USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Milton > The history of Milton, Mass., 1640 to 1877 > Part 12
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MILE-STONES.
Governor Belcher set up a line of mile-stones from the Town House in Boston, to his Milton estate. A platway drawn by James Blake, indicating the position and line of these stones is in the possession of Edmund J. Baker. One of the Belcher stones is now built into the wall on the easterly side of Adams street, near the avenue to Col. O. W. Peabody's mansion, marked thus : "8 Miles to B. Town House. The lower way. 1734."
Another stone, but not of the Belcher line, is seen near the residence of Hon. J. M. Churchill marked thus : "B. 7. 1722"; and a third on the same side of Adams street near the house of Mr. C. E. C. Breck, marked thus: "B. 8. 1723." The two stones of 1722 and 1723 must have been placed by some other agency, as Governor Belcher was not interested in Milton at so early a date. The stone near Colonel Peabody's is the only one of his line now appearing in Milton. Another Belcher stone origi- nally stood a few feet north of the avenue to Mrs. Payson's house.
There is a stone of the same line built into the wall on the south side of Adams street, Dorchester, a few rods from the end of Richmond street, and others may be found at points nearer Boston.
Paul Dudley placed a line of mile-stones from Boston through Roxbury to the Dorchester line, the last of which, marked P. D., now stands in the sidewalk on the north side of Blue Hill ave- nue near its junction with Warren street. These were continued
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by some agency through Dorchester. One is seen near School street, Dorchester, and another a mile nearer Milton, by Fuller street. This line was extended into Milton. One is near Judge Churchill's; the last is the stone near Mr. Breck's at East Milton. A mile farther east, in Quincy, near the Newcomb estate, is an- other stone, marked "B. 9. J. N. 1730.," and these way-marks may have extended even to Plymouth, on this old way, which was then the only route to Boston.
Governor Belcher held office for eleven years, 1730-1741, and was succeeded by Gov. William Shirley May 16, 1741. He went to England again in 1744, and in 1747 was made governor of New Jersey, an office which he filled till his death, Aug. 31, 1757. While in New Jersey he was especially interested in the foun- dation of Princeton College ; he secured its charter 1754, and ren- dered valuable service to that institution.
He married, 1706, Mary, daughter of Lieut. Gov. Wm. Par- tridge, of New Hampshire, who died in 1736 ; and as second wife, in 1748, Mrs. Teal, of London, who survived her husband, and at his decease removed to his Milton estate.
His son Andrew continued to reside on the Milton estate after his father's removal from Milton. He married Miss Teal, daughter of his father's second wife. He was of Harvard Col- lege, 1724. He represented the town at the General Court from 1759 to 1764 ; was register of Probate for Suffolk 1739-1754 ; was a member of the Council 1765-7; and died here Jan. 24, 1771, aged 65 years.
On the 27th of January, 1776, the Belcher house was burned.
Jan. 28, 1776. Yesterday afternoon Madam Belcher's house at Milton was destroyed by fire. I hear she saved her furniture and effects. - Diary of Ezekiel Price.
Madam Belcher and the widow of Andrew, the only occu- pants of the house at the time, passed the winter with their friends, the Miss Murrays, on Brush Hill, in the Robbins house.
The work of rebuilding was at once commenced, and the house, now owned and occupied by Mrs. Payson, was completed the next summer, which gives it an antiquity of one hundred and eleven years.
Madam Belcher soon after died, and the younger Mrs. Bel- cher removed to England.
ROWE FAMILY.
The Belcher estate then passed into the hands of John Rowe, Esq., a prominent and wealthy merchant of Boston, with whose descendants it still remains.
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HISTORY OF MILTON.
At his decease the personal estate descended by will to his widow, also the use and income of the real estate during her life. At the death of the widow the real estate passed by will to the children of his brother Jacob. Jacob, with his family, took possession of the Milton property, and he became a resident of the town, where he died, in 1814. He had two sons, John and Joseph, and three daughters. John Rowe died May 24, 1812, leaving two sons, John and George, and three daughters, Mrs. Webster, Mrs. White, and Mrs. Payson, the youngest of whom, Mrs. Payson, alone survives and occupies the Rowe house. Joseph Rowe, Esq., died in Milton March, 1856, aged 86 years. He was a lawyer by profession, acute and well-read. The weight of his influence was brought to bear freely and uni- formly in support of the true and the right among his fellow- citizens. Possessed of a large estate he had a larger heart, ever open to the wants of those less favored.
