USA > Massachusetts > Dukes County > Marthas Vineyard > The history of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 47
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Mrs. John R. McArthur, a daughter of the late Judge Arnoux has announced her intention this year (1909) of donating land on Main street for the uses of a public library.
Duodecimo Club .- This organization, composed of twelve gentlemen, as its name indicates, was launched in the spring of 1891, through the efforts of Dr. Charles E. Banks, to bring together the leading men of the community for mutual im- provement. The club meets monthly, usually at the residences of the members in rotation, and the members present papers on subjects selected by themselves, and the meeting is then open for general discussion. This is followed by a light lunch and social intercourse. The club has been in existence for eighteen years, maintaining with continued vigor and activity a high standard in the literary life of the town.
Sea Coast Defence Chapter, D.A.R. - This flourishing chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was organized in 1896, after preliminary interest in the movement
'The first officers were: President, Miss Hannah T. Bradley; Vice President, Miss Annie Daggett; Secretary, Mrs. Mary Morgan.
2Of this number about half came to it as a gift, the books from the library of the late Rev. D. W. Stevens.
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Annals of Tisbury
had been aroused by Mrs. Florence M. Banks, a member of the organization in another state. It was chartered Oct. 30, 1896, and now numbers 62 members. In 1904 the Chapter acquired the old Mayhew school-house, the "Chapel" of 1830, and converted it into headquarters for the organization, and a museum of historic and local relics. It has now a large and valuable collection of such articles, which is constantly increasing in interest by the donations of members and friends. In 1898 the Chapter erected a flag staff in front of this building, on which a bronze tablet was placed, commemorative of the Liberty Pole incident of Revolutionary days. This tablet bears the following inscription: -
TO COMMEMORATE THE PATRIOTISM OF THREE GIRLS OF THIS VILLAGE POLLY DAGGETT PARNELL MANTER MARIA ALLEN WHO DESTROYED WITH POWDER A LIBERTY POLE, ERECTED NEAR THIS SPOT TO PREVENT ITS CAPTURE BY THE BRITISH IN 1776, THIS POLE, REPLACING THE OTHER IS ERECTED BY THE SEA COAST DEFENCE CHAPTER, D. A. R. 1898.
Nobnocket Club. - A social club for gentlemen was organized Oct. 4, 1902, under the name of Nobnocket Club. It has a commodious house fitted for this special purpose on the harbor front, containing billard room, card room, reading room and sleeping chambers for guests.
TISBURY IN 1908.
This town is now two hundred and thirty-seven years old, and although but a moiety of the original territory is now comprised in it, yet it has prospered and developed wonderfully in that period. The following statistics show the material con- dition of the town as it exists at this time: personal estate assessed, $154,475.00; real estate assessed, $1, 178,667.00; total, $1,333,142.00. The total tax assessed May 1, 1908, was
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History of Martha's Vineyard
$14,476.37; acres of land, 3,878; number of dwelling houses, 420; horses, 152; cows, 62; taxpayers, 647, of whom 95 are polls only.
The town has real and movable property to the value of $11,900.00, including schools, fire apparatus, etc. In addition to this the town owns, by purchase in 1907 at a cost of $95,000.00, the public water works, the Tashmoo Spring, the purest water supply in the state, which is one of the town's, most valuable assets.
THE OLD MILL, 1795. MILL HILL, VINEYARD HAVEN.
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ANNALS OF OAK BLUFFS
ANNALS OF OAK BLUFFS
OGKESHKUPPE
The Algonquian name for this tract, above described, was Ogkeshkuppe (Agescape, 1660, Aukeshkeppe, Ogkeshkupbeh, etc.), the definition of which is "the wet or damp thicket, or woods," probably referring to the swampy grounds bordering on Squash meadow and Farm ponds, in the eastern part of the town. The equivalent name is found in the Massachusetts dialect, Ogqush-kuppi (Eliot), Agkess-cuppi (Cotton).1 It was later called Sanchacantacket neck, but this appellation was evidently given to it by the English settlers, from the pond on the southern border.
