66

Agreed with Mr. Symon Bradstreet, to make a sufficient cartway along by his pales, and keep it in repair seven years; and he is to have ten shillings for the same."

March 2, 1633-4. "Granted John Benjamin all the ground between John Masters his ground and Antho. Couldbyes, provided that the windmill-hill shall be preserved for the town's use, and a cartway of two rods wide unto the same." 1

April 7, 1634. "Granted John Pratt two acres by the old burying place, without the common pales." 2

Aug. 4, 1634. "It is ordered, that whosoever shall fall [any] tree for boards, clapboards, or frames of houses, [and] sell them out of the town, shall forfeit for every [tree] so sold twenty shillings."

Nov. 3, 1634. "James Olmsted is chosen Constable for the year following, and till a new be chosen in his room, and presently sworn.3

"John White is chosen Surveyor, to see the highways and streets kept clean, and in repair for the year following.

"It is ordered, that every inhabitant in the town shall keep the street clear from wood and all other things against his own ground; and whosoever shall have anything lie in the street above one day after the next meeting-day, shall forfeit five shillings for every such default."

Jan. 5, 1634-5. "It is ordered, that whosoever hath any lot granted by the town, and shall not improve the same, then it is to return to the town; or, if he shall improve the same, he shall first offer it to the town; if they refuse to give him what charges he hath been at, then to have liberty to sell it to whom he can." Next follows an agreement, accompanied by several orders. whereby the system of municipal government was radically

1 Windmill-hill was at the south end of Ash Street, near the former site of the Cambridge Gas Works. A windmill was there erected for the grinding of corn, as no mill moved by water-power was nearer than Watertown. This mill was removed to Boston in August, 1632, because "it would not grind but with a westerly wind." Savage's Winthrop, i. 87. The hill was afterwards enclosed by Richard Eccles, who owned the adjoining lands, and it so remained until 1684, when the town asserted its rights; and a tract measuring ten rods on the river, six rods and seven feet across the west

end, ten rods and four feet on the north
line, and seven and a half rods across
the east end, was acknowledged by Eccles
to be public property, together with a
highway to it, two rods wide, through
his land; and his acknowledgment was
entered on the Proprietors' Records.
2 See chapter xv.

8 Edmund Lockwood had been appointed Constable by the Court, May 9, 1632, and John Benjamin, May 29, 1633; but James Olmstead was the first person elected by the inhabitants to fill that of fice, which was then of great honor and importance.

changed. Hitherto, all the legal voters had met, from month to month, to manage their public affairs. Power was now delegated to a few individuals, at first styled "Townsmen," and afterwards "Selectmen," to transact "the whole business of the town," until the next November, when a new election might be had.1

Feb. 3, 1634-5. "At a general meeting of the whole town, it was agreed upon by a joint consent, that seven men should be chosen to do the whole business of the town, and so to continue until the first Monday in November next, and until new be chosen in their room: so there was then elected and chosen John Haynes, Esq., Mr. Symon Bradstreet, John Taylcott, William Westwood, John White, William Wadsworth; James Olmsted, Constable.

"It is further ordered, by a joint consent, [that] whatsoever these Townsmen, thus chosen, shall do, in the compass of their time, shall stand in as full force as if the whole town did the same, either for making of new orders, or altering of old ones.

"Further, it is ordered, that whatsoever person they shall send for, to help in any business, and he shall refuse to come, they shall have power to lay a fine upon him, and to gather [it].

"Further, it is ordered, that they shall have one to attend upon them, to employ about any business, at a public charge.

"Further, it is ordered, that they shall meet every first Monday in a month, at [ in the afternoon, according to the

former [order]."

Another important board of officers was elected, at the same meeting:

"Also, there was then chosen, to join [with] James Olmsted, Constable, John Benjamin, Daniell Denison, Andrew Warner, William Spencer; which five, according to the order of Court, [shall] survey the town lands, and enter the [same in] a Book appointed for that purpose.2

1 Perhaps the term of service was thus limited in anticipation of the proposed removal of many inhabitants.

2 Mass. Col. Rec., i. 116. April 1, 1634. "It was further ordered, that the constable and four or more of the chief inhabitants of every town (to be chosen by all the freemen there, at some meeting there), with the advice of some one or more of the next assistants, shall make a surveying of the houses, backside, cornfields, mowing ground, and other lands, im

proved, or enclosed, or granted by special order of the Court, of every free inhabitant there, and shall enter the same in a book (fairly written in words at length and not in figures), with the several bounds and quantities by the nearest estimation, and shall deliver a transcript thereof into the Court within six months now next ensuing; and the same, so entered and recorded, shall be a sufficient assurance to every such free inhabitant, his and their heirs and assigns, of such

"It is further ordered, that these five men [shall] meet every first Monday in the [month] at the Constable's house, in the forenoon, at the ringing of the bell."

estate of inheritance, or as they shall have in any such houses, lands, or frank-tenements."

