Scattered across Sutton's landscape are homes that were standing when the Revolutionary War unfolded. These homes were silent witnesses to the turbulent birth of a nation. But these houses are more than architectural relics. They are the places where real people lived, worked, worried, and hoped: farmers who took up arms, families who waited for news, and neighbors who built a community in extraordinary times.
Sutton's Witness House Project is dedicated to remembering those people. By exploring the stories behind these historic walls, we aim to bring Sutton's Revolutionary generation back to life - not as distant historical figures, but as the human beings who shaped the town we call home today.
Please note that these properties are private homes and are NOT open for visiting.
Sutton's Witness House Project is dedicated to remembering those people. By exploring the stories behind these historic walls, we aim to bring Sutton's Revolutionary generation back to life - not as distant historical figures, but as the human beings who shaped the town we call home today.
Please note that these properties are private homes and are NOT open for visiting.
There are over 30 buildings in Sutton that were built before the end of the Revolutionary War. The initial stage of this project focuses on the six that stand along the route of the Sutton Fourth "Living Timeline" parade of 2026. Below you will find brief information about each property, focusing on its history during the Revolutionary War time period. In addition, we have tried to bring the inhabitants of these properties back to life and give you a sense of what life in Sutton was like in the 18th century.
- The Diarist's House (10 Uxbridge Road)
- The John Hancock House (327 Boston Road)
- The Tavern Keeper's House (334 Boston Road)
- The Selectman's House (346 Boston Road)
- The Family Home (St Mark's Parsonage)
- The Turncoat's House (5 Putnam Hill Road)
The Diarist's House
Background
The first minister of Sutton was John McKinstry (1677-1754), a recent immigrant to New England at the time of his appointment in 1720. He proved too rigid for the Sutton congregation and was dismissed in 1728. His replacement, Dr. David Hall, would go on to serve Sutton for over 60 years, until his death in 1789.
A requirement for the establishment of a town in the early 1700s was the settlement of a minister. To encourage applicants, land was offered in addition to a salary. After some early disputes around the suitability of the “minister’s lot” in Sutton, Dr David Hall was offered first the lease, and then the ownership, of several tracts of land in the town. 10 Uxbridge Road was one lot that Hall owned, and the building thereon was probably constructed around 1729, although the current appearance owes more to the later years of the 18th century. Dr David Hall also owned 327 Boston Road, where our “John Hancock House” now stands. He sold that property to his son, David Hall, Jr. in 1753. However, the Hall family continued to lease the house and land throughout the Revolutionary War period.
Our Diarist
In 18th-century Massachusetts, a minister’s life was one of enormous responsibility and surprisingly little rest. He was simultaneously the spiritual shepherd, moral authority, and intellectual cornerstone of his community, in a colony where church and civic life were deeply intertwined. The minister’s week revolved around the Sabbath, for which he spent much of his time preparing two lengthy sermons, often an hour or more each, delivered to a congregation that attended out of both genuine piety and social obligation. Beyond the pulpit, he made regular pastoral visits to the sick and dying, counseled families in crisis, presided over births, marriages, and funerals, and mediated community disputes. He was expected to be a scholar, and many ministers had graduated from Harvard College, the institution founded in part to ensure a learned ministry. His salary, often paid partly in firewood, grain, or other goods rather than coin, was a constant source of negotiation and sometimes bitter conflict with his congregation. He lived under intense public scrutiny; any moral failing or doctrinal misstep could fracture his relationship with his flock entirely. It was a life of profound influence, but also of considerable pressure, isolation, and sacrifice.
All these things are reflected in the diary of Sutton’s minister, Dr David Hall. For 49 years, he recorded current events, his own personal and spiritual life, and his service as minister.
The first minister of Sutton was John McKinstry (1677-1754), a recent immigrant to New England at the time of his appointment in 1720. He proved too rigid for the Sutton congregation and was dismissed in 1728. His replacement, Dr. David Hall, would go on to serve Sutton for over 60 years, until his death in 1789.
A requirement for the establishment of a town in the early 1700s was the settlement of a minister. To encourage applicants, land was offered in addition to a salary. After some early disputes around the suitability of the “minister’s lot” in Sutton, Dr David Hall was offered first the lease, and then the ownership, of several tracts of land in the town. 10 Uxbridge Road was one lot that Hall owned, and the building thereon was probably constructed around 1729, although the current appearance owes more to the later years of the 18th century. Dr David Hall also owned 327 Boston Road, where our “John Hancock House” now stands. He sold that property to his son, David Hall, Jr. in 1753. However, the Hall family continued to lease the house and land throughout the Revolutionary War period.
