Nicholas Noyes 6

Henry Lunt 43

Wm. Browne 18

.lohn Cutting 30

Mr. Lowle, Sr 29

Samuel Plummer 65

Anthony Moi-se 54

Wm. Morse ;.

Henry Rolfe 11

Daniel Thurston 38

Abbe Hues .39

John Poore 35

James Merrill 40

Abraham Merrill 36

John Fry

The Ferry Lot

John Indian 61



At an earlier date, on the 17th of March, 1642, it



that the followiu.L; |. i-

and rivers undisl'..- 1

their heirs, have I -I.i

them theii' right aud title
ffreeholder shall bring
town's coumions, above
the freemen shall permit



.. I tiiider them, or any of

.[.nil 1 ,11.1 |.ni.li i from them or any of

liereunti.. and non..- else, provided, also, that no
any cattle of other men's or towns on the



beyond their proportio



tha



HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.



Klcl.ard Dunier.


Thomas Hale.


Uenry Sawall.


Joseph I'easly.


Edward Rawson.


William Mors.


Jolin Lowle.


John GoJf.


Henry Short.


John Stevens.


Thoi.ias Cromwell.


Antho: Short.


Richard Holt.


John I'emberton.


Heiirj Boir.


John Pike. Sr.


Johu Merrill.


John Mussellwhite.


John Emery.


Thomas Browne.


Anthony Somerby.


John llutchins.


Richard Bartlett.


Daniel Thnrston.


■William Moody.


John Poer.


William ffranckling.


John Pike, Jr.


Ahraham Toppan.


Henry Palmer.


H»nry Somerby.


William Titcomb.


Thoma.1 Silror.


Nicholas Batt.


Henry Travei-s.


Thomas Smith.


Richard Litleala.


William White.


Giles Badger.


Thomas Davis.


Thomaa Parker.


William Ilsley.


James Noyes.


Samnel Guile.


Percivall Lowle.


Thomas Dow.


Slepheu Dumer.


Archelaus Woodman


Richard Kent, Jr.


John Sweet.


Samnel ScuUard.


Christopher Bartlett.


Edward Greealeaf.


Mrs. Miller.


John Osgood.


John Russ.


Abel Huse.


Johu Spencer.


Joseph Carter.


John Clark.


John Knight.


Jolin Wooilbridge.


Uenry Lunt.


Johu Cutting.


Richard Knight.


James Browne.


Richard Browne.


Fi-aucis I'hnnn.er.


Mrs. Oliver.


William Palmer.


Stephen Kent.


John Bartlett.


John Cheney.


Robert Coker.


Richard Badger.


Richard mis.


Antliony Morse.


Thomas Blninfiel.l.


William Thomas.


Thomas Colman.


Nicholas Noyes,


George Browne.


Widow Stevens.


Nathaniel Badger.


Nathaniel Wyer.


John Bond.


John Kelley.


William Berry.


Mr. Woodman.


Walter AMen.



Counting the above ninety-one freeholders and the
probable average number in their families, together
with such as may not have been freeholders, the pop-
ulation of Newbury may be estimated to have been
in 1642, seven years after its settlement, at between
three and four hundred. Among the.se freeholders
are found the names of Bond, Browne, Pearse, Mors,
Ffranklin, Morrell, Smith, White, Knight, Allen,
Hutchins, Clark, Kent and Poor, all of which may be
found in various lists of residents of English New-
bury at the same period. It is not improbable that
many immigrants from that town to New England
who followed Rev. Thomas Parker, were attracted by
the name to make the American Newbury their per-
manent home. Descendants of the early .settlers of
Newbury seeking the home of their ancestors on the
other side of the ocean, and their family connections
in the old country, would probably find a genealogical
mine in the old English town which has not yet been
to any great extent explored.

