Samuel Sheldon

Samuel Sheldon was a Billerica farmer who for more than half a century owned the old Sheldon homestead on the road east of the Common, now Andover Road, beside the lane that long bore the family name. He was born on April 9, 1694, the son of Deacon John Sheldon and Deborah (Hill) Sheldon. On January 22, 1718-19, at Charlestown, he married Sarah Hutchinson of that town; the marriage record calls her Mary, but the births of their children and her death record name her Sarah. A few weeks earlier, on November 4, 1718, his father had given him seven and a half acres next to the home lot "in part of his portion." The deacon's will, proved in 1724, provided that "my son Samuel Sheldon shall have and Possess my homestead and all the lands and Medows In Billerica," valued at 350 pounds and entailed on Samuel's male heirs, and named Samuel and his mother executors. The house on the place is the John Sheldon House.

He was a selectman in 1746 and 1747. In March 1739-40, when the town offered the pew ground in its new meeting house to the highest payers of the two rates raised to build it, he was one of the twenty-two men entitled to a pew, and "A Pew in the Meeting house" was still part of his estate when he died. His farm took in fifteen acres in Broad Meadow and two in Content Meadow, and by his death he also held the Moffit place of 110 acres, the Dutton lot of 86 acres, land on Fox Hill, a wood lot in Bedford and meadow in Heath Swamp.

His only sons, Samuel (1725-6) and John (1729), died in infancy, so the entail could not carry the farm to a son. In 1771 he broke it by a common recovery, with the innholder Solomon Pollard as the nominal plaintiff, so that "one Peice or Tract of Land containing about Sixty acres with the Buildings thereon called the Homestead" would belong to him and his heirs outright. Sarah died on February 23, 1773, and Samuel on May 14, 1777, aged 83. He left no will. In January 1778 his sons-in-law Simon Blanchard and David Abbot were made administrators, and the inventory valued "The homestead containing about 83 acres with all the buildings" at 1266 pounds in the inflated currency of the war.

His five daughters divided the estate among themselves by deeds that spring: Sarah (1719), widow of John Center, who took the homestead with her son John Sheldon Center; Mary (1721), wife of Jonathan Pool of Reading; Deborah (1723), who married Isaac Lovejoy of Andover in 1750; Rebecca (1727), wife of Simon Blanchard; and Prudence (1732), wife of David Abbot. In 1781 Sarah Center and her son sold the homestead, with half of the pew "formerly the property of Samuel Sheldon," to Josiah Bowers Jr.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 134, SHELDON 3
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 177: 1739-40, the twenty-two highest payers offered pew ground in the new meeting house, Samuel Sheldon among them
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 306: list of selectmen (Samuel Sheldon)
4. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), births p. 175: Samuel, s. John Jr. and Deborah, Apr. 9, 1694; children of Samuel and Sarah
5. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), marriages p. 274: Mary of Charlestown and Samuel Sheldon, Jan. 22, 1718-19, in Charlestown
6. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), deaths p. 394: Samuel, Mr., May 14, 1777; Sarah, w. Samuel, Feb. 23, 1773; sons Samuel and John
7. Middlesex Probate case 20258: will of Deacon John Sheldon, 1724 (homestead entailed on his son Samuel)

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.