Odiorne Point's Namesake Arrives

On the Mouth of the Piscataqua: Unearthing the Rich History of Odiorne Point

By Hunter Stetz - as originally published in May 2023, and republished with the permission of, the Seacoast Science Center, Rye NH

David Thomson’s relocation to Boston in 1626 was followed by decades of sojourns by various European fishermen and explorers. In 1660, a fisherman named John Odiorne settled the rocky shores of what is now Odiorne Point State Park. To say that the Odiorne family stuck around is an understatement! Sometime in the 1650s, two brothers and their cousin left the coastal village of Sheviock in the Cornwall region of southwestern England, in pursuit of economic opportunities in North America.

Odiorne Family home, built ca. 1800.

John Odiorne and his younger brother, Phillip, first appear in colonial New Hampshire records in 1656 and 1657 respectively. John was recently widowed. Isaiah Odiorne, also of Sheviock and likely a close cousin of Phillip and John, immigrated to Smuttynose Island (Isles of Shoals) sometime in the 1650s or 1660s. All three participated in the fishing industry based out of the Isles of Shoals.

John first owned land on Great Island, now known as the town of New Castle. In 1660, he sold this land, as well as his fishing operation on Smuttynose Island to purchase a tract of land that now constitutes Odiorne Point State Park (also known as Odiorne’s Point). He began building his home here shortly thereafter. Having been widowed shortly before leaving England, John married his second wife, Mary Johnson in 1667. Little is presently known about Mary’s life, but she raised their four children and certainly played a significant role in the farmstead’s daily operations.

Glass chip with “JO” etched in it, identifying it as belonging to John Odiorne.

The Odiorne farmstead first fell within the boundaries of Portsmouth in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but New Hampshire regained its status as a distinct provincial colony in 1679. In 1693, portions of Portsmouth, including the farmstead, separated to form New Castle. It remained part of New Castle until 1791, at which point it was annexed by the relatively new town of Rye. Odiorne’s Point was known as Rendezvous Point until around the time of the American Revolution, at which point it was renamed to honor the Odiorne family’s already lengthy ties to the area

Historic records indicate that the Odiorne family continued to fish once settled at their farmstead. They were also engaged in farming and regional trade with both Indigenous peoples and fellow colonists. A document detailing John’s estate a few years prior to his death describes the farmstead as having a dwelling house, “barns, stables and houses, gardens, orchards, upland meadows, [and] pasture ground.” After he died in 1707, his son, John Jr., inherited the property. However, it is believed that he had already erected his home elsewhere on their land in the decade preceding. Historic records and archaeological evidence suggest that the original house was not occupied after the death of the elder John.

The Old Odiorne Point Burying Ground was likely set aside for burials in the early 18th century, making it one of the oldest European settler-colonist burial grounds in what is now New Hampshire. Most of the graves are marked by uncarved fieldstones, so we do not know exactly who was first buried here and when. However, there are 14 marked graves that date between 1804 and 1865.

The surname “Odiorne” (pronounced “oh-DEE-ahn”) comes from “Hodierne,” which itself derives from “of this day” in Latin. It is speculated the last name arrived in England in the 11th century with Normans from what is now France. Interestingly, the spelling variant we are familiar with only came about when John, Phillip & Isaiah arrived in the New World, meaning that anyone with “Odiorne” in their ancestry can trace back to this early colonial New Hampshire family. The Odiorne Family Association commemorates their roots by meeting at the state park every summer. Because the Odiorne family resided here for about 282 years, later chapters of their ties to the land will be discussed in blog posts later this year!

Odiorne family crest.

Postscript - I am a proud 13th generation descendant of John Odiorne Sr. My direct line owned the farmstead until my 7th great-grandfather, Benjamin Odiorne Jr. died in 1804. However, he probably lived in the second house built by John Odiorne, Jr., which has not been located by archaeologists.

To read more about Odiorne Point visit Seacoast Science Center’s blog page

Part 5/5 Dr/Col Thomas Packer and the Berry Land Transfer

Our First Packer Ancestor to come to the New World

Terry Packer is our guest blogger for a series of five posts telling the story about the research and acquisition of an early land transfer document signed by his ancestor.

