USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Chelsea > Documentary history of Chelsea : including the Boston precincts of Winnisimmet, Rumney Marsh, and Pullen Point, 1624-1824, vol 1 > Part 13
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53 Suff. Deeds, L. 16, ff. 1, 2.
54 Benj. Peirce, Hist. of Harvard University, 16. [This was confirmed by deed dated June 11, 1650. Suff. Deeds, L. 21, f. 201. The deed was ac- knowledged by John Newgate, May 12, 1662, and recorded March 15, 1702.] 55 Sumner, Hist. of East Boston, 358, says this was by deed, but I find none recorded. In several particulars the history of Rumney Marsh rests upon unrecorded documentary evidence once in the sole possession of General Sumner, but now dispersed. He was a careful writer, but in sev- eral instances I have wished that I might see the document he cites. [The original deed to Colonel Shrimpton is among the Chamberlain MSS., iv. 29; it is recorded in Suff. Deeds, L. 16, f. 1; it is quoted in the text on p. 96, and cited in note 53. It was dated November 22, 1688, and was signed by the grandson, not the son, of John Newgate. See infra, Appen- dix 6.]
56 Sumner, Hist. of East Boston, 192 note.
57 Pages 187-230.
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Colonel Samuel Shrimpton and Elizabeth ( Brecden) had an only child, Samuel Shrimpton, Jr., born in Boston April 20, 1673, married Elizabeth Richardson, a niece of Colonel Shrimpton's wife, and died May 25, 1703. They had an only child, Elizabeth, born in Boston August 26, 1702, who mar- ried John Yeamans of St. James Parish, Westminster, Eng- land,58 May 6, 1720, and died of smallpox December 4, 1721, aged nineteen.
Colonel Samuel Shrimpton died February 9, 1697/8, and by will proved the seventeenth, he devised to his wife Eliza- beth the residue of his estate, for life, with power to dispose thereof by deed or will.59 She married Simeon Stoddard May 31, 1709, and died in 1713, devising various estates, ineluding the Newgate Farm, to her granddaughter, Elizabeth Shrimp- ton, for life, remainder to her heirs in tail.60 Elizabeth Shrimpton married John Yeamans. They had a son, Shute Shrimpton Yeamans, born in Boston August 20, 1721, who married Matilda Gunthrop in Antigua.61 Shute Shrimpton Yeamans, becoming of age in 1742, barred the entail, and vested the fee in his father.62 John Yeamans died in England about 1749, and by will, February 23, 1747, gave all his estate to his only son, Shute Shrimpton Yeamans, in fee, subject to various legacies.63 John Yeamans lived at East Boston, and at the same time owned the Newgate Farm at Rumney Marsh,
58 [In the marriage contract, dated May 6, 1720, he is described as " John Yeamans of the Island of Antigua, now resident in_ Boston." (Sumner, East Boston, 230.) April 4, 1721, John Yeamans, Esq., was excused from serving as constable for Boston, because he claimed to be "One of His Majestys Council for the Island of Antigua." Records of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace, iii. 74. See also ibid., 74-80, where he was fined 20s. for striking Elisha Cooke, in what was ap- parently a political difference of opinion. Samuel Shute, then Governor of Massachusetts, was an uncle of John Yeamans. March 3, 1742/3, he was John Yeamans, late of Boston, " but now residing in Pall Mall in the Parish of St. James in the Liberty of Westminster . .. Great Britain."] 59 [Colonel Shrimpton limited her power of disposal by the words " to & among such of my natural Relations and Friends as shall then be living."]
60 Sumner, 195 [228]. [In the inventory presented by the executors, - Simeon Stoddard and Mrs. Elizabeth Shrimpton, widow of Samuel Shrimp- ton, Jr., - the farm at Rumney Marsh was valued at £1000. (Suff. Prob. Rec., L. 18, ff. 167, 168).]
61 Sumner, 232.
62 [Suff. Deeds, L. 66, ff. 271-277.]
