{{Short description|Historical landmark in Saugus, Massachusetts}} {{Use American English|date=August 2025}} thumb|Appleton's Pulpit '''Appleton's Pulpit''' is a historic landmark in Saugus, Massachusetts, United States. It is the location where Major Samuel Appleton is said to have made a speech denouncing the tyranny of Colonial Governor Sir Edmund Andros.
==Speech== On September 19, 1687, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Samuel Appleton of Ipswich, Dudley Bradstreet of Andover, and Nathaniel Saltonstall of Haverhill for being "persons factiously and seditiously inclined, and disaffected to his Majesty's government". Two additional warrants were issued on October 3 and October 5. It is believed that during this time, Appleton hid in the home of his son, Colonel Samuel Appleton, who owned the Saugus Iron Works property (in what was then part of Lynn, Massachusetts). While there, Appleton, according to tradition, delivered an address from a rocky cliff near the Iron Works in which he denounced the tyranny of Andros. The place where he is said to have delivered the speech became known as Appleton's Pulpit.<ref name="Memorial of Samuel Appleton">{{cite book|last=Jewett|first=Issac Appleton|title=Memorial of Samuel Appleton of Ipswich, Massachusetts: With Genealogical Notices of Some of His Descendants|year=1801|location=Boston|pages=19–20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KZIWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA20&dq}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Report of the Board of Metropolitan Park Commissioners|date=January 1893|page=39|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mSRJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA39&dq}}</ref><ref name="Ipswich Historical Society">{{cite journal|last=Ipswich Historical Society|title=A Genealogy of the Ipswich Descendants of Samuel Appleton.*|journal=Publications of the Ipswich Historical Society|year=1906|page=31|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ScWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA187&dq|accessdate=February 16, 2014}}</ref>
===Accuracy=== In ''Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony'', Thomas Franklin Waters disputed the traditional account of events. The October 5 warrant was issued for Samuel Appleton of Lynn for hiding from officers of the law. While it could be inferred that Samuel Appleton was hiding in Lynn and the warrant specified "Samuel Appleton of Lynn" to ensure his arrest, Appleton would testify in his sworn deposition that he was arrested on September 20 and remained in custody until his ultimate release. Therefore, the October 5 warrant was likely for his son, also named Samuel Appleton, who lived in Lynn from 1680 to 1688. Waters also stated that it is improbable that a fugitive from justice would openly harangue the public from a high ledge. However, if the event did take place, Waters contended that it was the younger Appleton who delivered the speech.<ref name="Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony">{{cite book|last=Waters|first=Thomas Franklin|title=Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony|publisher=The Salem Press|location=Salem, MA|year=1905|page=272|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sl9AAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA272&dq}}</ref>
==Historical markers== Thomas Gold Appleton, a descendant of Samuel Appleton, had a tablet about two and a half feet square fastened to the perpendicular face of the cliff, just below where the speech is supposed to have been made.<ref name="Society of Colonial Wars">{{cite journal|last=Bent|first=Samuel Arthur|title=Biographical Sketches of Ancestors|journal=Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Year Book|year=1898|pages=234–236|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u5gCAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA126&dq|accessdate=February 16, 2014}}</ref><ref name="Sketch of Saugus" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Hurd|first=Duane Hamilton|title=History of Essex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Volume 1|year=1888|publisher=J. W. Lewis & Company|location=Philadelphia|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_15Q6AQAAIAAJ/page/n628 395]–396|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_15Q6AQAAIAAJ}}</ref> It was formally presented to the Town of Saugus in March 1882.<ref name="Sketch of Saugus">{{cite journal|last=Robinson|first=E. P.|title=Sketch of Saugus|journal=New England Magazine|year=1885|page=145|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xjwBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA145&dq|accessdate=February 16, 2014}}</ref> The tablet read {{quote|APPLETON'S PULPIT<br>IN SEPTEMBER 1687 FROM<br>THIS ROCK TRADITION<br>ASSERTS THAT RESISTING<br>THE TYRANNY OF SIR EDMUND<br>ANDROS MAJOR SAMUEL<br>APPLETON OF IPSWICH SPOKE<br>TO THE PEOPLE IN BEHALF OF<br>THOSE PRINCIPALS WHICH<br>LATER WERE EMBODIED IN<br>THE DECLARATION OF<br>INDEPENDENCE.<ref name="Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony" />}}
In 1930, the Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission erected a number of historical markers around the state.<ref name="Saugus Advertiser">{{cite news|last=Nicastro|first=Dom|title=Search is on for historical signs in Saugus|url=http://www.wickedlocal.com/x177097827/Search-is-on-for-historical-signs-in-Saugus|accessdate=February 17, 2014|newspaper=Saugus Advertiser|date=July 1, 2011}}</ref> Appleton's Pulpit was one of nine sites in Saugus the commission chose to place a marker, which reads {{quote|APPLETON'S PULPIT<br>IN 1687 MAJOR APPLETON<br>OF IPSWICH MADE A SPEECH ON<br>THIS ROCK DENOUNCING THE<br>TYRANNY OF THE ROYAL GOVERNOR,<br>SIR EDMUND ANDROS. A WATCH<br>WAS STATIONED ON THE HILL TO<br>GIVE WARNING OF ANY APPROACH<br>OF THE CROWN OFFICERS.<ref name="Saugus Advertiser" />}}
==References== {{reflist}}
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Category:Historic sites in Massachusetts Category:Buildings and structures in Saugus, Massachusetts Category:Appleton family