Part 5 - EQUAL RIGHTS

The similarity in quill, ink application and writing style between the examples of "berry" and "Rachel" in Dr. Packer's certification and "Rachel" and  "berry" in the execution, suggests they are all in Dr. Packer's hand. But is there a reasonable explanation why this should be so?

In the 17th century while widows and single women could own property in their own names, property ownership within a marriage was vested in the husband. Husbands were required to get their wife's consent under certain conditions, especially to transact property which she brought to the marriage. But that was clearly not the case here as Joseph attests he acquired the land from his father. And a strict reading of our document reveals it to be an act of Joseph Berry ONLY. He alone attests he is making this gift to his son, therefore he alone would have been required to execute the document.  

What we see can be explained if, consistent with its text, the document was originally executed only by Joseph. It was nearly three months later when Dr. Packer attested that Joseph and Rachel BOTH appeared before him and that it was THEIR "voluntary and free act". So not only was Rachel present at the certification but Dr. Packer determined she had a rightful interest in the transaction which should be formalized.

Dr. Packer then prepared Rachel's execution writing "Rachel Berry" (correctly spelled) and, unlike the other initialed signatures, included the proper formalities of writing "her" and  "mark" and designating a specific space for Rachel to insert it.

Without having been in the room it is not possible to know with certainty that this was the sequence of events. But the argument is certainly to be made that not only was Dr. Packer scrupulously accurate in carrying out his official duties, but at an unusually early time in colonial history he insisted that Rachel's interest in the real property of their marriage be certified. 

Part 4/5 Dr/Col Thomas Packer and the Berry Land Transfer

Our First Packer Ancestor to come to the New World

Terry Packer is our guest blogger for a series of five posts telling the story about the research and acquisition of an early land transfer document signed by his ancestor.

Part 4 - WITNESSES, SIGNATURES AND SEALS

Our document was drafted by an accomplished writer who was unlikely to be a party to it. He was experienced in the preparation of legal documents and would have been paid for his service. Noticeable care was taken in its creation as writing materials were in short supply and were very expensive. Consequently, many early writings were done on mere scraps of paper. Others have writings at odd angles filling all the margins. Where the material allowed, some have writing on both sides. The organization, neatness, and generous use of materials, including a large portion of additional unused paper that was simply folded over, all suggest a document out of the ordinary.

The identity of the first witness was initially in question. Other than "X", a match for the first letter of Samuel's surname could not be found in documents or handwriting samples of the period. It was then considered the mystery symbol might be the "mark" of a "Samuel eall", but the mystery character is too ornate to be the mark of an illiterate.

Genealogical research eventually resolved Samuel's name and confirmed it as his authentic signature by revealing that everyone named in this document, except Dr. Packer, was closely related. Witness John Locke was the husband of landowner Joseph Berry's sister Elizabeth Berry Locke. Witness William Philbrook was the brother of recipient Nathaniel Berry's wife Elizabeth Philbrook Berry. And finally, we find witness "Samuel Neall" was the brother of witness William Philbrook's wife, Mary Neal Philbrook. Aside: While not related, Joseph and Rachel Berry and the Packers were well acquainted. They all lived in Greenland (pop. 50) and sat near each other in church.

Witness William Philbrook's signature is likely authentic. 

John Locke and Joseph and Rachel Berry all initialed the signatures provided for them. Reinforcing that they did not sign is that Joseph Berry's name was misspelled as "Josef bary", a mistake he was unlikely to have made had he signed his own name. Also, the leading J in Josef is identical to the J of witness John Locke indicating the same hand-signed for them both. But Locke and the Berrys could all be considered semi-literate for the time because each was capable of writing a version of his initials. This elevated them above those who could only make a simple cross. Nevertheless, they could not write their complete names and the quality of the initials they applied suggests limited experience writing with a quill.            

