A LOST PAPER ON HUGH PETER. 
COMMUNICATED BY R. S. R. 
The character of Hugh Peter, or Peters, has been the 
subject of a protracted controversy upon which it is not 
our purpose to enter. The partisans of Cromwell and of 
the Stuarts have in turn done what they could, on the one 
hand to elevate and on the other to blacken and defame 
it. The question is one to which Salem can never be in- 
difl'erent, for the real character of the man, if it shall ever 
be finally esta])lished and vindicated, will be held amongst 
us as a precious heritage forever ; or in the other improba- 
ble alternative, will endure as a conspicuous blot on our 
local history if the ugly imputations so freely bandied 
about amidst the courtly de1)aucheries of the Restoration 
are destined ever to l)e substantiated. The memory of 
Peters l)elongs in a sense to this town, for he not only 
ministered here with success between 1684 and 1642 but 
also interested himself extensively in ship building and in 
agricultural ventures, investing largely in real estate as 
well, acquiring at one time or another the land upon which 
the Pratt tavern stood and the Stearns Building was erected 
in 1792 and a number of other valuable tracts including, 
it is believed, the site of the Naumkeag Street Railway Of- 
fice and the Joshua Ward house on Washington street, the 
house in which Washington slept in 1789, 
(84) 
