Located about 15 miles northwest of Boston is the town of Billerica, MA, the Francis Wyman House was built in 1666. It was home to one of the town’s earliest settlers, Francis Wyman. An overview of the Francis Wyman House is presented in this 15-minute video posted on February 3, 2026 by HistoryBites.

Francis and John Wyman were born in West Mill, a village just south of Cambridge, England, which was a major center of the Puritan movement in the 1600s. Sometime after the death of their mother in 1630, the two brothers immigrated to New England (most likely in 1636) with their two maternal uncles, the Richardsons.

The Wyman Association maintains that the original structure was one floor and that its current Georgian colonial appearance was probably done around 1720. The house suffered a fire in 1996.

Francis and John Wyman lost two sons to King Philip’s war. Francis Jr. was fatally wounded, and John Jr. was killed outright in the Narragansett swamp fight, which was fought on December 19th, 1675. The battle involved native peoples of New England fighting English settlers and their Mohegan and Pequot allies. Wampanoag Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck witnessed the 1665 deed for the land purchase of the Wyman House. His involvement highlights the proximity of the Wyman House to Christianized or so-called praying Indian villages, which provided protection for early settlers.