Thomas Pollard House

The Thomas Pollard House was the farmhouse of the Pollard homestead on the east side of Pollard Street, the old road to The Fordway over the Concord River, just north of its corner with High Street in North Billerica. Thomas Pollard, a son of William Pollard of Coventry, England, and a nephew of Edward Farmer, came to Billerica about 1692, bought William Hale's place near the fordway and had a town grant of thirty acres "between the road to the fordway and the road which turns east from it" (Hazen). He married his cousin Sarah Farmer in November 1693, and the house is dated here to about that year, when he set up house; no record gives the exact year. Hale's own house lot had been on the west side of the road, toward the river, so it is possible that Thomas first lived in Hale's old house; but the farm described in his estate and in his son's, bounded east by the Danforth land, is the same, and by 1754 its house, standing east of the road, was already called old. When Thomas Pollard died intestate in 1724 his estate included "the land about the house and barn, about one hundred and three acres", lying "one both sids the Road to Chelmesford". The Walling map of 1853 marks the house "W. Pollard", for William Pollard Jr., the fourth generation of the family on the farm.

The homestead east of the road passed to his son Edward Pollard, who died intestate in 1743 leaving "the homestead with the buildings thereon containing forty five acres". When his estate was divided in 1754 the appraisers found "an old Mansion House standing on the East part of the Homestead" and "a small old Barn" on about thirty-nine acres "on the east side of the Country Road that goes over the ford way to Chelmsford". His widow Judith, then the wife of Nicholas Sprake, took "the westerly end or part of the House" for her dower, and the rest was settled on Edward Pollard, "the Eldest Son and also the only Son".

On November 4, 1799 the younger Edward sold the thirty acres east of the fordway road, "with all the buildings", and land running to the river for $1,000 to William Pollard, a wheelwright. William Pollard Jr. added five acres between the road and the river at the 1823 auction of the estate of Zacheus Shed. On December 8, 1838 the elder William gave his "homestead farm where I now reside" to his son, "Excepting and reserving the West Room in the house upon said Homestead" for his own life and four cords of wood a year, and the son mortgaged the farm back to secure his bond for his father's support.

In 1866 William Pollard Jr. conveyed "the homestead farm on which I now reside" through Henry G. Buffum of Lowell to his wife Susan, "to her sole and separate use". The Pollards sold the farm "with the buildings thereon" in 1872 to Anthony Jones for $1,900, subject to mortgages to Lawrence B. Gannon. Jones sold it in 1874 to George E. Butters of Wilmington, and Butters in 1878 to Patrick Riley for $2,900: forty acres between the Fordway road and "the road leading to Billerica Mills" (High Street, sometimes called Russell Street) and eight acres across the road to the river.

After Patrick Riley's death his administrator, John F. Riley, sold "the farm with buildings thereon" at auction on May 21, 1897 to Jacob W. Wilbur of Everett for $2,100. Wilbur had already had Frederic R. Page draw the "Plan of Fordway Park" (Plan Book 13, Plan 5, May 1897), which cut the whole farm into lots twenty to twenty-five feet wide on new streets, and within days he was selling them. Lots 288 to 290, now 104 Pollard Street, went to Katherine Murphy of Lowell on June 7, 1897 as land only. The farm buildings are not heard of again, and the old house was probably taken down when Fordway Park was laid out. The ranch house at 104 Pollard Street dates from about 1964 and has belonged to the Billerica Housing Authority since 1982; the house next door at 102 Pollard Street was built in 1972.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register, Pollard 1: Thomas Pollard bought William Hale's place near the fordway and had a 1678 grant of 30 acres between the road to the fordway and the road turning east
2. Billerica assessor record, 104 Pollard St (parcel 23-138-0): Fordway Park lots 288-290, ranch built about 1964, Billerica Housing Authority, deed 2555/281

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.