Edicott Rock Monument c. 1905
Endicott Rock may be the oldest public
monument in New England. The name of John Endicott, Governor
of Massachusetts Bay, and the initials of Edward Johnson
and Simon Willard, Commissioners of the Massachusetts
Bay Colony, and of John Sherman and Jonathan Ince, Suveyors,
were inscribed on the rock on August 1, 1652. The rock
marked the assumed headwaters of the Merrimack River.
Under the original Bay Charter of 1629, the northern
boundary of the colony was fixed as a line three miles
north of the Merrimack. Endicott Rock is unstaffed and is open to the public
year-round at no charge.
