Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 119

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 924

USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 119

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William, son of David (3), was graduated at Harvard College in 1748; married. February 15. 1753, Jane, daughter of Rev. William and Jane Cook, of Sudbury, and was a deacon and magistrate in Sudbury, where he died.

Samuel, son of David (3), graduated at Harvard College, 1752; married, January 2, 1771, Hannah, daughter of Judge John Cush- ing, of Scituate; was ordained pastor at Han- over, Massachusetts, December I, 1756, dis- missed March 8, 1780, and died December I, 1784, aged fifty-four.

Abigail, daughter of David (3), married May 7, 1752, Joseph Curtis, of Sudbury. She had a daughter Abigail who became the wife of Rev. Jonathan Barnes, of Hillsborough, New Hampshire, December 14, 1774.

Lydia, daughter of David (3), married, Feb- ruary 19, 1756, Hon. Oliver Prescott, of Gro- ton, a physician in a very large practice ; judge of probate ; brigadier-general before and during the revolution, 1768-1781 ; afterwards major- general. He was also a member of the board of war and of the supreme executive council of Massachusetts ; a brother of Colonel William Prescott, who commanded in the redoubt on Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775: being third son ( sixth child) of Hon. Benjamin and Abigail (Oliver ) Prescott ; while Colonel William was their second son ( fourth child). Lucy, sixth child of Hon. Oliver and Lydia ( Baldwin) Prescott, married Hon. Timothy Bigelow, of Medford, and their eldest daughter Katherine married Hon. Abbott Lawrence.

Elizabeth, daughter of David (3), married October 23, 1755, Henry Evans, and removed to Nova Scotia.

Mary, daughter of David (3), married Feb- ruary 7, 1764, Captain Samuel Jackson, of Newton ; no children.

(III) Isaac Baldwin, son of Henry (2), born in Woburn, February 20, 1699-1700; died in Sudbury, March 12, 1759: married, March 24, 1726, Mary Flegg (or Flagg, as the name is commonly spelt ), born in Woburn, Decem- ber 5, 1702, died in Sudbury, September 23,

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1744, daughter of Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Carter) Flagg. Children: I. Luke, born De- cember 23, 1728. 2. Jeduthun, born January 13, 1731-32. 3. Nahum, born May 3, 1734. 4. Isaac, born December 12, 1738. 5. Josiah, born June 10, 1743. The father was married to a second wife, Elizabeth, who died his widow, March 8, 1770.

Luke, son of Isaac (3), lived to manhood.

Jeduthan or Jeduthun Baldwin, son of Isaac (3), was born at Woburn, January 13, 1732, and died at North Brookfield, Massachusetts, June 4, 1788, aged fifty-six; married, April 28. 1757. Lucy. daughter of Rev. Ebenezer Parkman, of Westborough. "The Revolution- ary Journal of Col. Jeduthan Baldwin, 1775- 1778," edited by Thomas Williams Baldwin, printed for the De Burians (Bangor), 1906, contains a memoir and notes, and illustrations, besides the journal. He was captain of a com- pany in the expedition against Crown Point in 1755-56, and served in the same capacity from March to December, 1758, at Ticonderoga and at Fort DuQuesne. Twenty years afterwards he campaigned in the same country with dif- ferent generals, as colonel and chief of engi- neers. He lived but a short time in Woburn, as his father moved to Sudbury about 1734. The son left Sudbury when young, and settled in Brookfield, Massachusetts, probably about 1754. For a very full account of his life the reader is referred to the volume above named. He was survived by his widow, a son Luke, and a daughter Betsey, and besides these two there were two other children-one Jeduthun, aged six, killed by being thrown from a cart, October 31, 1763 ; the other, Isaac, a member of Harvard College, died April 1, 1783, aged nineteen years.

The published journal of Colonel Jeduthan Baldwin mentions his father, Isaac Baldwin, under date of 1756, his brother Nahum, and later his father and mother, and uncle Samuel Baldwin. Nahum married Martha Low, April 22, 1760. Isaac married Eunice Jennison, De- cember 31, 1761. Josiah married Susanna Gould, March 29, 1763.

