Great Pond (west side)
Place research page generated from the structured place spine and the companion place markdown.
Richard Gurney's homestead. In 1683 the Weymouth town meeting voted him six acres of common land 'on the west side of Great Pond' to 'build a house & fence to dwell thereon with his family'; the dwelling and about six acres were inventoried at his death in 1691. By 1683 'Great Pond' denotes the large South Weymouth pond of that name (distinct from his father John Sr.'s earlier grants around Whitman's Pond / Fresh Pond in East Weymouth). The genealogist Jean Gurney Rigler noted a competing tradition placing the homestead 'on East Street towards Old Spain, and extending to Back River' in North Weymouth, so the precise site is unresolved.
Linked ancestors
- G12 Richard Gurney landholding / property reference
- G12 Richard Gurney residence
Research notes
What we know. The firm record is the 1683 town-meeting vote granting Richard six acres of the town common “on the west side of the Pond” (Great Pond), “to build a house & fence to dwell thereon with his family … in an absolute state of Inheritance” (History of Weymouth, p. 251, quoted in Rigler’s Richard-2 entry). The 1691 death inventory — “A Dwelling house & barne with about six Acres of land adjoyning” — is almost certainly that same six-acre lot built up into a homestead, which fixes the place as a real, occupied house site.
Which pond. By 1683 “Great Pond” denotes the large South Weymouth pond of that modern name — distinct from John Sr.'s earlier (1642–51) grants, which clustered around Whitman’s Pond / Fresh Pond in East Weymouth (the East Field, Mill Field, and the great lot east of Whitman’s Pond). So Richard’s homestead is a separate, southern locus from his father’s holdings.
What we don’t. The grant locates the lot to the west side of [the South Weymouth] Great Pond but not to a surveyed parcel, so the coordinate is a point on that shore (medium precision). Rigler adds a competing tradition that Richard settled “possibly on East Street towards Old Spain, and extending to Back River” — which is in North Weymouth, a third part of town. The readings are not reconcilable as a single spot; the west-side-of-Great-Pond grant is the firmer evidence and is used here, with the Old Spain alternative noted. Resolving which is correct is a research lead (Weymouth proprietors’ land-grant records; abuttals in the 1683 grant and adjacent deeds).
See the Richard Gurney (G12) companion.