1747, became ward of his grandfather Spencer Phipps, at father's death387  His step mother, Lucy, gave John Sr.'s personal property to Spencer Bennet Phipps, guardian of John and Elizabeth Phips' son John.  (History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, p. 675n)   Inherited large portion of Spencer's estate388

1757; Graduated Harvard.  (200 Years Ago, or, A Brief History of Cambridgeport and East Cambridge)

1759, built splendid mansion on site of father's original Phipps Farm home389

 Home built in 1759 in Cambridge on the N. side of  Brattle Street on land of his father's, a 3 story building with yellow clapboards, white Ionic pilasters, white roof rail.  Yellow brick chimneys capped with ornamental hoods.  Side piazzas on east and west (added by 2nd owner Andrew Craigie) overlooking wide lawns.  A small park ran almost to the Charles.  200 acres.  Abandoned by John in 1774 when Patriot mobs made life dangerous for Loyalists in Boston and Cambridge.  One of the 7 famous houses making up Tory Row.
Occupied by Jonathan Sewall at the close of the Revolution, having been the headquarters of General Washington and his aids-de-camp from July 2, 1775 (Mrs. Washington arriving Monday, December 11, 1775) until the evacuation of Boston in April 1776.  Dr. Andrew Craigie was appointed apothecary general of the northern army and quartered under the same roof with Washington.  Of Scotch descent, he amassed a fortune in that office with inheritances as well from his father.  The next occupant was Thomas (Nathaniel?) Tracy with the next known occupant being Andrew Craigie again in 1792.  He added the banquet hall behind the study and entertained lavishly.  On his death he was buried in the Vassal tomb.
In 1843, the 200 acres was reduced to 8 acres when it was purchased by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who lived here until his death in 1882.  When he was a professor of modern languages in his second year of teaching at Harvard starting in 1837, he rented rooms here, his study being the room once used by Washington as his private chamber.  Here he wrote Hyperion, The Wreck of the Hesperus, and other early poems.  In 1843 he married Fanny Appleton, daughter of the wealthy Nathan Appleton of Beacon Hill, who bought the house and the land across the street as a wedding gift for the couple.  In 1845 he moved his study to the right hand front room on the lower floor.  In the hall outside the room stands The Old Clock on the Stairs.  Longfellow wrote many of his best-known works here, including Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), and The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858).  The publication of Hiawatha brought fame and financial success, enabling him to comman fees of thousands of dollars for the publication of his poems.  His house was elegantly furnished, and it was among the first in the country to be equipped with indoor plumbing.  Fanny Longfellow died in the house in 1861 after a tragic accident: her dress caught on fire, burning her entire body despite Longfellow's frantic efforts to snuff out the flames.  She died the day after the accident.  In 1996 the house is furnished virtually as it was in Longfellow's time, with a host of historical and literary momentos.  In the dining room hangs a painting by Albert Bierstadt, the famed landscape painter, that depicts a scene from Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha.  The parlor, with it's mid-victorian furnishings is an interesting example of the tastes of the time.  Longfellow's study on the first floor preserves his desk and writing implements, on the walls are portraits of some of his closest friends - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendall Holmes, Louis Agassiz, and Senator Charles Sumner - as well as photographs of Longfellow himself.  Also in the study is a chair presented to Longfellow by the schoolchildren of Cambridge, made from the "spreading chestnut tree" described in his poem, The Village Blacksmith (the blacksmith of this poem was in fact Dexter Pratt of 56 Brattle Street).  Later his grandson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana occupied the house.  Controversial Dana, a descendant of lawyer and novelist Richard Henry Dana (1815 - 1882), was a leading authority on the Soviet Union's theater and films.  The house remained in the Longfellow family until 1973, and is now under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service.  The park across the street, Longfellow Park, was given to the city by his family and friends.
(200 Years Ago, or, A Brief History of Cambridgeport and East Cambridge:  The Smithsonian Guide to Historic America - Southern New England:  Massachusetts - A Guide to the Pilgrim State;   (History of Cambridge, Massachusetts p. 758, 169, 170)

Sarah Stone settled in Cambridge, MA where she succeeded to and occupied the homestead on Garden Street of her grandfather, Deacon Gregory Stone.  Her son Jacob, succeeded to this same house in 1711.  He added to and occupied this estate with his children and granchildren nearly 60 years until his death.  The next years his heirs conveyed the property to John Vassall Jr.  And thus after 5 generations of his descendants for 130 years, the homestead passed out of possession of the family.
However, John Vassall Jr. was a descendant of Spencer Bennett Phips, the adopted son of Sir William Phips, whose great nephew John Phips of Sherborn, married a descendant of Deacon Gregory, Hannah Walker.  (Gregory Stone Genealogy - Bartlett)

1770;  On school committee.    (History of Cambridge, Massachusetts p. 375)

May 10, 1770;  "Know All Men by these presents that we David Phips Esq. and Sarah Boardman widow John Vassall Esq. Richard Lechmere Esq. and Mary his wife and Joseph Lee Esq. and Rebecca his wife, All of Cambridge in the County of Middlesex in consideration of Forty Pounds of Lawfull Money given by James Adams Jr. of the District of New Braintree in the County of Worcester Husbandman _______  __ ______ hereby Acknowledge do hereby give grant Sell and Convey unto this James Adams Jr. and his heirs The following Tract of land in New Braintree aforesaid one Lot number six bounded as follows  Beginning at a certain Stake and Stones in the Southeasterly Bounds of ____ _____ ____ the ____ N 23 in the first Range Granted unto John Jordon a Corner of the fifth lot - then East forty ____ hundred and Ninety five Rods by the Lot No 5 (?) a stake and stones in the westerly bound of George Abbotts lot Then Northerly in ________ bounds of said Abbotts lott About seventy nine rods to a stake and a heap of stones then Westerly forty degrees North ____ one hundred and eighty rods to a stake and heap of stones in the Easterly bounds of the _____  _____ Lott then South Forty Degrees west seventy eight rods Additional ______ to the first mentioned corner ----------  _________
the same to the said James Adams Jr. and his heirs and their sole use......
Signed Sealed and delivered by David Phips John Vassall Richard Lechmere and Mary his wife before us _____Oliver, Mary Phips Signed sealed and delivered by Sarah Boardman before us Aaron Boardman and David Osgood ---- Signed Sealed and delivered by Joseph Lee and Rebecca his wife before us Thomas Oliver R Lechmere --------
Middlesex Co. Cambridge June 8 1770 Personally appeared The within named...."
(Worcester Co. Deeds book 64 page 340)

1771;  Commissioned Colonel.   (History of Cambridge, Massachusetts p. 407, 407n)

1774, family fled to Boston when home surrounded by angry patriot mobs386, later to West Indies (Had vast estates in Jamaica), and then England375  While living in England lived alternately between Charles Lodge in Wiltshire, and the city of Bath. (History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland)

1778;  Having taken an active part with the Loyalists, he was proscribed.  (200 Years Ago, or, A Brief History of Cambridgeport and East Cambridge)

7 children

Town Offices: 1763, 1767 - 71 Warden of Christ Church in Boston, paid for land on which church built384,385