Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 9.

The Bradburys of Medford and their ancestry.

by Eliza M. Gill.

THE great contrasts of joy and sorrow, life and death are ever a part of human experience, and when in our midst, unless they have a personal touch for us, are seldom felt or recognized, and it must needs be so, for ‘the heart knoweth its own bitterness.’ So the busy throngs who daily pass and repass on the south side of Salem street, intent on business or pleasure, absorbed in interests of their own, scarcely realize that they are walking directly over the silent homes of the dead; nor do they dream of the wealth of information to be gathered by those who read between the lines inscribed upon the tombs and gravestones, although this ancient burying place, with its tombs extending under the sidewalk, has been a claimant upon their attention for many a year.

Among the tombs on the north side of this oldest burying place of the town, known as the Salem Street Cemetery, is one whose site is marked by a plain slate stone set into the brick wall, bearing the inscription:—

No. 16
Wymond Bradbury
& William Bradbury
family tomb
1816

They were father and son. The tomb has been sealed, for the last of the son's family has passed away, leaving no descendants, yet those who lie there once had a share in the life of this town, having the same human experiences and feelings that we have, with the only difference that a century's space brings into the life of a community. [p. 50] It is only from printed records we can glean anything concerning Wymond Bradbury, but there are those among us who can recall his son William, and more who remember the daughters of William's family. The fact that I have anything to tell you tonight concerning this family is due to pleasant memories of some women bearing this name who came into our family life as neighbors when I was but a child. Although after diligent search I can offer you but little, yet it has been a pleasure to glean these facts, many of which were known to me only recently.

From the coming of the first Bradbury to settle within the present limits of our city, to the death of a granddaughter in 1882, this family was here more than a hundred years; and if we look up the Bradbury line, we shall find its members to be descended from good English stock, from eminently respectable and intelligent men and women, well educated, many of them talented, and occupying prominent positions in public affairs.

‘The name Bradbury is of Saxon origin, and of the class styled “local.” Its components are Brad, meaning broad, and Bury, which is variously defined as a house, a hill, a domain, and a town. It is found variously spelled in English records as Bradberrie, Bradberrye, Bradberry, and Bradbury. The latter is the orthography adopted by the emigrant Thomas, and followed by his descendants generally. Unlike most local names, it never had a wide diffusion in England, and tracing it back through two centuries previous to the settlement of this country, it seems to have narrowed its limits and finally to have confined itself to a single parish in Derbyshire. The radiating point seems to have been Ollerset in the parish of Glossop, in the northerly part of the county of Derby. No mention of the name has been found prior to 1433, when there were living among the gentry at Ollerset, Roger de Bradbury and Rodolphus de Bradbury. The connection between these two persons is not known, nor the length of the time they had resided at [p. 51] Ollerset. But the interest of the American Bradburys centers in the line of which Robert is the head, and of whom but little is known. We know that he must have been born as early as 1400, that he lived at Ollerset, and that he married a daughter of Robert Davenport (written also Davenporte), and that he had a son William who settled at Braughing, county of Hertfordshire, and married Margaret, daughter of Geoffry Rokell, spelled also Rockhill. From him are said and believed to have sprung the Bradburys of Littlebury and Wickham Bonhunt, generally written at the present day Wicken Bonant. They were a landed family. . . . The branch of the Bradbury family from which the New England family claim descent settled at Wicken Bonant, in the County of Essex, about the year 1560. . . . The parish of Wicken Bonant. . . is supposed to have been the birthplace of that Thomas Bradbury who, while a young man, came to the district of Maine as early as 1634, as the agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and is the common ancestor of the Bradburys of New England.’

The English line of descent briefly stated is

Robert1 of Ollersett, County of Derby.

William2 of Braughing, County of Hertfordshire.

Robert3 of Littlebury, County of Essex.

William4 of Littlebury, County of Essex.

Matthew5of Wicken Bonant, County of Essex.

William6 of Wicken Bonant, County of Essex.

Wymond7 of the ‘Brick House,’ County of Wicken Bonant.

The New England line begins with Thomas Bradbury, who was baptized at Wicken Bonant the last day of February 1610-11. He was the second son of Wymond (the seventh in the English line) and Elizabeth Gill, a widow whose maiden name was Whitgift. We find him in New England at York, Maine, in 1634, and later at Salisbury, Mass. At the former place he was agent of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the proprietor of the Province of Maine.

