Biography
Peter Tufts Jr. was born in 1753, the son of Peter and Anne (Adams) Tufts of Winter Hill. On April 19, 1775, the day his parents marked their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, he marched from Medford with Capt. Isaac Hall's company on the Lexington alarm. Medford later listed his name on its monument to the town's First Company of Minute Men.
Service Record
Town: Medford · Dates: 1753 – 1832 (1836 per Wild; see conflict)
“TUFTS, PETER, Jr., Medford. Private, Capt. Isaac Hall's co., Col. Thomas Gardner's regt., which assembled April 19, 1775; service, 5 days; also, account of money paid by persons to hire men to go to Canada [year not given], examined [p. 137] and allowed by a committee at Medford Oct. 8, 1776; also, account of money paid by persons to hire men who went to New York in Sept., 1776, examined and allowed by a committee at Medford Jan. 13, 1777. [p. 138]”
Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, vol. XVI (1907), pp. 137–138 · page scan · page scan
“TUFTS, PETER, JR. Private, Lexington alarm; loaned money for bounty paid to men enlisting July and Sept., 1776; served guarding troops of convention, 1778.”
Helen Tilden Wild, Medford in the Revolution (1903), p. 52 · page scan
“TUFTS PETER JR.”
Roster of the First Company of Minute Men, monument erected by the City of Medford (1925) · page scan
Family Connection
“Son of Peter and Anne (Adams) of Winter Hill; born 1753; married Hannah Adams; died 1836.”
Helen Tilden Wild, Medford in the Revolution (1903), p. 52 · page scan
“PETER 38. Son of Peter 37; m. HANNAH ADAMS [19] July 22, 1773, at Camb., who d. 1816, æ. 60 (tablet with Bernard).”
Thomas Bellows Wyman, The Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, vol. II (1879), p. 965 · page scan
“ii. Peter, Jan. 9, 1753.”
Thomas Bellows Wyman, The Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, vol. II (1879), p. 965 (issue of Peter 37) · page scan
Relatives with profiles on this site: uncle Timothy Tufts (1735–1805); grandfather Peter Tufts (1697–1776); mother Anne Adams Tufts; brother John Tufts; son Peter Tufts the surveyor; sister Ann Tufts Richardson (b. 1757); sister Elizabeth Tufts Swan (b. 1758); brother Joseph Tufts (b. 1760); sister Lydia Tufts Gray (b. 1762); brother Asa Tufts (1764–1828); brother Thomas Tufts of Lexington (1766–1830); sister Lucy Tufts Osgood (b. 1767); sister Rebecca Tufts Adams (1769–c. 1848); sister Sarah Tufts Adams.
Spouse(s)
- Hannah Adams (d. 1816, aged 60). Married July 22, 1773, at Cambridge (Wyman, vol. II, p. 965, quoted in Family Connection).
From Tufts Kinsmen
Vol. II, which covers generations 7 and 8, places Peter Tufts Jr. as Peter5 in the line “from Peter5, Peter4, Peter3, John2, Peter1.” It also records the families of four of his sons: Peter6 and Martha (Locke) Tufts, Joel6 and Sarah (Butterfield) Tufts, Thomas6 and Sarah (Barrows) Tufts, and Aaron6 and Mehitable (Pearson) Tufts. All are cross-referenced to Vol. I family 129 (children 129-2, 129-4, 129-6, 129-10). (Tufts Kinsmen, Vol. II, pp. 145, 149, 150, 151)
His grandson Peter7 is listed as “PETER7 TUFTS, 3rd, leather manufacturer,” born 3 Sep. 1798 in Charlestown. (Tufts Kinsmen, Vol. II, p. 145)
Identity match: strong. The line and his son Peter6’s marriage to Martha Locke agree with Wyman, p. 965.
Vol. I
Listed as Peter Jr., 3rd, family no. 53-2: born 9 Jan. 1753 in Woburn; died 4 Nov. 1832 in Charlestown; married Hannah Adams. (Tufts Kinsmen, Vol. I, p. 178, family no. 53-2)
Answered the Lexington Alarm and served in the militia at Dorchester Heights in defense of Boston, with other service during the Revolution (the book cites DAR records 14:145, 202–3 and 41–56). Head of household in Charlestown in 1820 and 1830. (Tufts Kinsmen, Vol. I, p. 178, family no. 53-2)
| Source | Says |
|---|---|
| Helen Tilden Wild, Medford in the Revolution (1903), p. 52 | “died 1836” |
| Tufts Kinsmen, Vol. I, p. 178 | died 4 Nov. 1832, Charlestown (agrees with the secondhand DAR A116812 listing) |
| Source | Says |
|---|---|
| Thomas Bellows Wyman, The Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, vol. II (1879), p. 965 | “Peter, Jan. 9, 1753” (issue of Peter 37 of Charlestown; no place stated) |
| Tufts Kinsmen, Vol. I, p. 178 | born 9 Jan. 1753, Woburn |
Identity match: clean. Birth date, wife (Hannah Adams), Lexington Alarm service, and the Charlestown/Medford setting agree with Wyman, Wild, and MSS.
