SALISBURY, ESSEX, MASSACHUSETTS

FAMILIES:

Barnes, Blaisdell, Browne, Buswell, Colby, Eastman, French, Goodale, Haddon, Hoyt, Sargeant

LOCATION:

Today, the town of Salisbury is bordered by New Hampshire to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Merrimack River and Newburyport to the south and Amesbury to the west.

In 1643, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony formed old Norfolk County out of Salisbury, Haverhill, Exeter, Dover and Portsmouth, Salisbury lay to the south of Hampton and north of Haverhill and Newbury.

HISTORY:

On 6 Sep 1638, Gov John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony formally agreed that Simon Bradstreet and 11 other men could form plantation north of the Merrimack River. This plantation included what is now Salisbury. The first European settler is considered to be Robert Pike. The town was named Colchester on 4 Sep 1639, but was incorporated as Salisbury on 7 Oct 1740.

LINKS:

The town web site has a link to a nice article on the history of the town.

US GenWeb project site for Salisbury

REFERENCES:

Brown, Asa W., "Early Settlers of Salisbury, Mass., Arranged into Families, " New England Historical and Genealogical Register 7, 1853, 311-314.

Hoyt, David D., The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts, Providence, Snow & Farnham, 1897.

Mr. Thornton, "Original Settlers of Salisbury, MA, " New England Historical and Genealogical Register 3, 1849, 55.

 

 

>Photo by John Phelan: Salisbury beach in winter

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