Solomon Kimball House (Wenham, Massachusetts)

History of ownership

1701: Thomas Killam sold his dwelling house, barn, orchard and house lot of 25 acres (along with 1.5 acres of meadow land in Lord’s Meadow, Wenham) to William Fairfield. Further research is needed to determine when and from whom Thomas bought the parcel.

1725: William Fairfield gave the house and a house lot of 2 acres to his son Josiah Fairfield as a wedding gift

William reiterated this gift on two subsequent occasions. First, in 1738, William gave Josiah one-fourth of William’s 45 acres of “homesteads and lands in Wenham and elsewhere” (reserving 16 poles for a burying ground) and another one-fourth to William’s son Benjamin—Josiah’s share including “Thomas Killam[ʼ]s homestead,” and Benjamin’s share including William’s homestead. Second, in his 1742 will, William refers to his deeds of gift to sons Josiah and Benjamin, and gives them the remainder of his real estate, representing 180 acres of “sundry parcels” in Wenham and Ipswich.

Over the years Josiah added to the acreage of his house lot, expanding it to 46 acres by 1767. He appears to have had some financial difficulty around this time, however, because in January 1767 he sold various assets (his dwelling house, barn, “out houses,” house lot of 46 acres, additional parcels of upland and meadow, lots in Wenham Great Swamp, and his pew in the Wenham Meeting House) to his brother Benjamin for £600—and seven months later purchased the same assets (less a lot of upland and the pew in the meeting house) back from Benjamin for £550, and at the same time sold Benjamin 40 acres on the south side of current-day Maple Street (with barn) for 10 shillings.

1771: Josiah Fairfield gave “the back part of my dwelling house with the cellar under it and the entry that is between that back house & my dwelling house,” along with one-half of his cider house and cider mill, to his son Capt. Matthew Fairfield

1777: Josiah Fairfield died and bequeathed all his real estate to his sons Matthew and Josiah, Jr., in reversion, after the death of his wife Elizabeth (Appleton) Fairfield. An inventory of Josiah’s real estate lists a “mansion house,” half a barn, half a cider house, a quarter of a cider mill and about 45 acres of land, the total value of which was £600.

1783: Josiah’s widow Elizabeth (Appleton) Fairfield sued Matthew and Josiah Fairfield, Jr. to secure her possession of her late husband’s real estate, resulting with a six-acre house lot

1797: Matthew Fairfield sold the property (i.e., a “mansion house” and six acres, including a “small piece of land” called “the nursery”) to Thomas Kimball and Joseph Fairfield for $333.33

1810: Thomas Kimball died, the inventory of his estate including a house, “old” and “new” barns, a cow barn and “old shop.” Thomas' widow Huldah (Porter) Kimball died in 1835. Their son Thomas Kimball, Jr. eventually bought out his siblings’ interests in the real estate.

1845: Thomas Kimball, Jr. died, and son Solomon E. Kimball inherited his house

1924: Solomon E. Kimball died intestate, and son Elwell F. Kimball inherited Solomon’s “[f]arm in Wenham including land and buildings” valued at $5,500.00

Thomas and Mary (Solart) Killam

Thomas Killam (or Kilham), son of Daniel and Mary (Safford) Killam, was born 1653-4 in Wenham, and married Martha Solart circa 1680. Killam was a veteran of King Philip’s War, serving under Major Samuel Appleton of Ipswich in Appleton’s campaign against the Narragansett, including the Great Swamp Fight of December 19, 1675. In May 1676 the General Court voted to repay soldiers for losses incurred, and voted £2 15d 6s for Killam’s losses.

Martha (Solart) Killam was the daughter of John, Sr. and Elizabeth (-----) Solart, who kept a tavern in Wenham, still standing at 106 Main Street. Solart, Sr. was financially successful, yet drowned himself in 1672 leaving an estate of over £500. Solart, Sr.’s widow soon remarried Ezekiel Woodward, and kept her seven children from receiving their rightful share of Solart, Sr.’s estate. Eventually, these children successfully petitioned the General Court for redress in 1682.

Martha was a sister of Sarah Good, who was one of the first three to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witchcraft hysteria and was hanged in 1692. Sarah's 4 year-old daughter Dorothy Good (also known as Dorcas Good) was also accused and arrested for witchcraft. Dorothy Good survived the hysteria, but was the youngest to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem episode.

