The Benjamin Spaulding House was built sometime in the mid 1700’s shortly after Townsend (or Townshend, as it was spelled then) was incorporated. Plans to subdivide Townsend into large building tracts date back to the very early 1700’s as part of a massive land development effort. And no wonder. Population in the American colonies in 1700 stood around 250,000 persons. Over the ensuing century the population doubled every twenty years, so it’s easy to imagine the amount of building that went on. Town records indicate men from Concord, Lexington, Chelmsford, Woburn, and Groton purchased land to provide homesteads for their sons and families.
That’s how the Spauldings arrived in Townsend. Deacon Isaac Spaulding, (1710-1776) the family’s venerable patriarch, came from Chelmsford shortly after his marriage in the mid 1730’s. He inherited land in the town from his father, but also purchased property on his own as his wealth and prominence in the community increased. The Spauldings became one of Townsend’s important families during the 1800’s. They lived primarily in the eastern half of the township around the Harbour and up Wallace Hill toward Brookline, NH. An article in a local paper, dated 1877, and titled: “ A Great Family Gathering” in which over 200 Spauldings gathered in town to celebrate the centennial anniversary of Isaac Spaulding’s death, described the celebration and the patriarch’s house, which had been destroyed by fire eight years earlier. Other homes owned by members of this large clan probably still exist.
The Spauldings weren’t among the first settlers but they married into many of the first families, settling down to farm and start businesses. From Isaac’s two sons, Benjamin (1743 – 1832) who served as a lieutenant in the Revolutionary War and marched on the Alarm of April 1775, and Jonathan, sprang all the Townsend Spauldings. Families were very large back then – eight, ten, twelve children were common. But not everyone chose to continue living in Townsend; in fact, one of the surprising trends over the next several generations between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War is the number of Spaulding men who moved away – to New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Iowa, California and Florida.
As we dismantled the house, we discovered many of the floorboards bore the initials BS followed by a number. The lumber was sawn locally and the boards scratched with the initials of the owner of the home being built. BS stands for Benjamin Spaulding; the numbers after his initials indicate the number of boards that had been sawn and were ready for delivery to the site.
Additionally, as we dismantled the central chimney,we discovered scraps of old documents, all with Benjamin Spaulding’s name on them. One piece of paper dated 1814 was part of a receipt “for value received” between Richard Warner, who lived one lane north, and Benjamin Spaulding.
Another document, this time a debt instrument from the early 1800’s also bears Benjamin Spaulding’s signature. The house changed hands from Benjamin, to his son, Benjamin, and his Amos was acquisitive; over the course of his short life he purchased land from his brothers and various family members. He, in turn, sold land within the family as none of his ten children appear to have stayed in Townsend.
(The Spaulding genealogy has no record of the whereabouts of three of his six sons and the other three moved away). As mentioned above, the 1856 survey map of the town indicates the house was owned by Amos; a later map, dated 1875 indicates the house was owned by a George Brown. In between these dates, the house appears to have been purchased by Amos’ great nephew, Benjamin Minot Spaulding, who sold it to his widowed mother. She is the last Spaulding to own the property.
The house remained in the Brown family until 1937 when it was sold at auction. It’s interesting because it appears that by the mid-1900’s local recollection that this house was first built and owned by one of the town’s significant families was forgotten. It was not included, for example, in a pamphlet published by the local historical society of Townsend’s important early Colonial homes.
It changed hands again in 1954; by the time its current owner purchased the property in 1998, the house was in serious decline. Deciding not to restore the home it was advertised on eBay whereupon our company negotiated its purchase in September, 2003. Unable to find land in Townsend, our company decided to dismantle and rebuild the house in neighboring Brookline where its current owners cherish their new ‘old’ home.
)For Pictures Of What Was Found Go To - http://www.therestoredhomestead.com/restored_homestead/Spaulding_brochure.html )
