Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. II, Part 100

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 732

USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. II > Part 100

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UBLIC LIBRARY

This, A. Hills,

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(1906) still enjoys his health and faculties unim- paired. In politics he is a Republican. He has served the town as an overseer of the poor for a period of thirty-two years and has been chairman during most of that time. He has been on the school committee, was clerk of his district, was highway surveyor for several years. He has been one of the most faithful and honored of Uxbridge citizens. He is a Congregationalist in religion.

He married, October 30, 1845, Sophronia Stod- dard, of North Uxbridge, Massachusetts, daughter of Lott Stoddard, of Medway, Massachusetts. Their children: 1. Charles Edmund, born May 11, 1847, married, November 9, 1868, Sarah E. Alexander, and had Mabel A., born November 7, 1869, married, November 7, 1894, Warren H. Stevens; their chil- dren-Chester Crocker Stevens, born October 17, 1898; Wesley Warren Stevens, born December 16, 1901; Miriam Hoxsie Stevens, born May 27, 1904, died October 7, 1904; Lloyd Edmund Stevens, born February II, 1906. 2. George Albert, born January 4, 1849, station agent of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company at Uxbridge for more than twenty years; married Jennie B. Sea- grave, daughter of Lawson Seagrave, and had Net- tie, born July 29, 1873, married Silas Taft ( ste sketch of Silas faft) ; their children-Gladys C., and Cur- tis George Taft. 3. Clara M., born June 14, 1856. married, May 1, 1879, Rev. George H. Johnson, now residing in Taunton, Massachusetts; their children- Bertha Louise Johnson, born February 6, 1881, grad- nate of Smith College, teacher in the public schools of Taunton; Lucia Belle Johnson, born November 8, 1883, graduate of Smith College, now tutor in Kentucky; Marian Christine Johnson, born August 15, 1887, student of Simons College; Helen Georgia Johnson, born June 16, 1890; Ruth Alice Johnson, born September 20, 1892; Margaret Hilda Johnson, born November 3, 1893.

THOMAS A. HILLS. Joseph Hills (1), was the emigrant ancestor of Thomas A. Hills, of Leon- inster, Massachusetts. He was born at Great Bur- stead, Billericay, Essex county, England. His father was George Hills and his mother Mary. She was twice married; her first husband was William Symonds.

Joseph Hills married, July 22, 1624, at Great Burstead, Rose Clarke. They removed with several children to Maldon in Essex where John, Steven and Sarah were born. In 1638 he became a stockholder or "undertaker" in the ship "Susan and Ellen," in which he sailed with his family for Boston arriv- ing there July 17, 1638. He settled at Charlestown, Massachusetts. În 1644 he was a selectman of that town, in 1646 was in the general court and next year was elected speaker. He lived on the Mystic side of Charlestown in the part that became Malden, which was named from Mr. Hills' old home in England. He was captain of the trainband. He represented Malden first in the general court and served continuously in that position until 1664, when he removed to Newbury. It is of interest to note that John Waite who succeeded him was repre- sentative for nineteen years and that he was his son-in-law.

In 1645 he was of a committee to set out lots to the settlers of the Nashaway plantation. In 1650 he was on the committee headed by the governor to draw up instructions for the Massachusetts dele- gates to a gathering where commissioners of all the colonies were to meet. In 1654, with Captains Hawthorne and Johnson and the treasurer of the colony, he served on a committee to frame a reply

to the home government which had demanded an explanation for certain acts. fle was an auditor of treasury accounts in 1050-53-61. One of his most important public services was on the committee to codity the laws of the colony in 1048 and later. He made this first code in his own handwriting and supervised the printing. In part payment for this work he received a grant of five hundred acres of land on the Nashua river in New Hampshire and remission of taxes in his old age.

