Strawberry Bank, Norfolk, Massachusetts Bay, British America

Notes:
The growing population did not cluster around the Great House at the Banke. People lived here and there, with the greatest concentrations on Great Island at the river's mouth, and off shore on the Isles of Shoals. The Great House site, not yet the center of settlement, was for most of the seventeenth century used for agriculture.



When the bankruptcy of the Laconia Company in 1638 left the settlement without any legal authority, the settlers at Strawbery Banke drew up a mutual covenant for orderly government and declared their allegiance to the King and English law. They soon found, however, that their compact was not sufficient to solve local disputes and that laws were difficult to enforce. Thus the people of Strawbery Banke did not resist when the growing colony of Massachusetts Bay in 1641 extended its jurisdiction over them and the three other towns that then comprised New Hampshire -- Dover, Hampton, and Exeter. Massachusetts could at least provide legal stability. In 1653 Strawbery Banke petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for permission to change its name to Portsmouth, since "We are at the river's mouth and our port is as good as any in the land." The request was granted.

Birth

Matches 1 to 4 of 4

	Last Name, Given Name(s)	Date and Place	Person ID	Tree
1	Brackett, Jane	Abt 1651		I1180	Duane's Ancestors
2	Sayward, John	Abt 1657		I9719	Duane's Ancestors
3	Sayward, Jonathan	Abt 1659		I9720	Duane's Ancestors
4	Sayward, Mary	Abt 1661		I9656	Duane's Ancestors

Property

Matches 1 to 1 of 1

	Last Name, Given Name(s)	Date and Place	Person ID	Tree
1	Cotton, William	31 Mar 1650/1	bought Anthony Brackett's house	I22100	Duane's Ancestors

Removed to

Matches 1 to 2 of 2

	Last Name, Given Name(s)	Moved From	Person ID	Tree
1	Batchelder, Rev. Stephen	1644	Hampton	I2420	Duane's Ancestors
2	Sayward, Henry	Abt 1650	Hampton	I9712	Duane's Ancestors