Goldsmith's lines were very fittingly repeated at his funeral :
" His home was known to all the vagrant train ; He chid their wanderings but relieved their pain. Thus, to relieve the wretched was his pride, And e'en his failings leaned to virtue's side."
Joseph Rowe, in his will, bequeathed the sum of one thousand dollars in trust to the minister and deacons of the First Evan- gelical Church of Milton, for the benefit of the poor of Milton, the interest of which is annually distributed among the poor of the town.
Mary Rowe, who died Jan. 11, 1852, four years before her brother Joseph, bequeathed a like sum in the same trust, and for the same purpose. Each of these benefactors "being dead yet speaketh " with kindly and sympathizing words to the poor, who are "always with us."
WILLIAM FOYE.
Provincial Treasurer William Foye was born in Charlestown 1681, and died in Milton March 21, 1759, aged 78 years. He had three children. William, graduated at Harvard 1735; died at Halifax 1771. Mary, married Rev. Samuel Cooper of Brattle Street Church, and died in 1775. Miss Elizabeth Foye died at Milton, Oct. 10, 1807, aged 89 years. Dr. Samuel Gardner, Harvard, 1746, married Mrs. Cooper's daughter Mary ; he died Jan. 18, 1778, and she died June 24, 1778. Mrs. John Amory was daughter of Dr. Gardner. The mother of Treasurer Foye was sister of Governor Belcher. He bought the Daniels estate in Milton and built on the site of the old Daniels house. The
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MILTON HILL.
deed is recorded with Suffolk Deeds, Lib. 45, November, 1733. His house, a large old English mansion, and one of the finest in the colony, was built in 1734. A picture of the Foye house is here given in connection with the house of Theodore R. Glover, built on the same site, one hundred and fifty years later. Here Mrs. Foye, who survived her husband, continued to reside. During the war she left Milton because of her sympathy with her friend and neighbor, Governor Hutchinson, and removed to Stoughton, returning to the old homestead after peace was declared. In her absence from Milton her house was occupied by Rufus Pierce, the father of Mrs. Samuel Littlefield. Mr. Pierce had just married Elizabeth, daughter of Josiah How. He had begun to build the cottage next the East Milton railroad station, but abandoned it because of the war. After Mrs. Foye's return he finished his house and lived there during his life, for many years keeping tavern. A deed of the Foye estate was given by John Gardner to Daniel Briggs, Sept. 24, 1805. As Mrs. Foye's granddaughter, Mary Cooper, married Dr. Samuel Gardner, the presumption is that it remained in the family until that time.
SAMUEL LITTLEFIELD.
For fifty years the Foye house was the home of Mr. Samuel Littlefield and family. He occupied the house from 1824; pur- chased the estate of the heirs of Daniel Briggs in 1829, and lived there until his death in 1874, at the age of 95 years. After the death of Miss Sarah Littlefield, in 1877, it passed out of the family. The old house1 was taken down in 1879, and upon the spot now stands the beautiful villa owned and oc- cupied by Theodore R. Glover. This is the third house built upon this site since the settlement of Milton.
1 The following lines, taken from the "Boston Transcript," were written by a member of the Littlefield family after a visit to the deserted old house.
THE OLD HOMESTEAD.
An old colonial house ; it stood In grandeur once respected ; Our home for fifty years, now stands, With walls and grounds neglected.
The large old rooms with ceilings low, In which we trcad so faintly ; The solemn echoes through its walls, Where carvings gleam so quaintly : -
The sunbeams, dimly through the panes The dark, old wainscots lighting : -
The chimney swallows on its hearth, New homes with old uniting : -
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HISTORY OF MILTON.
NOTABLE EVENTS.