He was one of the most prominent citizens of Salisbury [p. 52] for more than fifty years, and received land in the ‘first division,’ 1640-1641. He was a freeman and held the offices of town clerk, school master, justice of the peace, representative in the General Court seven years, and other important positions. Most of the records of Salisbury were written by him, and he is said to have been peculiarly fitted for the office of recorder. His writing is described as easy, graceful and legible, and we shall find that his later descendants inherited their ancestor's style.

He married Mary Perkins of Ipswich, who was tried and convicted as a witch, but escaped punishment. Her husband's testimony at her trial is a beautiful tribute to her womanly worth, and gracefully expressed. It seems impossible that any one should have been convicted after such testimony as was offered by one hundred and eighteen of her acquaintances, in addition to that of her pastor. Her husband died March 16, 1695, and she died December 20, 1700. In his will he provided ‘that five pounds be delivered to the selectmen in good pay, then in being of said town of Salisbury by them to be disposed to such of the poor as they judge to have most need of it.’

Thomas and Mary Bradbury had six sons and five daughters. Their second child, Judith, married Caleb Moody, son of William, the emigrant who settled at Newbury. She was his second wife and it is particularly interesting for us to note that the late John Ward Dean, an honored member of this society was a descendant of this Judith Bradbury. Her son

Caleb Moody, Jr., m. Ruth Morse.

Eleanor Moody, 5th child, m. Jas. Bridges of Andover.

Moody Bridges m. Naamah or Naomi Frye.

Sarah Bridges m. John Dean.

Charles Dean m. Patience Tappan Kingsbury.

John Ward Dean.

While we are turning from the direct Bradbury line, we will notice another child of Caleb Moody and Judith [p. 53] Bradbury. Their son Samuel, born January 4, 1676, was a celebrated divine, minister at York, Me., where he died November 13, 1747. He married Hannah Sewall, daughter of John and Hannah (Fessenden) Sewall. Samuel Moody's son, Joseph, also a minister of York, acquired notoriety from his peculiar habit of wearing a handkerchief over his face that completely covered his features. He was known as ‘Handkerchief Moody,’ and is said to have fallen into a nervous state, and his mind to have taken on a melancholy tinge, from having in early life accidentally killed an intimate friend. Hawthorne in his story of ‘The Minister's Black Veil’ depicts a Rev. Mr. Hooper as wearing a similar covering over his face for years, but for another reason, and also cites this case of Joseph Moody.

To revert to our line of succession we find that Wymond, the oldest child of Thomas Bradbury, the emigrant, and Mary, his wife, was born April 1, 1637. We shall notice, also, that the names, Wymond, Judith, and Moody were favorites in this family, and appear many times. They appeared in the Dean line just given, and in the one we are following are found in every generation but one. Later Wymond took the form of Wyman.

Wymond Bradbury married, May 7, 1661, Sarah Pike, daughter of Robert and Sarah (Sanders) Pike. He died April 7, 1669, on the Island of Nevis, in the West Indies. His widow married, second, John Stockman. Major Robert Pike, his wife's father, had defended Wymond Bradbury's mother at her trial for witchcraft, and has the name of being one of the most remarkable men of his time. Mr. Charles W. Upham, the writer upon Salem witchcraft, pays him the highest tribute, and in this age of graft and indecision, it is inspiring to read of this grand and rugged character.

Mr. Upham writes at length concerning the circumstances of the case of Mary Bradbury. In the revulsion that followed the distressing persecution of the victims charged with being in league with the Devil, petitions [p. 54] were made to the General Court for indemnity for loss of estate and position in society, and justice in some measure was done the families of the sufferers. The heirs of Mary Bradbury were awarded twenty pounds.

Three children were born to Wymond and Sarah Bradbury. Wymond, the youngest, born May 13, 1669, married Maria Cotton, daughter of Rev. John Cotton, Jr., and Joanna (Rosseter) Cotton, who was born January 14, 1672. Maria Cotton's mother ‘was a very amiable woman and had uncommon intellectual endowments. Great pains were taken with her education. She had poetic talent, was well Versed in the Latin and other languages, and had a “good insight into the medical arts.” ’ The pains taken with her education may be accounted for by the fact that she was the daughter of a physican of liberal education. Another of Mrs. Cotton's daughters married a cousin of Wymond Bradbury.

