Nicholas Noyes

Biography

Nicholas Noyes was a young man when he left England with his brother James and their kinsman Thomas Parker in 1634. Their passage on the Mary and John brought them into the group that settled Newbury, on the coast of northeastern Massachusetts, in 1635. Nicholas later married Mary Cutting, daughter of a shipmaster, and their children were born at Newbury over the following decades.

His public responsibilities extended beyond the town. He became a freeman in 1637 and represented Newbury in the Massachusetts General Court, with service recorded in 1660, 1679, 1680 and the winter of 1680/81. These appointments involved him in the colony’s government as well as the business of his own household. He was also known as a deacon.

The family’s standing became material to an unusual court proceeding in 1652. Mary was presented for wearing a silk hood and scarf under the colony’s clothing restrictions. She was discharged when it was shown that Nicholas’s estate met the required £200 threshold. The court’s treatment of her dress depended on the wealth assigned to their household.

Nicholas lived long enough to see several children die before him. His will of July 4, 1700 named surviving sons and daughters, referred to deceased sons John and Thomas, and recognized John’s widow Mary. His son James was appointed executor. Nicholas died at Newbury on November 23, 1701, and the will was proved the following month.

His long life connected the first years of the settlement with its established institutions and landed families. He was the older Nicholas Noyes; the minister of the same name associated with the Salem witch trials was his son.

The account also places Nicholas on Thomas Parker’s side in the 1671 Parker–Woodman dispute.

The family account places his English origins in Wiltshire, in southern England.