William Tay

William Tay was a distiller in Boston before coming to Billerica. He married Grace Newell of Roxbury on September 14, 1644. In November 1656 the town granted him "a ten-acre lot or one single share," and he and William Hamlet were, according to town historian Henry Hazen, the earliest settlers whose house lots lay on the town's common land rather than on the Township or the Dudley Farm. In December 1658 fifty-six acres were laid out to him, "his house standing upon part of the same," bounded east by the country road, west of Bare Hill near the later Noyes place, just south of the village. In November 1658 he had been among the inhabitants who signed the agreement giving equal standing to the settlers on the Township and the proprietors of the Dudley Farm.

Tay took a full part in the young town's affairs. In 1661 he was named to the committee to examine John Parker's accounts for building the first meeting house, and was one of four men appointed to sit in the deacon's seat and assign the other inhabitants their places. In 1662 he was chosen commissioner for the country rate, and in 1663 he and George Farley were appointed to lay out the highway toward Mr. Mitchell's farm that became the Lexington Road. He served as selectman in 1662 and again in 1664 and 1665, and he signed the town's 1664 address to the General Court.

He served as town clerk in 1664 and 1665, succeeding John Parker, and entries in his handwriting survive in the early town book. His name is absent from the 1675 garrison list, the roster of townspeople who fortified their homes during the Indian troubles of that year, suggesting he fled to Boston before the alarms began and never returned. He died there; his will was proved April 12, 1683, when he was said to be about 72.

His widow, Grace, died in Roxbury on April 11, 1712, aged 91. Their daughter Grace married Thomas Willice of Billerica; their son Isaiah served in King Philip's War, lived in Boston and was a Representative in 1700 and often afterward; and their son Nathaniel stayed in Billerica, where he was allowed in 1686 to keep a house of public entertainment, until he sold the homestead to Simon Crosby in 1691.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 148, TAY 1 (grant, homestead, Boston distiller, town clerk, will, widow, children)
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 32 (William Tay among the signers of the Nov. 1658 agreement between Township and Dudley Farm settlers)
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 33 (Hamlet and Tay the earliest house-lots on common land, 1656)
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 155 (meeting-house accounts committee and deacon's seat, 1661)
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 66 (chosen commissioner for the country rate, 1662)
6. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 94 (with George Farley lays out the highway to Mr. Mitchell's farm, 1663)
7. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 185 (1664 address to the General Court, signers)
8. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 166 (entries in the handwriting of clerk William Tay)
9. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 304 (list of town clerks: William Tay, 1664-65)
10. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 305 (list of selectmen: Wm. Tay, 1662, 64-65)