Marshall Preston House

The Marshall Preston House stands on the east side of Boston Road at Billerica Centre, the first house north of the Andover Road corner ("one door north of Andover Street," as Hazen put it in 1883). It was the home of the lawyer and town clerk Marshall Preston from the late 1820s, and from 1881 to 1965 the parsonage of the Billerica First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church.

The land was part of the old Danforth homestead north of the Common, which passed from Ensign Jonathan Danforth Jr. to his son Thomas and then to his grandson Thomas, who sold it to the innholder David Osgood in 1760 and from Osgood's executors to the tanner Solomon Pollard in 1768 (see Ensign Jonathan Danforth Jr. House). In 1793 Pollard sold the trader James Abbott "one acre by measure" beginning "at the corner of the Mouth of Sheldon's lane," running sixteen poles up the road "to a stake & stones near an Elm tree," "with all the Buildings thereon." Abbot kept his store on the corner. In 1806 he sold the part "a little north of my store," half an acre and fifteen rods, to Joseph Locke, who resold it the same day to the traders Joseph Parker and Nathan Wood. Parker put the corner back together, and in 1815 sold the whole acre "nearly opposite the meeting house," bounded south "by the highway called Sheldons lane," to William Richardson, the stage and tavern keeper.

Richardson's affairs explain the next step. In July 1817 he mortgaged the acre to his brother Asa Richardson of Boston for $2,500. In November he sold the north three quarters of an acre, "with all the buildings thereon," to the widow Lucy H. Foster, as part of a trade for her tavern lot across the lane (see Fletcher Hotel). But Asa's mortgage came first. William died insolvent in 1826, with Marshall Preston as his administrator, and in January 1827 Asa Richardson sold Preston "one hundred and two poles of land ... a few rods northerly of the Meeting house" for $800. The south line ran to "a post in the fence northeasterly of the Elm tree," the same line as Lucy Foster's deed. This deed names no buildings. So the house was most likely built by Preston soon after he bought the lot, about 1827 or 1828, not in 1822 as the MACRIS inventory form says. A year later the store lot to the south was described as bounded "N on Marshall Preston."

Marshall Preston (1792-1874), son of Dr. Amariah Preston of Bedford, came to Billerica about 1820 and married Maria Parker, daughter of Col. John Parker Jr., in 1824. He was town clerk and postmaster for many years, and he witnessed and wrote a great many of the town's deeds and wills in this period. Hazen says he moved to Lexington in 1840 (MACRIS says 1849). He kept the house until November 1854, when, "of Lexington," he sold to Lyman Haynes for $2,800 "a dwelling house, Barn, Office and other buildings thereon, the late homestead of said Grantor," half an acre. The office was presumably his law office. In 1852-1853 Haynes had already bought, with Dudley Foster, the three acres of the old Everett homestead behind and north of the house, described as beginning "near the house of Marshall Preston Esq." He kept the front part, so the Haynes homestead grew to about two and a half acres.

Lyman Haynes, once the innkeeper across the lane, died in 1868 or early 1869. His will gave his widow Caroline the use of his real estate for life, and in October 1869 she and the Haynes heirs of Springfield sold "the homestead of the late Lyman Haynes," with its "dwelling house, barn, office, and other buildings," to William Blanchard for $3,500. Blanchard (the "W. H. Blanchard" of Hazen) lived there for twelve years. In 1873 he sold a one-rod strip off the south side to his neighbor Luther W. Faulkner of the Luther W. Faulkner House. In May 1881 he sold Faulkner the rest, "my Homestead ... containing two acres."

Faulkner was acting for the parish. On August 19, 1881 he deeded the place for $2,825 to Thomas Talbot, John O. Richardson, George P. Elliott, Leander Crosby and Joseph Jaquith, as "Trustees of the Contributors ... for the purchase of the premises ... as a parsonage for the First Parish." Their declaration of trust tells the story. The parish's first parsonage, bought from Eliza A. Bowers in 1867 with $25 shares from the Faulkners, Talbots and others, had been sold. More money was raised, led by Mrs. Eleanor Bennett and Thomas Talbot. Since "the buildings ... are not in suitable and proper condition for a parsonage," the trustees spent heavily on repairs, so that Hazen could call it "substantially a new, as well as pleasant and convenient, home for the minister," the Rev. Christopher Coffin Hussey. New trustees were appointed as the old ones died (1887, 1898, 1924). In 1947 the last three, Charles H. Eames, A. Warren Stearns and Charles W. Hawes, turned the property over to the incorporated First Parish Church. In 1954 the parish gave 10,785 square feet of the back land to its neighbor, the First Congregational Church of Billerica.

By the 1960s the parish could no longer keep the house up. In March 1965 it sold the parsonage, two acres "with buildings thereon" less the 1954 piece, to private owners. The house lot is Lot A, 33,290 square feet, on a February 1965 plan by Emmons & Fleming (Plan Book 101, Plan 99). The back land was Lot B. The house has stayed a private home since then and was sold again in 1995 and 2006. The assessor lists 0.764 acres. It is a Greek Revival house with a Doric portico and a small barn, and it lies in the Billerica Centre local historic district (1990).

References

1. MACRIS BIL.41
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): 1881 parsonage "one door north of Andover Street, having been the home of Mr. W. H. Blanchard and previously of Marshall Preston"; Genealogical Register, PRESTON, Marshall.
3. Billerica assessor, 404 Boston Rd (parcel 51-28-0): 0.764 acres, Lot A Plan Book 101 Plan 99, sales 1995 and 2006.

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.