Person Page - 259

       Dr. Thomas/2 Boylston III was born 26 Jan 1644/45 at Watertown, MA. (The published town record of his birth gives 26 (11) in the year 1664, but he was ae. 28 in 1673.).^2,3,4 He married, 13 Dec 1665 at Charlestown, Mary Gardner, daughter of Thomas Gardner and Lucy Smith. They settled at Muddy River (today Brookline), where he was known as "the Chirurgeon of Muddy River."^5,6,7,4
     "Mar. 27, 1671, Thomas Smith, butcher, of Charlestown, for good cause, conveys by deed to 'John Chinery, my father-in-law, and Thomas Boylston, my brother-in-law,' the house in Charlestown 'where I now dwell'; the land and out-houses, and furniture, and all my lands, rights and interest in Watertown; In trust, for behoof of Sarah Boylston, my wife and children, that I have by her. In consideration, they agree to pay his wife £20, and to discharge a debt he (T.S.) owes to John Richards, a merchant of Boston."⁸ Served under Capt. Thomas Prentice in King Philip's War, 1675–76.^9,10 In 1680 he bought, with his stepbrother John Chenery, a house plot of John Kettle, had of Shepherdson, in Charlestown.⁷ Dr. Thomas Boylston died at Muddy River, 1695.^7,4 There his widow died 8 Jul 1722.^11,4 His estate was prized at £560-14-10.¹²
     Says Curtis in The History of Brookline: "Certainly no family of the eighteenth century brought more of distinction to the town of Brookline than did the Boylstons. Dr. Thomas Boylston, first of the name to settle there, was born in Watertown in 1644, the son of Thomas Boylston who came from England in 1635. The doctor participated in the Narragansett Indian war, and in 1665 married Mary Gardner of Brookline, in which town he settled. His son Peter was a signer of the petition for the setting up of Brookline as a separate town."¹⁰
     Of his children, his daughters Abigail and Sarah married brothers, Ebenezer and Samuel Brooks of Medford. His son Peter Boylston married Ann White and became the grandfather of President John Adams. His son Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, with Rev. Cotton Mather, braved death threats to introduce smallpox inoculation to Boston during the epidemic of 1721.
     "The family of Boylston was one of high distinction in Massachusetts. It has ceased to exist as a family, but the name is still perpetuated in the streets of Boston and Cambridge, in the hall also of Harvard University, where their portraits by Copley are preserved, giving them a place among the benefactors of learning. Whatever force or distinction the family of Boylston possessed was not lost when the male line of descent was extinguished. The elder son of Ebenezer Brooks, who had married Abigail Boylston, was called Caleb, and Caleb had a son, John, who rose to be governor of Massachusetts, and who deserves a special mention…."

       Sarah/3 Boylston was born circa 1680 (g.s.), and baptised 26 Dec 1680 at Roxbury, MA.^2,1 She married, by 1700, perhaps at Charlestown, Capt. Samuel/3a Brooks, son of Caleb/2a Brooks and Hannah/2 Atkinson, with whom she had 2 children.^3,4 Sarah and her sister Abigail, the wife of Samuel's brother Ebenezer Brooks, were dismissed from the church at Cambridge to Medford in 1713.^5,6
     Samuel died at Medford 3 Jul 1733. "By his Will," says Bond, "dated Feb. 20, 1733, he gave to his wife Sarah one-half the dwelling-house, barn, and calash-house, his Negro man, Bristow, the furniture and one tankard during her life, one-third the horse-cart, and one-third part of the farming utensils."⁷ An estate settlement dated 21 Jan 1734/5 directed son Samuel, the executor, to pay his mother £541-13-0.^8,9
     Sarah died at Medford 16 Oct 1736.¹⁰ Buried with her husband in Salem St. Cemetery.¹¹
     She was the great-aunt of President John Adams.

       Samuel/4a Brooks Jr. was born 3 Sep 1700 at Medford, MA, where he lived his entire life.^2,1 He married, 25 Mar 1725 at Reading, Mary/4 Boutwell of Reading, daughter of Dea. Thomas/3 Boutwell and Abigail (–?–), "who brought with her a large landed property in that town" and in present-day Wilmington.^3,4,5,6 He also inherited one half, and succeeded to the whole, of his father's Medford real estate.⁷ His father's will, dated 20 Feb 1733, named him executor, and left him a silver hilted sword and pistols, his best saddle and housing, one third of the cattle and swine, and the negro man named Boston. His wife was left one cow in the will.^8,9 9 May 1755, he was chosen deacon of the Medford church to which his parents had belonged, but refused the office, according to Thomas Secomb's journal.¹⁰ "He was town treasurer many years."¹¹
     "His Will, dated Sept. 2, 1762, mentions wife Mary (to have, among other articles, the negro girl Rose, then sick; if she died, then to have Dinah), son Thomas (to have the negro boy, Pompey), son Edward (to have the negro boy, Charlie), son Samuel, and dr. Mary Whitmore."¹² He died at Medford 5 Jul 1768, at age 67.¹³ "In the division of the estate, [son] Thomas's share was prized at £4,492 17s. 6d., O.T., and [son] Edward's share at £3,989 7s. 6d. O.T."^14,12 His widow Mary died 25 May 1772.^15,7 Both were buried in Salem St. Cemetery, and reinterred 14 Jul 1881 at the new Oak Grove Cemetery in Medford.¹⁶
     James Emery Brooks, in My Great Grandfather's House in Exeter, New Hampshire, writes, "His house, built in 1727, which stood about 30 rods north of his father's, was taken down in 1860 by his great-great-grandson, Peter C. Brooks, the third of that name. The brick wall, many times repaired, in front of this house is still standing. It was built by Pomp (the negro of Thomas Brooks, the son of Samuel) about 1765, from bricks of his own make. The will of Samuel proves him to have been one of the few slaveholders in the town."¹⁷