Our Company Increases Apace: History, Language, and Social Identity in Early Colonial Andover, Massachusetts

This book is the first book in over thirty-five years on the early history of Andover, Massachusetts, founded in 1646 and one of the oldest towns in New England. It explores in depth the events that led to the town's split in 1710 England. It explores in depth the events that led to the town's split in 1710 into the North and South Parishes. In a departure from previous works on Andover, this study brings anthropological and linguistic perspectives to bear on the records, offering a new interpretation of the town's early history and the settlers' relationships with one another. Abbot follows the colonists from Britain to the Bay Colony through journals, marriage records, court cases, and other documents including the witchcraft trial transcripts of 1692. Combining text and analysis, she notes shifting factions and changing uses of English social identity terms such ascountry, blood, and company.The author argues for a reassessment of the key role of the company in particular, as both a unit of colonization and an enduring basis for social identity in early New England towns.

Richard Godbeer, Professor of History at the University of Miami and author of The Devil's Dominion and Escaping Salem, contributes an illuminating foreword placing the study in the wider context of early New England studies. Godbeer writes, "Abbot's book provides us not only with a refreshing new perspective on the early history of Andover but also with a significant and exciting new window into the minds and lives of early New Englanders."
Features
* 11 maps of England, New England, and Andover
* 7 tables including backgrounds of 37 founding families
* 4 appendices including town seals and tax records
* Glossary of social terms in colony records
* Index of references to early families (162 entries)
* Bibliography of sources and references

Table of Contents

1. Well-Stored Andover: History and Language, History in Language
Philip Greven's Andover
Sources
Related Studies

2. "From the Native's Point of View": Emic Social Categories in the New England Colonial Record
Blood and Country
Company and Plantation
The Bay Company and the Bay Colony

3. "Our Company Increases Apace": The Planting of Andover
Bay Colony Expansion
Planting a Church-Town
Planning and Recruitment for Andover: The Gathering of the Company
The Planting of Andover
Who the Settlers Were: Summary Table

4. "Cochichawick Called Andover": From Plantation to Town
Frontier Andover
The Plantation
Features of the Town Center
Andover in the Regional Setting
Growth and Fission: North and South Ends Emerge
Settlement and Dispersal
What the Tax Lists Show: Summary Table

5. "A Motion of Marriage": Marriage and Alliance in Early Andover
Marriage in Andover
Marriage and Social Location
Old and New Social Identities in Andover Marriage Patterns
Marriage in the Second Generation: Covenanters and non-Covenanters
Cousin Marriage and British Regional Backgrounds

6. "An Axe at Andover": The Course of the Parish Split
Overview of Events: 1676-1710
Lines of Division in Andover: 1676-1679
Arenas of Conflict: 1680-1692
Blood, Country, and Witchcraft: 1690-1692
The Town Divides: 1692-1710

7. "As Bees When the Hive Is Too Full": The Aftermath of the Parish Split
Marriage and Social Crisis: Greven Revisited
Samuel Phillips and the New South Parish
The Peace of the Town

Appendix A: Town Seals and Anniversary Banners
Appendix B: Seating the Meetinghouses: Beverly and Tewksbury
Appendix C: The Reverend Thomas Barnard s Letter to Governor Dudley (1710)
Appendix D: Andover Tax Records, 1679-171