William Berry (1610 – June 28, 1654) was the first settler at Sandy Beach,

Rye, New Hampshire Rye is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,543 at the 2020 census. The town is home to several state parks along the Atlantic coastline. History The first settlement in New Hampshire, originally named ...

Early life

William Berry was born 1605 in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, England, the son of Johan and Susannah Berry. He was in service to Captain John Mason in 1631, when Mason sent 58 men and 22 women to the

Piscataqua River The Piscataqua River (Abenaki: ''Pskehtekwis'') is a tidal river forming the boundary of the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Maine from its origin at the confluence of the Salmon Falls River and Cochecho River. The drainage basin of the river ...

in North America. Among them were William Berry, William Seavey, Francis Rand, and William or Anthony Brackett.Palmer, Ansell W., ed. Piscataqua Pioneers: Selected Biographies of Early Settlers in Northern New England, pp. 385-6, Piscataqua Pioneers, Portsmouth, NH, 2000. . The following were returned as belonging to Sandy Beach in 1688: William Berry, John Berry, John Marden, John Foss 1st, John Foss Jr., John Odiorne, Anthony Brackett, Francis Rand, Thomas Rand, William Wallis, James Randall, William Seavie, James Berry, Samuel Ran, John Seavie, Anthony Libbie, and Joseph Berry.

Adult life

William Berry married Jane Hermins (1614-1687) in 1636 in the town of

Portsmouth, New Hampshire Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmou ...

. He became a freeman on 18 May 1642 in

Newbury, Massachusetts Newbury is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, USA. The population was 6,716 at the 2020 census. Newbury includes the villages of Old Town (Newbury Center), Plum Island and Byfield. Each village is a precinct with its own voting district, ...

, and is on the list of the first settlers of Newbury. William Berry by wife Jane had John Berry (1637-1716) and Elizabeth Berry (born 1634)) in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States.

Signer of Glebe Conveyance

Berry signed th
Glebe Conveyance
in 1640. He received a lot "upon the neck of land on the south side of the

Little River Little River may refer to several places: Australia Streams New South Wales *Little River (Dubbo), source in the Dubbo region, a tributary of the Macquarie River * Little River (Oberon), source in the Oberon Shire, a tributary of Coxs River (Haw ...

at Sandy Beach on January 31, 1648, that included the area where 'Locke's Neck' is located."

Political life

Berry served as a Selectman of

Strawbery Banke Strawbery Banke is an outdoor history museum located in the South End historic district of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It is the oldest neighborhood in New Hampshire to be settled by Europeans, and the earliest neighborhood remaining in the prese ...

(which is now Portsmouth, New Hampshire) in 1646.

References

*Savage, James A., A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, 1860-1862., (Boston 1860-1862; rpt Baltimore 1955),

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1:171 *The Berrys by the beach : one of New Hampshire's first families / by Sylvia Fitts Getchell. *New England Marriages Prior to 1700,Charles Torrey,New England Historic and Genealogy Society, Boston *Parsons, Langdon B., History of the Town of Rye, NH From Its Discovery and Settlement to December 31, 1903, (1905; repr. Bowie, MD: Heritage Press 1992), yeHist 269. *Brewster, Charles W., The Selling of the Land, ~1860 {{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, William English emigrants 1619 births 1654 deaths People from Norfolk People of colonial New Hampshire People from Rye, New Hampshire