The meaning of Sanchakantacket is believed to be "at the bursting forth of the tidal stream," having reference to the opening of this pond at the bridge, where the tides are so strong. In the Abnaki, a dialectal form of the Algonquian tongue, the form Sanghe dentegge is found, meaning l'em- bouchere, sortie (of a river), which is probably parallel to our Sanchakantacket. The word first occurs in the records as relating to the region about the pond (Edg. Rec., p. I), and by the settlers was applied to the land adjacent as well as to the pond itself. In 1663 Sanchacantacket pond is first men- tioned (ibid., I), and in a deed dated 1660, "Wabamuck alias Samuel, son of Autumsquum, sachem of Sanchacantacket, alias Akeshkeppe neck," shows its use as applied to the region bordering upon the pond (Deeds, I, 289). Other deeds refer to the "place" called Sanchacantacket, and farm or Sancha- cantacket neck (ibid., I, 89; III, III; IV, 94).
Another name, Quasquannes, was once used, in 1660, to designate this region (Deeds, II, 253), but it probably referred to Squash meadow only, or the territory which comprised the "farm" purchased by John Daggett.
'The town clerk of Edgartown, in his copy of the old records, about 1720, made one of his usual blunders, and wrote it Ogisket (Records, I, 131).
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History of Martha's Vineyard
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GLACIAL KAMES, · LAGOON SHORE.
....
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From the U. S. Geological Survey.
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Annals of Oak Bluffs
EAST CHOP AND FARM NECK
The earliest English name for this territory was given in 1646 by Thomas Mayhew, when he called it the "Eastermost Chop of Homses Hole," as distinguished from its fellow Chop on the west side. The word is a variation of chap, the jaw of a vise or clamp. In the plural, it signifies the mouth or entrance of a channel, as the chops of the English Channel. It was called "Farm Neck" for the first time in the records, February 2, 1703-4, and this name has clung to it with a tenacity which time and a newer and more fancy name cannot sever.1 This name was derived from the first grant of five hundred acres, made in 1642 to John Daggett "for a farm," which covers the present settlement of Oak Bluffs.
BOUNDARIES
The division lines of this town are those set off to it Feb. 17, 1880, when it was incorporated as Cottage City, and they are as follows:
Beginning at the middle of the bridge over Sengekontacket, opening and running by the centre of Sengekontacket pond and Major's cove to Miobers bridge, so called; thence due west to the Four Town bound; thence to the Stepping Stones at the head of the Lagoon; thence through the middle of the Lagoon and middle of the Lagoon bridge; thence by the harbor of Vineyard Haven and the Vineyard Sound to the first mentioned bound.2
POPULATION
There are no records of enumeration for a census of this region prior to 1880, but a few scattering data will enable us to estimate the population. The map of Des Barres (1781) shows thirty-two houses, probably containing thirty-five families, or about 180 souls, at that date. The majority of these were located in Eastville. In 1850 a map shows twenty- six houses, or thirty families (estimated), with a probable total of 180 souls, most of whom were still located in Eastville. The first census (U. S., 1880) showed a population of 672, at which time Cottage City was then the largest settlement. In 1890 it was 1,080; in 1900 it was 1, 100 and the state census of 1905 showed 1,138 souls resident in the town. Probably ninety per cent. resided in Cottage City.
1Edgartown Records, I, 88.
2 Acts and Resolves of Mass., 1880 and 1907.
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History of Martha's Vineyard
ANCIENT LANDMARKS
ALGONQUIAN PLACE NAMES
Anassanimsuh. - This was referred to in a deed of land dated 1691, and is in the Sanchacantacket region. Ezekiel to Isaac and Joseph Norton (Deeds, I, 88; IV, 119). It was on some portion of the earliest Norton purchases.
