Isaac Allerton, a Pilgrim from the Mayflower, had arrived in the Marblehead area in 1632 and established a fishing village on the harbor across from Marblehead Neck. Originally called Massebequash after the river which ran between it and Salem, the land was inhabited by the Naumkeag tribe. TMarblehead was set off (incorporated) in 1649. The port became important, and many residents were involved in the Revolutionary War. The town began a long decline after the war, and when George Washington visited the town during his presidential tour of 1789, he observed thatMarblehead “had the appearance of antiquity.” Fishing continued as a major industry, with 98 vessels putting to sea in 1837.
Read “Marblehead in 1700” by Sidney Perley
The ”October Gale” of 1841 - In the latter part of September, 1841, was a long, unbroken spell of uncomfortable weather, which culminated in a violent and cold storm of wind, snow and rain on the night of October 2, continuing four days. 
The Gerrymander is born in Essex County, February 11, 1812 - Marblehead's Elbridge Gerry served as governor of Massachusetts and vice-president of the United States, but his historic legacy will forever be tied to a political monster dubbed the "Gerrymander."
Awful Calamities: the Shipwrecks of December, 1839 - Three gales of unequaled fury and destructiveness swept along our coast carrying desolation and death in their stormy pathway, and overwhelming many families in the deepest mourning.
Marblehead is established, May 6, 1635 - Featured image: Marblehead, by Arthur Wesley Dow, circa 1900 A story at Mass Moments In May 1635 the General Court ordered “that there shall be a plantation at Marble Head” and gave the inhabitants the right to do whatever they pleased with the land, even though it was […]
The Marblehead smallpox riot, January 1774 - In 1773, the attention of the inhabitants of Marblehead was occupied by danger from another source than British Parliament. The selectmen ordered all houses where the disease had appeared to be closed, and dogs to be killed immediately. The fears of the inhabitants increased when permission was granted to build a smallpox hospital on Cat Island.
Moll Pitcher, the fortune-teller of Lynn and Marblehead - By Sidney Perley, published March 1899 in the Essex Antiquarian “Moll Pitcher,” the famous fortune-teller of Lynn, has no birth record. So the place of her first appearance in life cannot be thus determined. The tenement house, known as the ” Old Brig,” situated at the junction of Pond and Orne streets […]
Old Town, a colonial neighborhood in Marblehead - This page has moved to https://historicmassachusetts.org/marblehead/
Marblehead tavern maid Agnes Surriage becomes becomes the lady of the manor, 1742 - Thanks to the New England Historical Society for this romantic old tale from Marblehead. In 1742, Charles Henry Frankland, the king’s collector for the port of Boston, visited Marblehead. Staying at the Fountain Tavern, he was gobsmacked by the beauty of Agnes Surriage, the tavern’s 16-year-old maid. Charmed by […]
