Esther Burrill

The Burrill place was on rather low land. When the mill owners dammed the Saugus River to run the mills, thus enlarging Lily Pond, water tended to overflow onto part of the properties of the Burrills and their neighbors. Over the years the various owners had been sued repeatedly by irate property owners. Shortly before Esther's birth, Ebenezer Hawkes had built a rude dam over the river to power his grist and sawmill, and the farms in the vicinity suffered from this "progress." When Esther was 4 years old, Benjamin Sweetser began operating a very successful chocolate mill at the dam, and he persevered for several years.

When Esther was 20, she married Lott Edmands, a lad of 19 from Malden. They settled in Saugus, where she was from, on a secluded farm homestead about a quarter mile to the north of the old Burrill place, west of the Newburyport Turnpike, east of Forest Street, and north of what is now the Lynn Fells Parkway. The saltbox-style house was already well over a century old (the house's original owner had been our ancestor Daniel Hitchings). The elongated slanting rear roof offered some protection against the north wind.

The house where Lott and Esther resided
[Click the picture to enlarge it.]

There were livestock on the homestead--several cattle and at least one horse. The Edmandses grew potatoes and made cider. They also did some logging.

Lott and Esther also acquired her family homestead, where she had grown up, by inheritance or purchase we don't know which or when.(1)

Lott often sued the various mill owners for flooding his property, and he usually won. Lott "was one of the characters of Saugus of the past," according to local historian Nathan Mortimer Hawkes,

and it was the ambition of the late celebrated Joseph Ames, the artist, to paint his typical Yankee head. The old man, however, was fonder of relating his prowess in litigation than in posing for posterity, and so the picture was lost. Something stranger than accident must have drawn Mr. Edmands to this locality. The very air hereabout is redolent of disputations. This apparently calm and innocent pond has been the promoter of lawsuits innumerable from the earliest days. . . . [I]n the fulness of time Lott Edmands came upon the scene to revel through life with the mill owners in a series of forensic sparring matches. Here to a green old age he lived, and his greatest pleasure was to fight his battles over again as he looked out upon his land which he had contested with the water from below.

Lott and Esther did not actually reside in the Burrill place, though; their home for their entire married life was up at the Hitchings house (called by then the "Lott Edmands place"), where they had settled after their wedding. It was here they raised their four sons and one daughter; it was here they managed their farm. When they were in their sixties, Esther's brother Joseph was living with them.

According to the 1860 census (when Esther was 70), they owned real estate worth $2,000 [$39,100 in 2003 dollars](2)

At that time, their next-door neighbor was Ephraim Sylvester Mansfield, 35 years old, by then already father six children, the eldest of whom was Ella Josephine Mansfield, age 11; it would be only 13 years later that this Ella would marry Esther and Lott's grandson Artemas Seymour Edmands (23 in 1860) after he had lost his first wife.(3)

Unfortunately, Lott was not such a careful manager of the property: He died of dropsy of the heart at the age of 85 without leaving a will, owing $4,324.87 [$75,000 in 2002 dollars], of which $3,300 [$53,600 in 2002 dollars] was tied up in mortgages on real estate. All of his property, including both homesteads, was sold at auction in 1879 to settle the estate. Widow Esther presumably had to spend her last years with her children--in particular, with her daughter Esther and son-in-law Harrison.(4)

Not only that, but in January 1881, Esther, then 90 years old, would be dropped from her late husband's military pension of $8 per month [$152 per month in 2003 dollars] because Lott's service of perhaps only a single day in 1814 during the War of 1812 was deemed "insufficient." The remaining 34 months of widow Esther's life must have been difficult.

Esther and Lott's homestead eventually became a veterinary farm.