In 1645 a second grist-mill was built, but whether
in addition to or in place of the old Dummer and
Spencer mill the records do not state. A committee



was appointed on the 18th of December in that year
"to procure a water mill for to be built and set up in
said towne," and it was agreed to give John Emery
and Samuel SeuUard twenty pounds and ten acres of
upland and si.x acres of meadow, said mill to be free
from all rates for seven years, and to be a freehold to
them and their heirs, they on their part agreeing to
set up the mill V)ctween Holt's Point ami Woodman's
Bridge.

Early in the year 1G47 the removal of the meeting-
house farther north, into or near what was called the
new town, became necessary in consequence of the
desertion of the old settlement by a majority of the
members of the church. On the 2d of January,
1640-47, the following order was issued by James
Noyes, Edward Woodman, John Cutting, John Lowle,
Richard Knight and Henry Short, six of the seven
men having charge of the afl'airs of the town :

'■ Wee, whose names are in the margent expressed for the setlleing the
disturban<-e8 that yett remayne abotit the planting and setling the meet-
ing house that all men may cheerfully goe on to improve their lands at
the new towne, doe determine that the meeting house shall be placed
and sett np at on or before the twentieth of Octol)er next in, or uptni
a Knowle of upland by Abraham Toppan's barue within a sixe or six-
teen rodd of the side of the gate posts, that are sett up in the high way
by the said Abraham Toppan's barne."

This knowle of land is understood to have been on
the northwest corner of the present burial-ground.
Edward Rawson, one of the town committee or
selectmen, as they may as well be called, dissented
from the decision of his associates, and a petition was
sent to the General Court signed by those opposed to
the removal, asking for such interference and aid as
the court might feel itself able to interpose and
render. The following extract will show the motive
and reasons actuating the petitioners :

"To conte to the last passages which stir and set t)n the great of
our aon-ows. Discourse at last was had of tjiking ilown ye meeting-
house. Those (as well as we can guesse) that paid two parts of
■ to the building of it, consented not, many strongly opposed it,
I V es of J tl at e tl serv I n v | 1 ] e j



kc



r el}) le

■selves, b

of tl e I e t.



made. Att the beginning of these motions we promised the elders,
both of you, their maintenance (which must needs be to our great
charge) if they would engage themselves to abide with us. We were
rejected in this. Since, we have nnid^ ^.-v.-ral propositions. The towne
being continued and stretched Miit i.. h. li\. mil.., ir ii..l ii|n\ mN,
besides the inconveniences of a ;: I ■ i; i i t ^' /i..- \>ii i l\

it cannot be imagined that we, muI : ' II' i, i , k\ n itnl ' IhI h. n

of all sorts can possibly goe abov ilii.<. mil,. (.. um -tin:; , l. -i,l. ^ itm



require will divei-s to be nearer, most men haviugsmall help, but by them-
selves, and ye two ends of ye towne being most populous, wee have there-
fore desired either fint that one of the elders might be resident with



NEWBURY.



1711



us. Though the other be there, the church and maintenance still con-
tiniiiug one and the same, or secondly, that there might be two churches,
au'i one elder might be ours, or thirdly, if neither of the former might
bi- obtained, then to let us be a church of ourselves."

This extract not only exhibits the feeling which
the removal of the meeting-house occasioned, but
throws also side-lights on the extent and character
and condition of the settlement. The allusion in the
extract to the sale of a part of the highway and the
burial-place is woven by an intelligent writer in the
Xewburyport Herald into an argument tending to
show that Fishermen's Green, and not the lower
green, was the location of the first meeting-house.
He says:



belief that this building first stood



is considerabl''



vhat was then



grouii'l V , I , ih.'salenf (lie gri-t-ii (m ,l. In, I i\ n, M:iy,

1647,1^1 I'll. I I ■ Mm- bouse had been reiiiiiM ' I ii 'i... -

sible tliiii 1 ii I. I ii I II would have been nia.I i.:! I. ml

were Hill .111; 1 1 mill In ids strongly to ostabh>li ih.. I n i ili.if rln^ \\;i-

the fir&t iiiid I'idy I'lii.e iy( burials of the early scltlL-is up tn this time.
A3 our ancestors came from a land where it was a common custom to
iiicludo the grounds for the meeting-house and burials in one lot, a cus-
tom continued by them when they relocated at the New-Town, it is but
reasonable to believe that when at Old-Town they had set apart grounds
for the same uses, they had connected them in the same manner."

