USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Medford > History of the town of Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement, in 1630, to the present time, 1855 > Part 10
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Holding under these grants and by these titles, the Go- vernor and Company of Massachusetts Bay made grants of lands to companies and individuals for towns and plantations, usually annexing certain conditions to their grants ; such as,
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CIVIL HISTORY.
that a certain number of settlers or families should, within a stated time, build and settle upon the same; or that the gospel should be regularly preached, or a church gathered upon the granted premises. In this manner, forty-four towns were constituted and established within the Plymouth and Massachusetts Colonies before the year 1655, without any more formal act of incorporation. Among the oldest are the following : Plymouth, 1620; Salem, 1629; Charlestown, 1629; Boston, 1630; Medford or Mystic, 1630; Water- town, 1630; Roxbury, 1630 ; Dorchester, 1630 ; Cambridge or Newton, 1633; Ipswich, 1634; Concord, 1635 ; Hing- ham, 1635; Newbury, 1635; Scituate, 1636 ; Springfield, 1636; Duxbury, 1637; Lynn, 1637; Barnstable, 1639; Taunton, 1639; Woburn, 1642; Malden, 1649.
London, May 22, 1629 : On this day "the orders for establishing a government and officers in Massachusetts Bay passed, and said orders were sent to New England."
Although, in the first settlement of New England, differ- ent sections of country were owned and controlled by " Companies " in England, yet the people here claimed and exercised a corporate power in the elections of their rulers and magistrates. This was the case with Medford.
To show what form of government our ancestors in Med- ford recognized and supported, we subjoin the following records : -
"Oct. 19, 1630 : First General Court of Massachusetts Colony, and this at Boston : Present, the Governor, Deputy-Governor, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Mr. Ludlow, Capt. Endicott, Mr. Nowell, Pyn- chon, Bradstreet. Since their arrival here, the first form of their go- vernment was that of Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Assistants ; the Patentees with their heirs, assigns, and associates, being free- men. But now, in this General Court, they agree on a second form, as follows; proposed as the best course : For the freemen to have the power of choosing Assistants, when they are to be chosen ; and the Assistants, from among themselves, to choose the Governor and Deputy-Governor, who, with the Assistants, to have the power of making laws, and choosing officers to execute the same. This was fully assented to by the general vote of the people and the erection of hands."
May 25, 1636: Mr. Bishop, as magistrate, appointed to keep the county court at Salem.
1643 : Massachusetts Colony had thirty towns, and was
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
divided into four counties, - Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex.
1646 : Selectmen were empowered to try causes in a town where the magistrate could not, or where he was a party.
The first mention of Medford in the public records of the Province is the following : -
" At a Court of Assistants at Charlestown, 28th Sept., 1630. It is ordered that there shall be collected and raised by distress out of the several plantations, for the maintenance of Mr. Patrick and Mr. Underhill, the sum of £50, viz. : out of Charlton, £7; Boston, £11; Dorchester, £7; Rockbury, £5; Watertown, £11; Meadford, £3 ; Salem, £3; Wessaguscus, £2; Nantascett, £1." 1
It appears from the records that the inhabitants of Med- ford did not receive legal notice of their incorporation as a town till fifty years after the event. Wishing to be repre- sented in the General Court, they petitioned for an act of incorporation, and were answered, that " the town had been incorporated, along with the other towns of the province, by a 'general act ' passed in 1630 ; and, under this ' act,' it had at any time a right to organize itself and choose a representa- tive without further legislation." Thus Medford was an incorporated town in 1630. The first representative was Stephen Willis, elected Feb. 25, 1684. The annual meeting was always held in February.
In the absence of early records, we are left to conjecture, from what afterwards appeared, what existed in the earliest times. We therefore presume that the first settlers of Med- ford did as their neighbors did; that is, organized a munici- pal government, which should have the usual powers of levying and collecting taxes, opening and repairing roads, guarding the public interest, and securing the common peace.
The mode of "warning a town-meeting," in the early times, may be new to many of our day. It ran thus : -
" To Mr. Stephen Hall, jun., Constable of Medford, Greeting : You are hereby required, in His Majesty's name, to warn the free- holders and other inhabitants of Medford to meet at their meeting- house, the first Monday of March next ensuing the date liereof, by eight o'clock in the morning; then and there to choose a Constable, Selectmen, Town-clerk, and other town-officers, as the law directs. And all persons, to whom the said town is indebted, to bring in their accounts, and lay the same before the said town; and the
-
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town-treasurer for said Medford is hereby required to give unto said town, at said meeting, a particular account of the disposing of the said town's money ; and whatsoever else may be needful, proper, and necessary, to be discoursed on and determined of at said meet- ing. Hereof you may not fail, as you will answer your default at the peril of the law.