The book thus prepared, called "The Regestere Booke of the Lands and Houses

in the New Towne," and, more familiarly, the "Proprietors' Records," is still preserved in the office of the City Clerk. The record was not finally closed until Feb. 19, 1829.

CHAPTER IV.

CIVIL HISTORY.

THE projectors of the New Town had hitherto suffered two grievous disappointments: the officers of the government had not generally become inhabitants, according to the original agreement; and so great was the disparity in commercial advantages, that it early became manifest that the New Town could not successfully compete with Boston as the great mart of trade. No reasonable hope, therefore, could be entertained that this should become the principal city of the colony. In other respects, the enterprise appears to have been eminently successful. The hope expressed by Dudley, that men of ability might be attracted hither by the advantages offered, had been gratified; for so early as 1633, Wood wrote concerning them : "the inhabitants, most of them, are very rich and well stored with cattle of all sorts." A reasonable proportion of the rulers resided here. Dudley remained Deputy Governor until May, 1634, when he became Governor, and the next year was an Assistant. Bradstreet was constantly an Assistant; and Haynes, at the first election after his arrival, was elected as an Assistant, and the next year, 1635, Governor. Moreover, the New Town had become. the seat of government; and, for aught which appears to the contrary, it might have retained that distinction, if the principal inhabitants had not removed.1

1 The first three Courts of Assistants were held at Charlestown in August and September, 1630; after which all the courts were held in Boston until May, 1634. The Assistants had even voted, Oct. 3, 1632,"It is thought, by general consent, that Boston is the fittest place for public meetings of any place in the Bay." Yet when Dudley was elected Governor, in May, 1634, the courts, both general and particular, were transferred to New Town, and were there held ex

clusively until May, 1636. Then they returned to Boston; then to New Town again in April, 1637, until September, 1638, when they became permanently fixed at Boston.

Dr. Holmes, writing in 1800, says, "In some of the first years, the annual election of the Governor and Magistrates of the Colony was holden in this town. The people, on these occasions, assembled under an oak tree, which stood on the northerly side of the Common in Cambridge, a lit

All these advantages, however, were not satisfactory. The disappointment and uneasiness found vent in words. One memorable example is preserved: "At the court of assistants," says Winthrop, Nov. 3, 1635, “ John Pratt of Newtown was questioned about the letter he wrote into England, wherein he affirmed divers things, which were untrue and of ill repute, for the state of the country, as that here was nothing but rocks, and sands, and salt marshes, etc. He desired respite for his answer to the next morning; then he gave it in writing, in which, by making his own interpretation of some passages and acknowledging his error in others, he gave satisfaction."1 This letter, probably written in the previous year, is not known to exist; but the "answer," which sufficiently indicates its nature, is on record:

"The answer of me, John Pratt, to such things as I hear and perceive objected against me, as offensive in my letter. First, generally, whatsoever I writ of the improbability or impossibility of subsistence for ourselves or our posterity without tempting God, or without extraordinary means, it was with these two regards: first, I did not mean that which I said in respect of the whole country, or our whole patent in general, but only of that compass of ground wherein these towns are so thick set together; and secondly, I supposed that they intended so to remain, because (upon conference with divers) I found that men did think it unreasonable that they or any should remove or disperse into other parts of the country; and upon this ground I thought I could not subsist myself, nor the plantation, nor posterity. But I do acknowledge that since my letter there have been sundry places newly found out, as Neweberry, Concord, and others (and that within this patent), which will afford good means of subsistence for men and beasts, in which and other such like new plan

tle west of the road leading to Lexington. The stump of it was dug up not many years since."- Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., vii. 9. This was probably the tree mentioned in a note to Hutchinson's Hist. Mass., i. 61 : At the election in 1637, the party of Mr. Vane, fearing defeat, refused to proceed, until a certain petition had been read. Mr. Winthrop's party protested against delay. And it is said that "Mr. Wilson, the minister, in his zeal gat up upon the bough of a tree (it was hot weather and the election like that of Parliament men

for the counties in England was carried on in the field), and there made a speech, advising the people to look to their charter and to consider the present work of the day, which was designed for the chusing the governor, deputy governor, and the rest of the assistants for the government of the commonwealth. His speech was well received by the people, who presently called out, election, election, which turned the scale."

1 Savage's Winthrop, i. 173, 174.