Wenham

It is said that this town probably received its

name from a small town of the same name near Ipswich in England, from which it is supposed some of our first settlers originated. An old writer says, that "Wenham was originally that part of Salem, called Enon, and was among the earliest settlements of Massachusetts. As early as 1639 a few persons took up their residence here, and it was not long after this that the celebrated Hugh Peters, who was settled in Salem in 1639 and left the colony in 1641, preached, probably the first sermon ever preached in this place, choosing for his pulpit the same conical hill at the northeast end of the pond; with that beautiful sheet of water before him and his audience, he selected for his text John iii: 23-"and John also was baptising [baptizing] in Enon, near to Salem, because there was much water there."