Two brothers, Rev. James Noyes and Nicholas Noyes, came to Massachusetts aboard the ship Mary and John in March 1633, and were part of the first group of about forty settlers of Newbury, MA in 1635. Their father was Rev. William Noyes, rector of Cholderton (county Wilts), England [about 11 miles from Salisbury], a graduate of University College, Oxford in 1592. Their mother was Anne Parker (sister of the scholar, Robert Parker); their cousin Rev. Thomas Parker accompanied them.

James and Nicholas had two older brothers, Ephraim (1596 - 1659); and Nathan (1597 - 1651) who succeeded their father as rector of Cholderton. A younger sister and brother remained in England.

REV. JAMES NOYES

Rev. James Noyes was born in 1608. He entered Oxford (Brasenose College) in 1627 but did not complete a degree: he was invited by his cousin and former teacher, Rev. Thomas Parker, to teach with him at the Free School in Newbury, England [a town in Berkshire on the river Kennet, about 56 miles west from London], which they did together before coming to New England. (James Noyes was reported to be especially masterful in Greek and later wrote several learned treatises concerning religious subjects.) He married (in 1633) Sarah Brown of Southampton, England.

James Noyes, with his wife Sarah, his younger brother Nicholas, and his cousin Thomas Parker left for Massachusetts on March, 1633. He preached in the Boston area at Medford, MA (then, Mystic, MA), was made freeman on 3 Sept., 1634, and was (with Nicholas and Thomas Parker) among the first settlers of Newbury, MA.
The settlement in Newbury, which provided free land, continued a policy by the Governors of Massachusetts to extend the northern frontiers rapidly, in part because of apprehension concerning potential French expansion into unsettled territory. The settlement was named for their earlier place of residence in England, and the Parker River was named in honor of Rev. Parker.

Rev. Thomas Parker and Rev. James Noyes, and other early settlers, formed the First Parish Church of Newbury, with Rev. Parker the senior pastor and Rev. Noyes his assistant ("Teacher") shortly after their arrival. The current Church building, built in the mid-19th century, stands on the left of Route 1A, traveling north from Boston, just past the Upper Green, and about 3 miles beyond the bridge across the Parker River and the Lower Green.
The first settlers were enthusiastic about the New World and sent word back to England; eventually more than 100 friends and neighbors from their region of England came to the Newbury area.

The settlement grew rapidly and, after about ten years, the Upper Green was cleared to become the center of Newbury. Reverend James Noyes built a house for his family nearby, at 5 Parker St., which still stands; it was the home, also, of Rev. Thomas Parker who never married.

Of early historical interest is the role that Rev. James Noyes of Stonington CT, the native-born second son of the first Rev. James Noyes, played in the founding of Yale College. He was one of the seven founding ministers (and the name Noyes is inscribed, today, on Woodbridge Hall, the Administration Building, above and to the right of the front door.) This Rev. Noyes also was the first Senior Fellow (Chair) of the Board of Trustees, and his younger brother Moses also served as a member of the Trustees.

Rev. James Noyes and his wife had eight children: Joseph (1637), (Rev.) James (1640), Sarah (1641), Moses (1643), John (1645), Thomas (1648), Rebecca (1651), William (1653), and Sarah (1656). (Also of early historical interest is that the youngest daughter, Sarah, married John Hale; among their descendants was Nathan Hale, the "hero spy.") Rev. James Noyes died on 22 October 1656; he is buried in the First Burial Ground of the Church he helped to establish.

NICHOLAS NOYES

As a young man, Nicholas Noyes (b. 1615-16) is recorded as the first of the new settlers to leap ashore at the landing site in Newbury, MA in 1635. There is an historical marker at the location, which is on the left bank of the Parker River as you look toward the Atlantic Ocean from the bridge on Route 1A that crosses the river. The site, near the spot where River bends to the right, may be reached by turning right from Route 1A onto Cottage Rd., just past the Lower Green, and following Cottage Rd. until it ends at a parking area and boat landing; the marker is a boulder on the left. Nicholas was chosen Deacon of the First Parish Church of Newbury when it was gathered. In 1637 he walked the forty miles from Newbury to Cambridge to qualify as a freeman and voter. About 1640 he married Mary Cutting, daughter of a shipmaster, Capt. John Cutting and his wife Mary.

Nicholas and Mary Noyes had ten children born in Newbury: Mary (1641), Hannah (1643), John (1645), (Reverand) Nicholas (1647), Cutting (1649), Sarah (1653), Timothy (1655), James (1657), Abigail (1659), Rachel (1661) and Thomas (1663). He died in Newbury on 23 Nov., 1701.

Of early historical interest is the role that Rev. Nicholas (Harvard A.B., 1647), the second son of Nicholas and Mary, played in the Salem witch trials, where he officiated at the hanging of alleged witches in 1692; he later repented of his part in the persecutions and helped to provide assistance to the dependent families.

Early Noyes descendants often were ministers and teachers, and sometimes distinguished by their rectitude - for example, the Salem trials and the founding of Yale, partly motivated by the belief that Harvard College was becoming too liberal. However, descendants of the line also may be interested to know of another of their ancestors via Nicholas Noyes (Noyes Geneology (1904), cited below, vol. 1, p. 402), perhaps equally devout and committed to bringing God's Kingdom, but at the opposite end politically - Rev. John Humphrey Noyes (1811 - 1886). He was a leader of the Perfectionist movement and founded the Oneida Community, one of the great utopian socialist experiments in American history. He was an early proponent of the equality of women and of a different approach to sexuality and marriage than his Puritan ancestors (or teachers at Yale Divinity School).(For example, Alfred Kazin wrote on the book jacket of Spencer Klaw's Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community (NY: Penguin Press, 1993): "The Oneida Community was the most practical and, because of its sexual code, the merriest of our nineteenth-century Utopias. Its founder and dictator, John Humphrey Noyes, would have fascinated Dostoyevsky.")

REFERENCES:
The basic reference for the Noyes family genealogy is the remarkable work by Col. Henry E. Noyes and Miss Harriette E. Noyes in two volumes, Geneological Record of Some of the Noyes Descendants of James, Nicholas, and Peter Noyes, published in Boston, MA in 1904. [Volume 1 covers descendants of Nicholas Noyes; vol. 2 the descendants of Rev. James Noyes and of Peter Noyes, who arrived later.] A copy is available in the second floor geneological library of the Historical Society of Old Newbury, located on 98 High St. (Route 1A) in Newburyport.

Submitted by: Biographical sketch provided by Lloyd Etheredge, 10/2001. (Descendant via Timothy Noyes, fourth son of Nicholas; grandson of Lynn Ray Noyes, vol. 1, p. 343 of the 1904 volume.) URL: www.noyes.ws re recent descendants of Lynn Ray Noyes and Ada Noyes Conrad.
Dr. Lloyd S. Etheredge

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