Isaac, son of Isaac (3), was mortally wound- ed at the battle of Bunker Hill, and died oppo- site the house of Colonel Royall, in Medford. Ile belonged to Colonel Jolin Stark's regiment, was the captain of his own company from the time of his entry into the service, April 23, 1775, and served two months, at six pounds per month, total amount of wages received twelve pounds, and number of miles travel,

eighty. He was the ranking captain in his regiment. (N. H. State Papers ; xiv. 50).

Isaac Baldwin at the beginning of the war raised a company of men in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, and led them to Cambridge. While there a tender belonging to the enemy got aground on the Chelsea ferry ways, and he went with twelve of his men in open day in the face of the enemy and burned her, after taking out her guns and sails, by throwing a pitchfork of hay on fire in the cabin windows. Having accomplished this he put his men back one by one and brought up the rear himself under the fire of the British fleet, and in this way reached their quarters safely with four of his men wounded. He fought valiantly at Bunker Hill, and was shot through the breast and died that night. He is said to have loaded and dis- charged his musket three times after he was wounded. When his men were carrying him off the field he exhorted them to fight, assur- ing them that they would win the day and he would be with them again directly. He died that night. He came to Hillsboroughi in 1767, was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and when the news of the battles of Lexington and Con- cord came, he was at work framing a barn in an adjoining town.

Isaac Baldwin had a posthumous son named Robert, born July 15, 1775 ; married, April 5, 1803, Martha Brown, and had a family in Waltham, an account of which is given in Bond's "History of Watertown," pp. 11, 675. Isaac Baldwin, probably another son, served in the Continental army in the revolution, mar- ried Hannah Caldwell, of Woburn, May 15, 1794: had sons, Isaac, born November 26, 1794, and Chiarles, born July 27, 1797, recorded on Woburn records. Isaac and wife Hannalt were both admitted to Woburn precinct (or Burlington) church, September 14, 1800, and both were dismissed to Hillsborough. Chil- dren : Isaac, Charles, and Nahum, were bap- tized in Precinct church, Woburn, October 5, 1800.

( H1) James Baldwin, son of Henry (2), born in Woburn, October 19, 1710; died June 28, 1791, aged eighty-one ; married, May 29, 1739, Ruth, born June 17, 1713, died May 13, 1791, daughter of Joseph and Mary ( Blodget) Rich- ardson, sister of the wife of his brother Henry (3). Children: 1. Cyrus, born November 5. 1740; see forward. 2. Reuel, born May 9, 1742, died February 21, 1745-46, aged three years (gravestone at Woburn ). 3. Loammini, born January 10, 1744-45; see forward. 4.

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Reuel, born June 30, 1747 ; see forward. James, the father, was a carpenter "of good repute," and reported to have been the "master work- man" in the erection of the Woburn precinct (or Burlington) meeting-house in 1732, the frame of which is yet standing, but the exterior has been twice materially altered. He served one day in the Woburn quota on April 19, 1775, when the Woburn men in great numbers marched to Lexington and Concord and took part in the battle there. James Baldwin in will dated April 9, 1771, probated November 9, 1791, named wife Ruth, and sons Cyrus, Reuel, and Loammi (second son) executor. The son Loammi received one-half of the real estate after decease of the wife, Ruth.

