Winthrop Farm

The Winthrop Farm was the grant of 1,200 acres that the General Court of Massachusetts Bay made to Governor John Winthrop on the east side of the Concord River, running south from the Two Brothers, with a meadow of about sixty acres added in 1639. It joined the Dudley Farm at the Two Brothers, was part of Billerica until Bedford was set off in 1729, and now lies almost wholly in Bedford. Job Lane of Malden bought the whole of it in 1664, and by his will it was divided among his son and two grandsons.

On November 2, 1637 the Court granted the deputy governor, Thomas Dudley, a thousand acres, and "The Governor Mr John Winthrope, Senior, hath graunted him a thousand acres of land upon the same tearns as Mr Dudley hath his." In January 1637-8 the two men came down the river from Concord to choose their farms and named two great stones on the bank the Two Brothers. On May 2, 1638 the Court gave Winthrop 1,200 acres "on the southerly side of two great stones standing neare together, close by the ryver-side that comes fro Concord," Dudley taking his land on the northerly side; the governor was "to ioyne in the said line runing Easterly, & to extend his lot as farr Southerly as his twelve hundred acres will beare." On June 6, 1639 the Court added "a prcell of meadow containing about sixtie acres," lying "within a mile or two of his farme, beneath Concord, towards the Southeast." The Two Brothers still lie on the river bank in Bedford, in the Two Brothers Rocks-Dudley Road Historic District.

The farm shaped the early town around it. When the Court renewed the grant of Shawshin to Cambridge in June 1642 it excepted "the farms formerly granted to the now Governor of 1260 acrs," and in 1652 Woburn asked the Court to lay out the farms "graunted to Jn Winthropie, Esq., deceased, & to Thomas Dudley." A division of meadow lots that the town made to forty-one inhabitants in 1661 was afterwards annulled, Hazen thought because the meadow was found to belong to the "great meadow" of the governor's farm, and in 1663 the town laid out a highway four poles wide "on ye south East end of Mr. Winthrop's great meadow," the road later known as the road to Bacon's mill, or Fitch's mill.

Job Lane, "who coming from Malden had purchased, 2 August, 1664, Governor Winthrop's large grant" from the governor's grandson Fitz John Winthrop of Connecticut, was a carpenter whom Hazen called "distinguished as an 'artificer.'" He paid for the farm with his trade: Hazen's narrative says by "the erection of a mansion for Fitz John Winthrop, at Norwich, Connecticut," while his genealogical register gives the price as 239 pounds paid "by building a large house in New London." Lane also built one of the college buildings at Cambridge and, by a contract of 1667, the great bridge over the Concord River. His house was the farthest out on the road toward Concord, beyond Ralph Hill's, and after 1675 he was permitted to garrison it. Hazen placed it at the Hiram Dutton place, on the east side of the road a few rods north of Huckins Street in Bedford. After about twenty years Lane went back to Malden.

Lane made his will at Malden on September 28, 1696 (Hazen gives the date as May 31, 1693). To his son John Lane he left "half my farme that is within the bounds of Billerica with my dwelling house he now dwelleth in and out houseing and orchard," with Bakers meadow, the Delight meadow and the west side of Crooked meadow. To "my daughter sarah's sonn samuell fitch" he left "one quarter part of my abovesaid farm at Billerica both meddo and upland with a dwelling hous he now liveth in," with the east side of Crooked meadow and "all the land eastward from his house to the end of my line." To "my daughter Gemimas sonn matthew whipple" he left the other quarter, "part of his upland to lye at a place commonly called the two brothers," with Flagg meadow and the swamp meadow to the Two Brothers and the north end of Crooked meadow. He died at Malden on August 24, 1697, by his inventory, and the will was proved at Charlestown on October 21. The appraisers put the Billerica farm "of about twelve hundred acres, more or less," with its upland, swamps, meadows, fields, fences, orchards and buildings, "together with about sixty acres of Medowland in Billerica bounds about one mile to ye Eastward of said farm," at 800 pounds.

