Edward Farmer

Edward Farmer was a Billerica farmer who commanded a militia company in the Revolution and was the town's representative for fourteen years, from 1780 to 1786 and from 1788 to 1794. He was born on February 24, 1733/4, a son of Oliver Farmer and Abigail (Johnson) Farmer, daughter of William Johnson of Woburn, and a grandson of Edward Farmer, the first of the family in Billerica. His brothers included Oliver Farmer of the Boston Road farm and Lieut. John Farmer. On November 29, 1759 he married Sarah Brown, a daughter of Lt. Samuel Brown. When his father died without a will in 1761, Edward was appointed administrator; the estate held only ten acres of woodland west of the Concord River, the home farm having already passed to his brother Oliver.

He lived north of his brother on the old road through the Corner, at what is now the corner of Pollard and Floyd Streets: the tax list of December 1776 places him "near Corner, just south of road to Davis place," with Oliver "south of his brother Edward." In 1772 he and Jonathan Stickney bought from Samuel Hill, a cordwainer, the old homestead of Solomon Pollard, five acres "with all the Buildings thereon," which bounded on his own land, together with nine acres between the road, the river and "the Lane"; in 1776 they sold both to Joseph Fox for the same price, 213 pounds 6 shillings 8 pence.

When the Revolution came he was a captain of militia. In 1775 the minute-men were to pass muster before Colonel William Tompson, Captain Pollard and Captain Farmer, and on the alarm of April 19, 1775 he marched with his militia company of thirty-five men (see Ditson Affair and the Alarm of 1775). On March 10, 1777 the town put him on a committee of five to enlist men for the Continental service, and that summer he led thirty-two men to reinforce the Northern Army against Burgoyne; Hazen records that he commanded a party of militia at the capture of Burgoyne. He served on the Committee of Safety in 1779 and 1780 and was the town's first representative under the new state constitution (see American Revolutionary War).

As Edward Farmer, Esquire, he took the acknowledgment of deeds as a justice of the peace. In 1777 he and Sarah released her share in her father's estate to Samuel Brown Jr. for 12 pounds. In 1785 the General Court empowered him to sell at auction the dower of Lydia, the widow of Thomas Hall and wife of Samson Crosby, and he conveyed the twenty-one and a half acres on the Bedford road, "with the Dwelling House & that part of the Barn standing thereon," to Job Hill and Josiah Hill (see Job Hill House). When the pews of the new meeting house were sold in 1797, "Edward Farmer, Esq. and Edward Farmer 3d" bought pew number 54 for $116.

Their children were Edward, born on December 1, 1760, who died in 1802; Sarah, born in 1763, who died in 1766; Jonathan, born in 1765, who died at Bow, New Hampshire, in 1798; Sarah, born on October 31, 1767, who married Reuben Baldwin; and Jesse, born in 1770, who married Margaret Franksford and died in Boston in 1815. Edward Farmer died on August 4, 1804, aged seventy, and his widow Sarah on August 19, 1811, aged seventy-five.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 50, FARMER 10
2. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850, deaths p. 359 (Edward Esq., s. Oliver and Abigail, Aug. 4, 1804, a. 70; Sarah, w. Edward Esq., Aug. 19, 1811, a. 75)
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 239, The Revolution (committee to enlist men, March 10, 1777)
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), soldiers of the Revolution (thirty-two men under Captain Edward Farmer, 1777)
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), tax list of December 1776 (Farmer, Edward: near Corner, just south of road to Davis place)
6. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), sale of pews in the new meeting house, 1797 (Edward Farmer, Esq. and Edward Farmer 3d, pew 54)
7. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 304, Representatives (Edward Farmer, 1780-86, 88-94)

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.