USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Sudbury > The history of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1889 > Part 12
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
are the Comitte Chosen by the Proprietors to Doe this work."
"At a meeting of the proprietors held 1717 At the house of Mrs. Susannah Blanford there is the following record of roads granted to be laid out. Highway laid out in the south squadron on ye West Side of The River in Sudbury Aprill 1715 by us the Subscribers A highway from ye Country road To Blandford's pond of four rods wide beginning Between Sam" wrights and Joseph Goodnows and so by Lt Thomas Brintnalls hous and so by Brookss and over green hill and over Pinners wash to ye Said Pond marked as the path now runs and So to be Lye and continue. The said highway to run up to the Thirty rod highway at the new grants This Said highway to be held four rod wide and at Benj wrights land bounded by said Land and by wrights land where it toucheth : : Also a highway out of said High- way into Lancaster Road beginning on ye North end of Green hill so running Down to Noah Claps Land on the nor west corner as the path now goes by the Land of Benj Moor as the path goes to Long meadow brook Between ye land of said Moor from thence as the path goes to the lower end of south meadow into Lancaster road holding four rods wide through ; and marked trees all along: Also a highway from Brookss Hous into the mill path and so over Goodmans Hill as the path goes the Said road to be a bridle road through Lt Thoms Brintnells Land by Brooks s for People to pas and repass with horse and team without molestation or interrup- tion with opening and shutting gates after Them : not being allowed to Cutt any wood within said Brintalls Land or fences : and to be an open road then to the end running as the path goes By the Land of Benj Moor unto the Mill Path and to the corner of Thomas Plympton Land and so over Goodmans Hill."
Such are some of "ye Proprietors' " records that have date after 1700. But a few specimens have been selected from the scores of pages contained in their book. As the pro- prietors held their meetings several times in a year, and met occasionally more than once a month, their records consid-
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
erably accumulated as time passed by. In the present, we hear little or nothing of " ye Proprietors'" acts ; tradition is silent concerning them ; but old bridle-ways and cart-paths, that may be marked by fallen or moss-covered walls, were first traced, it may be, by "ye Proprietors' " committee, as they laid out a right-of-way to some ancient meadow lot, or to some wood-land just divided up. Though the farm boy knows little of the lane to the pasture bars, except that the herd pass along it, and the farmer little of the history of his familiar home, yet " ye Proprietors " may have determined the locality of both homestead and lane at a meeting held at Susannah Blanford's, where they were accustomed to meet. The old oak left alone on the hillside, or that midway stands on the plain, may have been " blazed " by strokes of the pro- prietors' axe, and served as a boundary of some new allot- ment. Thus, though no chronicler may trace out their ways, nor map off their ancient domain, various farms in the town contain more or less of the many broad acres of " ye Proprie- tors' Common and undivided lands."
After the divisions of the town land. care was taken to have them duly recorded. This is indicated by the following record from the Town Book : -
" In a public town meeting, warned for the examination of the record of land according to the town grant, which thing was duly performed, all the record both first and last, respect- ing the town grant to the inhabitants, were published read and approved; and hereupon the town ordered, that any Inhabitant should have liberty to repair to Hugh Griffin our town clerk, who upon their desire, shall within three days space, give them a true copy of the record of such land as they have record of in the town book under his hand which shall be a correct title, they paying the clerk for his service."
It was not only a privilege to have a record of lands pre- served, but at an early date it was made compulsory. In 1641 it was ordered that all who had land laid out should bring in a copy of it, that it might be recorded by the twen- tieth day of September; and, for neglecting to do this, twenty shillings were to be forfeited.
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
We do not propose to engage in the work of locating each allotment of land; this could not be done in many instances, and, if undertaken, would be liable to mistakes, so often did property change hands in those days. Moreover, the boundary marks that were made use of oftentimes were of a transient or changeable character, which, though familiar to the people of that generation, are now wholly obliterated. For example : -
" Here followeth the line of the new grants with the mark. 1 a black oak 2 a white oak, 3 a black oak 4 a black oak dead 5 a walnut tree, 6 a white oak near Jethro's field, 7 a lone red oak, [8] in a swamp a dead [red] oak, 9 a white ash tree in a run of water, 10 a naked pine tree on rocky hill, 11 a chestnut, 12 a white oak, 13 a white oak, 14 a white oak, 15 is a dead black oak stands at the westerly corner with a heap of stones at the root of the tree.
" JOHN GOODNOW in the name of the rest who went last on parambulation." (Date 1640.)
While the early land divisions were being made, reserva- tions were also made of lands for pasturage, which it was understood were to remain undivided. These lands were called "Cow Commons," and the record of them explains their use. The first was laid out or set apart the 26th of November, 1643, and was on the east side of the river. The record concerning the location is as follows : -
" It is concluded by the town that all the lands south- ward that lie from the southeast corner of the house-lot of Robert Darnill, unto the common cartbridge going to Edmund Goodnow's meadow, and so upon a strait line to Watertown bound, which lands so granted, for a cow com- mon, shall never be reserved or laid down without the con- sent of every Inhabitant that hath right in commonage. All the lands we say that are contained within these terms, that is between the houselot of Robert Darnill and the cartbridge before specified, southward within the five miles bound first granted, down to the great river, and bounded on the side
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
which the extremity of our line bounding Watertown and Sudbury, all our land contained within these terms except all such land as have been granted out in particular, that is to say a neck of upland lying between mill brook and Pine brook, also another neck of land with the flat belonging to it lying between the aforesaid neck and the great river on the other side, also another plat of land that lieth westward from them, containing some 3 or 4 score acres and granted out to particular men.
