Salisbury
Settled in 1638 as Colchester, incorporated in 1640 as Salisbury after a town in Wiltshire, England.
Explore
Robert Pike homestead site (1639), historical marker at 2 Lafayette Road.
Salisbury Colonial Burial Ground (1639), 24 Beach Road. Burials include Major Robert Pike (1616-1706), who protested the witch trials, and Rev. James Allen (d. 1695/6 age 39), third minister of Salisbury. In 2023, new, 17th-century-styled, hand-carved headstones were installed for convicted-but-not-executed witch Mary (Perkins) Bradbury (1615-1700) and her husband, Captain Thomas Bradbury. Historians believe they were buried here.
Research
Salisbury Historical Society, 16 Elm Street. Facebook page.
Salisbury Public Library, 17 Elm Street. Special collections includes genealogy and local history books, and Pike Family Association papers. Photographs online.
Online Books & Records
Burials in some cemeteries in the towns of Salisbury, Amesbury, and Merrimac, in Essex county, Massachusetts by Chester and Julia True (2007)
History of Amesbury, including the 17 years of Salisbury to the separation in 1654 and Merrimac from its incorporation in 1876 by Joseph Merrill (1880)
Old families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts; with some related families of Newbury, Haverhill, Ipswich and Hampton by David W. Hoyt (1897) Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Additions & Corrections
Salisbury History by Carolyn Sargent (1991)
Salisbury’s earliest settlers by John Q. Evans (1896)
Vital records of Salisbury, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849