The land on which the Town of Ipswich was founded was originally inhabited by Indian tribes who called the area "Agawam." Little has been known about these people until recently. But now, studies have shown that tribes had been living along these coastal and riverine areas for thousands of years. One of the most important discoveries about Indian history was made in 1951 at our own Bull Brook site. Carbon dating proved that artifacts found at this site belonged to inhabitants of the Paleo-Indian period, about 9000 B.P. (Before Present). Other collections discovered at Great Neck and along the river banks have been analyzed as they belong to the later Archaic (8000-5000 B.P.) and the Woodland (2000 B.P.) Periods. Thus we have come to realize that we are only the latest in a long history of peoples who have lived in this special place.
One of the first descriptions of Ipswich was made by Captain John Smith in 1614 - a description which is still appropriate today: "...there are many sands at the entrance of the Harbour... Here are many rising hills, and on their tops and descents are many corn fields and delightful groves... plain marsh ground, fit for pasture, or salt ponds. There is also Oakes, Pines, Walnuts, and other wood to make this place an excellent habitation, being a good and safe harbour."

Agawam remained an uncolonized part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony until 1633 when Governor John Winthrop sent his son, John, to establish a settlement to be called Ipswich. With his hearty band of twelve men, John sailed up the Ipswich River in his shallop on a cool March day and began his settlement on the banks of the river near the present wharf. Some earlier explorations must have informed the new settlers that the banks of this tidal river would provide an ideal place for a new community to be established. Here they would enjoy the advantages of fresh water, water power, good fishing, and an easy means of transportation.

It was an extraordinary group of settlers who came to Ipswich - men of substance and education, who were among the key founders of the Puritan Commonwealth: Thomas Dudley, Deputy Governor; Magistrates Simon Bradstreet, Richard Saltonstall, and Samuel Symonds; and Ministers Nathaniel Ward, John Norton, William Hubbard, and Nathaniel Rogers.

The town became the Birthplace of American Independence when, in 1687, Ipswich citizens protested a tax that English Governor Sir Edmond Andros attempted to impose on the colony. Ipswich residents, under the leadership of Reverend John Wise, led the protest, arguing that as Englishmen they could not abide taxation without representation. The citizens were jailed and fined for their action, but in 1689 Andros was called back to England and the Colonists received a new charter from the new sovereigns, King William and Queen Mary.