Solomon Kimball House (Wenham, Massachusetts) - Capt. Matthew and Abigail (Ayers) Fairfield

Capt. Matthew and Abigail (Ayers) Fairfield

Matthew Fairfield, son of Josiah and his second wife Elizabeth (Appleton) Fairfield, was born May 18, 1745 in Wenham (likely in the Solomon Kimball House), married Mrs. Abigail Ayers on October 22, 1767 in Haverhill (MA), and died on February 11, 1813 in New Boston, NH. Matthew was the first of Josiah’s sons to reach adulthood, and it’s likely that when he married Abigail they took up residence in Josiah and Elizabeth’s house. This was certainly the case by 1771, when Matthew and Abigail were living in one part of the house, Josiah and Elizabeth were living in the other part of the house, and Josiah gave Matthew that portion of the house that Matthew and Abigail occupied (along with one half of a cider house and cider mill nearby).

Matthew Fairfield was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War. In December 1774 he was appointed to the three-member town committee that enlisted Wenham’s minutemen. Once the fighting began, he was a private in Capt. Billy Porter’s company of minutemen, Col. John Baker’s regiment, which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775, serving five days but arriving too late to see the Battles of Lexington and Concord. He enlisted as a lieutenant at Gloucester in 1775 in the 38th Regiment, and appears in its muster rolls for July through December 1775. He may have spent 1776 at home, since his name does not appear on Massachusetts muster rolls for this period, but was a captain in Col. John Wigglesworth’s regiment from January through October 1777, serving at the Battles of Saratoga. Later -- December 1777 – Capt. Fairfield was with the 13th Massachusetts Regiment (de Kalb’s division, Glover’s brigade) at Valley Forge, although his name does not appear on Valley Forge musters for subsequent months.

Fairfield was initiated into the Masons in April of 1777, and held the office of Steward for the United States Lodge in Danvers in October 1778.

At some point during the Revolution, Capt. Fairfield and his company were sent to Hillsborough County, New Hampshire

to quell the Tory insurrections, or mobs, that existed … where the old loyal Scotch element so largely predominated. … His greatest troubles were in New Boston, where the Tories had their rendezvous. But it appears that here he found friends, and soon after the war he moved his family from Wenham, Mass., to New Boston, and settled on a tract of land in the south part of the town, where he resided until his death, in 1814, which was occasioned by the falling of a tree.

Further research is required to identify Abigail Ayers’ parentage, date and place of birth, and information on her first marriage. She died on January 28, 1825, age 78.

Matthew and Abigail had twelve children, perhaps nine of whom were likely born in the Solomon Kimball House:

1. Nabby (Abigail), born July 25, 1768, Wenham; died December 24, 1796
2. Betsey (Elizabeth), born April 28, 1770, Wenham; married William Crombie, April 27, 1797
3. John, born February 11, 1773, Wenham; married Mehitable Baker (intention recorded October 12, 1799, Wenham)
4. Hannah, born February 4, 1775, Wenham; died August 8, 1809; married Capt. Joseph Wilson
5. Alice, died in infancy October 20, 1777, Wenham
6. Sarah (Sally), baptized August 29, 1779, Wenham; married Benjamin Fairfield (intention recorded April 3, 1803, Wenham)
7. Walter, died in infancy
8. William, died in infancy
9. Charlotte, baptized October 31, 1784, Wenham; married Capt. Joseph Wilson, her widower brother-in-law
10. Josiah, perhaps born in New Boston, NH; died in infancy
11. Matthew, Jr., perhaps born in New Boston, NH; died in infancy
12. William (2nd), perhaps born in New Boston, NH; died in infancy