was called for. The name her mother called her was forgotten. 

Even in her servitude, Phillis was recognized as a bright child. She loved to learn and was tutored by the children of the household. After mastering English, she learned to read "the classics" in Latin and Greek. She began to write poetry that reflected events of the time. Some of her verses, eulogies, were published in the newspapers.

Phillis Wheatley statue by Meredith Bergmann 2003, photo by the artist.(1)

The Wheatleys sought to publish her poems as a book, but who would believe the ability of a slave girl to produce such creative works?  Who would buy her book? Advertisements were placed in Boston papers for subscribers for a publication run, but it was not successful. No one in Boston wanted to take the risk of printing her book without assurances of a return. The Wheatleys took her to London where they found a more open group of investors, but not before convening a group of respected gentlemen in Boston to attest to her talents. The following introduction was printed in the front of her book of poetry, Poems of Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, the first work to be published by an African writing in America. 

We whose Names are under-written, do assure the World, that the Poems specified in the following Page, were (as we verily believe) written by Phillis, a young Negro Girl, who was but a few Years since, brought an uncultivated Barbarian from Africa, and has ever since been, and now is, under the Disadvantage of serving as a Slave in a Family in this Town. She has been examined by some of the best Judges, and is thought qualified to write them. 

His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson, Governor,

The Hon. Andrew Oliver, Lieutenant-Governor,

The Hon. Thomas Hubbard ,          The Rev. Charles Chauncy, D.D.

The Hon. John Erving,                    The Rev. Mather Byles, D.D.

The Hon. James Pitts,                    The Rev. Ed. Pemberton, D.D.

The Hon. Harrison Gray,                The Rev. Andrew Elliot, D.D.

The Hon. James Bowdoin,             The Rev. Samuel Cooper, D. D.

John Hancock, Esqr.                      The Rev Mr. Samuel Mather,

Joseph Green, Esqr.                      The Rev. Mr. John Moorhead,

Richard Carey, Esqr.                      Mr. John Wheatley, her Master

Did they refer to themselves as "some of the best Judges"? Or were they giving their names to attest to an examination by someone else? 

John Erving's inclusion in this group is another sign of his position in Boston's political scene of the eighteenth century. And John Wheatley was unabashedly "her Master."

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Notes: (1)   Boston's Women's Memorial, see the artist's information here.

         

 Snapshot of 1752

John Erving began buying and selling property in Boston early in his career. What made him reach out 100 miles to the west to add to his holdings around 1752? He had cash to spare to make his payment to the Committee of the Great and General Court, the provincial government. By populating his family tree, we can see in what stage of life he was at that time. This record of his Masonic membership fills in some basic details.(1)

John Erving was approaching 60 years of age and had recently joined the St. John's Lodge in Boston. St. John's is the first duly constituted and chartered lodge of Freemasons in the Americas, founded at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern in 1733.(2)  Other lodges followed. The various rites of Freemasonry were very popular among Bostonians. Erving would have been rubbing elbows with members such as James Otis, and others from both sides of the political spectrum. The membership card above gives his  date and place of birth as 1693 in Kirkwell, Orkney, Scotland. The "remarks" tell us that in only four years he would rise to the rank of Master. 

At home, the next generation of Ervings was being groomed for their places in society. John's wife, Abigail Phillips, had borne four sons and six daughters, loosing only one, her namesake, in infancy. Their eldest son, John Erving, Jr, had completed his studies at Harvard and their second son, William, was studying there. John Jr. was in England (at least in 1750 when his Commencement would have taken place).(3) His sister, Elizabeth, had married at 17 to his Harvard roommate, James Bowdoin. Bowdoin would become the second Governor of the Commonwealth after the Revolution, while John Jr. would marry the daughter of the current Provincial Governor, William Shirley. Elizabeth and James Bowdoin had their second and final child in 1752. John and Abigail were grandparents.

In the next few years two sons would go to war: William and James; two daughters would marry war heroes: Abigail (the second daughter with this name) and Sarah. George and Ann would also make matches from within the upper crust of New England society. Daughter Mary remained at home.

