AN OFFSHOOT OF BILLERICA

...Wee promis to be Careful to the untmost to provide the Settlement & Continuance among us... ~ from the Tewksbury Covenant

the town of Tewksbury is born

After the upheaval of King Philip's War, the English finally managed to displace the Wamesit Praying Indians from their lands by the Merrimack River. The Praying Indians had been shipped off to Dunstable where they lived under guardianship for the rest of their lives. Part of these Native lands went to Chelmsford and the town of Lowell was born. Another part went to Billerica. The town of Tewksbury, where many of our Billerica families already made their homes, was formed when it split from its mother city of Billerica in 1734.

For the families living in northern Billerica, traveling the five miles to church had been a trial, not to mention dangerous. An article by Reverend E.W. Pride, in The History of Middlesex County, MA states that "...when the people in this part of the ancient town found it a heavy burden to go so far by horseback, or oxen, or on foot... they desired to have a meeting-house of their own church."

Note: Our uncle Roger Toothaker, an accused witch who died in prison during the trials, had his farm in northern Billerica on land which would become part of Tewksbury. After his death, the farm was attacked in 1695. His wife, Mary Allen Toothaker, recently released from her own imprisonment, was killed and his daughter taken captive.

(1) Lowell (land taken from Natives) (2) Billerica (3) Tewskbury (4) Chelmsford (5) Dunstable

our family in Tewksbury

We had nine families who either moved to or already lived in the area that finally became Tewksbury. They were Kittredges, Kidders, Haseltines, Pattens, Stickneys, Halls, Wymans, Baldwins and Richardsons. Many of the men in these families were involved in town matters. The first town meeting in Tewksbury was held 14 Jan 1735 with our uncle, Lieutenant Daniel Kittredge (8U), elected moderator. Members of our family chosen as first selectment were Daniel Kittredge, Joseph Kittredge (1C9X), and Nathaniel Patten (1C9X). Nathaniel Patten was also chosen as town clerk. Our cousin William Kittredge (1C9X) became the Surveryor of Flax and Hemp, an important office at the time.

Note: Hemp fibers are exceptionally strong and durable and were used for a myriad purposes including thread, cord, cloth paper and food. Flax fibers were generally made into cothing.

In September of 1735 the selectmen "voted that they would have preaching in ye town." It was also decided that "they would sing that way that is now called ye new...Joseph Bailey and Nathan Stickney (7U) were chosen to tune and read ye psalms." Evidently, the practice of singing psalms in church was a brand new trend in 1735.

On 30 Mar 1736, the town meeting was held at the house of our cousin William Kittredge (1C9X). There it was "voted that their meeting-house shall stand upon the land of Nathaniel Richardson (1C9X), near a small pine tree marked with R."

The meeting house was also to be used for church services. A minister was hired and all the men in the new town signed the church covenant and agreed to pay their share of tax for the minister's wages. Following is a list of all our relatives who signed the covenant.

Samuel (2C10X) and Stephen Hasletine (3C9X). Ephraim (1C8X) , Joseph (1C8X) and Josiah Kidder (1C8x). Daniel (8U), Daniel, Jr. (1C8X), Francis (1C9X), James, Sr. (7GGF), James Jr. (6GGF) James (1C9X)), Dr. John (8U), John, Jr. (1C8X), Joseph (1C8X), Thomas (7U), William (1C9X), and Isaac Kittredge (2C8X). John (1C9X), Kendall (8U), and Nathaniel Patten (2C9X). Abraham (7GGF) and Amos Stickney (7U). Richard (8GGF) and Samuel Hall (7U). Ross Wyman (2C7X). Josiah Baldwin (1C8X). Andrew Richardson (1C9X)

Below is a partial copy of the men who signed the covenant. This list was posted by a descendant of the Kittredge family who placed the red markers. I haven't been able to locate the original list. Our family members' signatures below: Daniel Kittredge, Nathan Stickney, John Kittredge, James Kittredge, William Kittredge, Thomas Kittredge, Ephraim Kidder, Abraham Stickney, Francis Kittredge

In December of 1737, the town decided "to seat their meeting-house and to have respect both to money and age in seating the meeting-house, to age all above sixty years" and then "...to dispose of the room that remains left for pews to the highest payers..." That means that in Tewksbury, age was respected over money!

Grandpa James Kittredge

Our immigrant grandfather, John Kittredge (9GGF), had already settled in that part of Billerica which became Tewksbury in 1735. With the Merrimack River to the north, the Concord to the west and the Shawsheen to the east, all five of John's son's inherited prime property and did well for themselves over the years in Tewksbury. Eleven of the forty-seven families that lived there in 1735 were Kittredges.

One of those was the family of John Kittredge's grandson, our grandfather James (7GGF). James Kittredge, Jr. lived on land he inherited from his father, James, Sr. From the inventory of his property, we know that James, Jr.'s property was bordered on one side with "land that belongs to the heirs of Josiah Richardson (1C10X)."