Assanootacket Pond. - It is recorded (1685) that Put- tuspaqun, of Sanchacantacket, sold to his "cousins Hester and Ellis Daggett" a certain meadow . . . on the north side of Ohkeshkepe Neck lying between Quaniamo and the western end of Asanootackett Pond" (Deeds, I, 251), and on June II, 1703, Ellis Daggett sold to Samuel Sarson "a certain parcel of meadow being about two acres . . bounded north westerly by the beach by holmses hole harbor: Southeasterly by the westward end of Asanootakut pond" (ibid., I, 89). This describes the small salt pond emptying into the Lagoon at Eastville. There was in the early days "a bridge to pass from the upland to the beach." The definition is "at the alienated tidal stream" alluding to the sale of some property, of which this was a boundary, probably the sale by Wampamog to Alice Sissetom, the mother of Ellis (Alice) Daggett.
Chqudeetussos. - Two Indians in 1717 concluded a land transaction covering a tract on the west side of Farm neck, called by the name just quoted.
Onkaw-Unkaw. - Under the above variations, as well as Ankaw, a "place" of this name on East Chop is referred to in several deeds, as Cathcart to Norton, 1699, Joseph Daggett to his daughter Alice, 1698, and same to his grand- daughter, Esther Cottle, 1715 (I, 26; III, III, II2). It is described as between a place called "Quanyamoo" and a small neck called "Oohquees," or "Ukquiessa." This name is the same as Onkokemmy, in Tisbury, and probably has the same significance. Esther Cottle, daughter of Edward, above mentioned, sold the tract given to her by the grandfather Daggett to Thomas West, Jr., innholder of Edgartown, in 1724, and it was then described as in the possession of John Talman, an "indian man of Edgartown, but formerly belong- ing to Allis Daggett" (ibid., IV, 107). This passed to the heirs of West, after his death in 1728, and was by them sold to various purchasers (ibid., VII, 500, 502), the name "Unkaw" being retained then (1747) as belonging to the land.
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Annals of Oak Bluffs
Oohquaess. - First mentioned in 1715 in a deed from Joseph Daggett to his granddaughter, Esther Cottle, convey- ing land at Onkaw, and "a small neck called Oohquaess being the southermost part of the meadow divided between my 2 daughters Esther Cottle and Ellis Daggitt" (Deeds, III, III). This word has many variations, Ohqueehesoo, Ocquays, and finally Quays, which is the modern form (ibid., V, 31; VII, 4, 294). There was a Quaise in Nantucket, with an alias of Masquatuck. It is probably the same word as Uk- quiessa, the name of Tisbury Great pond and denotes, "as far as," or "the end," a boundary term. In full it would be Uk-qui-es-et, "at the ending place," the last or terminal point of Ogkeshkippe neck.
Ohhomeck. - In a deed from the Indian Wabamuck to Joseph Daggett, of Tisbury, dated June 18, 1689, a certain neck, "neer Sanchakantacket harbor," called "Ohhomeck," is mentioned (Deeds, I, 16). A place called Ahomma on Dagget's farm is mentioned, probably a variation of Ohomeck (ibid., VI, 495). John Daggett of Edgartown sold, in 1734, to John Talman, Indian, a point called "the hommok" bounded northeast and west by "the Pond," southerly by a pole fence adjoining to "an island commonly called and known by the name Watchee, the olde Indian name" (ibid., V, 405). Joseph and David Potumpin sold to Elijah Butler a small island called "the Hummock" at Farm neck, Feb. 6, 1743-4 (ibid., VII, 37). The modern designation of “Hum- mock" is undoubtedly derived from this Indian word.
Pecoye. - This was the name of a small neck in the bounds of Farm neck, and the name survives to the present time (Deeds, IV, 114). It is derived from Pohqu-auk, mean- ing "open land," or land naturally fit and clear for cultivation. This is a common Indian place name throughout New Eng- land. In a deed from the Indian Ezekiel it is written Pokoi- auk (I, 88).
Pateche. - In a deed, dated June 28, 1683, Thomas Sussetum, an Indian, sold certain land to Joseph Daggett, and describes it as bounded on the southeast by "Pateche pond" (Deeds, I, 15). The name is now extinct, as it is believed the pond has been filled up in cultivation of the region.
