11 Spring Street

History

It is possible that Samuel Bayley bought the land in 1783. He built 11 Spring Street in 1785. Spring Street was not laid out until 1797; it was probably one of the first houses on the street. Mr. Samuel Bayley was one of the wealthiest merchants in Newburyport, and the house’s interior reflects his wealth and status.

Captain Samuel Bayley was Samuel Bayley’s son. In 1793, his ship was captured by Algerian pirates. A ransom was raised by the family and friends of the crew that had been taken prisoner. Captain Bayley’s ransom was “forwarded” by his father, and although “he was set at liberty,” he died of the plague on his way home. He is described as a “young man of much promise, universally beloved and respected, and his sad fate was greatly deplored.”

Samuel’s first wife was Patience Bayley; she died in 1811 at 72, Samuel died in 1816 at 72, and Samuel’s second wife, Mary, died a year later in 1817 at the age of 58. In his will, Samuel left half of the undivided house to his second “beloved” wife, Mary, for her use. At the same time, she was alive and the other half to his daughter, Mary Stevens Stone, and her children. Samuel Bayley is buried at Highland Cemetery with his first wife, Patience, on one side and his daughter, Mary Stevens Stone, on the other. Mary, Samuel’s second wife, and Mary Stone’s husband, Captain Daniel Stone, are not included in the trio of gravestones at Highland Cemetery.

On the 1851 map, 11 Spring Street is divided. Mary Stevens Bayley Stone’s children each owned a half. Samuel R. Stone, Mary’s son, owned one side, and Mary’s daughter, Mary Greenleaf, and her husband, George, owned the other. In 1852, Mary Stevens Stone’s granddaughter and her husband, Sarah and Edward Lunt, bought Samuel R. Stone’s half. In 1866, the entire house was sold to James Cary of Lawrence, who subsequently sold it to Captain Stephen Poor Bray in 1867.

Captain Bray was married to Elizabeth Bray, and in his will, he left his daughter, Fanny Bray, half of the undivided house if she cared for her mother. Fanny took care of her mother, who died in 1895. In April 1896, her two brothers gave her their half, and Fanny owned the entire house. In August 1896, Fanny married Frank S. Le Bosquet, a tailor.

In 1905, Fanny and Frank gave the house to the priest at the French Catholic Church on the corner of Federal and Beck Streets, St. Aloysius de Gonzaga, which had been erected in 1904. The priest gave the house to Frank and Rundlett in August of that year. Frank and Mary Rundlett were married in June 1905. Mary, a widow, sold the house in 1943 with the stipulation that she would be allowed to live there until her death; at that time, Mary was 73; she died in 1951.