Our cousin Josiah was a brother of Lt. James Richardson (1C10X), who was killed at Blackpoint in Maine. Josiah and James were "loving friends" of the Wamesit who lived there. In 1668, Josiah had been given lands by his Wamesit friends. According to the deed, "we for ye love we bear to ye before said Josiah, have lett unto him one parcell of land lying at ye mouth of Concord River...and partly upon Merrimack river...for ye space of One Thousand and one years..." After King Philip's War ended and the Wamesit were displaced to Dunstable, Josiah was granted further lands that were originally part of the Wamesit Praying Village. Using that information, we can find the approximate location of Grandpa James' land. The red marker below shows a spot that would be the approximate border between Lowell and Tewksbury.

Little is known of James Kittredge's life. Unlike his brothers who became involved in town matters, James stayed pretty much under the radar. We know the name of his wife, our grandmother Elizabeth (7GGM), only from the birth records of their four children. Grandma Elizabeth died sometime before 1766 when James took Hannah Walker for his second wife. Five years after that marriage, James died at age 71. The Tewksbury death records relate the cause of death as "consumption, dropsy."

Note: Consumption is an old term for tuberculosis. Dropsy is a condition of swelling tissues often associated with congestive heart failure. Blood letting was a common treament for dropsy.

In his will, James indicated that he had already given his oldest son, James III (6U), his part of the estate. The rest was divided among his other three children. James was forward thinking in that his two daughters received the same portion of his estate as his sons. He appointed his wife Hannah and our grandfather Abraham Stickney (6GGF), husband of his James' daughter Sarah (6GGM), as executors of his will.

Uncle Thomas and Cousin Jane Kittredge

In 1726, Grandpa James' brother Thomas Kittredge (6U) married his first cousin, Jane Kittredge (1C8X). The couple had a son born in 1727 and another the following year. Then, tradgedy struck. From an issue of the New England Weekly Journal dated 13 Oct 1729, a week after the incident:

"We have received the following melancholy relation from Billerica. That on the Lord's day, the fifth instant, a house was burnt there, wherein were two small children, who were consumed in the flames. It seems the heads of the family were gone to publick worship, and left at home, three children, the eldest a girl of about twelve years old, who had the care of the others; but she, going a little ways from the house, to drive some swine that had gotten into the corn in the meantime the house took fire and burnt so vehemently that when she came to it, she could not get into it, or do anything to save the other poor children."

In the article, the girl watching the two boys was erroneously identified as one of Thomas and Jane's children. She was probably a neighbor, cousin or neice of the Kittredges. The older little boy, Thomas (1C8X), was two and a half and the younger, Jonathan (1C8X), only a year.

Thomas and Jane went on to have six more children. One died when she was only three years old in 1747. One of their sons died in 1756 at twenty-two in defense of Fort William Henry in the last French and Indian War.

Thomas, like his brother James, was not active in community affairs. He is referred to as Sergeant Kittredge so we know he did his stint in the militia. The only other record naming Thomas is from 1744 when he was fined for selling “strong drink” without a license. He evidently paid the fine, but it seems he asked the town leaders for his money back two years later. While it may have been worth a try, the selectmen did not agree. On May 22, 1746, town records said, “Voted not to give said Thomas Kittredge the six pounds which Thomas Kittredge forfeited for selling strong drink without a license.”

It's interesting to note that when the Tewksbury church covenant was signed in 1737, Thomas signed with only a mark. He wasn't alone. Of the nine Kittredges who signed the covenant, five of them signed using a mark. And of the thirty-three men who signed, fifteen of them used a mark. If the covenant is a representation of the population of Massachusetts, it seems that, well into the eighteenth century, only about half of the male citizens could read and write. Our grandfather James, who was able to sign his name, was probably literate.

is there a doctor in the house?

Our uncle John Kittredge, Jr. (8U), son of the immigrant John Kittredge (9GGF) became a physician, the first of a long line of his descendants who also practiced medicine. John, Jr. died in Billerica in 1714. His son, John Kittredge III (1C9X), was a surgeon "of great repute." He moved from Tewksbury to Andover in 1741. Three of John III's sons also became doctors, Dr. Benjamin Kittredge (2C8X) of Tewksbury, Dr. Jacob Kittredge (2C8X) of Dover and Dr. Thomas Kittredge (2C8X) of North Andover.

Even John III's daughter, Elizabeth (2C8X), took up the mantle, assisting her father in surgical operations. After her marriage, Elizabeth moved with her husband to New Hampshire and continued to offer medical advice to the residents there. An anecdote relates that while traveling out to visit a patient, she fell and broke leg. Elizabeth set the bone herself and "did it so well that she suffered no serious inconvenience."