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Encampment: Piscataqua Company
Saturday, June 12, 10am-4pm
Old Berwick Historical Society will be hosting the Piscataqua Company reenactors on Saturday, June 12 from 10am-4pm at Counting House Park, next door to our Counting House Museum at 2 Liberty Street.
A presentation of Harmon’s Company of Snowshoemen, this historical encampment represents the settlers along the Piscataqua River, 1623-1640, including Dover, Portsmouth, NH, “Old” Berwick, York, and Kittery, ME. Unlike the Pilgrims at Plymouth and the Boston area under the Massachusetts Bay Company, these were not Puritans seeking freedom to worship as they wanted, they were men under contract by landed proprietors to establish economically viable communities. There was a focus on fishing, salting, lumbering, and trade. Part of their responsibility included defense of the communities. The Piscataqua Company attempts to remember those men and women who first settled New Hampshire and Maine.
The society’s Counting House Museum will be open during the encampment from 10am-4pm. Encampment and Museum admission is free to the public, donations are gratefully accepted. Social distancing measures and masks are still encouraged.
By-Laws Amendments Vote:
Changes will be voted on at our Annual Meeting on May 20th. The Board of Directors has been reviewing our By-Laws, as all non-profit organizations should do every five years or so. We have made some updates to be better aligned with the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act. We also made some changes that will help us be more efficient, as well as some that reflect our Strategic Plan.
These changes must be voted on at an annual meeting, so we will be presenting them this year. You can find the proposed changes on our website’s home page, where there is a link to an online document. If you are a member, please review the changes and email us with any questions at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will have limited copies available at the annual meeting, in an effort to be eco-friendly. A copy can be found here. Green highlights are additions, red highlights are deletions.
By-Laws:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XnHa32LziuYD9NZAVcSQbFm5atjMuawPbTUnwBLzJek/edit?usp=sharing
History Summer Camp for 7th & 8th Graders:
Summer Camp is back during the week of June 21st! Live and in-person! Click here for more information and the application. Deadline for applicants is May 28th.
https://forms.gle/NcuWHQEYqFA7odau8
Past Lectures-
To view the September 2020 Lecture about the South Berwick Fire of 1870
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BHObxonJ1Z6jnErWn16pnLY6riEKImud/view?usp=sharing
To view the October 2020 Lecture about the Gray Family
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qY1aqLZVsKkcYcDEmAbqGC3KHjZDGQD4/view?usp=sharing
To view the January 2021 Lecture about Maine's Suffrage Movement
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PMUcJVOuTEZZxS-rLCSuaFdwFWprlzV-/view?usp=sharing
To view the February 2021 Lecture about Malaga Island
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m64BRZJb-vF-BbLwKAh9gRlm0ZMzFuAL/view?usp=sharing
To view the March 2021 Lecture about Maine's Bicentennial
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WYwmtocq6vnf3Ca6UiuIKi1eL6wgh9N1/view?usp=sharing
To view the April 2021 Lecture about the Dunbar Soldiers in Maine
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CYbSgUlH12TwMXM_1sMlZntHtgwfjJtk/view?usp=sharing
Museum Open-
"Unwilling Immigrants" Exhibit
The Counting House Museum exhibit, "Unwilling Immigrants: From the Scottish Battlefield to the New World, 1650", is now open. The panel and touchscreen exhibit, produced at Durham University in England, is expanded at the Counting House Museum with a display of artifacts and images that recount the experience of the Dunbar prisoners who arrived in southern New Hampshire and Maine as indentured servants and settled in the Berwicks, leaving a long and proud Scottish legacy in our town.
The companion exhibit focuses on four soldiers from Scotland, who survived starvation, imprisonment, and travails at sea to become sawyers, farmers and carpenters in New England. It features items from our collection, including materials from the 17th-century Chadbourne house and sawmill site, as well as objects loaned from local collectors.
The Counting House Museum is open June-October on Saturdays from 1pm-4pm, and by appointment. Limit of 5 guests per appointment and facemasks are required. Call 207-384-0000 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Free admission, donations gratefully accepted.
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Our volunteers work hard to connect you to local history. Please help us, and support our museum and programs, by joining the Old Berwick Historical Society. Only takes a minute. Please click here.
