Generations

Colonial Era

1638–1765

Peter Tufts the Immigrant

The Tufts families of Malden, Medford, and Charlestown descend from a Peter Tufts who came from England about 1638.

“Peter Tufts was a descendant in the fourth generation of another Peter who came over from England about 1638. He was the ancestor of the numerous families of the name in Malden, Medford, and Somerville. … He was born in 1617, probably at or near Malden, England; … He was made a freeman in 1665. His wife's name was Mary. She died in 1703, aged seventy-five. Peter died in 1700. They had nine children, of whom the third son was John, born in 1665.”

Alvin Lincoln Jones, Under Colonial Roofs (1894), p. 128 · page scan

⚑ Unverified

Jones's statement that the immigrant was born “probably at or near Malden, England” is his own hedge. The English origin is not confirmed by a primary record here.

Peter Tufts of Winter Hill (1728–1791)

“This Peter the third is called “of Charlestown,” and was born April 24, 1728. He married Anne Adams of Quincy, a relative of President John Adams.”

Alvin Lincoln Jones, Under Colonial Roofs (1894), p. 129 · page scan

“PETER 37. Son of Peter 36; m. ANN ADAMS [18] April 19, 1750, who d. Feb. 7, 1813, æ. 84, g. s. … d. March 4, 1791, æ. 63, g. s.”

Thomas Bellows Wyman, The Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, vol. II (1879), p. 965 · page scan

“PETER 36. Son of John 28; housewright; m. LYDIA BUCKNAM, who d. Oct. 31, 1776, in 72d yr., g. s.; d. Dec. 5, 1776, in 80th yr., g. s. Issue.—i. Nathan, b. May 14, 1724. ii. Peter, April 24, 1728.”

Thomas Bellows Wyman, The Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, vol. II (1879), p. 964 (his parents) · page scan

Parents

His father was Peter Tufts (1697–1776) of Charlestown, a housewright, and his mother Lydia Bucknam of Malden. The Tufts genealogy in the Register records the father’s birth (“Peter, b. in Charlestown, 10 May, 1697”, p. 301) and his marriage to “Lydia, daughter of Joses and Judith (Worth) Bucknam of Maiden [Malden]”, who “died 31 October, 1776. He died 5 December, 1776” (p. 304). Among their children it lists “Peter, b. 24 April, 1728; m. Anne Adams” and “Timothy, b. 20 Jan., 1734”. Booth calls this Peter “the second son of Peter of Milk Row, born in 1728”, who “was established on a farm on Winter hill” (Historic Leaves, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 21–22). His brother was Timothy Tufts.

Larkin T. Tufts and Edward C. Booth, “Tufts Genealogy—Earlier Generations,” NEHGR 51 (July 1897), pp. 301, 304–305, Google Books; Wyman, p. 964 (quoted above). WikiTree: father Tufts-199; this Peter Tufts-62, as linked from Tufts-199.

Note: Pending further work. The marriage date (August 1723, Malden) appears on WikiTree but not in the Register or Wyman; Malden vital records not yet checked.

⚑ Unverified

WikiTree’s biography of the father (Tufts-199) says he lived on Winter Hill, that Revere knocked at his door on April 18, 1775, and that he fought at Lexington aged 78. No printed source checked supports this. Booth and the Register place the Winter Hill farm with the son Peter (b. 1728), and the father was 77, not 78, in April 1775. The story appears to conflate father and son.

Anne Adams Tufts

Full profile: Anne Adams Tufts (1729–1813), with her birth in Menotomy, her children, and the founding of the chapter named for her.

“She was born July 8, 1729, and died February 17, 1813.”

Alvin Lincoln Jones, Under Colonial Roofs (1894), p. 129 · page scan

“Anne Adams Tufts rendered notable service to her country during the Revolutionary War. After the battle of Bunker Hill, she assisted in binding up the wounds of many soldiers who were brought to her house, and later, when part of Burgoyne's army was encamped on Winter Hill, she went to camp and nursed all night the dying wife of one of the prisoners.”

