USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Needham > History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711-1911 : including West Needham, now the town of Wellesley, to its separation from Needham in 1881, with some reference to its affairs to 1911 > Part 4
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Wellesley > History of Needham, Massachusetts, 1711-1911 : including West Needham, now the town of Wellesley, to its separation from Needham in 1881, with some reference to its affairs to 1911 > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
MILLS
In 1674 Samuel Mills of Dedham conveyed to his son Benjamin twenty acres bounded north on the Charles River, together with two "Cow Comons"; the next year the town of Dedham granted Benjamin a small parcel adjoining. Benjamin was a surveyor of highways in 1702, '07, and on July 2, 1705, was licensed by the selectmen of Dedham to keep a public house at the Lower Falls, although most of the Mills land was at the Upper Falls, and east of the present Central Avenue. Judge Sewall records in his famous diary, under date of July 22, 1712, that he set out for Natick and
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"At Mill's the President meets us.". Benjamin, and his son of the same name, repeatedly received the usual bounty of ten shillings for killing a wolf, and perhaps had the char- acteristics of some of their descendants, who have been "mighty hunters". On May 2, 1704, Jonathan Gay sold to Benjamin Mills, "Miller", fifteen acres at the "Landing Place", near Kendrick's Bridge, and bounded south by Pine Plain. The same day Mr. Gay sold to Samuel Mills for £66 fifty acres of orchard, upland and meadow, with a dwelling house, it being a part of the land said Gay had purchased from Benjamin Mills.
In 1703 Benjamin Mills gave his son Joseph a house and barn with fifty acres near the Charles River, which prop- erty had been given him by his father, Samuel Mills of Dedham, who had died January 7, 1694/5.
In 1704 Benjamin Mills deeded to his son Benjamin fifty acres along the river, and west of the present Kendrick Street.
It is not to be assumed that all the land referred to in these deeds is within the limits of Needham, but most of it is. On this territory dwelt for several generations more than one Mills family descended from Samuel. In 1706 Benjamin Mills, Sr., deeded to his son Joseph certain tracts of land, one of them containing eighty acres, and in 1710/1I he gave him five acres more. In 1706 Benjamin Mills, Jr., and his brother Samuel had quitclaimed to their brother Joseph the land which their grandfather, Samuel, had given to their father, and he in turn to Joseph. In 1708 Benjamin and Joseph sold Samuel five acres for £4. The Benjamin Mills house was considered very old in 1842, and was then the abode of a Woodcock family; it was burned many years since. The William Mills house, taken down by Cyrus G. Upham in 1868, was built as early as 1715, and in October of that year the selectmen laid out a road past it (town records, Vol. I, p. 168). Mr. Kimball described this house in a Lyceum lecture in 1842. It had a gambrel roof, and an
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
enormous beam crossed the top of one room. Mrs. Charles C. Greenwood has a drawing of this ancient building, made in 1861 by Timothy Newell Smith.
On May 2, 1717, Samuel Hunting, "Boatmaker" of Bos- ton, and Hannah, his wife, Samuel, Benjamin, and Mary Frothingham of Boston, sold to Benjamin Mills, Jr., of Needham, for £30, sixteen acres in Natick Dividend, and four acres in other dividends near the Lower Falls, abutting on land of Benjamin Mills, Sr. Benjamin Mills, Jr., died September 10, 1720, in his forty-sixth year, and his inven- tory (£701) included a dwelling-house and land, fulling-mill and shop, one half of a sawmill and of a corn-mill, and also his timber for half a corn-mill. His widow was named Susan. In the old town he was a fence viewer and surveyor of high- ways in 1709, and constable in 1711. The abstracts of a number of Mills deeds, wills and inventories are before the writer, but are of much later date than those quoted. John Mills, son of Benjamin, Jr., is the ancestor of all the Millses now living in Needham, and a few facts as to his estate, which was appraised at £1050, Is., Iod. in 1763, may be of interest. The details in the original papers are quite lengthy, and the inventory is an interesting document. Among other items were "two Pigeon Nets", which recalls the fact that, in his time, wild pigeons were very numerous at cer- tain seasons, and were taken with nets. He had one hundred and sixty acres of land, of which the larger portion was near his home by the river, and was a part of the ancestral estate. In the allotment of dower to his widow, Judith (Fuller), are full descriptions of the real estate, sixty acres of which were near her father's residence. She was to have about thirty acres "With the Wefterly part of said Houfe; the South Scaffold in the barn, and the middle Ten feet Square of ye Cow houfe under the Same, and a priviledge in the Barn floor". With John Fisher she settled the estate, and the children were, - Richard, who had a double portion, Oliver, who apparently was the first Mills to reside in the
