Name Thomas Wiswall | Children Ichabod Wiswall | |
Monuments First Settlers Monument Known for early settler of Cambridge Village, Massachusetts, founder of Cambridge Village Church Resting place | ||
Thomas Wiswall (1601–1683) was an early settler of British America, a prominent early citizen of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and a key figure in the founding of Cambridge Village, now known as the city of Newton, Massachusetts.
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Early life
Wiswall was baptised in Warrington, Lancashire, England on 30 September 1601. He married Elizabeth Berbage in 1632, and had ten children:
Wiswall arrived in New England on August 16, 1635 (leaving behind him brothers Adam, Abiel and Jonathan), and settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts with his twin brother John, who had arrived in 1633. He was a grantee of land in 1637, subscriber to the school fund in 1641, and served as a selectman in Dorchester from 1644–1652.
Founding of Cambridge Village
Wiswall left Dorchester and resettled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, some time in 1654. In 1654, he sublet a 400-acre (1.6 km2) tract of land there from Captain Thomas Prentice. This land had been the property of the recently deceased John Haynes, former Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and later Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, and Prentice was the lessee and not the owner. Wiswall built a new homestead that year, beside the Dedham Trail (now Centre Street), on the south shore of a lake located on that tract of land. This was the first house to be built on the shore of what would be known—for 150 years—as Wiswall's Pond. The lake is now known as Crystal Lake, in Newton, Massachusetts.
John Jackson (the first settler in the area) donated an acre of land to be used as a burying place and for a meeting house. Wiswall built this meeting house, where today the East Parish Burying Ground (also known as the Centre Street Cemetery) and the First Settlers Monument are currently located.
In 1656, Wiswall and John Jackson signed a petition for release from supporting the church at Cambridge. This was the beginning of a movement for the area to become a separate and distinct entity from Cambridge. After a struggle that lasted for 32 years, these efforts were ultimately successful. In 1688, the area became formally known as Cambridge Village. Cambridge Village was renamed Newtown in 1691, and finally Newton in 1766.
Wiswall started the Cambridge Village Church, and was installed first ruling elder and assistant pastor on 20 July 1664. He also served as Fence Viewer and surveyor of roads for the area.
Death and burial
Wiswall died in Cambridge Village on 6 December 1683. He is buried in the East Parish Burying Ground in Newton. His second wife, Isabella Farmer (a widow from Ansley, Warwickshire, England), survived him and died in Billerica, Massachusetts, in May 1686.