Authoritative IDs / Index Numbers
| Source | ID / status |
|---|---|
| Perseus person index (auth=) | auth=tufts,peter. This is a name-level key shared by every Peter Tufts in Perseus, not a personal ID. Use it with the passages cited on this page. |
| Find a Grave memorial | 272011734 (dates and family checked) |
| Brooks, History of Medford (1855) register no. | No. 107 (66-107), p. 547 |
| Mass. Soldiers and Sailors | vol. XVI, p. 137–138 |
| DAR ancestor no. | Note: Pending further work. |
| FamilySearch ID | Note: Pending further work. |
| Geni profile | Note: Pending further work. |
| WikiTree ID | Note: Pending further work. |
| Town / vital records | Brooks’s register (above) is drawn from Medford town and church records; printed VR volume and page not yet checked |
Only IDs confirmed against dates and family are given as matches. “Not yet checked” means the source has not been searched; “Checked, not found” means it was searched without a match.
⚑ Unverified
A separate MSS entry, “TUFTS, PETER. Private, Capt. Benjamin Blaney's co. …” (p. 137), gives no town, so it is not attached to him. DAR records themselves have not been seen.
Pictures
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Find a Grave
Find a Grave memorial 272011734. As given there (secondary; not checked against original records): Listed as “Peter Tufts III.” Born 9 Jan 1753, Woburn. Parents Peter (1728–1791) and Anne Adams; wife Hannah (Adams) Tufts (1756–1843, m. 1773); children Peter, Sally Tufts Locke, Aaron.
⚑ Unverified: Find a Grave conflict
Burial and death. The memorial gives death 4 Nov 1832, Charlestown, and burial in the Old Burying Ground, Cambridge; the SAR/DAR text on the same page gives 4 Nov 1833, Medford. Neither the Cambridge burial nor the 1833 date is verified.
Maps by His Son
His son Peter (1774–1825), “Peter, the surveyor,” drew the 1818 Plan of Charlestown Peninsula (Booth, Historic Leaves vol. 1, p. 23). A 1794 plan of Medford signed “Peter Tufts junr” may be by either man. See Places: Maps and the Powder House, beside the farm he bought in 1788.
Salem Street Burying Ground
The 1930 gate tablet’s “Honorable Peter Tufts” is Capt. Peter Tufts (c. 1648–1721), Medford’s first representative, whose gravestone the Medford vital records place here; it is not this Peter (1753–1832). See Salem Street Burying Ground and its 1930 tablets.
Further Details from Additional Sources
Booth adds the outline of his life after the war:
“Peter, the eldest son of Peter and Anne (Adams) Tufts, was born in the old house on Winter hill in 1753. He married Hannah Adams, a niece of Anne Adams. He settled in early life on the Royal farm in Medford on the site of the present trottingpark, and here all of his children were born. It is related that Peter was one of the party that fortified Dorchester Heights, which compelled the evacuation of Boston. Such precautions were observed that the wheels of the wagons were muffled, and the men themselves were in their stocking feet.”
Edward C. Booth, “The Tufts Family in Somerville,” Historic Leaves (Somerville Historical Society), vol. 1 (1902–03), p. 22. Text (Perseus)
“In 1788, Peter bought of his cousin, Daniel Tufts, the farm opposite the Powder House, afterwards owned by Charles Tufts, and in 1806 built upon it the large three-storied mansion house taken down a few years ago. This house was within the limits of Medford till 1811, when, through the efforts of Mr. Tufts, a small triangular piece of land, including the house-lot at the corner of Broadway and Elm street, was set off to Charlestown.”
Edward C. Booth, “The Tufts Family in Somerville,” Historic Leaves (Somerville Historical Society), vol. 1 (1902–03), p. 22. Text (Perseus)
Of his eleven children, Peter (the surveyor) and Joel stayed in Somerville; Thomas and Aaron settled in New York State; and his daughters Hannah and Anne married Samuel Tufts Jr. and Isaac Tufts (Booth, p. 22). The 1905 DAR history calls him “the eldest son, Peter, jr.,” and says he “was a ‘Minute Man’” (History of the Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution (1905), “Anne Adams Tufts Chapter, of Somerville,” beginning p. 5. Book scan (Internet Archive)).
