Township

The Township was the tract of four hundred acres "granted by the Church in Cambridge for the Towneship," the village part of Billerica, on which most of the first settlers who came from Cambridge had their house lots. It was bounded south by Charnstaffe Lane, which was also the north-east line of the Dudley Farm, and west by the Concord River. John Trull's farm, later the Bridge place, took in its north-east corner, and the lane leading from Long Street to that house ran a few rods north of the Township line. The four hundred acres are now the center of Billerica: the Town Common, the old meeting-house lot and the land on both sides of River Street and Concord Road north of Charnstaffe Lane down to the river.

Henry A. Hazen saw the first settlement as "an agreement between the Woburn men who had bought the larger part of the 'Farm,' and the Cambridge men who had received the Township grant." House lots of twenty to thirty acres were granted on the Township to most of the first settlers, and "they upon the township" held, by agreement, a prior claim over "those on Mr. Dudley's farm" in later divisions of the common land. Four of the Farm proprietors, George Farley, John Stearns, Ralph Hill Jr. and Robert Parker, also had lots on the Township. Leaving them out, the Township lots were twelve, as the Farm shares were: Jacob Brown, who soon sold to Stearns, John Baldwin, Jonathan Danforth, Captain Daniel Gookin of Cambridge, a non-resident, James Kidder, John Marshall, Golden More, William Patten, John Rogers, John Trull, George Willice and the Rev. Samuel Whiting. Only Baldwin came from Woburn, and only one Cambridge man, Lt. William French, lived on the Farm.

The town's book of grants describes the lots. Jonathan Danforth built on the north side of West Street, perhaps in 1654, "perhaps the first house in the village"; the Jonathan Danforth House stood there until 1878. When the lots were laid out in 1658 the town ordered that "the west street should runne from long street, beginning at the southeast of Jonathan Danforth's house lot," six pole wide to the river; it is now River Street. James Kidder's thirty acres lay "upon the township, aboute ye centre of it," bounded by John Rogers Sr. on the south, by "the West street or highway which leads from long street to ye great river" on the north and by the river on the west. Rogers had twenty-three acres "lying upon the township," between Kidder on the north, Jacob Brown on the south and the Concord road on the east, near where the town house stands. Brown's eight-acre lot, granted in 1658, he sold with all his rights to John Stearns in 1663. George Willice of Cambridge bought the "eight acre lot" first granted to Joseph Parker and sold it to Daniel Shed of Braintree, whose house lot was "twenty and three acres of land ... lying upon the township," with Jacob Browne on the north and the Concord road crossing it. William Patten had "one acre of land ... on which his house now standeth," bounded east by the country road and lying six pole from the town brook.

Mr. Whiting's house lot was "twenty acres ... lying upon the Township, on the South side of it," bounded by George Willice on the south, the brook on the east and the meeting house on the west; in August 1658 the town agreed to give him "that house which is now vpon ye towneship, comfortably finished." Ralph Hill Jr. sold his eight-acre right in 1658 to John Poulter, Danforth's brother-in-law, with a house lot of "twenty and nine acres ... lying partly on the township," where East Street, later granted to Golden More, bounded it on the north. John Trull's sixteen acres "upon the township" were bounded by Golden More and John Poulter on the south and the commons elsewhere. John Marshall was "partly on and partly off the towneship," on the east side beyond Ash Swamp. Captain Gookin's lot was on the south corner of Long and West Streets, where the library, church and town hall later stood; in 1660 the town gave him forty or fifty acres elsewhere "in lew of which p'cell of Lande yt is granted to him by the Town Lying on the Township," and his exchange was laid out south of the town, a little south-east of Nutting's Pond.

The Township and the Farm were joined by the covenant of November 9, 1658, "a Covenant or Agreement between thos which were Proprietors vpon Mr. Dudley's Farme and they that were Inhabitance on ye Township." Everyone who took up land from the town was to be "equally accommodated with upland & meadow with thos vpon Mr. Dudley's farme" and was to pay the Farm proprietors in proportion "vntill they on Mr. Dudley's farme have received half so much as their first purchase cost," and the town agreed "That a ten-acre lot on ye township, and a single share, or twelfe part of Mr. Dudley's farme, should be equall, both civill and ecclesiasticall." Eighteen men signed it, among them French, Rogers, Patten, Brown, More, Kidder, Danforth, Marshall, Baldwin, Jefts, Farley, Chamberline and Stearns. The rate of November 10, 1659 for "ye halfe payment of ye purchase" charged 2 pounds 5 shillings 10 pence for a ten-acre lot (Danforth, Kidder, More and others), 1 pound 16 shillings 8 pence for an eight-acre lot (Patten, Baldwin, Rogers, Brown) and 1 pound 7 shillings 6 pence for a six-acre lot (Marshall, Paterson, Web), 44 pounds 18 shillings 4 pence in all, toward the 110 pounds the Farm had cost.