63 Sumner, 238, 239, 249.
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and conceived the project of uniting the two places by a bridge, which would facilitate intercourse between them. In 1727 he petitioned the town of Boston for leave to construct such a bridge. This petition was granted on certain condi- tions ; 64, but other measures of a more public nature engaging his attention, his scheme, though proposed by a " Bostonian " in 1796, was not consummated till more than a century after Yeamans proposed it.65
Sumner 66 gives the following: "Shute Shrimpton Yea- mans . . . and his wife, Matilda Gunthorp, had two daughters and a son John, all of whom died young; also a son Shute, who died of consumption on his passage to America, June 9, 1774, aged about twenty years. Shute Shrimpton Ycamans died in Richmond, England, Sept. 10, 1769, aged forty-cight years." A copy of his will, dated in England, August 4, 1768, may be seen in the Suffolk Probate Records.67 After various legacies, the will goes on to say, - " I give & devise unto my said son Shute Yeamans and his Heirs, my Farm with the Appurtenances called or known by the Name of Chelsea Farm situate near Boston in New England in North America and now let to Robert Temple Esquire at the Yearly Rent of forty pounds sterling Provided always that if my said Son Shute Yeamans shall happen to die before he shall attain the Age of twenty-one years Then (subject & charged as aforesaid) I give & devise my said Farm with the Appurtenances unto my said Son John Yeamans & his Heirs."
By the terms of Shute Shrimpton Yeamans' will, his sons dying without issue, his estates in New England became the property of his three aunts, Mary Chauncy, Sarah Greenough, and Mehetable Hyslop, the daughters of Mr. David Stod- dard.68 Mrs. Greenough's one third, or two sixths, descended to her two children, David S. and William, one sixth to each in fee. Mrs. Hyslop's two sixths, to her two children, David and Elizabeth, one sixth to each, in fee. Mrs. Chauncy's two sixths were divided between Rev. William Grecnough and Elizabeth (Hyslop) Sumner, the wife of Governor Sum-
64 Sumner, 240. 65 Ibid., 241.
66 Page 249.
07 L. 73, f. 697.
68 [David Stoddard married Mrs. Elizabeth Shrimpton, widow of Samuel Shrimpton, Jr.]
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ner. 69 Ultimately, David S. Greenough became owner of three sixths; 7" Elizabeth ( Hyslop) Sumner, two sixths, and David Hyslop, one sixth.71
Robert Temple, first of the name, tenant of the Newgate Farm, was grandson of Sir Purbeck Temple of Stanton Bury, England, and was born in Ireland, 1694. He married Mchit- able, daughter of John Nelson, at Boston, August 11, 1721. JIe was a vestryman of Christ Church, Boston, April 6, 1724.72 He owned the Ten Hills Farin, Charlestown, and was lessee both of Noddle's Island, and the Newgate Farm; of the former, presumably, as early as 1720; and of the latter, not later than 1742, at £30 per annum.73 The lease [of March 25, 1748,] requires the tenant " To break up but 5 Acres of sª farm in any one year, & have but 15 Acres of it broken up at any one time during this Lease, And never sow any one parcel above three times, & then lay it down level & in a hus- bandlike manner. To spread upon the premises all the fodder made there. To bring and spread there two loads of dung for every load of fresh or salt hay, they may spare & carry off to market." 74
Upon the expiration of this lease, in 1755, John Yeamans renewed it to Temple, for seven years at the same rent, Dr. William Clarke acting as his attorney.75
69 Sumner, 253. [See Suff. Deeds, L. 362, f. 137; L. 134, f. 40. The deed from Rev. Charles Chauncey and his wife Mary, in 1780, was to take effect after their death, and was conditional upon the payment by William Greenough and Elizabeth Sumner of one third of the rents of this part of the farm (that is, one ninth of the whole rent), when they came into possession thereof, to David Hyslop.]
70 [The ownership of the lands in East Boston and Chelsea differed. It was William Greenougli who owned eventually one half of the farm at Chelsea. Suff. Deeds, L. 175, f. 26. For later owners, see Suff. Deeds, L. 247, ff. 250-255; L. 525, f. 16, etc .; also the plans of the land, in 1844, by Alonzo Lewis and John Low, L. 525, f. 305.]
71 More about John Newgate may be found in The Townshend Family, by Charles Hervey Townshend, New Haven, Conn., 1884. [His will and the inventory of his estate is in Suff. Prob. Rec., L. 1, ff. 450-453; L. 4, ff. 245-249.]
