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=== 17th century === The town was founded in 1640 by settlers from [[Newbury, Massachusetts|Newbury]], and was originally known as Pentucket, which is for "place of the winding river". Settlers such as John Ward, Robert Clements, Tristram Coffin, Hugh Sheratt, William White, and Thomas Davis aided in the purchase of Pentuckett. The land was sold by Passaquo and Saggahew who claimed to have permission from [[Passaconaway]], though nothing more is known of these two figures in the historical record and it is not clear whether they were at liberty to sell the land, or indeed whether they had a shared understanding of what such a contract would entail.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Perley|first=Sidney|url=http://archive.org/details/indianlandtitles00perl|title=The Indian land titles of Essex County, Massachusetts|date=1912|publisher=Salem, Mass. : Essex Book and Print Club|others=The Library of Congress}}</ref> Settlers Thomas Hale, Henry Palmer, Thomas Davis, James Davis and William White were Pentuckett's first [[Board of selectmen|selectmen]]. First Court appointments given to end small causes were given to Robert Clements, Henry Palmer, and Thomas Hale. At the same court, it was John Osgood and Thomas Hale that were also appointed to lay the way from Haverhill to Andover.<ref>George Wingate Chase, ''The History of Haverhill, Massachusetts,'' p. 46β47, 63β65.</ref> It is said that these early settlers worshipped under a large oak tree, known as the "Worshipping Oak".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uuhaverhill.org/welcome/history|title=History of Universalist Unitarian Church of Haverhill|website=uuhaverhill.org|access-date=15 March 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523031006/http://www.uuhaverhill.org/welcome/history|archive-date=23 May 2013}}</ref> [[File:Worshipping Oak - Haverhill, MA - August 2012.jpg|thumbnail|Worshipping Oak, August 2012]] The town was renamed for the English town of [[Haverhill, Suffolk]],<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n151 152]}}</ref> in deference to the birthplace of the settlement's first pastor, Rev. John Ward.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=81}} The original Haverhill settlement was located around the corner of Water Street and Mill Street, near the Linwood Cemetery and Burying Ground. The home of the city's father, William White, still stands, although it was expanded and renovated in the 17th and 18th centuries. White's Corner (Merrimack Street and Main Street) was named for his family, as was the [[White Fund]] at Boston's [[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston|Museum of Fine Arts]]. Judge [[Nathaniel Saltonstall]] was chosen to preside over the [[Salem witch trials]] in the 17th century; however, he found the trials objectionable and recused himself. Historians cite his reluctance to participate in the trials as one of the reasons that the witch hysteria did not take as deep a root in Haverhill as it did in the neighboring town of [[Andover, Massachusetts|Andover]], which had among the most victims of the trials. However, a number of women from Haverhill were accused of witchcraft, and a few were found "guilty" by the [[Court of Oyer and Terminer]]. One of the initial group of settlers, [[Tristram Coffin (Nantucket)|Tristram Coffin]], ran an inn. However, he grew disenchanted with the town's stance against his strong ales, and in 1659 left Haverhill to become one of the founders of the settlement at [[Nantucket]]. Haverhill was for many years a frontier town, and was occasionally subjected to Indian raids, which were sometimes accompanied by French colonial troops from [[New France]], in which dozens of civilians were murdered. During [[King William's War]], [[Hannah Dustin]] became famous for killing and then [[scalping]] her native captors, who were converts to Catholicism, after being captured in the [[Raid on Haverhill (1697)]]. The city has the distinction of featuring the first statue erected in honor of a woman in the United States. In the late 19th century, it was Woolen Mill Tycoon Ezekiel J. M. Hale that commissioned a statue in her memory in Grand Army Republic Park. The statue depicts Dustin brandishing an axe.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Mason|first=Amelia|date=May 1, 2021|title=Town's Statue Of Colonial Woman Who Killed Natives Sparks Debate|url=https://www.npr.org/2021/05/01/989921230/statue-of-a-killer-towns-debate-presentation-of-a-colonial-woman|access-date=2021-05-05|work=NPR News|language=en}}</ref> Her captivity narrative and subsequent escape and revenge upon her captors caught the attention of [[Cotton Mather]], who wrote about her, and she also received from the colonial leaders a reward per Indian scalp. In recent years some have criticized Hannah Dustin since the Native American Indians she killed and scalped in order to escape were allegedly not her original captors and among the people she killed were young children. Hannah, born Hannah Emerson, is often maligned for coming from a troubled family: in 1676 her father Michael Emerson was fined for excessive violence toward his 12-year-old daughter Elizabeth, who in 1693 was hanged for concealing the deaths of her illegitimate twin daughters; and in 1683 Hannah's sister Mary was whipped for fornication. There were never any allegations of any sort against Hannah herself.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://www.executedtoday.com/2012/06/08/1693-elizabeth-emerson/|title=ExecutedToday.com Β» 1693: Elizabeth Emerson|date=June 8, 2012 |access-date=Apr 29, 2019}}</ref>
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