Hello:

I am Ruth Noyes Etheredge (left) and this is my sister, Thelma Noyes Tweedie (right).

This Website contains part of the geneology of the Noyes family in North America, especially through our Dad, Lynn Ray Noyes (1888 - 1957) and his sister Ada Noyes Conrad (1885 - ). If you are a Noyes with early roots in New England, this site probably includes part of your history.

Col. Henry E. Noyes and Miss Harriette E. Noyes did most of the early work by compiling a two volume Geneological Record of Some of the Noyes Descendants of James, Nicholas, and Peter Noyes published in Boston, MA in 1904. [Volume 1 covers the descendants of Nicholas; volume 2 the descendants of James and Peter.]

Early History

Two brothers, Rev. James and Nicholas Noyes, came to Massachusetts aboard the Mary and John in March 1633, and were part of the first group of settlers of Newbury, MA in 1635. Their father was Rev. William Noyes, rector of Cholderton (county Wilts), England [about 11 miles from Salisbury], a graduate of University College, Oxford in 1592. Their mother was Anne Parker (sister of the scholar, Robert Parker); their cousin Rev. Thomas Parker accompanied them to Massachusetts. (A third Noyes, Peter Noyce, came with his son and daughter in April, 1638.)

James Noyes, a student at Oxford, was invited by Rev. Thomas Parker to teach with him at the Free School in Newbury, England (a town in Berkshire on the river Kennet, about 56 miles west from London), which they did together before coming to New England. James Noyes married in 1633 and his wife Sarah came to Massachusetts with him.

We are descendants of Nicholas Noyes, a young man in 1635 (b. 1615-6) and by historical reputation the first of the new settlers to leap ashore at Newbury, an event re-enacted by the Historical Society. Their landing site is now an historical landmark in Newbury, MA. There is an historical marker and a monument to the first settlers on the Lower Green, just to your left after crossing the Parker River, on Rt. 1A, coming north from Boston. About a decade later as the settlement expanded an Upper Green was created and, nearby, the house built by Rev. James Noyes in 1646, now with additions, remains and is an historical landmark. The First Parish Church of Newbury, founded by Rev. Parker and Rev. Noyes, continues and the Burial Ground, across the road, is the resting place for the remains of many early Noyes descendants, including Timothy Noyes, the fourth son of Nicholas, from whom our branch continued.

Any descendant of James or Nicholas is eligible for membership in the Sons & Daughters of the First Settlers of Newbury, whose address in late 2001 was P. O. Box 444 in Newburyport, MA 01950. The Historical Society of Old Newbury, located in the Cushing House Museum at 98 High St. (Rt. 1A) in Newburyport, MA 01950, sponsors lectures and other events, publishes a newsletter, and has a helpful staff and a geneology library on the second floor.

Recent History

Our line in America, as mentioned above, began with Nicholas Noyes and Mary Cutting of Newbury, MA, via their fourth son, Timothy Noyes (1655 - 1718). The line runs from his son Timothy (1690 - ), to his son Sylvanus (1719 - ), his son Samuel (1760 - 1846), his son James (1791 - ), his son Amos K. (1821 - 1900), and his son Ralph B. Noyes (1856 - 1940). The recent linkage (vol. 1 of the 1904 compendium, cited above, p. 343) is the marriage of Ralph B. Noyes and Laura Prince in 1882: they lived in Colebrook, New Hampshire.

Dad and Aunt Ada were children of this marriage. [Ralph B. Noyes had two later wives, and two other children, Harold E. Noyes (1896 - ) and our Aunt Farrie Noyes (1901 - ).] Grandad (Ralph B. Noyes) is on the left, I am in the center, and Dad is on the right of this picture.

• Aunt Ada married Lowell E. (Ted) Conrad (1879 - 1966); Dad married our mother, Laura Higgins (1890 - 1967) and, after a divorce, Wilhemina ("Minnie") Eichstadt ( - 1949) in 1926.
• Ada and Ted had three children: Ralph Conrad (1912 - 1948), Marcia Fischer (1913 - ), and Mary Martha Hampton (1923 - ).
• I was born on June 10, 1910 and Thelma was born on June 14, 1915, both in Colebrook, New Hampshire. We had two siblings who died very young, Ralph (1912 - 1917) and an earlier infant, also named Thelma, who was born in 1913 and lived only about two weeks. We grew up in Guilhall, Vermont.