His argument is, in a few words, that the old burial-
place was at Fishermen's Green, and that it is proba
ble that, in accordance with the English custom, the
burial-place was the churchyard. So far as the
Plymouth colony was concerned, the English custom
was invariably followed ; but the writer of this sketch
has heard it stated by a learned antiquary of Essex
County, that in that county, except in Ipswich, it did
not prevail. It certainly was not followed in Halem,
but the settlers of Newbury, having remained long
enough in Ipswich to observe its ways, may have
adopted them in their future home.

There is no record of any vessel up to this time
having crossed the bar at the mouth of the Merrimac.
It is probable that at the time of the settlement of
Newbury the bar was considered practically impas-
sable, while the river Parker was easily accessible
and to a certain point navigable for the class of ves-
sels at that time used. Hubbard says in his history:
" Merrimack is another gallant river, the entrance
into which, though a mile over in breadth, is barred
with shoals of sand, having two passages that lead
thereunto at either end of a sandy island that lieth
over against the mouth of sayde river. Near the
mouth of that are two other lesser ones, about which
are seated two considerable townes, the one called
Newberry, the other Ipswich, either of which have
fayre channels wherein vessels of fifty or sixty tons
may pass up safely to the doores of the inhabitants
whose habitations are pitched near the banks on
either side." And there is no doubt that the first
vessels built in Newbury were built on the river



Parker. But there is some reason to suspect that
the movement of the settlement towards the Mer-
rimac River was owing to the discovery that the
bar was not such a hindrance to navigation as had
been supposed.

The settlement of Salisbury, in 1(540, must have
been not only the result of this discovery, but the
cau.se of a further dissipation of previously enter-
tained fears concerning the river obstructions ; and
it is not unlikely that the Newbury people began at
this early day to take advantage of the deeper water,
the more advantageous shore and the better connec-
tion with the sea which the Merrimac afforded. It
is a matter of record that as early as 1655 the town
granted to Captain Paul White a half of an acre of
land on the Merrimac " for the purpose and on condi-
tion that be build a dock and warehouse there." Pre-
viously to that time, however, trade on the river had
been carried on, which demanded the convenience of
a wharf to supplant the prevailing method of loading
and unloading vessels by means of small boats.

In 1649 the business of tanning was begun in New-
bury by Nicholas Easton, in a yard north of the
Parker River Bridge, on the east side of the road, and
in the same year John Bartlett appears to have been
engaged in the same business. In 1658 a movement
was made towards the erection of a new meeting-
house, as is indicated by the appointment of a com-
mittee of the town to sell to Edward Woodman twelve
acres of marsh, and take pay in boards or nails for the
meeting-house. It was probably finished some time
in 1661, as under the date of January 28th, in that
year, it is recorded that the selectmen agreed with
Henry Jaques " to build a gallery in the new meet-
ing-house ^t both ends and all along on the west side
with three substantial seats all along both sides and
ends; the .said Henry Jaques shall fell the timber and
provide all the stuff", both planks, boards, rayles, and
Joyces and nayles, and to bring the stuff all in place
and make it for three payre of stayres and what-
ever else is requisite to compleate the said gallery, for
which he is to have thirty pounds in good current
pay or provisions. Also that Henry Jaques shall
have all the old stufle of the old gallery in the old
meeting-house. The said Henry Jaques is also to
lay a floure all over the meeting-house from beame
to beame, and the towne doth engage to provide
Joyces, boards and nayles and so forth and so forth."
The new house stood south of the old one, and the
old one appears to have remained in use until the new
one was completed. The first house was probably not
only unsubstantial in its character, but too small for the
increasing number of its congregation. Under date of
1651 Johnson, in his " Wonder-working Providence,"
said that the town consisted of about seventy families,
and that " the soules in church fellowship were about
one hundred." Before 1660 the number had doubt-
'efs increased to such a number as would render such
a building as they would have been likely to erect at



1712



HISTORY OF ES8EX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.



the time of the first seUlemeiit iiltogcther too small for
convenient use.

