Jonathan Hill

Born	1718-04-28 Billerica, MA
Died	1796-04-07 Billerica, MA
Father	Joseph Hill
Mother	Susanna Baldwin
Spouses	Mary Lane (m. 1746-01-13 ) Sarah Stevens (m. 1774-05-24 )
Children	Azubah Anna Job (b. 1754-05-29) Josiah (b. 1757-12-10) Jonathan (b. 1763-09-28)

Jonathan Hill was born in Billerica on April 28, 1718, the son of Lieutenant Joseph Hill and Susanna Baldwin. His grandfather was Cornet Nathaniel Hill and his great-grandfather the settler Ralph Hill. In 1706 Nathaniel had given his son Ralph, Jonathan's uncle, sixty acres on the east side of the road to Concord "with all the buildings fences & Trees standing thereon," the farm on which the Jonathan Hill House at 312 Concord Road stands. Ralph, "being old & full of days," made his will on May 27, 1740, leaving "my well beloved Nephew Jonathan Hill, son to my Brother Joseph Hill" all his lands, goods, debts and movable estate in Billerica and naming him sole executor; Hazen noted that the same will provided "30 gallons of sweet wine at my funeral, if occasion requires." Ralph died on April 23, 1742, and the will was proved in May, so Jonathan came into the homestead at twenty-four.

He added to the farm over the next years. In January 1745/6 he bought from Samuel Kenney of Dunstable about seven acres next to his own land on the road to Bedford, "with a Dwelling House and a small Barn standing thereon," and he later bought river meadow by the Concord River and meadow at Long Meadow. On January 13, 1746/7 he married Mary Lane of Bedford. She died on October 24, 1772, aged 47, and on May 24, 1774 he married Sarah Whiting, widow of Samuel Whiting; she died on August 16, 1778, aged 42. Hazen lists fourteen children, among them Ralph, who settled in Ashby, Benjamin, Job, Josiah, Jonathan, and the daughters Mary, Isabel, Susanna, Lucy, Elizabeth, Azubah and Anna.

By the 1790s the farm had its own grist mill near the road, on the site later known as Hill's Mills. In February 1785 he sold his sons Job and Josiah forty and a half acres at the south end of the farm for 152 pounds 9 shillings. In his will of January 12, 1795 he left Ralph and Benjamin twenty shillings each, since they had "already received an handsome share of my estate," and gave Job "my Kinny-farm, so called." Job and Josiah were to divide the southern part of the farm east of the Bedford road, bounded by a line from the drawbars "a little distant southerly from my grist-mill," and were given "the privilege of grinding their own grain in my corn-mill." His son Jonathan, the executor, received the rest of his land in Billerica and Carlisle, the stock and tools, and "my clock and great brass kettle." His five unmarried daughters were to have the east chamber of the house and a bedroom below "so long as they shall remain in a single state," with a garden, firewood and a cow kept for them.

Jonathan Hill died on April 7, 1796, aged 78, and his will was proved on May 10. The homestead passed to his son Jonathan, who died in 1815, and in 1825 that son's heirs sold the farm out of the family. The house is still known as the Jonathan Hill House, and the barn that stood just north of it as the Jonathan Hill Barn.

Jonathan Hill

Jonathan Hill

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