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- 

 different, for the real character of the man, if it shall ever 

 be finally established 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 debaucheries of the Restoration 

 are destined ever to be substantiated. The memory of 

 Peters belongs in a sense to this town, for he not only 

 ministered here with success between 1634 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 Rail way Of- 

 fice and the Joshua Ward house on Washington street, the 

 house in which Washington slept in 1789, 

 (84) . 



