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1692-1706
Folders 1.2-1.3, OB.x.x
GUSN-298823
Series II, Thomas Pierce (1635-1706) papers, 1692-1706 (#1.2-1.3; OB.x.x), contains legal documents relating to Pierce's land purchases and the settling of his estate. The five deeds relate to Pierce's acquisitions of small land parcels (including upland, meadow, and woodland) in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Pierce purchased the parcels from Atherton Mather, Stephen Minott, Joseph Minott, James Minott, and Samuel Clap[p]; the 1692 deed from Atherton Mather of Windsor, Connecticut, is signed by Governor Simon Bradstreet (1603-1697) of Massachusetts. The documents relating to the Pierce estate include an inventory made less than a month after his death, as well as a list of property, household furnishings, and personal possessions designated for Pierce's son, John Pierce (1668-1744). The series is arranged alphabetically by record type.
personal papers
Personal papers
MS023
Pierce family papers
MS023.02
Pierce, Thomas, 1635-1706
personal papers
Series
Folders 1.2-1.3, OB.x.x
Thomas Pierce (1635-1706) inherited the Pierce lands when his father Robert died in 1664. He had been married for three years to Mary (Fry) Pierce (1641-1704), from Weymouth, and they and their son Thomas (1662-c.1730), may have lived with the senior Pierces. Thomas and Mary had seven more children. Although children frequently died in infancy or in early childhood in the seventeenth century, seven of the Pierce children lived into their early twenties, and the family household during those years was large and multi-generational.
Thomas Pierce become a freeman and was chosen constable in 1674. His other responsibilities within the town were typical of the seventeenth century. In 1667 he was appointed to view the fences in the Neponset area, and he also served as one of the "sup'visors of county and town highways," seeing to their upkeep and repair. In 1696 Thomas Pierce purchased from James Minot twenty acres of upland, "together with all and singular the housing Ediffices, buildings, and Fences standing thereon Yard Garden." This property, which included what is now known as the Pierce House, lay along the Lower Road not far from his father's house. With various additions and alterations over the years, it would be the Pierce family home for eight more generations.
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