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
Fuller-Mills house, Mrs. Judith Shumway, John, Timothy, Nathaniel, Lemuel, Mary, Moses and Adassah; all were minors except the three eldest. John and Timothy were over fourteen years of age, and chose Eleazer Kingsbery as their guardian. Joseph Cheney, Michael Metcalf and Thomas Parker were the appraisers, and Joseph Newell, Michael Metcalf and John Jones made the division of the estate, for which Newell and Metcalf received 5s., 4d. each, for two days' time. John Mills died June 8, 1762, not November 8, as is stated in George Kuhn Clarke's "Wellesley Epi- taphs". Within fifty years a barn, one hundred feet long, stood near the road to the west of the Fuller-Mills house on Great Plain Avenue, the cow yard coming close to the parlor windows. Mrs. Judith Mills, widow of John, was an excel- lent woman, but an invalid for twenty-eight years, and bedridden thirteen years. She died March 18, 1800, aged eighty-one. See Columbian Minerva, Dedham, March 27, 1800. She had ten children, most of whom survived her, and left forty grandchildren, and twenty-four great-grandchil- dren. For sixty-three years she was a member of the First Church in Needham.
In 1771 Benjamin Mills lived near the river, some dis- tance west of Kendrick's Bridge; the land is now owned by the city of Newton. William Mills lived in Hahaton Field, and two or more Mills families near The Hundreds. Robert Jennison "finished" a house for Amos Mills in 1756, and one for Abijah Mills in 1761. In 1771 Oliver Mills lived in the old Fuller-Mills house on Great Plain Avenue, and David Mills and another Mills on South Street. The bridge between Walnut and Wales Streets, at the Lower Falls, is called on the map of 1771 Mills Bridge, but prob- ably took its name from the mills near by, rather than from the Mills family, although it is not far from the site of the tavern kept by Benjamin Mills in 1705. Rufus Mills, a descendant of Lieut. Oliver, was a prominent citizen, and in 1839 kept a store on Central Avenue, in the locality
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known as "Dog Corner". The inventory of Jacob Mills, son of Benjamin, Sr., was made in 1723, and shows that he owned a small homestead, and had been a "Cordwainer".
In 1727 Ebenezer Mills deeded to Isaac Mills fifty-six acres, near the Charles River, and in 1729 William and Su- sannah Bodingham sold to Ebenezer Mills several parcels of land, which had been conveyed to the said Susannah when she was a Trowbridge; 1 sixteen acres of said land had formerly belonged to the grantee. In 1729 Ebenezer Mills sold to Robert Fuller ninety acres, and in 1730 sixty acres, for £140 and £40 respectively. This tract of land is now known as "Home Park", and it was the scene of Mr. Mun- son's enterprise. In 1730 John Woodcock sold to Ebenezer Mills, for £16, thirty acres with dwelling, joining on the east land of Robert Fuller, and near the house of the said Mills.
In 1727 Joseph Mills, before referred to, bought of John and Judith Rice and Nathaniel Tolman eighteen acres presum- ably in the east part of the town. The estate of Joseph Mills was divided in 1746, and his heirs were, - son Joseph of Natick, sons Jonathan and David of Needham, James Boyden and wife Hannah, of Wrentham, and George Mary- field and wife Abigail, of Dorchester. Joseph Mills's wife apparently was not living in 1746, and the division included land given her by her father. In a deed of Joseph Mills to David Mills, 1738, the blacksmith's shop and all pertaining to it were reserved. In 1741, Hannah, wife of Joseph, with his consent, had conveyed to their son Jonathan five acres of meadow near "Horse Plain", which land had been devised to her by her father, Jonathan Gay. Three days later Jonathan Mills deeded this land to his father; it was near the latter's house. Jonathan Mills's inventory, 1747, amounted to £843, 14s., 6d., old tenor, and included the homestead, his right in Samuel Mills's estate, a lot called "hob Hill", gun, sword, two chests, etc.
