The Minor Family of Somerset

found on Ancestral file
Benjamin Butterfield, from whom the american family chiefly deri
ved issue, was at Charlestown, in the Bay Colony, in 1638. He p
robably married in England and brought a little family with him
. His name appears among the first town orders of Woburn, and i
n 1643, he was made a Freeman. In 1645, we find his name on th
e Woburn tax list. In 1652, the inhabitants of Woburn petitione
d for leave to explore the West side of the Concord river. Th
e report was, "a very comfortable place to accommodate a compan
y ofgod's people." In 1653, Benjamin Butterfield Headed a peti
tion of twenty-nine, including the petitioners of the precedin
g year, for a tract of land six miles square. 'to begin at the M
errimack river, at a neck of land West to Concord river,' to ru
n southerly on Concord river and weesterly into the wild country
. The spot was known to the natives as Naamkeek. The Indian ap
ostle,Rev. John Eliot, about the same time received a Grant o
f "the Great Neck," lying between Pawtucket falls on the Merrima
ck and the Massic falls ont he concord, as a reserve for the Chr
istianized Indians. This tract was known as Wamesit. The six m
ile tract was occupied in 1654 by Butterfield and his associates
, and in 1655 was incorporated as Chelmsfored. The line betwee
n the Indians and the Whites was run "on the east side of Butter
field's high way," andwas marked by a ditch. On this highway B
enjamin Butterfield pitched his farm and built his house, somewh
ere within the limits of what is now ward iv.,Lowell. In 1656
, he is named as one of the citizens of Chelmsford, to whom th
e Gov. Dudley farm of 1500 acres in Billerica was conveyed. I
n 1661 his wife died, and 3 june, 1663, he married 2nd, Hannah
, the widow of Thomas Whittemore, of Cambridge. In 1666, Newfie
lds, a tract of 241 acres of intervale, across Stony brook and e
xtending up the Merrimack, was Granted to Chelmsford.Of this
, perhaps the best land in the growing town, Benjamin Butterfiel
d obtained 42 acres, the largest hsar of any one person. In 168
6 the Indian reservation, Wamesit, was purchased by the whites
. Three of Butterfield's sons,Nathaniel, Samuel and Joseph, we
re among the Grantees (Mdx. Deeds, x 19). This territory, whic
h had been occupied by Wanalancit and his tribe as a cornfield a
nd fishing station, is now occupied by the manufactories of Lowe
ll. The purchase included, also, 500 acres upon theNorth and ea
st side of the Merrimack, of "Wilderness" land, a gerneral ter
m for the unsettled country outside incorporated limits. Nathan
iel and Samuel Butterfield settled on the Wamesit land, and Jose
ph int he wilderness between Tying's Pond and the river.