72 Foote, Annals of King's Chapel, i. 324; ii. 177, note, 298.
73 [ According to the will of Shute Shrimpton Yeamans, the rent of the farm, in 1768, was £40. (Sumner, 249.) Temple's tenancy dated, apparently, from the year 1734. See Appendix 6.]
Sumner, East Boston, 317.
75 Ibid. [Captain Robert Temple died in 1754. His will, dated April 9,
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In the Rumney-Marsh Rates for 1737, Captain Robert Temple is assessed £45-9-4, the largest sum on the list. May 27, 1751, Voted, " that the Seleet men make enquiry whether the tax .. . of Capt. Robert Temple may not be recoverable in the Law; and use their endeavours to obtain the same "; and May 22, 1753, see " whether ye Town will abate Capt. Temple's Rates for ye last Year wch he refuses to pay." 76 Captain Robert Temple had eleven children, the sixth of whom, Robert, was baptized in Christ Church, Boston, Mareh 10, 1728, and married, June 5, 1755, Harriet, a daughter of Governor Shirley; she died in Ireland, in 1802. Like his father, he owned Ten Hills Farm and was tenant of the Newgate Farm. He also owned some real estate in Chelsea, though so far as is known, he never lived there, nor is his name found on the tax list after 1775. He was suspected of being a loyalist, and in 1775 took passage at Boston for London ; but the vessel proving leaky, the captain put into Plymouth. In passing through Cohasset, the Committee of Safety of that town seized eertain letters in his possession, and sent them to the general Committee of Safety, with the result, after exam- ination, that the Cohasset committee were advised, May 29, to deliver to Mr. Temple all the artieles in their possession, and " consider and treat him as a friend to the interest of this country, and the rights of all America." 77 He was in New York, August 13, 1776, and Sir William Howe asked General Washington if he had any objections to his landing and going to Massachusetts.78 He arrived at Bristol, England, with his
was probated April 22. (Wyman.) The renewal of the lease, in 1755, was to the son, Robert Temple.]
76 Chelsea Town Records, 35, 40. [The last quotation is from the warrant for the town meeting of May 22, 1753. The vote was that "The Select Men enquire into Facts relating to Capt Temples Lease wch if true to prosecute him otherwise to desist."]
77 Journal, Provincial Congress, 559, 560, the " representations to the committee " by R. Temple, May 31, 1775; and see Sabine, Loyalists, ii. 349.
78 [Land conveyances, with their acknowledgments, show that he was living in Charlestown, and transacting business there, in 1779 and 1780. On March 17, 1778, Robert Temple of Charlestown bought of Samuel Clark, a pasture of 3214 acres in Chelsea; also September 23, 1779, of the heirs of Hon. James Pitts of Boston, 4121/2 acres, formerly a part of the Keayne-Oliver farm in Chelsea. He sold these on November 2, 1779, and February 9, 1780, to Nathaniel Tracy of Newburyport, to whom he
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family, in August, 1780, and died before the close of the war. His daughter, Mehitable Hester, who died in 1798, was the first wife of the third Lord Dufferin; and their son Robert, a captain in the British army, was killed at Waterloo.
The seventh child of Capt. Temple, Rebecca, married Capt. Robert. Fenton, of the British army. It was this lady and her daughter who were said to have been stripped naked, tarred and feathered, and paraded through the streets of Boston by the excited patriots, on account of their adhesion to the Crown. Though such traditions are seldom without some foundation, this seems to rest on no historical basis.79
The ninth child of Captain Robert Temple, John, married a daughter of James Bowdoin, afterwards Governor of Massa- chusetts, January 20, 1767. He was one of the commissioners of the revenue, at Boston, about the beginning of the Revolu- tion, was supposed to be favorable to the patriot cause, and was removed from his office by reason of his connection with the return to Boston of the " Hutchinson Letters." 80 But he recovered the royal favor and was made agent and Consul- General of Great Britain to the United States. By the death of his elder brother, Robert, without male issue, he became, in 1782, the head of his branch of the Temples, and Sir Richard, the seventh baronet, dying without issue, John Temple became Sir John.81 A daughter, Elizabeth Bowdoin Temple, in 1786, married Thomas Lindall Winthrop, afterwards Lieutenant- Governor of Massachusetts.
