Margaret "Peggy" Brown
Margaret "Peggy" Brown and probably her husband were part of the heroic, civic-minded Republican Generation. Her father was part of the nomadic, reactive Liberty Generation, and her mother was part of the idealistic Awakening Generation. We know the dates of two of her children: Esther Burrill, was part of the adaptive Compromise Generation, and Joseph Burrill, was part of the idealistic Transcendental Generation.
Peggy was 31 years old when she married John Burrill II, from nearby Saugus, who was only 24 years old.
They raised their children in his family homestead, the old "Burrill place," which was probably nearly a century old at that time. The property was on the west side of the artificial Lily Pond (later called Prankers Pond), east of the Newburyport Turnpike in Saugus (which was then part of Lynn), Essex County, Massachusetts.
The Burrill place was on rather low land. When the mill operators dammed the Saugus River to run the mills, thus enlarging Lily Pond, water tended to overflow onto part of the properties of the Burrills and their neighbors. Over the years the various operators had been sued repeatedly by irate property owners. The operators persisted, however. In 1794, Benjamin Sweetser began operating a very successful chocolate mill at the dam, and he persevered for several years. From 1815 to 1822, Robert Ames operated the Duck Cloth Mill there. In 1826, True and Bradhead took over the mill site, repaired and raised the dam, subleased a portion of the mill to Briefly and Whitehead for the manufacture of flannel. In 1838, an Englishman named Edward Pranker purchased the water privileges and complex, built another two-story building on the east side of the pond, and operated a successful business manufacturing flannel, wool pulling, and sheepskin tanning; his woolen fabrics became world acclaimed. Pranker increased his water power by raising the dam another 2 feet. The enlarged body of water was thereafter called Prankers Pond.
By that time, Peggy's daughter Esther and her son-in-law, Lott Edmands, were responsible for the homestead and were dealing with the various mill owners damming the river and flooding the neighborhood. Lott often sued the owners for flooding the property, and he usually won.
The early years of Peggy Brown in their historical context
Sources on Margaret "Peggy" Brown Burrill: |