John Baldwin

John Baldwin (died 1687) was one of the first settlers of Billerica and the founder of the Baldwin family of the town. Hazen thought him probably a brother of Henry Baldwin of Woburn, who was said to have come from Devonshire. On May 15, 1655, at Woburn, he married Mary Richardson, a daughter of Thomas Richardson of Woburn. Her brother Thomas Richardson also came to Billerica, and Michael Bacon married another of the sisters. Hazen counts Baldwin among the eleven Woburn names in the first company, and among the twelve men who held lots "on the Township," the part of the town granted from Cambridge, he was the only Woburn man.

He lived on the west side of Long Street, north of Jonathan Danforth's, near the place that Hazen in 1883 called Mrs. Bennett's. On August 16, 1658 he was one of the inhabitants who signed the agreement to settle the Rev. Samuel Whiting as the first minister, promising him a house, a salary and his firewood, and the town accounts credit John Baldwin, George Farley and Ralph Hill Jr. for "oxen to help fetch Mr. Whiting." The same year he signed the covenant of November 9, 1658 between the proprietors on Mr. Dudley's farm and the inhabitants of the Township, and the agreement that gave John Parker power to sell the town's eight thousand acres at Naticott. He shared in the divisions of meadow of 1658; his lot in the first division was the last one along the Content Brook, near Pattenville.

He served in the small offices of the young town. In March 1659/60, when the first town officers were recorded, he and John Sterne were appointed "to vew fences," and he viewed fences again with John Trull in 1663. In the first month of 1660/1 he and James Kidder were chosen surveyors of highways, the first surveyors on record. When the selectmen and militia committee sorted the families into garrisons on October 8, 1675, during King Philip's War, John Baldwin was assigned with Edward and Thomas Farmer and Henry and John Jefts to the house of James Patterson.

He died on September 25, 1687. His children, all born in Billerica, were Mary (1659), who died as an infant; Mary (1663), who married Henry Jefts in 1681; John (1665); Jonathan (1667/8); Susanna (1670), who died in 1675; Thomas (1672), later Ensign Thomas Baldwin; Phebe (1675/6), who died as an infant; Susanna (1677), who married Joseph Hill; and Phebe (1679/80), who married Dr. Roger Toothaker in 1718. The John Baldwin House at 376 Boston Road, the family homestead of the next century, is named for him and his son.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 6, BALDWIN 1
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 25: early house lots; John Baldwin near Mrs. Bennett's
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 27: the Woburn contribution; Michael Bacon and John Baldwin married daughters of Thomas Richardson
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 31: the twelve lots on the Township; Baldwin the only Woburn man
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 34: first division of meadow, 1658; John Baldwin's lot near Pattenville
6. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 59: town officers of March 1659-60; John Sterne and John Baldwin to view fences
7. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 88: first surveyors of highways, 1660-1, James Kidder and John Baldwin
8. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 110: garrison order of Oct. 8, 1675; John Baldwin assigned to James Patterson's house
9. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 153: the agreement of Aug. 16, 1658 with Rev. Samuel Whiting, signed by John Baldwin
10. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850, marriages p. 220: John Baldwin and Mary Richardson, May 15, 1655, in Woburn
11. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850, deaths p. 342: John Sr., Sept. 25, 1687