Thomas and Martha (Solart) Killam had six children, all born in Wenham and the last two likely born in the Solomon Kimball House:

1. Thomas, Jr., (date of birth not recorded); married Sarah Maxey, April 8, 1712, Topsfield, MA
2. Martha (date of birth not recorded); married Timothy Bragg, December 23, 1714, Ipswich, MA
3. Samuel (date of birth not recorded); married Grace Endicott, December 21, 1715, Boxford, MA
4. John, born November 3, 1695; died 1738; married Abigail Symonds, February 3, 1724-5, Boxford, MA
5. Daniel, born May 25, 1698; died October 20, 1699, Wenham
6. Daniel (2nd), born August 14, 1700

Thomas Killam sold his house in Wenham to William Fairfield in July 1701, and moved to Boxford (MA).

William, Esther (Batchelder) and Rebecca (Tarbox) Fairfield

William Fairfield owned the property from 1701 to 1725. He likely built himself a new house in 1724, having inherited land from his late father Walter the year before, and gave the former Thomas Killam homestead to his son Josiah as a wedding gift. (It's worth noting that the land William inherited from his father included a burial ground that the family had been using since at least 1691.)

A son of Ensign Walter and Sarah (Skipper) Fairfield, William was born October 14, 1662 in Reading, MA, and died on December 18, 1742 in Wenham. He was active in town affairs, and was Town Clerk 1706-1711 and 1724-1729; Moderator of Town Meeting in 1715, 1716, 1733-1736, 1739 and 1741; and was elected deacon of the First Church in 1731. He was a Representative at General Court in 1723, 1728, 1730, and 1732-1742, and “[d]uring the session of 1741, he was Speaker of the House of Deputies, at that time the highest office in the gift of the people, the Governor and Lieut. Governor being appointed by the King.”

 He appears to have been one of those shrewd, clear-headed, practical men, whose minds are formed and trained by reflection and experience, rather than by a knowledge of books, or by intercourse with the world. He held, at different times, every office in the gift of the people of his native town and State, and in all, he gained the confidence of those whom he was called to serve. He was also an active member of the church, and for many years one of its deacons.  We regret that so little can now be ascertained concerning Mr. Fairfield. An anecdote is still told of him, which is quite characteristic. The common mode of travelling in those days was on horseback. Setting out to attend a session of the Legislature, he became so absorbed in thinking of the business on which they were to enter, and upon his duties as Speaker, that he is said to have actually reached Boston, bridle in hand, before discovering that he had left his horse at home.

William married twice. His first marriage was to Esther Batchelder about the year 1687. She was born circa 1668 and died on January 21, 1722/3 in Wenham. More research is required to identify her parents and the dates and locations of her birth and marriage. William and Esther (Batchelder) Fairfield had thirteen children, all born in Wenham:

1. Sarah, born July 23, 1688; died February 6, 1705 in Wenham (buried in Fairfield Family Burial Ground)
2. Mary, born December 18, 1689
3. William, Jr., born October 18, 1691; died October 24, 1691 in Wenham (buried in Fairfield Family Burial Ground)
4. William, Jr. (2nd), born November 17, 1692
5. Esther, Jr., born August 12, 1695
6. Tabitha, born May 17, 1696; died October 7, 1717 in Wenham (buried in Fairfield Family Burial Ground)
7. Abigail, born May 9, 1698
8. Elizabeth, born January 9, 1699/1700
9. Josiah, born October 12, 1701
10. Prudence, born July 13, 1704
11. Skipper, born January 2, 1706
12. Benjamin, born October 29, 1708
13. Rev. John, born November 29, 1712

William’s second marriage was to Mrs. Rebecca (Tarbox) Gott on October 14, 1723 in Wenham. Rebecca was born on August 8, 1672 in Lynn, MA, the daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (Armitage) Tarbox. Her first marriage was to John Gott, whom she married on July 19, 1693 in Salem, MA. (John Gott was the son of Charles and Lydia (Clark) Gott, was born on November 8, 1668 in Wenham, and died on January 25, 1722-3 in Wenham.) She died on July 29, 1765 in Lynn, MA. No children are recorded in Wenham’s vital records for William and Rebecca (Gott) Fairfield.

Capt. Matthew and Abigail (Ayers) Fairfield

Matthew Fairfield, son of Josiah and his second wife Elizabeth (Appleton) Fairfield, was born May 18, 1745 in Wenham (likely in the Solomon Kimball House), married Mrs. Abigail Ayers on October 22, 1767 in Haverhill (MA), and died on February 11, 1813 in New Boston, NH. Matthew was the first of Josiah’s sons to reach adulthood, and it’s likely that when he married Abigail they took up residence in Josiah and Elizabeth’s house. This was certainly the case by 1771, when Matthew and Abigail were living in one part of the house, Josiah and Elizabeth were living in the other part of the house, and Josiah gave Matthew that portion of the house that Matthew and Abigail occupied (along with one half of a cider house and cider mill nearby).