" The Inhabitants of the town are to be limited and sized. in the putting in of cattle upon the said common in propor- tion according to the quantity of meadow the said inhabi- tants are stated in upon the division of the meadow, or shall be instated in by purchase hereafter, provided they buy with the meadow the liberty of commonage alloted to such a quan- tity of acres as shall be purchased.
" BRYAN PENDLETON, WALTER HAYNE,
" PETER NOYES,
WILLIAM WARD,
" JOHN WOOD,
THOMAS JSLYN,
"EDMUND GOODNOW, THOMAS GOODNOW,
" JOHN REDDICKE."
It is somewhat difficult to define the bounds of this cow common exactly from the description given in the records, but the following may be considered its general outline : From Weston bound direct to Wayland centre, thence west of south to the river, and thence again direct to Weston bound.
The cow common on the west side was reserved in 1647. and is thus described in the Town Book : -
"It is ordered by the town that there shall be a cow com- mon laid out on the west side of the river to remain in per- petuity, with all the upland within these bounds, that is to say, all the upland that lies within the bound that goes from Bridle point through Hopp meadow, and so to the west line. in the meadow of Walter Hayne, and all the upland within the gulf and the pantre brook to the uper end of the meadow of Robert Darnill, and from thence to the west line, as it shall be bounded by some men appointed by the town,
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except it be such lands as are due to men already, and shall be laid out according to the time appointed by the . town. Walter Hayne and John Groute are appointed to bound the common, from Goodman Darnill's meadow to the west line."
The territory which was comprised in this common may be outlined, very nearly, by the Massachusetts Central Rail- road on the south, the Old Colony Railroad on the west, Pantry Brook on the north, and the river on the east. It will be noticed that these two commons included most of the hilly portions of the town, on both sides of the river; and it was doubtless the design of the settlers to reserve for com- mon pasturage these lands, because less adapted to easy cul- tivation. But in process of time they ceased to be held in reserve. More or less controversy subsequently arose about what was known as " sizing the commons," and by the early part of the next century they were all divided up and appor- tioned to the inhabitants ; and now over the broad acres of those ancient public domains are scattered pleasant home- steads and fertile farms, and a large portion of three consid- erable villages, namely, Sudbury, South Sudbury,, and Way- land Centre.
Beside the reservation of territory for common pasturage, lands were laid out "for the use of the ministry." Two such tracts were laid out on each side of the river, consist- ing of both meadow and upland, which were let out to indi- viduals, the income derived therefrom going towards the minister's salary. The lands that were situated on the west side have passed from public to private possession, being sold in 1817 for $3,200.98.
Various other portions of land were reserved for public use. In 1647 fifty acres of upland about Hop Brook Meadow (South Sudbury), "near the cart-path that goes over the brook," was " to be reserved for the use of the town when they shall set a mill upon it." (See period 1650-75.) Lands situated in various places were assigned for general planting fields. (See Chapter VIII.) A training field was laid out in 1640, consisting of about nine acres, near the
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present Abel Gleason estate, a portion of it lying southerly of Mr. Gleason's house. And the same year there was reserved in the space enclosed by the first streets, and lying in the direction of Mill Brook or the present Concord and Wayland highway a common pasture "for working oxen."
Besides the reservations thus made, there were small tracts set apart for timber lands or other public purposes. In 1642 three swamps were reserved ; " one back of the house [lot] of Walter Haynes, and by a fresh pond; " "another lying under the north side of a hill called Long Hill lying towards Concord ; " and "another swamp that butteth against Con- cord line ; also these swamps are reserved in common for the use of the inhabitants."
April 5, 1662, it was "ordered that the town of Sudbury will keep the said one hundred and thirty acres of land which the said Thomas Noyes did lay down at Doescine Hill [Doeskin Hill, Nobscot District] to be a peculiar store of timber for the use of the town. Also voted that no inhabitant of Sudbury whatsoever shall fell any tree or trees whatsoever growing upon the said one hundred and thirty acres at Doescine Hill upon the forfeiture of 19s. a tree." In 1685 the town ordered that there should be "a piece of ten or a dozen acres of the best timber land at or about Goodman's Hill for a reserve for timber for the town's only use."
CHAPTER VIII.