Samuel Fitch, son of Samuel Fitch of Reading and Sarah Lane, held his quarter in two parts, by Hazen's account: one in the north-east corner of the farm, where his house stood on the west side of the road, and a strip running from the Concord River eastward nearly to Bedford village. He was the first town clerk and one of the first selectmen of Bedford in 1729 and died in 1742. His will of November 13, 1741 left his son Jeremiah "all my Homestead and Buildings," about forty-seven acres "on both sides the Road," bounded on the west partly by the land of the Lanes, and left river meadows "bounded westerly on Concord River" to his sons Samuel and Joseph. Matthew Whipple, the son of Matthew Whipple of Ipswich and Jemima Lane, born in 1685, received the quarter that ran "from the Two Brothers on Concord river to the road and along the river, including 375 acres"; Hazen found no evidence that he ever lived on it.

John Lane, colonel of the militia, kept the homestead half. He died in January 1714-15 without a will, and his sons Job and John were made administrators on February 4. The inventory taken at Billerica on February 15 counted "about seven hundred acres of upland & medow in the homsted with all the buildings & a sawmill," worth 1,050 pounds, and fifty-six acres of meadow and seventy-two of upland "lying eastward of the homsted." On March 26, 1718 the heirs agreed on a division. Job Lane took "the homestead that was his fathers," 166 acres, and 120 acres running from a white oak "marked L F" by Samuel Fitch's land to the Concord River "according to the former agreement." John Lane took 130 acres "about his house," bounded by "the land of Mathew Whipple according to the former agreement," and James Lane took 208 acres from the east line of the farm to the river. The daughters' husbands, Nathaniel Page and John Whitmore, took meadow in "the great meadow," one lot bounded north "by the land that was Mathew Whipples," and James Minot was paid 210 pounds. The Job Lane House on North Road in Bedford, kept today as a museum, takes its name from this second Job Lane.

When Bedford was incorporated on September 23, 1729, its line with Billerica ran "from the Winthrop Farm line toward Woburn," and the farm went with the new town. Hazen counted it among the three great grants within the old bounds of Billerica, with Mrs. Winthrop's farm at Wamesit and the Dudley Farm, 5,760 acres in all.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 3: the grants of November 2, 1637 to Dudley and Winthrop and the order of May 2, 1638
2. Hazen (1883), p. 4: Winthrop's 1,200 acres south of the Two Brothers; the naming of the stones, January 1637-8; sixty acres of meadow, June 6, 1639
3. Hazen (1883), p. 7: the June 1642 grant of Shawshin to Cambridge excepting the governor's farm of 1,260 acres
4. Hazen (1883), p. 15: Woburn's 1652 petition to lay out the farms granted to Winthrop and Dudley
5. Hazen (1883), p. 28: Job Lane from Malden, purchaser of the entire Winthrop Farm, divided by will among his son and two grandsons
6. Hazen (1883), p. 41: Job Lane bought Governor Winthrop's grant of Fitz John Winthrop, 2 August 1664
7. Hazen (1883), p. 64: meadow lots of 1661 annulled as part of the great meadow of Governor Winthrop's farm
8. Hazen (1883), p. 94: the 1663 highway at the south-east end of Mr. Winthrop's great meadow; road to Bacon's or Fitch's mill
9. Hazen (1883), p. 99: Job Lane's bridge contract of 1667; he paid for the farm by building a mansion for Fitz John Winthrop
10. Hazen (1883), p. 116: Job Lane's house near Huckins Street in Bedford, at the Hiram Dutton place
11. Hazen (1883), p. 219: Bedford incorporated 1729, its line running from the Winthrop Farm line toward Woburn
12. Hazen (1883), Genealogical Register p. 88: LANE, Job; the Winthrop farm bought 1664 for 239 pounds by building a house for Fitz John Winthrop
13. Hazen (1883), Genealogical Register p. 89: Col. John Lane, heir to half of the Winthrop farm; the Whipple quarter
14. Hazen (1883), Genealogical Register p. 53: FITCH, Samuel; his quarter of the Winthrop farm in two parts
15. Hazen (1883), Genealogical Register p. 155: WHIPPLE, Matthew; his quarter from the Two Brothers, 375 acres
16. Job Lane House, North Road, Bedford (Wikipedia)

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.