Job Lane

Job Lane was probably from Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England, where he had inherited lands; Henry Hazen, the town historian, notes that he was 30 years old in 1654 and doubts that he was the Job Lane found at Rehoboth in 1644. He was a carpenter by trade, "distinguished as an 'artificer,'" in Hazen's words, who besides his work in Billerica built one of the college buildings at Cambridge. He lived first in Malden, and he kept a considerable estate in England, receiving its rents during his life and bequeathing the property to his son John Lane.

On August 2, 1664 he purchased the 1,500-acre "Winthrop farm" in Billerica, part of the large grant made to Governor John Winthrop, from the governor's grandson Fitz-John Winthrop of Connecticut, son of John Winthrop the Younger, the Connecticut governor. The price was £230, paid not in cash but by building a house for Fitz-John Winthrop in New London, Connecticut (Hazen's narrative chapters call it a mansion at Norwich). Lane came to Billerica probably in 1664. Until after 1675 his house was the only one beyond Ralph Hill's on the road toward Concord; Hazen placed it at the Hiram Dutton place, a few rods north of Huckins Street in what is now Bedford, and thought the ancient house standing there might be the one Lane built.

Lane also built the town's great bridge in 1668. In December 1667 the county court named a committee, among them Jonathan Danforth, to agree "with some able and honest artificer for erecting a bridge over Billerica River," and the committee employed Lane. His contract, dated January 11, 1667[-8], called for the work to be finished before the following September 29, with arches sixteen feet wide and a floor of oak plank four inches thick. He was to be paid "seven score and five pounds starling": ten pounds in cash, ten in wheat, ten in malt, and the rest in corn and cattle.

When King Philip's War brought the Indian troubles of 1675 to Billerica and the town gathered its families into garrison houses, Lane's exposed and remote location earned him special treatment: "Mr. Daniel and Mr. Laine," being "very far from neighbours," were excused from fortifying the common garrisons if they fortified their own houses, and "Job Laine was allowed to fortify his owne house, and to have two soldiers for garrison men to defend his house," if the country could spare them. He was the wealthiest man on the tax list of 1679, when, Hazen observes, "Mr. Lane is the only person who pays more than half-a-pound." He served as a selectman in 1676 and 1677 and from 1679 to 1681, and was chosen deputy to the General Court in 1676 and probably again in 1679.

His first wife, Sarah, died about May 19, 1659. In September 1660 he married Anna, daughter of Rev. John Reyner, pastor of the Pilgrim church at Plymouth from 1636 to 1654 and afterwards of the church in Dover, New Hampshire, where he died in 1669 and was succeeded by his son John. Lane's children were Sarah, who married Samuel Fitch of Reading; Mary and Elizabeth, who married William and Robert Avery of Dedham; Rebecca, who died in 1674; John; Anna, who married James Foster of Dorchester; Jemima, who married Matthew Whipple of Ipswich; and Dorothy, who married Edward Sprague of Malden. He bought the Coytmore mill in Malden and left it to his son-in-law Sprague. By his will he divided the Winthrop farm between his son John, who inherited one-half, and his grandsons Samuel Fitch and Matthew Whipple.

After about twenty years in Billerica, Lane returned to Malden, where he died August 23, 1697, aged 77. His widow Anna died April 30, 1704, aged 72.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 88: Job Lane (origin, Winthrop farm, bridge, wives, death)
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 89: children of Job Lane; son John inherits half the Winthrop farm
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 28: Job Lane from Malden; will divides Winthrop Farm between son John and grandsons Fitch and Whipple
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 41: Job Lane buys the Winthrop grant of Fitz John Winthrop, 2 August 1664
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 99: contract with Job Lane to build the bridge, 1667-8; "artificer"; Winthrop mansion; college building
6. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 112: 1675 garrison order; Job Laine allowed to fortify his own house
7. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 195: Mr. Lane highest taxpayer on the 1679 list
8. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 304: list of Representatives (Mr. Job Lane, 1676, 1679?)
9. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 305: list of Selectmen (Job Lane, 1676-77, 1679-81)
10. Wikipedia: Fitz-John Winthrop, son of John Winthrop the Younger

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.