1 William Bodinham and Susanna Trowbridge, both of Needham, were mar- ried, on March 29, 1728; she was perhaps the widow of Thomas Trowbridge.
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Mrs. Caroline Kilmer wrote that Joseph Mills's house stood where the Heidtke house is on South Street, and that it was burned. Opposite to this house is the cellar hole of another old dwelling, either burned or taken down within the memory of some now living. Mrs. Kilmer also stated that her great-grandfather, David Mills, built the "Bodge House" about 1752. This house is also on South Street, and standing in 19II.
NOTES FROM THE ACCOUNT BOOKS OF WILLIAM MILLS
Mrs. Henry F. May of Needham, who was Clara M. Kingsbury, daughter of Dea. Thomas Kingsbury, has two old account books of her ancestor, William Mills, who was born in 1718. From these books we may learn the names of some of the ministers who preached in Needham after the death of Mr. Townsend, and before Mr. West came. Mr. Mills recorded their texts, and the substance of their dis- courses, or such portions as impressed him. The books also contain records of a considerable number of births and deaths, some of which are not found in the town books. There are various transactions as to cows, sheep and pigs, but the principal charges that Mr. Mills made were for "wefing" (weaving). He had dealings with "docter Wheet" from 1754, or earlier, extending over a series of years. There are charges for "pigins", which were worth in 1755 six shillings for a dozen and a half. Presumably these were wild pigeons captured in nets in July, August and September, the sales being in those months.
The following items are inserted in this book to secure their preservation:
Auguft the 3 1763 enoch mills put his Sholder out and Auguft the 14 | deter pond Set it | Simeon Mills the Son of William Mills and Sarah Mills his wife Dedceaft, | February ye 8th 1765. Simeon mills son to william Mills and Sarah Mills | his wife decefed January ye 28-1772 | August ye 4 1771 mother Whittemore the granmother to thefe Children |
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Septembr ye 30 1780 my wife died in ye 47· yer of her age | Enoch was Born may ye 27 1759: on Sabathday Rhoda mills Born one frida January ye 2 : | 1761ºnfrida Simeon mills Born auguft ye 18. 1762- | Sarah mills Born may ye 30 1764 wendsday Jemima mills Born march ye 10 1766 born on Monday | Charlotte mills Born may ye 19 1768 one thurfday 7 | Simeon mills Born June ye 13 1770- Leui mills Born october ye 7. oclock morning | 1772 on Wednsday on Wednsday (sic) The record of Levi's birth is repeated, and states that he was born in the "morning about 8 oclock". |
october ye 31. 1772 I was greueresly hurt by my Cart the oxen rining | away with me | Jermiah eaton married febuary 28 1751 |
May the 24: 1743- James mills Born m 24 | march the 16 : 1745 James mills died | January the 20 . 1745 moses mills Born febuary the I . moses mills died- | 1745 God hath Remoued two derly beloued Childirns from me The | Lord fanctfie this his hand unto us for good | October ye 15 . 174I then ware we married William mills and hannah mills | July The Sixteenteth William mills july 16. Wm Born 1746 | November : 5: 1718 William mills Jieuner Born hannah mills born July 5 1721 | october 15: 1741 then ware we married hannah and william Mills | The Berth of my mother waf In ye yer 1691 who was the Dafter of | Ebenezer ware [rest of this entry illegible]. | December ye 31- 1736 Sarah Whittemore Born July ye. 5 1758 then were | we marrid May ye 19 : 1768 Charlotte mills Bornon thesday mornen | about I [or 7}] oclock Simeon mills born June ye 13: on wensday morn- | en 1770- | January ye 28 1770 Simeon mills died bein Spult the day before | [Several of the foregoing entries are repeated later in the same book, apparently in the same hand-writing.] hannah Mills born June the 3 1748 James mills Born the 22:1 January
1 The entry "the 22:" is written over the word "Born," and it is not clear whether it is a correction of "ye 30," or not.
