John Nelson - Stephen Parker House

The John Nelson - Stephen Parker House stands on River Street on the house lot of James Kidder, one of the first settlers of Billerica and the ancestor of most of the Kidder family in America. Kidder received a ten-acre right in 1656 and moved onto his lot in 1659. The town records describe it as "thirty acres of land, more or less, lying upon the township, aboute the centre of it, his house-lot being part of it," bounded by John Rogers on the south and "by the West street or highway which leads from long street to the great river on the north; and by the great river on the west." West Street is today's River Street, and the great river is the Concord. Kidder's house was one of the garrisons of King Philip's War in 1675, across the road from Jonathan Danforth's. James Kidder died in April 1676; his probate file holds only a card for the inventory recorded in the probate books.

No deed of the home lot from James Kidder's estate was ever recorded, but by 1741 it was the homestead of his son Enoch Kidder, who gave it that year "for and in consideration of the parental love good will and affection" to his son Enoch Kidder Jr.: "my Homestead containing about fifty acres ... westerly on Concord river ... together with all the building thereon standing." On April 29, 1774, Capt. Enoch Kidder Jr. sold "my Homestead Farm, containing about sixty acres" to his son Solomon Kidder for 333 pounds, running about 180 poles along the town way to the river, "with all the Buildings thereon," but reserving "the West Room & Chamber, back Kitchen & Chamber & convenient Cellar Room in my Dwelling House & a good Garden spot on the Back of said House" for his unmarried daughter Rebecca.

Capt. Solomon Kidder died on November 20, 1776, at White Plains, New York, during the Revolution. His widow Lydia was appointed administratrix, and the inventory of February 1777 valued "the homestead with the Buildings thereon standing containing about Sixty acres, Bounded North by the highway leading to the River, West by said River, South by Doct. Timothy Danforth, East by Lieut. John Parker" at 600 pounds. The farm was then "leased out to the Deceased's Father during his natural life." On December 7, 1791, Solomon's children Samuel Phillips Kidder of Haverhill, Lydia Kidder and Dorothy Kidder sold "a certain farm in Billerica, with all the buildings thereon standing, about eighty rods west of the meeting house," 54 acres, to their cousin Stephen Parker for 285 pounds. Stephen's mother Abigail Kidder was Solomon's sister. The deed was not recorded until 1812, which may be why the MACRIS form puts the purchase "about 1805."

Capt. Stephen Parker died early in 1830 without a will. His inventory lists "The homestead of said deceased consisting of about 97 acres with the buildings thereon," and in April 1831 a committee of Joseph Locke, Samuel Whiting and William Bowers set off to the widow Sybil Parker "The lot of land on which the dwelling house stands including the garden behind the house ... with the house and all the buildings standing thereon, bounded on the northerly side by the road," and divided the rest of the farm among the six children. Over the next seventeen years the son Gardner Parker bought up his sisters' and brother's shares and their rights in "the mansion house and garden": from Eliza Annable in 1831, from Rev. Rodney G. Dennis and his wife Mary in 1842, and from Daniel Parker of Bedford in 1848. By 1864, when he mortgaged it to Dudley Foster, Gardner Parker held "my homestead farm situated in the centre of said Billerica, containing seventy acres more or less, with the buildings thereon," running west along "the road leading to Carlisle" to the Concord River. Hazen, whose History of Billerica (1883) was prepared under a committee that Gardner Parker chaired, wrote that Kidder's house "stood on the well-known lot where Gardner Parker lives."

After Gardner Parker's death his widow Adeline M. Parker sold "The Homestead Farm of the late Gardner Parker" to their son J. Nelson Parker in June 1884 for $4,000. According to the MACRIS form, the house took its present Colonial Revival form under John Nelson Parker about 1900; its square plan may be that of an older Federal house built or rebuilt by Stephen Parker. The place passed through the estates of J. Nelson Parker and his widow Charlotte S. Parker to their children, and in July 1939 E. P. Simpson surveyed a "Plan of Land in Billerica belonging to The Heirs of J. Nelson Parker." On June 4, 1945, George N. Parker and Frances P. Farquhar sold the house and 4.88 acres to John D. and Margaret R. Cooke of Wilmington, ending more than 280 years of ownership by the Kidder and Parker families.

The Cookes sold in March 1946 to Matthew J. and Claudia M. Brown, who added a small triangle of frontage from their neighbor Beatrice L. Dole and in 1952 sold the 1.6-acre "Orchard Lot" at the rear to the Town. In 1973 the house was in use by the Billerica Council on Aging. In 1976 the Browns sold "the land with buildings thereon" on River Street to the Billerica Housing Authority for $79,000. The Authority built housing on the land around 1980 and keeps its office at 16 River Street.

References

1. MACRIS BIL.55
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): James Kidder house lot and garrison "where Gardner Parker, Esq., lives"; Kidder and Parker genealogies.

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.