USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Waltham > Waltham as a precinct of Watertown and as a town, 1630-1884 > Part 11
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Elijah Livermore and his younger and only surviving brother Samuel were both able and influential men. The latter was a graduate of Nassau Hall, moved to New Hampshire, was several times a delegate to the Continental Congress, was Chief Justice of New Hampshire and United States representative and senator.
Elijah lived on the old homestead for several years but in 1779 he headed a company of men from Waltham and nearby towns and founded the town of Livermore, Maine. In 1780 he sold his home here to Jonas Dix. His son, Jonas, Jr. in 1793 sold to Theodore Lyman. Thus the farm that had been in the Liver- more family for considerably more than one hundred years became the nucleus of the splendid Lyman Estate.
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Thomas Livermore was born in Watertown but spent the first eight years of his married life in Cambridge where he worked at his trade as a potter. He returned to Watertown about 1712 and there took up the occupation of maltster, following the trade of his father Samuel. He is believed to have built a house on Lot No. 11 in the second squadron of dividends about the time of his return to Watertown, although he did not receive a deed of the land from his uncle Nathaniel until 1722. His malthouse was standing until about 1889. He had a grist mill on Chester Brook, probably built about 1731, that in more recent times was used as a machine shop. This was taken down about 1895. His house stood somewhat south of the present home of Alden Clark.
He was chosen deacon in 1718 and Bond states that he held that office until his decease but if so it must have been in an honorary capacity for the church records show that on Feb. 6, 1756, Isaac Stearns was elected deacon in his place. As one of the deacons his name is included with the eight prominent men that headed the first tax list. He was a member of the first board of Selectmen and was elected four times afterwards. Before the incorporation he had been five times a member of the Precinct Committee and ten times selectman of Watertown. He died in 1761, aged 85, and Elisha the younger of his two surviving sons came into possession of the farm and malt business. He was selectman for eight years and died in 1793. His son Abijab and grandson Jonas carried on the estate successively and the latter in 1813 sold it to Jonathan Stearns. Jonas Clark bought it in 1820 and in 1825 replaced the old house with the one now standing.
SAMUEL MANSFIELD of Reading, a cordwainer, bought of Stephen White in 1735 a house, barn and shop built about 1731 by William White, on the south side of the Great Road west of the burying ground. The land now forms a part of the Bright homestead. He sold the place in 1737 and bought from James Knap the Nathaniel Fiske house, built at an early but unknown date, on the east corner of Main and Harvard Streets. He bought several other lots of land and seems to have prospered for a time but in 1763 the last of his estate including his dwelling
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house was obtained by Samuel Winthrop, Esq. of Boston, on a foreclosure.
THEOPHILUS MANSFIELD of Lynn, a blacksmith, bought in 1733 of Josiah Stearns a house, barn and shop and 15 acres of land on the south side of the Great Road just east of the Peirce farm. A part of this land is now occupied by the Jonas Willis Parmenter Rest Home. His house seems to have been the one built by or for James Morse about 1699 on land granted to Isaac Stearns, Morse's grandfather. He purchased other land adjoining so that when he sold his homestead to Jonas Priest in 1748 it con- sisted of 26 acres. On the same day he sold two other lots aggre- gating 2612 acres situated in other parts of the town and moved to Weston. From there he went to Winchendon.
DAVID McCONOTHY apparently lived on or near Warren Street, perhaps with Jonathan Bond. He owned no real estate. His name is spelled McConoughey in the Waltham Vital Records and McConoghy in the First Parish Records. The births and baptisms of five children to him and his wife Margaret are re- corded between 1731 and 1743.
DAVID MEAD was son of David and Hannah (Warren) Mead and was born about 1678, probably in Cambridge Farms (Lex- ington). He married in Feb. 1708-9 Hannah, daughter of Joseph Smith and in Feb. 1710-11 bought from his brother-in-law Joseph Smith, Jr. 60 acres with dwelling house, barn and orchard. This farm had been bought by Smith a little more than a year before from Thomas Rider a son-in-law of George Lawrence. Rider had a grist mill there before 1690 and so was the probable builder of the house. The 60 acres included Lot No. 18, 30 acres, granted to John Lawrence, owned by Edmund White in 1644 and sold by him to Samuel Thatcher in 1649. It also included Lot 19, 30 acres, granted to Widow Frances Onge, owned by Justinian Holden in 1644 and sold by him to Pastor John Sherman in 1673. It was owned by his widow Mary in 1691 but acquired by Thomas Rider before 1695. In 1690 Rider was possessor of Lot 18 but there is no record of a deed to him for either lot. David Mead was constable of Watertown for the West Precinct in 1729-30-31 and seems to have held no other office. His house,
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barn and saw-mill he left to his eldest son Joshua with all the land west of a specified dividing line. This house stood on the west side of Chester Brook a short distance south of Trapelo Road and near where the brook crosses the road. The mill was nearby. Nearly all of his land east of the line he left to his son Moses to revert to the sons of Joshua and Matthew (another son), if Moses should die without children. Moses had a house on the east side of Lexington Street. He died in 1782 and by will left his estate to his nephews. Joshua's son Moses utilized the mill left him by his father to manufacture wooden ware; such as hay rakes, hoe and axe handles, mortars and pestles, etc .* The Meads by several sales between 1782 and 1800 disposed of their real estate. Jonathan Stearns bought the larger part and built a new house on Trapelo Road west of Lexington Street that is now standing.