Our Diarist
In 18th-century Massachusetts, a minister’s life was one of enormous responsibility and surprisingly little rest. He was simultaneously the spiritual shepherd, moral authority, and intellectual cornerstone of his community, in a colony where church and civic life were deeply intertwined. The minister’s week revolved around the Sabbath, for which he spent much of his time preparing two lengthy sermons, often an hour or more each, delivered to a congregation that attended out of both genuine piety and social obligation. Beyond the pulpit, he made regular pastoral visits to the sick and dying, counseled families in crisis, presided over births, marriages, and funerals, and mediated community disputes. He was expected to be a scholar, and many ministers had graduated from Harvard College, the institution founded in part to ensure a learned ministry. His salary, often paid partly in firewood, grain, or other goods rather than coin, was a constant source of negotiation and sometimes bitter conflict with his congregation. He lived under intense public scrutiny; any moral failing or doctrinal misstep could fracture his relationship with his flock entirely. It was a life of profound influence, but also of considerable pressure, isolation, and sacrifice.
All these things are reflected in the diary of Sutton’s minister, Dr David Hall. For 49 years, he recorded current events, his own personal and spiritual life, and his service as minister.
The 'John Hancock' House
This house was originally owned by David Hall Jr. (1732-1796), the son of Dr David Hall, Sutton’s longstanding minister. It was constructed sometime between 1753, when Dr. David Hall sold the land to his son, and 1759, when the land, with a dwelling house and barn now standing upon it was put up as surety in an indenture between David Hall, Jr., trader, and Thomas Hancock Esq. of Boston. Hancock was a merchant and politician and bought 327 Boston Road outright in 1759 for £400, by which time, David Hall Jr. had moved to Pomfret, Connecticut and become a physician. Thomas Hancock never lived in Sutton, and neither did his nephew, John Hancock, who inherited the Sutton property after his uncle’s death in 1764. However, it is likely that the Hall family continued to lease the house on Boston Road, as Dr David Hall’s diary entry for 17 April 1779 reads:
“Wensday went to Boston where I had business. Someone having attempted to buy Col. Hancock’s place represented me as if not faithful in leasing it. But I hope all will end well.”
Dr. Hall settled his concerns with John Hancock in Boston the following year, and Hancock sold the property to Elijah Putnam on 10 May 1785.
For most of our Witness Houses we can ascertain who was living in the property during the Revolutionary War, but in this case we can only guess it was a member of David Hall’s family. However, we do know that this property ties Sutton to the wider events of the War for Independence, as the Hall family retained close links with John Hancock, whose signature appears on so many documents from the Revolutionary War, including in facsimile on Sutton’s official copy of the Declaration of July 4, 1776.
“Wensday went to Boston where I had business. Someone having attempted to buy Col. Hancock’s place represented me as if not faithful in leasing it. But I hope all will end well.”
Dr. Hall settled his concerns with John Hancock in Boston the following year, and Hancock sold the property to Elijah Putnam on 10 May 1785.
For most of our Witness Houses we can ascertain who was living in the property during the Revolutionary War, but in this case we can only guess it was a member of David Hall’s family. However, we do know that this property ties Sutton to the wider events of the War for Independence, as the Hall family retained close links with John Hancock, whose signature appears on so many documents from the Revolutionary War, including in facsimile on Sutton’s official copy of the Declaration of July 4, 1776.
A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled
The founding document of the United States was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia. On July 17, 1776, Richard Derby Jr. (1736-1781), member of the Massachusetts Governor’s Council, wrote:
Ordered, That the Declaration of Independence be printed and a copy sent to the Ministers of each Parish, of every Denomination, within this State; and that they severally be required to read the same to their respective Congregations, as soon as divine Service is ended, in the Afternoon of the first Lords Day after they shall have received it: And after such Publication thereof, to deliver the said Declaration to the Clerks of their several Towns or Districts; who are hereby required to record the same in their respective Town, or District Books, there to remain as a perpetual Memorial hereof.
Although our Congregational minister, David Hall, does not record the fulfilment of his duties in this regard, we can assume that he did indeed read out the Declaration after service to all who attended. The printed copy of the Declaration made its way into the hands of Benjamin Morss (1740-1833), Sutton’s Town Clerk, who duly copied it into our Town Book between the town meetings in October and November of 1776.
