HOG ISLAND

Thomas Choate, who was born in 1671 and died in 1745 at the age of seventy-four, appears to have been a man of uncommon vigor and enterprise. He was undoubtedly a great farmer and a leading citizen of Ipswich, and their representative in the General Court for four years. He it was who acquired the land on Hog Island where he and his descendants have to this day continually resided.

Life on the island, as everywhere in Ipswich in his time, must have been extremely simple and primitive. The habits and customs of the people cannot have changed much since the earliest settlement of the colony, and the only communication with the outside world appears to have been when the head of the family was sent to represent the town at the meetings of the General Court in Boston.

The old-fashioned New England discipline prevailed. The father was the real head of the family; the mother was the mediator between him and the children, who were entirely subject to his sway.

His third son, Francis, was my ancestor, born in 1701 and died in 1777, and that generation appears to have come into great prominence in local and even State affairs. It has been said that among all the Choate ancestors none were so illustrious for their piety as were Esquire Francis and his good wife Hannah. He was a ruling elder and is credited with having been a tower of strength in the Whitefield Movement, and to the end

of his life the right-hand man of his pastor, the Reverend John Cleveland. Like many men of his time he was a slaveholder, but in his will he provided for the freedom of his slaves or for their comfortable support should they become aged and unable to work.

But it was his elder brother, Colonel John Choate, who first of the family enacted a distinguished part in public affairs. In all that concerned the commonwealth he was extremely active and useful, and was evidently a forceful character of great ability and activity. Between 1731 and 1760 he was elected fifteen times as representative of Ipswich in the House of Representatives, and for five years he was a member of the Council. During his long term of legislative service, he appears to have been on all important committees and on many special commissions. He was called upon to do duty on all sorts of important subjects. In 1741 he was elected speaker of the House, but Governor Belcher seems to have been displeased and dissolved the House before anything further was done.

The subjects on which Colonel John Choate was employed included the Land Bank, the settlement of the boundary between Rhode Island and Massachusetts, an inquiry as to who were formerly sufferers as Quakers or on account of witchcraft and what satisfaction had been made by the General Court to such sufferers, on bills of credit, to ascertain their rate with gold and silver, and also on the bills of credit of other provinces, on the payment of taxes and other financial matters. He went on the expedition against Louisburg with the recruits raised for that service, for which he had leave of the House to be absent, and was commissioned judge-advocate of the Court of Admiralty at Louisburg after his arrival

there with his troops. He also served on the committee on encouraging manufactures and other industries of the province. He was chosen by the two Houses commissioner to meet the Six Nations of New York. From 1735 to the time of his death, thirty years afterwards, he was constantly employed on important business for the commonwealth.

And this did not distract him from purely local affairs, for in 1764, the year before his death, he built the famous Choate bridge over the Ipswich River, a stone bridge of beautiful proportions, which still stands secure as on the day it was opened, although its low arches were such a novelty in that region that its collapse with the first heavy load that went over it was loudly predicted, and great multitudes are said to have gathered to witness the catastrophe.

His nephew, Stephen Choate, son of his brother Thomas, is also my ancestor, his daughter Susannah having married my grandfather George Choate, her cousin, and this Stephen, born in 1727 and who died in 1815, was also a great public character, besides having thirteen children and a great troop of descendants.

In 1774 he was elected on the committee of correspondence which had so much to do with the origin of the great movements for independence which resulted in the establishment of the United States as an independent nation. He entered the General Court as a representative from Ipswich in May, 1776, when the court held its session at Watertown, Boston being in the hands of the British soldiers, and from that time he was annually re-elected until 1779, after which he became a member of the Senate and still later of the Council. He served for many years as county treasurer and was a constant