Hopestill Mead was probably a brother of David. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Hastings, in 1709. They probably lived in Lexington until after the death of John Hastings in 1718 when they obtained, partly by inheritance and partly by pur- chase, a considerable part of his homestead. In 1749 they sold to John Lawrence and moved to Lexington where Hopestill died the next year. His widow lived to be 87, dying in Lexington in 1770.
JOHN MICHILL owned no real estate and his name does not appear on the Town tax list. He probably worked for some of the residents at the head of the plain.
MIXER FAMILY. Isaac Mixer with his wife Sarah and son Isaac, then four years old, left Ipswich, England in April 1634. He settled in Watertown where he was granted several lots of land among them 30 acres in the first squadron of Great Divi- dends and 4 acres in the plowlands of the further plain. He also acquired 14 acres of plowland joining the 4 acre lot and another dividend of 70 acres. His will states that they were purchased from Simon Stone to whom they were granted. His homestall
*Perhaps this was the first manufacturing industry in Waltham. His products were "as celebrated in his day as those of the best present manu- facturers."
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was on what is now Common Street, Watertown (Bond). He died in 1655 and his son Isaac was left the larger part of his estate. From the inventory we find that 17 acres of the 30 acres in his dividend were broken up. This lot, No. 4, was divided by Beaver Brook. The part north of the brook was willed direct to his son who came into possession of the south part after the death of his mother in 1681. He made his home on this land his house being on the northern boundary, north of the highway, Beaver Street, that formed in part the north bound. It was situated a few hundred feet east of the entrance to the Cedar Hill estate. Isaac Mixer, Jr. married Mary Coolidge a few months after his father's death and may have built on the dividend about that time leaving to his mother the use of the homeplace. He may on the other hand not have built until he married a second time in 1661. Rebecca Garfield his second wife lived only a short dis- tance from her future home. In March 1700-1 he sold his home- stead of 30 acres with house, barn and orchard to one of his younger sons, Joseph. Two years before he had given his oldest son, Isaac, Jr. the two plowland lots together with 16 acres of remote meadow. All the rest of his land he sold before his death in 1716. Although the Stone lots were willed to Isaac, Jr. in some way John Page and his wife Phebe were in possession in 1658 when the Pages deeded them to Isaac Mixer for £24. No deed to them is recorded. Isaac Mixer, Sr. whose name was often spelled Mixture, was selectman of Watertown for one year while the second of the name served in a similar capacity for twelve or thirteen years and was town clerk in 1692.
Isaac the third lived on the 18 acres of plowland above men- tioned to which he added three acres adjoining. This 21 acre homestead included all of Waltham Common, the Boston Mfg. Co. land and a strip east of Elm Street. He was the first clerk of the West Precinct and precinct assessor for two years. He married Elizabeth Peirce in 1684. They were childless and when he died in 1725 he left the estate to his wife's nephew Isaac Peirce whom they had brought up.
Joseph Mixer lived on his father's homestead. He married Ann Jones and they had a large family. In 1718 he was chosen deacon. He was the first precinct treasurer serving three years and one year on the precinct committee. At his death in December 1723 he was succeeded at the homestead by his youngest son Josiah
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who was the only representative of the family on the tax lists of 1738.
Josiah Mixer inherited the family homestead. The road to Cape Fare began near his house on Beaver Street. This house at the time of the death of his father consisted of a new part adjoining the part first built. A part of the land on the south part of the lot had been sold but additional land north of the highway had been acquired although the record of the deed has not been found. In 1744 Josiah sold the place to John Brown and in 1746 he bought the Ball farm at the corner of Main and Bacon Streets. Here he spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1788. His sons Elijah and Daniel owned the place successively but in 1798 Daniel sold it to William Wellington, Jr. Josiah Mixer was selectman of Waltham in 1768, 1769 and 1770.
