History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

204 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
ity, education, culture, enlargement, influence, fame,
and wealth. The first mayor of the city of New-
ton, Hon. J. F. C. Hyde, was a direct descendant
of this early stock. The Boston and Albany Rail-
road owes its existence largely to the far-reaching
foresight and influence of another, the Hon.
William Jackson, in the Massachusetts legisla-
ture.
The first settlers of the town did not come in a
body, but family after family, and one by one.
The first who came were Deacon .John Jackson, of
London, in 1639, and Samuel Holly, in the same
year. In 1640 came Deacon Samuel Hyde, in
1643 Edward Jackson, both also of London, and
the next year, John Fuller. Li 1647 came Jona-
than Hyde, from London, and Richard Park, from
Cambridge; in 1649, Captain Thomas Prentice;
and in 1650, Messrs. John Ward, Thomas Hammond,
John Parker, Vincent Druce, and James
and Thomas Prentice, Jr. John Jackson, Jr.,
born in 1639, was probably the first child born
within the limits of the town. The hardships in-
cident to life in a new country seem to have been
Date of
not unfavorable to health and longevity. Out of
thirty, whose age at the time of their decease is
recorded, only two died under fifty, only eight
under seventy, and fourteen lived beyond eighty.
John Jackson's lot, including a dwelling-house
and forty-eight acres of land, was near the present
dividing line between Newton and' Brighton, bordering
twenty-four rods on Charles River. The
estate of the Parks was in the northerly portion of
the territory of the town; the Hammonds in the
east and southeast ; Hydes, Prentices, and Springs,
near the centre; Wiswalls and Clarkes, south of
the centre; Fullers, from the centre to the west
and northwest ; Woodwards, southwest. The Gov-
ernor Haynes farm, of a thousand acres, was at the
south. Up to the year 1700, the names of only
seventy-one male settlers in the town are found
upon the records. Most of them were, at the time
of their settlement, in the prime of life, — only two,
so far as is known, being more than fifty years of
age, and only five having reached the age of forty.
The majority of them were between thirty-one and
thirty-five.