Samuel Foster House

Samuel Foster House
Address 373 Boston Rd
Built 1800
Demolished 1899
Other Lot Structures John D. Foster House (Built 1900)
John D. Foster House (Built 1900)


The Samuel Foster House stood on the west side of the Boston road (now 373 Boston Road), a short walk north of the meetinghouse, from about 1800 until it was replaced around 1900. It was the home of Samuel Foster, a shoemaker, and then of his son Dudley Foster, Billerica's town clerk and treasurer for twenty-five years. The 1875 map labels it "D. Foster". The house on the lot today is the John D. Foster House.

Samuel Foster, a cordwainer whose family came from the North Shore, bought his first piece of land here on Oct. 29, 1798 from James Sumner Jr. of Beverly, a mariner: a strip only 43 feet wide on "the Country road" and about 26 rods deep, between Capt. Bowers's land and Sumner's own, for $100. No buildings are mentioned. By Nov. 1, 1805, when Samuel sold a half interest "with half the buildings thereon standing" to "my brother Joseph Foster", also a cordwainer, the house and shop had been built. Joseph sold the half back in 1806. In 1810 Samuel added three acres next to it from Alexander Bowers of Charlestown and the widow Dorcas Bowers, "the west side of the road leading from Boston to Chelmsford and about twenty five rods north of the meeting house".

Samuel later cut lots for his family from both ends of the homestead. In 1838 he sold 1 1/4 acres on the south side to his son Dudley, "reserving the shop thereon"; Dudley built the Dudley Foster House there (377 Boston Road). In 1841 he sold an acre on the north side to Edward Mansfield, which came back to him and in 1850 went, as "the Mansfield Place ... with the buildings thereon", to Joseph Foster. Each of these deeds bounds the land by "my own land", the house lot that Samuel kept between them.

Samuel Foster died in 1857. His will (dated 1850) left his widow Anna "the use and improvement of all my real estate" for her life and then divided it equally among his legal heirs; the inventory valued the "Homestead" at $2,000. In March and April 1858 Dudley bought out the other heirs: his sister Sally and her husband James Damon, Elizabeth A. Foster, Joseph Foster and Sumner Foster sold him four sixths of "the homestead of Samuel Foster ... containing about four acres with the buildings thereon standing", and the sixth belonging to the children of Edwin Foster of North Reading was sold at auction by Dudley as their guardian to his son Francis D. Foster, who deeded it to him. Dudley lived in his father's house for the rest of his life; Hazen's history (1883) notes that he "lives near the Howe school" and helped prepare that history.

In 1892 Dudley Foster deeded the place, "a certain tract of land ... with a house & barn thereon" with 185 feet on Main Street, to his son Frank, who deeded it the same day to Dudley's wife Mary A. Foster. Dudley died in 1895. His widow remarried and, as Mary F. Rossiter of Pasadena, California, sold the two-acre lot "with the buildings thereon" in 1898 to Susan U. Phillips, wife of William U. Phillips. MACRIS (1973) suggested that Dudley's son John H. Foster returned from Springfield and built the present house as a replacement; the deeds show that John H. Foster never owned this lot (the Foster land he and Ellen L. Foster held was next door to the south), so any rebuilding around 1900 was done by the Phillips family or a later owner.

The lot then changed hands often: to Clarence A. Backer of Melrose in 1905; to James E. Andrews in 1906 and back to Backer in 1909; to Sarah A. Spiller in 1912, whose family divided and reunited it; and in 1925 from Dana H. and Sarah A. Spiller to Edith M. Spaulding, "together with all the buildings thereon". Spaulding mortgaged it to the Middlesex National Bank of Lowell, which foreclosed in 1928. The bank failed in December 1931, and its receiver sold the place in 1932 to Clara E. Sexton. After her death her trustees sold it in 1940 for $2,250 to Lucy B. Collier, who lived next door in the Dudley Foster House with her husband Forrest F. Collier.

In 1946 the Colliers had the land surveyed (Plan Book 68, Plan 83A) and sold the northern 140 feet "with the buildings thereon", 63,000 square feet, to Wilfred T. and Thelma R. Greenaway of Somerville, keeping a strip on the south with their own house. That lot is today's 373 Boston Road. It has since passed through private owners; in 1973 it was a three-family house, and it was sold at a mortgage foreclosure auction in 1994. In 2022 the Town took roadway easements along its frontage for the reconstruction of Boston Road (Route 3A).



