Good Morning Gloucester

Juni Van Dyke’s show at Jane Deering Gallery 19 Pleasant Street Gloucester MA opens Saturday October 29 5-7PM and continues through December 2017. I think Juni’s art transposes her passions and delights into works of sumptuous color and significance. They are beautiful, moving and resonant with her life experiences.

Jane Deering Gallery is located within the 1842 home built for Capt. Harvey Coffin MacKay and  Sally (Somes) MacKay. They were married in 1816. The building is one of many distinctive assets within Gloucester’s Central Historic District. There aren’t many wood structures dating from this time because of fires.

McKay’s name is on the 1821 First Fire Club list, established in 1766, appointed to Engine No. Two.  Members agreed to 14 Articles: “to be helpful to each other in case of fire; 2, each member to provide two good leather buckets and two strong bags of not less than three bushels capacity, the fine for non-compliance being 12-1/2 cents; 3, to meet annually, also quarterly, with a fine of 12-1/2 cents for non-attendance; 4, a committee of two to inspect each other’s premises and inspect all fire apparatus quarterly; 5, a moderator and clerk to be elected; 6, prescribe the duties of the clerk; 7, to expel members absent from four quarterly meetings and refusing to pay the fines and assessments; 8, to pay for buckets or bags lost at any fire; 9, each member to pay 50 cents for a printed copy of the articles; 10, a secret watch-word for the society, the fine for divulging the same being 40 cents; 11, a fine of 12-1/2 cents for buckets or bags being out of their proper places; 12, fines and assessments to be paid to the Clerk; 12, a three-fourths vote necessary for admission, etc.; 14, a quarterly assessment of 25 cents to meet ordinary expenses.” See The Gloucester Fire Department: its history and work from 1793 to 1893 by John J Somes, ©1892 

In 2014, a trunk filled with archival material attributed to Captain MacKay including papers about the ship Parthian fetched $900 (est. $150-200) at online auction site, Invaluable, for The Gallery at Knotty Pine in West Swanzey, NH.

“I, Harvey C. Mackay do solemnly, sincerely, and truly swear, that the within REPORT and LIST, subscribed with my name and now delivered by me to the Collector of the district of BOSTON AND CHARLESTOWN, contains, to the best of my knowledge and belief, the names, age, sex and occupation of all the passengers, together with the name of the country to which they severally belong, and that of which they intend to become inhabitants, which were on board the London Packet whereof I am at present master, at the time of her sailing from the port of London or which have at any time since been taken on board the said vessel. And I do likewise swear, that all matters whatsoever in said report and list expressed, are, to the best of my knowledge and belief, just and true. SO HELP ME GOD. (Signed) Harvey Mackay, MASTER. Sworn to before me, this twenty-fifth day of April 1827, (signed) J. W., Dy. COLLECTOR.” See the (short) Passenger list on board the packet Ship London from England to Boston, Massachusetts on 25 April 1827 

A fishing schooner built in Essex in 1866 was named for ‘intrepid Capt Harvey C Mackay (1786-1869). From Out of Gloucester, http://www.downtosea.com: On December 24, 1879: The Sch. ‘Harvey C. Mackay’ Given Up as Lost: The Schooner Harvey C. Mackay, for whose safety fears have been entertained, and for whose coming back to port anxious ears have long been waiting, has been given up as lost by her owners, and she must be added, with her crew of hardy men, to the list of lost fishermen. She left port… 

New Jane Deering Gallery opens in Gloucester