(III) Captain Samuel Baldwin, son of Henry (2), born at Woburn, August 31, 1717, died at Weston, July 21, 1778, aged sixty-one ; mar- ried first, March 23, 1741-42, Elizabeth, born March 25, 1715, died February 7, 1757, daugh- ter of Captain James and Sarah ( Moore) Jones, of Weston ; married second, March 30, 1758, Sarah Deming, of Needham, died May 2. 1760, aged thirty-nine ; married third, March 25, 1762, Rebecca Cotton, born November 14, 1725, died January 16, 1795, aged seventy-one, daughter of Rev. John and Mary (Gibbs) Cotton. Children by wife Elizabeth: I. Sam- uel, born at Falmouth, July 28, 1743 ; married, July 7, 1763, Millicent Cutler .* 2. Elizabeth, born at Weston, June 18, 1745 : married, De- cember 22, 1768, Elias Jones, of East Hoosick. 3. Lydia, born at Weston, January 16, 1746; married. October 25, 1764, John Newton Par- menter. 4. Ephraim, born at Weston, April 2, 1749, died December 30, 1751. 5. Sarah, born at Weston, September 15, 1750, died April II, 1756, aged five and one-half. 6. Lucy, born June 30. 1753. 7. Esther, born June 27, 1756; married, June 4, 1779, Jonathan Rawson. Child by wife Sarah: 8. Sarah, born January 28, 1759. Children by wife Rebecca : 9. Rebecca, born January 7, 1763, died January 29, 1763. IO. Rebecca, born July 10, 1764; married, De- cember 3, 1780, James Cogswell. II. Mary, born March 15. 1766; married, January 24, 1790, Isaac Hobbs, Jr.

(IV) Cyrus Baldwin, son of James, born at Woburn, November 5, 1740; was drowned at Dunstable, November 5, 1790; married Ruth

Wilson, of Bedford, and died without issue. His wife was perhaps Ruth, born October 6, 1745, daughter of James and Lydia Wil- son, of Bedford. Samuel Thompson, Esquire, of Woburn, wrote in his diary, under date of November 5, 1790: "Fair. Cyrus Bald- win, Esquire, drowned at Dunstable," and on Sunday, November 7, following, he record- ed the item : "Cyrus Baldwin, Esquire's, corpse brought to Woburn ;" and on November Io, he wrote : "Very cold. Came home from Salem. Cyrus Baldwin buried."

Cyrus Baldwin was taxed in the West List, Woburn, 1776, and received his proportion of a war assessment which he had paid before 1777. He lived for a time during the revolu- tionary war in Boston, and was first lieutenant of the Eighth Ward company in Colonel Henry Bromfield's ( Boston ) militia regiment, and commissioned such, November 25, 1776. In the dignified manner of the newspapers of that day, the following is the only public men- tion of his death: "Died-At Dunstable, Cyrus Baldwin, Esq., formerly of this town."- Columbian Centinel, Boston, November 24, 1790.

The "Varnum Genealogy," p. 68, shows that Elizabeth Varnum, born April 26, 1741, daugh- ter of Abraham and his second wife Rachel Varnum, married Cyrus Baldwin, of Chelms- ford, possibly a second wife of the above Cyrus Baldwin. This wife was probably the Mrs. Betsy Baldwin who died at Dracut, January 6, 1827.

(IV) Colonel Loammi Baldwin, son of James, born January 10, 1744-45, at "New Bridge" (North Woburn), died at his birth- place, October 20, 1807, aged sixty-three years (monument at Woburn) ; married first, July 9, 1772, Mary, died September 29, 1786, aged thirty-nine years, daughter of James Fowle, Jr., ( Major John 3, Capt. James 2, Lieut. James I, Fowle) and Mary ( Reed) Fowle, (daughter of Lieutenant Israel and Hannah Wyman Reed ) ; second, May 26, 1791, Margaret, born October 6, 1767, died August 8, 1799, daugh- ter of Josiah (Major John 3, Capt. James 2, Lieut. James I Fowle) and Margery (Carter ) Fowle. Children: I. Cyrus, born June 22, 1773: see forward. 2. Mary, born April 24, 1775, died May 15, 1776, "of canker rash." 3. Benjamin Franklin, born December 15, 1777; for forward. 4. Loammi, born May 16, 1780; see forward. 5. James Fowle, born April 29. 1782 ; see forward. 6. Clarissa, born Decem- ber 31, 1791, died May 27, 1841 ; married, Jan- uary 20. 1812, Thomas B. Coolidge : see for-

*Captain Samuel (4) Baldwin (Samuel 3, Henry 2, Henry 1) wrote a narrative in his eighty-second year, which possesses considerable interest. He mentioned his marriage to Millicent Cutler, the daughter of Captain Ebenezer Cutler, of Lincoln, and the names of their children. He removed from Weston to Northbridge in 1766, and thence to Windsor, Berkshire county, Massachusetts .- Letter of Mrs. Mercy (Baldwin) Howard, July 22. 1907.

