Back to previous section -- Forward to next chapter -- Return to Table of Contents

"THE WRECK OF RIVERMOUTH"

In the autumn of 1657, an event occurred, which brought mourning and sorrow into several families in the town and cast a gloom over the whole community. A vessel sailed from our river, October 20, bound to Boston, having on board four men, two women and two children--eight persons in all--belonging to Hampton. From some cause not now known, the vessel, soon after leaving the harbor, either foundered, or was capsized, and all on board perished. The persons lost were these: Robert Reed, Serg^t. William Swaine, Emanuel Hilliard, John Philbrick, his wife Ann, and their daughter Sarah, Alice, the wife of Moses Cox, and John Cox their son, and as is supposed, their only child.

The entry is thus quaintly made on the town records:
"The sad hand of God upon eight psons goeing in a vessell by sea from Hampton to boston, who were all swallowed up in the ocean soon after they were out of the Harbour."

[Also see the poem "The Wreck of Rivermouth" by John Greenleaf Whittier.]

The SeacoastNH.com website has a page devoted to this shipwreck.

END OF CHAPTER 2

Back to previous section -- Forward to next chapter -- Return to Table of Contents