PARKHURST FAMILY. George Parkhurst was early in Water- town but moved to Boston about 1645. In 1650 his son George married for his second wife Mary, the widow of Robert Veazey and so came into possession of the 5th Lot in the first squadron of dividends granted to Veazey and a part of the 6th Lot pur- chased by Veazey from Hugh Mason. He is supposed to have built on Lot 5 but even the approximate date is not known. After his death in March 1698-9 he was succeeded by his only son John. Either George or John acquired a large meadow adjoining their land that cut off Lot 4 from the Great Road. In Jan. 1714-5 John gave his homestead then including 40 acres to his son Samuel who had bought 11 acres north of the meadow from his neighbor Isaac Mixer. Samuel Parkhurst was the only one of the name on the first tax list.
Samuel Parkhurst spent his whole life on the farm given him by his father. His house, probably built by him and perhaps near the site of the original house, stood, according to Jonathan B. Bright in his Sentinel articles of 1856, in the valley about twenty rods north of the Great Road. He was constable of Water- town in 1720 and in that capacity issued the call for the first precinct meeting. He was selectmen of Waltham for two years. He died in Sept. 1768. In April of that year, he deeded his home- stead consisting of 50 acres and other land to his son Isaac. Isaac
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had five daughters but only one son, Isaac, who moved to Jay, Maine. In 1786 Isaac, Sr., sold the farm of 50 acres to Henry Newman of Boston who owned it about 10 years and then sold to John Bright and Solomon Flagg. The latter soon sold his part to Bright and it is still in the Bright family. The Parkhursts lived on in the old place for he and Samuel Nutting occupied it in 1798, owned by Solomon Flagg, and Mr. Bright in the articles above mentioned states that he and his wife Sarah (Cory) died in the house "within the present century." He also states that David Stearns a son-in-law lived there.
JOHN PEARKE owned no real estate and was probably a laborer working perhaps for Joseph Stratton whose name he follows in the tax list. A John Peak of Lexington served for Waltham in the Revolution.
PEIRCE FAMILY. John Peirce, weaver, and his wife Eliza- beth probably came to Watertown about 1638 but their oldest son Anthony was there as early as 1634. John's will, probated in 1661 mentions by name only Anthony of his several children. Anthony and his father lived on the present Belmont Street very close to the Waltham line (Bond). In the inventory of John's estate among other lots was 24 acres of upland near West Meadow and the same lot appears in Anthony's inventory of 1678. This appears to have been the 10th lot in the third squadron of Dividends granted as 25 acres to Lawrence Waters. Anthony's land was awarded to his sons Daniel, Joseph and Benjamin and this lot came to Daniel who also acquired the lot next west, No. 11, also of 25 acres and granted to Emanuel White. It had passed through the ownership of John Eddy, Philip and William Shat- tuck and a half of it of Michael Bairstow. Daniel Peirce by his will of 1722 left his real estate to his son John but there is no descriptive inventory to help in locating his homestead.
John, his brother Joseph, his son Samuel, Isaac, the son of Joseph and Isaac, Jr. son of his brother Daniel, were all living in Waltham at the time of its incorporation. There was also in the second list a Jonas Peirce whose identity has not been established.
John Peirce married Elizabeth Smith in 1702. She is stated by Bond to have been the daughter of Daniel and Mary (Grant)
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Smith but it is improbable as that Elizabeth is probably the one that died May 30, 1690. It is much more probable that she was a daughter of John Smith, son of the pioneer Thomas, who married Mary Beech and had a son-in-law John Peirce. From the position of his name in the tax list of 1738 John Peirce was living on Trapelo Road between Joseph Hastings and Dea. William Brown and this is the location of Lots 10 and 11 above mentioned and only a short distance from the home of John Smith. Presum- ably John Peirce built there about the time of his marriage but his father Daniel may have lived there before him and built there after 1678 when he was living in the original homestead on Belmont Street. John died in 1744 leaving his farm to his sons Samuel and Daniel.
Jonas Peirce is not mentioned in the Province list and his identity is uncertain. Jonas the son of John born in 1705 lived in Lexington and Jonas the son of Francis and Hannah Johnson, born in 1717, lived in Weston. They are the only ones of that name old enough to be assessed that have been found.