His wife Rose, whom he married in England be- fore he came to America, died in Malden, March 24, 1650. He married ( second), June 24, 1051, Han- nah Smith, widow of Edward Mellows. She died about 1055. His third marriage in January, 1056. to Helen (Ellina or Eleanor ) Atkinson, daughter of Hugh Atkinson, of Kendall, Westmoreland, Eng- land, was attended with some unusual circumstances. In those days clergymen were not allowed to solemn- ize marriages. All marriages were performed by imagistrates. In 1641 Governor Bellingham raised a storm of controversy in the colony by acting as magistrate at his own wedding. He married him- selt to a pretty Penelope Pelham. Public opinion was divided. Some sided with the governor in his curious interpretation of the law, but more did not. When the governor was called upon to come down from the bench and plead to a complaint against him for what his opponents charged as an illegal act, he refused and it was left for joseph Hills some years later to put the law to a real test. He mar- ried himself to Miss Atkinson, acting both as mag- istrate and bride groom. He was called to account by the authorities. He "was admomished for marry- ing himself contrary to the law of this colony, page 38 in the old Booke" and, in the language of the General Court, "he freely acknowledged his of- fence therein and his misunderstanding the grounds whereon he went which he now confesseth to be unwarrantable-and was admonished by the Court."

Itis third wife died January 6, 1063, and he married, March 8, 1665, at Newbury, Massachusetts, Anne Lunt, widow of Henry Lunt, and lived at her house in Newbury the remainder of his life. She was born about 1621 probably in England. His note book containing business memoranda from 1627 to nearly the end of his life is in the possession of the New England Historic-Genealogic Society. He became totally blind in 1678. He died at Newbury, February 5, 1688, aged about eighty-six years.

He was the father of sixteen children, eleven by his first wife, three by his second and two by his third. The children were: Mary, baptized at Great Burstead, England, November 13, 1625, died at Malden, November 25, 1674; Elizabeth, baptized at Great Burstead, October 21, 1627; Joseph, baptized at Great Burstead, August 2, 1629, died young ; James, baptized at Great Burstead, March 6, 1631, died young ; John, baptized at Great Burstead, March 21, 1632, died at Malden, July 28, 1652; Rebecca, baptized at Maldon, England, April 20, 1634, died at Malden, Massachusetts, June 16, 1674; Steven, bap- tized at Maldon, England, May 1, 1636, died at Maldon before 1638; Sarah, baptized at Maldon, England, August 14, 1637, died at Maldon, England, same day; Gershom, born at Charlestown, Massa- chusetts, July 27, 1639, died at Malden, Massachu- setts, 1710 to 1720; Mehitable, born at Malden, Massachusetts, January 1, 1641, died at Malden, Massachusetts, July, 1652; Samuel, born at Malden, Massachusetts, July, 1652, of whom later ; Nathaniel, horn at Malden, Massachusetts, December 19, 1653, died at Malden, 1664; Hannah, born at Malden, Massachusetts; Deborah, born at Malden, Massa-

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chusetts. March, 1657, died at Malden, Oct. 1, 1662; Abigail, born at Malden, Massachusetts, October 6, 1658, died at Malden, October 9, 1662.

(II) Samuel Hills, son of Joseph Hills (1), was born in Malden, Massachusetts, July, 1652, died at Newbury, Massachusetts, August 18, 1732. He was a sergeant in the Indian wars and was in the bat- tles of Bloody Brook, September 18, 1675, and at Narragansett, December 19, 1675. He married at Newbury, Massachusetts, May 20, 1679, Abigail Wheeler, daughter of David and Sarah ( Wise) Wheeler, of Newbury. David was a son of John Wheeler, who was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, in 1625, and came to New England in the "Confidence" in 1638. He married Sarah Wise, May II, 1650. Abigail Hills died April 13, 1742. Their children were: Samuel, born February 16, 1680, died at Rehoboth, July 27, 1732; Joseph, born July 21, 1681, died at Newbury, Massachusetts, No- vember 6, 1745; Nathaniel, February 9, 1683, died at Hudson, New Hampshire, April 12, 1748; Benjamin, October 16, 1684, died at Chester, New Hampshire, November 3, 1762; Abigail, born

