This interactive Google map shows the locations of the homes of Joseph Bixby and his descendants. Click on the icons to read the information provided. The houses that are still standing feature photos of the houses today.
The Boxford and Topsfield cemeteries both have at least a dozen Bixby gravestones, although most of them date to the 19th century.
Joseph Bixby
The name of Bixby is variously spelled as Bigsby, Bixbe, Byxbee, Biggsby etc. Joseph Bixby, was baptized at Little Waldingfield, Suffolk, England on October 28, 1621, son of George and Ann (Cole) Bixby. [1] [2]. Joseph is thought to have emigrated to New England about 1638, but his name doesn’t appear in records until the time of his marriage in 1647, when he subscribed to support General Daniel Dennison. His occupation was carpenter. He married Sarah Riddlesdale Wyatt, the widow of Luke Heard sometime after 15 Dec 1647 in Ipswich. (source: Wikitree)
Sarah’s mother, Mary, was the widow of Edward Riddlesdale, who died in England. Mary married second, John Wyatt, who died in Assington, Suffolk, England. John Wyatt possessed a house lot on today’s Washington Street in 1638, adjoining a house lot granted to Mr. John Norton. These house lots were separated from the majority of the town by the former wetland that extended from the length of today’s Central St. Wyatt purchased from Nathaniel Bishop of Boxton on March 10, 1652, a house and land at today’s 36 North Main St., a pasture lot extending down the north side of Warren St. Wyatt died January 15, 1664-5, and left a widow, Mary, and house and lands valued at £177.00. Mary married third, James Barker, on 23 May 1666 in the part of Rowley, Massachusetts that is now the town of Boxford.
There is no record of Joseph Bixby owning a house or land in the present-day boundaries of Ipswich. On Dec. 22, 1649-50, in company with three others, Joseph Bixby obtained a grant of a house lot and meadow from the town of a meadow, not to exceed 16 acres, by Edward Lomas’ meadow that had already been granted near Mr. Rogers’ farm. The Rev. Nathaniel Rogers succeeded Nathaniel Ward as co-pastor with John Norton at Ipswich, and received a grant of 300 acres, laid out in Feb. 1650. The grant lay between the Ipswich River on the south, Gravelly Brook on the east, and Howlett’s Brook on the west. Men received these grants as reimbursement for their investments in the colony and made a profit by selling their farms as lots. This part of Ipswich, known as New Meadows, became the town of Topsfield in 1650.
In 1658, Joseph Bixby signed a petition protesting that several men of Ipswich had not been declared freemen, although they had taken the oath of allegiance. In 1661, Joseph Biggsby, Adam Redington, and William Foster purchased a large tract of land on the outskirts of Rowley, which became the town of Boxford.
In 1661, Joseph Bixby, along with Adam Redington and William Foster purchased a large tract of land in Rowley Village. Joseph’s 1/6 portion was about 500 acres, of which half he sold immediately to Robert and Nicholas Wallis. He moved to Rowley Village in the same year.
Joseph Bixby was chosen sergeant of the “soldiery of Topsfield and the Villages adjoining thereto,” and was a soldier in King Phillip’s War, 1675-76, the first service into which Boxford soldiers were ordered, in the company of Capt. Samuel Brocklebank. Bixby escaped the tragic fate of most of his company near Sudbury on the morning of April 21, 1676, while he and a few others remained behind to guard the garrison house at Marlborough.
He was a party in a case taken to the General Court in 1673: “To the Honorable General Court now sitting in Boston, this 7th of May, 1673. The Humble petition of divers well affected Inhabitants and House-holders of the Village commonly called Rowley Village. ” Humbly sheweth, That whereas your petitioners formerly purchased a tract of land of Joseph Jewett of Rowley, now deceased, on which we now dwell, whose land was sold to us as village land, free from any engagement to the town of Rowley, else we had not purchased it; as also it lyeing nigh to the now town of Topsfield, whose inhabitants about ten or twelve years since, called Mr. Gilbert to be their minister; he was unwilling to accept, unless we of the village would engage to pay our shares in and to publish charges at Topsfield. Upon this, Abraham Reddington, Joseph Biggsby, John Cumins, and the rest of us, being free as we apprehended, agreed to pay our proportions as our honest neighbours of Topsfield.”