Joseph Peirce, a weaver, was son of Daniel and married in 1698 Mary, daughter of Capt. John Warren. In March 1696-7 he bought Lot No. 25 in the 4th squadron of Great Dividends from John Winter. His home was on this lot and he probably built there about the time of his marriage. The will of Capt. Warren states that Joseph Peirce was living there when it was signed in January 1702-3. He obtained by inheritance through his wife and by purchase from her brothers one half of the 60 acre lot next west that was granted to John Warren, the father of Capt. John. Joseph Peirce was a member of the first board of selectman and was chosen again in 1739 and 1742. In 1731 he sold his son Isaac 25 acres with buildings out of Lot No. 26, gave him 2 acres of meadow in 1737 and April 8, 1747, made a will leaving him all his real estate and the same day deeded him his house, barn and 36 acres. Isaac was his only son but he had nine daughters, eight living in 1747 and seven of them married. He died in August 1747.
Isaac Peirce, Sr. was the only son of Joseph and Mary (Warren) Peirce. He married Susanna Bemis in 1722 and lived on his father's farm which he obtained partially by purchase in 1731
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and by inheritance in 1747. He was selectman of Waltham in 1744, 1745 and 1753 and bore the title of Lieutenant. He died in 1773 and his son Isaac succeeded him at the homestead passing it on to his son the third Isaac in 1822. When the latter died in 1835 his widow, Lydia, as administrator of his estate carried it on with the assistance of their only son Ebenezer M. The latter died in 1846 before his mother leaving an infant son Isaac M. and four daughters. His executor, Jonas Smith of Lincoln, in December of that year sold the farm, with the consent of the widows Lydia and Mary to Ammi C. Teel of West Cambridge. So this homestead that had been owned and occupied by Joseph Peirce and his descendants for nearly one hundred and fifty years passed from the family.
Isaac Peirce, Jr. was a son of Daniel the brother of Joseph and was only a little younger than his cousin Isaac, Sr., the son of Joseph. He was brought up by his aunt Elizabeth wife of Isaac Mixer. This couple were without children and when they died left him their farm on the south side of the Great Road where is now Waltham Common. He died in 1775 and was succeeded by his son Abraham to whom he had sold the farm in 1760. Abraham was captain of one of the Waltham companies in the Revolution and was selectman for eighteen years. Capt. Abraham died in 1801 and his estate was settled on his only son Abraham, Jr. In 1818 David Townsend, guardian of Abraham, sold it to Patrick T. Jackson for the Boston Manufacturing Company.
Samuel Peirce in 1738 was living with his father John on Trapelo Road. In 1739 he married Abigail Stearns. A few months before his father gave him 6 acres out of the homestead on the north side of Trapelo Road and the inference is that he built there although there is no mention of any buildings in the transfers of this farm. John Peirce died in 1744 leaving the place to his sons Samuel and Daniel. Samuel bought out his brother in 1747 and lived there until 1757 when he sold to Benjamin Green and at the same time bought from the executors of James Priest his farm of 50 acres on the west side of West Street opposite to the home of his father-in-law George Stearns. In 1765 he sold one- half of his farm to his son Samuel, Jr. He died in 1772 but his wife who had the use of the other half lived until 1796. In 1795 Samuel
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sold his half to his son Samuel the third, reserving the right for himself and his wife to live there the rest of their lives. Samuel the third however died unmarried in 1801 and his half reverted to his father who gave a similar deed of the whole to another son Amasa, a cordwainer. Samuel died in 1806 but his wife Ruth lived until 1829. In the meantime Amasa sold his interests to Jonas Fisk who had married in succession Ruth and Abigail sisters of Amasa. Jonas Fisk died in 1822 and the next year his executor, widow Abigail, sold to her son-in-law Isaiah Dunster of Mason, New Hampshire. He, then of Waltham, in March 1824 sold to Abner Sanderson. The house was a little west of that of Mr. Carmelo Casella, the present owner of a large part of the farm.
BENJAMIN PHILLIPS was a son of Theophilus and grandson of Rev. George Phillips the first minister of Watertown. He seems to have married Mary, the widow of Daniel Flagg, some time after 1729 although no record of their marriage has been found. They lived at the widow's home on the south side of the Great Road and just west of Beaver Brook. In 1740 he made a will leaving all his property to his wife Mary she to pay legacies to his brothers and sisters. In this will he stated that he was in good health but was intending to go to sea in His Majesty's Service. His death is not recorded in Waltham but the will was probated early in 1744. Benjamin Phillips appears on the tax list only in 1738 and 1739. In 1747 Daniel and Mary Flagg, children of Daniel, Sr. and their mother, Mary Phillips, sold the homestead to Richard Cutting. The house was built by the Widow Flagg after permission was given her by the Court in 1729 to use £40 of her husband's personal estate for that purpose. It stood on a part of a 30 acre lot formerly owned by Edward Garfield on which his son Joseph had a house in 1668 or earlier. This house and lot were sold by Joseph to Jeremiah Morse in 1685 and the house and a part of the land by Morse to Nathaniel Norcross in 1688. No information as to how 14 acres of this lot passed from Norcross to Daniel Flagg has been found, except that the probate papers state that he bought land, containing no house, at the time that he sold his house and land (to William White) a short time before his death.
