Baker House
The Baker House stands on the northwesterly side of Pond Street near Billerica Center. It was the home of Ebenezer Baker, an English-born butcher whose parents, John and Sarah Baker, had brought their children from England to Billerica, where his father died in 1844; in 1853 he bought eighty acres of farm and pasture land on the Tewksbury and Andover roads from John Bogue of Malden. The 1853 map places him across the street, and by the 1875 map he and his family were living here. The deed by which the house lot came to him has not been found on record: the family's later deeds name, besides his recorded purchases of woodlots and meadow, two unrecorded deeds of May 20, 1871 from the Town of Billerica and the First Baptist Church and Society, of land left to them by Priscilla and Mary Bowers, which is the likely source.
Ebenezer Baker's widow Ann E. Baker died owning the family lands. In 1927 her children John H. Baker, Carrie E. Cook, Lucy M. King, William G. Baker and Roscoe C. Baker released all of them to their brother Frederick H. Baker of Worcester. His widow Grace C. Baker sold the house lot in December 1952 to John Eben Baker, allowing Arthur S. Cook, Carrie's widower, to live in the house rent-free until July 1953. After John Eben Baker's death his estate sold it in 1971 to other members of the family, who sold it in 1976, ending well over a century of Baker ownership. It has since been a private two-family home.
References
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| July 30, 1853 | Warranty Deed | John Bogue of Malden, gentleman; Bethiah L. Bogue releasing dower | Ebenezer Baker of Billerica, yeoman | 1853 Ebenezer Baker buys 80 acres of farm land from John Bogue (first of the Baker lands released in 1927) | 658/224 (South) |
For $3,000, "several parcels of land situate in said Billerica containing eighty acres more or less": thirty acres west of the road from Billerica meeting house "by the house of F. Holden" to Tewksbury, and forty acres east of it, bounded north "on the Parsonage land & land of others" to the wall of one Tyler, "formerly of R. French," south to the road to Andover South Parish "by the house of H. Allen," and west on the Tewksbury road, with the Chamberlain, Alexander Bowers, mill meadow, Fox Hill and Kidder pasture lots, all "conveyed by L. French to J. B. French April 6, 1830" (with references to Books 351/31 and 373/218). This deed names no buildings. Signed April 1, 1853, acknowledged and recorded July 30, 1853. Billerica town book 19, pages 509-511.
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| March 31, 1927 | Quitclaim Deed (devisees) | John H. Baker, Carrie E. Cook, Lucy M. King and William G. Baker of Billerica, and Roscoe C. Baker of Denver, devisees of Ann E. Baker | Frederick H. Baker of Worcester | 1927 Ann E. Baker's children release the Baker lands to their brother Frederick H. Baker | 748/3 |
Dated Jan. 29, 1927. Their rights "as devisees of the said Ann E. Baker", their mother, in the Billerica land of Ebenezer Baker: what John Bogue of Malden sold him on April 5, 1853 (Book 658 Page 224), land from the executor of Josiah Bowers (1869), land from the Town and the First Baptist Church and Society (1871, unrecorded deeds), land from the executors of Otis Simonds (1878, Book 160 Page 574) and land deeded to Ann E. Baker by William C. Howe et al. in 1883 (Book 160 Page 579).
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| December 23, 1952 | Quitclaim Deed | Grace C. Baker of Worcester, widow of Frederick H. Baker | John Eben Baker of Woburn | 1952 Frederick H. Baker's widow sells the house lot to John Eben Baker | 1213/284 |
Dated Dec. 18, 1952. The land on the northwesterly side of Pond Street "with the buildings thereon", 200 feet on the street from a granite post at land of one Turner, "a portion of the premises conveyed to Frederick H. Baker by John H. Baker et als ... Book 748, Page 3", his title being under the will of Ann Elizabeth Baker (Middlesex Probate 158524) and hers under her husband's will (Worcester Probate 127382). Arthur S. Cook, Carrie E. Cook's husband, could live in the house rent-free until July 1, 1953.
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| April 28, 1971 | Administrator's Deed | Administrators of the estate of John Eben Baker of Billerica (Middlesex Probate 444316) | Members of the Baker family (private) | 1971 John Eben Baker's estate sells the house within the family; sold out of the family 1976 | 1956/508 |
Under a probate license of March 3, 1971, for $21,000, "a certain parcel of land with the buildings thereon" on the northwesterly side of Pond Street, 200 feet on the street, as on the 1959 plan surveyed for Eben C. Baker (Plan Book 92 Plan 16A). John Eben Baker had put it in his and his wife May C. Baker's names in 1958 (Book 1424 Page 574); she died in 1968. The family sold the house in 1976, and later private sales followed.
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.