vital records sources
go to Mary Pittee's page

David made the small move from Weymouth, Massachusetts, to neighboring Braintree by 22 December 1729. On that day he bought ten acres of land in Braintree as a resident of the South Precinct of Braintree.1 This is the earliest recorded deed for him in that town. On 3 February 1730/31 he bought another ten acres from the same person, Jonathan Hayden, adjacent to his first ten acres.2 This was part of a division of "Moore's Farm," and bordered on the east by Moore's Farm River, now called Farm River. The area is along what is now Granite Street where it turns into Pond Street (going south toward Randolph) west of South Braintree. He gave half his house to his grandson Nehemiah in 1763 for "the faithful service done to me...from his father's death untill now being about eleven years...as a recompense for the same," and this deed says that the house was on the west side of the road.3
     David makes a brief appearance in Town meeting minutes on 1 March 1735/36.4 He wasn't at the meeting but was chosen to be a constable. He later refused and paid a £5 fine about a week later. The name David Holbrook doesn't appear again for many years, and those references are surely or very likely to his son David. The latter is called Lt. David or David, Jr. In several instances where just "David Holbrook" appears after 1736, it's at a time when David, Sr., was very elderly and not apt to serve in the town offices mentioned. It's most likely the clerk simply left off the Lt. or the Jr.
     On 7 April 1773, "David, Jr.," was a mortgagee.5 He was deeded the same property, apparently through a default of the mortgage, as "David" on 25 April 1777, and David, Jr., witnessed the deed.6 This infers that David, Sr., was alive when the 1773 mortgage was signed and had died by the 1777 deed. David, Jr., had become David and David, 3rd, as he had been called, became David, Jr., some time between these dates. David, 3rd, was referred to as such as late as 3 July 1771,7 supporting the idea that the eldest David lived into his 80s. There was no probate of an estate for David, nor are there any recorded deeds showing him selling his homestead, which is odd. If he had real estate when he died, probate was called for.

children of David Holbrook and Mary Pittee:8

i. David b. 26 June 1717
ii. Ichabod b. 12 March 1718/19
iii. Nehemiah b. 16 May 1722
iv. Mary b. 21 November 1726
v. Ruth bap. 13 December 1730

vital records sources: His birth is in Vital records of Weymouth, Massachusetts, to the year 1850, vol. 1 - births (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston:1910), 130. His intentions to marry were published in Weymouth on 2 June 1716, vol. 2 - marriages and deaths (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston:1910), 90, suggesting he married later that month.

1. Suffolk Co., MA, deed record, 28:242.
2. Suffolk Co., MA, deed record, 48:241.
3. Suffolk Co., MA, deed record, 108:221.
4. Records of the Town of Braintree, 1640-1793 (Braintree, MA:1886), 190-191.
5. Suffolk Co., MA, deed record, 123:263.
6. Suffolk Co., MA, deed record, 127:147>
7. Suffolk Co., MA, deed record, 125:272.
7. Vital records of Weymouth, Massachusetts, to the year 1850, vol. 1 - births (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1910), 130-134.