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PRIEST FAMILY. William Price, weaver, about 26 years old married in Watertown Mary Marplehead in 1657. They had eleven children born there and he died in 1685. About this time the name was commonly written Priest in Watertown. In a deed given by his widow in 1697 is a memorandum stating that although her name is written Priest, "which name she is common- ly known by, yet it is here to be understood that her right name is Price (Bond).
Joseph Priest a blacksmith, son of William and Mary Price, was given leave by the Town in 1700 to set a smith's shop on the common land between Zacheriah Cutting and Jonathan Tainter (Bond). In 1706 he bought land on the north side of the great Road bounded west by the present Pleasant Street. He built there soon after. He married Margaret Child in 1701. His name is on the Town list of 1738 but not on the Province list. He was living in Waltham in April 1738 as shown by a deed of that date but in 1739 he was of Buckfield, an "Inhabitant of a farm lying on Northfield Road granted by the Great and General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England for a house of Entertainment commonly called the half- way House." He probably moved there during the summer of 1738. In 1740 he, styling himself of "Half-way house (so called) Westerly of Lunenburg," sold one-half of his Waltham real estate to his son Jonas, a "joyner" of Charlestown. His son John however seems to have lived on the homestead. He returned to Waltham and died here in 1756. In the meantime Jonas had sold his half of the homestead to his brother James also a joiner. James early in 1757 sold the house, barn, joiner's shop and 5 acres of land to Jonas Dix.
James Priest, son of William and Mary Price, bought from Moses Bordman in 1715 his rights in Lots Nos. 30 and 31 in the first squadron of dividends. These lots were bounded on the east by the present West Street. He lived there until his death in 1756. In 1757 his executors, son Josiah and son-in-law Isaac Corey, sold the farm to Samuel Peirce. (See Samuel Peirce.)
John Priest was a son of Joseph and in 1738 was living with his father on the Great Road. He was born in 1711 and had married Bethia, daughter of Samuel Hutchinson of Charlestown, not
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long before. They had five daughters born in Waltham between 1738 and 1745. They moved to Sudbury where a son, John, Jr. was born in 1746 and a daughter in 1748 and in 1768 were living in Lancaster. At that time only the son and two of the older daughters, Hannah and Sarah were living.
ELIZABETH RANDALL was the widow of Samuel Randall who died in January 1729-30 leaving her with five children the oldest nearly ten years old. There was a house-lot of 812 acres and 14 acres of pasture and plowland. These were eventually acquired by the youngest son Stephen who in 1750 sold them to Joseph Wellington. The house stood on the east side of Mill Street but a considerable distance from it. The site is still known as Randall Hill. It is included in the McLean Asylum grounds.
SANDERSON FAMILY. Edward Sanderson probably came to Watertown about the same time as his brother Robert who came in 1639 or earlier. Much moreisknown about Robert than Edward. He was a goldsmith who after a few years in Hampton (N. H.) lived at Watertown some eight or ten years and then moved to Boston. He was successful at his trade, became the partner of John Hull in the coining of the famous pine tree shillings and was master of the mint for many years. He was deacon, enjoyed the friendship of prominent men and was frequently appointed to positions of trust. While in Watertown he lived in the part now Belmont and his brother Edward probably lived nearby. Edward married in 1645 Mary Eggleston. In 1664 he sold his home to a neighbor and seems to have moved to a 12-acre lot lying in the northern part of the Middlesex College grounds, where he lived until his death about 1694 or 1695 in very humble circumstances. His first born was a son Jonathan and although there were several other children whose births are not recorded he was, as far as known, the only son who lived to maturity. From Jonathan were descended all of the name who lived in Waltham. When sixteen years old he went to live with Justinian Holden in Cambridge. In 1669 he married Abiah Bartlett and went to live on an adjoining farm. Here they lived for twenty years and their eight children were born there. About 1676 he came into possession, through his wife, of the 30 acre lot, No. 18 in the third squadron of dividends that was granted to her
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