In KltiS the Newbury meeling-liousc was the scene
of that extraordinary c.xhiliilion by Lydia Wardwell
of lier naked per.wn during divine service. For this
offense she was carried before the court at Salem and
sentenced to be whipped and to pay the costs of court,
amounting to twelve shillings and sixpence. Her
maiden name was Perkins, and she was the wife ol'
Kliakim Wardwell, of Hampton. This fanatical act
was justified by (teorge Bishop in his " New Kngland
•ludged " as follows:



« or yo„


l,>i™l.


nil.


niloi-


to hor hiisliand, wiw ii


t at


itii Ihn




lit a


H your


wickwlnoss aboiiudod, so s\k


K«|.KI»I,.


tV.iin


mil


cliiirc


at Newbury, of wliicl


sill'




, >,.|l


■«<h


given


up to tlio loading of the I


Old,



Kiv



tliu



with ignorani'O and
ei-Heciitioii, to go to thciii, and an a Rign to thiMii Hhi> went in (ttiough it
,'HS oxcecdiiig hard to her modcMt and sliamo-faccd disposition) naked



Rev. James Noyes, the assistant of Rev. Thoma-s
Parker, having died October 22, Ifir;*;, Rev. .lohn
Woodbridge was engaged in his place, the town
agreeing to pay him thirty i)ounds for the half-year
beginning on the 2.5th of September, KMiS. Mr.
Noyes was born in Chouldcrton, England, in 1608,
and was a cousin of Rev. Thomas Parker, his mother
having been a sister of Rev. Robert Parker, the father
of Thomas. He studied at Oxford, and after preach-
ing a short time came to New England in the same
ship with his cousin, and was settled in Newbury as
his assistant in 1635. Mr. Parker said of him, —



"My worthy eoUeiiguo in the ministry of tiio Gospel
singilhir qualiftCAtions, in piety e.\co]Ullg,
heresie and si^liiBm, and a most able
of .1 ri-nohing



1 implacable enemy to all

„. „ against the same. lie was

ready apprehension, a large invention, a most pro-

11. iiul t.-iiniMousaiid compreliensive nieiiiory, fixed

I iiiil-.l I omreptioiiH, sure in words and speech

I i mild in all his expressions, wiUioilt all



I bumble



B resolute f



■ truth.



sons. lie was a most exeollent counsnllor in doubts, and could strike at
a hair's breadth like the Bcnjauiites, and oxpodite the entangled out of
the briara. Ho wa« eoiiriigeouB in dangers, and still was apt to believe
the beat, and make fair weather in a storm. He was much honored and
estcomed in the eouiitry, and his deatli was nnich bewailed. I think he
may be reckoned among the greatest worthies of the age."

Not long after the death of Mr. Noyes serious diffi-
culties aro.se in the church, owing to differences of
opinion concerning church government. Mr. Parker



was strongly inclined towards the I'resViyterian form
and hia opinions were approved by many of the lead-
ing men among his people. On the other hand,
quite as many of the church opposed his views, and
the result was a controversy which threw a cloud over
the later years of Mr. Parker's ministry. It is not
neces-ary in this narrative to give a full history of
the controversy, which did not come to a termination
until 1672. Both Mr. Parker and Mr. Noyes had en-
tertained the same views for many years, and it is
not a violent iircsumption that only the sweet
and loving spirit of Mr. Noyes prevented the out-
break during his life. It was not until after Mr.
Woodbridge had become the assistant of Mr. Parker
that the real trouble began. Mr. Woodbridge enter-
tained the same views as Mr. Parker, and, having
been engaged from year to year, it was voted by the
town. May 21, 1670, that "the order in the town-
book that gives Mr. Woodbridge sixty pounds a year
lor his preaching is made void."

