Eliphalet Pond

Eliphalet Pond (1704-1795) represented Dedham, Massachusetts in the Great and General Court.

Personal life

Pond was born in Dedham in 1704.[1] He served as an officer in the militia.[2] Pond married Elizabeth Ellis is 1727 and worked as a farmer.[1] He also bought and sold land.[1] He had a son Eliphalet Pond, Jr.[lower-alpha 1]

Political life

He represented Dedham in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1761 and 1763.[8][1] He was also town clerk for a total of 12 years, from 1747 to 1754, and in 1757, 1758, 1763.[1][9] He served as selectman from 1744 to 1754 and in 1757, 1758, and 1763.[1][10] He was also the Town Meeting moderator in 1756, 1761, 1762, and 1763.[1] He opposed the call of Jason Haven to minister at the First Church and Parish in Dedham, and for years on end requested to transfer to the third precinct church.[11]

In May 1774, Pond signed a letter with several other addressed to Governor Thomas Hutchinson that was, in the opinion of many in Dedham, too effusive in praise given the actions the British crown had recently taken on the colonies.[2] A group confronted him the day after the Powder Alarm.[2] What happened next is unclear. According to Pond's own account, he spoke calmly with the group and they were satisfied that he was a patriot.[2] In others, he and his black servant, Jack, had to hold off a mob by pointing muskets out the second story window.[2]

Legacy

Land he owned was eventually sold to Hannah B. Chickering, who established the Temporary Asylum for Discharged Female Prisoners on it.[12] Today, the land has a housing development and the Baby Cemetery.[13]

Notes
  1. The younger Pond, born in 1745,[3] was Registrar of Deeds in Norfolk County, Massachusetts from the establishment of the county in 1793 to his death in 1813.[4][5][6][7] He kept the records in one of the "lower rooms" in his house at 963 Washington Street in Dedham and nailed a "Register of Deeds" sign to the tree in front.[7] The younger Pond also served as the Dedham, Massachusetts town clerk for 25 years and as a selectman for 1813.[5] He also served as a colonel in the American Revolution.[5]

References
  1. Schutz, John A. (1997). Legislators of the Massachusetts General Court, 1691-1780: A Biographical Dictionary. UPNE. p. 314. ISBN 978-1-55553-304-5. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  2. Hanson 1976, p. 151.
  3. "Bernard Quartich New Acquisitions June 2018" (PDF). Bernard Quartich Ltd. June 2018. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
  4. "Dedham Village in 1795". Dedham Historical Register. Dedham Historical Society. XIV (2): 39. April 1903. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  5. Registers of Deeds The Early Years, Norfolk County Registry of Deeds: Norfolk County Registry of Deeds, 225th Anniversary Notable Land Records Project
  6. Louis Atwood Cook (1918). History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 1622-1918. S.J. Clarke publishing Company. p. 478.
  7. "Dedham Historical Society & Museum trivia answers". The Dedham Times. Vol. 30, no. 1. January 7, 2022. p. 18.
  8. Worthington 1827, pp. 106–107.
  9. Worthington 1827, pp. 79.
  10. Worthington 1827, pp. 79–81.
  11. Hanson 1976, p. 125.
  12. Hurd, Duane Hamilton (1884). History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. J. W. Lewis & Company. p. 90. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  13. Brems, Lisa (April 12, 1998). "For 'baby cemetery,' a taxing reemergence". The Boston Globe. p. 17. Retrieved October 1, 2019.

Works cited
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