The Daily Times and Chronicle, Tuesday, December 5, 1989

Burlington Past and Present, by John E. Fogelberg
(Article # 543)


Now that the selectmen's meetings are televised some
interest in the town seal which is illustrated on the wall in
back of them probably prompted the question asked recently,
"Where is the Sewall house?," for the center of the Burlington
seal shows that historic building. The answer is, "The original
Sewall house is no more, having burned down in 1897: "
Then came a second question, "Then where is the second
Sewall house shown in a photograph appearing in the 1990
calendar being sold to help fund scholarships ?"
The answer to that question is, "The second Sewall house,
built on the foundation of the first one, also is no more,
having been struck by lightning in 1921 and destroyed by the
fire which followed. "
The Sewall family was a very prominent one in early
Massachusetts history and one of the family, Samuel Sewall,
came to Burlington in 1814 to occupy the pulpit of the
Burlington Church of Christ Congregational whose predecessor,
the Rev. Mr. John Marrett, had died the previous year after
having served the people here since 1774.
The Rev. Mr. Samuel Sewall became justly famous here as
the spiritual advisor of many in this then small town and when
Burlington finally designed its seal his parsonage was
uppermost in people's minds.
But it was not only because of Sewall that the famous old
house appears on the town seal, but because of the roll it
played the nineteenth of April 1775 when John Hancock and
Samuel Adams left Lexington when the British arrived there and
found refuge here for a short time that morning.
The Rev. Mr. Samuel Sewall had nothing to do with the
building of the original Sewall house and never lived to
witness its destruction nor see the second Sewall house built.
The original Sewall house was built prior to 1733 by
Sergeant Benjamin Johnson, the grandson of Captain Edward
Johnson, one of the original signers of the Woburn orders.
Benjamin was born Oct. 15, 1666, the year the Wymans were
building their outlying farmhouses near the Billerica line. He
married Sarah Walker, the daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Wyman)
Walker of Billerica. He acquired the title of Sergeant in 1700.
In June of 1732 he gave to the newly formed Second Parish
of Woburn the land on which the parishioners built their
meetinghouse and which still stands today on what was then
called Forest Field Hill and. described as being 'near my
dwelling house on the road leading to Sandy Bridge."
That road is today's Lexington Street and Sandy Bridge
probably was the bridge over Vine Brook some distance beyond.
Children born to Benjamin and Sarah were Benjamin, born
1700; Josiah, born 1702 who settled in Billerica; Seth, 1707;
Sarah, 1709, married a Lexington boy; Hannah, born 1710 and
Esther, born 1715 who grew up to marry Burlington's John Wood.
All were born in a small house standing on the farm prior
to 1732 when it probably was torn down when the bigger house
was built.
Young Benjamin Johnson, later known as Captain Benjamin,
inherited the farm and the newly erected house when his father
died in 1733. He had married Mary Walker, the daughter of
Samuel and Judith ( Howard ) Walker of Woburn in 1728 and was
already living in the house with the first three of his ten
children.
The children born to Benjamin and Mary Johnson were Joel,
born 1929; Mary, born 1730, who grew up to marry first Eli
Wyman and when he died she became the fourth wife of Abraham
Sheldon; Asahel, 1732; Judith who also had two husbands, first
David Wilson of Bedford and second James Johnson; Benjamin,
1736, who died by drowning while a student at Harvard; Keziah,
1741, who Married thrice, first to Jacob Kendall, second to
Amos Wyman to whose house over the line in Billerica Hancock
and Adams fled on the afternoon of April 19, 1775, and then
became the seventh wife of Ebenezer Richardson in 1799, the
year of Burlington's birth; Ruth, 1743, married Silas Cutler;
Aijah, 1745, who married.,Mary Reed, daughter of George and
Mary (Wood) Reed; and Enoch, 1748, who died a boy of two years.
That family certainly had an active life filled no doubt
with its share of love and tragedy. Shortly after Enoch's death
the house was sold to the Rev. Mr. Thomas Jones, in 1751.
Nothing in the records mentions why the farm was sold at that
time or where the family moved, if they did move then.
Captain Benjamin was active at Crown Point in 1755 where
in some unexplained manner he lost his musket, his sword and
some of his clothes. He was reimbursed for that loss later. He
also belonged to Captain Joshua Walker's Precinct company in
1776.
He is the Johnson who gave to the town the parcel of land
now occupied by the old Burying Ground, which piece of property
was not deeded to the town until 1769 after having been used as
a burying ground for some forty years.
After Benjamin's wife died in 1762, he married again in
1765 the widow of Solomon Wyman. He lived to be eighty years
old.
After 1751 the Sewall house became the Woburn Second
Parish parsonage and then the Burlington parsonage for some
years, Its owners were the Rev. Mr. Thomas Jones and Madam
Abigail Jones until 1774; the Rev. Mr. John Marrett 1774 to
1814; Martha Marrett 1814 to 1818; the Rev. Mr. Samuel Sewall
1818 to 1868; and the Reverend's son Samuel from 1868 to its
destruction by fire in 1897 with the loss of hundreds of
irreplaceable items and records. All of those people were
interesting and noted persons in the Burlington of their time.
Prior to the erection of the second Sewall house a
disheartened Samuel Sewall passed title to the farm to Martha
Elizabeth Sewall Curtis who had a big square two-story house
built on the old foundatton late in 1897. It had none of the
charm or characteristics of its predecessor.
Samuel Sewall, though not of the cloth, had become a very
influential man in the town of Burlington. He filled the office
of Town Clerk for 38 years and for 40 years was Town Treasurer.
He also served for varying periods of time as Selectman,
Assessor, as School Committeeman; as Highway Supervisor and Tax
Collector, a well-rounded town servant as well as a farmer.
He also served his church in various ways, such as Deacon
and Parish Clerk, which made for a most rewarding and
fulfilling life.
Title to the farm and the new house passed to a Guy Walton
in 1912, who sold the place a year later to Rose B. Perkins who
lived there until it, too, burned down.
George and Rose Perkins then built a small bungalow or
cottage on the site which went to the Andersons some time later
after the farm had been, subdivided.
Mr. Ruping bought the place a couple of years ago, tore
down the little Perkins cottage and built a much more imposing
house on the site of Burlington's once famous Sewall mansion.
That new house has yet to be sold and lived in. Who knows
what a history it will have.