Berwick, Maine

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Originally part of Kittery, Berwick was first settled about 1653 and called Kittery Commons or Kittery North Parish. It also would be called Unity after the sailing vessel Unity, which transported to America Scots prisoners of war captured at the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. They had been force-marched to Durham Cathedral in Durham, England, then tried for treason for supporting Charles II rather than Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector.

Landing in Massachusetts, the royalist soldiers were sold as slaves to work at the Great Works sawmill, located on the Great Works River, until they were able to pay for their own freedom. George Gray, formerly of Lanark, Scotland, was an example of the 150 prisoners who endured this ordeal. In 1675, he defended his family and lands when the community was attacked during King Philip's War, and died in Unity in 1693. His descendants would populate other areas of Maine, notably Deer Isle and Stonington.

The raid by Indians in 1675 was the first of several during the French and Indian Wars. In 1690-1691 during King William's War, the village was burned and abandoned. It would be resettled in 1703 and called Newichawannock, its old Abenaki name. In 1713, it was incorporated by the Massachusetts General Court as Berwick, the ninth oldest town in Maine, named after Berwick-upon-Tweed, England. The first schoolhouse in the state was built here in 1719. Berwick was once considerably larger in size, but South Berwick was set off in 1814, followed by North Berwick in 1831. Lumbering was a principal early industry. Beginning in the 19th century, Berwick had a symbiotic economic relationship with Somersworth, New Hampshire, the mill town to which it is connected by bridge.