"

Charlestown Path crossed the Common. The other portion of North Avenue was the "highway to Menotomy." The "highway to Charlestown," or the "Charlestown Path," as before stated, was the present Kirkland Street. In the impaled land, the principal highway was the "highway to the Oyster Bank," or the highway into the neck," extending through Arrow Street, Main Street, and Pleasant Street, to a point near Cottage Street, and thence diagonally across the present streets towards Washington Square. From Pleasant Street a path diverged westerly, and followed the border of the upland, next to the marsh, and was called the "highway to Captain's Island."1 From the junction of Pleasant and Main streets, the highway extended easterly, nearly in the track of Main Street, and at a later day was called the "highway to Pelham's Island." Between the "old field " and "small-lot hill," was the "highway to the common pales," now called Dana Street, the direction of which, however, is somewhat changed, the northerly termination now being several rods more westerly than it was at first. Another branch extended southerly from Main Street to Riverside, originally called the "highway into the little neck," now Putnam Avenue. From the "town" into the "highway to the oyster-bank" there were two principal entrances one being a continuation of Braintree (now Harvard) Street, from Holyoke Street easterly, through Harvard Street and the northerly portion of Bow Street to Arrow Street, and indifferently called " Field Lane" and the "highway to the oyster-bank;" the other being a continuation of Spring (now Mount Auburn) Street, or rather branching from a sharp angle in Crooked (now Holyoke) Street, opposite to the site of the printing office, and winding along the higher land above the westerly portion of Bow Street, until it intersected Field Lane at the present junction of Bow and Arrow streets; this was indifferently called "Back Lane," and "Cow-yard Row." "Cow-yard Lane," separating the houselots from the yards in the rear, extended across the College enclosure, from the Common to the "Old Field," at the distance of about a hundred feet from Harvard Street, having an outlet into Harvard Street about a hundred feet easterly from the present Holyoke Street; this, like that into which it entered, was called "Field Lane." Cow-yard Lane and Field Lane north of Har

1 The upland, where the Powder Magazine was erected, an island at high water, was granted to Captain Daniel

Patrick, at a very early period, since which time it has always been styled Captain's Island.

vard Street were discontinued and enclosed with the adjoining lands immediately after "Mr. Hooker's Company" removed. The foregoing are all the highways of which I find any trace in the present bounds of Cambridge, prior to 1636. On the south side of the river, however, a highway was early established, called the "highway to Roxbury," from a point opposite to the College Wharf, in the general direction of the road from Cambridge Great Bridge, through the easterly portion of Brighton to Brookline. Frequent reference is also made, in the early records, to the "highway from Watertown to Roxbury."

CHAPTER III.

CIVIL HISTORY.

THE New Town seems never to have been incorporated by specific act. It was originally set apart by the government for public use; and it was from the beginning recognized as a distinct town. As early as June 14, 1631, the Court provided for the making of a canal or "passage from Charles River to the New Town," and, in ordering a tax of thirty pounds, Feb. 3, 1631-2, to defray the expense of a "pallysadoe about the New Town,” assessed one tenth part thereof on that town, as related in Chapter II. There is no recorded evidence, however, of any municipal transactions by the New Town until March 29, 1632, when the Town Book of Records was opened; since which time a continuous record has been preserved. The first transaction recorded was the "agreement by the inhabitants of the New Town, about paling in the neck of land." Six weeks later, the Court appointed a constable for the New Town, and selected two of its inhabitants, with a like number from other towns, " to confer with the Court about raising of a public stock." The first named record, March 29, 1632, has been fully quoted in the preceding chapter. The next in order, Dec. 24, 1632, provided for regular meetings of the inhabitants for the transaction of business. The record is mutilated somewhat, and the words supposed to have been worn off are here inserted in brackets:

---

"An agreement made by a general consent, for a monthly meeting.

“Imprimis, That every person undersubscribed shall [meet] every first Monday in every month, within [the] meeting house, in the afternoon, within half [an hour] after the ringing of the bell; 2 and that every [one] that makes not his personal appear

1 Mass. Col. Rec., i. 95, 96, May 9, 1632: "Mr. Edmond Lockwood was chosen constable of New Towne for this yeare next ensueing, and till a newe be chosen." On the same day, "It was ordered that there should be two of every

plantacōn appointed to conferre with the Court about raiseing of a publique stocke;”—“Mr. Lockwood and Mr. Spencer for Newe Towne.”

2 It is observable that the hour of meeting was thus early announced by "the

ance there [and] continues there, without leave from the [ until the meeting be ended, shall forfeit [for each] default xii. pence and if it be not paid [before the next] meeting, then to double it, and so until [it be paid]."

