Benjamin L. Judkins

Benjamin L. Judkins was born in Danbury, New Hampshire, on September 17, 1797, according to Henry Hazen's genealogical register of Billerica (the register misprints the town as "Dembury," corrected in Hazen's additions; the Vital Records, copying his gravestone, give September 16, 1798). On January 1, 1827 he married Elizabeth Hill, born July 15, 1795, the only child of Peter Hill of Billerica, and made his home on her family's farm on the west side of the old Bedford road, now Concord Road, about a mile south of the Common.

The farm was old Hill land. Hazen wrote that Judkins "lived on the original 'Ralph Hill' place," the homestead of Ralph Hill, one of the first settlers, whose house had stood "a little west of the place where Mrs. Judkins, his descendant, now lives." Elizabeth's father had died without a will early in 1823, leaving her his only heir, so the homestead came to the Judkins family through her rather than by purchase. Judkins added meadow, pasture and woodland around it, and the registry indexes show him buying and selling other Billerica land from 1827 into the 1850s. The house, known as the Benjamin L. Judkins House at 195 Concord Road, stayed in his family until 1968 and was demolished in 2021.

He served the town as a selectman in 1851 and again from 1856 through 1860, six years in all by Hazen's count. On April 27, 1859 he was appointed Billerica's postmaster, and he held the office until Charles H. Parker was appointed on May 8, 1862.

The Judkinses had two sons. Henry Benjamin, born November 6, 1827, was a student at Dartmouth in the class of 1845 and later lived on the Carlisle road beyond Winning's Pond; his son Edward Foster Judkins married Fanny Mary Talbot of Texas, a niece of Thomas Talbot and assistant principal of the Howe School from 1877 to 1879, who appears here as Fannie M. Judkins. The younger son, Edward Hill Judkins, born December 20, 1833, went into business in Boston and in 1872 changed his name "by authority" to Edward Judkins Hill.

Benjamin L. Judkins died on August 28, 1875, and his gravestone stands in the Old South Cemetery. His widow lived on at the homestead: Hazen's history of 1883 pictured the "Residence of Mrs. Benjamin L. Judkins," and his key to the town's tax list of 1776 placed the Peter Hill farm at "Mrs. Judkins's place, Bedford St."

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 80, JUDKINS #1-2 (birth, marriage to Elizabeth Hill, the "Ralph Hill" place, death, sons)
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Additions and Corrections p. 173 (JUDKINS: for Dembury read Danbury)
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 68, HILL #1 (Ralph Hill's house "a little west of the place where Mrs. Judkins, his descendant, now lives")
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 249, tax list of 1776 with key (Peter Hill at "Mrs. Judkins's place, Bedford St.")
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 307, list of selectmen (Benj. L. Judkins, 1851, 1856-60)
6. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 308, list of postmasters (Benjamin L. Judkins appointed April 27, 1859)
7. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), plate: Residence of Mrs. Benjamin L. Judkins
8. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850 (1908), births p. 113 (Benjamin L. Judkins, Sept. 16, 1798, from gravestone, Old South Cemetery; sons Henry Benjamin and Edward Hill)
9. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850 (1908), births p. 98 (Elizabeth, d. Peter and Lucy Hill, July 15, 1795, wife of Benjamin L. Judkins)
10. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850 (1908), marriages p. 269 (Elizabeth Hill and Benjamin L. Judkins, Jan. 1, 1827)