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The Burdoo Family

In 1704, Phillip Burdoo and his wife Ann Solomon Burdoo were married in Medford, MA. Afterward, they purchased 40 acres of land on Bedford Street, a short walk from Simonds Tavern.

Phillip attended and voted during the annual town meetings.

Ann Burdoo, his wife was admitted to the church at the first Meeting House of Cambridge Farms (now Lexington) in 1708. This Meeting House was built at the fork of the road just behind the current Minuteman statue on the Lexington Green in 1692.

Ann and Phillip Burdoo’s first four children; Philip Jr., Eunice, Moses and Aaron, were baptized at the first Meeting House. Their two youngest children, Phineas and Lois, were baptized at the second, larger Meeting House of Lexington.

Philip Burdoo, Jr., and his wife Mary had at least three children. The first two, also Philip, and Mary, were baptized in Lexington. Their third son, Silas, was a soldier during the Revolutionary War. Silas Burdoo fought on April 19, 1775, and received a veteran’s pension while living in Reading, Vermont.

Moses, the second son, bought the Burdoo homestead from his parents in 1746. Philip Burdoo I, the patriarch, died in 1752. Ann Burdoo, the matriarch, died in 1757.

Moses and his wife Phebe Banister, of Concord, were married in 1754. They had one son before Phebe died in 1756. Their son Eli was baptized at the Lexington Church in 1755.

Moses Burdoo served during the French and Indian War and died in 1760 at about 50 years old. Eli followed in his father’s footsteps and became a soldier, serving in Captain Parker’s Company on April 19, 1775.

Read about more Black residents of Lexington here.

Information provided by Sean Osborne.

Marker for the First Meeting House.(Photo: Historical Marker Database)
Receipt for the Lexington Militia Payroll in 1778 for Colonel Reed’s Regiment in General Gates’ Army. Eli Burdoo is listed. (Photo courtesy Lexington Historical Society)