" Dated, in said Medford, Feb. 14, 1702, in the fourteenth year of His Majesty's reign.
" By other of the selectmen of said Medford.
" JNO. BRADSTREET,
" Town-clerk."
Among the oldest records existing, we have proof of what we have said, as follows : -
"The first Monday of February, in the year of our Lord 1677, Goodman John Hall was chosen Constable by the inhabitants of Meadford for the year ensuing. Joseph Wade, John Hall, and Stephen Willis, were chosen Selectmen for ordering of the affairs of the plantation for the year ensuing. John Whitmore, Daniel Wood- ward, Jacob Chamberlain, John Hall, jun., Edward Walker, Walter Cranston, Patrick Hay, Andrew Mitchell, and Thomas Fillebrown, jun., took the oath of fidelity. " JOSEPH WADE,
"Town-clerk."
This was probably the simple organization of the civil government of Medford soon after our ancestors found them- selves planted in their new homes. A more complex form of municipal agencies was not needed ; especially as the cele- brated Rev. James Noyes preached here a year, and established that church discipline which, in those days, took care of every body and every thing.
- March 8, 1631 : " It is ordered that all persons whatsoever that have cards, dice, or tables, in their houses shall make away with them before the next Court, under pain of punishment."
April 12, 1631: "Ordered that any man that finds a musket shall, before the 18th day of this month (and so always after), have ready one pound powder, twenty bullets, and two fathom of match, under penalty of 10s. for every fault." Absence from public worship, 5s. for each time.
To be a freeman was a high object with every man. Several of the inhabitants of Medford took the entire oath, and could therefore vote in the election of Governor and Assistants. At a session of the General Court, May 18, 1631, it was thus voted : -
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A
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
"To the end the body of Commons may be preserved of honest and good men, it is likewise ordered and agreed, that for the time to come no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this body politic but such as are members of some of the churches within the limits of the same."
" A freeman must be orthodox, a member of the church, twenty years old, and worth £200." At a later period, March 4, 1645, the General Court "ordered that the free- man's oath shall be given to every man of or above the age of sixteen years ; the clause for the election of magistrates excepted." All the male inhabitants of Medford complied with this law.
To know what oath our fathers took, we subjoin the form, as ordained by the General Court, May 14, 1634 : -
Freeman's Oath. "I, -, being by God's providence an inhabitant and freeman within the jurisdiction of this Common- weal, do freely acknowledge myself to be subject to the government thereof, and therefore do here swear, by the great and dreadful name of the ever-living God, that I will be true and faithful to the same, and will accordingly yield assistance and support there- unto, with my person and estate, as in equity I am bound, and will also truly endeavor to maintain and preserve all the liberties and privileges thereof, submitting myself to the wholesome laws and orders made and established by the same; and further, that I will not plot nor practise any evil against it, nor consent to any that shall so do, but will timely discover and reveal the same to lawful authority, now here established, for the speedy preventing thereof. Moreover, I do solemnly bind myself, in the sight of God, that, when I shall be called to give my voice touching any such matter of this state wherein freemen are to deal, I will give my vote and suffrage as I shall judge in mine own conscience may best conduce and tend to the public weal of the body, without respect of persons or favor of any man. So help me God, in the Lord Jesus Christ."
In 1643, the Court "ordered, that if any freeman shall put in more than one paper or corn for the choice of any officer, he shall forfeit £10 for every offence ; and any man, that is not free, casting in any vote, shall forfeit the like sum of £10."
The ballots used at elections were corns and beans : corns, yeas ; béans, nays.
The conditions of voting in towns was fixed by the Gene- ral Court as early as April 17, 1729. "Voted that no
1
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person but what has been rated 1s., at least, to the last pro- vince-tax more than the poll-tax, laid in said town, shall be admitted to vote." The constable seemed to be a remarkably large part of the executive head in the early days.
