Structure · Built 1762 · Demolished 1876
John Pollard House
John Pollard House
| Address | 37 Rogers St |
| Built | 1762 |
| Demolished | 1876 |
The John Pollard House was the farmhouse of the Pollard and Rogers family farm on the west side of Rogers Street in North Billerica, between the road and the Concord River. It stood just south of the cove of the mill pond, where the lot at 37 Rogers Street is today. H. F. Walling's 1853 map of Billerica labels it "S. Rogers", for Samuel Rogers, who farmed there from 1848 to his death in 1861.
The farm was the homestead of John Pollard, who in 1762 deeded half of it, "it being my Homestead with all my Buildings thereon", to his son Jonathan Pollard, and in 1772 the whole of it, about 80 acres between the road, the Toothaker land and the river. When Jonathan Pollard died in 1806 the inventory valued "The Homestead ... containing about 91 Acres with the Buildings thereon" at $3,072. It passed to his only heir, his daughter Olive Barrett, who married Thomas Rogers in 1786 and, after his death in 1804, Lieut. Stephen Barrett. In August 1848, as a widow, Olive Barrett sold "My home farm with the buildings thereon containing about eighty acres", which she had inherited from her father, to her son Samuel Rogers, Esquire, for $3,000. Samuel Rogers (1792-1861) had married Sarah Sawin in 1823; Hazen says "he lived near the Fordway". He was a selectman from 1843 to 1846. In January 1848 his youngest daughter Helen, aged 13, drowned after falling through the ice on the Concord River.
In 1852 Rogers sold the southern 60 acres of the farm to Robert Call and kept the house and the land near the road. He died on December 1, 1861. In January 1868 his administrator, Gardner Parker, sold the "Homestead" of 37 acres "with the buildings thereon" at auction to Charles P. Talbot and Thomas Talbot for $1,235, and the widow Sarah Rogers released her dower. That September the Talbots sold the north corner of the farm to Bishop John J. Williams for Saint Andrew's Church on Rogers Street. The 1875 county atlas still shows a building marked "C. P. T. & Co." at the old house site, off the road beside the lane that later became Call Street. In 1884 the Talbot family conveyed the land to Talbot Mills.
The house was gone by October 1936. The Talbot Mills plan of that year shows no building on the land at the corner of Rogers Street and Call Road. In 1939 the company sold that corner, described simply as "the land", to Frank A. Kelley. His heirs sold it in 1950 to Henry J. McCormack, a real estate developer. In November 1953 McCormack had it laid out by E. P. Simpson as "Indian Acres", six house lots at the corner. The plan still marked "traces of ancient wall, edge of meadow" near the cove. The present house on Lot F, 37 Rogers Street, was built about 1953. The exact date the farmhouse came down is not known: sometime between 1875 and 1936.
References
- Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register, Rogers 17 and 22: Samuel Rogers, son of Thomas and Olive (Pollard), b. 1792, "lived near the Fordway"; selectman 1843-46
- Billerica assessor, parcel 16-2-0, 37 Rogers St: 1.333 acres, Indian Acres Lot F, Plan 83-186; house built about 1953
Title References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| February 28, 1769 | Deed | John Pollard of Billerica, husbandman | His son Jonathan Pollard | 1762: John Pollard deeds half his homestead east of the Concord River, with the buildings, to his son Jonathan | 68/509 (South) |
Billerica town book 6, pages 323-325. For 200 pounds lawful money paid by "Jonathan Pollard my son", with warranty, "the one half of my Lands situate in Billerica lying on the East side of Concord River it being my Homestead with all my Buildings thereon", about eighty acres, bounded southeasterly by land of Edward Pollard and David Osgood, easterly by "the highway leading to the Widow Toothaker's" till coming to her land, northerly by the Widow Toothaker's land to the river, then by the river to the highway and on the highway to Edward Pollard's land. Signed March 24, 1762 (witnesses Benjamin Lewis and Isaac Foster); acknowledged Sept. 22, 1768 before William Stickney; recorded at Cambridge Feb. 28, 1769. No title recital.