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ward. 7. George Rumford, born January 26, 1798 ; see forward.

In early life he discovered a strong desire for acquiring knowledge, and attended the grammar school in Woburn under the instruc- tion of Master John Fowle, a noted teacher of that time, the school being a movable one, being kept at successive periods first in the centre of the town and secondly at the pre- cinct, or the part of Woburn now incorporated in the town of Burlington. At a more advanced period of life, with the intention of obtaining a thorough acquaintance with natural and exper- imental philosophy, he would walk from North Woburn to Cambridge, in company with his schoolmate, Benjamin Thompson, Count Rum- ford, and attend the lectures of Professor John Winthrop at Harvard College, for which liberty had been given, and upon their return home on foot they were in the habit of illustrating the principles they had heard enunciated in the lecture room by making rude instruments for themselves to pursue their experiments.

He was present in the battle of Lexington. As carly as 1768 he had enlisted in a company of horse-guards, and was not wholly destitute of military experience when summoned a little before the break of day to the field at Lexing- ton and Concord on April 19, 1775. In his own statement he says: "We mustered as fast as possible. The Town turned out extraordinary, and proceeded toward Lexington." Holding the rank of a major in the militia, he says, "I rode along a little before the main body, and when I was nigh Jacob Reed's (at present Durenville ) I heard a great firing ; proceeded on, soon heard that the Regulars had fired upon Lexington people and killed a large number of them. We proceeded on as fast as possible and came to Lexington and saw about eight or ten dead and numbers wounded." He then, with the rest from Woburn, proceeded to Concord by way of Lincoln meeting house, ascended a hill there, and rested and refreshed themselves a little. Then follows a particular account of the action and of his own experience. He had "several good shots," and proceeded on till coming between the meeting-house and Buck- man's tavern at Lexington, with a prisoner before him, the cannon of the British began to play, the balls flying near him, and for safety he retreated back behind the meeting-house, when a ball came through near his head, and he further retreated to a meadow north of the house and lay there and heard the balls in the air and saw them strike the ground. Woburn

sent to the field on that day one hundred and eighty men.

At the beginning of the war he enlisted in the regiment of foot commanded by Colonel Samuel Gerrish. Here he was rapidly advanced to be lieutenant-colonel, and upon Colonel Ger- rish's retirement in August, 1775, he was placed at the head of the regiment, and was soon com- missioned its colonel. His regiment was first. numbered the thirty-eighth and was afterwards numbered the twenty-sixth. Its original eight companies were increased to ten. Till the end of 1775, Colonel Baldwin and his men re- mained near Boston ; but in April, 1776, he was ordered with his command to New York City. On April 19 of that year he was at New York ; on June 13. 1776, at the Grand Battery there ; on June 22, the same; and on December 26, 1776, his regiment, commanded by himself, "went on the expedition to Trentown" (Tren- ton). In this regiment was one company from Woburn commanded by Captain John Wood. On the memorable night of December 25, 1776, in the face of a violent and extremely cold storm of snow and hail, General Washington and his army crossed the Delaware to the New Jersey side, and took by surprise the next morning at Trenton about one thousand Hessian troops commanded by Colonel Rahl, and Colonel Baldwin and his men took part in this daring and successful enterprise.

Colonel Baldwin's experience in the cam- paigns in New York and New Jersey is told in his letters to his family at home and many of these letters have been sacredly preserved by his descendants. During 1775-76 he was sta- tioned with about two hundred or more of his men at Chelsea, while other companies of his regiment were stationed about Boston at Brook- line and Medford. The "History of Chelsea." about to be published by the Massachusetts Historical Society, contains a great mass of material relating to the stay of a portion of the regiment at Chelsea, where their duties were those mostly of guards.