Matthew Fairfield was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War. In December 1774 he was appointed to the three-member town committee that enlisted Wenham’s minutemen. Once the fighting began, he was a private in Capt. Billy Porter’s company of minutemen, Col. John Baker’s regiment, which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775, serving five days but arriving too late to see the Battles of Lexington and Concord. He enlisted as a lieutenant at Gloucester in 1775 in the 38th Regiment, and appears in its muster rolls for July through December 1775. He may have spent 1776 at home, since his name does not appear on Massachusetts muster rolls for this period, but was a captain in Col. John Wigglesworth’s regiment from January through October 1777, serving at the Battles of Saratoga. Later—December 1777 – Capt. Fairfield was with the 13th Massachusetts Regiment (de Kalb’s division, Glover’s brigade) at Valley Forge, although his name does not appear on Valley Forge musters for subsequent months.

Fairfield was initiated into the Masons in April of 1777, and held the office of Steward for the United States Lodge in Danvers in October 1778.

At some point during the Revolution, Capt. Fairfield and his company were sent to Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

 to quell the Tory insurrections, or mobs, that existed … where the old loyal Scotch element so largely predominated. … His greatest troubles were in New Boston, where the Tories had their rendezvous. But it appears that here he found friends, and soon after the war he moved his family from Wenham, Mass., to New Boston, and settled on a tract of land in the south part of the town, where he resided until his death, in 1814 [sic], which was occasioned by the falling of a tree.

Further research is required to identify Abigail Ayers’ parentage, date and place of birth, and information on her first marriage. She died on January 28, 1825, age 78.

Matthew and Abigail had twelve children, perhaps nine of whom were likely born in the Solomon Kimball House:

1. Nabby (Abigail), born July 25, 1768, Wenham; died December 24, 1796
2. Betsey (Elizabeth), born April 28, 1770, Wenham; married William Crombie, April 27, 1797
3. John, born February 11, 1773, Wenham; married Mehitable Baker (intention recorded October 12, 1799, Wenham)
4. Hannah, born February 4, 1775, Wenham; died August 8, 1809; married Capt. Joseph Wilson
5. Alice, died in infancy October 20, 1777, Wenham
6. Sarah (Sally), baptized August 29, 1779, Wenham; married Benjamin Fairfield (intention recorded April 3, 1803, Wenham)
7. Walter, died in infancy
8. William, died in infancy
9. Charlotte, baptized October 31, 1784, Wenham; married Capt. Joseph Wilson, her widower brother-in-law
10. Josiah, perhaps born in New Boston, NH; died in infancy
11. Matthew, Jr., perhaps born in New Boston, NH; died in infancy
12. William (2nd), perhaps born in New Boston, NH; died in infancy

Maps

1795: Surveyed by Richard Dodge, this is the oldest map known of Wenham, and shows the town’s boundaries, roads and major bodies of water. Current-day Maple Street appears, as does that portion of current-day Topsfield Road northwest of Maple Street. (Note that current-day Topsfield Road did not extend to the Beverly town line, but stopped at current-day Maple and Cherry Streets.)

1831: Surveyed by Philander Anderson, this map shows the expansion of Wenham’s system of roads, the addition of swampland, and a drawing of the Wenham Meeting House.

1872: This map shows the Solomon Kimball House as “T. Kimball Est[ate].” The “A. Bagley” house, near the northeast corner of the intersection of current-day Cherry Street and Topsfield Road, was the William Fairfield homestead.

1884: This map shows the Solomon Kimball House as “S. Kimball.”

1910 (Western & Central Wenham): This map shows the Solomon Kimball House as “S Kimball” and provides the location of the house itself as well as three out buildings. The outline of the house indicates an ell or porch at the northeast corner of the building that no longer exists.

1910 (Maple & Bomer Streets): This on-the-ground survey of properties adjacent to Maple and Bomer Streets (Bomer Street subsequently known as the portion of Topsfield Road southwest of Maple and Cherry Streets) shows the location of an orchard and garden belonging to Solomon Kimball, northwest of the Moulton lot (which was opposite Company Lane). The 1910 map of western and central Wenham, however—which likely was not drawn from an on-the-ground survey—identifies the lot northwest of the Moulton lot as “Hrs. E. Kimball” (or heirs of E. Kimball). This label is probably a typo; the lot northwest of the Moulton lot would have been owned by heirs of Thomas Kimball or by Solomon Kimball himself.

1955: The subdivision of the Solomon Kimball farm began in 1955 and continued through the mid-1960s, creating Puritan Road, Mayflower Drive and the lots facing those streets. This 1955 map, drawn at the beginning of the subdivision program, shows the location and outline of the Solomon Kimball House and two outbuildings; note the outline of an ell or porch on the north side of the house that no longer exists.