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| December 8, 1772 | Deed | John Pollard of Billerica, yeoman | Jonathan Pollard of Billerica, yeoman | 1772: John Pollard deeds the whole 80-acre homestead to Jonathan Pollard | 73/479 (South) |
Billerica town book 6, pages 515-517. For 133 pounds 6 shillings 8 pence, with warranty, "several Tracts of Land Viz my home stead Containing by Estimation Eighty Acres", bounded southeasterly by land of Edward Pollard and land lately belonging to David Osgood deceased, easterly by the highway leading to the Widow Toothaker's, northerly by land of the heirs of Doctor Toothaker deceased and by Concord River, southwardly by the highway; also two acres in Broad Meadow by the river and land of Zebediah and Samuel Rogers, nine and a quarter acres of Butterfield's Meadow, sixty-one acres 91 poles on the west side of the river by the Chelmsford line and the Range Way, and "my Right in a stable standing near the West End of the Meeting house". Signed June 26, 1772 (witnesses Isaac Foster and Edward Pollard); acknowledged June 29, 1772 before William Stickney; recorded Dec. 8, 1772. Recorded on the same page as a deed of June 1, 1772 from Roger and Allen Toothaker to Jonathan of two acres of "the Island" by Carleton's Mill Pond (other land).
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| 1806 | Administration | Estate of Jonathan Pollard of Billerica, yeoman, intestate | His only heir at law, his daughter Olive Barrett (then Olive Rogers); Stephen Barrett of Billerica, administrator | 1806: Jonathan Pollard dies; the 91-acre homestead with the buildings goes to his only heir Olive | Probate #17690 |
Jonathan Pollard of Billerica, yeoman, died intestate within two months before Sept. 18, 1806. That day his widow Olive Pollard (by her mark) and "the only heir at law", Olive Rogers of Chelmsford, renounced administration and asked that Lieut. Stephen Barrett of Billerica be appointed; the court at Chelmsford appointed him the same day, on a $30,000 bond with Zaccheus Shed and Peter Marshall. The inventory taken Oct. 6, 1806 by Oliver Crosby, Jeremiah Patten and Josiah B. Richardson lists "The Homestead of said Deceased situated in said Billerica containing about 91 Acres with the Buildings thereon" at $3,072, the Dutton lot of about 50 acres, Butterfield Meadow in Chelmsford, 18 acres, Broad Meadow, about 7 acres, half a pew and half a stable at the meeting-house: real estate $5,607, the whole $6,674.47. Accepted at Concord Oct. 7, 1806.
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| 1848 | Deed | Olive Barrett of Billerica, widow | Samuel Rogers of Billerica, Esquire | 1848: Olive Barrett sells her home farm with the buildings to her son Samuel Rogers | 539/511 (South) |
Billerica town book 20, pages 149-150. Dated Aug. 24, 1848. For $3,000, "My home farm with the buildings thereon containing about eighty acres more or less situate in said Billerica in the Northerly part thereof near the Canal Mills so called, bounded in part on land of Joel Dix, land of William Pollard, land of Misses Faulkner, by the road leading from Billerica Meeting-house to said mills, also partly on Concord river", with about 48 acres of woodland crossed by the Middlesex Turnpike and all her personal property; "both said home farm and wood land being land which I inherited from my father Jonathan Pollard deceased being the farm on which I now live with said Rogers". Warranty.
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| March 8, 1852 | Deed | Samuel Rogers of Billerica, gentleman; Sarah Rogers, his wife, releasing dower | Robert Call of Billerica, yeoman | 1852: Samuel Rogers sells the south 60 acres to Robert Call, keeping the homestead | 626/205 (South) |
Billerica town book 19, pages 215-217. "In consideration of Twenty seven hundred and fifty dollars", "a certain piece or parcel of land with the buildings on the same" in Billerica "containing sixty acres more or less", bounded by other Rogers land, the wall of William Pollard, the "Ford way Road", other Pollard land and the Concord River. "The premises hereby conveyed being a part of the farm owned by said Samuel Rogers." Reserves to Call a right of way forever open from his house easterly to the road from Billerica Mills to the centre of the town. Call assumes mortgages to Jonas Parker (Nov 25, 1844, $1,099.53) and Albert Marshall (Nov 29, 1851, $500). Dated March 6, 1852. The six-acre lot that became the school site was part of this farm.
