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The
Merrills of Old Newbury
- (Portion)
Jean Merrill Thurston
The
earliest record of homestead land grants to John and Nathaniel
Merrill in Newbury were on the "Neck", a piece
of dry land bordered by the Parker River on one side and
salt marsh on the others. In the Proprietor's Records,
folio 38, there appears: "To John Merrill an House-Lott
of four acres on the neck over the Great River be it more
or less and is bounded by John Pemberton on the east,
John Caley on the west, the River on the north, and the
Way on the south. Under the date of 23 July 1638: "There
is granted to John Merrill's brother (Nathaniel) four
acres in the Neck for an house lott next to his brother
Jno. Merrill."
The first dwellings were log cabins
soon after replaced by comfortable frame houses like those
they left in England. The roads were mere paths unable
to accommodate even a small cart. These were improved
as commerce expanded. In 1639 the General Court directed
highways to be laid out by representatives from each town
connecting its roads to those of the next town. A coastwise,
continuous highway was soon opened from Newbury to Hingham,
well south of Boston.
When
the amount of tillage at the original homesites along
the Parker River proved insufficient for the growing community,
commissioners were chosen to lay out and assign lots of
land three miles away near the Merrimack River. In 1642
John Merrill was appointed as an appraiser of land, home
and stock of the inhabitants. Every new house lot consisted
of at least four acres and four years were allowed for
the construction of new dwellings. Ownership of the original
homesites along the Parker River reverted to the town
of Newbury.
John Merrill was granted twelve acres
of salt marsh at the tip of a cape formed by the Parker
and Plum Island Rivers. It was the practice of the farmers
in those days to cut the marsh grasses and feed it to
their cattle as a source of salt. John later conveyed
six acres to Stephen Swett, his son-in-law and three acres
to his brother Nathaniel. In 1671 he sold the remainder
to his nephew Abraham Merrill. To this day the area is
known as Cape Merrill and it is included in the Parker
River National Wildlife Refuge.
Relations
between the New England colonists and the native Indians
were good from the start. After the short-lived Pequot
uprising in 1637, the Indians lived at peace with the
settlers for almost forty years. The inventories of Merrills
in these early years show the possession of muskets and
swords for self-defense. In 1690, raids on surrounding
towns were a cause for alarm in Newbury. The house of
Nathaniel's son Abraham was fortified as a garrison to
which inhabitants of western Newbury could flee in the
event of an Indian attack.
On 7 October 1695, five Indians plundered
the house of John Brown, two miles south of Abraham Merrill's
garrison and captured nine people. Subsequently Abraham
was ordered "In His Majesty's Name" to dispatch
sentinels each night to secure his side of the settlement.
Nearly all of the captured colonists were retaken and
thereafter Newbury escaped the bloody raids which ravaged
nearby towns.
Ref:
The Merrills of Old Newbury, Jean Merrill Thurston
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