The Rindge-Lord house at 59 East Street in Ipswich is a one-room-deep Georgian home at the corner created by the intersection of Water Street and East Street. Its origin has been dated between 1815 and 1832 under the ownership of A.P. Lord, but Thomas Franklin Waters recorded that Daniel Rindge built the house in the early 1700s, which would be more appropriate for its early “I-frame” type of construction: “Capt. Samuel York …sold two small lots fronting on East St…one to Daniel Rindge, Oct. 16, 1719. John Holland purchased the house on Nov. 6, 1742. William Dodge levied an execution on the property and gained possession, on Nov. 19, 1760. Mr. Dodge owned it in 1773, but in 1778, it was owned by Capt. Benjamin Davis. Aaron P. Lord acquired it and sold it to Ebenezer Cogswell, on May 19, 1842. Mr. Cogswell sold to Caleb Stevens, on May 15, 1844. Later it was the property of Capt. Nathaniel Scott, and finally of Mr. John T. Sherburne.”
Daniel Rindge
Captain Daniel Rindge was a soldier in the Indian wars in his younger days and became a prominent citizen of Ipswich.
In 1775, a later generation Daniel Rindge and his wife Elizabeth were residents of Ipswich. Daniel was with the Ipswich Minuteman responding to the attack on Lexington and Concord by the British, and an alarm went out that the British were approaching Ipswich and slaughtering all in their path. Almost all of the citizenry of Ipswich fled north in a terror known as the “Great Ipswich Fright.” It was Elizabeth Rindge’s washing day and she continued with her scrubbing. Her father, who had just buried his silver spoons in the cellar, ran to his daughter’s dwelling to render her assistance. Surprised at her indifference, he cried out, “Why Betty are you washing?” “Yes,” she replied, “if the red coats come they may as well have my clothes wet as dry.”
Source:
- Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony by Thomas Franklin Waters, Volume 1, page 406.
Historic Ipswich 