Dunster Farm

The Dunster Farm was the grant of five hundred acres on the Shawsheen River that Cambridge made in April 1649 to Henry Dunster, the first president of Harvard College. Its buyers, the brothers Francis and John Wyman of Woburn, gave it the name it kept for nearly a century and a half, the Wyman Farm. It lay at the southern tip of Billerica, up the river from the Collins Farm and down it from Captain Gookin's, against the Woburn line, where Billerica now meets Bedford and Burlington, along Wyman Road and the river.

Cambridge first gave Dunster and Deacon Edward Collins, in 1648, "liberty to have their small farms at Shawshine." In April 1649 the town agreed "that Mr. Henry Dunster, President of Harvard College, should have 500 acres whereof four hundred is granted by the town to his own person and heirs, to enjoy freely, forever, and the other 100 acres, for the use of Harvard College." Hazen could not tell whether the College Farm farther down the river was part of this grant or a separate one.

On May 10, 1655, a few days before Shawshin took the name Billerica, Dunster sold the farm to Francis and John Wyman for one hundred pounds. As Hazen quoted the deed, it conveyed "500 acres, lying scituate at Shawshim, betwixt the lands of Capt. Gookin up the stream of the river, and lately seen to Edward Collins down the stream of Shawshim river, bounded with Woburne line on that end which towards Woburne is sided, and reaching onwards towards the township so far as to make up due measure." On November 19, 1661 the town granted the Wymans the strip of about "four score acres" between the Woburn line and their farm, bounded south-east by "Captain Gookins farme Line," with leave to mow the meadow on Stop Brook near the line. In the rate of 1663 Francis and John Wyman were each assessed 1 pound 11 shillings.

The farm was a cause of the long quarrel over the Woburn line. A committee of the General Court ruled in 1666 that whatever land Woburn had laid out "to John Wymans & ffrancis Wyman" should remain theirs, and Billerica complained to the Court of "the loss of the benefit of a great farme, which the Wyman's bought in our towne, & carry the profit of it to Wooburne." On October 1, 1669 the Court ordered that the Wymans, who had "their present habitations neere the ljne," should pay half their rates to each town; the town confirmed the arrangement in 1672 but it was soon declared void, and the line was afterward made straight.

The Wymans lived on the Woburn side. Francis Wyman, a tanner, made his will in Woburn and confirmed the lands he had already given his sons by deeds of gift; it was proved in 1699. His grandson Stephen Richardson (1676 to 1712) is the first of the family Hazen found living on the farm, and he probably inherited part of it. Amos Wyman (1723 to 1797) was the last of the name in Billerica, on the tax lists from 1760, and it was to his house "in the southeasterly corner of the town" that John Hancock and Samuel Adams were taken on April 19, 1775. Its cellar hole, marked by an inscribed boulder, belonged to the Billerica Historical Society in 1974. Wyman Road and Wyman's Bridge, its old crossing of the Shawsheen, keep the name.

Dunster's deed of 1655 has not yet been found in the registry, and his probate file of 1659 holds only index cards to the recorded will and inventory; John Wyman's probate file of 1684 is missing.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 9: Cambridge grants of 1648 and April 1649; Henry Dunster 500 acres, 400 to him and his heirs and 100 for the use of Harvard College
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 41: Dunster's 500-acre farm sold May 10, 1655 to Francis and John Wyman of Woburn for 100 pounds
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): town grant of Nov. 19, 1661 to Francis and John Wyman of about 80 acres between Woburn line and their farm
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): the Woburn line dispute; Billerica's petition about the great farm the Wymans bought
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): 1669 order that the Wymans pay half their rates to each town; the town vote of 1672
6. Hazen, Genealogical Register: WYMAN, the deed of May 10, 1655 from President Dunster quoted, 500 acres between Capt. Gookin and Edward Collins
7. Hazen, Genealogical Register: RICHARDSON 2, Stephen, grandson of Francis Wyman, occupant of the Dunster 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.