situate in Salem aforesaid containing about 15 acres, butting easterly on land now in ye possession of Jonathan Flint, southerly and southwesterly on the highway leading to Joseph Popes,[F] northwesterly and northerly on land of the deponent Thomas Gould and northeasterly on land of Thomas Needham. That the said John Procter had a house upon the abovesaid land which he leased to one Stephen Fish[G] since let to one Lincoln and to one Bates, who improved it under and in right of the said John Procter. That Benjamin Procter son of the said John Procter possessed and improved ye above described parcel of land from the year 1692 untill his decease which happened about fourteen years since. That Mary the widow of said Benjamin Procter and her son John Procter have possessed and improved the same right from the time of his decease untill this day." The deposition is dated Jan. 7, 1730. The name of "Bates pasture" applied to the Philip H. Saunders place in the deed from Marsh, in 1863, suggests the thought that it may have been derived from the Bates mentioned in the deposition as one of the tenants of the John Procter house.
[E] 1692.
[F] Now Lowell Street.
[G] See above, the suit against Fish for rent.
It only remains to trace the title of the John Procter lot to the present time. It appears from various deeds and other records that the title descended from John Procter to his son Benjamin, and then to his son John, the grandson of the first named John Procter. From him it passed to his son Benjamin, and then to this Benjamin's sons, James and Francis Procter. Francis gave a deed of it to James April 19, 1802. Desire Procter, widow and administratrix of James Procter, conveyed it to Zachariah King Aug. 9, 1811, describing it as "a certain piece of land called the upper pasture situate in said Danvers containing sixteen acres, be the same more or less, and is bounded as follows,
viz.—southerly on the highway, northwesterly and northerly on land of John Gardner, Jr., northeasterly on land of Ezekiel Marsh, and southeasterly on land of the said Zachariah King to the bound first mentioned." Zachariah King conveyed the same to his daughter, Desire Procter of Danvers, widow, Feb. 18, 1818.
From Desire Procter the title descended to Rebecca P. Osborne, her granddaughter, and others who, in 1889, conveyed the lot to Harriet A. Walcott, wife of John G. Walcott, the description being as follows:—"a parcel of land in that part of Peabody called West Peabody, containing about seventeen acres and two fourths and formerly called the Upper Pasture, bounded southwesterly by Lowell Street about ninety two rods and eleven links, northwesterly by land of Walcott, formerly of John Gardner, about thirty eight rods, northeasterly by land of Walcott, formerly of Gardner, and by land of Philip Marsh, formerly of Ezekiel Marsh, about seventy six rods and nineteen links, southeasterly by other land of the grantors, formerly of Zachariah King, about seventeen rods and fourteen links."
John G. Walcott and Harriet A. Walcott, wife, conveyed the same to Mary E. Collins, wife of William F. M. Collins, by deed dated June 27, 1898.