The MACRIS site states that this location was first settled by Nehemiah Abbott, a deacon of the Topsfield Church, who married James Howe, Sr.’s daughter Mary in 1659 and farmed this part of his father-in-law’s land. On April 21, an arrest warrant was issued for Nehemiah Abbott Jr., along with Mary Easty, Sarah Wildes, Edward and Mary Bishop, and others, all accused of witchcraft. Abbott defended his innocence, “I speak before God that I am clear from this accusation.” In court, the judges had reservations about his identity. He and the accusing girls were ordered to go outside into the daylight, “and the accusers to go forth to him, and view him in the light, “which they did in the presence of the magistrates and many others, discoursed quietly with him, one and all acquitting him; but they said he was like that man…” Read the story.
By the late 18th century, the Perley family owned and farmed the site. Joseph Burpee Perley was born in Ipswich-Linebrook on 28 Sept. 1791. He built his home near the New Linebrook Cemetery, which was destroyed by fire. Upon the sale of the property to Ezekiel P. Potter, he occupied his parental farm. Later, he purchased for his son Charles M. the ancestral estate of the Perley family, which, except for a few years, had been in the Perley name since 8 July 1651, when it was granted to Allan Perley (1).
The local newspaper thus noticed his death:
”He was a farmer, a man who never overworked and was never idle. He was diligent, careful, and frugal, and many years before his death had laid up in store a competence. He was a good illustration of that steady, quiet, persevering purpose which is rare to see. So far removed from the town center, he was never vested with civic authority; he never sought it. He had a desire to owe no man aught; and to pay the worth of what he had, that what he possessed might be his own. His generous disposition showed itself more especially in his later years. He was kind, generous, and fatherly, provident to his children.
He married 11 Sept., 1887, Hannah Pearson Tappan, a lady of culture, born 22 Feb. 1809, to Capt. Sewell and Hannah Tappan of Newburyport. She was the widow of Joseph Johnson, son of James and Charlotte, of that city. She died of consumption on 26 July 1870, at the age of sixty-one years, and was buried in Newburyport. He died on 10 March 1885, aged ninety-three years, five months, and ten days. He was at the first Perley Reunion, the oldest Perley on the ground. The Perley children: Elizabeth, Hannah, Louis, Charles, and Laura.
The Allan Perley Homestead
Allan Perley, the emigrant ancestor of the Perley Family in America, was born in Wales, England, in the first quarter of the year 1608, and died in Ipswich, Massachusetts, on 28 December 1675. He married, in the year 1635, Susanna Bokesen, or Bokenson, who died in Ipswich, on 11 Feb. 1692, after a widowhood of sixteen years. Mr. Perley came to this country at the age of twenty-two years, in the fleet with Governor Winthrop, and located in “Charlestowne Village.” He relocated to Ipswich, on High Street. He resided there for about seventeen years, selling, 3 Sept. 1652, for £21, his “dwelling house and homestead” to Walter Roper, carpenter, of Topsfield.
Mr. Perley was a large landholder with possessions in Ipswich, Essex, Rowley, and Boxford. In 1651, there was “granted to Alen Perlye (in exchange for thirty acres more or less at Chebacco) the sum of forty-five acres of upland lying beyond Mr. Winthrop’s farm, joining up to some of the properties thereabouts.” The area was known early as The Ipswich Farms, or “The Farms,” a delineation that continued until the incorporation of Linebrook Parish. Allan Perley died on 28 December 1675 at Linebrook Parish, Ipswich, Essex, MA, USA, at age 67.
Source:
- History and Genealogy of the Perley Family” by Martin Van Buren Perley
- MACRIS
- Descendants of George Abbott, of Rowley, Mass
- Salem Witch Museum
Historic Ipswich 