John Newgate's allotment, with his purchases, included the site of Slade's Mills, which as early as 1688,82 and prob- ably much earlier, was known as "Mr. Newgate's Landing Place." From it, by way of Chelsea Creek, bulky farm prod- ucts were distributed to various points in the upper bay. I have not yet learned when or how Boston or Chelsea became sold the Ten Hills Farm. (Suff. Deeds, L. 131, ff. 1, 4; L. 132, ff. 155, 156.) For other tenants on the Newgate-Yeamans Farm, see Appendix 6.] 79 2 Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., viii. 412.
80 [In 1770 he was removed from the position in Boston, went to London, was appointed Surveyor General of Customs in England, was summarily dismissed therefrom in 1774, Lord North refusing an explanation - pre- sumably for the cause given in the text.]
81 Preface to the Bowdoin and Temple Papers, 6 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., ix.
82 Sewall, Diary, i. 210.
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owner of the Town Landing, nor have I investigated the matter as I intend.83 But I now record such facts as I have incidentally noticed.
[In the warrant for the town meeting of ] March 7, 1742/3, [one item was] “ to consider [the ] proposall of some Inhabit- ants about building a wharf at the town's landing place "; [it was voted] " that the affair of the Worff be left to May Meeting." 84
March 10, 1766, " Voted to Dismiss the Request wholly, inserted in the Warrant Concerning the building of a wharf at the Towns Landing." 85
July 22, 1782, " Voted to Grant Capt James Stower & Capt Sam1 Clark Liberty to build a wharf anywhere between the inill Damb & M" Tays Fence not exceeding twenty five feet in width, for their own benefit & the benefit of the town." 86
October 16, 1782, " Voted not to grant M' John Pratt Lib- erty to build a House by the mills." 87
March 10, 1783, " Voted not to grant M' John Bucknams Petition for having a house plot by the mills. . . .
" Voted to allow M' John Pratt a House plot by the mills on the Town Landing he paying for it: Sixteen foot Square or more as the Committee shall think proper; . . . Capt Sam1: Clark Joshua Cheever Esq" Mr Sam1. Floyd [a com- mittee] to Stake of Said Land." 88
April 7, " Voted to Except the Report of the Committee that was appointed to Stake out a piece of Land for M' John Pratt ... as it is Staked out at the northwesterly part of the towns Land near the mill dam." 89
" 5. M". John Sanford, a hundred acrs: bounded on the South with Mr Newgate; on the West with Charlestowne; on the North with Thomas Marshall; and on the East with the highway."
83 [See Appendix 7.]
84 Chelsea Town Records, i. 10, 11.
85 Ibid., 120.
86 Ibid., ii. 76. [See chapter vii. appendix, for the connection of Captain Stower, Captain Sprague, and John Bucknam with the mills.]
87 Ibid., 77.
88 Ibid., 79.
89 Pages 79, 80. See infra, chap. xxxi., other votes respecting the Town Landing; the erection of a Poor House and a Mill.
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John Sanford, of Boston, 1631, in 1632 was cannoncer at the fort. Disarmed in 1637 as a supporter of Wheelwright, he went to Rhode Island, where he held high offices, and was chosen President in 1653.90
" 6. Thomas Marshall, seventye aers: bounded on the South with Mr. Sanford; on the West with Charlestowne; on the North with Mr. Keine and Thomas Matson; and on the East with the highway."
Who Thomas Marshall was is not clear, but probably a shoemaker,91 and perhaps the ferryman. Like many of the allottees of Rumney Marsh and Pullen Point, he was a sup- porter of Wheelwright, and was disarmed; but afterwards held important offices.92
" 7. Thomas Matson, eight and twenty acrs: bounded on the South and on the West with Thomas Marshall; and on the North with Mr. Keine and Beniamyn Gillam; and on the East with the highway."
April 29, 1639, "it is now agreed upon that whereas our brother Thomas Matson Was Allotted for his great Allotment at Rumney Marsh short by the number of twoe heads; there- fore at the next Alloting at Mount Woollystone that it shall be made up unto him at the end of the lott he hath now bought of our brother Edward Hutchinson, the Elder." 93
90 [The second wife of John Sanford married before 1637, was Bridget, daughter of William and Ann Hutchinson, leader in the Antinomian con- troversy. See N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., Ivi. 295, 296, 409. The little Cogan farm was commonly called Sanfords Lot according to legal con- veyances of 1678 and 1730. See Appendix 1.]
