Long Pond
Long Pond
Long Pond is a great pond of 44 acres in the southeastern part of Tewksbury, just beyond the Billerica line at the end of Pond Street, on land that was part of Billerica until Tewksbury was set off in 1734. It is shallow, about five feet deep on average and nine at most, with tea-colored water, and wetlands around most of its shore keep houses back from the water. It is the head of Content Brook, which leaves the south end of the pond, runs through Richardson Pond at the town line and on across East Billerica to the Shawsheen River. The pond is reached today from Mahoney Park, a Tewksbury town park off Whipple Road on the northeast shore, and by a small launch at its southern tip off Pond Street.
The pond was known from the first years of the town. When the first meadows were divided in 1658, eight of the lots were to begin "at the pond below foxes hill, and so down Alewife brooke"; Henry A. Hazen explains that this division "began at the mouth of Long Pond, and, following the Alewife or Content Brook," ended near Pattenville, and that "the earliest name of this brook was 'Alewife.'" In November 1680 the town granted Samuel Manning six acres of swamp on condition that he build "a good and sufficient Damm or Damms, to drowne that swamp commonly called the mill swamp," raising the water "one foot higher than at present" and keeping the swamp under water for two years; Hazen places this Mill Swamp "on Content Brook toward the outlet of Long Pond." Manning's will of 1711 names five acres "at Long Pond." In 1704 John Trull divided with his son-in-law the meadow called Sauce meadow "above the Long Pond," and in February 1722/3 "the quadron south of Okes" received sixty-one acres "between mill-meadow and the long pond." The brook below it was "the Long Pond brook" in a Richardson deed of 1778.
The old road from the village past Fox Hill toward the pond was "the Long Pond road" for two hundred years. Hazen describes an early road to the great plain that "followed the present Long Pond Road to the foot of Fox Hill," Hazen's notes to the tax list of December 1776 place Joshua Davis at "Davis place, Long Pond Road," and a deed of 1861 still bounds land on "the Long Pond road, so called." When the town listed its streets in 1897 and accepted them on March 27, 1899, the road became Pond Street, "from Andover road running southeasterly to Mud pond, Tewksbury line." In December 1911 J. W. Wilbur had the land between Oak Street and the pond laid out as Lakeside Park, "Billerica and Tewksbury," a grid of small lots whose streets ran east from Oak Street toward Long Pond, most of them across the line in Tewksbury.
Long Pond is on the Commonwealth's list of great ponds, with Round Pond the only other one in Tewksbury, and both appear on the map of ancient Billerica in Hazen's history. The name was used for more than one pond in the early records: the Long Pond that bounded the town's 800 acres north of the Merrimack River, laid out in the seventeenth century in what is now Dracut, is a different pond.
Title References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| July 3, 1704 | Deed of Gift | John Trull Sr. of Billerica | His son-in-law James Frost Jr. of Billerica | 1704 John Trull Sr. to James Frost Jr.: half of Sauce meadow "above the Long Pond" | 13/608 (South) |
Recorded 1704 (Billerica town book 1, pages 324-326). "For and in Consideration of the Love and affection he beareth to his Son in Law James ffrost junr," and of Frost's obligation to care for him and his wife "in reference to ye future Comfort of both theire lives," John Trull Sr. gave "one moiety or halfe part of said John Trulls Homested, ye Southward part of it, on which ye old house now standeth, according to ye Division lately made" (the line from "a great Rock that lyeth in theire old Cow yard"), about eight acres, with two acres of meadow in Long Hill meadow west of the Concord River, half of Sauce meadow above the Long Pond, and two acres of town rights on the common. The "old house" is the Trull house; whether any of it survives in the present building is unknown.
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| 1711 | Will | Estate of Ens. Samuel Manning of Billerica (died Feb. 22, 1710/11) | His wife Abial Manning; his son William Manning co-executor | Will of Samuel Manning (1711): names five acres at Long Pond | Probate #14598 |
Will dated Feb. 21, 1710/11 and proved May 7, 1711. Samuel Manning, town clerk, selectman and representative, left all his estate to his wife Abial for her use, adding that "as for al my other children they have had considerable out of my estate"; the only lands named are 8 1/2 acres of first-division land, 5 acres of meadow in Broad Meadow and 5 acres at Long Pond, with his son William among the executors. The Chelmsford road farm west of the Concord River, recorded to Samuel in the town book of records, is not in the will: it had already passed to his son Ens. William Manning. Papers read, pages 1-3.
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| March 22, 1786 | Warranty | Thomas Richardson of Billerica, yeoman, and Judith Richardson his wife | Oliver Richardson of Billerica, husbandman, his brother | 1778 Thomas Richardson to Oliver Richardson: four acres in Mill Meadow by "the Long Pond brook" (Content Brook below the pond) | 93/377 (South) |
For 266 pounds, "the several pieces of Land hereafter mentioned. The first is my homestead farm lying in said Billerica containing forty six acres," beginning "at the road to Tewksbury at the Southeast corner of said Land at Jonathan Richardson's meadow," by land bought of Jonathan French and of James Lewis, west on William Needham and the heirs of Benjamin Needham to the corner at the road "near Sheldons folly (so called)," on the road across the brook to Samuel Brown's land, "then on said road to the corner where we began near Content Bridge with one quarter part of the saw mill thereon standing with all the appurtenances thereto belonging with all the other buildings thereon standing"; also nine and a quarter acres "near my Dwelling House" bought of Josiah Richardson, bounded westerly on the road to Tewksbury, by Nehemiah Kittredge, John French and Samuel Baldwin; six acres by William Needham's lot and Jonathan Richardson's meadow; two thirds of a great swamp lot in Tewksbury laid out to Caleb Farley; and four acres in Mill Meadow by William Kidder, John French and the Long Pond brook. Dated Feb. 4, 1778, acknowledged March 11, 1778; recorded March 22, 1786. Billerica town book 8, pages 53-55 (Southern Registry Book 93 Page 377). The same day in 1786 was recorded Samuel Brown's deed to Oliver of Jan. 2, 1779, five acres of upland near the upper end of "Richardson's content meadow" (town book 8/52, S. 93/376).
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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.
References
- MassWildlife: Long Pond (Tewksbury), a 44-acre great pond at the headwaters of Content Brook, average depth 5 feet, maximum 9; access from Whipple Road and Pond Street
- Massachusetts great ponds list: Long Pond and Round Pond, Tewksbury
- Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): map of ancient Billerica, showing Long Pond and Round Pond in the part that became Tewksbury
- Hazen 1883: the first division of meadow (1658) began "at the pond below foxes hill" and followed the Alewife or Content Brook
- Hazen 1883: Samuel Manning's 1680 grant to dam the mill swamp on Content Brook toward the outlet of Long Pond
- Hazen 1883: the 1722/3 grant of 61 acres "between mill-meadow and the long pond"
- Hazen 1883: an early road to the great plain followed the present Long Pond Road to the foot of Fox Hill
- Hazen 1883: tax list of December 1776 with residences, "Davis place, Long Pond Road"
- Annual Report 1900: streets accepted March 27, 1899, "Pond street, from Andover road running southeasterly to Mud pond, Tewksbury line"