Asa Patten

Asa Patten (1747 to 1817) was a yeoman of east Billerica who held the old Patten Homestead on Salem Road near the Shawsheen River, and in whose time the Middlesex Canal was dug across his farm. He was born in Billerica on February 24, 1746-7, the son of John Patten and Jane Hill. Hazen lists him among the Billerica men in service in 1775, the year of the minute-men, the Lexington alarm and the army at Cambridge, and the tax list of December 1776 places him on the "Wilmington Road, near Shawshin".

On April 3, 1781 he married Hannah Baldwin. Their daughters were Hannah, born March 3, 1782, and Polly (Mary), born February 8, 1784. His wife died on February 25, 1784, aged 29, according to the town record and her gravestone (Hazen gives February 28), less than three weeks after Polly's birth.

His father's will of May 1785 gave his widow Jane two cows "and the use of a horse to Ride to meeting", gave Asa's older brother John twenty pounds as "his full part", and left "unto my Son Asa Patten all my Estate", with Asa as executor; it was proved in September 1785. When the town sold the pews of its new meeting house in 1797, Asa Patten and Oliver Richardson together bought pew 50 for $116. On January 2, 1800 he sold the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal, for $247.45, "a strip of land thro' said Pattens farm north of his house", 82 1/2 rods long and eight rods wide, and half an acre by the stone pier of the canal aqueduct over the Shawsheen, a little south of the saw mill. In May 1810 he bought from Francis Kidder, a wheelwright, twenty-one square rods on the north side of Sheldon's lane, subject to the right of "the house on the south east corner of the premises" to stand there until March 1818. This was the old noon house of the meeting, the Sabbath Day House.

His daughter Hannah married Theophilus Manning in 1807 and died in 1813, and on September 26, 1817 Polly married Manning in her turn. Asa Patten died a few weeks later, on October 23, 1817, aged 72, without a will, "leaving no widow nor children excepting" Polly, and administration was granted to her. The inventory listed "the home farm first lot about seven acres with the buildings thereon" at $800, a lot north of the canal, a lot south of the road, half a pew on the lower floor and half a pew in the gallery of the meeting house, half a stable at the meeting house, the "Frances Kidder land", out lands, a meadow and a lot in Wilmington and thirty acres in Wilton, in all $4,059.99 of real estate. The homestead passed to the Mannings, and Polly's son, born in 1825, was named Asa Patten Manning. He is buried in the Old South Cemetery.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 109, PATTEN 13
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 245: list of Revolutionary soldiers (Patten, Asa, 1: service in 1775)
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 250: tax list of December 1776 (Asa Patten, Wilmington Road, near Shawshin)
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 264: sale of pews in the 1797 meeting house (no. 50, Asa Patten and Oliver Richardson, $116)
5. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850, births p. 148: Asa, s. John and Jane, Feb. 24, 1746-7
6. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850, births p. 147: Polly, d. Asa and Hannah, Feb. 8, 1784 (Hannah, Mar. 3, 1782, on the page before)
7. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850, marriages p. 298: Asa Patten and Hannah Baldwin, Apr. 3, 1781
8. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850, deaths p. 382: Asa Patten, Oct. 23, 1817, a. 72 (gravestone, Old South Cemetery)
9. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850, deaths p. 383: Hannah, w. Asa Patten, Feb. 25, 1784, a. 29

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.