Colonial Houses of West Newbury MA

The town of West Newbury provides the following history:

West Newbury’s history as a town began in 1635 when 23 men and their families, all from England, sailed through Plum Island Sound and up the Parker River, landing in Newbury. As more settlers arrived and families increased, land in Newbury became scarce, and some people moved westward to the “upper woods” beyond the Artichoke River.

The town granted large parcels of land to early settlers: in 1638, 300 acres to Edward Rawson; in 1644, 80 acres to John Emery; in 1659, 103 acres to Francis Browne, all around the Artichoke River. In 1663, Capt. William Gerrish was granted 260 acres at the Groveland line. What was referred to as the “first division of lots” occurred in 1686, parceling out the remaining land between the Bradford Road and the Merrimack River, from the land of Emery to that of Gerrish. The rest of what became West Newbury was granted to settlers in five subsequent divisions.

The area that became West Newbury was primarily a farming community until the late 1700s. Enoch Noyes began making horn buttons and coarse combs in 1759 at his home near 127 Main Street, and by the 1830s and 1840s, there were 32 comb shops in town. Another local industry was shoe-making, which began with farmers making shoes for their families in little shops on their farms. Later, large shoe shops were started, and West Newbury in 1875 was a booming industrial town with over 2,000 people and doing a half-million dollars’ worth of business a year. There were three large comb factories and seven shoe factories.

In 1819, West Newbury finally became a separate town from Newbury, after years of petitioning the General Court of Massachusetts for that privilege, having received decades of opposition from the Town of Newbury.

Resources:

• The linked descriptions below are provided by MACRIS and the West Newbury Historical Commission. On the MACRIS page, click on the INV link to download a PDF history of the house and the families who lived there.
• Photos are from the West Newbury Patriot Properties site, as well as the dates of construction for those not documented on the MACRIS site.
• Read: Images of America, West Newbury
• Historic Sites Survey Phase 1, West Newbury Historical Commission
• Historic Sites Survey Phase 2, West Newbury Historical Commission
• Map of the west parish of Newbury, taken by John Brown, esquire, and dated September 15, 1729, on which is drawn a representation of every house in the parish.
• 1729 West Newbury map
• 1850 West Newbury map
• 1872 West Newbury map
• 1884 West Newbury map
• 1884 West Newbury map (Main St. closeup)
• Coffin’s History of Newbury

Recent Research

Macris listings

West Newbury homes built before the Revolutionary War

In the mid-18th century, Moses Newell (1716-1795) moved from Roxbury and settled on the land which is now Newell Farm. His wife was Sarah Gerrish. Colonel Moses Newell built the 25-room house now standing at 243 Main St. in 1846. The old Newell house stood closer to the street, by the well on the property. In 1853, William F. Loring purchased a ½-acre lot from Colonel Newell, and half of the original house was moved across the street to 238 Main Street. There is existing documentation that this 1746 house was moved from the Newell Farm after the right side of the house burned. Ref: Newell Farm at Wikipedia. The Assessors give a construction date of 1746. The MACRIS site gives a later date of 1853. Read more.