Ordered, That the Declaration of Independence be printed and a copy sent to the Ministers of each Parish, of every Denomination, within this State; and that they severally be required to read the same to their respective Congregations, as soon as divine Service is ended, in the Afternoon of the first Lords Day after they shall have received it: And after such Publication thereof, to deliver the said Declaration to the Clerks of their several Towns or Districts; who are hereby required to record the same in their respective Town, or District Books, there to remain as a perpetual Memorial hereof.
Although our Congregational minister, David Hall, does not record the fulfilment of his duties in this regard, we can assume that he did indeed read out the Declaration after service to all who attended. The printed copy of the Declaration made its way into the hands of Benjamin Morss (1740-1833), Sutton’s Town Clerk, who duly copied it into our Town Book between the town meetings in October and November of 1776.
The Tavern Keeper's House
This project has usually chosen to focus on one owner of each property on our tour, but this house in particular has several fascinating associations with the Revolutionary War period.
Lazarus LeBaron (c1744-1827)
Baptised in Barbados in 1744, Lazarus was the son of a physician who was working aboard a British ship and travelling between the Caribbean and New England in the early years of the 18th century. Lazarus first married Susannah Johannot in Boston in 1767 and had a daughter, Susannah, who would go on to marry Dr. Stephen Monroe in Sutton. After his wife’s death in 1774, Lazarus moved to Sutton, purchasing the land at 334 Boston Road and the dwelling house from Phillip Freeman Jr. of Boston in November of that year. He married Hannah Chase and the couple had a daughter, Hannah, who was born in the house in January 1776. Hannah LeBaron died shortly after the birth of her daughter, and Lazarus would go on to marry twice more before his death in 1827 aged 85.
Although he only lived in this property for a short while, Lazarus quickly became a notable resident of Sutton. He purchased what is now known as 297 Boston Road in 1777. That property already boasted an inn, ‘Hale’s Tavern’, and Lebaron kept tavern in the older building until he built the “present large and commodious house” about 1794. Sutton’s Town History Volume 1 reads:
His tavern was considered the most popular house between Boston and Hartford, and was constantly thronged by visitors. He used to mention among the distinguished guests he had entertained, Gen. LaFayette, Gov. John Hancock, Major Paul Jones, Gen. Putnam and others.
Mr Le Baron was aristocratic, yet cheerful, jovial and familiar with his customers. Our Town history comments that “incidents enough to fill the history might be gathered in connection with this place, but we must save the space for others” …
Captain Joseph Elliot Jr. (1731-1821)
Captain Joseph Elliot Jr. (1731-1821) purchased 334 Boston Road from Lazarus LeBaron in January 1777.
Joseph Elliott Jr., born in Sutton in 1731, married Susanna Carlton (1735-1771). They had six children before Susanna’s death. Joseph married Anna Dwight (1748-1827), daughter of Samuel Dwight, in Dedham in 1772. Samuel’s daughter Jane was married to Joseph’s next-door-neighbor Nathaniel Carriel, which is presumably how he met his second wife. Joseph and Anna had seven further children in Sutton, before they moved to Leicester around 1794.
Already an experienced militiaman at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, a 1781 muster roll lists Joseph as Captain Joseph Elliot Jr. of Sutton, aged 49, serving in Colonel William Turner’s Regiment. The roll indicates that he volunteered from 9 July 1781 to 9 December of the same year, in Rhode Island. He served as Captain until at least 1783. Another entry lists him as a private in Captain Thomas Newcomb’s Company, Colonel Theophilus Cotton’s Regiment, in 1777, “on a secret expedition to Rhode Island”
The secret expedition
In April 1777, the Continental Congress recommended that Rhode Island, with help from Massachusetts and Connecticut, attempt to drive British troops from Aquidneck Island. General Joseph Spencer was sent by Washington to command the operation.
The expedition was meant to be secret. Around 10,000 militia members from three colonies assembled near Tiverton by late September, with plans to cross by boat and launch a surprise night attack. But the operation quickly unraveled as troops were slow to arrive, boat assignments were delayed, and one regiment got lost entirely.
When the crossing was finally attempted on October 17th, heavy gales forced a postponement. Worse, a local spy named Goodman learned of the plans in Providence and alerted British General Pigot. With the element of surprise gone and their boats under fire, roughly half the men abandoned the effort. A final attempt on October 25th was again defeated by weather, and the men didn't even have tents for shelter.
