Ward, 'History of Shrewsbury', Worcester Magazine and Historical Journal (1826), p. 27: the account of the burning of Capt. John Keyes's house, 'William Oaks, of 18, his apprentices'. Ward repeats Whitney's quotation of the Boston account of 15 August 1723: Mr. Bragg the carpenter, 'with his brother Abiel, of 17 years of age, and William Oaks, of 18, his apprentices', and the three sons of Capt. Keyes (Solomon 20, John 13, Stephen 6) slept in the new house.

Word-for-word transcription (spellings kept; uncertain letters in brackets).

(Passage concerning the family only; the rest of the page is not transcribed. Long s printed as ordinary s.)

"Boston, August 15, 1723.

"An exact account of the awful burning of Capt. John Keyes' house, with five persons in it, at Shrewsbury, in the night between the 7th and 8th of this inst. taken from a letter of the Rev. Mr. Breck, of Marlborough, and from the month [sic] of Mr. Ebenezer Bragg,* of the same, formerly of Ipswich, the only person of those, who lodged in the house, who, by a distinguishing providence, escaped the flames.

"Capt. Keyes was building an house about nine or ten feet off his old one. It was almost finished; and Mr. Bragg aforesaid, the carpenter, with his brother Abiel, of 17 years of age, and William Oaks, of 18, his apprentices, were working about it. Capt. Keyes, with his wife and four daughters, lodged in the old one; and the three carpenters, with the three sons of the Captain, viz. Solomon, of 20, John, of 13, and Stephen, of 6 years of age, laying in the new."

* Father of the late Deacon John Bragg, of this town.