Newbury,
Massachusetts
"In February, 1633-34 the Council for New England, assembled
at Whitehall, England, adopted an order placing certain restrictions on the
transportation of passengers and merchandise to the colony of Massachusetts
Bay; and before the ship "Mary and John" and eight other vessels,
then lying in the river Thames, were allowed to sail, instructions were issued
expressly providing that the captains in command of these vessels
"shall cause the Prayers contained in the Book of Common
Prayers, established in the Church of England, to be said daily at the usual
hours of Morning and Evening Prayers, and that hey cause all persons on board
said ships to be present at the same."
In the ship "Mary and John" came Thomas Parker, James
Noyes, John Spencer, Henry Short, Henry Lunt, John Bartlett, and many others,
who ultimately settled in Newbury. Upon their arrival in New England most of
these passengers went to Agawam, now Ipswich, Mass., where they remained until
the spring of 1635.
Meanwhile Sir Richard Saltonstall, Henry Sewall, Richard and
Stephen Dummer, with others from Wiltshire, England had organized a company for
the purpose of stock-raising at a time when the prices for cattle, horses, and sheep
were at their highest. They added to their own domestic herds some imported
Flemish stock, and persuaded John Spencer, Henry Short, Richard Kent, Thomas
Parker, and others to join them in the enterprise, and establish a settlement
on the river Quascacunquen, now Parker River.
Sept. 3, 1633, the General Court granted"John Winthrop,
junior, and his assignes"permission to set up a trading house on the
Merrimack River; and under date of May 6, 1635, the House of Deputies passed
the following order:-
Quascacunquen is allowed by the court to be a plantation, and it
is referred to Mr. (John) Humphrey, Mr. (John) Endicott, Captain (Nathaniel)
Turner, and Captain (William) Trask, or any three of them, to set out the
bounds of Ipswich and Quascacunquen, or so much thereof as they can; and the
name of said plantation shall be changed, and shall hereafter be called
Newberry.
Further, it is ordered that it shall be in the power of the court
to take order that the said plantation shall receive a sufficient company to
make a competent towne.
Previous to this date, undoubtedly, a few venturesome fishermen
had built temporary residences on the banks of the Merrimack and Quascacunquen
rivers; but they were looked upon as trespassers and intruders, for the General
Court had forbidden all persons from settling within their jurisdiction without
leave.
Rev. Thomas Parker and those associated with him, having obtained
permission to begin a plantation"to be called Newberry", made
preparations to remove from Ipswich early in the spring. There were no roads
through the trackless forest, and the transportation of women and children and
household goods overland was impracticable. Tradition asserts that they came by
the way of Plum Island Sound, in open boats, and landed, in the month of May or
June, 1635, on the north shore of what is now the river Parker, in a little
cover about one hundred rods below the bridge; Nicholas Noyes, the brother of
Rev. James Noyes, being the first to leap ashore.
Near this secluded spot a number of summer cottages have recently
been erected, giving to the place a pleasant, home-like look; but two centuries
and a half ago the prospect was less agreeable and inviting.
"...Eastward, cold,
wide marshes stretched away,
Dull, dreary flats without a bush or tree,
O'ercrossed by winding creeks, where twice a day
Gurgled the waters of the moon-struck sea;
And faint with distance came the stifled roar,
The melancholy lapse of waves on the low shore."
Inland hills rising above hills stood like sentinels over the
almost unbroken wilderness. Centuries before this memorable landing Indians had
hunted in these forests and fished in the placid stream that ebbs and flows to
the falls of Newbury; but only a few of that race remained to resist the
encroachments of the white-faced strangers. Dismal and gloomy must have been
the outlook as these brave pioneers gathered together at the close of the first
day, and contemplated the prospect before them. They knew that wild beasts were
roaming through the forests, and whether the red men would welcome them as
friends or foes was as yet uncertain.
"Their descendants can have but a faint idea of the
difficulties they encountered, and of the dangers that continually hung over
their heads, threatening every moment to overwhelm them like a torrent, and
sweep the, with those who they dearly loved, to the silent tomb."
Undismayed by these difficulties and dangers, the new settlers
instinctively turned their attention to the cultivation of the soil and the
development of the resources of nature. Here and there along the winding river
they appropriated the few clear spots where the natives had formerly planted
corn, and promptly took possession of the neighboring marshes where the growing
crop of salt grass promised an abundant harvest. There was no lack of work; no
room for idle dreamers. Houses had to be built, land ploughed and tilled, and
sheds erected for the protection of cattle before winter set in. House lots,
planting lots, and meadow lots were laid out and granted to individual members
of the community, and the original entries, giving names and dates, can still
be seen on the old records of the town; but how many houses were erected or how
many families settled in Newbury during the first year of its existence it is
impossible to state with exactness.
Governor Winthrop, in his History of New England, under date of
June 3, 1635, records the arrival of two ships with Dutch cattle; and the same
day the ship "James" arrived from Southampton, bringing, among other
passengers, John Pike, father of the famous Robert Pike, of Salisbury, and one
Thomas Coleman, who had been employed b the projectors of the stock-raising
company to provide food for the cattle and take care of them for a specified
term of years.
In the Massachusetts Colony Records, under date of July 8, 1635:-
It is ordered that there shall be a convenient quantity of land
set out by Mr. Dumer and Mr. Bartholemewe, within the bounds of Newbury, for
the keeping of the sheepe and cattell that came over in the Dutch shipps this
yeare, and to belong to the owners of said cattel.
Evidently, those who were engaged in this new enterprise intended
to utilize the vacant lands and at the same time establish a safe and
profitable business for themselves; but Coleman, becoming dissatisfied,
declined to carry out his part of the contract, and the General Court finally
ordered a division of the grain that had been imported, and instructed each
owner to take care of his own cattle.
From:"Ould Newbury": Historical and Biographical
Sketches by John J. Currier (1896), Damrell and Upham, Boston.