Historic leaves, volume 4, April, 1905 - January, 1906

[82] on the higher ground, through which the Medford road ran. Among these was the residence of Samuel Phipps, town clerk of Charlestown, who died suddenly in February, 1731. He was a grandson of Solomon Phipps, the carpenter, and a nephew of Samuel Phipps, the recorder. His father was a son of the carpenter, Joseph Phipps, and his mother, Mary Kettell. Samuel was born 1696, town clerk 1726, and died 1730-1, leaving a widow, Abigail, and five children, Abigail, Joseph, Samuel, Elijah, and Solomon. The widow married Joseph Whittemore, Jr., and died in 1734. Mr. Phipps' real estate lay in three parcels, within the limits of present Somerville, or, as it was then expressed, ‘in Charlestowne without the neck.’ An appraisal rehearses and values it, viz.:—

Homestead, 7 acres, 21 rods on the highway leading from Charlestown to Medford, bounded by lands of widow Mary Rand, of Captain Eben Breed, by land of William Hoppin and Meriam Fosket, and by rangeways, at £ 55 old tenor per acre	£392	4s	4 1/2d
Meadow, 4 acres, 54 rods, on same highway, and bounded by lands of Joseph Frothingham, Samuel Hutchinson, Nathaniel Frothingham, and rangeway, at £ 66 old tenor per acre	£266	5s	6d
Pasture, on highway leading from Charlestown to Cambridge, and bounded by land of Michael Brigden and a rangeway, at £ 35 old tenor per acre	£203	4s	4d

The children being young, the estate remained unsettled till the death of the widow, when Samuel Danforth, of Cambridge, the judge of probate, and a kinsman of the family, took charge of and divided the estate, giving a double portion to the eldest son, as was common and legal in those days. His computation is entered at large on the back of the report of the committee on appraisal, and, as it affords a curious example of arithmetic, as then written, we copy the major portion of it. He first foots the several items of the appraisal, £ 861 14s 21d, deducting the sum of £ 14 13s 1/2d for accrued expenses, among which is given the