After our parents divorced, I stayed with Dad and we ended-up in Detroit in the 1930s. Thelma stayed in Guilhall and eventually joined us in Detroit. I met my future husband in Detroit, Jim Etheredge: during WWII we resettled in the Washington, DC area where our twin sons, Lloyd and Lynn, were born in 1946. Thelma and her first husband, Arthur Cloutier (on the left, with Dad) lived and worked in Detroit until retirement. Following Arthur's death, Thelma married Henry ("Bud") Tweedie in 1976. Since his death, she continues to live in Punta Gorda, Florida.

Historical Connections

Younger descendants of the Noyes line might be interested to locate our history in the context of historical events. For example:

• The founding and early history of Massachusetts. The early settlers came for economic opportunity and adventure (and, later, religious freedom). They brought civic, religious, and educational values - expressions of their geographic and social origins in England - that shaped New England culture. Much of what distinguishes America's New England culture from (for example) Southern culture begins here. (E.g, David Hackett Fisher, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, Oxford University Press, 1991.) Also of interest in a broader context is the policy of rapid northward expansion (which included the grant of free land to the first settlers of Newbury). This policy was partly motivated by a geopolitical apprehension of French designs for southward expansion. [Gov. Hutchinson later wrote, "It appears that the Massachusetts people took possession of the country at a very critical time. Richlieu, in all probability, would have placed his colony nearer the sun, if he could have found any place vacant." [Quoted in Joshua Coffin, A Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury from 1635 to 1845. Boston: Samuel G. Drake, 1845; reprinted by Peter E. Randall, Publisher, 1977., p. 11. ]
• The Salem witch trials. Rev. Nicholas Noyes (Harvard A.B., 1667), the second son of Nicholas and Mary, presided at the hanging of alleged witches in 1692; he later repented and aided the dependent families - vol. 1 of the Noyes Geneology, cited above, p. 49.
• The founding of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut: Rev. James Noyes of Stonington, CT, the second son of the first Rev. James Noyes, was one of the seven founding ministers. The Noyes name is carved over Woodbridge Hall, the Administration Building, to the right of the entrance. Rev. James Noyes was first Senior Fellow (Chairman) of the Board of Trustees and his brother Moses Noyes also was an early member of the Board.
• And - perhaps equally devout, but at the opposite end politically - Rev. John Humphrey Noyes (1811 - 1886). He was a descendant of Nicholas Noyes (vol. 1, p. 402 of the 1904 Geneology), a leader of the Perfectionist movement, and founded the Oneida Community, one of the great utopian socialist experiments in American history. He was an early proponent of the equality of women and of a different approach to sexuality and marriage than his Puritan ancestors (or teachers at Yale Divinity School).(For example, Alfred Kazin wrote on the book jacket of Spencer Klaw's Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community (NY: Penguin Press, 1993): "The Oneida Community was the most practical and, because of its sexual code, the merriest of our nineteenth-century Utopias. Its founder and dictator, John Humphrey Noyes, would have fascinated Dostoyevsky.")

  Today, Newbury has a town Web site. And the Parker River has a Parker River Clean Water Association with information about recreation and an on-line bookstore and a Friends of the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge with an extensive list of on-line links, including information about bird-watching and other outdoor activities. A Newbury Geneology project is on-line and may provide materials of interest in the future.]

  [This site was created by Lloyd Etheredge. My mother passed away in the spring of 2001. I have expanded upon it, with text and pictures, based on a trip to Newbury and later research, and with added photographs from a trip taken by my brother Lynn Etheredge, and Vicky and Rani Fischer in August, 2002. The biography of Lynn Ray Noyes ("Dad," above) was written by my father James Etheredge. For additions and corrections, please contact me: Lloyd Etheredge. And feel free to download or use material from this site.

  This site was last updated on August 22, 2002.