| Notes |
- Andrew lived in Weymouth until he was almost thirty. Suffolk County deeds show that he bought property there 16 Feb. 1673/4 and 10 Feb. 1676/7 from Richard Phillips and his wife Mary (vol. 9, p. 12-13; vol. 10, p. 150-151). There is no military service in Massachusetts for him, but Andrew “Foard” is mentioned in an account of sundry payments made in 1673-1674, for the building of “the Castle,” a fortification on Castle Island in Boston Harbor (Secretary of State, Boston and Mrs. Colin Campbell, Historical Society of Old Abington).
Andrew took the oath of allegiance to Charles II with his father and brothers in Weymouth in 1678. Two other Suffolk County records concern him: the will of his father and the estate records of his first cousin, Jamess Lovell. Andrew1 Ford, 25 Feb. 1692/3, bequeathed his son 12 pence, which he judged sufficient with what he had already given him. The inventory of Jamess Lovell’s estate, 1717/18, mentioned land held in partnership with his “brother” Andrew Ford (Suffolk County Probate Record, vol. 20, p. 455, given in History of Weymouth, vol. 3, p. 394). Jamesa was the son of James, brother of Ellinor, Andrew’s mother; therefore, Andrew’s first cousin; “brother” may indicate a close friendship or some connection unknown to this historian.
About 1679 Andrew moved into the eastern half of the Souther Grant, purchased by Lovell and Ford in 1664 from the Plymouth Colony. Benjamin Hobart, the Abington historian, said he might have moved thete earlier and withdrawn because of Indian trouble. “Andrew Ford’s house” was mentioned, 13 March 1671/2, in a description of the Partridge grant, sold by Partridge to Thomas Andrews of Hingham (Plymoum Colony deed, vol. 3, p. 188). The deed stated: “The said land lyem near a mile to me south a little westerly from Andrew ffoards house.” “Andrew ffoards house” may have been a crude hut or cabin used while clearing the property; and may have been the house destroyed by the Indians, the incident to which Hobart referred. Andrew Ford probably built a more permanent dwelling south of the first after the title to the Souther grant had been cleared up, 1679/80. He was the pioneer settler there. Hobart located an early Ford house, by a pile of rocks, west of Deacon Cleverly’s, at the present fork of Washington and Adams Streets in North Abington. The site was marked, about 1930, by some of Andrew’s descendants and a bronze plaque affixed to a boulder, which reads: “Near this spot about the year 1679 Andrew Ford, second of the name in America, built the first house in the territory afterward incorporated as the town of Abington.” This house is mentioned in Plymoum Colony Judicial Acts, vol. 7, p. 310 (·98) in a report written, 2 July 1690, on me road from Middlebury, Bridgewater, etc. towards Boston, “ .... to ye road that goeth to Waymouth, and from thence as ye way now lyeth on ye westerly side of Andrew Foords house, & so to ye patent line .... “ The land on which Andrew lived was called Ford’s Farm or Farms, as already stated.
On 10 June 1712 Ford’s Farms and lands adjoining, together with the N. E. comer of the town of Bridgewater, were incorporated to form the town of Abington (Massachusetts Archives, Court Orders, vol. 9, p. 205).
On 5 March 1715/16 Andrew Ford was elected Selectman and Tax Assessor for the town. He was a founder of the Congregational Church, 1712, and on the list of members, 1724. On 3 Aug. 1715 he was elected to serve on a committee to make up accounts regarding the meeting house. In 1716 Andrew Ford, Sr., was paid 10 shillings for keeping school in his neighborhood. On 3 March 1718 he was reimbursed 15s. for Edward Derby’S taxes which he had paid (Abington Town Records, passim.).
Andrew Ford owned other land in Plymouth Colony besides his share in the Souther grant. He received fractions of the 2 x 3/4 mile grant from his father, from Elizabeth and Remember Briggs and from his brother Samuel, as was shown in the deeds quoted under Andrew Ford (Sr), and was one of the owners when the grant was divided in 1695. He and James Lovell acquired the Bradford grant in 1694 and in 1705 bought out the Indian claims to that property and the 2 x 3/4 mile tract. From Jacob Nash, in 1710, Andrew received an undivided half right in 60 acres; and, in 1712/13, transferred it to Rev. Samuel Browne. Andrew received land from James Lovell, 1722/3, and made grants to his son Hezekiah, to his son-in-law Richard Whitmarsh, and to his son Andrew (Plymouth County deeds, passim.). Andrew was named the heir of his brother Ebenezer and grantor of 16 acres of land in Woodbridge in 1702. - Descendants of Andrew Ford of Weymouth, Massachusetts
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Abt 1651 - 1725 (~ 74 years)
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