Jay Franklin Tufts, Tufts Family History 1633–1963 (secondary source), p. 28, quoting the Boston Journal, June 22, 1909 · page scan

Anne Adams Tufts, “from an oil painting” (published 1912)
Anne Adams Tufts, “from an oil painting” (published 1912). Plate facing p. 465 of Harry Clinton Green and Mary Wolcott Green, The Pioneer Mothers of America, vol. 3 (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1912), captioned “Anne Adams Tufts. From an oil painting.” The artist, date, and present location of the painting are unknown, and it is not confirmed as a likeness made in her lifetime. Book scan (Internet Archive).Image: Unknown engraver, from an oil painting (Green & Green, 1912). Public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Portrait of Anne Adams Tufts (artist and date unknown)
Portrait of Anne Adams Tufts (artist and date unknown). A portrait of Anne Adams Tufts supplied by the family from her FamilySearch Family Tree profile (person LW2T-T77). The artist, date, medium, and original are unknown, and it is not confirmed as a likeness made in her lifetime.Image: Portrait courtesy of the family / FamilySearch. Artist and date unknown. Source: FamilySearch Family Tree
DAR tablet to Anne Adams-Tufts (1909), close-up
DAR tablet to Anne Adams-Tufts (1909), close-up. The bronze tablet placed in 1909 by the Somerville Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, on the door-stone of her home, Paul Revere Park, Winter Hill, Somerville. See the transcription on this page.Image: Photographed by Marc Posner, April 8, 2024. By Marc Posner, HMdb.org. Used with attribution under HMdb.org terms (noncommercial). Source: The Historical Marker Database

The 1909 tablet (transcription)

To the Memory of Anne Adams-Tufts / Born 1729 Died 1813 / A heroine of the Revolution who did active patriotic service after the Battle of Bunker Hill. / This was the door-stone of her home which stood about 120 feet south-west of this spot. [The middle digit is worn on the bronze and appears to be 2; some transcriptions read 100.] / This tablet is placed by the Somerville Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution which is honored in bearing her name. / 1909

Transcribed from the photograph by Marc Posner, April 8, 2024, HMdb.org (original in capitals). Paul Revere Park, Winter Hill, Somerville.

Discrepancy: the HMdb.org page transcribes the tablet as “Died 1812”; the photograph reads “Died 1813”. The tablet’s 1813 agrees with Wyman and Jones on the year; it does not settle the day (Feb. 7 or Feb. 17).

The Anne Adams Tufts Chapter, DAR

More than eighty years after her death, the women of Somerville chose Anne's name for their new chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. A Somerville Board of Trade history records its founding:

“ANNE ADAMS TUFTS CHAPTER, D. A. R., was organized March 10, 1897, approved by the national society January 6, 1898, and charter given February 17, 1899. Its philanthropic work is varied.”

Somerville, Mass.: The Beautiful City of Seven Hills, Its History and Opportunities (Somerville Board of Trade), p. 185, transcription

The chapter's leadership had family ties to Anne herself. Writing in the Somerville Historical Society's journal, the society noted that Sarah Tufts's descendants included

“Mrs. Heald, the regent of the Anne Adams Tufts chapter of the Daughters of the Revolution”

Historic Leaves, vol. 1 (April 1902–January 1903), “The Tufts Family in Somerville,” p. 25, Perseus Digital Library

The 1905 history of the Massachusetts DAR records that the chapter grew from a meeting at the home of Miss Mary A. Bradford, its first regent, and that it was named for Anne on March 16, 1897. Mrs. Heald was Helen Magoun Heald, Anne’s great-granddaughter, the chapter’s second regent (History of the Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution (1905), “Anne Adams Tufts Chapter, of Somerville,” beginning p. 5. Book scan (Internet Archive)).

In 1909 the chapter set a bronze tablet on the door-stone of her old homestead in Paul Revere Park, Winter Hill. The tablet calls the chapter “honored in bearing her name”; its full text is transcribed below.

