An old-time Medford gardener.
The family of
Martin Burridge was descended from English stock found in Seething,
Norfolk county.
Robert, the first ancestor of whom there is any record, was there early in the sixteenth century.
John, a great-grandson, became the emigrant ancestor, coming to
Charlestown about 1637. One of his sons took
Burridge, and another
Burrage, as the form for the family name, and their descendants respectively have followed the standard set for them.
This line is successively traced from
Charlestown to
Newton,
Concord,
Lunenburg, where John of the ninth generation married Lois Barthrick of that town in 1781.
His brother Jonathan married Lois' sister Sally.
Hannah (sister of John and Jonathan of
Lunenburg) married
Samuel Buel of
Medford, August 22, 1799.
John was a soldier in the war
[p. 78] of the Revolution.
About 1800 he came to
Medford, where he died, July 20, 1822.
Mr. Francis Converse of
Medford, meeting someone by the name of
Burridge in
Boston, where he traded, asked if he was related to the late
John Burridge of
Medford, saying, ‘It would be an honor to be, for he was a very worthy man, greatly respected in
Medford by all who knew him.’
While here,
John Burridge followed the occupation of gardener.
His family consisted of six sons and one daughter.
Only such will be considered here as were connected with
Medford.
At the time he moved here his oldest child was eighteen, the youngest an infant.
John, the second son, married
Rebecca Greenleaf of this town, February 13, 1812.
His branch is extinct.
Betsey, or
Elizabeth, married, May 11, 1814,
David Bucknam of
Medford.
Mrs. Bucknam kept a private school, and among family papers is a reward of merit given by her to her niece Eliza, daughter of
Martin.
Many teachers of that time gave home-made merits, but this is a printed one, as a line at the bottom attests, ‘Sold by
N. S. Simpkins & Co. Court street
Boston.’
It is in
black and
white, at the top a picture of a big dog and a small boy, below two verses (rather serious for a child) on the ‘Improvement of Time.’
It is not a work of art, nor has it much to charm a child.
Martin, the fifth child, born July 27, 1793, married
Eliza Withington, September 8, 1816.
She was an aunt of Assessor
Henry Withington, who died January 21, 1918.
There were five children by this marriage.
Notice their names, for they indicate hero worship or esteem for the employer's family and the good doctor of the town:
Andrew Bigelow,
John Brooks,
Katharine Lawrence.
Did this little girl, who bore the name of a distinguished family, ever dream she would become possessed of great wealth?
Let us thank her for the gift she, in womanhood, gave her native town for four-footed friends—the stone drinking fountain on Salem street, near its junction with Spring, inscribed,
