History of Amesbury - Merrill.org

HISTORY OF AMESBURY. 25
in the old town, excepting the privilege of feeding their oxen
on the "oxe common" when working there. There was, how-
ever, reserved to the old town the "libertie for one familie to
feed eight cows on the common in the new town." This one
family will be found in the "Articles of Agreement" No. 5.
These conditions were, no doubt, considered liberal and such
as would give no occasion for complaint to those ordered off.
The movement was made with a determination that it should
be carried out, and, that all doubt might disappear, " it was
ordered that this order shall stand unrepealed forever, except
by the consent of every freeman in town." Although no sanc-
tion was given to the measure by the General Court, yet the
company thought they could enforce it, and, probably, thought
they had offered sufficient inducement to accomplish what they
proposed. This was evidently intended as the beginning of a
new town or plantation, as they were called at that time, on
the west side of the Powow, which seemed to form a very natural
boundary.
The puritanical radicalism of our ancestors seems to crop out
here very prominently, for which they were somewhat noted.
Their indomitable will, not wholly free from selfishness, perhaps,
hardly dreamed of failure. But it was found a difficult meas-
ure to carry into effect, especially in the short time of three
years.
It was sufficiently wild at Salisbury, where they had but just
reclaimed a few broken patches among the scattered inhabitants ;
but this western wilderness was even more solitary ; darker and,
if possible, denser forests covered hill and dale, rendering the
territory gloomy and forbidding. Few, if any, were ready to
obey the order, and the only settlers who ventured along came
reluctantly just across the stream at first, gradually venturing fur-
ther on as the territory grew more familiar.
At this time the territory west of the Powow was large, extend-
ing beyond the Great pond, now mostly in Newton, N. H., and
including a large island in the pond, which was subsequently
granted by Amesbury to Thomas Haynes. But it was farther
from the sea and farther into the wilderness, as the back terri-
4