Descent chart

Birth of Esther Burrill
Born:	28 November 1790(5) has 1791, not 1790, as Esther's birthyear. (Close)
Birthplace:	Saugus, Essex County, Massachusetts
Parents
Father:	John Burrill II, b. ca. 1765 (our ancestor), from Saugus, Essex County, Massachusetts
Mother:	Margaret "Peggy" Brown, b. 1758 (our ancestor), from Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts
Siblings
Brother:	Joseph Burrill Born 1792
Sister:	Sally Burrill
No information on any other siblings
Spouse and children(6) lists different children of Esther and Lott. She has an unnamed "boy" as the firstborn child, born between 1810 and 1815, "according to the 1830 census" ("we don't know the name yet"). She does not include Andrew Edmands (1818-1843), although she mentions that Sarah Payne's first husband was "Andrew S. Edmonds" (apparently not the late, older sibling of Sarah's second husband, Lott Jr.). (Close)
Husband:	Lott Edmands, 1791-1877 (our ancestor) (son of John Edmands and Sarah Williams Edmands [our ancestors]), from Malden, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. Married 18 October 1810 in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts
Son:	John Edmands Born 17 January 1811 in Malden, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Married (first) 3 February 1835 ------ in Dedham, Norfolk Co., MA ------ to Lydia Draper ------ (b. 31 March 1815, d. 4 April 1847) ------ (daughter of Ira Draper ------- and Abigail Richards Draper) Children: George Draper Edmands, b. 1836 Artemas Bradford Edmands(7) has supplied a great deal of information about Artemas Bradford Edmands (born the same year, 1837, as his first cousin, our ancestor, Artemas Seymour Edmands), including his birthplace of Lexington (in contrast with Saugus, as our other sources, including Ted Edmands and Nancy B. Edmands Allen, had stated). Ted and Nancy provided the information about the first wife of Artemas Bradford Edmands--Margaret Matilda Grover, and their wedding date in 1855. Pat cites the 1880 census records to find Artemas B. Edmands living with his family in Milford, Worcester County, MA (see Descendants of John Edmands [password-protected]): Artemas was 43 then (confirming the 1837 birthyear), his wife was "Lucinda E." and she was only 23 years old--that is, she was born in 1857 and was therefore much too young to be the mother of the two eldest children listed in the census: daughter Kate, age 20 (born 1860) and daughter Ida, age 16 (born 1864). Lucinda was obviously Artemas's second wife, so we must presume that the first wife, Margaret, died before their marriage. Considering the large gap in years between Ida and the third child listed in the census, I am assuming that Lucinda was the mother of the three children after Ida: son Frank, age 6 (born 1874); son George, age 4 (born 1876); and son Arthur B., age 2 (born 1878). (Close) --- b. 1837 --- m. (1st) 1855 to Margaret Matilda Grover --- m. (2nd) ca. 1870 to Lucinda UNKNOWN --- d. 1917 Esther Minerva Edmands, b. 1839 Sarah Melissa Edmands, b. 1842 Lydia Hilda Edmands, b. 1844 Margaret Ellen Edmands, 1847-1913 --- (raised from infancy --- by John's brother Artemas and sister-in-law Margaret) --- see among their children For more information on his descendants, including the surnames Draper, Grover, and Thomas, see Descendants of John Edmands (password-protected) Married (second) 1848 ------ to Phebe Parry(8) According to Ted Edmands, citing the census data (compiled by Ann S. Larnhart, PO Box 1487, Boston, MA 02117) for 1855 and 1865, the age of John Edmands's second wife, Phebe S. Edmands, was 31, making her birthyear circa 1824. (On another place Ted cites her maiden name as Terry, not Parry.) has different information on the offspring and marriages of John Edmands: "John b. 1811 mar Phebe b. 1824 and had Cora b. 1858 [not in the other sources cited here--is it possible this is really Cora Edmands, the wife of Solon V. Edmands?], Joseph b. 1863 [not in the other sources cited here], Ella b. 1866 [Ella's dates are 1860-1920 in our other sources]. In 1860 he was also married to Phebe b. 1824 and had living with them George b. 1836, Sarah b. 1842, Lydia b. 1845 [1844 in our other sources], John A b. 1849 (these 4 poss children of 1st wife Lydia [in our other sources, John A b. 1849 was the child of Phebe Parry Edmands, not Lydia Draper Edmands, who had died 2 months after the final child, Margaret Ellen--the one raised by Artemas and Margaret Edmands--was born; the children of