CAPE ANN SYDE, WHY CALLED BEVERLY. 13 



we conjecture our Essex County Beverly to be the name- 

 sake of Beaver Pond within its own borders. Both trace 

 back to the Pedwar'lech of the ancient Druids. 



But a more interesting question connected with the an- 

 cient name is this : how came it to be appropriated to the 

 parish on the Bass river or Cape Ann side of the Salem 

 settlement? There has never been a pretence that any early 

 settlers of our beautiful shore town came from the York- 

 shire borough ; on the contrary, most of them were from 

 the Channel counties of the west of England and not only 

 for old association's sake, but from the singularly like ex- 

 posure of the new settlement on Massachusetts Bay, would 

 the early settlers across the creek have naturally desired 

 the name of some south of England hamlet in Devon, Dor- 

 set, Somerset or Hampshire. Not only so. It is matter 

 of record that Roger Conant, the patriarch and most con- 

 siderable personage of the Bass River movement, and the 

 man above all others who had a right to feel that his incli- 

 nation ought to be consulted, expressed his preference for 

 the name of his native Budleigh, a hamlet looking out tow- 

 ards the south upon the British Channel just as Beverly 

 looks out on Massachusetts Bay, and in this "simple desire 

 and request" he was sustained by a very large portion of 

 the male population of the place ; yet his efforts failed and 

 he does not conceal his chagrin at being denied, in his 

 eightieth year, so natural a wish. 



"Cape Ann Syde,"Bass River Side," "River Head" or 

 "Basse River Head" was occupied in 1628 for cutting 

 thatch and tillage and " quickly after," says Brackenbury, 

 " sundry houses are built." There was a ferry as early 

 as Dec.- 26, 1636, and William Dixey had charge of it 

 from 1639 to 1645, and established a public house op- 

 posite the Northern landing. In 1649-50, the agitation 

 for a separate house of worship began, and it resulted, 



