[7][8] Native Americans inhabited what is now northeastern Massachusetts for thousands of years prior to European colonization of the Americas.

The first permanent settlement in the Andover area was established in 1642 by John Woodbridge and a group of settlers from Newbury and Ipswich.

Shortly after they arrived, they purchased land from the Massachusett sachem Cutshamekin for "six pounds of currency and a coat" on the condition that a local company of indigenous people headed by a man named Roger be allowed to plant corn and take alewives from a local water source.

[9] Roger's Brook, a small stream which cuts through the eastern part of town, is named in his honor.

This name was likely chosen in honor of the town of Andover in England, which was near the original home of some of the first residents.

The first recorded town meeting was held in 1656 in the home of settler John Osgood in what is now North Andover.

After visiting Elizabeth Ballard, the girls claimed that several people in Andover had bewitched her: Ann Foster, her daughter Mary Lacey Sr. and her granddaughter[12] Mary Lacey Jr. During the course of the legal proceedings, more than 40 Andover citizens, mostly women and their children, were formally accused of having made a covenant with the Devil.

Three Andover residents, Martha Carrier, Mary Parker, and Samuel Wardwell, were convicted and executed.

Five others either pleaded guilty at arraignment or were convicted at trial: Ann Foster, Mary Lacey Sr., and Abigail Faulkner Sr. (daughter of Andover's minister, Francis Dane) in 1692 and Wardwell's wife Sarah and Rev.

In 1713, in response to petitions initiated in 1703 by Abigail Faulkner Sr. and Sarah Wardwell, Massachusetts Governor Joseph Dudley reversed the attainder on the names of those who were convicted in the episode.

By 1705, Andover's population had begun to move southward and the idea of a new meeting house in the south end of town was proposed.

Records show that on the morning of April 19, 1775, approximately 350 Andover men marched toward Lexington.

Among the Andover men who were representatives to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1779–1780 were Colonel Samuel Osgood, Zebadiah Abbot, John Farnum and Samuel Phillips Jr. Phillips—who had founded Phillips Academy in 1778—was later appointed by John Adams to help draft the Massachusetts state constitution.

During the burning of Charlestown (June 17, 1775) Andover townspeople hiked to the top of Holt Hill to witness it.

[14] Holt Hill is the highest point in Essex County at 420 ft (130 m) and is currently part of the Charles W. Ward Reservation.

[15] In November 1798, David Brown led a group in Dedham, Massachusetts, in setting up a liberty pole with the words, "No Stamp Act, No Sedition Act, No Alien Bills, No Land Tax, downfall to the Tyrants of America; peace and retirement to the President; Love Live the Vice President," referring to then-President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson.

By the time the war ended in 1865, six hundred Andover men had served in the Union Army.

The mill began operating in 1922 and within two years the village contained more than 200 houses, several community buildings, a few tennis courts, a swimming area, a bowling green, an athletic field and a golf course.

The employees rented their homes from the company; the brick structures were reserved for upper management and the wooden buildings for those of lesser position.

The American Woolen Company closed its mills in 1953, and the buildings today house a variety of businesses, homes, and apartments.

Andover also hosts regional offices for many multinational corporations such as Schneider Electric, Pfizer and Raytheon Technologies.

[38] In late 2009, the U.S. General Services Administration received money through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to fund the $85 million green modernization of the 1967 building complex.

[39] The Andover Police Department provides full-time general law enforcement for the town.

The town is also served by Troop A of the Massachusetts State Police, operating out of the Andover barracks (A-1).

The department has three full-time stations and maintains four engines, two ladder trucks, four ambulances and two forest fire units, as well as miscellaneous vehicles.