Colonel Baldwin resigned from the army in 1777 on account of ill health. His subsequent life was spent in his native place, and was marked by an enterprising spirit and the active habits of his youth. He had a talent and capacity for business. He was, in his public career, appointed on many committees on im- portant town business : the records of the town and many autographic town papers are ample evidence of this. He was appointed high sheriff of Middlesex county in 1780, and was the first

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to hold office after the adoption of the state constitution. In 1778, 1779 and 1780, and the four following years, he represented Woburn in the general court. In 1794 he was a candi- date for election to congress, and had all the votes cast in Woburn but one. In 1796, on three trials for the choice of the same officer, he had all the votes for the first two in Woburn, and on the third seventy-four votes out of the seventy-six cast in Woburn. At other elec- tions he was a prominent candidate among those held up in Woburn for the offices of state senator, lieutenant-governor and presi- dential elector.

From his acquaintance with mathematics and the arts and sciences of his time, he was chosen a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to the publications of that body he contributed two papers, entitled, "An account of a Curious Appearance of the Elec- trical Fluid," ( Memoirs Am. Acad. vol. I. 1785. pp. 257-259) ; and "Observations on Electricity and an Improved Mode of Con- structing Lightning Rods," ( Memoirs, vol. 2, pt. 2, 1804. pp. 96-104). The first paper was written in 1783, and the "curious appearance" described was produced by raising an electrical kite at the time of a thunder shower. The experiments, however, were tried in July, 1771. At that time the author mentions that there stood some lofty trees near his house, and also a shop near by it. His parents, family, and neighbors witnessed the "electrical effect" he succeeded in producing. The date of prepar- ing the second article was January 25, 1797. Colonel Baldwin wrote a sketch of Count Rum- ford which was printed in a local publication in 1805. He was also the author of a report on the survey of the Boston and Narragansett Bay Canal, 1806. Of the Academy he was elected a Fellow in 1782, and was a member of the council 1785 to 1796, and from 1798 to 1807. Further, see Cutter, "Local History of Wo- burn," p. 203. He received from Harvard College the degree of Master of Arts in 1785. He was not one, however, who for the sake of popularity would sacrifice his principles of duty to the public, though, as the above votes show, he was deservedly a favorite with his towns- men and fellow citizens generally. Thus he protested with others against the action of the town in 1787 in the time of the Shays Rebellion, when the majority of the citizens of Woburn voted not to give any encouragement to the men called out to go on the present expedition, nor to aid or assist it. But against this pro- ceeding of the town Colonel Baldwin and

thirty-six others at once entered their protest, and two days after, the town itself recon- sidered the votes it had passed on this subject.

He took a prominent part in the construction of the Middlesex Canal, completed in 1803, one of the earliest enterprises of the sort in the United States.

To him the discovery and the introduction to public notice and the earliest cultivation of the Baldwin apple, about 1784, has been justly ascribed. He was one day surveying land at a place called Butters' Row, in Wilmington, near the bounds of that town, Woburn and Burling- ton, when he observed one or more birds of the woodpecker variety flying repeatedly to a certain tree on land of a Mr. James Butters, and prompted by curiosity to ascertain the cause of their attraction, he at length went to it, and found on the ground under it apples of an excellent flavor and well worth cultivating ; and returning to the tree the next spring he took from it scions to graft into stocks of his own. Other persons induced by his advice or example grafted trees of theirs from the same stock ; and subsequently when Colonel Baldwin attended court or went into other parts of the county as high sheriff, he carried scions of this apple and distributed them among his acquaintances, so that this species of fruit soon became extensively known and cultivated. The original tree remained, it is said, till 1815, when it was blown down in the famous "Sep- tember gale." The apple thus became known as the "Baldwin apple."

His name is also associated with that of the celebrated Count Rumford. In childhood they were opposite neighbors, playmates and school- mates. They attended lectures at Harvard College together. Baldwin befriended him when arrested by one of the local military com- panies as a person inimical to the cause of the colonies, and he was tried and acquitted by a court of which Baldwin appears to be one of the members. To the last, though separated by the ocean and political preferences, they were enthusiastic friends and correspondents -- the one was an American officer, and the other an officer in the opposing British forces.