Illiteracy among women was especially common. At that time formal education was thought to be unnecessary for women's domestic rolls of housekeeping and child rearing. So it is especially notable that while Rachel could not write her complete name, like her husband and John Locke, she had received sufficient education to be able to write her personal mark "B".

It appears the six lines of the Justice of the Peace certification were all written entirely in the original hand of Dr. Thomas Packer on May 31, 1694, nearly three months after the document's execution date. New Hampshire provincial law specified a fee of two shillings be paid for a deed certification service. 

The two wax seals were the acknowledgments of Joseph and Rachel Berry. By the early 1600s seals were the official form of identification. The seal itself was often worn as a finger ring and it was common even for illiterate people to own or borrow seals to authenticate their consent on documents. As literacy improved into the 1700s, the use of seals continued but became more decorative, merely accompanying a person's authorizing signature.

MISCELLANY

The quills used in the colonial era were usually duck feathers with a sharpened point. The blotchiness and inconsistent inking of Dr. Packer's writing suggests his quill had suffered damage or, more likely, had just been used extensively. 

The conclusion that Samuel Neall and William Philbrook signed for themselves dovetails with the genealogy. John Locke and the Berrys were of the older generation and could only make their marks. Neall and Philbrook were associated with recipient Nathaniel Berry's younger generation. Their elevated literacy is consistent with the historical trend that more capable writers emerged from each successive generation.

Part 3/5 Dr/Col Thomas Packer and the Berry Land Transfer

Our First Packer Ancestor to come to the New World

Terry Packer is our guest blogger for a series of five posts telling the story about the research and acquisition of an early land transfer document signed by his ancestor.

Part 3 - 17TH CENTURY SPELLING AND PHRASES

Early on, rules guiding capitalization were largely unknown or unheeded. It was accepted to use a capital letter at the beginning of every sentence and proper name. By the 17th century the practice had extended to titles (Sir), forms of address (Father) and selected categories of nouns. Writers then began to capitalize any noun they felt to be important. The writer of our document not only capitalized selected nouns like "Premises" but extended capitalization beyond nouns to verbs and adverbs like "Given," "Granted," "Peaceably" and most words beginning with a "c". Adding to the complication we see that "ff" was an accepted way of writing a capitalized leading F as ffrance (France).

So while some words appear to have had consistently accepted spellings like "sayd" (said), it was not uncommon for the same word to be spelled in different ways, sometimes even by the same writer within the same document. An example in our document is the name "Nathaniel" shared by Joseph Berry's stepfather and son, which on this single page the document's author wrote as Nathaneel, Nathanell and Nathaneell.

Even those of advanced education were inclined to spell words as they sounded. Our document also contains - "hould" (hold), "welbeloved" (well-beloved), " medow" (meadow) and "wayes" (ways). In the eighth line "Intire" is a capitalized misspelling of "entire". Extra "e" letters were often added as in "doe" (do).  Other letters are omitted as in the word "p cells" (parcels) and the "sd" contraction for "sayd" (said).  Dr. Packer himself wrote "dead" (deed), "thair" (their) and "Just ps" (Justice of the Peace). The fact that spelling was not yet standardized in the 17th century should not be too surprising in light of the evidence that three of our document's six signers could not write their own names.

Regarding Locke and Berry's authentic initials, "L" and "B" are easily recognized but their "J" initials are not. The explanation begins with the fact that through the 1600's i and j were not universally considered two distinct letters, but different forms of the same letter, hence ioy (joy) and iust (just). The fact that the letter j is dotted is an acknowledgement of j's emergence from the letter i making it one of the last letters added to our alphabet. This explains why many sample alphabets from the early 17th century do not include a distinct j character at all.

The distinct symbol for j and the custom of using i as a vowel and j as a consonant are first found in the 1630s, yet the duality in their usage continued into the 18th century. This i/j duality is illustrated in the first line of our document where it appears the writer made a false start with the J of "Joseph" and then wrote "Joseph" in full. But there was no false start. "I Joseph Berry" was properly written "J Joseph Berry" reflecting the fact that for the writer, the sounds for both I and J were represented using the same character.