At "General Court, held at Newtowne, May 14, 1634, Mr. Thomas Mayhew is entreated by the Court to examine what hurt the swine of Charlestown hath done amongst the Indian barns of corn, on the north side of Mystic; and accordingly the inhabitants of Charlestown promiseth to give them satisfaction." If tradition be true, porcus has long been a singularly troublesome genus to our excellent neighbors.
Sept. 3, 1634: Mr. Oldham appointed " overseer of the powder and shot and all other ammunition for Medford."
General Court, March 3, 1635 :-
" Whereas particular towns have many things which concern only themselves, and the ordering of their own affairs, and dispos- ing of business in their own town, it is therefore ordered that the freemen of any town, or the major part of them, shall only have power to dispose of their own lands and woods, with all the privi- leges and appurtenances of the said towns, to grant lots, and make such orders as may concern the well ordering of their own towns, not repugnant to the laws and orders here established by the General Court; as also to lay mulets and penalties for the breach of these orders, and to levy and distrain the same, not exceeding the sum of £20; also to choose their own particular officers, as constables, surveyors for the highways, and the like."
Sept. 8, 1636 : The General Court order, " that hereafter no town in the plantation that has not ten freemen resident in it shall send any deputy to the General Courts ; those that have above ten, and under twenty, not above one; be- twixt twenty and forty, not above two ; and that have above forty, three, if they will, but not more." This law may explain why Medford was so long unrepresented in the General Court.
Nov. 5, 1639: " Ordered that every town have liberty, from time to time, to choose a fit man to sell wine, to be drank in his house; provided that, if any person shall be made drunk in any such house, or any immoderate drinking suffered there, the master of the family shall pay for every such offence £5."
Some perplexity and more discontent arose from the fact that the lands of Medford were owned by non-residents to an extent unknown in any other plantation of the Colony.
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
Gifts of land, within its boundaries, had been made by the General Court to Mr. Cradock, and some perhaps to Messrs. Wilson and Nowell. If so, the taxes on these lands were paid by the two last gentlemen into the treasuries of the towns where they lived; and therefore Medford could derive no profit from them. This mode of taxation became unpopular, and the General Court passed the following law, June 2, 1641: " It is ordered, that all farms that are within the bounds of any town shall be of the town in which they lie, except Meadford." Thus singularly distinguished from every other town in the Colony, the General Court afterwards de- clared Medford " a peculiar town." Peculiar it certainly was in having much of its territory first owned by a London merchant, and in not being able to tax all the land within its borders. The grant of the General Court is as follows : -
For the Ordering of Prudentials. - " At a General Court held at Boston, 15th Oct. 1684, in answer unto the petition of Messrs. Nathaniel Wade and Peter Tufts, in behalf of the inhabitants of Meadford, the Court grants their request, and declares that Mead- ford hath been, and is, a peculiar town, and have power as other towns as to prudentials."
To illustrate what direction the laws and regulations of Medford must have generally taken, it will be necessary to know those "one hundred laws " established by the General Court in 1641, and called " The Body of Liberties " These laws were drawn up by Rev. Nathaniel Ward, of Ipswich, and Rev. John Cotton, of Boston, as the most competent men. To show the expansion of their minds and the sound- ness of their hearts, we will give here two or three speci- mens of those laws : -
" There shall never be any bond slavery or villanage." -" If any good people are flying from their oppressors, they shall be suc- cored." -" There shall be no monopolies." -" All deeds shall be recorded." -" No injunction shall be laid on any church, church- officer, or member, in point of doctrine, worship, or discipline, for substance or circumstance." - " In the defect of a law in any case, the decision is to be by the word of God."
1650: Notwithstanding the straightened condition of the Colonies, they were doing a great work. They were wiser than they knew. By a fortunate neglect on the part of the mother country, these distant colonies were shaping their local
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politics, strengthening their ancestral faith, enforcing their puritan customs, and nursing, without knowing it, their national independence.
To show that Medford had early records of its own, it is only necessary to copy the following vote of its inhabitants, Feb. 25, 1683: -
" Stephen Willis was chosen to keep the records for the use of the plantation ; " and, in 1684, it is ordered, -"That the select- men shall have the Town-book for their use at any of their meetings, as they stand in need of it, provided the town-book be carefully returned to the clerk again."