Lydia were George b. 1836, Artemas B. b. 1837, Esther Minerva, b. 1839, Sarah Melissa b. 1842, Lydia Hilda b. 1844, and Margaret Ellen b. 1847]) and Cora b. 1857 [not in the other sources cited here, perhaps really the wife of Solon V. Edmands?] (a guess is that he m1 (bef 1836) [1835 in our other sources] Lydia d. after 1849 [in our other sources, she died 4 April 1847] m2 Phebe (1850-57) [in our other sources, the marriage was 1848] but this needs proof." (Close) ------ (b. 1824, d. 8 February 1917) Children: John Alvah Edmands, 1849-1917 Ella May Edmands, 1860-1920 For more information on his descendants, including the surname Blaney, see Descendants of John Edmands (password-protected) Died 7 January 1886 (heart disease) in Saugus, Essex County, Massachusetts
Son:	Artemas Edmands, 1813-1896 (our ancestor)
Son:	Andrew Edmands Born 1818 Married 9 December 1835 ------ to Sarah A. Paine ------ b. 1817(9) According to Sarah was born in 1816 (not 1817). To close this footnote, click the number again or click (Close) ------ (daughter of Ebenezer Paine ------- and Sally Kirby Paine) Children: Charles H. Edmands(10) Ted Edmands, citing the same census data, has contradicted some other information we had, information that had Charles H. Edmands being the eldest child of Lott Edmands, Jr., and Sarah Paine Edmands. He apparently was the eldest child of Sarah, from her earlier marriage to Andrew Edmands, Lott's late brother. At the time of the 1855 census, Charles, age 19, was living as a "laborer" with his grandparents, Lott and Esther Edmands (both stated as age 64). supplied the information from the 1880 census that Charles (b. 1836) was married to Luella UNKNOWN (b. 1849) and that they had no children. There had been some speculation that Everett Edmands ("b. 1862/3") was the son rather than the youngest half-brother of Charles H. Edmands, but that seems unlikely given the age that Luella would have had to have been at Everett's birth (13 or 14). As Patricia Mathews has pointed out, if Everett had been the son of Charles, he wouldn't have been mentioned in the probate records; children of heirs were mentioned only if their parent himself or herself were already dead. This means that Everett's mother, Sarah Paine Edmands, would have to be 46 or 47 when Everett was born. (Another possibility, Pat Mathews has pointed out, is that Sarah Payne Edmands might have already died and her widower, Lott Jr., had married a second time, thus making Everett a step-brother to Ebenezer, as stated in the 1870 census.) Citing the 1850 census, Pat notes that Charles H. Edmands, age 15, was living in the same house as Lott Sr. and Esther (we presume they were his grandparents, his father having died and his mother, age 33, remarried to Lott Jr., Charles's uncle). The same census has Lott Edmands, Jr., age 28, and his wife, this same Sarah, their 3 children--Sarah A., age 11, Ebenezer, age 5, and James W., age 3--an Ebenezer Payne, age 59 (presumably Sarah's father), who was listed as a trader, and George W. Payne, age 16 (perhaps a cousin?), listed as an accountant, and finally--added on the end, as Pat says, "just like they forgot her"--Mary F. Edmands, age 6/12 (that is 6 months), the baby of Lott Jr.'s family. (See a couple of footnotes down about baby Mary F. Edmands.) The fact that 11-year-old Sarah A. Edmands is considered part of Lott Jr.'s household does not mean that Lott Jr. was her father; I contend that she was Charles's younger sister and was considered part of Lott Jr.'s household, because she was a minor (whereas 15-year-old Charles was no longer considered a minor) and was thus part of her mother's household. To close this footnote, click the number again or click (Close) --- b. 1836 --- m. Luella UNKNOWN (b. 1849) Sarah A. Edmands --- b. 1840 --- m. Alfred B. Roots, (b. 1837) --- child: George W. Roots, b. 1863 Died 1843