September 2. 1686, died at Newbury, Massachu- setts, August 11, 1688; Henry, April 23, 1688,

died at Hudson, New Hampshire, August 20, 1757; William, October 8, 1689, died at Newbury, Massachusetts, before January 20, 1724; Josiah, July 27, 1691, died at Newbury, Massachusetts, April 26, 1726; John, September 20, 1693, died after 1734; Abigail, June 27, 1695; James and Hannah (twins), February 26, 1697; Daniel, December 8, 1700, removed from Nottingham West to Halifax Nova Scotia, about 1754; Smith, April 10, 1706, of whom later.

(III) Smith Hills, son of Samuel Hills (2), was born at Newbury, Massachusetts, April 10, 1706, died at Leominster, Massachusetts, August 23, 1786. He married (first) at Newbury, October 14, 1730, Mary Sawyer, daughter of Samuel and Abigail (Goodrich) Sawyer. Samuel Sawyer was the son of Samuel and Mary (Emery) Sawyer, and grand- son of William Sawyer, who came from England. Mrs. Hills was born at Newbury, Massachusetts, October 3, 1712, died at Newbury, July 24, 1744. He married (second) (published January 12, 1745, in Newbury) Rachel Lowe, daughter of Nathaniel and Abigail (Riggs) Lowe, of Ipswich, Massachu- setts. She was born November 29, 1725, died at Leominster, Massachusetts, June 1, 1819. He had twenty children, seven by the first wife, thirteen by the second. All but the last four were born at Newbury; they were born at Leominster where Smith Hills was one of the early settlers. His children were: Abigail. born October 27. 1731; Judith, June 4, 1733. married Isaac Foster; Mary or Molly, July 31, 1735, died December 26, 1805; Hannah, October 31, 1737, married - Bartlett ;. Samuel, October 1, 1739; an infant; Martha, May 19, 1743; Nathaniel, June 4. 1745, died in West New- bury, September 29, 1832; Ruth, September 13, 1747, died August 26, 1803; Rebecca, October 25, 1749, died young; Obediah, Newbury, August 23, 1751, died at Rowley. Massachusetts, June 22, 1825: Rachel, November 10, 1753; John, born May 2, 1756; Rebecca and Silas (twins), born July 14. 1758: Silas, probably died young: Silas, born September 4, 1760, died January 8, 1855: Smith, Leominster. September 30, 1763, died at Leominster. September 29, 1816; Huldah, February 1, 1766, died at Leom- inster, August 20, 1851; Judith, 1768, died at Leom- inster. March 15. 1851; Betsey, died May 31. 1799. (IV) John Hills, son of Smith Hills (3), was born in Newbury, Massachusetts, May 2, 1756. His parents moved to Leominster, Massachusetts, when

he was five or six years of age and he went to school and spent his boyhood in Leominster. He was a farmer. He married Sarah White, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah (House) White. She was born at Leominster, February 20, 1757, died at Leom- inster, March 4, 1812. Their children were: John, born at Leominster, 1779, died March 22, 1842; Sally, February 16, 1782, died March 9, 1827; Thomas, born at Leominster, April 8, 1784, of whom later.

(V) Captain Thomas Hills, son of John Hills (4), was born at Leominster, Massachusetts, April 8, 1784, died April 2, 1851. He was educated in the. Leominster schools. When a young man he began the business of comb manufacturing and continued through life with great success this business. He was a man of great energy and wonderful capac- ity for hard work. He won a position of importance in the community not only for his business ability but for his personal character. He married (first), at Leominster, February 11, 1812, Polly, daughter of Deacon John and Sarah (Richardson) Buss. She was born March 18, 1788, and died September 12, 1836. He married (second) Nancy Colburn, born May 3, 1804, daughter of Elijah Colburn, March 4. 1838. The children, all by the second wife, were: Josephine A., born December 19, 1838; Thomas A., September 15, 1840; Charles W., August 9, 1847.

