Middleton
Middleton is where John Peters grew up, enslaved by Lt. John Wilkins and his wife Naomi. It is also where he returned to live in April 1780, accompanied by his wife Phillis and possibly an infant child of theirs.
The Essex County town is roughly twenty miles north of Boston. Middleton was established in 1728, carved out of parts of Andover, Boxford, Topsfield, and Danvers (then Salem). It did not have much of a town center beyond the congregational church and John Estey’s tavern. A farming community, Middleton was third or fourth from the bottom of 21 towns in the county in terms of how much its taxpayers paid in county taxes each year. The 1790 federal census recorded a population of 692 people.
The images on this page orient us to the location of the land owned by John Peters in relation to various features of the local landscape. They also give a sense of the “look” of some of the buildings.
Description
The church was built in 1726 to comply with Massachusetts laws. Middleton was incorporated in 1728. The first Congregational church originally faced west on Webb Street. In 1846 the church was taken down/. This original Meetinghouse stood on the same ground as the present Middleton Congregational church.
