Nathaniel Brown House

The Nathaniel Brown House stood on the Rangeway in the northwest part of Billerica, near the corner of the old Middlesex Turnpike. On the 1852 map it is labeled "A. N. Brown," for Asa N. Brown, who owned the place for four years but never lived in it. The house belonged to an older farm. Nathaniel Brown is on the town tax list from 1737 to 1789, and his heirs after him. In his notes on the tax list of 1776, Hazen places him "Near Henry Durant's, west side." His farm lay between the turnpike and the Thomas Brown homestead (later the Isaac Brown House). It ran north across the road to the farm later owned by Otis Lincoln, whose deeds give the land beside it as that "of the heirs of Nathaniel Brown deceased."

Nathaniel's daughter Rhoda Brown, born in 1762, never married and inherited the homestead. On May 7, 1841, she deeded the 44 acres "with the buildings thereon standing," described as "the same estate formerly owned and improved by late father Nathaniel Brown," to her cousin Elisha Brown, a son of Thomas Brown. The price was $1,000. On the same day Elisha gave her a mortgage of the farm and a bond to let her live in "the dwelling house" for the rest of her life, with food, clothing and money for her comfort. By then the farm ran south on the turnpike to Thomas Spaulding's land and west to Isaac Brown's.

The arrangement did not last. In November 1841 the selectmen complained that Elisha Brown "by excessive drinking and idleness" was wasting his estate, and the probate court put him under the guardianship of Reuben Chamberlain. Elisha died in the summer of 1849, leaving debts of more than $600. His eldest son, Asa Nickles Brown, born in Billerica in 1811 and then an officer at the State Prison in Charlestown, was named administrator. In October 1849 the other heirs released the farm to him: his brothers Prescott Brown of Charlestown and William E. Brown of Billerica, and his sisters with their husbands, Thomas R. Barrett of Charlestown, Joseph Dane and William D. Mears of Billerica. On April 21, 1853, Asa N. Brown, by then of Lawrence, sold the 44 acres and buildings to Henry Durant of Billerica for $885.

Henry Durant, whose name was usually written Duren, lived here for almost twenty years. His 1859 mortgage describes "a certain Farm ... on both sides of the Road called the Range-way road, containing forty five acres more or less, with a dwelling house & Barn thereon." In 1870 he sold the farm to Edwin Duren of Chelmsford for $2,600. In October 1871 Edwin sold the homestead part to Judith Wilson, a widow, and Sarah M. Duren, the wife of Henry W. Duren. It was then two lots: one on the south side of the road, running west to Isaac Brown's land "with an old house thereon," and one on the north side with a barn. In the 1896 mortgage of Henry W. and Sarah M. Duren, only the north lot is described as having buildings, which suggests that the old house was gone by then. Judith Wilson left her share to Sarah M. Duren, who died on July 8, 1909, and in 1910 her daughter, Hattie M. Prescott of Westford, gave up her two-thirds to her father, Henry W. Duren.

In 1919 Henry W. Duren mortgaged both lots to Edgar F. Twombly. Twombly foreclosed and sold them at auction on the premises on April 2, 1921, to Thomas P. O'Sullivan of Lowell for $2,000. O'Sullivan was living in Billerica by 1932, when he mortgaged "two certain parcels of land with the buildings thereon" to the Central Savings Bank of Lowell. In 1953 he sold a small strip on the north side of the road. That same year the state took land for Route 3, the relocated Middlesex Turnpike, which crosses the old farm east of the house lot. The land between the old turnpike and Sterling Road was registered in the Land Court in 1974 (case 38801) and divided into industrial lots, with the O'Sullivan land to the west. The house site is Lot 21 of the 1986 Land Court plan, at 152 Rangeway Road. The industrial building that stands there now was built about 1970.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), tax list of December 1776 with residence notes: "Brown, Nath. ... Near Henry Durant's, west side."; Genealogical Register BROWN 9 (Nathaniel; daughter Rhoda b. 1762).
2. Middlesex probate case 28152, Elisha Brown of Billerica: 1841 spendthrift guardianship and 1849 administration by Asa N. Brown.
3. Billerica assessor, 152 Rangeway Rd (parcel 29-16-1): 2.35 acres, LC Plan 38801-F Lot 21, industrial building built about 1970.

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.