History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

208 HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
of Mr. Joseph White. The front of tliis hjt, on
Centre Street, extended from this lane to :i point
about opposite Ward Street. This farm was tliere-
fore near tlie centre of Ne\vton, and inckided tlie
ground on which the First Parish Meeting-liouse
now stands. In 1703 he gave to John Kenrick
and others, selectmen of Newton, and their suc-
cessors in office, " half an acre of his homestead,"
for the use and benefit of tlie school in I he south-
erly part of the town. It is sujiposed that he also
gave most of the land which has long been known as
the Common, at Newton Centre, as a training-field;
but no record of this gift has been found. He was
selectman in 1691, and in his deeds was styled
" .Sergeant." He settled his own estate a few years
before his decease, by deeds of gift to eleven of his
children, conveying about four hundred acres, witii
several dwelling-houses thereon. The other twelve
cliildren had probably died before him, or had been
otherwise provided for. His first wife died l\Iay 27,
1673, aged thirty -nine; the second died Septem-
ber 5, 1708. He died October 5, 1711, aged
eighty-five, leaving numerous gi'andchildren.
Richard Park was a proprietor in Cambridge in
1636, and of Cambridge Farms (Lexington), 1642.
In 1647 there was a division of lands, and he had
eleven acres, abutting on ilr. Edward Jackson's
land, east and west, and the highway to Dedham
(Centre Street) was laid out through it. His
dwelling-house was probably erected on this lot,
and stood within a few feet of the spot now occu-
pied by the Eliot Church. This ancient bouse was
pulleddown about 1800. This spot was near the
four-mile line, or the division line between Cam-
bridge and Cambridge Village. During the con-
test between the Tillage and Cambridge in regard
to being set off, he sent a [ictitioii to the ( Jeneral
Court, praying to retain his eimncctioii with the
Cambridge church.
He owned a large tract of land in the Village,
bounded west by the Fuller farm, north by Cliarles
River, east by the Dummer farm, and east and
south by the Mayhew farm (Edward .lackson's),
containing about six hundred acres. ]\v his will
he bequeathed to his only son, Tliomas, tliis tract
of land witli the houses thercoti, after the death of
his wife, Sarah. Tliis only son, Tliomas, married
Abigail Dix of Watertown, 16.');}, and liad five
sons and four daughters, among whom this tract
of land was divided in 1694 (Thomas having de-
cciiscd), and the contents then were about eight
hundred acres, — Thomas having added by pur-
chase about two hundred acres, and built a cornmill
upon Charles River, near where the dam now
is, in the North Village.
In 16.57 Richard Park was one of a committee,
with Edward Jackson, John Jackson, and Samuel
Hyde, to lay out and settle highways in Cambridge
Village. In 1663 he was released from training,
and therefore past sixty years of age. He died in
1665, leaving a will, naming in it his wife Sarah,
two daughters, and only son, Thomas. One of his
daughters married Francis Whittemore of Cam-
bridge. His widow was living at Duxbury in 1688.
Henry Parke of London, merchant, son and heir
of Edward Parke of London, merchant, deceased,
conveyed land in Cambridge to John Stedman in
1650. Edward may have been the ancestor of the
first settlers of that name in New England, namely,
of Deacon William of Roxbury, Richard of Cam-
bridge Village, Samuel of Mystic, and Thomas of
Stonington, Conn.
Captain Thomas Prentice was born in England
in 1621. He was in this country November 22,
161-9, as shown by the record of the birth of his
twin children, Thomas and Elizabeth. He was
elected lieutenant of the company of horse in the
lower Middlesex regiment in 1656, and captain in
1662. In 1661 he purchased three hundred acres of
land in the Pequot country, which was in Stoning-
ton, Conn. Two hundred and thirty acres of this
land are appraised in his son Thomas' inventory
at £ 109, in 1685. His grandson, Samuel, married
Esther Hammond, and settled upon this land in
1710. In 1(U5;3 he purchased of Elder Frost of
Cambridge eighty-five acres of land in the easterly
part of Cambridge Village, adjoining John Ward's
land. This was his homestead for about fifty years.
In 1705 he conveyed it by deed of gift to his
grandson, Captain Thomas Prentice. His house
was on the spot where the Harback house now
stands. He was one of the Cambridge proprietors,
and in the (livision nf the common lands he re-
ceived a hundred and fifty acres in Billerica in
1652, and nine acres in Cambridge Village in
1664.
He was greatly distinguished for his bravery and
heroism in Philip's War, which broke out in 1675.
On (lie 26th nf June a company of infantry under
C;i|)tain Henrhmau from Bo.'ston, and a company
of horse niuler Ca])tain Prentice from Cambridge
A'illage and adjoining towns (twenty from the Vil-
lage and twenty-one from Dedham), man'hed for
Mount Hope. In their first confiiet with the In-