Hale Farm
John Hale was born in Charlestown, MA in 1636 and came to Beverly to preach when it was still known as the “Bass River Side” of Salem.
John Hale served as the pastor at Beverly’s First Parish Church until his death in 1700; he was buried in the Abbot Street cemetery. Hale played a role in the 1692 Salem witchcraft trials and later wrote a book published posthumously, “A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft,” in an effort to explain what had happened. That book was written at Hale Farm.
History
The original 1694 Hale House structure was built in 1694 for Rev. John Hale, the first minister of Beverly and an important figure in the Salem witchcraft trial. The Hales, and then their Bancroft descendants owned the property until 1937. At one point, the family owned 100 acres, including what is now Dane Street Beach.
The oldest part of the house, two rooms up and two rooms down, was built for Reverend Hale in 1694. In 1745, Colonel Robert Hale, Jr. (John Hale’s grandson), added the front section of the house with the gambrel roof. He excavated a cellar (where evidence of a buttery has been found), added the present staircases, and built an addition of two rooms down and two up, along with the gambrel roof that allowed rooms on the third floor. The property at that time included about 100 acres and extended to the ocean.
In 1881, Robert Hale Bancroft of Boston, who had inherited Hale Farm from his mother, converted the house into a summer estate for his family. He added a wing for a new kitchen and laundry in 1881, and servant quarters in 1898. Bancroft died in 1918. In 1937, his daughters sold the house and the remaining acre of property to the Beverly Historical Society.
Hale descendants who owned/lived at Hale Farm
Rev. John Hale and his first wife Rebeckah (Byles)
Children: Rebecca (Becky) born in 1666 and died in 1681; and Robert, born in 1668.Children of John Hale and his second wife, Sarah (Noyes), married March 31, 1684 James, born October 16, 1685 Samuel, born May 16, 1687 Joanna, born June 15, 1689 John, born December 24, 1692. Children of Robert and Elizabeth (Clark) Hale, married in February 1700. Rebeckah, born November 19, 1701, later married to the Rev. John Chipman, first pastor of Beverly’s Second Church Robert, born February 12, 1702/3, third owner of Hale House; Henry, born December 19, 1712, married and died in Exeter, New Hampshire.
Children of Robert Hale Jr and Elizabeth (Gilman), married December 11, 1723. Elizabeth, born July 18, 1725 First Rebeckah, born May 17, 1730, died at age 23 months; second Rebeckah, born February 5, 1732/3, died age 3 years and 6 months, four days after her mother during a deadly epidemic.
When Col. Hale died in 1767, he left his Hale Farm to Elizabeth, his only surviving child, and directed that on her death it was to pass to his grandson, Robert Hale Ives.
Children of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Hale) Ives, married October 12, 1743. Robert Hale Ives, known as “Hale,” born July 18, 1744,; Rebecca, born June 12, 1746, married Joseph Gilman of Exeter, New Hampshire; Benjamin died in 1763 at age 13, buried in the Hale family plot in the Abbott Street Cemetery.
Robert Hale Ives and Sarah (Bray), married on March 20, 1766. Robert died on a voyage in 1773, his widow lived at Hale House with her four children. Elizabeth, born November 15, 1767, married Thomas Bancroft of Boston and was the mother of Thomas Poynton Bancroft, later owner occupant of Hale Farm; Charlotte, born January 17, 1771, died in Salem at age 18; Robert Jr., born in March of 1773 and, like his father, died at sea.
When Sarah died in 1782, their aunt, the widow Hannah Poynton of Salem, swooped in to take the orphan children to her home.
Owners of Hale Farm:
Rev. John Hale (1636-1700): 1692-1700
Dr. Robert Hale (1668- 1719): 1700-1719
Col. Robert Hale, Jr. (1702-1767): 1719-1767
Elizabeth Hale Ives (1725- 1767) and son Robert Hale Ives (1744-): 1767-1782
Thomas Poynton Ives, then his sister Elizabeth’s husband Thomas Bancroft: 1782-1845Note: From 1782-1845 the property was rented to tenant farmers. Peter and Bridget Trainor, who lived nearby in 1852, may have farmed the property in the 1840s. In 1845, Thomas Poynton Bancroft (1799-?) began using the house as a summer residence. Robert Hale Bancroft (1843-1918): 1845-1918 Eleanor and Hope Bancroft: 1918-1937 Beverly Historical Society: 1937-present
Robert Hale Bancroft (1843-1918): 1845-1918
Eleanor and Hope Bancroft: 1918-1937
Beverly Historical Society: 1937-present