John Dane
John Dane
John Dane was a blacksmith and machinist who worked at the Hill machine shop in south Billerica in the 1850s and 1860s and built the house that stood at 305 Concord Road, later the Colonel Charles A. Ranlett House. He was born in Massachusetts about 1825. In the census of 1850 he was a mechanic of 25 living in the household of the machinist Jonathan Hill, near the shop.
On September 4, 1850 Susan Dodge Adams, the widow of Amos Adams, sold him, as a blacksmith, a house lot of 166 square rods on the road from Billerica to Bedford at the land of William Whitford, for $100. In 1855 she sold him, then called a machinist, two and a quarter acres behind it for $50, making a homestead of about three and a half acres. The house was built in these years: when he mortgaged the place to John Baldwin in 1858 it was "a certain tract of land with the buildings thereon standing". Another machinist, Joseph Dane, lived a short way up the same road at the Joseph Dane House; the records found do not show whether the two were related.
A gravestone in the Hill Cemetery records Laura A., wife of John Dane, born about 1829. By 1861 his wife was Lucretia G. Dane, who joined him that August in a $500 mortgage of the homestead to William Whitford. In October 1866 John and Lucretia Dane sold the house and land to Amos W. Proctor for $1,700, taking back a mortgage of $800, which Dane discharged in November 1867. No later record of him in Billerica has been found.
References
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Property | Recorded |
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| January 8, 1851 | Warranty Deed | Susan Dodge Adams of Billerica, widow | John Dane of Billerica, blacksmith | Details | Colonel Charles A. Ranlett House | 599/201 (South) |
Dated Sept. 4, 1850 (Billerica town book 18, pages 510-511). For $100, a lot beginning at a stake and stones on the road (the road from Billerica to Bedford, now Concord Road), running S 5 30 E 11.12 rods along the road to land of William Whitford, S 79 W on Whitford 15.08 rods to a wall, N 2 15 E 12.64 rods by the wall, and N 84 30 E 13.24 rods "on land of the grantor" back to the road: "One hundred and sixty six square rods, being a part of the same premises conveyed to me by Leonard Thompson Esq. Administrator of the Estate of Amos Adams deceased" in 1841. A bare house lot cut from the west side of the Adams farm, opposite her own house; no buildings are named.
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| April 30, 1858 | Warranty Deed | Susan Dodge Adams of Billerica, widow | John Dane of Billerica, machinist | Details | Colonel Charles A. Ranlett House | 14/306 |
Dated June 6, 1855, recorded April 30, 1858 (pages 306-307). For $50, "a certain tract or parcel of land situate in the Southwesterly part of said Billerica", beginning at the northwesterly corner "at the corner of land now owned by said Dane", south by Dane 12 1/2 rods to land of William Whitford, west by Whitford 25 1/2 rods to "my own land", north 16 rods and east 24 1/2 rods by the grantor's land: "two and one quarter acres more or less". The land behind the 1850 house lot, bringing the homestead to about three and a half acres.
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| April 30, 1858 | Mortgage | John Dane of Billerica | John Baldwin of Billerica | Details | Colonel Charles A. Ranlett House | 14/307 |
For $172 payable in one year at six percent, "a certain tract of land with the buildings thereon standing, situate in the Southwest part of said Billerica", beginning at the southeast corner on the road from Billerica to Bedford at land of William Whitford, west on Whitford to land of Susan Adams, north by Mrs. Adams 16 rods, east by her land to the road and south by the road, "about three and a half acres". The first record of buildings on the lot. Assigned (Book 20, Page 70) and discharged by William Whitford as assignee in 1861.
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| August 23, 1861 | Mortgage | John Dane of Billerica (wife Lucretia G. Dane releasing dower and homestead) | William Whitford of Billerica | Details | Colonel Charles A. Ranlett House | 28/496 |
Dated Aug. 1, 1861. For $500 on demand with interest, "a certain tract of land with the buildings thereon, situate in the Southwest part of said Billerica", beginning at the southeast corner on the road leading to Bedford at land of William Whitford, west on Whitford to land of "the Widow Fitch", north by Fitch 16 rods, east by Fitch to the road and south by the road, "about three and a half acres". Discharged by Whitford Oct. 22, 1867.
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| 1866 | Mortgage | Amos W. Proctor of Billerica (wife Mary J. Proctor releasing) | John Dane of Billerica | Details | Colonel Charles A. Ranlett House | 52/236 |
Dated Oct. 9, 1866 (pages 236-237). Purchase-money mortgage back to the seller: $800 in one year, the same three and a half acres "with the buildings thereon", "Being the same premises this day conveyed to me by said Dane", subject to the older mortgage. Discharged by John Dane in November 1867.
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| October 17, 1866 | Warranty Deed | John Dane of Billerica (wife Lucretia G. Dane releasing dower and homestead) | Amos W. Proctor of Billerica | Details | Colonel Charles A. Ranlett House | 52/288 |
Dated Oct. 9, 1866 (pages 288-289). For $1,700, "a certain tract of land with the buildings thereon situate in the South West part of said Billerica", beginning at the southeast corner on the road from Billerica to Bedford "at land formerly of Wm. Whitford now of one Lyons", west on the Whitford land to land "now or formerly of Susan Adams", north by Adams 16 rods, east by Adams land to the road and south by the road, "about three and a half acres"; free of incumbrances except a $500 mortgage "on which there is now due four hundred dollars which the said grantee assumes". Witnesses Dudley Foster and George W. Emerson.
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.