Quinnaamuk. - This name occurs in an Indian deed dated March 14, 1669, and appears later also as Quinniummuh. (It designated a beach "commonly called the long beach"
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Bri
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History of Martha's Vineyard
and may refer to the long strip of sandy beach separating the Lagoon and harbor at that time. Deeds, II, 51; VI, 412.) Quinniaamuk was one of the Indian fishing stations. The meaning of the word is "place where the long fish (lamprey cel) is taken. At certain seasons of the year, when an inlet is cut through some of these beaches, there is a rush of these eels for the salt water.
Quanames. - This was described in a deed (I, 251), dated March 25, 1685, and also again in 1693 (III, 23); in the latter document the text is as follows: "all that upland which from the other lands lyeth and leadeth as a way to the Iland quanaimes." It is the small island off Pecoy point, on the west side of Sanchacantacket pond, northward of Major's cove, as indicated on a map of Edgartown, 1830 (Mass. Arch., vol. VII). This name occurs in a deed, dated 1759, when Isaac Norton sold one half "a certain island called Quanaimes."
Quasaquannes. - In a deed from Wampamag to John Daggett, dated March 3, 1660, he conveys a tract of land "upon the East side of the Eastermost Chop of homes hole called by the English Quasaquannes" (Deeds, II, 253). This was the tract granted by Thomas Mayhew, Senior, and Thomas Mayhew, Junior, to John Daggett, "for a farm," and probably referred to Squash meadow in its limits. This is possibly an Indian personal name, because the place was so "called by the English."
Quatapog. - This is a small pond on Farm neck. It is a derivative of the Algonquian word Wquahti-pog, meaning "the end of the pond, or water place," and probably refers to some boundary point, known to the Indians. Eliot in his Indian Bible, Genesis, XXIII, 9, uses Wquahti-konit, "end of the field," the character W is used by him as the prefix of the third person singular, and also for the whistled sound of W, as in "with."
Sepooisset. - Thomas Sussetum, an Indian, sold to Joseph Daggett of Tisbury, June 28, 1683, twenty acres of Farm neck, and refers to "his meadow lying at Sepooisset," on the northwest corner of Daggett's land (Deeds, I, 15). Isaac Norton, in a deed dated 1759, sold "one half a certain island called Quanaimes, and the islands hard by, also a tract of land and meadow called Seaquaneck and Sepueset." The meaning of the word is "at the little river or brook," a com- pound of Sepoe-es-et.
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Annals of Oak Bluffs
Sequaneck. - This word is referred to in the preceding . paragraph, and belonged to a tract of land at the head of Sanchacantacket pond. It may be derived from Sequnan, remnant, what is left and auk (ack, eck) the generic term for land, meaning a portion remaining after some previous sale. It is also possible that it may be a personal name.
Tikhomah. - This was the name of a place near the head of the Lagoon, and is referred to in a deed, or Indian writing, conveying certain property at Weaquitaquayage (Deeds, IV, 348).
Waptesun Pond. - In 1686 this is first mentioned in a deed from Wabamuck, the sachem, to Richard Sarson, when he sold a tract of land "adjoyning near the Eastermost end of that Pond called Waptesun Pond, It being that salt Pond next ajoyning at the East side of the said [Homes Hole] harbor and att the place called onkaw" (Deeds, V, 413). It is probably the pond later known as Rufus' pond (q. v.).
ENGLISH PLACE NAMES
Boult's Farm. - This is one of those curious survivals of place names derived from transient settlers, who owned this land in 1686, "lying on the North side of Edgartown, at a place called Sanchacantacket," and known by the name of Boult's farm, containing about 100 acres, bounded as follows:
Beginning at a small black oak tree by Myober's Bridge; thence about Northwest 215 rods to a small white oak bush or sapling, marked; thence Northeast about 80 rods to a rough oak tree formerly marked and now marked, and for a corner bound; thence Southeast 80 rods partly by the old ditch to the pond or water; thence crossing s'd water about Southeast and by South to a white oak tree marked; thence Southeast and by South 6I rods to the Old Mill dam; thence South and by East 41 rods to the gate post; and from thence from said gate post to the Horse Pond; thence to a black oak stump newly cut down; thence to the river; thence Westerly by said river to the fence of said Norton that runneth into said river; and from and by said fences to the first mentioned black oak tree by the said Myober's Bridge.
