Ann Parker

Ann Parker (born 1782) was a daughter of Col. John Parker, the Billerica tanner, and in 1844 she divided the south end of her father's homestead in the Town Center into the house lots along today's Pages Court. She was born on August 26, 1782, a twin of her sister Mary, who died in infancy, to John Parker and his first wife, Mary Shattuck. She never married.

Her father's will of December 1831 left his widow, Susanna Minot, two thirds and Ann one third of his house lot of about twelve acres on Concord Road, beside the farm of the Rev. Nathaniel Whitman. Colonel Parker died in 1832 and Susanna in 1841, and in 1842 Ann acquired the whole homestead. She divided its south end, which she called "her Whitman Lot," into house lots by a "chalk plan" drawn by George W. Randall, along a 25-foot "public passway" running west from Concord Road. On April 1, 1844 she sold lot no. 1, 44 square rods at the corner, to George Bacon; another lot to the First Baptist Society for its meeting house; others to Cornelius Sweetser and to George E. White, a Boston clerk; and lot no. 2, about 38 square rods, to the Baptist minister, the Rev. Benjamin Knight, for $70.60. Knight built the house now called the John Brown House on his lot, and the corner lot, "the Ann Parker lot," passed with the Whitman farm in 1848 to George H. Whitman (see the George H. Whitman House).

In the census of 1850 Ann Parker, 67, with real estate valued at $3,000, was living in the Centre in the household of the bookseller Ariel Work.

References

1. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), births: Anna, twin d. John Jr. and Mary Parker, Aug. 26, 1782 [Ann, gravestone]
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register p. 105, PARKER 17: children of John Parker and Mary Shattuck, the twins Mary and Anna, 1782
3. Middlesex County probate case 16646: will of her father John Parker, Dec. 20, 1831, proved June 5, 1832, leaving Ann one third of the twelve-acre house lot