vital records sources
go to Mary Read's page

There's no evidence of when or where Daniel was born. His father came from Winston, Suffolk, England, and he spent an undetermined time in Ireland before coming to Dedham, Massachusetts Bay Colony, first in 1633 and as a settler after 1640. See his father's page. His mother is supposed to be Alice because she was his father's wife in the 1640s. This was decades after Daniel was likely born, so there's slim reason to assume this. Daniel was a tailor, so would have apprenticed. This may have happened in Ireland or England. It's also possible he did so when his father first came to Dedham in 1633. Spalding, in his Bacon genealogy,1 suggests Ireland may have been a stop-over between England and Massachusetts, but it's unlikely he would have been referred to as being from Ireland if that was the case.
     Daniel's first record as a resident of New England was on 18 December 1640, when he signed the "town orders" establishing Charlestown Village as a precinct separate from Charlestown, Massachusetts Bay Colony.2 It was called Woburn, but wasn't incorporated as such until 1642. This gives us the first good clue of when and when not he was born. He was an adult by then, so born before 18 December 1619, but certainly older, since it's very unlikely he would participate in the founding of a town in his very early 20s.
     Daniel, Jr., was the oldest son and oldest known child, born about 1640-1641. This may have happened in Charlestown or Charlestown Village/Woburn, but the date isn't recorded. Woburn tentatively started to keep vital records in 1641. Daniel, Jr.'s, next three younger siblings are recorded there. It took several years to fully establish the town and church in Woburn, so it's not obvious this family moved there as soon as the first settlers went early in 1641. Daniel's brother Michael also signed the "town orders" and was elected an officer at the first town meeing in 1642. It's also not obvious when or where Daniel married Mary Read, since her birth date hasn't been found or when she came to New England. Her family was from Colchester, Essex, England. Thomas Read, Jr., also settled in Massachusetts, but his immigration date is also unknown. It's very unlikely Daniel and Mary married in England, since their hometowns are no where near each other. They probably met and married in Massachusetts, possibly in Charlestown, about 1639.
     On 12 March 1647 (Old or New Style?) Daniel was jointly given a piece of Hope Meadow in Woburn with John Pierce.3 He became a freeman of the colony on 26 May 1647.4 We know he was still in Woburn on 20 August 1655, when he was included on a tax list: "Daniel Baken his person & estate."5 His brother Michael and Michael, Jr., are also listed.
     He witnessed his brother-in-law Thomas Reed's deed for Sudbury land with William "Pearce."6 The signatures were acknowledged by Gov. John Endicott on 28 September 1661. This was most likely William Pierce of Boston, but apparently not closely related to the Pierces of Woburn. I don't know why Gov. Endicott was involved, but it suggests this happened, and that Daniel and his family still were, in the Boston area.
     Daniel bought meadow land in Bridgwater in 1665 from his brother in law John Robbins.This is mentioned in a deed in which his nephew Michael sold it.7 Based on a description of later owners of his homestead in History of the Early settlement of Bridgewater (Boston:1840), 106-7. Daniel lived in the vicinity of Matfield Street in West Bridgewater. In the same year the town gave him meadow land on the east side of the Matfield River, which would put it in what is now East Bridgewater.8 This grant says he was previously given land on the opposite side, now West Bridgewater.
     In Bridgewater he was a constable in 1666, reported at the 5 June 1666 Plymouth Colony Court session.9 He was supposedly on a "jury for laying out highways 1668," but I don't find corroboration of this in primary records. I wonder if this confuses his being a surveyor of highways in Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1669.
     As a tailor of Bridgwater, he bought pieces of land in Cambridge in the Summer of 1668. Village (now Newton) One group he got from Gregory Cook on 15 June, including a homestead of six acres, with a house, barn, garden and orchard.10 The other was twenty acres sold to him on 16 July by Nathaniel Steadman and was arable land in the same area.11 A history of Newton implies this was between what are now the Nonantum and Newton Corner neighborhoods in Newton. History of Newton, 116.
      Daniel bought the Steadman land with £10 of Colony currency and £20 in "current pay of the Country." This division of currency undoubtedly had to do with one of the bequests in his father-in-law Thomas Read's will in England, which gave Daniel £300 to invest in land for his children.12 In a postscript to the deed citing Read's will, he assigned half the interest in this property to his children.
      On 8 November 1669 he was elected one of Cambridge's surveyors of highways,13 inferring, with the 1668 deeds in mind, that the family moved there the previous summer. On 11 November 1672 he was elected a constable.14
     Towns in Middlesex County were required to send annual returns of vital records to the county court. In those court records are the birth records for the last four of Daniel's children. After this list it says "These were given in by Samuel Greene, clarke of the writts for Cambridge, 25. 9 mo. 1674."15 As was often the case in New England towns, town clerks often gathered birth records periodically, and bunches of children in the same family can be found listed together. In this case, it clearly was after the family moved to Cambridge Village. Usually town clerks asked which of the children were born in the current town of residence, but this wasn't always the case and has caused some confusion when using Massachusetts town vital records. I think this is what happened here. The town clerk in Woburn must not have followed up after Isaac was recorded, nor did it happen while the family was in Bridgewater, Plymouth Colony. After so many years, Daniel may have forgotten that Isaac was recorded in Woburn and included him in the 1674 account.