This is a noted and memorable spot. In the first house built here, Catherine Grenaway, wife of William Daniels, was accustomed to gather the Indians living on the hill, and in various parts of the town, for their enlightenment and instruc- tion. This was continued for three years, 1650-3, until its beneficial influence and effect attracted official notice, as ap- pears by the following record : -
On September 24th, 1653, at the meeting of the Commissioners of the United Colonies holden at Boston, recorded. Having learned that the wife of William Daniels hath for three years past bestowed much of her time in teaching several Indians to read, think fit to allow her £12, for the time past; and to encourage her to continue the same course, that more of the Indians may be taught by her, think fit to allow her £3 more, before hand, towards another year.
WHITFIELD.
In the summer of 1771, on the first day of September, George Whitfield preached under a large elm in front of the Foye house. The friends of Whitfield endeavored to secure the meet- ing-house for this service, but Rev. Mr. Robbins, in concert with many of the clergy of that day, was reluctant to yield to
The fresh, unkept green lawn, with shade And sunshine covered over, Where lay the budding prairie rose, Down weeping in the clover.
And where the belle-of-Baltimore Her grief to earth confiding, The myrtle, 'neath her bending form Its modest blossoms hiding : -
Where columbine and flower-de-luce, As if with life to rally, Are struggling in the thick tall grass, With lilics of the valley.
Here generations eome and go : It waits in calm reposing ; The joys, the hopes, the griefs of all, Within its walls enclosing.
It was a home ere Whitfield preached ; And Indians round it sported ; The cannon's pecl for Bunker Hill Upon its walls reported.
The hale, old house ! long may it stand, Beneath its spreading elms ! And warm and cheer those yet to come, As those in far-off realms.
L. J. G. L.
MILTON, June 3, 1878.
SFE. FOYE HOUS
The GLOVERVIMA
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the new order of things. Whitfield is reported to have said that " true religion would not flourish in Milton until they got rid of that minister." The position and surroundings were well adapted to accommodate the great numbers said to have been present at the service. A platform was erected in front of the house, and the people were gathered in the shade of the wide-spreading tree, and along the gently descending grounds within easy hearing of the wonderful preacher, and under the full sway of his overpowering eloquence. It was the largest re- ligious assembly ever gathered in Milton. At his farewell ser- mon on Boston Common, the number estimated to have been present was twenty or thirty thousand. He was entertained at the hospitable mansion of Madam Foye and Miss Betty Foye, both of whom were then living.
The gale of 1815 made havoc of the old Whitfield elm; limbs were torn from it making, when cut up, four cords of wood. In the memorable gale of April, 1851, which destroyed Minot's Light, it was blown down. On the morning after the gale, Daniel Webster and his wife, driving from Marshfield to Boston, over Milton Hill, met the obstruction in the road caused by this fallen tree, not yet wholly removed, and were forced to turn back and take the road by Milton cemetery.
BADCOCK FAMILY.
The tradition is that a widow Badcock came from Essex, England, with her sons, George, Robert, and James, in the ship Anne, 1623. Robert bought land of John Glover in 1648, and seems to have been the first to locate here, west of Milton Hill, near the river. He is included among the notices of the Pre- cinct inhabitants. James settled in Plymouth, where he re- mained for the residue of his life and died. John, of Westerly, R. I., a son of James, named two of his sons George and Robert ; and James, a third son of John, came for a wife on a pilgrimage to Milton, doubtless the land of his cousins.
James Badcock of Stoningtown married, June 12, 1706, Sarah Vose, of Milton. - [Journal of Rev. Peter Thacher.]
The first we hear of George Badcock is from a conveyance to him, by deed on parchment dated March 31, 1654, of about one hundred acres of upland by Richard Mather, teacher of the Church of Dorchester.
One side of the tract lies next the land of Richard Collicot on the east side ; the other side next the lands of John Wiswall, Thomas Wiswall,
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HISTORY OF MILTON.
and others. Also another lott extending to Braintry line. Also a " parcle of marsh land lying one side next Mr. Wilsons farme the other side next the marsh of Mr. Hutchinson, one end butting Mr. Hutchinsons land, the other end the marsh of John Gill."