Spencer was widely mocked for the failures, with soldiers sharing a taunting verse:
“Israel wanted bread, The Lord sent them manna: Rhode Island wants a head, And Congress sends-a granny!”
He was later exonerated, with blame officially placed on the bad weather.
Gardner Waters (1751-1793)
Gardner bought the house in 1792. He had served as a Minuteman in Captain Andrew Elliot’s Company, marching towards Lexington on April 19, 1775 with many of his friends and his full biography can be found HERE. His will bequeathed:
“the sum of thirty pounds be paid out of his estate for the purpose of purchasing a large Clock for the meeting house in the first parish of said Sutton and that Mr. [Josiah] Wheelock be employed to make the same.”
The mechanism for this clock can be seen in Sutton Historical Society’s Museum collection.
Josiah Wheelock (1763-1830)
Josiah was born in Mendon in 1763, son of Josiah and Experience (Clark) Wheelock. His father was a Minuteman in Captain William Jennison’s Company, but there is no evidence to support Josiah Jr. serving during the Revolutionary War. Josiah became owner of the house at 334 Boston Road when he married Gardner Waters’ widow, Lucy (Small) Waters (1760-1841). After the war, Josiah was a member of the first brigade, seventh division of the Massachusetts Legionary Brigade (Massachusetts Militia), rising to the rank of Major by 1801. In the words of the Town History:
"Major Wheelock was a clock and watchmaker and jeweler. He had several apprentices, amongst them Capt. Josiah Hall, Simeon Marble, Clark Sibley, Moses L. Morse, Brigham Smith and others. He invented a watch known as the Wheelock watch. It was a great improvement on the old verge watch, and was but slightly improved by the introduction of the 'Patent Lever.' It was really the best watch of his time. He also made superior clocks. He gave an organ to the church, which was played for several years by one of his apprentices, Brigham Smith, son of Capt. Thomas. Major Wheelock owned a factory in Fitchburg. He had no children."
References
The 'John Hancock' House
Worcester County (Mass.) deeds (1722-1866) and index to deeds (1731-1889) (https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:210594)
Hall, David. David Hall diaries, 1740-1789. Ms. SBd-191 Held at the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.
The Tavern Keeper's House
Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, a compilation from the archives. Boston : State Printers, 1902, v.5, p.289, 293
Worcester Land Records
75/193 Lazarus LeBaron purchases the property from Freeman
Benedict, William A. and Tracy, Hiram A. (compilers) History of the Town of Sutton, Massachusetts, from 1704 to 1876; including Grafton until 1735; Millbury until 1813; and parts of Northbridge, Upton and Auburn. Worcester : Sanford & Company, 1878.
Worcester County (Mass.) deeds (1722-1866) and index to deeds (1731-1889) (https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:210594)
v.73, p.419 Amos and Sarah Putnam sell the property to Joseph Elliot Jr. of Sutton.
Worcester County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1731-1881. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) Nuncupative Will of Gardner Waters, 24 July 1793 (https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1635/rd/33901/62395-co1/891255616 )
The 'John Hancock' House
Worcester County (Mass.) deeds (1722-1866) and index to deeds (1731-1889) (https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:210594)
- V.36, p.414 David Hall sells the property to David Hall Jr.
- V.41, p.10 David Hall Jr. uses the property as surety in an indenture with Thomas Hancock
- V.56, p.417 David Hall Jr. sells the property to Thomas Hancock
- V.103, p.176 John Hancock sells the property to Elijah Putnam
Hall, David. David Hall diaries, 1740-1789. Ms. SBd-191 Held at the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.
The Tavern Keeper's House
Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, a compilation from the archives. Boston : State Printers, 1902, v.5, p.289, 293
Worcester Land Records
75/193 Lazarus LeBaron purchases the property from Freeman
Benedict, William A. and Tracy, Hiram A. (compilers) History of the Town of Sutton, Massachusetts, from 1704 to 1876; including Grafton until 1735; Millbury until 1813; and parts of Northbridge, Upton and Auburn. Worcester : Sanford & Company, 1878.
Worcester County (Mass.) deeds (1722-1866) and index to deeds (1731-1889) (https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/koha:210594)
v.73, p.419 Amos and Sarah Putnam sell the property to Joseph Elliot Jr. of Sutton.
Worcester County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1731-1881. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) Nuncupative Will of Gardner Waters, 24 July 1793 (https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1635/rd/33901/62395-co1/891255616 )