(VI) Thomas A. Hillis, son of Captain Thomas Hills (5), was born at Leominster, Massachusetts,. September 15, 1840. He attended the Leominster schools and was fond of books. He began his busi- ness life as clerk in a grocery store. He left the grocery business during the civil war to serve his country. He first enlisted in Company C, Fifty-third Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, for nine months. In 1864 he enlisted again as sergeant in Company E, Fifth Massachusetts Volunteers, and re- mained in the service until the end of the war. In 1865 he went into the grocery business on his own account and continued for nine years.

He was appointed postmaster of Leominster in 1874 and then retired from the grocery business. He has retained his position as postmaster through all the vicissitudes of politics since his first appoint- ment. Very general satisfaction is expressed by the patrons of the Leominster postoffice with his ad- ministration of affairs. The business of this office has grown from modest proportions until now it ranks among the best second class postoffices of Massachusetts, Few men have been in public office as long as he, and few have won the hearts of the people more thoroughly. Mr. Hills is known not only in Leominster but all over the state. He is a Republican and always ready to serve his party in any good cause. He has for many years served the town as auditor. He is an Odd Fellow, and is a prominent member of the Grand Army Post of his native town, and was commander of the Charles H. Stevens Post, No. 53. of Leominster, Massachu- setts, 1887 and 1888. He and his family attend the Unitarian Church at Leominster.

He married, June 26, 1866, Clara B. Polley, daughter of Alvin M. Polley, a respected citizen of Leominster. Their children are: Mabel C., died young; Helen M., married J. Ward Healey, a ris- ing young lawyer of Leominster; Ethel C., and Edith C. (twins). died in infancy.

JAMES HORACE BULLARD. Robert Bullard (I), the immigrant ancestor of James Horace Bul- lard, of Holden, is the progenitor of most of the Worcester county families bearing this surname. He was born in England in 1599 and died in Water- town a few years after he came over, June 24, 1639.

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His widow Anne married (second) Henry Thorpe. She had a grant of land in 1644 in Watertown, while widow of Robert Bullard. Henry Thorpe was a proprietor of Watertown. He sold land about 1642 on the Cambridge side of the line. When he married Anne, widow of Robert Bullard, he gave a bond, November 25, 1639, that he would not alien- ate any of the estate then in her possession and consented to a deed that she made to her son, Benjamin Bullard, and his sisters. The bond was made before John Simpson and witnessed by Will- iam Bullard. Thorpe died May 21, 1672, and her children inherited his estate. The son, Benjamin Bullard, then of Bogistow, sold the house in Water- town after Thorpe's death to Justinian Holden, of Cambridge, October 3, 1673. The place was lately occupied by the Thorpes. There were eighty acres of land and other parcels. His wife Martha also released her dower rights in the estate. Before Thorpe died he and his wife Anne sold some of the Bullard land "for relief from necessity" October 15, 1660, three and a half acres by Fresh Pond, and Benjamin Bullard quitclaimed his rights "from his mother" in the property, viz .: her dower rights as widow of his father. As the family genealogy of the Bullard family gave Benjamin Bullard's father as Benjamin instead of Robert, it is important to show that the evidence of the relation is incontro- vertible. Morse says that the names Bullard and Bulwer are probably the same. The family is not very numerous and seems never to have been very prominent, but few of the Puritans have had more numerous or distinguished posterity than this Ro- bert Bullard who died almost unknown, a young man, soon after his new home was established in this country. If Benjamin Bullard drew land, as Morse asserts, in Watertown in 1637, he could not have been the son of Robert-he was a young child, but it is possible that Benjamin Bullard was the father of Robert, and also of George, who was a freeholder in Watertown in 1637 and died June, 1680, aged eighty-one, apparently born the same year as Robert. John Bullard, of Dedham, Isaac Bullard, of Dedham, Nathaniel Bullard, of Dedham, and William Bullard, of Watertown and Dedham, were all about the same age, nearly enough to be broth- ers, and it is a reasonable assumption that they also were brothers or closely related. The children of Robert and Anne Bullard were: Benjamin, see forward, and probably two daughters. A sister of Benjamin is mentioned in the records of 1672.