Samuel Foster House
Plan of Land in Billerica, Mass. Surveyed for Forrest F. Collier (Plan 83A), June 14, 1946, Merrill A. Brown, Reg. Land Surveyor, 1946 (Plan 68/83)


References

  1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register, Foster 13, 14, 16 (Joseph, Samuel, Dudley Foster)


Title References

Date Type Grantor Grantee Summary Recorded
February 5, 1799 Deed James Sumner Jr. of Beverly, mariner (wife Betsey releasing dower) Samuel Foster of Billerica, cordwainer 130/489 (South)
April 17, 1806 Quitclaim Samuel Foster of Billerica, gentleman (wife Anna releasing dower) His brother Joseph Foster of Billerica, cordwainer 166/230 (South)
November 20, 1815 Quitclaim Joseph Foster of Billerica, cordwainer (wife Lucy releasing dower) Samuel Foster of Billerica 211/356 (South)
May 10, 1810 Deed Alexander Bowers of Charlestown, merchant, and Dorcas Bowers of Boston, widow (Mary Bowers releasing dower) Samuel Foster of Billerica, yeoman 188/344 (South)
November 20, 1838 Deed Samuel Foster of Billerica, gentleman (wife Anna releasing dower) His son Dudley Foster of Billerica, yeoman 378/272 (South)
December 23, 1841 Deed Samuel Foster of Billerica, yeoman (wife Anna releasing dower) Edward Mansfield of Billerica, yeoman 409/469 (South)
1850 Deed Samuel Foster of Billerica (wife Anna releasing dower) Joseph Foster 577/380 (South)
September 1, 1857 Will Estate of Samuel Foster of Billerica Widow Anna Foster (life estate), then his legal heirs; Dudley Foster executor Probate #32131
March 27, 1858 Deed James Damon and Sally F. Damon (in her right), Elizabeth A. Foster, all of Charlestown; Joseph Foster of Billerica; Sumner Foster of North Reading (heirs of Samuel Foster) Dudley Foster of Billerica 13/530
April 8, 1858 Guardian's Deed Dudley Foster, guardian of Anna Louisa, Edward M. and Francis H. Foster, minor children of Edwin Foster late of North Reading Francis D. Foster of Billerica 14/37
April 8, 1858 Quitclaim Francis D. Foster of Billerica Dudley Foster of Billerica 14/39
March 6, 1895 Deed Dudley Foster of Billerica (wife Mary A. Foster releasing dower and homestead) His son Frank D. Foster of North Andover 262/125
March 6, 1895 Quitclaim Frank D. Foster of North Andover, unmarried Mary A. Foster of Billerica, wife of Dudley Foster 262/127
1898 Warranty Deed John G. Rossiter and Mary F. Rossiter (formerly Mary A. Foster), his wife, in her right, of Pasadena, California Susan U. Phillips, wife of William U. Phillips, of Billerica 296/201
September 2, 1905 Quitclaim Susan U. Phillips of Billerica Clarence A. Backer of Melrose 357/599
April 16, 1909 Quitclaim James E. Andrews of Billerica Clarence A. Backer of Melrose 432/234
1912 Quitclaim Clarence A. Backer of Melrose (wife Grace L. Backer releasing dower) Sarah A. Spiller of Billerica 485/458
March 30, 1925 Deed Hemden Spiller of Billerica Dana H. Spiller of Billerica 719/470
March 30, 1925 Quitclaim Dana H. Spiller and Sarah A. Spiller, his wife, of Billerica Edith M. Spaulding of Billerica 719/471
July 8, 1926 Mortgage Edith M. Spaulding of Billerica The Middlesex National Bank of Lowell 738/335
June 8, 1928 Mortgagee's Deed The Middlesex National Bank of Lowell, mortgagee, by Arthur J. Dion, Cashier Leo E. Dinneen of Lowell 763/583
May 5, 1931 Quitclaim Daniel J. O'Connor of Lowell The Middlesex National Bank of Lowell 801/573
May 7, 1932 Receiver's Deed The Middlesex National Bank of Lowell, by William G. Roelker, Receiver Clara E. Sexton of Billerica 813/132
December 18, 1940 Trustees' Deed Frederic H. Sexton of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Union Old Lowell National Bank, trustees under the will of Clara E. Sexton Lucy B. Collier of Billerica 955/134
July 12, 1946 Quitclaim Forrest F. Collier and Lucy B. Collier, husband and wife, in her own right, of Billerica Wilfred T. Greenaway and Thelma R. Greenaway, husband and wife, of Somerville 1048/476

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.