Danforth House Played Key Role In Town's Formative Moments

On Monday, . One individual who played a prominent role in this local history was Captain Nathaniel Bancroft, who owned the land and historic (now abandoned) structure next to .

However, given the strong local interest that the fate of the Danforth (Bancroft) House has generated from readers of this website and the weekly papers, it seemed fitting to provide a companion piece focusing on the various mentions that the house itself receives in the definitive 1909 local history book "Lynn In The Revolution."

The book reports that the original Bancroft emigrant to America, Lieutenant Thomas Bancroft, first "hired" a portion of farm land from Samuel Bennett in 1655, and then purchased 60 acres of land in 1670 near Beaver Dam, Lynnfield. The town conservation area behind the Centre Court shops bears the name Beaver Dam Brook Reservation to this day. Lieutenant Bancroft died in 1691 and he left the homestead to his youngest son, Ebenezer.

From there, the property reportedly remained in the family until 1895 and the original period structure on the land was apparently torn down in 1896. The abandoned home that now stands next to the Reedy Meadow Golf Course is thought to contain a portion of the structure that stood in the 1600s, even though a plaque on the side of the building gives it a formal construction date of 1744.

The house even has a link to the creation of Lynnfield's Old Meeting House. On January 16, 1711, a meeting that led to the construction of this symbol of Lynnfield reportedly occurred at the Bancroft homestead:

"Then ye inhabitants of Lyn farms so called on ye north sid of ye heyway yt leads from Reding to Salem had information... drawn in a petition with them for the building of a meeting we hous. We then met together at ye house of capt. bancroft and agreed on a plas for setting a meeting hous," Lynn In The Revolution quotes from the Lynn Precinct Book.

On June 8, 1713, "the inhabitants of Lynn on the north side of Salem Road met at the house of Capt. Bancroft and agreed by vote to petition the general cort for a presenct." From there, Lynn In The Revolution notes that this early political connection to the house would stick until a later point when it was called the "Sun Tavern" and town selectmen would apparently meet there in their own selectmen's room and dine there on election night.

Another early resident that history places in the Bancroft House is James Bancroft, born in Lynnfield on March 21, 1732, grandson of the original emigrant ancestor Thomas. A 1772 record says that he had a slave named Essex who was baptized. James served as a private in the Minuteman regiment led by Captain Nathaniel Bancroft, and would have presumably been in the battle of Menotomy with him. He was later promoted to an officer and shows up as a lieutenant as late as 1782. James also had a half-brother, Job Bancroft, born in Lynnfield in 1754, who served in the Continental Army as a private and also apparently marched to Lexington and Concord with Woburn-based Minutemen led by Colonel David Green.

Also, no story about this house would be complete without an account of why the names "Bancroft" and "Danforth" are used so interchangeably when discussing the place. That's because on September 15, 1779, John Danforth, son of John and Elizabeth Danforth of Billerica, married Hannah Bancroft, daughter of Captain Nathaniel and Mary Bancroft. They lived in the historic home that stands in Lynnfield, which was apparently built by brother in law John Bancroft, Hannah's brother.

John Danforth had been a captain in the Lynnfield Minuteman company led by Captain Ezra Newhall. His military career started in 1775 around the age of 18 and he died at 40 in 1796 and is buried in Lynnfield Centre. The Bancrofts and Townsends were both among the local early families with their own registered pews at the Old Meeting House.

For Lynn In The Revolution's biography page of Captain John Danforth, the house is mentioned as "the house now occupied by his great-grandson, John M. Danforth," reflecting the book's 1909 publication date. "The house was built by John Bancroft, son of Nathaniel," it adds.

Here is an entire paragraph that Lynn In The Revolution devotes to the Danforth House:

"Though there are traditions relative to internal changes, such as of certain rooms having been finished off later than others and of the big fireplaces giving way to smaller ones, there is yet not the faintest suggestion that the owner sought to improve away the house in favor of a new one. As to the style of architecture, in determining the age of the building, it may be said that the gambrel roof is likely to be of a date ranging from about 1692 to 1745, although a tradition says the Gambrel roof at the 'Witch House' at Salem was put on before 1668."

The home of Daniel Townsend stood down the road at the site of a historic marker at the intersection of Walnut and Summer Streets. There are also reports that at some point in the early Revolutionary War era, weapons were hidden in the attic of the Old Meeting House - weapons that presumably could have been used at the battle of Menotomy right after Lexington and Concord.

Before falling into decay in recent decades, the Danforth House was also used as a nursing home in the 1950s.