Person:Enoch Noyes (1)

From Paul Noyes, http://genweb.net/~paulnoyes/index.html, who quoted from 'A County In Revolution' "If Loyalists had opted for the popular side, life would have been so much easier. Of all the county Loyalists, possibly Enoch Noyes of Newbury, New Town was the most indiviualistic and colorful. The lanky, long-haired unkempt Noyes often was seen running barefoot, sometimes with a hatchet in hand. If Noyes were to be startled the cause of the disturbance could be the likely target of his hatchet. He had other peculiarities. On one instance, Noyes was seen armed with a crossbow shooting robins out of his cherry trees. On another occasion, it was reported that an unsuspecting acquaintance greeted Noyes with a loud "How do you do?" Noyes swung at his addressor and knocked him to the ground. While some considered Noyes erratic and strange, others saw a genius in him. An avid reader, Noyes could boast the largest library in town. He was among the first in the vicinity to raise fish and to import fruit trees. Free-thinker Noyes did not care what people thought of him or his political opinions. But he occasionally voiced his Tory views too loudly and had to retreat from popular threats against his safety. Noyes built a sub-cellar with an entrance from the chimney where he hid for long periods of time. Each day his wife would lower his food in a basket tied to a rope. Later in the War, Major Moses LIttle returned to his Turkey Hill Farm with 10 Hessian prisoners captured from Burgoyne's army at the Battle of Bennington. One of these prisoners was William Cleland. One day Cleland appeared with a knapsack of tools at the door of Enoch Noyes and offered his services as a skilled comb-maker. For nearly 20 years, Noyes had been making combs from horn and selling them in the Parish. Now he could apply the techniques of European manufacture. From this humble beginning, New Town became the birthplace of a thriving comb industry in the 19th century."

Occupation - [date: 1759] [place: Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts] Comb Maker

Census - [date: 1790] [place: Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts]

(4 males 16+, 1 male under 16 and 5 females.)

'Comb Industry In Newburyport'

Enoch Noyes in 1759 "commenced, without instruction, making horn buttons, and coarse combs, of various kinds." Noyes was soon to acquire a reputation as a "rabid Tory" that still lingers in his family; this political disposition perhaps made it easier for him to enter into a curious partnership that put new life into his business and helped establish West Newbury as a major comb making center.

One day in 1778, as Enoch Noyes sat working horn into combs with his hand tools, he was approached by a stranger, whose Anglicized name comes down to us as William Clelland, or Cleland. Clelland was a Hessian, one of the German mercenaries from the province of Hesse employed by the Crown to bolster regular British forces in the Revolution. According to Joshua Coffin, he was a deserter from Burgoyne's army, although later accounts refer to him as one of a group of prisoners taken either at Bennington or Saratoga, billeted in or near West Newbury, and given freedom to come and go as they pleased according to the informal practice of that place and time.

Clelland had been a comb maker in Germany, and in keeping with another practice of the era, he had come to New England with his tools. These were more advanced than those used by Enoch Noyes, and when the Hessian proposed that the two men work together, it must have struck the Yankee as an opportunity not only to increase production but also to learn what a modern manufacturer would call the "state of the art." Whatever advantages Clelland's European tools may have offered, it should be remembered that at this stage of the industry's development all phases of the comb making operation were accomplished by hand, from softening of the horn or tortoise shell in hot oil, to cutting and sawing teeth, to smoothing and polishing.

Because technology had not yet made comb making a capital-intensive enterprise requiring consolidation within larger factories (horse, water, and eventually steam power would be brought into use), the industry in the West Newbury of Enoch Noyes' day was still dispersed among a score or more of farmhouses.

Although there is no reliable information as to what eventually became of William Clelland, the name of Noyes remained prominent in the comb industry from the time of Enoch until well into the twentieth century.

'Reminiscences of A Nonagenarian'

Mr. Noyes, while a genius, was a great oddity. He would run half over the parish bareheaded and barefooted. It was no uncommon thing for him to appear at our house after dinner on a hot summer day, in only a shirt and breeches, having run across the fields two miles, "jest to take a nooning." A great joker and a capital story-teller, his appearance was the signal for a general frolic. He was more fond of telling strangers that his father used to say he had "four remarkable children: Molly was remarkably handsome, Tim was remarkably sloven, John was remarkably wicked, and Enoch was remarkably cunning."

'A County In Revolution'

"If Loyalists had opted for the popular side, life would have been so much easier. Of all the county Loyalists, possibly Enoch Noyes of Newbury, New Town was the most indiviualistic and colorful. The lanky, long-haired unkempt Noyes often was seen running barefoot, sometimes with a hatchet in hand. If Noyes were to be startled the cause of the disturbance could be the likely target of his hatchet. He had other peculiarities. On one instance, Noyes was seen armed with a crossbow shooting robins out of his cherry trees. On another occasion, it was reported that an unsuspecting acquaintance greeted Noyes with a loud "How do you do?" Noyes swung at his addressor and knocked him to the ground. While some considered Noyes erratic and strange, others saw a genius in him. An avid reader, Noyes could boast the largest library in town. He was among the first in the vicinity to raise fish and to import fruit trees. Free-thinker Noyes did not care what people thought of him or his political opinions. But he occasionally voiced his Tory views too loudly and had to retreat from popular threats against his safety. Noyes built a sub-cellar with an entrance from the chimney where he hid for long periods of time. Each day his wife would lower his food in a basket tied to a rope. Later in the War, Major Moses LIttle returned to his Turkey Hill Farm with 10 Hessian prisoners captured from Burgoyne's army at the Battle of Bennington. One of these prisoners was William Cleland. One day Cleland appeared with a knapsack of tools at the door of Enoch Noyes and offered his services as a skilled comb-maker. For nearly 20 years, Noyes had been making combs from horn and selling them in the Parish. Now he could apply the techniques of European manufacture. From this humble beginning, New Town became the birthplace of a thriving comb industry in the 19th century."

1. ↑ His tombstone.
2. ↑ Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts, United States. Vital Records of Newbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849. (Salem, Mass.: The Essex Institute, 1911)
   360.

   NOYES, Enoch, s. William, 3d and Lydia, Apr. 8, 1743.