The chapter was still active in the 1920s. In 1928 a member, Helen Tufts Bailie, made public the national society's lists of “doubtful speakers,” and two other members of the “Anne Adams-Tufts Chapter” signed the protest with her (Jewish Telegraphic Agency report, 1928; Helen Tufts Bailie papers, Smith College, which say she joined the chapter in 1915 and was expelled after the protest). Papers about the chapter survive in the Adams Tufts Magoun family papers at the Newberry Library, Chicago.

⚑ Unverified

The publication year of the Board of Trade history (internal evidence suggests about 1912). Mrs. Heald's dates as regent. The DAR chapter number, and whether it is active today or has merged or disbanded: no source found yet. Note: Pending further work.

⚑ Unverified

Anne's birthplace: Menotomy, per the Adams genealogy (1898), p. 964. Anne's death date: Wyman (p. 965) gives Feb. 7, 1813, and Jones (p. 129) gives February 17, 1813. Her father: Jones says “Anne Adams of Quincy”, and the family history (p. 28) says “the daughter of Joseph Adams of Cambridge”. Her nursing service is known only from a 1909 newspaper account quoted in a secondary source.

The Winter Hill Farm

Tufts association: Home farm of Peter Tufts of Winter Hill, roused by Paul Revere on April 19, 1775. (Alvin Lincoln Jones, Under Colonial Roofs (1894), p. 129)

See Places: Winter Hill.

The Charlestown–Malden Crossing

The ferry history, with the 1775–77 maps and the Alford Street Bridge views, is on Peter Tufts the Immigrant.

Tufts association: Peter Tufts the immigrant succeeded Philip Drinker as ferryman at Charlestown Neck in early 1647. This was the ferry later called the Penny Ferry, superseded in 1787 by Malden Bridge, on the line of today’s Alford Street Bridge. The name “Tufts Landing” is not found in any source checked. (Corey, p. 85 and n. 53; Medford Historical Register, vol. XXI, p. 54)

Sites Today: Street View and Photos

Links open Google Street View or OpenStreetMap in a new page. No Street View imagery is copied onto this site. The photographs are freely licensed and credited below each one.

⚑ Unverified

The Winter Hill and Dr. Simon Tufts house coordinates are approximate placements at the street corners the sources name. Neither house survives. The Malden Bridge points mark the two ends of today’s Alford Street Bridge.

Alford Street Bridge (2025)
Alford Street Bridge (2025). A southbound bus crossing toward Charlestown, November 2025.Image: 4300streetcar. CC BY 4.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Broadway on Winter Hill, Somerville (2024)
Broadway on Winter Hill, Somerville (2024). Broadway on Winter Hill, looking west, October 2024. Booth places the Peter Tufts of Winter Hill house “near the westerly corner of Central street and Broadway”; this photo shows the street, not the house site itself.Image: 4300streetcar. CC BY 4.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Salem Street Burying Ground, Medford
Salem Street Burying Ground, Medford. A marker in the burying ground for New Hampshire soldiers of Bunker Hill buried there (photographed 2010). The Tufts family tomb is plot 35.Image: Magicpiano. CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Medford Square, postcard about 1913
Medford Square, postcard about 1913. Medford Square on a postcard postmarked 1913, with a streetcar on the Salem Street–Sullivan Square line. Tufts association: The Drs. Simon Tufts house stood at Medford Square until 1867 (Medford Historical Register XVIII, p. 67).Image: Unknown (postcard). Public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Profile: Peter Tufts the Immigrant (c. 1617–1700).

Early Family Lines

From the immigrant’s sons, the lines on this site run through Capt. Peter Tufts (c. 1648–1721) (to Dr. Simon Tufts and Sarah Tufts Hinckley); through James Tufts (c. 1650–1675) and his son James Tufts (1672–1733) (to Lieut. William Tufts of Medford); and through John of Malden to Peter Tufts (1697–1776), father of Peter of Winter Hill and Timothy Tufts.