Wymond Bradbury died at York, Me., April 14, 1734. His widow married John Heard of Kittery, where she died January 30, 1776. Wymond and Maria Bradbury had a family of nine children. The oldest, Jabez, we shall refer to later. The seventh child, Theophilus, born July 8, 1706, married Ann Woodman, August 4, 1730. She was born July 23, 1708, and died July 12, 1743. His second wife, whom we shall merely notice on account of her name, was a Judith Moody. Theophilus Bradbury resided in Newbury, where he was a very prominent man. He died February 3, 1764, leaving five children by his first wife.

Ann, b. May 8, 1731; m. May, 1749, Samuel Greenleaf.

Jonathan, b. November 1, 1732; m. Abigail Smith.

Theophilus, b. January 7, 1735; d. in infancy.

Wymond, b. April 5, 1737; m. Judith Moody.

Theophilus, b. November 13, 1739; m. Sarah Jones.

Theophilus, the youngest child, graduated from Harvard College in 1757 at the age of eighteen, studied law, and began practice in Falmouth, Me. Among his students in Portland was Theophilus Parsons, who became [p. 55] the celebrated and able jurist. Theophilus Bradbury returned to Newbury in 1779, and was a member of Congress from his native district during the Presidency of Washington. While holding the position of judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, he died September 6, 1803.

I have given the children of this family in detail because we have come to the point where we shall find one of them, Wymond, settling at what is at present within the boundaries of Medford.

That point of land known to us as Wellington in the southeastern part of Medford, lying between the Mystic and Malden rivers was a portion of a grant of two hundred acres of land given by the General Court, April 1, 1634, to Rev. John Wilson, first pastor of the church in Boston, which he sold to Thomas Blanchard of Braintree, February 12, 1650, for two hundred pounds. At the death of Thomas Blanchard the farm was divided between two of his sons, and the house built by George Blanchard in 1657 is still standing, at present owned by Mrs. Evelyn L., wife of Arthur W. Wellington. A second house was built, but in 1795 only the original one remained. After various changes the Blanchard heirs sold their interests to Jabez Bradbury of Saint Georges River, County of York, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, in 1756. Samuel Blanchard, Jr., of Malden, conveyed to him for two hundred pounds, twenty-one sacres of land more or less in Malden, with dwelling house, also one and one-half acres, fifteen rods, and twenty-two and one-half acres of pasture land. Samuel Blanchard of Malden conveyed to Jabez Bradbury at the same time twenty-five acres more or less with half the dwelling-house and half the barn and twenty acres, more or less, for two hundred pounds.

In 1757, the year following, Hugh Floyd of Malden also sold to Jabez Bradbury for two hundred and ninety-five pounds forty-eight acres in Malden, part upland and part salt marsh, and forty-six acres of woodland and [p. 56] pasture land, partly in Malden and partly in Medford, making the whole amount purchased one hundred eighty-four acres.

In 1773, Jabez Bradbury of Boston conveyed to Jonathan and Wymond Bradbury and Samuel Greenleaf, all of Newburyport, for love and affection and two hundred pounds of lawful money, ‘my two farms lying in Malden, containing about one hundred and eighty acres called Blanchard's Point, which I purchased of Hugh Floyd, Samuel Blanchard, and Samuel Blanchard, Jr.,’ as the deed reads.

In 1774, Jonathan sold to his brother, Wymond, his one-third part of the farm. It had been known as Wilson's Point, then Blanchard's Point, and then for more than forty years was called the Bradbury Farm.

Jabez Bradbury was uncle to Jonathan and Wymond, and Samuel Greenleaf's wife, who was Anna Bradbury, sister to Jonathan and Wymond. The name of Jabez Bradbury, assessed for personal property, appears on province tax list, 1773, and on province and county lists for 1774. He was long in the service of the Colony and has the record of having been an able and conspicuously brave military officer. He had command of a fort on the Kennebec river, and later, of one at Penobscot, and was engaged in many conflicts with the Indians. He died unmarried January 13, 1781, being within a few days of eighty-eight years.

Wilson's Point, or Blanchard's Point, originally belonged to Charlestown, but in 1726 was made over to Malden. In 1817, a strip on the western side, which included the house, was set off to Medford.

