B. about Apr 1618 in (probably) South Petherton, England
M. 1651 in (probably) Massachusetts
Wife: Anna Palgrave
D. 16 May 1686 in Beverly, Massachusetts
Nicholas Woodbury was a man of modest wealth, and of land that he owned on both sides of the Atlantic. He was born in Somerset, England, and was baptized in the village of South Petherton on April 19, 1618. His parents were William Woodbury and Elizabeth Patch, and he was the oldest of their seven children.
It’s uncertain when Nicholas’ family migrated to Massachusetts, but it was sometime during the Great Puritan Migration. His father was known to have owned land in Salem in 1636, and the following year, on October 15th, 19-year-old Nicholas was granted a 10-acre lot of his own. There were other extended members of the Woodbury and Patch families in Salem, and along with a few other families, they made their homes on the east side of the Bass River. In 1653, Nicholas was granted 40 more acres, and three years later, he received 4 acres of meadow.
Nicholas married a woman named Anna Palgrave in about 1651, but it isn’t known where the wedding took place. Anna came over from England during the 1630s with her mother and step-father, and she had inherited a substantial amount of land in Great Yarmouth, England. When she married, Nicholas became the legal owner of her property. The couple had nine children born between 1652 and 1668, only one of whom died young.
By the late 1650s, the part of Salem where Nicholas lived was becoming its own community, and in 1659, he was one of the men who signed a petition to form their own church. It wasn’t until 1668 that the settlement was formally incorporated as Beverly. Like many men in the area, Nicholas engaged in fishing as well as farming; Beverly was located on the coast of Massachusetts, and included some inlets and bays. For a time, Nicholas owned a mill that was said to be near Mackerel Cove (in present-day Beverly, there is a road named Woodbury Street in that area).
Nicholas served Beverly as a constable in 1669 and a selectman in 1670. He was chosen for juries at the court in Salem several times, but in 1663, he was fined 10 shillings for missing jury duty. On November 28, 1671, Nicholas was sued by a married couple for “withholding a piece of land they claimed was rightfully theirs.” This had to do with some land Nicholas had purchased from the woman’s two sons from a previous marriage. She was claiming that she owned the land, not her sons, but she had no proof, and it eventually came out that her current husband put her up to it—he was scheming to own the property. The court ruled in Nicholas’ favor.
When Nicholas died on May 16, 1686, he left an estate valued at £2,573, a large amount of money for the time. The property in Great Yarmouth, England went back to his wife Anna. When she passed away in 1701, she left it to be divided among her children. Among Nicholas descendants is First Lady Grace Coolidge.
Children:
1. Anna Woodbury — B. Mar 1652, Salem, Massachusetts; D. 30 Jun 1714, Boston, Massachusetts
2. Joanna Woodbury — B. Mar 1653, Salem, Massachusetts; D. before 30 Jun 1714, Boston, Massachusetts; M. Samuel Plummer (1647-1718), Beverly, Massachusetts
3. Nicholas Woodbury — B. May 1654, Salem, Massachusetts; D. young
4. Abigail Woodbury — B. 28 Aug 1655, Salem, Massachusetts; D. 28 Jan 1741, Beverly, Massachusetts; M. Richard Ober (1641-1715), 26 Dec 1671, Beverly, Massachusetts
5. Nicholas Woodbury — B. 31 Jul 1657, Salem, Massachusetts; D. 13 Oct 1691, Beverly, Massachusetts; M. Mary Elliott (1662-1729), 4 Jun 1684, Salem, Massachusetts
6. Joseph Woodbury — B. Sep 1659, Salem, Massachusetts; D. 14 Oct 1714, Manchester, Massachusetts; M. Elizabeth West (1663-?), 19 Dec 1687, Beverly, Massachusetts
7. Isaac Woodbury — B. Nov 1663, Salem, Massachusetts; D. Oct 1733, Ipswich, Massachusetts; M. Elizabeth Herrick (1668-1703), 1687
8. Andrew Woodbury — B. 20 Sep 1665, Salem, Massachusetts; D. 3 Jun 1694, Beverly, Massachusetts; M. Emma Elliot (~1665-?)
9. Benjamin Woodbury — B. 26 Apr 1668, Beverly, Massachusetts; D. 23 Mar 1698, Beverly, Massachusetts; M. Mary Woodbury (1674-1712), 23 Mar 1693, Beverly, Massachusetts
Sources:
Genealogical Sketches of the Woodbury Family, Charles Levi Woodbury, 1904
Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Volumes I - IX, edited by George Francis Drew, 1912-1921, 1975
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