BULLETIN 



ESSEX lUNrSTZTTJTE. 



Vol. I. Salem, Mass., March, 1869. No. 3. 



One Dollar a Year in Advance. 10 Cents a Single Copy. 



FIRST HOUSES IN SALEM. 



BY W. P. T PHAM. 



The earliest permanent settlement within the limits of 

 the Colony of Massachusetts Bay was made in 1626, at 

 Salem, then called, by the Indians, Naumkeag, by a small 

 company of persons, among whom were John Woodbnry, 

 John Balch, Peter Palfrey, William Trask, Thomas Gard- 

 ner, Richard Norman, William Allen and Walter Knight, 

 some of them with their families, and all under the super- 

 intendence of Roger Conant, the first Governor of the 

 infant colony. A very full and valuable account of this 

 company of Old Planters, as they were called, written by 

 Mr. George D. Phippen, will he found in the first volume 

 of our Historical Collections, page 97. J. W. Thornton, 

 Esq. , has given us a new and most interesting insight into 

 their previous history as a company, and the nature of 

 the government under which they were associated, in his 

 "Landing at Cape Ann." 



It seems that Conant had already explored this neck of 

 land called Naumkeag, before finally concluding to remove 



ESSEX DSfST. BULLETIN. 5* 