Son:	Lott Edmands Born 1822 Married 13 July 1844(11) According to Lott and Sarah were married 7 August (not 13 July) 1844. To close this footnote, click the number again or click (Close) ------ in Saugus, Essex Co., MA, ------ to his widowed sister-in-law, ------ Sarah A. Paine Edmands ------ b. 1817(12) According to Sarah was born in 1816 (not 1817). To close this footnote, click the number again or click (Close) ------ (daughter of Ebenezer Paine ------- and Sally Kirby Paine) Children: Ebenezer Paine Edmands --- b. 3 July 1844(13) Ebenezer's birthdate is from (our other sources had "1845"); apparently Ebenezer was born 10 days before his parents were married. Pat has brought up a couple of other possibilities: Either the date 1845 is the correct one, or Ebenezer was actually the son of Sarah Paine Edmands's first husband, Andrew Edmands, who might have died in 1844 rather than 1843, as our other sources had indicated. The other facts about Ebenezer are from Pat as well, much of it taken from the 1880 census. That census listed a "niece" living with Ebenezer and his family; her name was Kate, and she was 20 at the time and a dressmaker. Could this be the same Kate who was listed another time in the 1880 census, as the 20-year-old daughter of Artemas Bradford Edmands? (See note 7 on Artemas Bradford Edmands, and for more detail, see Descendants of John Edmands [password-protected].) To close this footnote, click the number again or click (Close) --- m, Lydia UNKNOWN (b. 1845) --- child: Sulie E. Edmands, b. 1871 --- in 1880 resided ward 24 Boston, MA (widowed mother Sarah there too) --- Profession: ice business James Walter Edmands --- b. 14 July 1847 --- m. <1880 Hattie UNKNOWN (b. 1856) --- in 1880 resided ward 24 Boston, MA --- Profession: ice business Mary Frances Edmands --- b. 1850(14) As commented on the listings of the 1850 census, baby Mary F. Edmands was "added on the end, just like they forgot her." Interestingly, there is a Mary Frances Edmands, born 28 September 1849, twin sister of Charles Wade Edmands, born, of course, the same day--new offspring to Rodney Edmands, 34, and his wife, Mary Wade Edmands, 42, also listed in the 1850 census. Rodney was the second child of William Edmands and Ruth Wiley Edmands. William Edmands and Lott Sr. were brothers, so Rodney Edmands and Lott Jr. were first cousins, so Rodney's kids and Lott Jr.'s kids would be second cousins. The families lived close to each other. Is it not possible that this Mary Frances Edmands, twin daughter of Rodney and Mary, was the same person as the Mary F. Edmands "daughter" of Lott Jr. and Sarah?--especially since Mary F. is listed by the census (but almost, it seems, as an afterthought) as part of Lott Jr.'s household, whereas Mary Frances is not listed alongside twin Charles W., who is listed, in the household of Rodney and Mary. Isn't it just possible that Rodney's 42-year-old wife, Mary Wade Edmands, didn't want to deal with twin babies in addition to the 5 still-living children she still had in the household--and that she gave one of the twins to cousins Lott and Sarah to raise? It could be an anomaly (bad reporting or recording) that Charles W. Edmands is listed as 10 months old and that his twin, Mary F. Edmands, is listed as 6 months old. (For more information on Mary Frances Edmands, daughter of Rodney and Mary, see Descendants of William Edmands [password-protected].) My suspicions were further aroused when I noticed that baby Charles, one of the twins, was to die soon after the census, just before his first birthday; poor mother Mary Wade Edmands had to take care of a sick baby on top of everything else. Of course, I carelessly overlooked the vital statistics of the other twin, the baby in question, Mary Frances Edmands, who had also been sick--in fact, so sick that she had already died before the census taker came--on 28 December 1849, at the age of exactly 3 months. Naturally I felt foolish when I realized that I had carelessly overlooked this deathdate in my overeager suspicions. But, even now, I haven't entirely given up on these suspicions. That "28 September 1849" (Rodney and Mary's baby Mary Frances's birthdate) and "28 December 1849" (that baby's death date, exactly 3 months later) needs further investigation and verification. It is so easy for family members who later record all this information--I think this information came to us in 1964 from Erma Mason, a descendant of Rodney Edmands, but I haven't confirmed this yet--to mess up and confuse these dates. Perhaps baby Mary did not die then, but she grew up in a cousin's family, got married, and finally died many years later. Of course, it could also just be that Lott and Sarah named their 1850 baby girl after the very recently deceased cousin who lived in the neighborhood--but then why is she recorded in the census as an afterthought? Acch! I've no doubt been overly suspicious and have jumped to too-hasty conclusions. Cousin Pat believes that there were two Mary F. Edmandses, one in Rodney's family and one in Lott Jr.'s. If Lott Jr. had really taken Rodney's Mary in, there would have been a record of an official adoption into Lott Jr.'s family, and there would not have been a false death record of the twin baby Mary in Rodney's family. To close this footnote, click the number again or click (Close) --- m. Charles M. Gordon Solon V. Edmands --- b. November 1854 --- m. Cora F. UNKNOWN (b. 1860, from Nova Scotia) --- Profession: ice truck driver --- d. 27 January 1909 Everett L. Edmands --- b. 1863 --- Profession: ice truck driver Profession: ice business Resided ward 2 in Lynn, MA (1870 cens.