Gookin Farm

The Gookin Farm was the grant of five hundred acres on the Shawsheen River that Cambridge made in April 1649 to Captain Daniel Gookin, magistrate and later superintendent of the Christian Indians. It lay "near the mouth of Vine Brook, and mostly east of the river," up the Shawshin from the Dunster (Wyman) farm and against the Woburn line, in what has been the eastern part of Bedford since 1729, where Vine Brook comes into the Shawsheen near the Burlington line.

In April 1648 Cambridge granted "Capt. Googine a farm, if he buy a house in the town," and in April 1649 "unto Mr. Daniel Googine, 500 acres." Gookin, like Elder Champney, never lived in Billerica, though he signed the Shawshin petition of 1654. The Wyman deed of 1655 bounded the Dunster farm on "the lands of Capt. Gookin up the stream of the river," and the town's grant to the Wymans in 1661 ran to "Captain Gookins farme Line ... when that farme Line come to be perfected." The herd orders of the early town sent the cattle "by Nuttens towards Capt. Gookins farme." In the rate of 1663 "Captin Gookin's farme" was assessed 3 pounds 2 shillings.

The farm was worked by tenants. John Trull "had lived, before 1659, on Captain Gookin's farm, and perhaps in the 'Shawshin House'," the house of the survey of 1642 that Hazen placed at the mouth of Vine Brook, before he took a grant on the Township. The brook's fall gave the neighborhood John Wilson's saw-mill and corn mill, which stood by 1683 at what is now Wilson Mill Pond.

In 1660 the town gave Gookin forty or fifty acres "a little southeast of Nuttin's pond" in exchange for his house lot on the Township, on the south corner of Long and West Streets, where the library, church and town hall stood in Hazen's day. Hazen first wrote that the 150-acre Oakes Farm was the land given Gookin in that exchange, but corrected himself: "Capt. Gookin received 50 acres west of the Wyman and Champney farms; Oakes had 150 acres." A measurement in 1684 found that the Gookin Farm held 150 acres more than its grant. It was then owned by Robert Thompson, Esq., and the town sold him the excess for 23 pounds in silver, paid on his behalf by William Stoughton. Elder Champney's will of 1669 left five pounds to Daniel Gookin, the captain's eldest son.

Gookin died in 1687 with no probate file in Middlesex. His sale of the farm to Thompson, and its later owners, have not yet been found in the registry.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 9: Cambridge grants of 1648 and April 1649; Capt. Googine a farm, then 500 acres to Mr. Daniel Googine
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 41: Daniel Gookin's grant of 500 acres near the mouth of Vine Brook, mostly east of the river
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): 1660 exchange of Capt. Gookin's Township lot for 40 or 50 acres southeast of Nuttin's pond
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): rate of 1663 for Mr. Whiting's maintenance, Captin Gookin's farme, Samuel Champneys, Francis and John Wyman
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): 1684 measurement of Captain Gookin's farm, 150 acres over the grant, owned by Robert Thompson, Esq.
6. Hazen, Genealogical Register: TRULL 1, John, a tenant of Captain Gookin's farm on Shawshin river and Vine brook, who lived in the Shawshin house
7. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), addenda: correction to p. 41, Capt. Gookin received 50 acres west of the Wyman and Champney farms

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.