Bedford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is within the Greater Boston area, some north-west of the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The population of Bedford was 12,595 at the 2000 census.

History

The following compilation comes from Ellen Abrams (1999) based on information from Abram English BrownTs History of the Town of Bedford (1891), as well as other sources such as The Bedford Sampler Bicentennial Edition containing Daisy Pickman OakleyTs articles, Bedford Vital Records, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Town Directories, and other publications from the Bedford Historical...

Bedford is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is within the Greater Boston area, some north-west of the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The population of Bedford was 12,595 at the 2000 census.

History

The following compilation comes from Ellen Abrams (1999) based on information from Abram English BrownTs History of the Town of Bedford (1891), as well as other sources such as The Bedford Sampler Bicentennial Edition containing Daisy Pickman OakleyTs articles, Bedford Vital Records, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Town Directories, and other publications from the Bedford Historical Society.:

Bedford was first settled in 1640 and was taken mostly from Billerica, Massachusetts with some land added from Concord, MA and Lexington, MA when officially incorporated in 1729.

In 1630 came the arrival of John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Aboard the Arabella from Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, Winthrop and Dudley sailed, and after a difficult ten week voyage, they landed on the shores of the New World, with Salem, Massachusetts and Port of Boston being the Arabella's earliest destinations. In 1637, the General Court of Massachusetts granted some 2,200 acres (9 km²) of land, including Huckins Farm]land to the first residential Governor Winthrop and Deputy Governor Dudley. The following year, the two men agreed to divide the land so that the parcel south of the two large boulders by the Concord River (Brothers Rocks) belonged to Governor Winthrop and north of the Rocks was to belong to Deputy Governor Dudley. Later, Dudley became governor. DudleyTs son Rev. Samuel Dudley and WinthropTs daughter Mary were married, thus Brothers Rocks were so named because of this marriage of families.

Governor WinthropTs grandson, Fitz John Winthrop, in 1664, sold 1,200 acres (5 km²) of this land (including what is present day Huckins Farm]) to Job Lane, a skilled artisan and house builder. Upon his death, he passed much of this land to his son, Col. John Lane in the 1690s. The land later passed to his son, Capt. John Lane, in 1714. John Lane and his wife, Catherine (Whiting), lived on the site, and after she died, he married Hannah Abbott. Upon his death in 1763, their son, Samuel Lane, inherited the land we know as Huckins Farm. Some time after Samuel Lane died in 1802, the house was removed and Peter Farmer built the present farmhouse in the 1840s. We know that Peter and Dorcas Farmer had two children in the late 1820s and 1830s. Later, Banfield succeeded Farmer as the owner.