(15)) reports that in the 1870 census, Lott was living with children Ebenezer, James, Mary, Solon, half-brother Charles, and Everett. To close this footnote, click the number again or click (Close) Died 1877 (or before)
Daughter:	Esther Edmands Born 1825(16)) Ted Edmands cited the census data for 1855 and 1865 (compiled by Ann S. Larnhart) to demonstrate that the birthyear for Esther Edmands Wilson was 1825 (not 1820, as other sources had stated). To close this footnote, click the number again or click (Close) Married 28 November 1841 ------ to her brother-in-law, ------ Harrison Gray Wilson, 1819-<1910 ------ (son of Daniel M. Wilson, 1788-1869 ------- and Nancy Fisk Wilson, 1785-1864, ------- our ancestors) Children: Jerome Wilson, 1844-1884 ---- m. <1868 Susan UNKNOWN, 1843-1886 Rosalinda "Rose" Wilson, 1848-<1880 ---- m. UNKNOWN Moulton ---- daughter: Reliefe Moulton, b. 1868 Margaret L. Wilson, b. 1854(17)) This birthdate for Margaret came from following (a descendant of Harrison Gray Wilson, through Nellie Wilson and William H. Fairchild). Our other sources had 1857 as her birthyear. To close this footnote, click the number again or click (Close) Nellie M. Wilson, 1859-1933 ---- m. 13 November 1885 ---- to William H. Fairchild ------ (b. 4 November 1860 [California] ------ d. 1931) Died 10 August 1894 ---- Saugus, Essex Co., MA
Other information
Occupation:	Farm housewife
Religion:	No information available
Death of Esther Burrill Edmands
Died:	1 December 1883 (age 93 years 3 days)
Deathplace:	Saugus, Essex County, Massachusetts
Burial place:	Riverside Cmtry (right of lot 85, a double white marble headstone for her and her husband), Saugus, Essex County, Massachusetts
Disposal of the estate of Lott Edmands(18)) Both Nancy B. Edmands Allen and Ted Edmands cited the probate records at Salem, MA, to document how Lott's estate was finally settled. To close this footnote, click the number again or click (Close)
Lott Edmands died intestate, owing $4,324.87 [$75,000 in 2002 dollars], of which $3,300 [$53,600 in 2002 dollars] was tied up in mortgages on real estate. All of Lott's property was sold at auction in 1879 to settle his estate. The following documents how his estate was settled in probate court (text in this "typewriter" font was handwritten in the original documents):
[Minors must be designated. If any party is a married woman, her husband's name must be given. Next of kin may be determined by reference to Chapters 91 and 94 of the General Statutes.] To the Honorable the Judge of the Probate Court in and for the County of Essex Respectfully represents Nelson Cochran of Melrose in the county of Middlesex that Lott Edmands in the said county of Essex, farmer, died on the tenth day of January in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and seventy seven intestate, possessed of goods and estate remaining to be administered, leaving a widow, whose name is Esther and as his only next of kin, the persons whose names, residence and relationship to the deceased are as follows; viz., --- John Edmands, Artemas Edmands of Saugus, and Esther E. Wilson, wife of Harrison G. Wilson, of said Saugus--- children Charles H Edmands, Sarah A. Roots, wife of Alfred B. Roots, Ebenezer P. Edmands, James W. Edmands, Mary F. Gordon, wife of Charles Gordon, Solon V. Edmands, and Everett L. Edmands, minor, all of Lynn-- grandchildren That your petitioner is requested by the heirs to administer. Wherefore your petitioner prays that he may be appointed Administrator of the estate of said deceased. Dated this fifth day of February A.D. 1877 Nelson Cochran The undersigned, being all the persons interested in the foregoing Petition, desire that the same may be granted without further notice. Esther Edmands X her mark John Edmands Artemas Edmands Esther E. Wilson Harrison G. Wilson Charles H Edmands Sarah A. Roots Alfred B. Roots Ebenezer P. Edmands J. Walter Edmands Mary F. Gordon Charles M. Gordon Solon V. Edmands