History of Amesbury - Merrill.org

HISTORY OF AMESBURY. 65
standing this courts injunction to the contrary, but refusing to
come to ans r for his contempt of the Courts order, & under-
standing the County Court at Salisbury only fined him five
shillings for his absence, weekly, as they did others & still that
he continews preaching there as frequently as before the courts
order, & that also as we have been informed against the advice
of the church whereof he is a member, and that his preaching
( being very week & unfitt for so great a work ) doth rather
encrease then lessen the contentions there, doe order, that the
said Joseph Peasley be forthwith by order from this Court for-
biden to preach any more in any part of this jurisdiction, till
he give full satisfaction to this Court for what have been past."
The early history of the church in New England is very
much mixed with dissentions and divisions, notwithstanding the
strong hand of the General Court. But the trouble occasioned
by Joseph Peasley was of short duration, as he died previous to
1662 in Haverhill. He made his will November nth, 1660,
and gave his house at Salisbury, new town, to his daughter
Sarah. It was, probably, on that part of the territory now
embraced within the bounds of Newton, N. H. His children
were Sarah, Joseph, Elizabeth, Jane and Mary. Phillip Challis
and Thomas Barnard witnessed his will. The inventory of his
estate footed up ^366. On the inventory was found two guns,
one sword, two Bibles, yarn, wool, flax, hemp, forty bushels of
wheat, sixty bushels of Indian corn, three cows, two heifers and
two hundred acres of land. His widow, Maria, settled the
estate. If he was "very weak and unfit" for preaching, he
was a successful farmer, and left his son a good property.
Thomas Macy, one of the first settlers in Salisbury and a
signer of the Articles of Agreement, also numbering among the
first eighteen commoners, probably left town this year or the
early part of 1660. He was chosen the first clerk in the new
town to record the orders of the company, and, probably, made
his book of record, it being simply a pamphlet of note paper
size, and without the ancient parchment covers. It is yet in
the clerk's office, although badly worn and mutilated. He was
a good penman and, no doubt, had a good education. He was
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