Here came Wymond Bradbury, a retired sea captain of Newburyport, with his family, to make his home. He was the fourth child of Theophilus and Ann (Woodman) Bradbury; was born April 5, 1737, in that part of Newbury probably which later became Newburyport. His marriage intention is thus recorded on the town records; ‘Wymond Bradbury of Newburyport hath informed [p. 57] of his intention of marriage with Miss Judith Moody of said Newburyport.’ She was born April 3, 1744. They were married January 3, 1765, by Rev. Mr. John Loud of that town. Six children were born there.

Anne, October 28, 1765.

Charles, September 8, 1767.

William, September 30, 1769.

Judith, August 31, 1771.

Abigail, September 28, 1773.

Polly, November 22, 1775.

The date of his coming here was probably between 1777 and 1780. We cannot determine it from any tax list of Malden, for none exists earlier than 1786, when he appears on the list, to 1794, inclusive; then, after 1794, there are no Malden tax lists for many years, yet from 1781 on, he appears as non-resident tax payer in Medford for eighteen acres of woodlot.

Three children were born in the new home.

Polly, April 25, 1780, in family Bible name is given as Mary.

Edward, July 17, 1782.

Henry, May 29, 1785; died October 3, 1786.

We can but commend the good taste of Captain Bradbury in his selection of a home. The view, attractive today, must have been even more pleasing in his time. We can imagine the waters spread round about him gave great pleasure to one who had followed the sea, and how natural to think that not only by horseback or chaise, but by boat he made his little journeys. How different the surroundings in his day and ours. As early as 1635 the farm was reached by a way across the marshes from a landing place on the North, or Malden, river, near the present Boston & Maine Railroad station at Wellington. When he went there, there were no bridges across the rivers; no steel rails glistened along the marshes over which long trains of steam cars drew freight and passengers; no state road within a stone's throw of his front door circled the edge of the marshes [p. 58] just below, nor did automobiles with their goose like note rush by over this fine roadway; but he saw the great bridge over the Charles river completed and thrown open to travel with great rejoicing and festivity in 1786, the Malden bridge over the Mystic in 1787, the West Boston bridge in 1793, and Chelsea bridge over the Mystic in 1803. He saw that landmark that shows up so plainly against the sky from that part of our city rise in its solid strength with its great dome on Beacon Hill, but the granite shaft, its companion landmark, had not reared its towering height on Bunker Hill. He saw the rise of ship building in this town, the ships launched from the yards of Thatcher Magoun, Turner & Briggs, and Calvin Turner. He felt the mysterious touch nature experienced on the Dark Day, May 19, 1780. He may have watched the building of the Andover turnpike and the Medford turnpike. He saw what we can only imagine, the great river traffic that Medford had, the various craft that sailed up and down the Mystic. Charlestown, after its destruction by fire, June 17, 1775, had been built up with substantial homes, with fine gardens, so unlike what we know that we can scarcely believe its charms as told by Timothy T. Sawyer in his ‘Old Charlestown.’ He may have had a glimpse of the fox hunters starting from that town and galloping through Medford to Woburn, yet he never saw the great European steamships at Charlestown docks, nor dreamed perhaps what steam would do for ocean travel. As his eye circled the horizon around his home he saw but few houses on the low hills beyond the marshes, while to our sight they rise tier upon tier by hundreds, and the smoke of factories shows against the sky. In 1800 Boston was a town of 24,937 inhabitants; Charlestown had 2,751; Medford, 1, 114, and Malden, 1,050. A hundred years later, Boston had become a city, having annexed Charlestown to her territory, and in 1900 had 560,892 inhabitants; Medford had 18,244, and Malden, 33,664. The United States valuation of 1798 gives [p. 59] Malden 138 dwelling-houses, and there are those living in Medford who can tell of the few houses once seen between the Bishop house and Malden, and how green fields stretched away where now the homes of Park street and Glenwood dot the landscape.

His farm consisted of English mowing, tillage, salt marsh and woodland, of which latter there was a great deal, and under his cultivation the farm was noted for its great asparagus beds. He was a great distance from the meeting-house and school of the town to which he belonged and separated from them by the river and marshes. So we find him an attendant at the First Parish in Medford, a parishioner of Dr. Osgood, and he owned a pew in the old third meeting-house where later his grandchildren were baptized, with water probably from the silver baptismal basin, the gift of Mr. John Willis.

Though he found his church life and a social life among the townspeople here, yet not all his leanings were toward Medford, for his civil relations existed with Malden, and he performed his duties there as a patriotic citizen, serving upon the Committee of Correspondence, or as it was finally called, Correspondence, Inspection, and Safety, 1782-1784. Serving with him for the whole or a portion of this period were Captain William Waite, Captain Jonathan Oakes and James Kettell.

