Although the Historical Commission sign on the front of the Nathaniel Treadwell house at 12 North Main Street once identified it as the home of Christian Wainwright, the Wainwright house sat next door and no longer exists. Christian was the widow of John Wainwright, son of Col. John Wainwright Senior, a man of great wealth who owned a large estate along East Street down to the wharf. He expanded his estate in 1710 by purchasing property that had passed from one of the early settlers, Thomas Treadwell to his son Nathaniel. It was Colonel Wainwright’s will that the estate should remain in the family forever. John Wainwright Jr. died at age 49 and left his wife Christian with three children.
The great fortune left by the senior Colonel Wainwright had been greatly reduced, and she was granted relief by an act of the court to sell various properties in order to care for and educate her children. She bought a piece of property between the house at 12 North Main Street and the Ebenezer Stanwood house at 8 North Main in 1741 and built a home. She petitioned the General Court in 1743 to take off the entail imposed in the Colonel’s will so that the lands on Jeffreys Neck might be sold to pay for the children’s’ education. The Court granted the petition. Seven years later she sold the house to Daniel Staniford. Thus the wealthy Colonel Wainwright’s estate was dissolved.
Thomas Franklin Waters relates that in 1845, Joseph Baker bought the house that Christian Wainwright had built and moved it in order to enlarge his own property, described as being the historic old Treadwell Tavern, still standing at 12 N. Main St. The new location for Christian Wainwright’s house was next to the Whipple House (also called the Saltonstall house) at the corner of Market and Saltonstall Streets near the train tracks. When the Historical Society purchased the Whipple House, they determined that this house was beyond repair and demolished it. The location is now a parking lot for EBSCO.
Across the Street
Reblogged this on Janet’s thread.
Hi Gordon, very interesting piece. It never ceases to amaze me how often these old homes were “moved” from one location to another. There is a lovely house on my street that was “moved” in the 50s from South Lynnfield during the construction of Route 128. No home has been moved since then in our town. Hey, we have enough traffic problems as is, right?
Hi Gordon, Great piece. I truly appreciate the time and effort you put into the history of our town.
John
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Thanks John, and the same to you for your research about the Industrial history of the Ipswich River, which I shared at https://storiesfromipswich.org/the-industrial-history-of-the-ipswich-river/ . Do you have some edits for that page?