History of the
Abigail Adams Birthplace
The Abigail Smith Adams Birthplace was built
in 1685, by Reverend Samuel Torrey of The First Church in Weymouth, and was
referred to as "the Mansion" for many years.
In 1699, Reverend Torrey transferred ownership
to his nephew, Micajah Torrey, but continued to live in the Mansion. In 1734,
the next minister was Abigail’s father, Reverend William Smith, a graduate of
Harvard, but he did no live in "the Mansion" until he purchased it
four years later in 1738. The house was essentially the same size and
configuration as the restored house is today and it is where he and Elizabeth
Quincy, who became his wife in 1740, raised their four children and spent the
rest of their lives. In fact, they are buried on the hill behind the present
location of the house. In 1751 a barn was erected and in 1761 Rev. Smith’s
diary contains evidence of a large addition to the 1685 farm house.
When their daughter, Mary Smith Cranch,
inherited the house and lands in 1783 she rented it out. It became a duplex,
housing the Hazlitts and the Beales. In 1786, Jacob Norton of Abington became
the new minister and purchased "the Mansion" from Mary Cranch, and in
the following year married her daughter, Betsy. They lived there until 1824
until they sold it to Ancil Burrell who lived there from 1824 until 1826, when
he sold the property to First Church, making it the first parsonage the church
had fully owned.
The next ministers who occupied the parsonage
were Reverends Josiah Bent and John Phillips, and by the time Reverend Joshua
Emery came along in 1838, it was time to do something about the dilapidated
house. The addition was taken down and some of the old materials were recycled
into the new parsonage, but more importantly, the original section was purchased
by Nathaniel Ford and moved to his farmland in Bicknell Square, North Weymouth,
to be used as housing for his farm workers. By the 1800s ownership had passed to
Solomon Ford; various Fords and their heirs were owners throughout the first
half of the eighteenth century.
By 1941, the farmland was owned by Velma L.
Hausler, the widow of Nathaniel S. Ford. It was she and Mary E. Ford who sold
the land to the United States Government, to be used for a housing project for
returned service families. By January of 1943, the historic birthplace and
childhood home of Abigail Smith Adams and her sisters and brother was actually
scheduled for demolition. It was the only building still standing after the
completion of the Wessagussett Federal Housing Project.
Led by Amy Hill Duncan, a local newspaper
columnist and activist, a dedicated group of men and women came up with a
restoration plan to rescue the decaying and vandalized house. This committed
group became the Abigail Adams Historical Society, Inc. on June 9, 1947. Members
had obtained a parcel of town-owned land for the price of one dollar and a plan
was in place by the time the government released the house to them later that
month. That fall the house was cut in half and moved along North Street to its
present site at 180 Norton Street, a "stone’s throw" from where it
had originally been built back in 1685. "The Mansion" had come full
circle.
Tours
781-335-
4205 for further assistance.
Thank
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