Shutesbury

Shutesbury, incorporated in 1761 and named in honor of Governor Samuel Shutes, was originally known as "Roadtown." This name may have come from the village's early beginnings.

About the year 1733, 95 people, most of whom resided in Lancaster, constructed a public highway from their town to Sunderland. Saying their private enterprise was done at considerable cost and resulted in great public benefit by shortening the distance from certain towns in the valley to Boston, they petitioned the General Court to appropriate lands to recompense them for their outlay. In 1735, the House of Representatives approved the petition under the conditions that the grant should embrace land near the highway laid out by the petitioners and that four years after the return and acceptance of the plot, 60 families should be settled and each family should build a house 18 feet square and clear and break four acres of land for tillage and four acres for English grass.

The settlers were also to lay out a lot for the first settled minister, one for a ministry and one for a school, to build a meetinghouse, to settle a learned and orthodox minister of the gospel, and to fit the road upon which the grant was based for a cart-way.

On May 30, 1735, the proprietors held their first meeting in Lancaster at the house of William Richardson. Captain Oliver Wilder was moderator and Jonathan Houghton was clerk.

Shutesbury, unlike other valley villages, never suffered from Indian assault at any time, but as a precautionary measure, a fort was built in 1748 near the residence of Reverand Abraham Hill, a hlf mile north of the town center.

An early industry was lumbering, which still operates in several locations. Mineral springs were plentiful and a bottling business grew up around them along with many cottage industries. Additionally, there was once a hat factory and a few inns for travelers.