Dictionary.net

The first house was built here in 1626 by Roger Conant, and the town was settled in 1628 by John Endicott. The next year eleven ships came from England bringing 406 immigrants who settled in the vicinity. In this year the first church organization in the Massachusetts colony was effected here. In 1692 the town was stirred up by the famous witchcraft delusion which resulted in the execution of nineteen alleged witches on Gallows Hill. The town was incorporated in 1630 and assumed a city government in 1836.