The history of his house, which is still stand- ing at North Woburn, may be told in the fol- lowing words taken from the recorded state- ments of different members of his family at different periods. The house was built in 1661, as appeared by the date on a timber which was lying about the house in 1835. It was owned by Henry (I) Baldwin from 1661 to his death in 1697. He was succeeded by

ii-2

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Henry (2) Baldwin, who latterly went to New Hampshire. Henry (2) was succeeded in ownership by James (3), who died June 28, 1791, and son of Henry (2) ; Loammi, son of James, to 1807, who put on a third story in 1802 or 1803. Benjamin F. Baldwin, son of Loammi, was the owner from 1807 to 1822; Loammi ( second ) and Mary and Clarissa Baldwin were joint owners from 1822 to 1836; and George R. Baldwin, sole owner, from 1836 to his death, October II, 1888. Mrs. Catharine R. Griffith, daughter of George Rum- ford Baldwin, is the present owner, 1888 to 1907. Colonel Loammi Baldwin's estate em- braced from his inventory, which is very lengthy, a very large amount of land, in 1801, according to a town assessor's list, 212 acres. His son Benjamin F. Baldwin occupied his estate from 1807 to about 1822, as above men- tioned.

The selectmen of Boston, at a meeting on April 15, 1772, paid Loammi Baldwin, of Wo- burn, forty dollars, the premium they adjudged to him for raising the greatest number of mul- berry trees in response to an advertisement published in Edes and Gill's Gasette, 1768. The selectmen took a receipt of Baldwin, and also an obligation to dispose of one-half the trees under the conditions mentioned in said adver- tisement. The first premium was awarded to Loammi Baldwin. Under this competition Mr. John Hay, of Woburn, received twenty dollars as the premium adjudged him for raising the third greatest number of mulberry trees. The statement in the advertisement was that a gen- tleman of Boston had deposited one hundred dollars with the selectmen to be distributed as premiums to encourage the raising of mul- berry trees in the province. The conditions of the awards were also given. The name of the donor was William Whitwell.

In accordance with the dignified custom of that time the following notice of Colonel Loammi Baldwin's decease was published in the leading Boston newspaper of that date: "Died-In Woburn, yesterday morning, Hon. Loammi Baldwin, Esq., aet. sixty-two. His funeral on Friday next, which the friends and relatives are requested to attend, without a further invitation."-Columbian Centinel, Oc- tober 21, 1807.

(IV) Reuel Baldwin, son of James, born June 30, 1747; died April 18, 1775; mar- ried October 4, 1769, Keziah, born April 8, 1748, died October 23. 1822, daughter of Zeb- adialı and AAbigail ( Pierce ) Wyman. She mar- ried second, August 5, 1777, Reuben Johnson.

Children : 1. Reuel, born December 21, 1770. 2. James, born October 7, 1773. 3. Ruth, born June 5, 1774. 4. Josiah, born May 14, 1775. The probate of Reuel Baldwin's estate, April 22, 1776, names Keziah, his widow, and his four minor children-Reuel, Ruth, James and Josiah. According to these papers Josiah was dead before 1794. James, born 1773, a deacon, died November 25, 1827, at Nashua, New Hampshire (monument at Little's Cemetery at that place ). Ruth Baldwin married Ichabod Richardson, Jr., both of Woburn, September 21, 179I.

(V) Cyrus Baldwin, son of Loammi, born at Woburn, June 22, 1773; died at Chelms- ford, June 23, 1854; married, April 28, 1799. Elizabeth, born September 5, 1782, died De- cember 7. 1853, daughter of Bradley and Rachel ( Butterfield ) Varnum, of Dracut. He was for many years the agent of the Middlesex Canal Company, and resided at the head of the canal in Chelmsford. He was appointed in- spector and sealer of gunpowder at the factory which was first Hale's and afterwards Whip- ple's, at Lowell. One child, died May 28, 1815.

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Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 119

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848- Publication date: 1910 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 924

Author: Cutter, William Richard, 1847-1918, ed; Adams, William Frederick, 1848-
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 924