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[p. 7] settler. According to the Brooks records this house on the south side of High street stood until 1812.

The second son of Caleb was Samuel. His portion of the estate included the land on the southeast corner of High and Grove streets, as far north as Slow pond, from which it extended in a narrow strip in the rear of Ebenezer's land at Symmes corner. In passing it may be noted that the inheritance of these two sons of Caleb as set forth in the inventory of their father's estate gives an insight into the living conditions of the early freeholder. It is too long except for reference.1 This Samuel, born in 1672, was another prominent townsman until his death in 1753. His gravestone, with that of his wife, Hannah, are in the old Medford cemetery. His house, the second of the Brooks houses, stood on the east side of Grove street, nearly opposite the mansion built later on the west side by his great-grandson, Peter Chardon Brooks, remembered by the present generation as the Francis Brooks place. The house of Samuel stood until 1762, when it was burned. His will shows us again the property of a well-to-do farmer. He had two slaves, Bristow and Boston, one left to his wife and the other to his son Samuel. He seems to have been wealthy chiefly in land, for his will mentions but one horse, which with the calash and the horse-cart, he left to his wife, and the cattle and swine which he divided among his heirs. His son, the second Samuel, took among other things a suit of wearing apparel, bootlashes and silver buckles, and a new house built in 1727.

This house, the third of the early Brooks houses, and occupied by the second by the name of Samuel, stood on the east side of Grove street about one hundred and thirty yards north of the house of the elder Samuel nearer the corner. It was built in all probability in 1727

1 The estate of Caleb Brooks was inventoried at £ 630 s.14, of which ‘the housing and lands’ were £ 500 and the personal property, £ 130 s.14. It is evident from the detailed items that the house consisted of a ‘parlour,’ a ‘parlour chamber,’ hall, hall chamber, kitchen and garret. There was also a barn.

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