The vertical stick symbols written by Locke and Berry for their "J" initials can be found in an obscure Italic form of caligraphy for the letter I. Like the document's author, for them the same character could represent the sound of either I or the emerging letter J. So the initials written IL and IB on the document should be interpreted as JB and JL, the personal marks of Joseph Berry and John Locke. 

A number of phrases appear repeatedly in 17th century deeds and official papers. Our document opens with one - "To all Christian People to whom these Presents Shall come". Another common phrase then and still in use today is "in the presence of us" which is the text in our document damaged at a paper fold. But a common phrase no longer seen was 

"me therunto moveing" which meant "important to me".  But do we really understand the full import of such coloquial phrases?

 Consider researchers 350 years in the future transcribing "It is what it is". Will they think it just an inconsequential, duplicitous error or will they somehow grasp the hopeless resignation and surrender to fate we know it is meant to convey? Recognizing words and knowing what was meant can be different things.

Part 2/5 Dr/Col Thomas Packer and the Berry Land Transfer

Our First Packer Ancestor to come to the New World

Terry Packer is our guest blogger for a series of five posts telling the story about the research and acquisition of an early land transfer document signed by his ancestor.

Part 2 - DATES

Our document's date, given in the text as of March 4, 1693, or 94, does not indicate confusion over the year. It reflects the fact that the newer Gregorian calendar, which we still use today, was emergent in the colonies while the traditional Julian calendar was still used in England. During the late 1600s, both calendars were in use concurrently, with England not officially adopting the Gregorian calendar until 1752.

The month names used by the two calendars were identical. However, New Year's Day of the older Julian calendar occurred on March 25, not January 1. That is why dates in the January to March period took the form February 1693/94 to reflect it was still 1693 by the Julian calendar but, having passed January 1st, that same day was in the new year of 1694 by the modern Gregorian calendar. Dr. Packer practiced dual-year notation as well. But the date of his certification, May 31st, would have been properly recorded as 1694 using either calendar.

Experts will note that a second difference between Julian and Gregorian calendars was that they accumulated leap days differently. This meant that in addition to writing dual years for January through March dates, the daily dates of the calendars diverged over many years as leap days accumulated.

For this reason, the use of dual calendars in the 17th century can lead to confusion, especially when specific dates are of consequence. For example, it was a mystery why the gravestone of Dr. Packer's first wife Hephzibah in the Old Burying Ground of Salem, Massachusetts is inscribed January 22, 1684/5, yet the Vital Records of Salem present the birth date of their second daughter, Susanna, as of February 1, 1684/85. Were there circumstances under which Hephzibah could have died later than the date on her headstone? How could Susanna have been born after her mother had already died? It took some time before the answers to these questions came to light. In the late 1600s the accumulated difference between the two calendars totaled ten days and the differential between January 22 and February 1 is ten days. So Hephzibah's date of death was Julian and Susanna's recorded date of birth was Gregorian. And despite the differing dates, both events occurred on the very same bittersweet day, with Hephzibah dying giving birth to her daughter, Susanna.

Dr/Col Thomas Packer and the Berry land transfer

HANDWRITING AND ORIGINAL SIGNATURE

Our First Packer Ancestor to come to the New World

Terry Packer is our guest blogger for a series of five posts telling the story about the research and acquisition of an early land transfer document signed by his ancestor.

Part 1 - ACQUISITION

Five years ago I had the good fortune to acquire a colonial document dated May 31, 1694. Although it is by and about Rye's founding Berry family, it bears the original handwriting and signature of my first Packer ancestor in America, Dr/Col Thomas Packer of Portsmouth and Greenland. He certified the document in his capacity as Justice of the Peace.

 The good fortune of finding and acquiring this document began with marrying my wife, who is a descendant of Rufus Putnam, a Brigadier General during the Revolutionary War. Like many revolutionary leaders, he suffered financially to support the Revolution.

