By Toby Brissett
“Nonesuch: a person or thing without an equal”
—Merriam-Webster Dictionary
The Nonesuch River is easy to think of as a Scarborough river. It winds through town, feeds Scarborough Marsh, and gives its name to roads, businesses, neighborhoods, conservation land, and even oysters tied to the river-and-marsh landscape. It is also one of the town’s quiet working systems: Scarborough’s longest river, a wildlife corridor, and the primary source of fresh water for the marsh.
But the river does not begin here. Its headwaters rise in Saco, a short distance northwest of the junction of Buxton and Rocky Hill roads. From there, it travels through Saco, Gorham, and Scarborough before feeding Scarborough Marsh. Its waters reach the sea only after joining the estuarine Scarborough River, which passes through Pine Point Harbor into Saco Bay, between Pine Point and Prouts Neck.
Why Nonesuch?
The older story of the Nonesuch name is wider than the river. By the 1680s, records were using it for a whole Scarborough landscape: river, marshes, meadows, point, and farm. A 1687 survey warrant described one piece of that landscape as a farm or neck of land claimed by Sarah Jorden, widow of the Rev. Robert Jordan, and John Hincks: “Jordens or nonsuch farme.”
That does not prove Robert Jordan chose the name. But it does put Nonesuch in the world of an English colonial landholder and Anglican minister, where a word meaning “without equal” would not have sounded strange. It would have sounded like praise.
Left: Men harvesting hay at Nonesuch Farm, circa 1900. Right: The crew of the Nonesuch Farm circa 1900, with owner Samuel D. Plummer in the white jacket on the left. Photos courtesy of the Maine Historical Society.
Maybe that is why the name still feels true here. Nonesuch may have begun as praise for a fine stretch of land, but it has lasted because Scarborough keeps meeting the name: shaped by water, road, farm, marsh, and neighborhoods, and made richer by all the tributaries that flow into its story.
Toby Brissett is a Scarborough resident and freelance writer with over 30 years of experience. Learn more at WordsAndIdeas.com.
