The Mills and Cedars of Rye

White cedars grow in freshwater swamps near the coast from Maine to Georgia. The cedars of Rye are near the northern limit of their range. White cedars were being used by local folks even before there was a parish or town of Rye.

Francis Jenness and three partners built a sawmill in Rye in 1695:

The original contract, dated May 3, 1695, may still be seen, wherein John Badson, of Newcastle, millwright, agrees with Francis Jenness, Joseph Philbrook, James Stanyan and Thomas Jenness, of Hampton, planters, to build for them a dam and a sawmill, "to go with one saw," on Cedar Swamp run, commonly so called, near said Francis Jenness' house; for which he is to receive twenty shillings a week, in good, lawful money of New England, as follows; ten shillings thereof at the end of each week he works, and the other ten shillings a week "at one whole intire payment, at the now dwelling house of the said Francis Jenness," when the mill is finished and sufficient sawing has been done to amount to the required sum; the above company, to furnish material for building, also "sufficient meat, drink, lodging and Hands" during the building, and pasturing for his horse while he is there at work. [Dow 540]

The site of this mill is about eighty rods from the Sea View House, on the Jenness road, so called, and has ever since been occupied for a sawmill, owned wholly or in part in the Jenness family. Cedar swamp commences about a mile northwest of the mill; the run is a brook, flowing through it, in some places not more than four or five feet wide. It takes its rise in the low land near Charles Sleeper's house, at Chesley's Corner, in Rye, and empties into the sea. [Dow, 540]

Francis Jenness’ son, Hezekiah Jenness (b. 1675 [Dow, 767]), later owned the cedar swamp near what is now Love Lane. To work with his trees, he hired a young cooper and shingle maker from Portsmouth, Samuel Langdon. (Samuel married Hezekiah Jenness’ daughter, Hannah Jenness [Dow, 767]. Unfortunately, Samuel injured himself, which led to his death from lock jaw [tetanus]. He died in 1725. His and his family’s gravestones are the oldest marked stones in Rye.)

A half mile above this sawmill, on the same stream, is Brown's gristmill; and about thirty rods below it, was Jenness' gristmill, a few years ago changed into a shingle-mill, but now given up. [Dow. 540]

The Brown family had built a dam in the brook to run the small gristmill, and harvested ice there to deliver to summer residents.

More recently, the county forester noted the size of the large white cedars near Brown’s Mill Pond. The cedars found there proved to be larger than any others in New Hampshire or Massachusetts. The University of New Hampshire has done a thorough inventory of these giant trees. The grove has been donated to the Nature Conservancy. For a distant view of these cedars, you can stand at the mill dam with binoculars. On a winter day when the ice is thick and strong, one can walk easily to the trees to see them.

excerpted from text by Louise H. Tallman

Sources:

Dow, Joseph. History of the Town of Hampton, New Hampshire: From Its Settlement in 1638, to the Autumn of 1892. Salem Press Publishers. Salem, Mass., 1893.