Following the war, the United States needed money to pay debts and Rufus needed a new career. So in Boston, he formed a group called the Ohio Company of Associates. Its purpose was to settle the Northwest Territory, roughly the lands between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, which had been ceded to the U.S. by Great Britain under the Treaty of Paris. The Ohio Company bought about 1,000,000 acres of land north of the Ohio River from the U.S. government. They hoped to promote and organize its settlement and to sell their land for a profit along the way. In April 1788, Putnam traveled to what would become Marietta, Ohio, built a cabin in the woods, and established the first European-American permanent settlement in the Northwest Territory. His cabin survives and today's Campus Martius Museum was built to enclose it.

In 2015, my wife and I traveled to Marietta to exchange Putnam family information with the museum's curator. I noticed a display case with a small number of colonial-era documents and asked where they had come from. He said some were the property of the museum but several were his own which he loaned for display. When I asked how he had acquired them, his reply was a single surprising word. eBay.

“So to be successful, a search will likely require significant, persistent effort in addition to being very lucky. For most colonists, no documentary records have survived.”

It turns out historic documents and handwritten manuscripts are auctioned there. But although they are concentrated in distinguishing categories, these categories are not presented as options for eBay buyers under "All Categories". They can only be directly accessed by sellers for categorizing their offerings. So to begin, it is easiest to search for and bring up ANY item similar to your target after which you can focus your search. For example, you might search "colonial manuscript Massachusetts" for which you would be likely to get some hits. Several suggested categories will appear on the left of the page, often with names like "collectible, paper ephemera, pre-1800's". However, if you select a particular item from the page you've opened, the category in which it is listed will be displayed and might be "Antiques, Manuscripts". This illustrates that historic items of interest might be found in any of many different categories, including separate categories for specific eras, i.e. pre 1700s, pre-1800s, etc. This complicates efficient searching because if you don't specify a particular search term or category, your results may be too numerous and overly broad. But if you do, you may miss items of interest listed in other similar categories.

So to be successful, a search will likely require significant, persistent effort in addition to being very lucky. For most colonists, no documentary records have survived. But while documents relating to notable people and events are more likely to have survived, many have gone out of reach into the collections of archives, museums, and libraries. And of the remaining documents which change hands at auction, sellers' descriptions typically name primary signers but often overlook other named persons. Our document, for example, names Nathaniel Drake as Joseph Berry's father, but Nathaniel Drake was not mentioned in the document summary. Finally, you must chance upon your document during its auction period. Otherwise, you may discover it only after its auction has ended or it may come to auction and be removed without you ever knowing. So to be thorough requires repeatedly searching for documents in your approximate time-frame and/or location of interest, potentially in several categories, and then reading all the potential documents, in their entirety.

Despite my ancestor, Dr. Thomas Packer having been prominent in New Hampshire for forty years as Justice of the Peace, landlord to the colonial House and Judiciary, surgeon, Lt. Colonel in the militia, Speaker of the House, Judge of Probate and Counselor to the Governor, my search for a document in private hands continued for more than a year before blind luck and persistence paid off. But whether you find your prize or not, the search is a rewarding opportunity to read colonial history written by the hands of the people who lived it.

Transcription of document

Rev. Samuel Parsons, 1707 - 1789

Rev. Samuel Parsons, 1707 - 1789

After Rye abruptly dismissed its first minister in 1733, the parish took its time auditioning possible replacements. Not until the summer of 1736 did the call go to Samuel Parsons of Salisbury, a Harvard-educated cleric. Samuel's great-grandfather Joseph Parsons had come from Dorset, England around 1635 to trade furs. Cornet Parsons, as he was known, helped settle the towns of Springfield and Northampton, Massachusetts.

Samuel was ordained on November 3, 1736. Rye's parsonage was unfinished; the steeple on the meetinghouse had yet to be completed. “No one ever called a New England meeting house a church,” John L. Parsons observed in The Churches of Rye. “On Sunday it was always 'going to a meeting' or 'going to preaching,' never going to church.”