After 1674, Joseph Bixby was sergeant of the Rowley company. In 1680, Joseph Bigsbee and William Foster were appointed to inspect the families in the village, which then had twenty-five families within its boundaries. In 1684, he was on the committee to bring Rev. Joseph Capen of Cambridge to be ordained minister of Topsfield. Joseph and his wife Sarah then joined this church. The Parson Capen House is one of the most historic houses in Massachusetts, owned by the Topsfield Historical Society. In 1684, a list of members in full communion at Topsfield included Joseph Bixby Sr. and his wife Sarah, Jonathan Bixby and his wife Sarah, Benjamin Bixby, and Mary Bixby
Joseph Bixby served as the moderator of the Boxford town meeting in March 1687, even though on the tax list, Joseph Bixby was described as “an old, decrepit man.” In 1689, the soldiers of Boxford nominated new officers, as Sergeant Bixby was then aged and disabled. Joseph Bixby was made a freeman March 22, 1689-90, and died April 19, 1700.
The Children of Joseph and Sarah Bixby
- Joseph Bixby Jr. was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, about 1648/9; married March 29, 1682, Sarah, daughter of John and Sarah (Baker Gould) of Topsfield. Resided at both Topsfield and Boxford. His will was proved on October 5, 1725.
- Daniel Bixby was born in Ipswich, c. 1651; died on May 7, 1717; married Hannah Chandler of Andover, December 2, 1674.
- Benjamin Bixby, born in Ipswich c. 1653; died in 1727; married Mary (?Kimball); lived in Topsfield.
- Sarah Bixby born in Ipswich in 1655; died on January 18, 1657
- Nathaniel Bixby born in Ipswich in 1657; died on July 11, 1658.
- Mary Bixby born in Ipswich February 18, 1659. married (? John) Stone
- George Bixby was born in Rowley in c. 1660-65; he married Rebecca Porter. Records of the Topsfield Historical Society state that Deacon George Bixby married Sarah Goodhue of Ipswich. He succeeded his father on the homestead and had two sons, one of whom died young. George Bixby probably died in 1729. He was succeeded on the farm by his son Gideon, who was born in 1699 and married Rebecca Foster in 1751. His widow married Solomon Gould of Topsfield in 1756, who lived but a few years. Her son, Gideon Bixby, sold the place in April 1774, for £436 to John Herrick of Boxford, and his mother released her right of dower in it. The farm then consisted of one hundred and eight acres. The location of Herrick’s property in 1800s maps confirms the location of the Joseph Bigsby farm.
- Jonathan Bixby born in Rowley c 1666/7; married Sarah Smith of Topsfield, on February 2, 1692. Lived in Boxford; His will was proved May 20, 1717.
- Abigail Bixby born in Rowley.
Bixby Houses and Land
Joseph Bixby Sr.: Historian Sidney Perley wrote that Joseph Bixby’s house was in the area between Depot Rd. and Georgetown Rd. in Boxford. The house is no longer standing. The decision to establish this part of Rowley as a separate town was made by the General Court in 1685. A year later, it was renamed Boxford. Bixby’s land was in the southeast area of Boxford and overlapped Topsfield, in the general vicinity of the intersection of today’s Rt. 97 and I-95.
On 10 June, 1727, Joseph Bixby 3rd sold to John Andrews, Jr., of Boxford, twelve acres of land in Boxford “with a dwelling house thereon, it being the house and part of the land that was my father’s, Joseph Byxbe, deceased.” The same day he sold to John Bixby, for £112, twenty-six acres, part of the land which had belonged to his father. The house is no longer standing
Benjamin Bixby
In 1691, Joseph’s son Benjamin Bixby sold “part of a meadow” in Topsfield, which he “bought of my father Bixby.” (Source: Salem Deeds). In 1696, Benjamin Bixby bought 32 acres from his father, adjoining Hood Pond at the intersection of Linebook Road and today’s Rt. 97 /Haverhill St. (Salem Deeds 35:61). Benjamin Bixby’s house was destroyed by fire on Sunday, June 26, 1859. The Elbridge Bixby House sits near that location.