(II) Benjamin Bullard, only son of Robert Bullard (I), was born probably in England, 1634. He was about five years old when his father died and was taken by one of his uncles at Dedham, where his name appears on the records about the time he came of age and where he seemed to have formed such connections as usually preceded a long and youthful acquaintance. He was admitted a townsman at Dedham, January 1, 1655-56, implying previous residence on probation, good moral char- acter and the age of twenty-one. When he struck out for himself it was to settle in the wilderness at Boggestow or Bogistow, later Sherborn, some twenty miles from Dedham. He joined hands with George Fairbanks, son of the immigrant Jonathan, a sketch of both of whom will be found in this work, and bought the southern half or third of a tract of land belonging to the heirs of Robert Kayne, of Boston, to whom had been granted in 1649, one thousand and seventy-four acres at Pawsett Hill, which is now partly in Sherborn, partly in Millis. Captain Kayne died March 23, 1655-56. Hill and Breck, two brothers-in-law, purchased at the same time another part and these four constituted the sec-

ond company who settled west of Charles river. They are known to have been there prior to Feb- ruary 2, 1658, when the first child was born in what is now Sherborn. Fairbanks and Bullard di- vided their lands so as to give each other scattered lots and secure sites for building near each other. Bullard took the north and southwest parts and lo- cated his dwelling on the north side of Bogistow pond, near a copious and still valuable spring.

"The situation was admirably chosen for the capture of game, the rearing of stock and for secur- ity against surprise from hostile Indians. The scenery was such as a man of taste would have chosen. It is still both beautiful and sublime. From his door he could survey the Broad meadows, a wet prairie of five miles in extent, through which Charles river meanders, and which in vernal and autumnal seasons is converted into a lake. Hills beyond covered with towering pines, then appeared mountains, while the soil beneath, lifted by roots above its present level, concealed the hideous bould- ers which in consequence of their decay, the ab- sence of protecting humus and leaves, and the action of deeper and more frequent frosts, have since risen to the surface and occasioned an inconsiderate im- peachment of the judgment and taste of many an early planter," wrote Rev. Abner Morse. "His land was then arable and rich. But his was a frontier location, cut off by river and marsh, and a distance of four miles from the nearest settlement at Med- field. His prospects and life were in danger. He found Wood, Leland and Holbrook, settled from one to two miles north and was joined by Rockwood and Daniels within one mile south, making with Hill and Breek, one third of a mile north, and Fairbank hard by on the southwest, a settlement of nine fami- lies to be defended by themselves. They selected for the site of their garrison the north bank of Bogistow pond, having long wet prairies on the east and northwest, and they prepared to live in a state of warfare the remainder of their lives. They built for a garrison house a spacious and regular fortress, superior to any similar structure on the frontier. It was sixty-five or seventy feet long, two stories high, all of faced stone brought over ice from a quarry one mile distant on the northwest and laid in work- manlike manner clay mortar. It had a double row of port-holes on all sides, lined with white oak plank and flaring inward, so as to require none to expose himself before them, while the besieged, by taking cross aims could direct their fire to every point of the compass. The fortress was lighted and entered from the south, overlooking the pond where the bank was so low that assailants from that quarter in levelling at the high windows would only lodge bullets in a plank chamber floor or among the furniture of the garret. The upper story was ap- propriated for the women and children and had a room partitioned off for the sick. To this place of security our ancestors for more than two generations were accustomed to flee in times of alarm and here no small number of their children were born. In this fort they were once besieged by a host of King Philip's warriors, who, in despair of other means, attempted to fire the building by running down the declivity above it a cart of burning flax. Arrested in its descent by a rock still to be seen, and an Indian who had run down to start it having been killed, a retreat was sounded and the lives of our ancestors saved." The walls of this edifice were carefully preserved by the descendants of Benjamin Bullard until 1785, when the proprietor sold out to a vandal who demolished them. The farm has changed hands several times since, though it is known as the Mason place. The site of the fort,

