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Henry was the name given to one of Edmund's sons, born in 1627. As an infant of one
year of age he boarded the ship with his family and immigrated to America. Later as an adult he moved to Andover where he
lived until he was ninety-two years old. His son was Captain Henry Ingalls. About a year before his death Captain Ingalls
made the following observation in his genealogy.
"Mr. Henry Ingalls, from whom all these spring were born in the year
1627, and he died in 1719, who lived for ninety two years, and two months after his death, I, Henry Ingalls was born, who
lived (so far) eighty three years . . . so that we two Henry Ingalls hath lived 175 years." Henry is still a name given to
the Ingalls sons in the family. At the time of writing (1996) I have an Uncle Henry Ingalls who will be eighty-five in November.
As a young man he served in the Second World War overseas. He came back to his home island of Grand Manan and made his living
from fishing. He died July 30,2000.) Edmund, his wife, Ann, six of his nine children and his brother, Francis, packed up their
belongings and like Noah before them, they entered the boat. The ship, named the ABIGAIL, became their home for the next three
months. It is believed that they came over at the same time as the Governor, Endicott. The journey from Weymouth, England
to Salem, Massachusetts, took eleven weeks. Today it takes less than that in hours including time for airports, line-ups and
a traffic jam or two. Were they prepared for such a long journey? Did they have any idea of how hard they would have to work
to make a living in their new land?
The brothers arrived at Salem on September 6, 1628. After eleven weeks of journey
they faced the task of making a new home in this new and sometimes hostile land. When they first journeyed into the wilderness
their goosebumps would come out on their arms and shivers go up their spine as they heard "ye famishing wolves that howled
piteouslie." These wolves also came to wail about their habitations in the night.
They searched for a place to make their
new home. They couldn't take long for they had to get ready to coax a living from the brown earth. There were trees to fell,homes
to build, stumps to be cleared and stones to be lifted. Fortunately, the soil was fertile, and their livestock found a plentiful
pasturage. The fish were free and numerous. In the spring they planted "Payer and Appill trees", as they were fond of "cyder"
to drink. The salt of the sea was used to cure the fish that were caught. These fish were then dried and stored for winter
consumption.
In some instances this new land provided its own fears for as they worked they "did sometimes see skulling
about among ye trees what we conjected to be Indjans or Devils." They answered this fear by calling on their God and it is
said that one of the early settlers summed the situation up by the following statement. "God being on our side wee feare not
what Indjans or Devils can doe."
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