John Noyes

Biography

John Noyes worked as a house carpenter in Newbury, on the northeastern Massachusetts coast, and a later architectural account credits him with building a substantial house in the town’s Farms District. The property had belonged to John Hull. After Hull’s death in 1670, Noyes purchased it and built the house associated with his family; the Noyes genealogy dates the building to 1677.

Sarah Anna Emery’s description, quoted in that genealogy, gives the house unusual physical detail. Its front hall was lined with wooden paneling, and a staircase with elaborately carved balusters rose to the second floor. The kitchen fireplace was exceptionally large before later reconstruction. These are observations of the surviving building by a later writer, not an inventory taken while John was alive, but they give substance to the account of his work.

John was born on January 20, 1645/46, a son of Nicholas Noyes and Mary Cutting. He married Mary Poore of Andover, farther inland in Massachusetts, on November 23, 1668. Their household included sons Nicholas, Daniel, John, Nathaniel, Moses and Samuel, and daughters Mary, Martha and Elizabeth. John became a freeman in 1674.

He died without a will in 1691/92. His widow Mary and their son Nicholas were appointed administrators, and their estate account was made in September 1694.