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| 1863 | Administration | Estate of Samuel Rogers of Billerica, intestate | Administrator (George Stevens of Lowell proposed, 1863; Gardner Parker administrator by 1867) | 1863: administration of the estate of Samuel Rogers (died Dec. 1, 1861) | Probate #40790 |
Samuel Rogers who last dwelt in Billerica died on December 1, 1861, intestate, leaving a widow Sarah Rogers and children Susan P. Gordon and Frances S. K. Rogers of Billerica, Olive W. Swan of Granville, Vt., and Barrett Rogers of Lowell. On Nov. 10, 1863 Abigail L. Jenness of Lowell, a principal creditor, petitioned that George Stevens of Lowell be appointed administrator; the citation was issued Dec. 3, 1863 for the fourth Tuesday of December and the hearing continued to January 1864. The later papers (28 pages in all) include the administration under which Gardner Parker was licensed on Dec. 24, 1867 to sell the real estate.
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| February 13, 1868 | Administrator's Deed | Gardner Parker of Billerica, administrator of Samuel Rogers | Charles P. Talbot of Lowell and Thomas Talbot of Billerica | 1868: the administrator sells the 37-acre Rogers homestead with the buildings to C. P. and Thomas Talbot | 60/227 |
Licensed by the Probate Court at Cambridge on Dec. 24, 1867, after notice three weeks in the Lowell Weekly Journal, Parker sold at public auction on Jan. 20, 1868 to the Talbots, the highest bidders, for $1,235, "a certain parcel of land containing thirty seven acres more or less with the buildings thereon, situate in said Billerica and known as the 'Homestead' of the late Samuel Rogers": from its southeast corner at "the road leading from Billerica Meeting House to Canal Mills, so called", west by one Dix and one Pollard to a ditch, north by Robert Call to a stone wall, west and north by the wall to the Concord River, east and south "on said River and Cove and land of J. R. Faulkner and land of Mrs. George", and east by the George land to the road; subject to the widow's dower. Signed and acknowledged Jan. 25, 1868 before Dudley Foster.
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| February 25, 1868 | Release of Dower | Sarah Rogers of Billerica, widow of Samuel Rogers | Charles P. Talbot of Lowell and Thomas Talbot of Billerica | 1868: the widow Sarah Rogers releases her dower in the homestead | 60/313 |
For $265 she quitclaims "all my right of or to dower" in "a certain parcel of land containing thirty five acres more or less with the buildings thereon" from the road from Billerica Meeting House to Canal Mills to the Concord River, bounded as in the administrator's deed (Dix, Pollard, Robert Call, the river and cove, J. R. Faulkner and Mrs. George). Signed Feb. 19, 1868, acknowledged before Gardner Parker.
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| October 10, 1868 | Quitclaim | Charles P. Talbot of Lowell and Thomas Talbot of Billerica (Harriet E. and Isabella W. Talbot releasing dower and homestead) | John J. Williams of Boston (the Catholic bishop of Boston) | 1868: the Talbots sell the north corner of the homestead for the Catholic church lot | 64/205 |
For $200, "a certain tract of land with the buildings thereon situated in said Billerica on the westerly side of the road leading from 'Billerica Mills' so called to the Central Village of said Billerica": from the northeast corner at land of J. R. Faulkner and the road, south on the road 170 feet to land of "C. P. Talbot & Co.", west 166 feet, then by that land 187 feet to the Faulkner land and east on it 165 feet to the road. "The said grantee, the said John J. Williams, hereby agrees to erect and maintain at his own expense suitable and proper fences about the above described premises." Covenants against the grantors' own acts only; no title recital. Dated Sept. 1, 1868; acknowledged by Thomas Talbot at Lowell in September 1868. The lot for the Universalist meeting-house moved here from the Centre that year as Saint Andrew's Church.
