Samuel Frost. Sr.

Samuel Frost, the third child of Elder Edmund Frost, of Cambridge, Mass., December, 1638. In 1663, he was accepted as an inhabitant of Billerica, Mass., and about the same time he married Mary Cole, by whom he had three children. She died before 1674, and he married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. John Miller, who settled in Dorchester in 1636.

About the time of his second marriage, Samuel Frost removed to Billerica, and took up the citizenship to which he had been accepted ten years previously.

He was a physician, and also seems to have been a building contractor, since in 1680 he contracted to build a gallery in the church, under the following specifications:

It was to be erected "upon the beams, to make one seat in front, & to floor it on the backside to the rooffe of the house, & set a bench behind it, such an one as that place will admit of. And two seats on each side, upon the beams, the foremost of each seat to come down as low as the under side of the beames, that is, the underside of the joyce to be even with the champfering of the beames, & so all three fore seats to be even at ye bottom. The seats of the fore side seats shall be over the beames, and but a little above them.

The hindmost side seats shall be behind and above the beames, each seat to be comely closed with rails and boards as is usual in such work, the fore seat with ballisters. The floors made comely and close joynted to preserv the dirt from falling down. All the seats to be finished comely, according to the usual manner of such worke, with a sufficient paire of staires to them, and a floor to carry the seats, the hind seat at the west end to reach from rooffe to rooffe. And to make a casement window of two foot square in the cleare, and put it up at ye east end of the house above the collarbeame. To find all the stuffe and nails and boards and carting at his own charges, all the timber to be sound and good, and the work well wrought, workmanlike according to ye nature of such worke (glass excepted) and the work to he done by ye last of March next."

According to "Paige's History of Cambridge," Dr. Samuel Frost died Aug. 12, 1711. But in the Billerica Vital Records there is record of the death of Dr. Samuel Frost, Jan. 7, 1712-13, and of another Dr. Samuel Frost, Jan. 7, 1717-18. There seems to be no record of the death of either of his wives.

Children, first three by first wife:

1 Samuel, b. Aug. 21, 1664
2 Isaac, b. Oct. 21, 1666
3 Edmund, b. Aug. 21, 1668, d. Feb. 12, 1691
4 Thomas, b. Apr. 30, 1674
5 Elizabeth, b. Apr. 30, 1674. Twin
6 John, b. Apr. 7, 1678 at Billerica, Mass.
7 Joseph, b. Dec. 23, 1680
8 Benjamin, b. Aug. 10, 1683
9 Jonathan, b. Nov. 3, 1685
10 David, b. Apr. 11, 1689, d. Apr. 14, 1689
11 Edmund, b. Mar. 5, 1692.

According to some authorities, the tenth child was Daniel. The Billerica Vital Records give it as David.

Samuel Frost, Jr. is the next ancestor in our lineage.