Benjamin Baldwin

Benjamin married Ruth Paddock about 1768 in Tolland county, Connecticut. Ruth and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Thomas married Dorothy KidderBillerica, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts. Dorothy (daughter of Ephriam Kidder and Rachel Crosby) was born on 2 Sep 1696 in Medford, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts; died before 1796. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• _TODO: Open

Notes:

_TODO:
Mass Vital Records has indexed the marriage but not the date

Notes:

Billerica Massachusetts. In the early 1630s a Praying Indian village named Shawsheen was at the current site of Billerica. In 1638, Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Winthrop and Lt. Governor Thomas Dudley were granted land along the Concord River in the wilderness which was called Shawshin by the local Native Americans. Most of the settlement was to take place under the supervision of Cambridge; however, financial difficulties in the colony prevented this from taking place, and the issue of settling Shawshin continued to be deferred. Finally, in 1652, roughly a dozen families from Cambridge and Charlestown Village, later Woburn, had begun to occupy Shawshin as well. Wishing to replace the foreign-sounding Shawshin with a name more familiar, the settlers chose the name Billerica, likely due to the fact that the majority of the families living in the settlement were originally from the town of Billericay in Essex, England. The town was incorporated as Billerica in 1655, on the same day as nearby Chelmsford and Groton.

John married Sarah Heywood on 12 Feb 1689/90 in Billerica, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts. Sarah was born on 30 Aug 1666 in Concord, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts; died on 9 Feb 1739/40 in Billerica, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Concord Massachusetts. The area that became the Town of Concord was originally known as "Musketaquid", situated at the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers. Native Americans had cultivated corn crops there; the rivers were rich with fish and the land was lush and arable. However, the area was largely depopulated by the smallpox plague that swept across the Americas after the arrival of Europeans. In 1635, a group of British settlers led by Rev. Peter Bulkley and Simon Willard negotiated a land purchase with the remnants of the local tribe; that six-square-mile purchase formed the basis of the new town, which was called "Concord" in appreciation of the peaceful acquisition. The Battle of Lexington and Concord was the initial conflict in the American Revolutionary War. On April 19, 1775, a force of British Army regulars marched from Boston to Concord (pausing for an early-morning skirmish at Lexington, where the first shots of the Battle were fired) to capture a cache of arms that was reportedly stored in the town. Forewarned of the British troop movements, colonists from Concord and surrounding towns repulsed a British detachment at the Old North Bridge and forced the British troops to retreat. The battle was initially publicized by the colonists as an example of British brutality and aggression: one colonial broadside decried the "Bloody Butchery of the British Troops". A century later, however, the conflict was remembered proudly by Americans, taking on a patriotic, almost mythic status in works like the "Concord Hymn" and "Paul Revere's Ride".

Ephriam married Rachel Crosby on 4 Aug 1685 in Billerica, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts. Rachel was born on 20 Aug 1660 in Billerica, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Note: Ensign Benjamin Cooley was born in Tring, Hertfordshire about 1615.

John married Mary Richardson about May 1655 in Woburn, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts. Mary (daughter of Thomas Richardson and Mary Baldwin) was born about 1638 in Charlestown, Massachusetts Bay Colony; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Married:
Woburn was first settled in 1640 near Horn Pond, a primary source of the Mystic River, and was officially incorporated in 1642. At that time the area included present day towns of Woburn, Winchester, Burlington, and parts of Stoneham and Wilmington. In 1730 Wilmington separated from Woburn. In 1799 Burlington separated from Woburn; in 1850 Winchester did so, too. Middlesex county was created by the Massachusetts General Court on May 10, 1643, when it was ordered "that the whole plantation within this jurisdiction be divided into four sheires". Middlesex initially contained Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, Concord, Woburn, Medford, and Reading