The writer has made a careful examination of the original court files of Middlesex County for 1691 and 1692 and finds nothing for or against Farmer’s statements. However, John Farmer, a native of the town of Chelmsford, adjoining Billerica, does not write as though this phase of his subject were traditional with him, but rather conjectural.
Geo. W. Chamberlain,
Weymouth, Mass.
20 d. Gridley—On Dec 19, 1717, John Gridley, then of Beverly, Mass., married Joanna, daughter of Josiah8 Dodge, of Wenham, Mass. [Genealogy of the Dodge Family of Essex County, page 35.]
g. Parrott—Mrs. Martha Parrott of Greenland, N. H., in 1805 was the widow of John Parrott, whom she had married after the death of his first wife, and by whom she had one son, Enoch Greenleaf Parrott, named for a friend of the family, Enoch Greenleaf, of Weston, Mass. Mrs. Parrott’s maiden name was Brackett; she was probably a daughter of James and Martha (Cate) Brackett, of Greenland, N. H. X.
BOOK NOTICES
WEYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Wessagusset and Weymouth, an historical address by Charles Francis Adams, Jr., delivered at Weymouth, July 4, 1874, on the occasion of the celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Permanent Settlement of the Town. Weymouth in its First Twenty Years, a paper read before the Society by Gilbert Nash, November 1, 1882. Weymouth Thirty Years Later, a paper read by Charles Francis Adams, before the Weymouth Historical Society, September 23, 1904. Published by the Weymouth Historical Society, 1905. 8vo, pp. 164.
In the beginning of his second paper in this volume, Mr. Adams tells how it came about that he delivered his first address at Weymouth thirty years before, never having given thought to independent historical investigations before he was invited by the town to deliver the historical address on the occasion of the 250th anniversary. He confesses that at that time he hardly knew where the town was, much less anything of its history. The acceptance of that invitation, he states, marked a turning point in his life which had previously been devoted to civil and military affairs, and he expresses gratitude to Weymouth because the path into historical research, thus unexpectedly opened to him, has led him for thirty years through pastures green and pleasant places. Besides affording him pleasure, it has brought him honors in new fields of usefulness, and his labors have been profitable to students of Massachusetts history. The mature outcome of the earlier address was presented in print a dozen years ago in a two-volume work called, “Three Episodes of Massachusetts History.”