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THE HISTORY OF NEEDHAM
ye | 30 1750 Esther Mills Born December ye 10- 1752 | Enoch mills - Born May the 27 - 1759 one Sabath day |
[The record of the births of Rhoda, Simeon and Sarah Mills is repeated, and it is stated that Simeon was born on "Wendse", and Sarah on "Election day".] hannah mills mard to David Richards on Sept the 13 : 1778. | Eulaha eton born july the : 21 : 1763- |
auguft 14. 1754 wheet this yer for to bait pigins is one and
bufhel-h 2. 12-6 | december . 29 1748 then Caime the firft Snow that was Come. | december 3: 1747 then Came the firft fnow that was depe and uery ted- [ ious a uery hard winter it was in deed | November ye 21: 1772 thanksgiuen day the weeke before thanksgiuen my fon | william mills Caime down from warwick to borde at my houfe and to worke | for himselfe and I gaue him Cole wood about fifteen Cord and 2 lode of | wood to Cart down to bofton | my fon fet of to warwick Apriel ye 13- 1772 | July the -8 - 1757 - on friday about a quater after 2 oclok there was | a ConCid- rabel earthquake it femed for to come from the eft and to | go of west there was a Ueri high Wind at that ueri inst | January ye 10 1750 one goine to bofton to tend Cort and one January ye | 22 one iorny and one the 23 : 3. 00 of this was for to taind | Cort before the gouner and Counsel | In the yer 1750 in January the 23 their was a most teribl: and dis | trefing ftorme of Raine and wind which Blew down buldings Chimbles | and barns Multituds of trees and meiger Sheep and Much wounded | march 4 and 5 day Ueri grait ftorm of fnow | Nouember the 15. 1756 at 2 of the Clok at night their was a Concirabel | earth quake it [illegible] and windors it Caime from the foweft and we | [illegible] weare in formd that it was tereribel at Lisbon
MORSE
Samuel Morse, son of Daniel of Sherborn, and grandson of Samuel Morse of Dedham, is said to have settled in Need- ham Leg, as it was later called, in 1704, and to have been
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the pioneer there. His first dwelling was near the residence of John W. Walcott, and south of the Wight place, accord- ing to Horace Mann. Robert Jennison "finished" a house for Samuel Morse in 1745. The original houses in this region were rude, and some of them remained unfinished for many years; those standing in modern times were built later than the first settlement. The lands in "The Leg" were considered the best in Needham.
NEWELL
Josiah Newell, son of Isaac Newell of Roxbury, was taxed in Needham in 1712, and he and his descendants were prom- inent here. They owned upward of two hundred acres, some of it in Broad Meadow, but most of it in the south part of the town near the river. The oldest Newell house was standing seventy-five years ago in Charles H. W. Foster's field, near the hill, west of Central Avenue and south of Charles River Street. Josiah Newell died May 8, 1759, aged seventy-nine years, according to his gravestone, but the Church records give the date of his death as May 14th. His son, Dea. Josiah Newell, also known as "Squire" Newell, died December 13, 1792, aged eighty-four years, and the latter's son, Capt. Josiah Newell, died in 1812. In 1771 Dea. Josiah Newell lived where does Nathaniel Wales,1 and Timothy Newell had his home on the "Griggs Place" on South Street. Frederick Haynes Newell, director of the United States Reclamation Service, is of the Needham family, and has shown interest in this history. Josiah Newell, from whom the bridge takes its name, was a manu- facturer living on the Dover side in the early part of the last century, and his hall, known both as Noanet Hall and Newell's Hall, was not far from the river, on land later owned by Mrs. Shepard. This hall witnessed many festive
1 The house owned and occupied for many years by Mr. Wales was built soon after 1830 by Jabez Smith.
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gatherings, besides religious services, and the meetings of various societies, including the lyceum.
OCKINTON
Matthias Ockinton had the following grants from the Proprietors of Dedham, - two acres "neer Rosemary Plaine Pond", some land in "Burch Medow", twelve acres of upland and swamp, and also a tract "neer the Sloughs on the north side of the way that that leads from the great plain to Dewings". In addition he had a grant of five acres "neer North Hill", which strip of land now forms the easterly portion of the Clarke estate on Nehoiden Street. Matthias died suddenly January 10, 1754, N. S. In 1745 William Ockinton mortgaged to Nicholas Salisbury of Boston, "Shop-keeper", thirty acres of land on the Great Plain which Ockinton had purchased of Thomas Keighly in 1742. The mortgage also included six acres in Broad Meadow which had formerly belonged to Thomas Fisher. Mrs. Ockinton's name was Hannah. In 1757 Josiah Newell was the guardian of David Ockinton, aged fourteen, and of Susannah Ockinton, both children of Thomas Ockinton, "Husbandman," who had died suddenly April 10, 1756.
