History of Amesbury - Merrill.org

HISTORY OF AMESBURY. 145
gather in social meetings, and the regular service on Sundays
was about all that was held. No doubt this proposition met
with a hearty response from the faithful minister.
This year is especially noted for the controversy with that
spicy old gentleman, "Maj r Robert Pike" of Salisbury. From
the laying out of the town at East Salisbury to the present, he
has taken a very prominent part in affairs : preacher, major and
associate for holding courts in Norfolk county, of which Salis-
bury was a shire town, he had a wide field for displaying his
peculiar talents. Honest he was, but not over winning and
gentlemanly in his manners.
In 1665 a committee was chosen to obtain him "to be help-
ful to us in the work of the Ministry," but he wisely declined
the invitation, choosing a course more in accordance with his
tastes and inclinations. When, in 1659, he received a grant of
sixty acres of land on condition that he "come and live in
Amesbury," it is possible that he was expected to preach. The
condition he never complied with, but subsequently bought
several lots at the Indian ground. A tier of twenty-six lots was
laid out at the river in 1659, beginning at the Buttonwood
road and extending northerly from the river. Mr. Pike bought
lots Nos. 1, 2 and 3 at different periods and, also, John Weed's
ten-acre lot on the corner where Mr. Page's barn now stands,
and, also, the six-acre lot on the opposite corner where Mr.
Page's house is located, originally granted to William Sargent,
and a lot of an Indian woman named Jane, lying north of the
corner one and extending up the hill, so that he owned land
on both sides of the road. At this time and, perhaps, for some
years his great age prevented him from often visiting his land
here, and he was obliged to trust to the reports of others, how-
ever incorrect they might be. He had just learned that the
town had laid out a road forty rods wide through his Indian
ground without notifying him or making him any recompense.
Although the report was without the least foundation, it drew
from him a very spicy letter, (to use no harsher term) which
may be worth perusing, and is inserted entire. The town voted
that it should be kept in the town book, no doubt deeming it
a great curiosity :
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