On October 5, 1739 Samuel married Mary Adams Jones, a first cousin of Founding Father Sam Adams, and the newlyweds moved into the now-finished parsonage. Samuel's compensation: £140 and 20 cords of firewood. Unlike his predecessor, Samuel is said to have been a paragon of virtue, and he would minister to his parish for over half a century. Sociable enough to join his parishioners for a toddy at Garland's Tavern after Sunday meeting, he was a strict taskmaster who required Rye's children to learn 99 Bible quotations and 115 scripture references. A family tale recalls a time when hay was disappearing from the parsonage barn. Samuel saw George Rand, who had no hay, returning home one night with hay for his cows. Samuel slipped up behind the hay and set it on fire. “I won't steal any more of your hay,” Rand told him the next day. “The Lord sent fire from heaven and burned it up!”

Samuel and Mary had eight children. Their daughter Mary married John Tuck, son of the Rev. John Tucke, Samuel's esteemed counterpart in Gosport on the Isles of Shoals. Their next child, Joseph, served as a captain in the Revolutionary War. Three younger children died in the great sickness of 1752.

In 1754 a severe thunder-and-hail storm almost destroyed Rye. Instead of repairing the meetinghouse, the parish built a new, larger structure on the same spot. Construction, including a full steeple, was completed in 1756. Ten years later the meetinghouse got its first bell. Samuel was still Rye's minister when the men of the town went off to fight for American independence. In 1784, when age and infirmity finally caught up with him, the parish hired an assistant minister, Worthington Porter. After Samuel's death in 1789, Porter served as Rye's third minister.

The Parsons' son Joseph became Rye's first resident physician. His progeny – legislators and justices, physicians and surgeons, military leaders and mariners, educators and merchants – helped shape Rye over the next century and a half. (Joseph's female descendants also contributed, usually without benefit of professional degrees or public office.) For biographical notes on the Parsons of Rye, see the Wikitree branch maintained by Edward Parsons.

Two longtime Parsons homes still stand on Washington Road in Rye Center. Dr, Joseph Parsons' house across from the top of Lang Road remained in the family until the 1970's, when Esther Parsons made it possible for the town to acquire Parsons Field and the Rye Town Forest. The house remains a private residence. Col. Thomas Jefferson Parsons bought the square house at the top of Central Road in 1827 and for 56 years ran a store in the basement. After Col. Parsons' death the house became the home of his son Langdon, author of the History of Rye, NH.

James Locke Macdonald

Parsons Coat of Arms

John Foss c. 1638-1700

by Geoff Smith

John Foss was a Danish sailor serving aboard a British war vessel that arrived in Boston. Disillusioned with this service, he deserted ship by jumping overboard and swimming to freedom. Soon after he came to Sandy Beach, where he was taken in by the family of John Berry, eventually marrying Berry’s daughter. He was granted 19 acres in Sandy Beach in 1668, and appears on the 1680 census of Sandy Beach. He died approximately 1700. The original Foss homestead stood near the corner of Bracket and Washington Roads.

John was the Foss patriarch, but perhaps we should properly look to his son Joshua as a founder of Rye. Of John Foss’s ten or so children, most born in Sandy Beach, Joshua was the only one with progeny who remained there. Joshua’s name appears in the earliest records, and he was a signer of the petitions of 1721, 1724, and both petitions of 1725 seeking to separate Sandy Beach as the “Parish of Rye” from Newcastle. These petitions succeeded in 1726, although the new parish remained part of and subservient to Newcastle. Rye did not gain official independence as a town until 1785.

In 1723 Joshua was granted a share of land adjoining “Locke’s Line” which probably included his father’s homestead. In 1724 he paid tax to the town of Newcastle. In 1726 Joshua Foss deeded the meetinghouse to Rye and was elected a selectman for the Parish of Rye, and in 1728 he paid tax to Rye Parish.

Sandy Beach grew into Rye Parish thanks to descendants of the first settlers who swarmed inland to build roads and houses, and to establish Rye Center, which became the heart of the community. Many – enough to drag down Rye’s population – kept on going and settled in new towns to the west. Joshua’s progeny marched to a different drummer. Although some settled in Exeter, Barrington and other inland towns, a good number stayed put. Later Foss generations remained well represented in Rye, some living in their old Sandy Beach neighborhood. More than two centuries after John Foss acquired his land, an 1892 map of Rye shows one Foss living on Brackett Road near the site of the original Foss homestead and four more Foss houses around the corner, lining both sides of Washington Road down to the ocean.