Windham, Connecticut
In 1712, a division of four hundred acres in the northeast part of Windham, CT, was laid out for purchase and settlement. The valleys were fertile and attractive to third-generation descendants of Essex County settlers who hadn’t inherited large acreage of land. Benjamin Bixby’s son Benjamin 2 moved to Killingly/Thompson, Connecticut. Another son, Samuel Bixby was born in Topfield in 1689 and married Martha Underwood Killingly of Windham County, Connecticut, in 1718. He died, probably in 1741. He was one of the early settlers of Sutton, Massachusetts. Their children were: Benjamin, born 17 April 1726; Jonathan, born 29 Sept. 1728; Sampson, born 3 March, 1731; and Solomon, twin with Sampson.
River Road-Cross Street Historic District, Topsfield
The Topsfield neighborhood encompassing River Road, Rowley Bridge Road, Cross Street, and Hill Street is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. View a map of the River Road-Cross Street Historic District.
Cross Street extends from Hill Street to Rowley Bridge Road. On March 2, 1730, “the town accepted the Selectmen’s Laying out a way for George Bixby.” This property was long known as the “Donation Farm” because Deacon George Bixby, the owner, bequeathed the estate to the selectmen of Topsfield, in trust, the income to be applied to the support of the ministers of the Congregational denomination in Topsfield, and the farm to be known as “The donation farm for the support of the Gospel.” Deacon Bixby died Jan. 5, 1825.
Meredith Farm, the Daniel Bixby House, Cross St., Topsfield
Meredith Farm is a 188-acre, privately owned farm on Cross St. in Topsfield. In 1689, Joseph Bixby (1621-1703) bought 64 acres in the vicinity of what is now Meredith Farm. In January 1689, Joseph Bixby sold 32 acres of it to his son Benjamin in 1689. In 1691, Benjamin Bixby sold a parcel of land to John Curtis (Salem Deeds 9:29).
In 1722, nearly two hundred and fifty acres of land south of the river, on the west side of the highway leading to Hill Street were divided into three ranges. On the north, the line between the first and second ranges was about where Cross Street is today. The members of the Curtis and Towne families acquired most of the lots in the first range. Before 1730, George Bixby bought a large portion of land in the second range, on Cross St., on which he built his house.
In 1738, George Bixby purchased Jacob Redington’s farm of 57.5 acres near the intersection of Hill and Cross Street. In 1740, he acquired the 20-acre farm and farmhouse from Israel Towne, who moved to New Hampshire. George Bixby then gave his son Daniel half of his dwelling house and barn. In his will in 1783, George Bixby left the other half of his land to Daniel. A cider mill was in operation on the Bixby farm by 1751. Dendrochronology was conducted on the beams in the house on the farm that Daniel Bixby built, showing they were cut in the Fall of 1791 and Spring of 1792. The beams in the barn close by, which is referred to as the 1793 Barn, were cut in late 1792 and early 1793.
In 1845, Daniel Bixby Jr. willed his farm to the Town of Topsfield as the “Donation Farm”, the income from which would help to support the Congregational ministers of Topsfield.
In 1899, J. Morris Meredith, a Boston realtor, purchased the farm from Charles V. Jackman. He built the Main House on the farm in 1900. View a video of the present-day Meredith Farm. View the history at the Meredith Farm website.
