Oakes Farm

The Oakes Farm was the name given to two grants that the church of Cambridge made on June 9, 1652 to the brothers Edward and Thomas Oakes: three hundred acres to Edward and one hundred and fifty to Thomas. Both lay up the Shawsheen River, beyond the farms on the Woburn line, in the part of Billerica that became Bedford in 1729. Edward's farm probably reached the old Concord line, near the present center of Bedford, and Thomas's took in the Bedford Springs, by Spring Brook and Springs Road.

In April 1648 Cambridge granted farms at Shawshin "to Bro. Edward Oaks, Tho. Oakes, and Richard Hildreth, each of them a farm for their encouragement, if they see it may make for their support and desire it." The church's division of 1652 fixed their size: "To Edw. Oakes, three hundred acres. To Thomas Oakes, one hundred and fifty acres," to be laid out "with as little prejudice to any lot as may be." In 1663 the town ordered a highway "leading to Mr. Michell's farme, and to ye land ye was Layd out for Mr. Edward Oaks' farme, on ye south East end of Mr. Winthrop's great meadow."

Edward Oakes sold his three hundred acres in 1661 to George Farley and to Ralph Hill and his son Ralph Hill Jr., three of the first settlers of the town. The grantee index lists the deed to Ralph Hill, recorded in the Billerica town book and in the Middlesex registry, as "Wilderness." Ralph Hill Sr.'s will, made in November 1662, gave his son Nathaniel Hill half of "the meadow bought of Edward Oakes at Shawshin River." Farley sold his part in 1673 to Timothy Brooks of Woburn, who owned the mill at the falls of the Shawshin in the east part of Bedford, and Patrick Fassett, who came from Malden in 1679, bought part of the Oakes farm of Brooks; Nathaniel Hill also sold Oakes farm land to Fassett in 1691. In 1682 the selectmen had the marks renewed on the highway from Mr. Muzey's farm, "that hee bought of Timothy Brookes," to the town. The Hill share stayed in the family: Lt. Joseph Hill, Nathaniel's son, left "half the Oakes farm in Bedford" to his son Jonathan by his will of 1750. When the town divided its land south of the farm among the proprietors, the "Squadron on the South of Oakes' farme" lay between it and Concord, and Jonathan Hill's lot of ninety-one acres was "next to Oakes Farm." The inventory of the estate of Edward Oakes, "late of Cambridge," taken on January 30, 1691-2, held only a lot of twenty-five acres at New Cambridge and twenty acres toward Concord.

Thomas Oakes's one hundred and fifty acres had a shorter history. Hazen first wrote that this farm was given to Captain Gookin in exchange for his lot on the Township and sold by him to Thomas Oakes, but in his corrections he withdrew that account: Gookin received fifty acres west of the Wyman and Champney farms, and "Oakes had 150 acres ... which probably included Bedford Springs." Thomas Oakes's own papers bear him out. He made his will at Cambridge on September 11, 1658, leaving his whole estate to his wife Elizabeth during her widowhood and then to their children, with his "loving Bro: Edw: Oakes" as an overseer, and the inventory taken on December 24, 1658, two years before the Gookin exchange, lists "a farme of 150 acres at Belirica," valued at ten pounds.

The deed of 1661 from Edward Oakes, and the later deeds of the Oakes farm, could not be read when this was written.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 9: Cambridge grants of April 1648, a farm each to Edward Oaks, Thomas Oakes and Richard Hildreth for their encouragement
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 12: church division of June 9, 1652, to Edward Oakes three hundred acres, to Thomas Oakes one hundred and fifty
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 41: Edward Oakes's 300 acres sold in 1661 to George Farley and the Ralph Hills; the 150-acre Oakes farm with the Bedford Springs
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): Timothy Brooks owned the mill at the falls of the Shawshin, in the east part of Bedford
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): the Squadron on the South of Oakes' farm; Jonathan Hill's 91-acre lot next to Oakes Farm
6. Hazen, Genealogical Register: BROOKS, Timothy bought in 1673 of George Farley the Oakes farm, on the Shawshin, near Concord line
7. Hazen, Genealogical Register: FASSETT 1, Patrick from Malden bought of Timothy Brooks part of the Oakes farm, near old Concord line and Shawshin river
8. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), addenda: correction to p. 41, Oakes had 150 acres, which probably included Bedford Springs

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.