Next to the Foss home near the ocean end of Washington Road – the dwelling has been much expanded by subsequent owners – sits the Foss family cemetery, bounded by stone walls. Several 19th-century headstones are legible, but time and weather have reduced dozens of older markers to anonymous stubs. The house looks down on the sandiest part of Sandy Beach, still known as Foss Beach.

Francis Jenness 1634 – 1716

Photo caption: The oldest part of 125 Cable Road may date to before 1700. The Jenness family continuously occupied the house until 1908.

By Marie Fort Withrow

Francis Jenness was likely a young man in his early 30’s when he sailed from Rye, Sussex, England for New England. Though his arrival date is debated, it is generally accepted as 1665 when he took up residence at the Great Island, later to become New Castle. This is where on October 2, 1666 he took the Freeman’s Oath of Fidelity.

The next year Francis received a grant from the selectmen of Portsmouth for one acre of land on Great Neck. It was stipulated that he build a house on the property within one year. Despite the fact that he had not fulfilled this requirement, the town gave him “absolute conveyance” of the lot, for which he paid 20 shillings. For several years Francis worked here as a mariner and fisherman until his marriage on February 15, 1669/70 to Hannah Swaine, daughter of William Swaine and Prudence Marston of Hampton, where they made their first home.

In 1675 Francis built the house wherein he and Hannah would live for most of their lives and raise seven children. The land, laid out by the town of Hampton, extended along the seacoast from Lock’s Neck heading south more than half a mile. He also erected a sawmill, grist mill, and a bakery where he made bread and sea biscuits which he sold along the seacoast from Saco to Boston. With his property so close to the water Francis was able to use small boats, likely ketches, or pinnaces, to ship his wares. During this time he is also listed among the men who served in the military campaign during the Native American uprising.

There is great variation of the spelling of Jenness in deeds, histories, and town and vital records. Just some of the these include Jennings, Gennings, Genis, Jenis, Janis, and Jinnis. It was not until around 1730 that the spelling stabilized as Jenness.

In partnership with others, Francis established a successful sawmill on Cedar Swamp Run in 1695. (For the story of The Mills and Cedars of Rye, please visit https://www.ryenhhistoricalsociety.org/mills-cedars-of-rye .) His business ventures must have been very profitable as Francis continued to purchase property throughout the area. Hannah Jenness died in 1699 and a little more than a year later Francis married twice widowed Salome White of Portsmouth.

Like other early settlers Francis was involved in several boundary disputes. Apparently, he ruffled enough feathers that when he tried to protest during a meeting of the commoners in 1707, he was denied the right to speak. He is often listed as a dissenting vote in meeting notes. Some years after Francis died, his sons successfully gained back all the land that had been disputed.

By the time of his death at the age of 82, Francis Jenness had acquired enough land to leave significant acreage to his wife and his sons, and to also provide for his daughters. His youngest son, Richard, the most educated of his children, was one of the selectmen who began petitioning for separation from Newcastle in 1721. When this effort finally met with success in 1726, Richard was elected to represent the Parish of Rye, a position he held for almost 40 years. It is surmised that the name Rye was chosen to honor Francis Jenness as he was the only founder born in Rye, England. In 1730 Richard Jenness, with other families, petitioned successfully to annex their properties from Hampton. adding roughly eighteen hundred acres of good land to Rye.

Over the next 100 years the Jenness family continued to flourish and to contribute to the growth and stability of Rye. By the late 1800’s there were over 25 separate Jenness families living in south Rye west of Jenness Beach. Many of the heads of these families were farmers and some lived on land originally purchased by Francis Jenness.