River Road, Topsfield
Andover
Village Cemetery, Boxford MA from Findagrave
- Abbie Maria Bixby, 12 Dec 1845 – 29 Jan 1919. Plot info: B74
- Charles Bixby, Nov 1793 – 17 May 1860, Plot info: B78
- Charles Henry Bixby, 3 Apr 1819 – 27 Oct 1892 Plot info: B81
- David Bixby Apr 1786 – 19 Jan 1849, Plot info: B74
- Eleanor Edwards Johnson Bixby 1805 – 23 Mar 1880 Plot info: B74
- George Loring Bixby 1836 – 15 Jan 1839 Plot info: B74
- Gideon Bixby 15 Jun 1752 – 15 Feb 1830 Plot info: B74
- Hannah Bixby Apr 1792 – 29 May 1841, Plot info: B77
Harmony Cemetery, Ipswich Rd., Boxford
- Caroline Emerson Bixby, May 1818 – 12 Feb 1904, Plot info: Section 53
- Caroline Josephine “Carrie” Bixby, 14 Nov 1847 – 30 Apr 1879, Plot info: Section 53
- Charles Augustus Bixby, 5 Sep 1865 – 1934, Plot info: Lot #4,
- Clara Morton Keyes Bixby, 1875 – 1931, Plot info: Lot #4
- Daniel Bixby, 4 Jul 1815 – 25 Nov 1900, Plot info: Section 53
- Henry A Bixby, 27 Jun 1850 – 27 Oct 1935, Plot info: Section 53
- Sabrina Emma Wright Bixby, Feb 1853 – 11 Oct 1907, Plot info: Section 53
Topsfield Pine Grove Cemetery
Inscriptions from Records of the Topsfield Historical Society. View the Findagrave site.
- In Memory of | Benjamin Bixby son | of Mr. Benjamin & I Peggy Bixby, | who died June 3 1795.
- Charles H. | Son of | Daniel & Caroline | Bixby, | Born Feb. 2, 1840, I Died Aug. 23, 1846.
- Here Lyes the Body | of Daniel Bixby | who Died, September 22, 1775 Aged 56 Years | & 7 months. “Why do we mourn Departing Friends or shake at Deaths alarms tis but the Voice that Jesus Sends To call them to his arms.” [Revolutionary Soldier.]
- Deacon | Daniel Bixby | died | Jan. 5, 1825. “Reader prepare, remember death is near; My time is past, Eternity is here.” [Revolutionary Soldier.]
- To the memory of | Cap. Daniel Bixby, died | June 24, 1836. “When the dread summons calls, we must obey; And break all earthly ties, to sleep with clay; How sad would be our lot, how drear the grave, But for that blessed hope our Saviour gave.”
- Daniel A. | Son of Daniel & Caroline Bixby, | Born May 30, 1843, Died Aug. 29, 1846.
- Here Lyes the Body of M” Elisabeth Bixby, Daughter of Mr. Daniel & Mrs Ruth Bixby, who Died September 18, 1776 1 Aged 33 years. “The Dead are Only Blest That in the Lord do Rest.”
- John Q. Bixby, died Sept. 21, 1846, Et. 17 yrs.
- To the memory of | Lucinda, Daughter of, Daniel & Sally Bixby, died June 13, 1820. Et 6 years.
- In Memory of | Mrs. Ruth Bixby | Relict of Mr. Daniel Bixby, who died Sept. 14, 1808 ^Et. 90.
Sources and Further Reading
- A Genealogy of the Descendants of Joseph Bixby 1621-1701 of Ipswich and Boxford, Massachusetts who spell the name Bixby, Bigsby, Byxbee, Bixbee, Bigsbee, or Byxbe.
- Hammatt Papers: Early inhabitants of Ipswich, Mass. 1633-1700 by Abraham Hammatt
- Historical Collections of the Topsfield Historical Society
- Perley, Sidney: The History of Boxford, Essex County, Massachusetts
- Perley, Sidney: Topsfield Houses and Land
- Perley, Sidney: The dwellings of Boxford, Essex County, Mass.
- MACRIS, The Massachusetts Historical Commission inventory of historic properties.
- Vital Records of Essex County
- List of Selectmen of Boxford
- Wikitree: Joseph Bixby
17th & 18th Century Houses of Essex County, Massachusetts 