Mr. Woodbridge was the son of Riv. .luhii Wood-
bridge, of Stanton, in England, and was born in
1613. His mother was a sister of Rev. Thomas
Parker, and he came with his uncle and his younger
brother, Benjamin, to New England in 1634, and mar-
ried, in 1631), Mercy, daughter of (Jovernor Thomas
Oudley, and was ordained September 16, 1644, the first
minister of Andover. He was the first town clerk
of Newbury, and served until 1638. In 1647 he re-
turned to England. He had eleven children, who
grew to manhood and womanhood, three of whom —
John, Timothy and Benjamin — became clergymen,
the two former being graduates of Harvard. In 1663
he returned to New England, and preached, as
already stated, in Newbury seven years. He contin-
ued to live in Newbury, acting as magistrate of the
Mas.sachusctts colony and justice of the peace, and
there died, March 17, 169o. Woodbridge's Island
takes its name from him, and in 1665 a town in New
Jersey, settled by emigrants from Newbury, was
called Woodbridge in his honor.

Mr. Woodbridge had eleven children — Sarah, born
in Newbury, June 7, 1640, and died in 1690, prob-
ably unmarried ; Lucy, born in Newbury, March 13,
1642, and married first Simon, son of tiovernor Brad-
street, and afterwards Oapt. Daniel Epps, of Ipswich,
and died June IS, 1710, at the house ol her son, John
r.rail^licit, in Medford ; John, born in Newbury in
1 1. 1 I. L'iii.juatedat Harvard in 1664, settled intheniin-
isiiv .11 Killingworth, Conn., 1()()6, ordained in 166i),
installed at Weathersfield in 1679, married Abigail,
daughter of ( iov. Wm. Leete, of Connecticut, and died
Nov. 13, 1691 ; Benjamin, born probably in Andover,
in 1645, married firat, June 3, 1672, Mary, daughter
of Rev. John Ward, of Haverhill, and second, in
August, 1686, Deborah, widow of Henry Tarleton,
and daughter of Daniel Gushing, of Hingham, settled
in the ministry at New Castle, N, H., Bristol, R. 1.,
Windsor, Coun., and Medford Mass., at which last



NEWBURY.



1713



place he died January 15, 1709-10 ; Thomixs, born in
England in 1648, who married a daughter of Paul
White, and died March 30, 1691 ; Mary, born in Eng-
land, married Samuel Appleton, of Ipswich, and
died June 9, 1712 ; Timothy, born in England Janu-
ary 13, 1656, a graduate of Harvard in 1675 ; Dor-
othy, born in England in 1650, and died in New Eng-
land, in 1723 ; Anne, born in England in 1653, and
died in Massachusetts, February 28, 1701 ; Joseph,
born in England in 1657, married Miss Martha
Rogers, May 20, 1686, and died Sept. 17, 1726 ;
Martha, born in England 1660, married, probably,
Thomas Ruggles, and died in 1788.

On the 20th of October, 1675, Rev. John Richard-
son was ordained as assistant to Mr. Parker, in the
place of Mr. Woodbridge. His salary was to be " one
hundred pounds a year, and each person was to pay
one-half of his share in merchantable barley, and the
rest in merchantable pork, wheat, butter or Indian
corn, or such pay paid unto Mr. Richardson to his
satisfaction, as every person may understand upon in-
quiry of Tristram Coffin, who was chosen in April the
town's attorney to gather Mr. Richardson's rates, and
in case the said Tristram Coffin shall neglect his trust
herein, he shall pay forty shillings fine to the select-
men."

