Colonial Marblehead was part of a complex and flourishing mercantile economy. Coast-wise schooners sailed to the West Indies, laden with lucrative cargoes, while larger merchant ships and brigs carried lumber, fish and other goods across the Atlantic to England and Spanish ports.

During the 1700s, the number of colonial vessels plying the waves between Marblehead and the West Indies, Europe, and other English colonies was remarkable. The area's rich natural resources - primarily timber and fish, staples of Massachusetts' economy - were exported to coastal America, European, and West Indies markets. Salt, hemp for cordage, rum, sugar and molasses (which was distilled into rum in Boston and North Shore), fruits or other delicacies from southern latitudes were returned in exchange. Manufactured goods imported from England provided a measure of comfort and beauty in otherwise spartan colonial lives.

Marblehead Harbor, c. 1890

In the 1760s - heady and prosperous years just prior to the American Revolution - Marblehead was among the ten largest towns in the colonies, with a population of nearly 5,000 (Boston had 16,000 residents). It was a cosmopolitan commercial center. Wealthy merchants built stately homes and furnished them with luxury goods imported from England or commissioned from local craftsmen. During this period (specifically 1768), Colonel Jeremiah Lee, at the pinnacle of both his and the town's prosperity, built his magnificent mansion on what was then the main street, today's Washington Street.

The Revolutionary War brought economic devastation from heavy losses in men, ships and property. Though fishing and Atlantic trade resumed afterward, Marblehead recovered slowly (unlike neighboring Salem). During and after the 1790s comparatively few Marblehead vessels participated in the new Pacific trade. Hardship struck New England again during President Jefferson's coastal embargo of 1807-9. Soon after that, the War of 1812 brought loss of life and livelihood to many as mariners fought, were wounded or imprisoned, and died for "free trade and seamen’s rights."

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