77 



I remember hearing my father say, that when he made the altera- 

 tions and repairs above mentioned, the eastern end of the house was 

 one hundred years old, and the western end eighty years old. Conse- 

 quently the eastern end is now (Dec. 3, 1828) 177 years old. For I am 

 83, and was but six years old in July, 1751, the year in which the 

 alterations and repairs took place. 



I also remember hearing my father say, that, supposing the sills of 

 the house must be decayed, he had provided new white oak timber to 

 replace them; but that the carpenter, when he had ripped off the 

 weather-boards, found the sills sound, of swamp white oak ; and the 

 carpenter told him that they would last longer than any new sills he 

 could provide ; and the same sills remain to this day. 



At the southern side of broadfleld, a little eastward of the salt 

 marsh, were many logs projecting beyond the low bank manifestly 

 the remains of a wharf,* erected when what is now the Mill Pond of 

 the South Mills was a continuance of the South River." 



Col. Pickering's father was Deacon Timothy Pickering, 

 who was born in 1703, and to whom Jonathan, a son of 

 the first John, conveyed, in 1727, his portion of the 

 homestead land, being the eastern part, and consisting of 

 an acre and a half, together with the dwelling house on it 

 in which he then lived. This house was no doubt the one 

 remembered by Col. Pickering's sister, Sarah. Deacon 

 Timothy Pickering had five years before inherited the 

 western part of the homestead, including the house now 

 standing, from his father John, who was a grandson of 

 the first John. There can be no doubt, therefore, that his 

 statement of the age of the house was correct ; according 

 to which the eastern half of the house is now two hun- 

 dred and eighteen years, and the western part one huu-- 

 dred and ninety-eight years, old. This is also confirmed 

 by the records, particularly the Commoners record, which 

 shows that John Pickering was, in 1714, allowed two 

 rights "for his father's house ;" that is, the house in which 

 his father had lived (the one now standing) was built 

 before 1661. It also appears from the same record, that 



*See Essex Inst. Coll., Vol. VIII, p. 22. 