This large tract of land was situated west of the Collicot and Holman lands, extending over Pleasant street to the Braintree line. A part of this tract, or land near this has remained in the Badcock family from the day of its purchase to the present time.
George Badcock died in 1671, and in his will, written Septem- ber 26th, he gives Benjamin, his eldest son, land in Milton and Dorchester. Benjamin married Hannah, the daughter of Will- iam Daniels, Feb. 11, 1674. In 1682 he purchased land of Rich- ard Collicot, lying opposite the Daniels estate and near the land bequeathed to him by his father.1
Enoch Badcock, the second son of George, married Susannah Gregory ; he died in Milton 25th May, 1695. He was a ship- wright, and had his ship-yard on land of Joseph Belcher near the water, the same afterwards occupied by Daniel Briggs ; there he also built his house. Aug. 10, 1693, Rev. Joseph Belcher secures to Enoch Badcock a two years' notice for removal of his house, stock and timber, under bond of £200. In the year 1693, Enoch Badcock built the ship "Mary & Sarah," for Thomas Cooper and William Harris, for the sum of £540 15s.
William, the only son of Enoch, married Elizabeth. They had three sons and five daughters. He also was a ship-carpenter, and died 15th October, 1732, and his wife in 1739. Their second son, William, of the same trade with his father and grandfather, on the 17th of September, 1740, after the decease of his mother, assigns and quits claim to his elder brother, Nathan, a tanner, all his right and interest in the estate, real and personal, of their father William, "excepting, and always leaving thereout, to me, my heirs and assigns, the house and land adjoining to Milton Landing place." He married Hannah Blake, 1751. Their children were, Eunice, b. March 18, 1758, m. Dr. Samuel K. Glover ; Elizabeth, b. June 14, 1754, m. John Swift; Nancy, b. Nov. 17, 1752, m. Major Phinehas Paine ; Bathsheba, b. Mar. 17, 1761, d. April 28, 1792. The house reserved from his father's estate, and doubtless built before the decease of his father, which occurred in 1732, is the one known as the "Stanley house," now owned and in part occupied by Mr. Samuel Everett, which gives it an antiquity of more than one hundred and fifty years.
1 In Blake's survey of the lower road from Boston Town House to Governor Belcher's farm, 1747, appeared a Badcock house on the south side of Adams street ncarly opposite the Stephen Kinsley house.
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MILTON HILL.
Nathan Babcock, eldest son of William, son of Enoch, born May 15, 1716, was a tanner by trade. He married Susannah -, and died in Milton, of small-pox, Jan. 29, 1777, aged 61. In February, 1752, Jonathan Copeland and Betty Copeland, of Bridgewater, conveyed to him eight acres of land in Milton, being a part of the homestead of John Kinsley, deceased. (Suffolk Reg- istry, Lib. 82, Fol. 261.) On this tract he erected the house now owned by his descendant, Cornelius Babcock. His eldest son, Capt. William Babcock, was born here, and married Sarah Tucker, of Milton. In the war of the Revolution he was cap- tain in Col. Solomon Lovell's regiment; his company of fifty were mostly Milton men. They marched to Morristown Dec. 18, 1776, and were discharged March 17, 1777. He was also captain in the regiment of Col. Samuel Pierce from Feb. 3, 1778, to .April 8. In his company were Lieut. David Tucker; Sergeants Rufus Pierce, John Adams and Andrew Can- nady ; Corporals Elisha Vose, Lemuel Morton, Silas Hunt, Na- thaniel Shepard, and thirty-nine privates, all Milton men, as follows : -
Jonathan Vose,
George Babcock,
Jabez Sumner, Noah Dammon, Joshua Glover,
Thomas Kingman,
Isaac Copeland,
Lemuel Billings,
Ralph Crane, Joseph Sumner,
Joseph Puffer, Nathaniel Crane,
Ebenezer Crane,
Asa Horton,
Zachariah Bassett,
Samuel Crehore,
Howard Bassett,
William Mckinsey,
William Gould,
Samuel Fenno, Jesse Houghton,
John Babcock,
Uriah Snow,
Elijah Crane,
Seth Tucker,
Samuel Kilton, Seth Tucker, Lemuel Hunt,
Joshua Kingsbury, Amariah Sumner,
James Ford,
Simeon Horton,
Stephen Swift,
Nathaniel Jones,
Elisha Tucker,
Reuben Gulliver,
Nathaniel Vose.
