Dudley Farm

The Dudley Farm was the tract of 1,500 acres on the east side of the Concord River that the General Court of Massachusetts Bay granted to Thomas Dudley, its deputy governor and later governor, and that became the first home of most of Billerica's first settlers. It ran from the Two Brothers, two boulders on the river bank a short way south of the Bedford line, two and a half miles down the river, and its sale in 1652 to three men of Woburn was the earliest, and one of the largest, sales of land in the town. Henry A. Hazen called its influence on the shape of the settlement "vital."

On November 2, 1637 the Court granted Dudley a thousand acres, and Governor John Winthrop the same, in land not yet given to any plantation. In January 1637-8 the two men came down the river from Concord to choose their farms, and at the place where Dudley's was to begin they named two great stones the Two Brothers, "in remembrance that they were brothers by their children's marriage." On May 2, 1638 the Court fixed the grants, Dudley's on the northerly side of the stones and Winthrop's on the southerly side. Later grants raised Dudley's farm to 1,500 acres, and on October 15, 1651 he asked the Court to record that it ran two and a half miles along the river, which it did.

As Hazen traced it, the farm began at the Two Brothers and extended down the river to the line of the Middlesex Turnpike. Its north-east bound was the line of Charnstaffe Lane, carried from the river to a point just east of Ash Swamp; its south-east bound, of which Tufts' Lane was a fragment, crossed Nutting's Pond (now Nuttings Lake) near its west end; and its south line, 430 rods long, crossed the road to Bedford where the road from Hill's Bridge met it. Dudley Road, which lies wholly on the old farm, and the Governor Thomas Dudley Park beside the river keep the name.

On February 28, 1651-2 Dudley sold the farm to Thomas Chamberline, James Parker and Isaac Learned of Woburn for 110 pounds, to be paid at his house in Roxbury in two payments of 55 pounds, in cattle "none of them to be above six years old" and in wheat, rye, peas or corn, the first due April 28, 1653. The deed was recorded by Thomas Danforth on September 19, 1656. The three buyers all became citizens of Chelmsford, though Parker lived in Billerica for three or four years. They sold parts of the farm to their Woburn neighbors, and John Stearns, the brother of Learned's wife, became one of its largest holders.

The first families settled on it. Of the nine families Hazen counted in 1654, seven, and perhaps eight, were on the Dudley Farm, which the early records simply call "the farm," while the Church in Cambridge granted the four hundred acres north of Charnstaffe Lane as the "Towneship" for the village. John Stearns and George Farley took the north end of the farm, on either side of the road to Bedford; Ralph Hill was south of them, with Lt. William French toward Indian Hill, Robert Parker on the east side, and William Chamberline and Henry Jefts between Parker and Stearns.

The farm was divided into twelve shares of 125 acres, 113 acres of upland and 12 of meadow, and a single share became the unit by which all rights in the town's land were measured, called a "ten-acre lot" because it was matched by a ten-acre house lot on the Township. Elder Richard Champney of Cambridge held two and a half shares, John Stearns two, Ralph Hill Sr. one and a half, and William Chamberlain, George Farley, Lt. William French, Ralph Hill Jr., Henry Jefts and Robert Parker one each. Under an agreement of November 9, 1658 between the proprietors "vpon Mr. Dudley's Farme" and the inhabitants of the Township, everyone who took up land from the town was to pay the farm's proprietors in proportion until they had received half of what the farm had cost, and the rate laid on November 10, 1659 for "ye halfe payment of ye purchase" came to 44 pounds 18 shillings 4 pence. When the Rev. Samuel Whiting came to Billerica in 1658 he found twenty-five families, eleven on the Township, seven on the Dudley Farm and seven elsewhere.

The probate records of the first holders show how several of the shares passed. Elder Richard Champney of Cambridge, by his will of June 30, 1669, proved at Charlestown on December 21, 1669, gave his son Daniel "all those lands which I purchased in Billerica of Lt. Willm ffrench & James Parker," and his son Samuel the farm he had bought of Edward Collins. Lt. William French died on November 20, 1681, and the division of his estate set off his homestead on the farm to his daughters: Mary had twenty-two acres of upland with half the house, bounded north by Mr. Chamberlain and south by Henry Jefts; Sarah had fourteen acres "at ye east end"; and Hannah had "ye west end of ye homestead bounded by pond meadow west, by Henry Jefts on ye south, by Mr Chamberlain north," with the west end of the house and barn, along with a debt still owed the estate by Daniel Champney. Ralph Hill Jr., by then Capt. Ralph Hill, made his will on April 2, 1695 and left the farm he had bought of William Baker in 1656 to his sons Samuel and Daniel, with the east end of the house to his widow; his own inventory valued the "Building at home house & barne" at 100 pounds, with meadow at home on Concord River and lots in Pond Meadow and Crooked Meadow. Isaac Learned, one of the three buyers, died at Chelmsford late in 1657, a few months after selling his share to Ralph Hill Sr. The four hundred acres north of Charnstaffe Lane are described in Township.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 3-4: grants of November 2, 1637 and May 2, 1638 to Winthrop and Dudley; the Two Brothers named, January 1637-8
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 10: Dudley's petition of October 15, 1651 and his sale of February 28, 1651-2 to Chamberline, Parker and Learned of Woburn
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 11: the deed recorded September 19, 1656; the buyers and their Woburn neighbors on the farm
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 24: first families, seven of nine on the Dudley Farm; the bounds of the farm; John Stearns, George Farley, Ralph Hill
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 30: the Dudley Farm gave shape to the settlement; the Township of four hundred acres
6. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 31: twelve shares of 125 acres; the ten-acre lot; the holders of the shares; the agreement of 1658
7. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 33: rate of November 10, 1659 for the half payment of the purchase; price 110 pounds
8. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): in 1658 Mr. Whiting found twenty-five families, eleven on the Township and seven on the Dudley Farm

Title References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted; Probate # is a Middlesex probate case, Ctf a Land Court certificate of title.