The Manning family is an Ipswich success story. Thomas Manning, a commoner, was employed in 1661 to keep the flock of sheep on the north side of the river. His grandson Joseph Manning graduated from Harvard College, and served the town as a highly-regarded physician for 50 years. Joseph’s son John Manning and grandson Thomas Manning also became important Ipswich citizens and physicians.
“Being desirous of settling in the town of his nativity,” young Dr. Joseph Manning was granted about ninety feet between the river bank and South Main Street in 1727. The house he built was one of the earliest hip-roofed Georgian houses in Ipswich, with fireplaces on either side of a central hall. It was stipulated by the town that the lots could extend no farther into the river than “ye low water mark,” but the industrious young doctor expanded his lot by rowing downstream each evening and bringing back stones. He married first, Priscilla Boardman, and after her death married Elizabeth Boardman. This is where he lived until he died in 1784.
In 1869, Josiah and Dorcas Stackpole purchased the house from the Ipswich Mills Company (774: 84), and their descendants were the last families to live in the old house. The Stackpole & Sons Soap Factory on County Rd. made tallow soap from the carcasses of sheep and cows.
In the early 20th Century, Dr. Manning’s house was sold to Ernest Courier, who converted it into a bicycle shop, but the short-lived Golden Age of Cycling soon succumbed to automobiles. In 1930, the house was moved a short distance closer to the Choate Bridge to make way for the R. W. Davis auto dealership, which today houses the AnnTiques store. You have probably passed Dr. Manning’s home many times, but you may not recognize it until you step across the street and see the hip roof, minus the chimneys.
Read more about Dr. Joseph Manning’s house at the Historic Ipswich site.
Historic Ipswich 
