Timothy Merrifield

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Timothy Merrifield was born in Deadham, MA on January 4, 1739 to Thomas Merrifield and Mary Anderson.  He was baptized two months later in nearby Natick, MA on March 18. Timothy was the second of their eight children, and their oldest son.

In December of 1764 he published his intentions to marry Keziah Allen of Natick, but the marriage never happened. On May 22, 1766 Timothy married Lydia Cheney, and they had two children, both of whom died in their infancy.  Lydia also died young, and Timothy remarried.  He married his second wife, Mercy Perry, in Sherborn, MA on June 10, 1772. The births of their three children (Caroline, Chloe, and Alpheus) were recorded in Sherborn, but they may have been living in Dedham. The first record of Timothy Merrifield living in Sherborn is when he was listed on a muster roll in 1778.

During the Revolutionary War Timothy served as a minuteman in the Sherborn militia in Capt. Amos Perry's Company. They mostly stayed in and around Boston, but did travel down to Rhode Island in 1778 on an alarm.

The Merrifields moved to a 127-acre homestead in what was then Holden, MA, now West Boylston in 1784.  Two years later they sold half of the farm and bought a farm in Worcester along Mountain Street. 

Timothy died in his home in Worcester on May 6, 1806.  He and Mercy were originally buried in the Mechanic Street Burial Ground before being moved to Rural Cemetery in 1878 and buried in the lot with their granddaughter, Catherine (Merrifield) Moore, wife of Amory Moore. His original gravestone is not visible and may be buried near the Moore family gravestone.

His great-great-granddaughter is Esther Forbes, the author of Johnny Tremain.