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Amesbury MA

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Amesbury, Massachusetts
City
Amesbury City Hall
Seal
Nickname(s):  Carriagetown
Location in Essex County and the state of Massachusetts
Location in the United States
Coordinates: 42°51′30″N 70°55′50″W / 42.85833°N 70.93056°W / 42.85833; -70.93056Coordinates: 42°51′30″N 70°55′50″W / 42.85833°N 70.93056°W / 42.85833; -70.93056
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Essex
Settled	1642
Incorporated (town)	1668
Incorpoarted (city)	1996
Government
• Type	Mayor-council city
• Mayor	Kassandra Gove
Area
• Total	13.73 sq mi (35.57 km2)
• Land	12.29 sq mi (31.84 km2)
• Water	1.44 sq mi (3.73 km2)
Elevation	50 ft (15 m)
Population  (2020)	17,366
• Density	1,413.02/sq mi (545.41/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (Eastern)
ZIP code	01913
Area code(s)	351 / 978
FIPS code	25-01260, 25-01185
GNIS feature ID	0618292
Website	City of Amesbury Official Web Site

Amesbury is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the left bank of the Merrimack River near its mouth, upstream from Salisbury and across the river from Newburyport and West Newbury. The population was 17,366 at the 2020 United States Census. A former farming and mill town, Amesbury is today largely residential. It is one of the two northernmost towns in Massachusetts (the other being neighboring Salisbury).

History

Settlement period

In 1637, the first English settler in the Salisbury-Amesbury region, John Bayly, crossed the Merrimack River from the new settlement at Newbury, built a log cabin, and began to clear the land for cultivation. He intended to send for his wife and children in England, but they never joined him. He and his hired man, William Schooler, were arrested for a murder Schooler had committed. Schooler was hanged for the murder but Bayly was acquitted. Given the fishing rights on the river by the subsequent settlement, provided he would sell only to it, he abandoned agriculture for fishing.

On September 6, 1638, the General Court of Massachusetts created a plantation on behalf of several petitioners from Newbury, on the left bank of the Merrimack, as far north as Hampton, to be called Merrimac. They were given permission to associate together as a township. The area remained in possession of the tribes along the Merrimack, who hunted and fished there.

The settlers of the plantation, who entered Massachusetts Bay Colony, were rebels in a cause that was settled by the English Civil War (1642-1651). Although nominally subjects of the crown, they did not obey it. The settlers maintained close ties with the Parliamentary cause in Britain. The supreme government of the colony was the General Court, which functioned autonomously, passing its own laws, establishing courts, incorporating townships and providing for the overall defense of the colony. They established a Puritan church rather than the Church of England.

In the early spring of 1639, approximately 60 planters took up residence on land cleared by the natives. In May, an elected planning committee laid out the green, the initial streets, the burial ground, and the first division into lots, apportioning the size of a lot to the wealth of the settler. 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. The town was originally named Colchester, but was renamed Salisbury in October 1640, potentially at the suggestion of Christopher Batt, from Salisbury, England. Batt trained the militia in the town. The incorporation of the town granted it 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.

On January 12, 1641, a town meeting ordered the first roads north and west of the Pow-wow River to be built. On April 21, another meeting granted William Osgood 50 acres of “upland” and 10 of “meadow” along the Pow-wow River, provided he build a sawmill for the town to use. It utilized a water wheel driven by the Pow-wow River. The mill produced lumber for local use and pipe-staves for export. A gristmill was added to the Pow-wow river location in 1642. The Powwow River provided water power for a subsequent mill complex. In 1642, the town wanted families to take up residence west of the Pow-wow and form a “New Town.” No volunteers responded.

In 1643, the General Court divided Massachusetts Bay Colony into four counties: Essex, Norfolk, Middlesex and Suffolk. Norfolk contained Salisbury, Hampton, Haverhill, Exeter, Dover, and Strawberry Bank (Portsmouth). 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.

Private occupation of the west bank of the Pow-wow River went on as East Salisbury citizens sold their property and moved to New Town. 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.” 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. This agreement also was known as a “settlement”.

On May 26, 1658, New Town petitioned the General Court for independent town status, but the Old Town denied the petition. The Old Town required all inhabitants, including those in the New Town, to attend church in Old Town and fined settlers for each missed meeting The church and preacher were maintained from taxes. 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”, were fined there and Peasly was enjoined from preaching. Another petition for separation was denied in 1660.