Thomas Boylston came to Massachusettts from England in 1635. His son, also Thomas, married Mary Gardner of Muddy River and settled here in 1665. He and Mary had 12 children.

This is the gravestone of Mary Gardner Boylston. She died in 1722.

Thomas and Mary's eldest child, Peter, was one of the signers of the petition for separation from Boston, while his father, a surgeon, served as Brookline's first Town Clerk. But it was Thomas and Mary's second child, Zabdiel, who became the most celebrated of the Boylstons. In the meantime, however, Peter had a daughter named Susanna. She married John Adams and was the mother of the second president of the United States.

But back to Zabdiel...