But Mr. Richardson was not long associated with
Mr. Parker, for the latter died on the 24th of April,
1677, in his eighty-second year. Mr. Parker, was as
has been stated in an earlier part of this narrative,
the son of Robert Parker, and born in Wiltshire, Eng-
land in 1595. Rev. Robert Parker was one of the
chief dissenting clergymen in the time of Bishop Ban-
croft, whose writings were especially feared. In the
year 159.8 Bishop Bilson published a work entitled,
" A survey of Christ's suffering and descent into Hell,"
in which he maintained that Christ at His death
actually visited the regions of the damned. Mr.
Parker in 1601, in answer to the Bishop, published a
learned work, entitled "De Descensu Christi ad In-
fernos." In 1607 he published another learned work
against symbolizing with Antichrist in the ceremonies,
but especially against the sign of the cross. In con-
sequence of this publication he was driven into exile
to avoid arrest, and went to Holland, carrying with
him his son Thomas, who had been obliged to
leave Oxford in consequence of his father's
troubles. Mr. Parker went first to Amsterdam and
then to Dyesburg, a fortified town of the Netherlands,
where he died in 1614, leaving his fon nineteen years
of age. In looking over the career of this man, it is
not difficult to discover the source of those views of
church government entertained by his son. Nor is
it easy to believe that the son experienced any change
in those views, or that they were not entertained from
the first day of his settlement. It is quite likely that
if Mr. Noyes had lived until the close of Mr. Parker's
pastorate, the unfortunate controversy which for a
time alienated pastor and people would not have



occurred. Mr. Parker was an old man at the time,
suffering from a loss of eyesight and from an impair-
ment of all those qualities of mind and heart which
had made him a skillful manager of church affairs,
and more than all from the loss of the guiding hand
of Mr. Noyes, so long his wise and moderate coun-
selor. With the advent of Mr. Woodbridge, who,
though he was declared by Cotton Mather " a great
reader, a great scholar, a Christian and a pattern of
goodness," was more pronounced and emphatic in the
statement of his convictions, the difficulty which had
long been kept slumbering came to an inevitable
head.

In 1678 trade on the Merrimac River was enlarging,
and Richard Dole, of Newbury, was granted lands for
a wharf. In 1679 a third grist-mill was provided for,
and the town granted to John Emery, Jr., " twelve
acres of land on the west side of Artichoke River, pro-
vided he build and maintain a corn-mill to grind the
town's corn from time to time, and to build it within
one year and a half after the date hereof." In the
same year the selectmen chose fourteen tithingmen,
who for certain purposes were to have charge of a
certain number'of families. These purposes are desig-
nated in the following copy of instructions to Abraham
Merrill, a tithingman, taken from Coffin's " History
of Newbury " :

" Ta Deacon Abraham Merrill:

" At a meetingof the Selectmen, March Slat, 1879, you are hereby re-
quired to take notice that you are chosen accoriling to court order by the
Selectmen to be a tithing man, to have inspection into and loolc over
these families, that they attend the publiclc worship of God, and do not
break the Sabbath ; and, further, you are to attend as the court order
declares. The names of the families are Edward Woodmin, Junior, Sam-
uel Bartlet, Richard Bartlet, Abel Pihbury, John Stevens, Christopher
Bai tlct, Thomas Chase, Goodman Bailey, John Chase .
" By order of the Selectmen.

ERBY, Becordery



The law under which these appointments were
made was passed at the session of the General Court
held on the 23d of May, 1677, and is as follows:

"This court, being desirous to prevent all occasions of Complaint re-
ferring to the Prophanation of the Sabbath, and as an Addition to former

" Do Order and Enact that all the Lawes for Sanctification of the Sab-
bath, and preventing the propbauing tliereof, he twice in the year, viz.,
in March and September, publickly Read by the Jlinistcr or Ministera on
tlie Lord's daye in their several respective Assemblies within this juris-
diction, and all people by him cautioned to take heed to the observance
thereof. A nd the Selectmen are hereby Ordered to see to it there be one man
appointed t.i iij8|ic'Lt thu t.-n Families of their Neighbours, which Tithing

ble, tu ;i| : : -,' I, tli-breakers, disorderly Tipi)lers, or such as

keep Lii ' ' ' " rhirs that shall sulTer any disorder in their

Houses 'Ml ;h. -ill' nil lny <>v evening after, or at any other time, and to