John Stearns

John Stearns was the son of the elder John Stearns, one of the purchasers of the Dudley Farm and among the earliest settlers of Shawshin, whose own father Isaac Stearns had emigrated from Nayland, Suffolk in 1630 and settled in Watertown. His mother, Sarah, was the only daughter of Isaac Mixer of Watertown; her death on June 18, 1656 was, apart from that of an infant, the first death in Billerica. The family house stood on the south side of Charnstaffe Lane, opposite Mr. Whiting's. His father married Mary Lathrop of Barnstable, died on March 5, 1668-9, and his widow afterwards married Lieutenant William French.

Our John Stearns was born in "the seconde weeke" of May 1654. John Farmer's memoir of 1816 calls him "the first person born in town, on record," and he was long credited with that honor, erroneously according to town historian Henry Hazen; see George Farley for the record that establishes that it actually belongs to Farley's son Samuel, born in the last week of March 1654.

He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Bigelow of Watertown, and their eldest child, Elizabeth, was born in Watertown in 1677. His first wife died on April 18, 1694, and he then married Johannah, widow of Jacob Parker and daughter of Thomas Call of Malden. Of his sons, Isaac was shipwrecked and lost in the expedition to Port Royal in 1711, and John became a lieutenant. He is also named among the Billerica men who, or whose heirs, later shared in the "Narragansett" land grants made to soldiers of King Philip's War, which Hazen takes as proof of service in that war.

Stearns held the military rank of Captain and served the town for decades as a selectman, in 1689 and 1690, 1692, 1695 to 1697, 1702 to 1704, 1706 to 1712, 1714 to 1718 and 1720, and was town clerk in 1703 and 1704. As Lieutenant John Stearns he was the town's deputy to the General Court from 1706 to 1715 and in 1718. On March 9, 1710-11 the town, voting to spend the money from a land sale on a bell for the meeting house, named Captain Lane and Lieutenant Stearns "a committy to provide a Bell for the Town, not exceeding sixty pounds prise." Farmer wrote that "his long continuance in several offices, of a civil and military kind, affords a proof of the confidence reposed in him by his fellow citizens."

Captain John Stearns died in Billerica on October 26, 1728, aged 74, and his gravestone stands in the Old South Cemetery. His widow died on December 4, 1737, aged 78. Farmer counted among his descendants Rev. Josiah Stearns of Epping, New Hampshire, and the Rev. Mr. Stearns of Bedford.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 139, STEARNS family #1-2 (father John, grandfather Isaac of Nayland; birth, marriages, death)
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 140, STEARNS #2 children (Isaac lost at Port Royal, 1711)
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 47, FARLEY #3 (first birth in town: Samuel Farley, not John Stearns)
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 117, King Philip's War (Narragansett grants to Billerica soldiers or heirs, including John Stearns)
5. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 177, Religious History (Lt. John Stearns on the bell committee, 1710-11)
6. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 304, lists of town clerks and representatives (Lt. John Stearns)
7. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 305, list of selectmen
8. Farmer, Historical Memoir of Billerica (1816), p. 32 (John Stearns, born second week of May 1654; died Oct. 26, 1728, aged 74; offices)
9. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850 (1908), births p. 186 (John, s. John and Sarah, May "the seconde weeke" 1654)
10. Vital Records of Billerica to 1850 (1908), deaths p. 396 (Capt. John Stearns, Oct. 26, 1728, gravestone a. 74)