MORE ABOUT THE REV. JAMES KEITH HOUSE PT. 2

  Along with the details of the construction of Rev. James Keith's house, Williams Latham also wrote about the history of its ownership:

In the case of the inhabitants of Bridgewater versus the inhabitants of West Bridgewater, reported in the seventh volume of Pickering Reports, page 191, and in the ninth volume of Pickering, page 55, in the years 1828 9, brought for the support of Daniel Keith, a pauper, then aged eighty.one years, a great.grandson of the Rev. James Keith. This pauper, with his father, Daniel Keith, and grandfather, John Keith, son of the Rev. James Keith, lived and died in the plaintiff , town. It became necessary to prove where, in old Bridgewater, minister Keith lived and died; and sundry old people were witnesses of, and sundry depositions of ancient people were then, 1828.9, taken for that purpose, as well as to prove the genealogy of the pauper; and some of said deponants and witnesses well remembered the house, then, 1828, owned and occupied by Aarrabella, daughter of said Amasa Howard, deceased,and widow of Benjamin Eaton, deceased, as far back as 1750, and said it was then, 1750. an ancient looking house, and had always appeared the same as it then, 1828.9, appeared. That case was tried, and before the whole court, twice; and the fact that the Rev. James Keith, lived and died in that house, was then well and satisfactorily established.

The homestead of Rev. James Keith consisted of two house.lots of six acres each, with a ten acre lot at the head of said house lots, and with a house thereon, built by the town, conditionally given by the town to him, in consideration of his future services as their minister, and remained entire until about 1800. And though this house and a portion of the homestead on which it stands, has been owned and occupied by many persons, as tenants in common and otherwise, yet the title to this house and portion of the homestead ns always remained in, and been confined to four persons and their families, to wit;

James Keith and his children, down to 1723,. . . 61 years;
Ephraim Fobes, brother and son, down to 1792, . 69 years;
Amasa Howard and daughters, down to 1834, . . 42 years;
Thomas Pratt and son, George M., down to 1882, . 48 years.
-pp239-240

Epitaphs in Old Bridgewater, Massachusetts: Illustrated with Plans and Views  Henry T.Pratt, Publisher, Bridgewater, Mass. 1882

 Ephraim Fobes is my 8x great granduncle, and Amasa Howard and Thomas Pratt are distant cousins. All are connected to Rev. James Keith by blood and marriage. So for two centuries the Keith House was in the family, albeit different branches,