It became part of the Norton property and remains so to the present time.
Burial Hill. - First mentioned in 1713 as part of the Isaac Norton property on the northwest shore of Sanchacan- tacket, and again in 1723 (Deeds, III, 197; IV, 149). The ground is on the knoll (66 feet high) near by.
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History of Martha's Vineyard
The Gore. - A tract of land lying to the northwest of Boult's farm (now belonging to Henry Constant Norton) and west of the road to Eastville.
Great Woods. - The tract of about two or three hundred acres extending from the Gore to the old Homes Hole road, formerly belonging to Bayes Newcomb, and later to Peter and Ichabod Norton.
Isaac's Neck. - First mentioned in 1752 as a "little neck," in the Onkaw tract, and as late as 1810 (Deeds, VIII, 307; XVII, 463). It may have received its name from Isaac Norton, who had property in that vicinity quite early.
Middle Line. - Marked the division between the "Daggett Farm" and the lots which extended to the Lagoon. The southerly end of it is indicated now by a ditch for about half a mile.
Major's Cove. - The inlet north of Felix neck, so-called in allusion to Major Peter Norton (1718-92), one of the early settlers on its shore.
Myober's Bridge. - On the boundary line between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown, near Major's Cove, so-called from an Indian in the early days.
Rufus' Pond. - This is a little pond just north of the Rufus Davis place, and has been so called since the first of that name lived in Eastville. Its Indian name was Waptesun (q. v.).
Tackenash's Field. - An Indian, named John Tacke- nash, living about 1680, probably gave his name to a tract cultivated by him on the northwest side of Sanchacantacket pond. (Deeds, I, 88; II, 119: Comp., Edg. Rec. 34). Also a second field, a tract of about fifteen acres on the east side of the Lagoon, midway its length, deriving its name from a squaw called Tockinosh, who lived there early in the 18th century.
Tyler's Creek. - A small brook, which runs out of a swamp between the Benjamin Davis and Christopher Beetle farms into Sanchacantacket pond. Tyler's Field bordered on this creek, and both derived titles from Tom Tyler, the Indian.
Wading Place, (1676). - The shallow water connecting a small salt pond with Major's Cove (southern shore) west of the inter-town bounds. (Edg. Rec., 21).
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Annals of Oak Bluffs
FIRST SETTLEMENT
It is easier to designate the first land holders than the first settlers, because the territory was owned by men who also had lots of land in the village at Great Harbor at the same time, and it cannot be said with surety in which place some of them actually resided. The first record relating to Ogkeshkuppe occurs under date of May 16, 1653, when it was ordered that "Mr. Mayhew is to Purchase part of Ogisske (ppe) neck of the Indians for the town."1 This was in line with Mayhew's policy of satisfying the native owners of the soil whenever the whites enlarged their sphere of improve- ment beyond former acquisitions, and it is presumed that Mayhew carried out the town directions. It is not known what "part" of the neck was secured in this way.
On Dec. 1, 1642, probably after their first visit to their island domain, Thomas Mayhew, Senior, Thomas Mayhew, Junior, and John Smith, granted to John Daggett, a neighbor of theirs in Watertown, the following lands on the Vineyard:
twenty acres of land upon the point beginning at the great stone next to my lot, and twenty acres of meadow: and also five hundred acres of land for a farm: he have liberty to take up wherever he the said John Doggett wishes, only provided he take not up his farm within three miles of the spring that is by the harbor in my lot aforesaid, before I that is Thomas Mayhew the elder have made choice of twenty acres of meadow and a farm of five hundred acres for myself, the which choice not being made within one year insueing the date hereof, then the said John Doggett have liberty to chuse for himself.2
This was a grant both liberal in terms and in the amount alienated by them.