In 1752 John Erving was well established in Boston. He served as Justice of the Peace, an important political position. 

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Notes: (1)  Image found at Ancestry.com

                  (2)   St. John's lodge history found here

                  (3)  Colonial Collegians, 1642-1774: Biographies of Those Who Attended American Colleges before the War for Independence. CD-ROM. Boston, Mass.: Massachusetts Historical Society : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2005. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.). This publication is footnoted, and may lead to more useful documents.

 Learning About the Land

I'm a map person. I love the variety of historical information that can be found on old maps. I brought some map activities to our elementary school a few years ago to help familiarize the students with the shape and characteristics of our town. The undulating southern border is formed by the Millers River, in contrast with the man-made straight lines that divide us from Northfield to the north. There have been a few boundary adjustments since the land was mapped and subdivided. Orange and Warwick are our neighbors to the east. The Warwick line runs through the middle of Laurel Lake.

The map below is a retracing of a plan drawn by Joseph Metcalf in 1788. The present Town of Erving is west of the crease in the linen, and north of the river. The northern part of the Town of Wendell is mapped south of the river. All of the land was purchased by John Erving in 1751/2. The map was later drawn to divide his remaining property among his heirs.

Why did John Erving purchase "Lands North of Millers River containing Eleven Thousand and Sixteen Acres"?(1) Apparently, pure speculation. There is no evidence that he ever saw the property. There was value in the timber, but it had to be transported to market, and the flow of the Millers River would take it even farther from his enterprises in Boston. According to Thomas E. Sawin, as Pam Richardson relates in her 2015 history of Wendell, the land north of the river was "undisturbed forest" until 1800.(2)   Undeveloped land in western Massachusetts was 'money in the bank' for John Erving.

As the document below indicates, bringing in settlers was a condition of his separate purchase of the land south of the river, and John Erving immediately began selling that land. Before Wendell was incorporated in 1781, this land was known as part of Erving's Plantation or Ervinshire. "Road Town" referred to here is now Shutesbury, of which the northern portion became part of Wendell. If you look in "Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War" you will find several whose residence is given as Ervingshire.(3)

In the 1980s, a Northfield historian named Rosa Johnston did significant work with the old deeds, discovering and recording which of John Erving's children or grandchildren had rights to specific lots after his death, as mapped by Metcalf. She traced them forward through several sales for historical context. Precipitated by their inheritance of the land, and likely by improvements to the road system, it was around the turn of the nineteenth century that the heirs began to sell the land and settlement began to occur north of the river. The Fifth Massachusetts Turnpike was incorporated in 1799, improving the east-west travel route that led from Boston to the Connecticut River. When the heirs began to liquidate the "unimproved land," soon after, the purchasers began to settle on the parcels. This area began to develop a community, first on the eastern side where a road led north to Northfield and south to Wendell. A tavern, a school, and mills were built on the river. 

The Shepherd brothers of Northampton, bought up a large number of the lots in 1817. We will get to their story later, along with the Whites, Alexanders, and Holtons who were early settlers.

As I reviewed Rosa Johnston's notes, I wanted to know who John Erving was in 1752. What was happening at that point in history? It didn't take long before I began populating his family tree and realized just how prominent he was in Boston in the mid-eighteenth century. Phil Johnson, another member of the Erving Historic Commission, joined me in the search. We started to feel like we were "drinking from a fire hose" when we began accumulating records. We discovered that boxes of family documents are archived at the Historical Societies in Boston and New York. We found mentions in published books and digitized documents online. Facts collected led to many more questions to answer.

We will share some of the discoveries, and questions, in future posts.

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Notes: (1) "Acts and Resolves" Legislative Records of the Council 1752/3, Chapter 142.

                  (2)   Richardson, Pamela, and Thomas E. Sawin, "Wendell Massachusetts: Its Settlers and Citizenry, 1752-1900" Pub. Amherst, MA: Off the Common Books, 2015, p. 20.

            (3)   View "Soldiers and Sailors" in the Mass. Archives here