Law processes were not expensive. In 1685, Medford orders the following payments : -
"To Mr. Nath. Lyon, for the attachment and serving £0 6 8 To entering the petition at Boston to the General Court 0
0 For copy out of the records 0 6
2 6
Caleb Brooks, for serving the attachment 0 1 0 For entering action 0 2 3 Stephen Willis, for charge at court 0
1 6"
Oct. 19, 1686: S. Willis appointed to record all births and deaths occurring in Medford.
As soon as Medford could send a representative to the General Court it did so; and the first was chosen in 1689. The records run thus, on the choice of a representative " to stand for and represent them in the Session or Sessions of the General Court or Assembly, appointed to be begun and held at Boston, on the - day of May next." £3 voted for his services.
April 21, 1693 : " The 'Orders and By-laws' prepared for Medford were discussed, accepted, and 'allowed.'"
In the election of town-officers, they only could vote who had taken the " oath of fidelity ; " which oath was in relation to the town what the "freemen's oath" was in relation to the Colony. It will be seen, by the following record, that their town-officers in Medford were few : -
" March 5, 1694 : Caleb Brooks was chosen Constable for the year ensuing. Major Nathaniel Wade, Lieutenant Peter Tufts, and Stephen Willis, were chosen Selectmen. John Bradshaw and John Hall, jun., were chosen Surveyors of highways. Ensign
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
Stephen Francis is chosen Tything-man. John Hall, sen., and Lieutenant Peter Tufts, are chosen Viewers of fences ; and Stephen Willis is chosen Town-clerk."
Here are but eight gentlemen to fill all the offices, and do all the labor required for one year! It shows us how little there was to be. done.
It belongs to this history to say, that Medford did not flourish much after Mr. Cradock's patronage and property were withdrawn. In 1702, there seemed to have been small prosperity ; for, at that time the people say : " We, the town of Medford, being little and small, and unable to carry on public charges in so comfortable a way as is to be desired," &c. This low condition induced the inhabitants to ask grants of money or waste-lands from the government ; and also to petition the General Court to annex contiguous por- tions of Charlestown, Cambridge, and Andover. One, of these movements for benefiting the town took place May 10, 1714, when they voted to choose a Committee to consult with the selectmen of Charlestown, to see if they will con- sent to annex " the first division of Charlestown lots bounded on Medford." These aims are not lost sight of ; for, in 1726, the town chooses a Committee to petition Charlestown on the subject of annexing certain districts. The petitioners ask " for some part of Charlestown adjoining to Medford on the north side of Mystic River." May 6th of that year, they chose another Committee to examine the Province Records, and see if Medford has any right to land lying in Charlestown ; and, if so, to prosecute the same at the town's expense.
To show our fathers' care for public duty, we have the fol- lowing vote, May 19, 1701: Voted " that Sergeant Stephen Willis assist in the Committee, if his brother Thomas Willis should be out of the way." Town-meetings were sometimes held in private houses, though generally at the tavern.
The mode of collecting taxes from unwilling debtors was called " an outcry for payment." When a person would not pay, the constable was commanded to take his goods and sell them " at an outcry for payment,"_ public auction. Through- out the entire early history of our town, there appears the most jealous care taken with regard to the disposal of money ; and the minute directions given to public functionaries, respecting the smallest items, are most remarkable.
March 2, 1702: The town voted, for the first time, to pay
.
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their treasurer; and John Bradstreet was chosen, with a salary of 10s. per annum.
March 17, 1702 : We have a singular instance of precision of dates ; for, on this day, the town-clerk says : -
" At said meeting the town reckoned with Ensign John Brad- shaw ; and there was due to him, upon the balance of all accounts, both for work done for the town and minister's board, from the beginning of the world unto this day, the sum of £16. 16s. 10d. Errors excepted."
At the March meeting the officers of the town were chosen ; and much stir was there through the village on that day. The result of one of them is thus recorded : - .
" At a town-meeting legally convened at Medford, March 6th, 1710, Lieut. Stephen Willis chosen Moderator; Peter Seccomb chosen Constable ; Ebenezer Brooks, John Hall, and Samuel Wade, Selectmen ; John Whitmore, jun., and Thomas Dill, Surveyors of highways; Benjamin Peirce and Isaac Farwell, Viewers of fences ; Ichabod Peirce and John Albree, Wood-corders; Nath. Peirce, Hog constable. At said meeting, Lieut. Thomas Willis was chosen 'Tything-man and Sealer of weights and measures. At said meeting, the Selectmen were chosen Assessors for this year."
