The Earle family : Ralph Earle and his descendants

44 THE EARLE FAMILY [Fourth
For these and about three hundred of their descendants see the
" History of the Rice Family," by A. W. Henshaw.
[91-n]. Benjamin^ Earle (Ratyh? William* fialfi/1 1
),
son oi Ralph and Mary (Hicks) Earle, b. March 14,
171 1, in Freetown, Mass. ; m. 1st, Abigail Newhall, dau.
of Thomas Newhall, of Leicester, formerly of Maiden,
who was the mother of all his children ; 2d, widow
Deborah (Buffum). Slade (b. Dec. 1, 1716; d. Dec. 26,
1804), dau. of Jonathan Buffum; and d. Dec. 18, 1760.
Benjamin was the youngest of eleven children and appears to have
lived with his father during the life of the latter. January 18, 1753,
his father " in consideration of £100 lawful money and love and
affection" conveyed to him the homestead, consisting of the build-
ings and 140 acres of land. He afterward built a grist-mill upon the
stream running through the westerly part of the farm. Traces of the
dam are still visible, thirty or forty rods below the remains of another
dam, a short distance south of the Friends' cemetery, where his
brother Robert's grandson Timothy erected a saw- and grist-mill in
1815.
He was chairman of the Board of Selectmen in 1757.
According to the town records, he " Declared himself a Quaker
and Desired his name to be entered as such." August 13, i739> ne
and Nathaniel Potter deeded to Samuel Thayer of Mendon, the lot
upon which the Friends erected their meeting-house. Much the
larger part of the lot was taken from Benjamin's farm, which was
a part of the original farm of his father Ralph. December 27,
1739, Thayer conveyed it to Benjamin Earle, Nathaniel Potter,
Thomas Smith and John Wells, with the condition that it should
never be divided, but held in common, and each one's share at his
decease should go to the survivors and their heirs or assigns forever.
Benjamin's son John enlisted in the army of the United States.
In 1760, while posted at a southern station he was attacked with the
small-pox. His father went for him, brought him home, took the
disease and both father and son died of it. In his will, executed in
1759, he gave his son Antipas "that farm that I bought of John
Hasey, being fifty acres with the Building and improvements, and
ten acres of my homestead." This farm is on Fowler street, at the
head of the Lynde reservoir, and the modern house is on the site of