File:Abraham Hill House, Belmont MA.jpg

DescriptionAbraham Hill House, Belmont MA.jpg	English: Abraham Hill House, Belmont Massachusetts
Date	11 March 2010
Source	Own work
Author	John Phelan
Other versions

Abraham Hill House 388 Pleasant St. Belmont, Massachusetts

Abraham Hill “was the first American ancestor of this branch of the family” and the “progenitor of the Hill family, settled in Charlestown as early as 1636. On August 2, 1660, he deposed that he was about 45 years of age, fixing the date of his birth at about 1615. In the Abbey of St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, there is a record of the family of Robert Long. Among the marriage records of his children there is mentioned an Abraham Hill, who married Alice Patton, July 25, 1611. It seems probable that this Abraham was the father of the Abraham who settled in Charlestown. He was admitted to the Church June 3, 1639, and was made a freeman May 13, 1640. He was mentioned as a town officer.” “He kept a mill for John Coitmore and was the owner of five lots of land in Charlestown and the neighborhood.” “He was one of a committee of 10, appointed by the County Commissioner, to determine what bridges should be built and maintained, and May 15, 1657, they reported in relation to the Mystic River Bridge.” “In 1646 he sold his house and removed to Malden, where he died February 13, 1669. His widow administered the estate, the inventory being filed February 2, 1670. He is buried in Bell Rock Cemetery, Malden, in an unmarked grave.

Abraham Hill married Sarah (Sarra) Long in 1639. “Sarah Long, born 1617, died February 13, 1669/70, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Long, who embarked on the ‘Defense’ for New England, July 7, 1635. Robert Long, an inn holder, was born in 1590, and came to New England with his wife Elizabeth, age 30, a servant, and 10 children. His daughter Sarah was then 18 years of age. She was admitted to the church September 10, 1644.” “The family embarked from Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England.” Abraham and Sarah had eight children: Ruth, Isaac, Abraham II, Zachariah, Sarah, Sarah, Mary, and Jacob. Abraham and Sarah’s grandson, Abraham, son of Zachariah and Deborah Norton Hill, and his wife Sarah Cooper Hill were the original inhabitants of what is today 388 Pleasant Street.

The Hill family said the house was built in 1693. The historical architect for the National Register, Anne Grady, inspected the house November 1985 and dated the house 1725-1750.

The original deed from John Kidder to Abraham Hill on February 26, 1728 describes the property as follows:

“It was a lott of land in the first division of Cambridge Rocks containing by estimation four acres be it more or less bounded southeasterly with the road leading from Watertown to Menotomy, northwesterly with land laid out to Samuel Gookin and Joseph Crackbon, southwesterly with Jonathan Hastings, and northeast with John Dickson or however otherwise bounded.”

Abraham and Sarah would have given the property to their eldest son Abraham but he died February 11, 1723 when he was 30 years old. Consequently, on November 18, 1738 Abraham and Sarah deeded the farm to their second and sole surviving son Zachariah (his wife was Rebecca Cutter Hill) and the transaction is described as follows:

“I Abraham Hill for and in convocation of the love and affection that I have and ____ to my son Zachariah Hill of Cambridge ___ ____ Yeoman and forgiving (?) other ___ one there unto have given and granted and by these ____ do freely fully and absolutely give and grant ____ convey and confirm unto him the said Zachariah Hill by being and ____ in the ___ division of Cambridge Rocky containing by estimation five acres being more or less bounded southwesterly with the road leading to Watertown from Menotomy northwesterly with land laid out with Samuel Frost (?) in ___ land southwesterly Jonathan Hastings northwesterly with the one said Abraham Hill or northwesterly bounded ____ ____ it being the one ____ half part of a lot formerly belonging to John Kidder”

Therefore Abraham and Sarah Cooper Hill were the first Hill family to live at what was described as “the road leading from Watertown to Menotomy” to today’s 388 Pleasant Street. The Abraham Hill farm stayed in the family from 1728-1950 (222 years) before it was sold for the first time outside of the family. Eight generations of Hills owned the family’s farm and after 1950 four families resided here. The Abraham Hill House is still a residence 284 years later. A listing of the owners of the house is as follows:

Hill Families

1. Abraham Hill and Sarah Cooper Hill (1728)

2. Zachariah Hill and Rebecca Cutter Hill (1738)

3. Abraham Hill and Susan Wellington Hill (1768)

4. William Hill, Jr., 1815 (Bought at auction; George Prentiss was the court appointed administrator)

5. James Hill and Anne Adams Hill, 1816

6. Joseph Hill and Abigail Brigham Hill, 1852

7. Harriett Hill (Probably assumed full control upon the death of her mother, 1894)

8. Alfred C Hill (4/18’s); Florence Turner (4/18’s); and Clarence O Hill (1/18), 1926

Non-Hill Families 9. Roger K and Barbara H Stone, 1950-1964

10. Edward G and Martha H Stiles, 1964-1970

11. Nancy Chang, 1970-1984

12. Samuel R and Jacquelyn B James, 1984-Present

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

You are free:

• to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to remix – to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

• attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0CC BY 3.0 Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 truetrue