They were stationed eleven miles from home.
Josiah Babcock, the youngest son of Captain William, was born in Milton in 1782. He married Nancy Gulliver. Their children were : Ann Gulliver, b. March 28, 1807, m. Joshua Emerson, Aug. 29, 1830, d. Nov. 16, 1852; Josiah, b. Jan. 19, 1810, m. Marga- ret Howe Fenno, June 27, 1841, d. Sept. 4, 1863 ; Samuel, b. Nov. 5, 1812, m. Lydia Thorpe, Dec. 4, 1844, d. Dec. 29, 1880 ; Jeremiah William, b. Sept. 30, 1816, d. Oct. 16, 1879; Corne-
Seth Smith,
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HISTORY OF MILTON.
lius, b. Jan. 19, 1819; Sarah Elizabeth, b. Mar. 8, 1822, m. Simeon Emerson, Jan. 17, 1841; Mary Augusta, b. May 27, 1826, m. Nathan Crossman, Jr., Mar. 17, 1852, d. Feb. 29, 1884. But two of this family remain. The names and the bright and useful life of those who have within a few years gone from us are fresh in the thoughts of the living. The Hon. Samuel Bab- cock was a wise, judicious, and upright citizen, who faithfully served the town in many important ways. For twelve years he was a member of the Board of Selectmen, most of the time chairman. He was also for twelve years, between 1848 and 1871, on the School Committee, generally chairman, guiding this important work with a high degree of wisdom. In 1855 he represented the town at the Legislature, and in 1864 he was a member of the State Senate.
BENJAMIN PRATT.
In 1757 William Babcock sold to Benjamin Pratt thirty-eight and a half acres of land, and in 1759 John Babcock sold to said Pratt thirty-three acres. William and John are, doubtless, sons of George, the son of Benjamin, who purchased this land of Richard Collicot. In 1758 William Pierce sold to Pratt twenty-three acres, and Edward Adams, 2d, forty acres in 1760, -in all making a tract of one hundred and thirty-four acres, probably lying near together, which was long known as the Pratt farm.
Benjamin Pratt was born in Cohassett, 1709. He came to Milton about 1757, and built the house which occupied the site on which the John W. Brooks mansion now stands. The old Pratt house, then known as the Beals house, was removed to East Milton by Mr. Josiah Babcock, and was converted into two dwelling-houses now standing on Granite avenue.
Mr. Pratt was bred a mechanic, but, having lost his leg after reaching mature years, he turned from industrial to educational pursuit.
He graduated at Harvard in 1737, and pursued legal studies with Judge Auchmuty, whose daughter he married. He resided in Milton but a short time, and was chiefly occupied with his professional duties. He became an eminent lawyer and scholar, and, through the friendship of Governor Pownal, in 1761 was made Chief Justice of New York, where he died in 1763, aged 54 years.
John Adams describes him, as seen in the court where was argued the case of "Writs of Assistance" by Otis and our Oxenbridge Thacher, in the following words : -
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MILTON HILL.
The place in which the court sat was the council chamber of the old Town House, Boston. At that time it was an imposing and elegant apart- ment, ornamented with two splendid full-length portraits of Charles II. and James II. In this chamber near the fire were seated five judges, with Lieut. Governor Hutchinson at their head as Chief Justice, all in their fresh robes of scarlet English cloth, in their broad bands and immense judicial wigs. In this chamber were seated at a long table all the barristers of Bos- ton and its neighboring county of Middlesex, in their gowns, bands and tye- wigs. They were not seated on ivory chairs, but their dress was more sol- emn and more pompous than that of the Roman Senate when the Gauls broke in upon them. In a corner of the room must be placed wit, sense, imagination, genius, pathos, reason, prudence, eloquence, learning, science, and immense reading hung by the shoulders on two crutches, covered with a cloth great coat, in the person of Mr. Pratt, who had been solicited on both sides, but would engage on neither, being about to leave Boston for- ever, as chief justice of New York.