ORGILL
In 1716 Joseph Cummins, late of Needham, "House- wright", sold to Richard "Orgels", "taylor", and wife Sarah, thirty acres, with houses, barns, etc., in the Dividend on the north side of "Sherbourn" road, for £30; Lydia was the name of Mrs. Cummins. The Orgill family had twenty acres where Mrs. Henry F. Durant's house now stands, and in 1742 Richard Orgill bought of Jonathan Smith forty-five acres abutting on the road to Gay's Farm (the School Farm) northwest, and also bounding on land lately purchased by Robert Cook of Deacon Fairbanks and of the Whitings of Dedham, land of Hezekiah Broad south, land of Orgill's southeast.
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PAINE
John Paine was an early inhabitant of Dedham, and was a fence viewer in 1702, '06-08, and surveyor of highways in 1704. In 1727 John Paine sold to William Bodingham eleven acres in the east part of Needham, for £20, and the same year he sold him other land for £30. This land was in the Upper Falls region and west of Central Avenue. The in- ventory of John Paine, 1756, amounted to £370, 16s., 3d., and included land and buildings, "Books & Armor" £I, 16s., 3d., "Pewter Dishes & Brass Kettles" £3, 7s., 9d. Ruth Paine and John Wilson settled the estate. John Payn died November 29, 1753, and another John Payn May 14, 1756. Within the memory of aged people there was an ancient Paine homestead where the Glancy family now live on Great Plain Avenue, near the Causeway. The Blackinton family once occupied the house, which in 1842 was a ruin, but was the home of George Kingsbury. Othniel Blackinton of Dedham married Anna Payn of Needham February 19, 1794. Ephraim Pain married May 24, 1770, Anne Mills, daughter of David Mills, and lived in the house on South Street lately owned by Samuel Forsyth. This house is one of the oldest in Needham, and on the earlier maps the hill is called "Paine's Hill". Ephraim's inventory, dated March 22, 1803, accounts for seventy-one acres of land, with build- ings, of which land about fifteen acres were on the south side of South Street. Anna Paine, the widow, and Isaac Shep- herd settled the estate.
PARKER
John Parker was a surveyor of highways in Dedham in 1704, and was a witness to deeds that year.
The Parker family were for generations owners of land in "The Hundreds", and in the Natick Dividend, and Horace Mann stated that he had evidence that carried their title back to 1699. The farm where the old Methodist Meeting-
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house serves as a dwelling is certainly an ancient Parker homestead. Jonathan Parker's inventory, dated 1720, refers to the homestead, land on both sides of the "way", and mentions his gun, sword and "Banderleros". Deliverance Parker settled his estate, which amounted to £298, os., 4d. John Parker's inventory, also dated 1720, amounted to £427, 2s., Id., and his widow, Hannah, was his administra- trix. Capt. Robert Cook was one of the appraisers of the estate, and the guardian of a minor son, Thomas Parker. The real estate was valued at £380, and firearms at fI. In 1724 John Smith, Jonathan Smith and John Woodcock reported that the estate of John Parker could not be divided, and after an appraisal by Joseph Hawes, Lieut. Thomas Metcalf and Andrew Dewing, William Parker, the second of the sons, took the land and agreed to pay £62, IOs. each to the other heirs, or their guardians, namely, - Hannah Ware, Mary Smith, Joseph Parker, Sarah Parker and Thomas Parker. The eldest son, John, had already had his portion. In 1742 the estate of John Parker, Ebenezer Parker ad- ministrator, was appraised at £1693, old tenor, as follows: land £1020, buildings £280, personal £393, 4s., 6d. In 1745 Henry Hooker of Sturbridge and Mary, his wife, sold to John Parker of Needham, "Husbandman", for £15, all their interest in the estate of "our father" John Parker, deceased.