Capt. John Locke 1627 – 1696

By Geoff Smith

Captain John Locke came to Rye when it was known as Sandy Beach sometime after 1656 and before 1665. Prior to this he had lived in New Castle and Portsmouth, and his name is recorded numerous times in town records. He was a carpenter as well as a farmer, and framed the first meeting house in Portsmouth in 1645. Having established a farm at the far end of Sandy Beach, it is evident that he considered himself under the jurisdiction of Portsmouth, and vice-versa, as evidenced by continued assessments to support the church there.

But Hampton took a different view. According to Hampton records, “He sat down on the public lands at Josselyn’s Neck” and began clearing a farm without saying “by your leave”, and as the inhabitants claimed the right of saying who should become citizens of the town, they chose a committee May 24, 1666, to pull up his fence, and March 12, 1667, to warn him to desist from improving his farm. He was labelled “Trespasser” and was warned to appear at the next town meeting and give an account of himself.

On the 18th of March, 1667, the town voted “Upon the motion of John Lock who desireth to yield himself to the town of Hampton as an inhabitant here among us, living already settled upon Josselyn’s Neck in Hampton bounds, the town hath accepted of the said John Lock for an inhabitant accordingly.”

Thus, John Locke went from being a notorious squatter to a founding settler in the north reaches of Hampton, and Josselyn’s Neck became Locke’s Neck.   

Over the next decade relations with the local Indians soured. Captain John Locke’s house was the strongest in the area, and when Indian incursions occurred, his neighbors would garrison there. Locke himself had a fearsome reputation and success in skirmishes with the Indians. But in 1696 good fortune failed him. A revenge party of eight Indians arrived with the express intent of killing him, and surprised him as he was reaping grain, mortally wounding him with his own gun that he had left against a rock. One account says that when the Indians ran up to scalp him, he had just enough strength to cut off the nose of one with his sickle. 

His house and farm were located near the corner of present-day Locke Road and Old Beach Road, where the original Locke family cemetery still stands. (And not far from the original Berry homestead – see last month’s Founding Family.)  The sickle, along with his sword, are now at the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord. The Locke Family Association still meets every year and undertakes a pilgrimage to view these artifacts about every ten years.

William Berry, 1610-1654

By Mike Berry

In 1629 King James I issued Captain John Mason and others right of settlement in the area now known as New England. Mason focused his initial efforts on the territory of land between the Merrimack River (now Salisbury, MA) and the Kennebec River (now Popham Beach, ME). William Berry, born in Newcastle in northeast England in 1610 and who was then in service as a constable to Mason in England, was selected to be among the group which traveled to the shores of what is now New Hampshire to permanently establish the territory.

He is known to have been at Strawberry Bank (later Portsmouth) as early as 1631 and ultimately would serve as Selectman for the town later in 1646. In 1636, Berry married Jane Locke Hermins and the two had 7 children. In January 1648/49, at a town meeting held at Strawbery Banke, "Granted that William Berry shall have a lot upon the neck of land upon the South side of the Little River at Sandy Beach".  This was later to become part of Rye when it was set apart from Hampton. 

Parson's History of the Town of Rye holds that William was the first to settle in Rye. However, he would have been in his 50s, and given his stature would not have been likely to make such a move. Thus, although William appears to be the first to get a grant in Rye, his son John is known to have settled on this grant and was probably the first settler to actually live there and set down permanent roots. 

William Berry died in June of 1654 of unknown causes in Portsmouth NH. His widow Jane remarried to Nathaniel Drake. His children and the generations of Berrys which followed would establish many homesteads in and around Rye. A Berry Family Cemetery can be found on Breakfast Hill Road in Rye approximately .3 miles from Route 1 (see photo). 

Berry Cemetery with map

Genealogy and Building Your Family Tree. Where to Start?

Have you researched your family tree? Have you thought about doing it but feel overwhelmed when exploring all the different options? The internet has become a wealth of information for people seeking information and public records on ancestors. Here is a site to help you get started:

Family History Daily - this website offers a ton of resources, from where to find a free tree to links to free resources like census data and old English criminal records. Their post on ‘6 ‘Secret’ Google Search Tips’ is definitely worth checking out.

Let us know what your favorite tools and resources are in the comments!