Although a general subscription seems to have been contemplated, only two signatures are appended, namely, Thomas Dudley and John Haynes; and Mr. Haynes must have subscribed his name several months after the order was adopted, as he did not arrive until Sept. 3, 1633. At the first meeting holden in pursuance of this "agreement," several municipal arrangements were made, to secure the beauty and safety of the town, to wit: —

Jan. 7, 1632-3. "It is ordered, that no person whatever [shall set] up any house in the bounds of this town [without] leave from the major part.

"Further, it is agreed, by a joint consent, [that the] town shall not be enlarged until all [the vacant] places be filled with houses.1

66

Further, it is agreed, that all the houses [within] the bounds of the town shall be covered [with] slate or board, and not with thatch.2

"Further, it is ordered, that all [the houses shall] range even, and stand just six [feet on each man's] own ground from the street."

ringing of the bell." Johnson represents that, in 1636, a drum was used, because the town "had as yet no bell to call men to meeting." Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., xiv. 18. It seems unlikely that "Mr. Hooker's company" transported their bell, across the wilderness, to Connecticut, and the story perhaps was inaccurately reported to Johnson.

The day of meeting was changed to the second Monday in the month, Oct. 1, 1639, because "it was ordered" by the General Court, "to prevent the hindrance of the military company upon the first Monday in the month, that no other meetings should be appointed upon that day."

1 "The town," technically so-called, was embraced in the district bounded northerly by Harvard Street and Square, westerly by Brattle Square and Eliot Street, southerly by Eliot and South streets, and easterly by Holyoke Street, which was then very crooked.

2 This was a reaffirmation of an agreement made by the original projectors of the town, nearly two years earlier. In his letter to the Countess of Lincoln, dated March 28, 1631, Dudley speaks of recent disasters by fire, and adds: "For the prevention whereof in our new town, intended this summer to be builded, we have ordered that no man there shall build his chimney with wood, nor cover his house with thatch." As an additional prevention, the townsmen ordered, Oct. 3, 1636, "That no child, under the age of ten years, shall carry any fire from one house to another, nor any other person unless it be covered, upon the forfeiture of xii. pence a time for every such fault: the one half to the person that sees it, the other to the Constable." In these days of lucifer matches, such an order may seem unnecessary; but even within the last fifty years, it was not unusual to send from house to house for fire.

Next follows the division of the common pales, apparently at the same meeting.

The prohibition against erecting houses outside of "the town" may have been merely a precaution against danger from enemies; yet it is not unlikely to have been occasioned, in part at least, by the continued desire to make this the seat of government, and the most desirable place of residence in the colony. The regularity required in the position of the houses indicates a disposition to make the town symmetrical as well as compact. This orderly arrangement, which had doubtless been observed from the beginning, is referred to by Wood, in his " New England's Prospect," written in this year (1633), as one of the characteristic features of the new town: "This place was first intended for a city; but, upon more serious considerations, it was thought not so fit, being too far from the sea, being the greatest inconvenience it hath. This is one of the neatest and best compacted towns in New England, having many fair structures, with many handsome contrived streets. The inhabitants, most of them, are very rich, and well stored with cattle of all sorts, having many hundred acres of land paled in with general fence, which is about a mile and a half long, which secures all their weaker cattle from the wild beasts." 1

After this meeting on the seventh of January, no other is recorded until Aug. 5, 1633; from which date there is a consecutive record of the "monthly meetings." A selection from the orders adopted at these meetings may serve to illustrate the primitive condition of the town.

Aug. 5, 1633. Sundry lots were granted for "cow-yards."

Sept. 2, 1633. "It is ordered, that whosoever hath any tree lying across a highway, and doth not remove it within seven days, or whosoever shall hereafter fall any tree and let it lie cross a highway one day, shall forfeit the tree."

Dec. 2, 1633. "It is ordered, that no person whatever shall fell any tree near the town, within the path which goeth from Watertowne to Charlestowne, upon the forfeiture of five shillings for every tree so felled."

1 Boston edition, p. 45. The prosperity of the inhabitants seems not to have been overstated. Of the general tax imposed by the Court, Oct. 1, 1633, Boston, Roxbury, Charlestown, Watertown, and New Town were assessed alike,- fortyeight pounds; Dorchester was the only

town in the colony which was required to pay a larger sum, eighty pounds. In March, 1636, the share of New Town, in a tax of three hundred pounds, was fortytwo pounds, when no other town was assessed more than thirty-seven pounds ten shillings.