After 31 years in storage, the Haverhill Shield has been refurbished and is now on permanent public display at Haverhill Arts Centre.
The 134-year-old gift, presented to the town by the city of Haverhill in Massachusetts, was unveiled in early 2025 by mayor of Haverhill, Cllr David Smith, having been restored last year by Portsmouth-based Jim Mowat, helped by a grant from the Association of Suffolk Museums.
The Haverhill MA shield
This shield was a gift from Haverhill Massachusetts to Haverhill Suffolk, England in 1891.
The link between the two towns dates back to 1642 when there was considerable religious turmoil in England.
Revd Nathaniel Ward, a Puritan, left his hometown, Haverhill, Suffolk, and went with his family to Agawam (now Ipswich, Massachusetts) in 1634. While living in Ipswich, MA he wrote The Body of Liberties for the colony of Massachusetts, which was adopted by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Company in December 1641. This was the first code of laws established in New England. Ward thought that justice and the law were essential to the liberty of the individual. Some have said that The Body of Liberties began the American tradition of liberty and led to the United States Constitution.
Nathaniel’s son, John, established a church 15 miles away from his father at Pentucket and was instrumental in purchasing the land this settlement stood on from two representatives of Passaconway, the Chief of the local Pennacook people, for £3 10s. (The deed of sale is interesting as the Passaconway representatives signed their names with drawings of a bow and arrow.) In 1642, Pentucket was renamed Haverhill after John’s birthplace.
In January 1891, following a visit to Massachusetts by a prominent local mill owner, Daniel Gurteen IV, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Haverhill, Massachusetts, Haverhill in Suffolk was presented with a magnificent shield ‘in appreciation of the honor done us by her’. The shield is in the form of the Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was made from oak grown on the birthplace of John Greenleaf Whittier, an American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. In the centre is the seal of the city of Haverhill in bronze and underneath the Latin motto of the state. In the corners are medallions depicting the Public Library, City Hospital, City Hall and the Birthplace of Whittier. An arm holds a weapon aloft.
For many years, the shield was on display in the Boardroom and later in the Main Hall of Haverhill Town Hall which was built for Haverhill, Suffolk by Daniel Gurteen III and his wife Caroline to celebrate their Golden Wedding in 1883. When the Town Hall was converted to the Town Hall Arts Centre in 1994, the shield was removed and rehung after the building work was completed. Unfortunately, it fell from the wall and sustained some damage – the arm became detached and one of the medallions has since split. There were also some small pieces that were broken and lost.
The shield has since been restored and Haverhill Local History Museum became its custodian. It is now on display in the arts centre.