The house stands upon a knoll, faces south, and is a remarkably well preserved farmhouse. Outwardly, and as regards its frame, it is unchanged, but a small piazza has been added to the back, and a porch at the front entrance. It is today a charming home, combining the modern comforts and conveniences with old-time features and quaintness. The plumbing for kitchen and bathroom, the steam-heating pipes, the large windowpanes seem an innovation, but the large square rooms and the very small ones, low ceiled, the great beams, the long, sloping roof, the huge central chimney with its place for hanging the hams, the little cupboard where [p. 60] liquid refreshments were kept, such as the old-time farmer regaled himself with at 11 o'clock in the morning, outweigh the former, and speak plainly of its great antiquity. In Captain Bradbury's time there were two barns; one was moved and replaced eighty-one years ago by the large one now standing. The two were used for some years and torn down in 1855. A red gate, which some of you will remember, afforded an entrance to the estate, and was there till about 1855. It opened on to ‘the path leading to the Medford bridge on the westerly side of said farm,’ as a deed of 1819 reads. This was the river road, now the eastern part of Riverside avenue, called in a deed of 1657, ‘the common highway leading from the Mansion House unto Charlestown Commons and Meadford House.’ A circular road ran from the house to the red gate. This was the only approach to the place. A cart path, a private way, ran through the woods to Salem street, Malden. Mr. John H. Hooper says the house was built in 1657.

Captain Bradbury died of paralysis, attended by fever, February 18, 1810. Under date of February 20, 1810, Dr. Osgood notes in his diary, ‘attended funeral of Captain Bradbury.’ He was buried in the Salem-street burying-place (the tomb being of later date), and a stone bears the following inscription:—

Erected in memory of
Captain
Wymond Bradbury
who departed this life
Feb. 18, 1810,
ae 73.

Behold fond man!
See here thy pictur'd life; pass some few years;
Thy flowing spring, thy summer's ardent strength,
Thy sober autumn fading into age,
And pale concluding winter comes at last
And shuts the scene.

Just west of his tomb is that of Hezekiah Blanchard, a descendant of the family that had lived in the house [p. 61] previous to the time of its coming into the possession of Captain Bradbury, and while in another part of this burial place lie other Blanchards, descendants also of the earlier proprietor.

Captain Bradbury's will was signed April 7, 1800. His personal estate, according to the inventory, amounted to $1,977.05; his real estate to $5,866.67, a total of $7,843.72. The personal estate consisted of furniture, cattle, horses, swine, hay, wearing apparel, tools and notes with interest. After leaving $40 to each of his five children he left the rest of his property to his wife during the time she remained his widow. His pew in the Medford meeting-house is mentioned in the list of property. His wife, Judith, died May 5, 1818, and May 9, 1818, Dr. Osgood's diary notes the funeral of Mrs. Bradbury.

In 1819 the Bradbury heirs sold their two-thirds part of the estate to James and Isaac Wellington. The signatures of the five heirs and of their wives and husbands are neatly and finely executed. The deed was signed February 19, 1819, and March 20 of the same year the one-third part then occupied by the youngest child, Edward, was deeded to the Wellington brothers by the heirs of Samuel Greenleaf, deceased. Samuel Greenleaf's wife being, as we have seen, Wymond's sister Anna.

At this time the house was in Medford and the greater part of the farm in Malden. When Everett was set off from Malden, that part not made over to Medford in 1817 fell within the bounds of the new town, but became a part of Medford, April 20, 1875.

Nine children we have found were born to Captain Bradbury and his wife, Judith. The marriage intention of Anna, the oldest, and Ebenezer Simonds of Lexington, is recorded as January 20, 1785. They were married at Cambridge by the Rev. T. Hilliard, April 20, 1785. They were in Lexington for awhile, where both were received into the church, April 7, 1793, and at the same [p. 62] time their children, Nancy, Mary, Abigail and Judith, were baptized. Soon after they must have moved to Medford, for Ebenezer Simonds was a resident tax payer here from 1793 to 1810, inclusive. He owned a good amount of taxable property, for he was assessed for a dwelling house and another building, English mowing land, tillage, pasture land, and thirty acres of wood lot. Rev. Charles Brooks' History of Medford, on page 373, gives a list of occupiers of houses in 1798, taxed for more than $100, in which the names of Ebenezer Symonds and William Bradbury are included.