The inventory and administration of Daniel's estate:

An inventory of ye estate of Danll Bacon senr late of Cami. Danll Bacon deced. 7br: 7th: 9116

His wearing Apparell 3-10-00

In ye Kitchen or Lower room one bed & bedsted with ye furniture belonging to it 4-00-00
One trundle bed with ye furniture belonging to it 3-00-00
Three sheets 14 s. one Table Cloth and six Napkins 6s 1-00-00
one flock bed 6s I Brass Kettle I Brass Pott I old Copper 1-10-00
In Pewter 0-16-00
One Iron Pott, 1 Iron Trammell; fire shovell & Tongs 1 Gridiron 1 Smoothing Iron & Heaters 1-00-00
One Gunn 12 s one old Cubbord 2 s 0-14-00
In books 5 s 2 old Tables, 1 Table leafe, 1 joint Stool 5 chaires 0-16-00

In ye Chamber

Three old Chests S s Two old Ruggs 6 s 0-14-00
Tubbs and Lumber 0-04-00
Three old sacks 0-04-00
In Leather 0-01-00
8 pound of hemp 0-02-00
one old Sadle & Pillion & old bridles 0-05-00
In old Iron 0-12-00
one Cheespress 2 s; one Crosscutt saw, one Tennent saw, one hand saw 8 s 0-10-00
Tubbs and Lumber in ye Cellar 0-10-00
In Hay 1-10-00
In Ry 0-14-00
In Indian Corn 1-10-00 3-14-00
One horse 1-00-00 one Cow 1-05-00 Three Swine 1-02-00 3-07-00
In Cotton yarn 0-01-06
Due to him in money by bond 17 00 00
More due to him in money 0 07 00
one Dwelling & Barn & Seven acres and a halfe of Land on wch is a small orchard 40 00 00
more sixteen acres of Land 40 00 00
More Ten acres of Land 20 00 00
---------------------------
143 17 06

This Dwelling house & barn wth all ye three parcells of Land prised in this Inventory were by ye said Danll Bacon now Deced lntailed to ye Children of his body that should be liveing after ye Decease of himselfe and Mary his wife to be equally Divided between them part & pan alike as by ye Coppy of his father in Law Reads will and in his Deeds do plainly appear

Apprized by us 7-29-1691

Thomas Oliver
Edward Jackson

On the reverse of the original inventory:

Octobr 7th 91 at ye court at Cambridge

Administration is granted to Danll Bacon eldest son and Jacob Bacon youngst son of Danll Bacon of New Cambridge deced. intestate on ye whole estate which said ffather Danll Bacon dyed siezed of & they giving in bond to administer upon for ye creditrs & heires therof and having exhibited an inventory therof [?] court upon oath.

Daniel and Jacob weren't bonded as administrators until 23 November 1691, with Daniel's brother-in-law Michael Spencer as one of the sureties.

children of Daniel Bacon and Mary Reed:

Daniel, b. abt. 1641
Thomas, b. 13 April 1645 ("13th 2nd mo 1645")
John, b. 8 September 1647 ("8th of 7th mo 1647")
Isaac, b. 4 April 1650, ("4th of 2nd mo 1650")
Rachel, b. 8 June 1652
Jacob, b. 2 June 1654
Lydia, b. 6 March 1656

vital records sources: His death is in Vital Records of Newton, Massachusetts: To the Year 1850 (Boston: 1905), 421.

1. Thomas William Baldwin, Bacon Genealogy, Michael Bacon of Dedham, 1640 and His Descendants (Cambridge, MA: 1915),
2. Samuel Sewell, History of Woburn, Middlesex County, Mass. (1868), 530.
3. Pierce Pedigree, 25.
4. Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, vol. 1 (Boston:1853), 294.
5. "Colonial [Middlesex] county court papers, 1648-1798," "Court papers - Folios 27-60 1647-1672," folio 59, group 1, image 1255 of film 7902664 "A country rate made the 30th of the 6th mo 1655 by the select men & John ? commissioner with the addition of such soms are sent for by the Tresurers warrant for the country's use."
6. Middlesex Co., MA, deed records, 12:6.
7. Ibid, 4:180.
8. 9 Oct 1665, Records of John Carey, etc. (Brockton, MA: 1889), 8.
9. Plymouth Colony Records, 123.
10. Middlesex Co., MA, deed records, 3:375
11. Ibid, 4:95.
12. National Archives, PROB/11/320/16. Will dated 13 July 1665, probated 3 March 1665/66.
13. The records of the Town of Cambridge (formerly Newtowne), Massachusetts, 1630-1703 (Cambridge, MA:1901),181.
14. Ibid, 205.
15. "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," familysearch.org database online (Provo, UT: ), Middlesex, image 143.
16. Middlesex Co., MA, probate records, 7:346, transcription of the original. The transcription, while not verbatim, is accurate (see Middlesex Co., MA, probate case file 632).