Twelve men climbed into open boats and made their way from the familiar harbor to the unexplored regions west of Newbury and Ipswich. The river on that late summer day sparkled with sunlight and was littered with fallen leaves as they quietly explored new territory. Every bend revealed dense wilderness occasionally interrupted by grassy meadows. They rowed for sixteen miles before nearing the place that the Indians called Pentucket.

Nathaniel Ward, the esteemed Puritan Minister from Ipswich had petitioned the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for a settlement along the Merrimack River in order to secure a residence and ministry for his son John Ward. The men chosen to pioneer this expedition were pilgrims, independent men who had come to New England to establish a home and community where they could plough the land and practice religious freedom. After finding the settlements at Newbury and Ipswich fully inhabited, Pentucket promised a chance for prosperity at a new plantation where land could be cleared, fields tilled and God’s abundant bounty sustained.

The intrepid explorers were by name: William White, John Robinson, Abraham Tyler, Samuel Gile, Christopher Hussey, Daniel Ladd, James Davis, John Williams, Joseph Merrie, Henry Palmer, Richard Littlehale and Job Clement.