The Simonds' land was on each side of Fulton street.

Later the family was in Lexington again, where Mrs. Anna Simonds died July 12, 1820, and her husband, August 24, 1845, aged eighty-seven years.

Lexington and Medford records supplement each other; children of Ebenezer and Anna died in Lexington within recent years, several of them having been baptized in Medford before 1804.

Charles, the second child of Captain Bradbury, was married to Sallie Blanchard of Malden by Dr. Osgood of Medford, May 14, 1794. Intention of marriage, April 3, 1794. He was taxed in Malden from 1789 to 1794, inclusive, and from then till 1799 in Medford, where he made his home after his marriage, and owned one-fourth of a dwelling house.

The births of three children of Charles and Sallie are recorded in Medford.

Charles Bradbury moved to Charlestown in 1800, where he built a house on the present Broadway, Somerville. He was a brick maker and had yards in Charlestown, near where the McLean Asylum used to be. His wife, Sallie, died February 23, 1801, and the good pastor must have driven to Charlestown to minister to his former parishioner, for on that date, Dr. Osgood recorded in his diary, ‘Visited and prayed with Mrs. Bradbury,’ and on February 26, ‘Attended funeral of Charles Bradbury's wife.’ Mrs. Bradbury left an infant, born [p. 63] February 4, baptized by the name of Judith, March 29, 1801. This child died August 22, 1803. Mrs. Bradbury, we infer, was buried in our Salem street burying-place, for a stone bears the following inscription:—

In
memory of
Mrs. Sarah Bradbury
wife of
Mr. Charles Bradbury
who died Feb'y 23d.,
1801
aged 32 years.

Secure from all the cares of life,
Sweetly she sleeps in silent death,
In pleasing hope again to rise
And dwell with Christ above the skies.

Like many another of God's ancient acres, this burial place of our city seems to have undergone some change, if it has not suffered sacrilege from indifferent hands, for this stone may be seen on the west side on the portion allotted to the tombs, face to the wall. It stands just between the tomb of Nathan Wait and Elijah Smith, and that of Geo. B. Lapham.

As Charles Bradbury did not remain in Medford, it is sufficient to say that he married Hannah Oakes, then Mary Oakes, and had, by his three wives, thirteen children. On the records of the First Church, Charlestown, will be found items of marriage, reception to church communion, baptisms, etc., that pertain to his family.

Charles Bradbury died January 4, 1856. His youngest child, Mrs. Sarah J. Conant, widow of William F. Conant of Charlestown, is living in Melrose, nearly eighty years of age. From her were obtained some of the facts here stated.

Charles Wyman Bradbury, a grandson of Charles Bradbury, with his family, has been a resident of this city seven years, and is living at present on Chestnut street. [p. 64]

Three children of Captain Bradbury died young: Judith, October 30, 1776, at Newburyport, aged five years, two months; Abigail, May 28, 1777, aged three years, eight months; Polly, October 30, 1777, aged one year, eleven months.

Mary, born at Malden, lived for some time with her brother William in Medford, and died in Newburyport, August 22, 1852.

In the will of 1800, the children mentioned are Anna Symonds, Charles, William, Polly, and Edward Bradbury. The deed of the farm in 1819 was signed by the three sons and their wives, by Anna Symonds and her husband and Mary Bradbury, who was unmarried. The latter properly used her legal name, Mary. In regard to dates, differences exist in several cases between the family records and town records.

The captain's youngest child, Edward, married October 28, 1804, Abigail Hill. He was twenty-two years of age and is recorded as then being of Roxbury. His wife was born March 19, was baptized March 29, 1778, and was of the precinct of Cambridge that was the Menotomy of Revolutionary days, later incorporated as West Cambridge, and now forms the town of Arlington. She was a descendant of Abraham Hill, an early inhabitant of that part of Charlestown that is now Malden. In the third generation this Hill family was located in Cambridge.

After his marriage Edward lived with his parents on the farm. A son, Elbridge, was baptized July 20, 1806, and a daughter, Abigail, October 5, 1806. A son, Wymond, born November 18, 1811, was baptized April 19, 1812. The baptisms are entered on the register of the Medford church, and the birth of the last named child on the Malden town records. Edward was living on the farm at the time it was sold. He moved to Saxonville, where he died August 22, 1855.