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however, is but a few rods from the line of the present Bullard farm, part of the original grant, now occupied by John S. Bullard. That part of the farm has never been surveyed or deeded, and the present owner is a direct lineal descendant of the first settler, all the owners successively having been Bullards in the direct male line. No similar in- stance is known. Mr. Bullard has two sons and two grandsons living on the farm, and the succession seems safe for the next half century or more.

In 1662 Benjamin Bullard signed the first peti- tion for the incorporation of a town. In 1674 he signed a second petition for the incorporation of Sherborn, when their prayer was granted and he with twelve other petitioners and twenty more of such as they might consent to receive as inhabitants, constituted a proprie- tor of lands, now composing Sherborn, Holliston and large districts of Framingham and Ashland. Bullard was active in town and church. He was one of six brethren to constitute the church at its formation, He was tithingman in 1680, selectman in 1688 and served on the committee to seat the meeting house.

The Indian claim to lands granted at Sherborn prior to the incorporation of the town not having been extinguished by the original grantees, Bullard united with nine other owners of these grants and for twenty pounds paid to seven natives as princi- pals and empowered by "the natural descendants of the ancient inhabitants and proprietors of the lands in and about Sherborn" procured, June 12, 1682, quitclaim to four thousand acres. These included his farm of one hundred and fifty acres, and in 1686 he was rated with forty proprietors and inhabitants of Sherborn to raise an equal amount to extinguish the Indian claim to the remainder of ten thousand acres included in the township. He was rated among the highest and, this rate having been early adopted as the rule whereby the common lands should be apportioned, he and his heirs drew large shares and became the owners of much land.

He died intestate September 27, 1689, and ad- ministration was granted to his son Samuel and Sarah Bullard. His personal estate was appraised November 28, 1689, by John Harding and Joseph Bullard at two hundred and thirty-five pounds, six- teen shillings, and from another inventory he seems to have left a good property in stock and lands. His Bible is in the possession of a descendant, Mrs. Charles Nutt, Worcester, Massachusetts. Doubtless many of his things are still to be found on the old homestead and among his descendants. The ancient Bullard farm on Bogistow brook. South Sherborn and Millis, the Bullard farms in the south and west parts of Sherborn and the north and west of Holliston were inherited by his sons. His grave, unmarked, is in the little graveyard near the farm, in the centre of which is now a pasture on a knoll overlooking the river. Here the founders of Sher- born were buried.

Benjamin Bullard married (first). April 5, 1659, at Dedham, Martha Pidge. She was born in Rox- bury, January 12. 1642, daughter of Thomas and Mary Pidge. He married (second) Elizabeth Thorpe, 1677. She was the daughter of Henry Thorpe, Bullard's stepfather. Children of Benjamin and Martha Bullard were: Elizabeth; Mary, born September 14, 1663, died July 31, 1666; Hon. Samuel born December 26, 1667, married Deborah Ather- ton : Benjamin, born March 1, 1670, died 1766; mar- ried Tabitha -; Hannah, born August 6, 1672, married. May 30. 1692, William Sheffield ; Lieutenant Eleazer, born June 27, 1676, married Widow Sarah Leland, 1704. settled in Medfield; died without issue.

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Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester county, Massachusetts, with a history of Worcester society of antiquity, Vol. II, Part 100

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 732

Author: Crane, Ellery Bicknell, 1836-1925, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 732