In 1688 Samuel Parker of New Cambridge bought of Timothy Dwight of Dedham twenty acres on the south side of the Charles River near "the Falls". In 1726/7 Jabez Parker conveyed to his brother Samuel, both of Needham, all the real estate left to the said Jabez by the will of his father, Samuel. In 1735/6 Josiah Smith of Dedham and Mary, his wife, sold to Samuel Parker of Needham, "Cooper", twenty-five acres in the north part of Needham, near the Charles River, for £200 in passable bills of credit. Appar- ently, this land was between the Upper and the Lower Falls. The acknowledgment was before John Fisher, whose
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name appears, as that of the Justice of the Peace, in many deeds. The previous November Parker had paid William Mills £200 for ten acres near the Upper Falls, and to the west of the present Central Avenue. This parcel joined Parker's own land, and the deed contained these words, "I don't sell the highway lying by Wm Alden's Field". Mr. Parker bought other land of Mills. In 1744 he mort- gaged to John Trail of Boston his home place of sixty-five acres, which was west of the land bought of Smith, and bounded on the northeast by the Charles River, and also mortgaged twenty-five acres which he purchased of William Mills. The consideration was two hundred and sixty-two ounces ten penny weight, troy weight of coined silver ster- ling alloy. In 1745 Parker mortgaged to Benjamin Bird his homestead on the Charles River, one hundred and six acres, beside thirty acres of plowland and woodland on the road from the Lower Falls to Dedham, for fifteen hundred ounces of coined silver. In 1743 Jonathan Willard of Newton, "Blacksmith," sold to Samuel Parker of Needham ten acres bounded north and west on Parker's land, for £300. Lydia Willard was a witness. This transaction illustrates the depreciation of the currency at this period.
In 1728 Benjamin Parker was appointed administrator of the estate of Isaac Parker, appraised at £100, 16s.
PRATT
The Pratts of Newton, Needham and Weston are descend- ants of Phinehas Pratt, one of the pioneers of Massachusetts.
In 1713 Edward Bromfield of Boston sold to Daniel Pratt of Needham, for £50, two hundred acres of woodland bounded northerly on "Westown", and southerly on Sher- born road and land of John Huntting; part of this land was sold by Mr. Pratt to Stephen Huntting in 1737. In the inventory of Daniel Pratt, 1750, is this item, - "Books & Armour 17., 1", total £324, 14s., Iod., of which the real
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estate represented over £254. Daniel died February 17, 1749/50, and his widow, Deborah, died in the night of January 11/12, 1758.
The Pratt Farm, at the Lower Falls, was owned by Charles Rice prior to 1828, and then included about one hundred and twenty acres. Capt. Samuel Pratt either gave the name to Pratt's Bridge, often called Capt. Pratt's Bridge, or at least strengthened the use of that name.
RICE
John Rice was a fence viewer in Dedham 1694, '97-1700, '02, '06, surveyor of highways in 1700, '01, '09, '10, and field driver in 1704. In 1701 he and his wife, Elizabeth, conveyed to Josiah Kingsbery an acre of meadow, adjacent to Strife Meadow Brook, for forty shillings, and on the same page of the Suffolk Deeds, Lib. 24, fol. 248, are recorded the deposi- tions of John Woodcock and Eleazer Kingsbery, Jr., in reference to this meadow. John Rice made his will on Jan- uary 30, 1739/40, and gave his wife his household effects, his daughter Elizabeth £40, old tenor, "my Warming pan and pewter platter", and a life right in his house, to his daughter Mary Hartwell he gave £20, to daughter Sarah Gill £30, to granddaughter "Jamima" Tolman £40, to grandson Nathaniel Tolman his land and buildings in Need- ham, and rights to land in Dedham, and also his tools. This grandson was to pay the legacies. Ebenezer Skinner and Nathaniel Tolman were the executors. In 1742 Judith Rice, "Spinster", sold for £17 to David Mills four acres of upland in the Broad Meadow, which land she owned in com- mon with the heirs of Nathaniel Tolman and those "of my late husband John Rice". The deed was acknowledged before Jeremiah Fisher of Needham, a well-known Justice of the Peace. In 1744 Robert Jennison had "finished" a house for John Rice. "The Aged Widow Judith Rice" died September 27, 1750.
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