91 Suff. Deeds, L. 3, f. 20.
92 There was a Captain Thomas Marshall who was admitted freeman in 1635, a member of the Artillery Company in 1640, and six times chosen representative to the General Court. [In the list of freemen the name Thomas Marshall appears in 1635, 1641, 1644, and 1655, and Thomas Mar- shall of Reading in 1653. O. A. Roberts (Hist. of the Anc. and Hon. Artillery Co., i. 108) thinks Captain Marshall was the freeman of 1641. According to the date of death and age as there given, lie was under twenty-one years of age in 1635.] John Dunton in his Letters, 1686 (Prince Soc., ed., 264) , speaks of a Captain Marshal, "a hearty old Gentle- man, formerly one of Oliver's Souldiers, upon which he very much values himself: He keeps an Inn upon the Road between Boston and Marble- Head : His House was well-furnished, and we had very good Accommo- dation." Savage considers him of Reading. See Lewis and Newhall, Hist. of Lynn (1865), 155.
03 Boston Town Records. [He lived later at " Mount Wollystone," i. e., Braintree.]
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Thomas Matson, a gunsmith of Boston, constable and mili- tary officer, is said to have come over with Winthrop. He was brother-in-law to Theodore Atkinson, felt maker, who came to Boston in the employment of John Newgate. As an ad- herent of Wheelwright he was disarmed.94
" 8. Beniamyn Gillam, eight and twenty acrs: bounded on the South with Thomas Matson; on the West with M". Keine; and on the North with John Gallopp; and on the East with the highway."
Benjamin Gillam was a ship carpenter, admitted freeman in 1635.
" 9. John Gallopp, nine and forty acrs: bounded on the South with Beniamyn Gillanı; on the West and on the North with Mr. Keine; and on the East with the highway."
John Gallopp, of Boston, 1637, married Hannah, daughter of Margaret Lake, a widow who resided at John Winthrop's. He was in the Pequot war, and was one of the six captains at
He leased his lot to Thomas Townsend (see Townshend Family, 50). Though I find no record of a conveyance, it seems to have become a part of the Newgate Farm. [It is more probable that it became a part of the Keayne Farm, as the Sanford allotment, which lay between it and the Newgate Farm, became the Little Cogan Farm. See Appendix 1.] In 1636 arose the Antinomian controversy in Boston, which, says Bancroft, " infused its spirit into everything; it interfered with the levy of troops for the Pequod war; it influenced the respect shown to the magistrates, the distribution of town-lots, the assessment of rates; and at last the continued existence of the two opposing parties was considered incon- sistent with the public peace." I doubt whether the charge respecting the distribution of town lots is well founded, for the Antinomians had, as has been seen, many allotments of the very best land in what was then Boston, where they were chiefly found. [Judge Chamberlain assumed that the allotments at Rumney Marsh and Pullen Point, recorded in January, 1637/8, were made during that month, and hence after the trial and banishment of Mrs. Hutchinson; but see Appendix 1.] In religious be- lief, they held that one "under a covenant of faith " need not concern himself about "the covenant of works." The famous Mrs. Hutchinson and her kinsman, Rev. John Wheelwright, were their leaders. Their opponents, chiefly of the country places, were more numerous and therefore more powerful. Besides, they had Governor Winthrop and the Boston clergy on their side: Vane was with [the Antinomians]. At a synod at Newton, August 30, 1637, Mrs. Hutchinson's tenets were condemned; in November, she was tried before the General Court and, with [a few] of her associates, banished; [many were disarmed]. The stronger party thought the state to be in danger, and treated her friends with great harshness; but some years later many of those who had been banished returned to Massachusetts, and held high offices.
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the Narragansett-Swamp fight against King Philip, 19th December, 1675. His daughter married John Cole of Boston. Like so many other allotments, his was united either to the Keayne, or to the Newgate farm.95
" 10. M". Robte Keine, three hundred and fourteene acrs : bounded on the South with Thomas Marshall, Thomas Matson and John Gallopp; on the West with Charlestowne; and on the East with Beniamin Gillam, John Gallopp, and the highway."
