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Amesbury Founders Memorial

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AmesburyRock

Amesbury Founders Memorial at Golgotha Park, Amesbury, Massachusetts.


Amesbury Settlement History[]

AmesburyMap1

Map of Amesbury in Essex County, Massachusetts.

In the early spring of 1639 about 60 planters took up residence on land cleared by the natives. In May an elected planning committee of five laid out the green, the initial streets, the burial ground, and especially the first division into lots, apportioning the size of a lot to the wealth of the settler.[1] On September 4 the General Court named the town Colchester, but in October changed the name to Salisbury, probably at the instigation of Christopher Batt, from Salisbury, England. A soldier, he trained the first militia. In November the General Court appointed a government of six, which required that every lot owner take up residence on his lot. They began to assign lots west of the Pow-wow river. On October 7, 1640, the General Court incorporated Salisbury; that is, it granted legal recognition by the colony to a township of that name, with its own government, empowered by citizens populating a territory of legally defined boundaries. The original Salisbury was many times larger than the present. From it several townships were later separated.[2]

On January 12, 1641, a town meeting ordered the first roads north and west of the Pow-wow to be laid out. On April 21 another meeting granted to William Osgood 50 acres of "upland" and 10 of "meadow" along the Pow-wow provided he build the town's first sawmill. It utilized a water wheel driven by the Pow-wow.[3] The mill produced lumber for local use, but also pipe-staves for export. In these times before the separation of Newburyport and the opening of Newburyport Harbor by dredging a new channel, the export route ran down the Pow-Pow, across the Merrimack on a ferry where the public landing now is, over Ferry Road, partly abandoned as Old Ferry Road, and along what is now High Street, Newburyport, to the docks of the Parker River near Lower Green, Newbury. A gristmill was added to the Pow-wow river location in 1642. The 90-foot (27 m) drop of the Powwow River provided water power for a subsequent mill complex. In 1642 also the town ordered 30 families to take up residence west of the Pow-wow and form a "New Town." No volunteers responded.[4] However, this date, the first legal recognition of a municipal entity on the site of Amesbury, is termed its "settlement" by many sources.

On May 10, 1643, the General Court divided Massachusetts Bay Colony into four shires: Essex, Norfolk, Middlesex and Suffolk. The choice of these names was etymologic relative to Boston (Norfolk is "North Folk," etc.). Norfolk contained Salisbury, Hampton, Haverhill, Exeter, Dover, and Strawberry Bank (Portsmouth), none of which had exactly the borders they have now. This division was a legal convenience based on the distribution of courts. Since the first establishment of four courts on March 3, 1635, the General Court had found it necessary to multiply and distribute courts, so that the magistrates would not spend time in travel that they needed for settling case loads. The main requirement for membership in a shire was incorporation.[5]

Private occupation of the west bank of the Pow-wow went on as East Salisbury citizens sold their property and moved to New Town.[6] However, New Town remained a paper construct without enforcement. On January 14, 1654, articles of agreement adopted at town meeting divided Salisbury into Old Town and New Town, each to conduct its own affairs. The border was the Pow-wow. The agreement went into effect on January 19, 1655. In New Town a new government was voted in, which claimed authority over "all matters of publicke concernment."[7] They still paid taxes to Old Town and expected services from it. The board of Old Town contained some members from New Town for fair representation.[8] This agreement also was known as a "settlement", but not in the sense of occupying land, which was already occupied.

On May 26, 1658, New Town petitioned the General Court for independent town status. However, Old Town reneged on the settlement. The petition was denied. The issue focused on religion. The law established the Congregational Church, which meant attendance was mandatory, on penalty of a fine for each missed meeting, and the church and preacher must be maintained from taxes. Old Town simply could not afford to lose the taxes to a new church. Minister Joseph Peasley of New Town and his congregation attempting to defy the General Court were summoned into District Court at Ipswich "to answer for their disobedience" and were fined there. Peasly was enjoined from preaching.[9] The issue dragged on. Another petition was denied in 1660.

The burden of attending church several miles away became so great that New Town built a new meeting house and requested the General Court to find a preacher. The court yielded to the petition of 1666, granting the "liberty of a township" to New Town. The town was unofficially incorporated; that is, a government was constituted and officers elected, on June 15. It was named New Salisbury, but in 1667 the name was changed to Amesbury on the analogy of Amesbury, England, which was next to Salisbury, England.[10] This basis is unrelated to any etymology of the two names. Amesbury was officially granted incorporation under that name on April 29, 1668.

The Puritans First Burying Ground[]

In 1640, the first Puritan settlers arrived to Amesbury, Massachusetts; their first burying ground was on a hill overlooking the Powow River, now referred to as Golgotha. The grave stones or markers in this first burying ground have long since disappeared, along with the identity of the people buried here.

A Place of Great Suffering[]

In 1903, a memorial was erected by the Amesbury Improvement Association, to mark the site of Amesbury's first burying ground. They called the site Golgotha meaning, "a place of great suffering" or a burial ground.

First Settlers[]

AmesburyNames

Since there is no accurate record of who was buried in this first burying ground, the plaque on the monument lists the identity of the first eighteen settlers in Amesbury.

  1. John Bailey
  2. Orlando Bagley (1623-1663) - Figure in Salem witch trials.
  3. Thomas Barnard (1608-1677) - killed in King Philip's War near Amesbury.
  4. William Barnes
  5. Henry Blaisdell (1632-1703) -
  6. Philip Challis
  7. Anthony Colby (1605-1660) - 1630 migrant in Winthrop's Fleet, settled first in Salisbury, then moved to Amesbury.
  8. John Colby (1633-1674) - Son of Anthony
  9. Edward Cottle 0 who died on Martha's Vineyard in 1710.
  10. Richard Currier (1616-1686) -
  11. Jarret Haddon
  12. John Hoyt (1614-1688) -
  13. William Huntington (1600-1689) -
  14. Thomas Macy (1608-1682) - the original owner of the Macy-Colby House, who had moved to the island of Nantucket in 1659
  15. George Martin (1618-1686) - six years after his death, his wife was executed in the Salem witch trials.
  16. Valentine Rowell (1622-1662) =
  17. William Sargent (1606-1675)
  18. John Weed (1627-1689) =

Interred in Golgotha[]

Anthony Colby (1605-1660) and Valentine Rowell (1622-1662) were the first of the original settlers to die in Amesbury (then part of Salisbury), and are undoubtedly interred in Golgotha.


References[]

  1. ^ Merrill 1880, pp. 9–10.
  2. ^ Arrington 1922, p. 42.
  3. ^ Merrill 1880, p. 20.
  4. ^ Merrill 1880, pp. 24–25.
  5. ^ Arrington 1922, pp. 41–42.
  6. ^ Merrill 1880, p. 50.
  7. ^ Merrill 1880, p. 54.
  8. ^ Merrill 1880, p. 56.
  9. ^ Merrill 1880, pp. 60–61.
  10. ^ Merrill 1880, p. 91.
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