1711: " Voted that the town's law-book be kept this year at the house of the 'Treasurer, for the use of the town."
The town voted " to prosecute those persons who had un- lawfully voted aforetime." May 7, 1705 : Stephen Willis was objected to, " because he voted for himself." The idea of our forefathers, touching taxing and voting, was this : That no man should be allowed to vote on pecuniary affairs who held no pecuniary interest in the town in which he lived. To give a specimen of their jealous care, we tran- scribe the following. Twelve of the most respectable inhabitants of Medford addressed the following note to the Selectmen : -
" March 3, 1718. - Gentlemen : Our desire and petition to you is, that our town-meeting may be regulated according to law; for we know that those men that made the law were wiser than we are, and therefore we, the subscribers, will by no means be the breakers of the same; and therefore, if our town-meeting be not regulated according to law, we must enter this as our dissent against it."
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HISTORY OF MEDFORD.
This vote will receive its explanation from the reply of the selectmen, which was as follows : -
" In answer to the desire and request of some of our inhabitants, that our town-meeting may be regulated according to law, we, the subscribers, have openly declared, at said meeting, that those of our inhabitants, and only those, that are worth or have in possession to the value of £20, ratable estate, may vote at said meeting."
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1718 : The new names found in the lists are as follows : Francis Laithe, Joseph Serjant, John Chadson, John Goold, William Manson, Peter Edes, Joseph Ballard, John Choub, Aaron Cleveland, William Wicker, Jonathan Tompson, Mr. Semer, John Watson, Thomas Sanders, Luke Blashfield, Nath. Laurans, Samuel Haeson, Abram Cumins, Nath. Locke, John Winship, John Whiten.
May 12, 1718 : Medford voted "to petition the General Court for some out-lands for the further benefit of the town."
1721: The General Court gave the town £160, on their application for aid ; and the town voted to loan it out to the inhabitants in sums not exceeding £10, nor less than £5, to any one person ; interest, five per cent.
April 25, 1728: " Voted that the town of Medford will take out of the County Treasury their part of the sixty thousand pounds granted by the Great and General Court."
Oct. 27, 1727 : The number of voters present at a town- meeting was forty-five; a fair average. They vote not to send a representative this year.
The love of office was cold in the hearts of our fathers, compared with the burning desire for it in our day. It was so common to refuse even the highest offices, that penalty for refusing became necessary, and our records are full of such notices as the following : -
1728 : "Mr. Peter Tufts, refusing to take the office of Constable, paid in his money, as the law directs, to the town-treasury."
At a later period (1751), the town voted, that if any one refused to take the office to which he had been elected, he should pay into the treasury £1. 6s. 8d., lawful money. In 1632, the people of Plymouth enact, " that whoever refuses
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CIVIL HISTORY.
the office of Governor shall pay £20, unless he was chose two years going."
Feb. 9, 1729: The inhabitants of Medford took a deep interest in supporting the rights secured by the Charter ; and
readily paid their share in supporting agents. On this day they voted to carry round a subscription-paper to see how each one will subscribe "for the support of our agents in England." They gave some of the earliest expressions of enlightened patriotism, and presented some of the firmest resistance to the encroachments of royal authority. On the 31st of January, 1732, voted that "it was declared by the inhabitants that it was their desire that their representative should at all times act with the greatest caution, and stand for the defence of the privileges granted us by his Majesty in the royal Charter."
1726 : The town presented a petition to the inhabitants of Charlestown, praying that the lands on the north side of Mystic River might be set off to Medford. This was em- phatically refused.
1738 : Another petition, of the same import as that above, received the same reply.
June 19, 1734 : Voted that "the town petition the Great and General Court for a tract of the unappropriated lands of this Province, to enable the said town of Medford the better to support the ministry and the school in said town." A record of the reply is as follows : -
" At a Great and General Court or Assembly for his Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England, begun and held at Boston, upon Wednesday, the 28th of May, 1735, and continued by several adjournments to Wednesday, the 19th of November following : -
" 20 May, 1735: A petition of the inhabitants of the town of Medford, showing that the said town is of the smallest extent of any in the Province, and yet their town-charges extremely high, so that the maintenance of ministry and school is very chargeable to them, and therefore praying for a grant of some of the waste lands of the Province to be appropriated for the support of the ministry and schoolmaster in said town : -
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