Other orders of 1658 kept open ways across the Township. Three pole by the river side "(vpon the Towneship)" were reserved "from the angle of the township neare George ffarley's, vntill you come below abbott's Bridge," and "the Brook which lyeth in the middle of the township" was to lie open "from long-street downward to ye line of Mr. Dudley's farme," six pole wide on each side; this order, Hazen noted, proves that Charnstaffe Lane and the line of the Dudley Farm were the same. When Mr. Whiting came in 1658 he found twenty-five families in town, eleven of them on the Township.

The house lots were town grants and were entered in the town's records rather than at the county registry. The first records of them passing to a second owner are in the probate files and later deeds: the inventory of Ensign James Kidder, who died in 1676; the will of Thomas Patten, proved in 1690, whose inventory begins with "the house barn & orchard, about one acre of land," his father William's lot; Golden More's gift of his homestead to his son-in-law Caleb Farley in 1698; the inventory of Sergt. John Marshall in November 1702, "building & house barne & all the land at home," 100 pounds; the will of Mr. Whiting, made in 1711 and proved in 1713, which left the house, barn and orchard to his widow and daughter Dorothy and to his son Oliver about eighteen acres "westward of the highway that lies between my barne and the stone wall at the east end of the English pasture" to the land of Benjamin Farley; and the will of Jonathan Danforth, who died in 1712 and reserved "the southerly part of my homestead" for his widow.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 24: the Township of four hundred acres granted by the Church in Cambridge, bounded south by Charnstaffe Lane and west by the river
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 25: house lots of twenty to thirty acres on the Township; Danforth's house on West Street; Kidder, Rogers, Brown, Marshall, More
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 26: John Trull at the Bridge place; George Willice sold to Daniel Shed in 1659; Mr. Whiting north of Charnstaffe Lane
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 30: the Dudley Farm fixed the position of the Township; agreement of the Woburn and Cambridge men
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 31: the twelve Township lots and their owners; the covenant of November 9, 1658
6. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 32: text of the 1658 covenant; a ten-acre lot on the Township equal to a share of the Farm; the 1659 rate
7. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 33: the rate of November 10, 1659 for the half payment of the purchase, 44 pounds 18 shillings 4 pence
8. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): in 1658 Mr. Whiting found twenty-five families, eleven on the Township
9. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): 1660 exchange of Capt. Gookin's lot on the Township, at the south corner of Long and West Streets
10. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): 1658 orders reserving a riverside way upon the Township and the brook in the middle of the Township
11. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): 1658 order laying out West Street from Long Street past Jonathan Danforth's house lot to the river
12. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): agreement of August 16, 1658 to give Mr. Whiting the house "now vpon ye towneship"
13. Hazen, Genealogical Register, p. 81: James Kidder's thirty-acre house lot "lying upon the township, aboute ye centre of it"
14. Hazen, Genealogical Register, p. 108: William Patten's one-acre house lot by the country road and the town brook
15. Hazen, Genealogical Register, p. 112: John Poulter's house lot bought of Ralph Hill Jr. in 1658, "lying partly on the township"
16. Hazen, Genealogical Register, p. 121: John Rogers's twenty-three acres "lying upon the township"
17. Hazen, Genealogical Register, p. 130: Daniel Shed's twenty-three-acre house lot upon the Township, bought of George Willice
18. Hazen, Genealogical Register, p. 150: John Trull's sixteen acres upon the Township, bounded by Golden More and John Poulter
19. Hazen, Genealogical Register: Rev. Samuel Whiting's twenty-acre house lot "lying upon the Township, on the South side of it"
20. Hazen, Genealogical Register: Jacob Brown's eight-acre lot, sold in 1663 with all his rights to John Stearns

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.