Salem, Essex, Massachusetts in the 1710s

Work

Ships shaped work

The waterfront economy rested on cod fishing, commerce, shipbuilding², though households still kept ties to agriculture and husbandry². Many crews were local: most mariners on Salem-owned vessels came from Salem itself⁴.

Faith

Meetinghouses divided time

Puritan Congregational worship dominated¹ public religious life, but Quakers had met in their own meetinghouse since 1688¹. In 1718 the East Church meetinghouse was completed on Essex Street¹, showing growth and division inside the town’s Congregational world.

Law & power

Town and province ruled

Roads, meetinghouses, courts, and taxes were governed through town and provincial authority; the General Court still touched Salem directly when pardons and reparations for witch-trial victims began in 1711³.

In the air

The trials still mattered

The witch trials were not distant folklore: 1711 brought pardons and reparations³, and some households were still living with legal, financial, and moral consequences from 1692.

What people feared

Sea, war, and law

Men working from Salem faced the hazards of ocean labor in a town where cod fishing and commerce dominated². As across coastal Massachusetts in Queen Anne’s War, war with France and Native allies was part of the background.

Money

Shillings for hard labor

A Salem laborer’s account book shows about three to four shillings for a day’s work⁶. Piece tasks could be small and exact: two shillings four pence for dismantling a barn⁶ or four shillings for washing fish⁶.

Who lived here

A growing English town

The town held about 2,300 people in 1709¹ and was growing quickly. The population was still mainly of English descent, while the wider town report notes Scots, Irish, French, Quakers, and enslaved or free Black residents later in the colonial period.

Roads & news

Roads before newspapers

News moved by road, water, ferry, and travelers, not a local press, because Salem’s first newspaper did not begin until 1768⁵. The main ways led south to Marblehead¹, north toward Cape Ann¹, and by Ferry Lane to the Beverly Ferry¹.

Year by year

1. 1710Port Royal in Acadia fell to British and colonial forces during Queen Anne’s War, news that would have mattered in Massachusetts ports. nearby
2. 1711Essex Street, then Queen’s Highway, was widened between Washington and Summer Streets. here¹
3. 1711The Massachusetts General Court began pardons and reparations for people harmed by the Salem witch trials. here³
4. 1713The Treaty of Utrecht ended Queen Anne’s War between Britain and France. the world
5. 1713More than 200 people rioted in Boston over the high price of bread. nearby
6. 1714Queen Anne died and George I became king, putting the Hanoverian line on the British throne. the world
7. 1718The East Church meetinghouse was completed on Essex Street, about half a mile east of the First Church. here¹

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• About 2,300 people lived in Salem in 1709, just before the decade opened. from the sources¹
• Salem's population then rose rapidly in the early eighteenth century, according to the Massachusetts Historical Commission town report. from the sources¹
• By 1711, Essex Street was widened between Washington and Summer Streets. from the sources¹
• That part of Essex Street was then called Queen’s Highway and was Salem’s chief thoroughfare before 1727. from the sources¹
• A main land route out of Salem ran south to Marblehead. from the sources¹
• Other main routes ran north through the Peabody and Danvers area toward Cape Ann and northern settlements. from the sources¹
• A new road to the Beverly Ferry had been laid out in 1701 and was known as Ferry Lane before 1754. from the sources¹
• Native trails around Salem had likely been upgraded into horse paths or cart ways by this period. from the sources¹
• At the beginning of the eighteenth century Salem’s economy was still dominated by maritime trade: cod fishing, commerce, shipbuilding, and related waterfront work. from the sources²
• From the turn of the century to 1775, the majority of mariners on Salem-owned vessels were recruited from within Salem rather than from the countryside or outside the colony. from the sources⁴
• Early in the eighteenth century, seafaring became a family tradition in many Salem households, with sons following fathers or uncles to sea. from the sources⁴
• Salem people still practiced agriculture and husbandry in the early eighteenth century, despite the dominance of maritime work. from the sources²
• Puritan Congregationalism characterized most worship in Salem during the colonial period. from the sources¹
• The East Church meetinghouse was completed in 1718 on Essex Street, about half a mile east of the First Church. from the sources¹
• Quakers were present throughout Salem’s colonial period, and their first meetinghouse had been built in 1688. from the sources¹
• In 1689, Salem Village, later Danvers, was formally separated from Salem’s First Church for religious purposes. from the sources¹
• In 1711 the Massachusetts General Court began pardons and reparations for survivors and families harmed by the Salem witch trials. from the sources³
• Salem had no local newspaper in the 1710s; the first newspaper published there, the Essex Gazette, began in 1768. from the sources⁵
• A Salem day laborer’s account book from 1708 to 1729 often recorded a day’s work at about three to four shillings. from the sources⁶
• The same Salem account book listed two shillings four pence for dismantling a barn, one shilling two pence for killing two lambs, and four shillings for washing fish. from the sources⁶
• As across coastal Massachusetts during Queen Anne’s War, news of fighting with France and its Native allies would have mattered in Salem’s seafaring and militia world. inferred
• No online source opened here gives a street-by-street description of ordinary Salem houses in the 1710s. not known

Sources

1. MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report: Salem. Massachusetts Historical Commission, 1985
2. Historic Overview of Salem. City of Salem
3. The Aftermath. Massachusetts Archives Digital Repository
4. Recruitment and Promotion: The Merchant Fleet of Salem, Massachusetts, 1670–1765. Cambridge University Press, 1994
5. The Essex Gazette. Wellcome Collection
6. Cockerl Reeves account book, 1708–1729. Harvard Library HOLLIS for Archival Discovery

Salem in other decades

Nearby, about the same time