This house won’t be around much longer. Nor will my interest in it, I’m afraid. I’ve moved on. When I visited the remains of Arrigo Farm on the borders of Watertown, Waltham, and Belmont, I thought I had an ancestral connection. This 4.2 acre piece of land is one of the oldest continuously farmed places in the United States. It’s been owned by only two families since 1650: the Warrens until 1922, and the Arrigos since then. Now I’m not sure what’s up with this place. In 2013, the city of Waltham was hoping to preserve it, but it’s sad and abandoned now, with an old rotting house and barn. A small group of pine tree plantings are the only sign of activity.
The first white owner of this land was John Warren, a founder of nearby Watertown. He owned a great deal of land stretching as far away as what is now Weston. But after hours of research, and the creation of this drawing, I realized that I was incorrect in linking myself to this family. He was not the Warren I was looking for—not the immigrant grandfather of Sarah Warren, a 7x grr-grandmother born in Boston in 1697.
This discovery, or unraveling of what I thought was a discovery, lead me to Peter Warren, a mariner in Boston and ancestor to Revolutionary War hero Dr. Joseph Warren of Bunker Hill fame. Again, after a deep dive, I hit a dead end with that one.
I wondered next if it could be that my ancestor was Richard Warren from the Mayflower? Nope. Another dead end. No Pilgrims yet in my family.
I’m quite sure now that my immigrant ancestor was John Warren, who arrived in Exeter, New Hampshire, from England in 1649. He had some children there with his wife, Deborah Wilson, the daughter of a local miller. So, off to Exeter I will go in the near future with my research and sketchbook hoping I’ve dug up the right Warren.
Visiting the Relatives 