Jacob Morrell was a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Quakers were not well liked by Puritans. In 1657, a stringent law was passed in Salisbury against harboring "any of the cursed sect of Quakers." Violators were subject to a fine of 40 schillings. Harboring a Quaker in your house from the rain for few a minutes was illegal. Jacob was presumably an outcast from the ordinarily Puritan environment of Salisbury, which must be why so few vital records for this family can be found. [7]

[1][Anonymous], Vital Records of Salisbury, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849 (Topsfield, MA: Topsfield Historical Society, 1915), 169.

[2]Salisbury VR (published) [note 1].

[3]David W. Hoyt, Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts (Providence, R.I: Snow & Farnham, 1897), 252.

[4]Salisbury VR (published) [note 1].

[5][Anonymous], Vital Records of Haverhill, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849 (Topsfield, MA: Topsfield Historical Society, 1910), 1:319.

[6]Salisbury VR (published) [note 1].

[7]Joseph Merrill, History of Amesbury (Haverhill: Press of Franklin P. Stiles, 1880), 66.

[8]Salisbury VR (published) [note 1], 167.

[9]ibid.

[10]ibid.

[11]Haverhill VR (published) [note 5], 1: 259.

[12]Salisbury VR (published) [note 1], 434.

[13]ibid., 597.

[14]ibid.

[15]ibid.

[16]Hoyt, Old Families of Salisbury & Amesbury [note 3], 329.

[17]Salisbury VR (published) [note 1].

[18]ibid., 174.

[19]ibid.

[20]ibid.

[21]Hoyt, Old Families of Salisbury & Amesbury [note 3], 373.

[22]ibid., 373.

[23]Salisbury VR (published) [note 1], 169.

[24]ibid.

[25]ibid., 161.

[26]ibid., 631.

[27]ibid., 161.

[28]ibid. "killed pulling down his own barn"