Roger Toothaker House
Roger Toothaker House
| Address | Rogers St |
| Built | 1662 |
| Demolished | 1806 |
| Other Lot Structures | William Rogers House (Built 1807) |
The Roger Toothaker House stood at the northern edge of the early town, at the spot where, a century and a half later, the Middlesex Canal left the Concord River in North Billerica. Town historian Henry Hazen called it the extreme point of the line of early farms running north from the village, and the road to Pawtucket passed the houses of Toothaker and his neighbor John Rogers. Tradition in Hazen's day held that the old house survived as the ell of the brick Rogers house built on the site, now the William Rogers House.
Roger Toothaker was a stepson of Ralph Hill Sr., and was accepted as an inhabitant with the Bracket brothers about 1660. In 1665 he married Mary Allen of Andover. In 1680 he traded the town about five acres east of the road for twelve acres around the long meadow near the plain, an exchange Hazen thought was made to secure the mill privilege for the town. He practiced medicine and was called "doctor" in Salem, but his family life troubled the selectmen. In 1683 they spoke to him about "many things amiss in his family," and in 1684 they wrote asking him to come for his wife. The town gave his family charitable aid, and two of his children were apprenticed to Joseph Walker and Edward Farmer. When the witchcraft trials came in 1692, his wife's sister Martha Carrier was hanged, and Toothaker appeared as an eager witness. His children Allen and Margaret were drawn into the trials. He was dead by July 1694, when the town abated his tax as "deceased."
On August 5, 1695, Indians raided the scattered houses east of the Concord River. Mary Toothaker was killed, and her youngest daughter Margaret was carried into captivity. "If the remembrance and sympathy of later generations could afford any compensation for the sorrows of such a life," Hazen wrote, "we might search far to find a person better entitled to them than Mary Allen Toothaker."
The homestead stayed in the Toothaker family for most of the next century. By 1771 it was held by another Roger Toothaker, a physician, as about 97 acres with a dwelling house and barn bounded by the County Road, Joseph Ruggles, William Kidder, Daniel Shed and the former Danforth land. That year, with his widowed mother Mary, he went through a common recovery in the Charlestown court to break the entail on it. In April 1782 he sold 27 acres "with a Dwelling house & Barn standing thereon," and three acres by the mill pond, to William Rogers for 200 pounds. Rogers built the brick house on the site about 1807, and whether any part of the Toothaker house was kept as its ell is not known.
References
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 19, 1771 | Common Recovery | Thomas Rogers (demandant) | Mary Toothaker, widow, and Roger Toothaker, physician (tenants) | Toothaker homestead, 97 acres with dwelling house and barn | 72/64 (South) |
Indenture of Feb. 26, 1771 to suffer a common recovery, reciting that Roger Toothaker "is seized of the Messuage Lands & Tenements herein after described in Tail male," namely "a Tract of Land in Billerica ... containing about ninety seven acres with a Dwelling house & barn thereon," bounded westerly and northerly on the County Road, easterly partly on the road and partly on Joseph Ruggles and William Kidder, southerly partly on Daniel Shed and partly on land of the said Roger "formerly belonging to the heirs of Thomas Danforth"; also three acres on the west side of the County Road by Joseph Ruggles and the mill pond, Sauce Meadow (7 acres) in Tewksbury and eight acres of Hamlet's Meadow. After the recovery the part set off to Mary as dower in her late husband Roger Toothaker's estate was to be hers for life, and the rest Roger's in fee simple. The judgment of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas at Charlestown, March 12, 1771, is recorded as an exemplification at Book 72 Page 66. The Toothaker homestead descended from Roger Toothaker, the settler; the generations between have not been traced. Billerica town book 6, pages 468-475.
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| March 17, 1783 | Deed | Roger Toothaker, yeoman, and Mary Toothaker | William Rogers, husbandman | Dr. Roger Toothaker sells house and 27 acres to William Rogers | 84/626 (South) |
For 200 pounds, two tracts in Billerica: the first beginning at the southwest corner at stake and stones, northerly as the road goes, easterly by the road and the heirs of Capt. William Stickney, by Samuel Rogers, southerly by the Stickney heirs to a ditch, northerly along the ditch, westerly and southeasterly to a pine tree and westerly to the first bound, "containing twenty seven acres ... with a Dwelling house & Barn standing thereon"; the second, three acres beginning at the southeast corner, northerly by the highway to a stone, westerly by Joseph Ruggles "to the mill pond," southerly by the pond to Jonathan Pollard and easterly by Pollard to the first bound. Mary Toothaker quits her right. Signed April 8, 1782, "in the sixth year of the Independency," before Robert Harris and David Morrill Jr.; acknowledged March 14, 1783. William Rogers was 23. Billerica town book 7, pages 399-400.
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| August 12, 1859 | Deed | Calvin Rogers and Ann Rogers | James R. Faulkner, manufacturer, and Charles Faulkner of Boston, merchant | Site sold by Calvin Rogers to the Faulkners | 20/390 |
For $3,500, "all that tract of land with the buildings now standing thereon" in the northerly part of Billerica, beginning at the northwesterly corner "at the junction of two roads leading from North Billerica so called, one to Billerica Centre and sometimes called Mill Street, and the other to Tewksbury and sometimes called North Street," southerly by Mill Street past "a barn or building on said premises" and by a curve to the Boston and Lowell Railroad, northwesterly by the railroad to North Street and by North Street back to the start, 6 acres 95 square rods; also a tract opposite on the westerly side of Mill Street, running to the Concord River, down the river to a willow tree "on what was formerly the Middlesex Canal," and by the canal back to Mill Street, 1 acre 130 square rods; with his right of way over the railroad. Both tracts are on a plan of the land of Calvin Rogers and Gov. Talbot by Samuel Sage Jr., 1858. Signed July 1, 1859; Ann, a daughter of Francis Faulkner, released dower. The MHC form puts the Faulkner takeover "between 1853 and 1875." The steps from the Faulkners to the Faulkner Manufacturing Co. have not been traced.
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.