Endicott Pear Tree

'Endicott' pear
The Endicott Pear Tree in 1997
Genus	Pyrus
Species	Pyrus communis
Cultivar	'Endicott'

The Endicott Pear Tree, also known as the Endecott Pear, is a European Pear (Pyrus communis) tree, located in Danvers, Essex County, Massachusetts. It is believed to be the oldest living cultivated fruit tree in North America.

The Endicott Pear Tree was planted in its current location between 1632 and 1649 (William Bentley reports dates of 1630, 1631, and 1639 in his diary) by John Endecott—a governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, one of the Colony's earliest settlers, and ancestor of Endicott Peabody—and was probably brought from England on the Arbella in June 1630. Various reports indicate an alternate import year of 1628.

Tradition holds to the notion that the tree was planted by Endecott himself, according to Harriet Tapley in Chronicles of Danvers and to Judge Alden Perley White. According to Charles S. Tapley, a President of the Bay State Historical League, White recounted that Endecott personally planted the pear tree in the presence of his children and farmworkers and reportedly declared: "I hope the tree will love the soil of the old world and no doubt when we have gone the tree will still be alive."

The 1925 USDA Agriculture Yearbook, citing the memoir of Samuel Endicott—a descendant of Endecott (the spelling of the family name changed in the 18th century)—suggests that the tree may have been transplanted from Endecott's garden in Salem. An article in the Salem Observer, written in 1852 by Samuel P. Fowler, lends further credence to this idea, noting that it was in Salem proper that Endecott "probably planted his famous pear tree". Flower also reports that Endecott was probably among the first to cultivate fruit in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.