Of Captain Robert Keayne - as he wrote his name - we shall hear more.96
" 11. Mr. John Coggeshall, twoe hundred acrs: bounded on the South with Mr. Keine and Mr. Cogan; on the West with Charlestowne; on the North with Saugust; and on the East with the Sandy beach unto the mouth of Saugust River."
This is the most northerly part of Revere, from Malden to the sea, and apparently in part, at least, is in the "Pan- handle." He sold his allotment to John Cogan, by deed not recorded.
John Coggeshall, a mercer, who came in 1632, was a short time at Roxbury, and then removed to Boston. Like many of the allottces of Rumney Marsh, friends of Wheelwright, he was expelled from the General Court, disarmed and banished. He went to Rhode Island, where he held many offices, and finally became president of the colony.
" 12. Mr. John Cogan, two hundred and tenn acrs : bounded on the North with Mr. John Coggeshall; on the East with the beach ; on the South with Mr. Harding; and on the West with the highway."
By the purchase of the Coggeshall allotment, Cogan's estate extended northerly to the Pincs River,97 and became one of the largest in Rumney Marsh.98
95 [See Appendix 1.]
96 See infra, chap. xix.
97 The boundaries of the Keayne, Coggeshall, and Cogan allotments are not determinable with precision. Keayne's northern line is not given; but on a plan from actual survey, in 1688, it extended to the Creek, or Pines River, and has ever since. Coggeshall's allotment, from Malden on the west to the beach on the east, had Keayne's and Cogan's to the
99 This note has been placed as an appendix to this chapter, - No. 9.
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June 13, 1659, " ordered that the title of the land in M". Cogans hand shall be prosecuted by the select men." 99 Octo- ber 26, 1640, " The Bridge [over the brook on the road to " Black Ann's corner "] to bee built at Romney marsh is to be donne with all speede, and Mr. Cogan hath undertaken to see the same donne for the Towne of Boston."
John Cogan of Boston, merchant, had been at Dorchester in 1632, and was freeman in 1633. In 1652 he married for his second wife, the widow, first of Thomas Coytemore, and secondly of Governor Winthrop.100 He died in 1658. In 1652, he gave to Harvard College, for the use of the President and Fellows, so long as they and their successors profess and teach the good knowledge of God's Holy Word and works, etc., a parcel of marsh in Rumney Marsh, then estimated at seventy acres, but which appears to have since dwindled to fifty acres.101
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south of it, and thus cut them off from the Creek. From Cogan's northerly boundary, it is certain that he did not touch it. Coggeshall sold his estate to Cogan, who thus went up to the Creek; and Cogan, by deed March 25, 1653 (Suff. Deeds, L. 1, f. 294), sold to Samucl Ben- net all that part of the Coggeshall purchase "vpon the Northerly side of a great Creeke extending from the Sea westerly the lands of Capt Robert Kayne lying vpon the Southerly side of the said Creeke." From this it may be inferred that Keayne then bordered upon the Creck; and inas- much as Coggeshall's allotment originally was between Keayne and the Creek, that by some unrecorded deed, he had acquired title. [October 1, 1649, Valentine Hill and John Leveret conveyed to "Sam: Bennet of Lin " 600 acres " bounded on the southiward wth Capt Robert Kcines fferme (a certaine Creek dividing betweene the sd fferme & it ) wth the line of the bounds of Charlstowne westward: the line of Lin bounds East- ward, & northward to the yttermost bounds of Boston in that place." Thus the title of Robert Keayne to land as far north as the Pines River was recognized as early as 1649. (See Appendix 1.) The grantors to Bennett added the postscript: "The certaine bounds of ye land we knowe not, but or interest in the land in that place according to the grant wee firme to." (See Boston Town Records, June 24, 1650.) That John Cogan held and improved lands north of the creek as a part of his purchase from Coggeshall seems certain, for a dwelling-house is mentioned in his deed of sale to Bennett. Also on October 1, 1645, John Cogan mortgaged " his fferme at the Rocks goeing to Lin, wth the dwelling house barne & other appurtenances, & fourc oxen & foure Cowes wch are in the Custody of the tenant." Suff. Deeds, L. 1, f. 68.]
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