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| 1884 | Quitclaim | Thomas Talbot of Billerica; Harriet E. Talbot of Lowell, widow of Charles P. Talbot; Susan Talbot of Lowell; Fanny M. Ewart and her husband, of New York | Talbot Mills, Billerica | 1884: the Talbot heirs convey the land southwest of the highway to The Talbot Mills | 604/108 |
Dated Dec. 22, 1884 (recorded later, in a 1919 volume). The Talbot heirs quitclaim to the new corporation, first, the chemical works land southwest of the Boston and Lowell Railroad, and second, "a parcel of land ... on the South-westerly side of the highway leading from said North Billerica to Billerica", bounded by land of P. Reilly and of Robert Call, "a fordway to Concord River", the river "across a cove near said highway ... to the end of the tow path of the old Middlesex Canal", the Faulkner Manufacturing Company, and the church lot of Archbishop John J. Williams; shown on a June 1884 plan by R. A. Hale, "Plan of the Property of C. P. Talbot and Co. East Side of Concord River at North Billerica". The second parcel takes in the Salter house lot and the river lot.
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| October 1, 1936 | Guardian's Deed | Frank P. Putnam of Lowell, guardian of Harriet Talbot and Gertrude Talbot, minor children of Edward R. Talbot | Talbot Mills, Billerica | 1884: the guardian of the minor Talbot heirs conveys their share to The Talbot Mills | 889/274 |
Dated Dec. 18, 1884 under a license of the Probate Court of Dec. 9, 1884; recorded Oct. 1, 1936. For $4,690.71, the minors' share of the same parcels, the first beginning at an old stone bound "distant sixty six 16/100 feet from the Easterly corner of the main portion of the dwelling house formerly belonging to William Rogers". The Talbot Mills deed of 1939 names this deed and Book 604 Page 108 as its title to Lot 76.
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| November 2, 1939 | Quitclaim Deed | The Talbot Mills (Thomas T. Clark, treasurer) | Frank A. Kelley of Billerica | 1939: The Talbot Mills sells the Rogers Street and Call Road corner, bare land, to Frank A. Kelley | 935/557 |
Signed November 2, 1939. Among several leftover parcels of the mill village, Talbot Mills quitclaims Lot 18 (11,435 sq ft, the point where Talbot Avenue and Wilson Street meet) and Lot 19 (23,523 sq ft: northwest by Talbot Avenue 182.33 feet, southeast by Wilson Street 154.84 feet, southwest by Lot 18 105.79 feet) on Plan A, Plan Book 60 Plan 25 (Monahan, 1934-36). Lot 19, the old Talbot School lot, empty after the 1935 fire, is recited as part of the land the town conveyed to Talbot Mills on April 6, 1886 (Book 182 Page 366) and part of the 1884 deeds to Talbot Mills from the Talbot heirs (Book 169 Pages 468 and 472); the 1902 deed is not mentioned. The Elm Street to Wilson Street right of way is kept open for the abutters and the common sewer reserved.
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| September 22, 1950 | Quitclaim | John H. Kelley and Joseph Kelley of Tewksbury, Edward J. Kelley and Honor G. Kelley of Billerica, Margaret Nicholson of Danvers, Ruth Gertrude McCaffrey of Medford and Louise M. Kelliher of Somerville, all the heirs of Frank A. Kelley, late of Billerica | Henry J. McCormack of Billerica, real estate developer | 1950: the Kelley heirs sell the corner to Henry J. McCormack, who laid out Indian Acres | 1152/84 |
Dated Sept. 18, 1950, for consideration paid, with quitclaim covenants: "the land in said Billerica situated on the southwesterly side of Rogers Street and the northwesterly side of Call Road" (no buildings named), from the corner of Rogers Street and Call Road southwest along Call Road 381.43 feet to Lot 78 on Plan C-2 (Plan Book 60 Plan 46), around Lot 78, on along Call Road to land of Robert Call, by the center of a ditch 221 feet and the wall about 448 feet, to a line 50 feet from the Concord River, then along that line to the lot marked "Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston", by that lot 314.59 feet to Rogers Street and on Rogers Street 81.3 and 126.23 feet to the beginning. "Being a part of Lot 9" on the 1926-27 Monahan plan of the Talbot Mills and "a part of the premises conveyed to Frank A. Kelley by deed of the Talbot Mills, dated November 2, 1939." The spouses release curtesy, dower and homestead. Recorded Sept. 22, 1950. McCormack divided the Rogers Street corner into the six lots of "Indian Acres" (Plan Book 83 Plan 186, Nov. 1953); Lot F, where the house at 37 Rogers St was built about 1953, was sold to a private owner and has changed hands privately since (1985, then family trust transfers in 2016 and 2021).
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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.