“ii. Peter Tufts 3d, b. Jan. 9, 1753; m. July 2, 1773, Hannah Adams, dau. of Dea. Joseph and Martha (Frost) Adams.”
Andrew N. Adams, A Genealogical History of Henry Adams of Braintree, Mass., and His Descendants; also John Adams of Cambridge, Mass. (1898), p. 973. Book scan (Internet Archive) (Scanned text; obvious scanning errors corrected.)
⚑ Unverified
Marriage date: Adams (p. 973) gives July 2, 1773; Wyman (p. 965) gives July 22, 1773. The Dorchester Heights story is family tradition (“It is related”).
Links and Resources
Every source, record, map, survey, marker and artifact tied to this person, gathered in one place. Page numbers are given where a book is cited.
Maps, Surveys and Artifacts
- Plans of Medford (1794) and Charlestown Peninsula (1818) — Plans signed by a Peter Tufts Junr; the 1818 plan is by his son Peter the surveyor, and the 1794 plan may be his or his son’s.
- Road from Concord to Cambridge survey (1797) — Drawn by his son Peter the surveyor, then signing as “Peter Tufts junior.”
- Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, vol. XVI (1907), pp. 137–138 · page scan
- Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, vol. XVI (1907), pp. 137–138 · page scan
- Helen Tilden Wild, Medford in the Revolution (1903), p. 52 · page scan
- Roster of the First Company of Minute Men, monument erected by the City of Medford (1925) · page scan
- Thomas Bellows Wyman, The Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, vol. II (1879), p. 965 · page scan
- — Old Powder House, Somerville, Mass.. The Old Powder House in Somerville. Wild places the homes of Peter Tufts Jr. and Daniel Tufts near it (see quotes above). Photographed in 2012. Tufts association:
- Source: Wikimedia Commons — …Jr. and Daniel Tufts near it (see quotes above). Photographed in 2012. Tufts association: Peter Tufts Jr. and Daniel Tufts lived opposite it (Wild, pp. 50, 52); his son Peter was its keeper (Booth, p. 23).Image: Daderot. CC0.
- — …it (see quotes above). Photographed in 2012. Tufts association: Peter Tufts Jr. and Daniel Tufts lived opposite it (Wild, pp. 50, 52); his son Peter was its keeper (Booth, p. 23).Image: Daderot. CC0. Source: Wikimedia Commons
- Source: Wikimedia Commons — …Tufts association: Family tradition places Peter Tufts (b. 1753) in the party that fortified the Heights; Booth p. 22 gives it as “It is related.” Unverified.Image: Jet Lowe (HABS/HAER, Library of Congress). Public domain.
- — …Family tradition places Peter Tufts (b. 1753) in the party that fortified the Heights; Booth p. 22 gives it as “It is related.” Unverified.Image: Jet Lowe (HABS/HAER, Library of Congress). Public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons
- Source: Wikimedia Commons — The Burning of Charlestown, June 17th, 1775. A print of Charlestown burning during the Battle of Bunker Hill, from the Emmet Collection, New York Public Library.Image: NYPL Emmet Collection. Public domain.
- — Medford minute men memorial boulder. Photograph from the memorial of Peter Tufts (1753–1832). It shows the Medford minute men memorial boulder, not a grave. Photo: Doug Bates, Find a Grave
Graves and Memorials
- Find a Grave memorial · 272011734
- Salem Street Burying Ground — The 1930 gate tablet’s “Honorable Peter Tufts” is Capt. Peter Tufts (c. 1648–1721), Medford’s first representative, whose gravestone the Medford vital records place here; it is not this Peter (1753–1832).
Markers, Plaques and Places
- The Powder House, Somerville — In 1788 he bought the farm opposite the Powder House (Booth, p. 22).
Digitized Books and Journals
- Edward C. Booth, “The Tufts Family in Somerville,” Historic Leaves (Somerville Historical Society), vol. 1 (1902–03), p. 22. · Text (Perseus)
- …The 1905 DAR history calls him “the eldest son, Peter, jr.,” and says he “was a ‘Minute Man’” (History of the Massachusetts Daughters of the American Revolution (1905), “Anne Adams Tufts Chapter, of Somerville,” beginning p. 5. · Book scan (Internet Archive)
- Andrew N. Adams, A Genealogical History of Henry Adams of Braintree, Mass., and His Descendants; also John Adams of Cambridge, Mass. (1898), p. 973. · Book scan (Internet Archive)