THE "FARM"
When John Daggett came to the Vineyard cannot be accurately stated, but the first time his name appears of record is in 1651, though it is to be supposed that he had been here for some time previous.3 He had a home lot in the village of Great Harbour, and there is nothing to indicate that he did not reside there, as the most desirable place for residential purposes at that time. With his early grant, just referred to, he followed the custom of the patentee, and after locating to
1Edgartown Records, I, 131.
2Dukes Deeds, I, 189.
3Edgartown Records, I, 122.
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History of Martha's Vineyard
his satisfaction, the tract of five hundred acres, three miles from a spring near Mayhew's house, he proceeded, in 1660, to buy the sachem's "rights" to the soil. On March 3rd of that year Wampamag, the chief of the Sanchacantacket tribe, sold to Daggett, "a certain tract of land which was granted by Mr Thomas Mayhew Sen, and Mr Thomas Mayhew Jr, for a farm, I say a tract of land lying upon the east side of the eastermost Chap of Homes Hole, called by the English Quas- quannes, butting down to the sea on the east, being bounded on the east side by the sea, and on the north side with marked trees, running into the woods three hundred and twenty rods, and on the north side from the sea three hundred and twenty rods and on the west side three hundred and twenty rods."1
DAGGETT'S SUIT FOR "THE FARM"
For reasons not now known, Governor Mayhew refused to fulfill his early grant, and Daggett thereupon purchased the "rights" of the Indian sachem to the soil on the date above mentioned. Acting under the influence of Mayhew the town voted, Oct. 3, 1660, "that John Daggett, the elder, hath broken the order of ten pounds upon every acer In purchasing a farm at Sanchacontackett at the hands of the Indians without the towns consent."2 On December 17, following, the townsmen proceeded to collect the fine by the passage of the order here quoted :
To William Weekes, Constable:
These are to warne you by the authority of this town to levie upon the estate of John Doggett, the elder, upon Martins Vineyard the sum of five thousand (pounds) upon the breach of order in purchasing lands.3
A penalty of five thousand pounds was a little too much for John Daggett to pay for obtaining a title to a farm which had been granted to him in due and legal form, and he resisted this absurd levy. It was not only confiscation, but it meant banishment, the favorite method of Mayhew in dealing with his enemies. As the case could not be adjudicated in the local court, because of the interest of Mayhew in the result, the parties agreed to refer it to the Plymouth Colony court for arbitration. The records of the town state "the names of those that Doth try for the farme with John Daggett:"
1Dukes Deeds, II, 253. Quasquannes is probably an Indian personal name. 2Edgartown Records, I, 133. A town order dated Jan. 4, 1652. 3Ibid., 130.
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Annals of Oak Bluffs
Thomas Mayhew for My self and all Relations in the town that is eight lotts; Mr. Butler 2 lots; William Vinson his lot & his mothers; Thomas Trapp I lot; Robert Codman, I; Nicholas Norton & 2 sons; Thomas Bayes 2 lots; Thomas Burchard; Nicholas Butler; William Weeks; Goodman Jones; James Covel one half lot.1
This list comprises most of the resident land owners, though the names of Arey, Bland, John Burchard, Eddy, . Folger, Lay and some others are not included. Of course his son, Thomas Daggett, could not be identified with the case, on either side. The town appointed Nicholas Norton and John Pease to conduct the case in its behalf, and on Oct. 2, 1662, the trial was held in Plymouth. The following is the record in the archives of that colony:
Att the Court John Doged of the Iland called Martins Vineyard complained against the towne of the said Vineyard in an action of the case for the title of a certaine prcell of land graunted unto the said John by Mr. Thomas Mayhew &c, which the said inhabitants doe unjustly and illegally disturbe him in his quiett injoyment of the same, which said case is by joynt consent of both prtyes refered to the determination of this Court.2
It is not known whether John Daggett had any legal counsel to assist him, but his cause was so clear that it did not require any, and the verdict was as follows:
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