His only daughter, Isabella, married Samuel Wells, of Boston ; and the Pratt farm was held in the Wells family for more than half a century, and became known as the " Wells farm."
At a later period, this farm passed into the Beals family. John Wells sold the easterly part to Jonathan Beals, and the westerly part to Benjamin Beals. These brothers were exten- sive farmers and butchers. Some of our citizens recall the fa- mous huskings in their barns, and remember the flocks of sheep formerly crowding the beautiful grove of Mr. Brooks on Centre street.
Mr. John M. Forbes bought of Capt. Jonathan Beals, Nov. 3, 1846, a tract of nearly a hundred acres extending back to the Quincy line, and now forming a part of the estate of Edward Cunningham.
The land of Benjamin Beals was sold at auction by his heirs Oct. 4, 1854, Mr. John W. Brooks being the purchaser at one thousand dollars per acre.
GLOVER FARM.
Nathaniel Glover was the fourth son of " the worshipful John Glover," of Dorchester. He married Mary Smith, of Dorches- ter, in 1652.
His eldest son, Nathaniel, born Jan. 30, 1653, married Han- nah Hinckley, of Barnstable, in 1672.
Their youngest son was Thomas, born Dec. 26, 1690 ; he married Elizabeth Clough, of Boston, June 7, 1672.
The second son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Clough) Glover was Elijah, born at the Newbury farm, July 20, 1725, and died at his residence on Milton Hill, July 1, 1770, aged 45 years. His death was caused by an internal injury received at a wrestling
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HISTORY OF MILTON.
match, or ring, on election day the May previous. By his supe- rior agility and strength he had come off victor, and was enjoy- ing his triumph, when a new competitor offered himself. He accepted the challenge and was victorious, but in the struggle a blood-vessel was ruptured, which resulted in his speedy death.
He married Abigail Kinsley, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Gulliver) Kinsley, of Milton, Dec. 21, 1751. She died Feb. 8, 1761, in her thirty-fifth year. He married again, Jan. 1, 1762, Elizabeth Tucker, of Milton.
Elijah Glover was the first in the line of "the worshipful John Glover" to reside in Milton. All other Milton Glovers, except the descendants of Elijah, and Theodore Russell Glover, who has lately become a resident of Milton Hill, are from the ancestry of Henry Glover, the brother of John. Some of this stock were citizens here in 1680, and continue to this day. Elijah came into the occupancy of a valuable tract of land on Milton Hill, through his wife Abigail, from the old Kinsley estate. It was situated on the north-east side of Adams street, and now forms the estates of Capt. R. B. Forbes, Mr. R. S. Watson, and Mr. H. P. Kidder. He erected his mansion not far from the street, nearly on the line of Mr. Watson's private avenue. The Glover house was standing there within forty years, and the tract was known as the "Glover farm." The well still remains.
Feb. 24, 1841, William Glover sold to Benjamin F. Dudley fifty acres of land lying on Milton Hill, being the same be- queathed to Samuel K. Glover by his grandfather, Samuel Kins- ley, and conveyed by the said Samuel K. to his son William, by deed June 1, 1829. Benjamin F. Dudley conveyed the same tract of fifty acres, then known as the "Dudley farm," to John M. Forbes by deed Oct. 9, 1846. July 30, 1849, John M. Forbes conveyed fifteen acres of this tract to Samuel Frothing- ham, Jr., who built the Kidder mansion. Portions of it were sold to R. B. Forbes and other individuals.
The mansion of Capt. R. B. Forbes was built in 1847, and occupied Oct. 5 of that year. It was enlarged in 1852. In August of 1855 he received a visit from the Hon. Amelia M. Murray, an English lady of literary note. In her letters, after- wards published, she makes the following mention of Milton, which is of value, as the testimony of a distinguished for- eigner : -
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