Miscellaneous. - Laws Concerning Domestic Animals, Birds, Wolves, Ammunition and Fire-arms. - Common Planting Fields. - Fence Viewers and Fences. - Staple Crops. - Meadow Grass; Abundance, Time and Price of Cutting, Measures for Improving. - Mode of Travel. - Staking the Causeway. - Climate. - Rain and Snow Fall. - Occasion of Floods. - Breaking Out Roads. - Care of the Poor. - Laws for the Prevention of Poverty Enacted by the Town; by the Province. - Town Action for the Encouragement of Industry. --- Education. - Morality. - Instruction in the Use of Fire-arms. - Tything -men. - Stocks. - Lecture Day. - Fasts. - Baptism of In- fants .- Laws Relating to Labor .- Payments Often Made in Produce. - Negroes Bought and Sold. - Copy of Bill of Sale. - Schedule of Inhabitants a Century and a Half Ago - Respect Shown by the Use of Titles ; by Gratulation ; by Seating in the Meeting-House. - Care- ful of Dues. - Precaution Against Fire. - Borrowing Canoes. - Board of the Representatives. - Peculiar Names of Places.
For the structure that we raise, Time is with materials filled ; Our to-days and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build. LONGFELLOW.
IN early colonial days, and also later in the provincial period, laws were enacted and customs existed that now look curious and quaint. These laws and customs were the result, not only of the characteristic ways of the people, but also of the condition and circumstances of the country and the times. These changed, new rules and practices came into use ; and, as we become accustomed to them, the old look far distant, as if belonging to another race. It is our purpose in the present chapter to relate some of these cus- toms, usages and laws, and also to give an account of some incidental matters that belong not only to this but to subse-
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quent periods. To do this by grouping them in a single chapter will make less of a break in the narrative than to mention them in chronological order as we proceed with this work.
LAWS RELATING TO DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
In 1641 it was ordered that "every one that keeps any hogs more than his own within one fortnight after this day shall rid them out of this town only that for every hog that shall be taken in to be kept by any won more than his own for every week shall pay five shillings." In 1643 it was ordered "that every inhabitant should drive out his hog every morning into the wood, and when they come home at night to see them shut up safe or else if they be about the street to ring and yoke them." In 1648 it was voted in town meeting, " that every swine that shall be found of any man out of his own properity without a sufficient yoke and ring, after the first of March next, the owner thereof shall forfeit for every swine so taken one shilling, and if the swine be yoked and not ringed or ringed and not yoked, then six pence for any swine so taken, beside all the damage done by any such swine." It was also " agreed that all yokes should be under the throat of the swine, and so long as the swine was high and a rope go up on each side to be fastened above, and that swine should not be accounted sufficiently ringed if they could root."
In 1643 it was "ordered by the freemen of the town that all the cattle within this town shall this summer not be turned abroad without a keeper, and the keeper shall not keep any of the herd in any of the great river meadows from Bridle Point downwards towards Concord, the intent of the order to preserve the river meadows." In 1655 it was orderd that " all young new weaned calves shall be herded all the summer time."
It was ordered that "every goat that is taken in any man's garden, orchard or green corn shall be impounded and the owner shall pay for any such goat so taken 3 pence."
In 1754 it was voted " that a fine of two shillings be laid upon the owner of any dog or dogs that should cause and
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make any disturbance at either of the meeting-houses on the Lord's day, or Sabbath day, one half of the fine was to go to complainant and the other half to the use of the town."
There is a record of a contract made with William Brown and Edmund Goodnow for making a pound. It was to be six feet or six and a half from the ground to the top of the upper rail, the posts a foot square, with seven rails, the upper rail pinned at each end. In 1664 Joseph Noyes was to keep the pound, and to have "four pence for every particular man's cattle every time they are impounded." The only pound, so far as we know, that within a few years belonged to the town of Sudbury, was situated at the northeast corner of the Sudbury Centre old burying-ground.
In 1647 the town mark ordered by "ye General Co'te for Horses to be set upon one of ye nere y'trs " was "Sudberry." (Colony Records, Vol. II., p. 225.)
LAWS CONCERNING BIRDS,
In 1651 it was ordered by the town "that whoso shall take pains by nets, guns, line or otherwise, to destroy com- mon offensive blackbirds, whether old or young, that for encouragement therein, they shall be paid for every dozen of heads of those birds that are brought to any public town meeting, six pence in the next town rate." The order was to continue five years, and the birds were to be killed in town and by the people of the town. The law for destroy- ing blackbirds as late as 1700 stood thus: "Voted that what Persons of or belonging to Sudbury shall kill any old black- birds from the 29th March 1700, to the last of May 1700, shall have a penny per hed." In 1654 a person who killed a woodpecker or jay might receive one penny. The same year an inhabitant killing a fox within the town precincts was allowed one shilling six pence.
LAWS CONCERNING WOLVES.
That an order was passed relating to wolves we learn from the following notice of its repeal in 1646: "The order for wolves, that was formerly made by the town was ten shil- lings for any wolf killed within this town, is repealed."
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
Whether the bounty was too great, or the wolves had become thinned out, we know not. But, though this order was repealed, an order relating to these animals was passed afterwards. In 1679 "the town granted in addi- tion to the ten shillings which the law gave ten shillings more, upon the presentation of the wolf's head to the town constable." The wolf was to be killed in town, but it was ordered that " all borderers that paid town rates, that killed any wolf upon their own lands tho' not within the town lands, should have the reward." As this order was after King Philip's war, it may be that during its continuance the wolves increased. If some of the more exposed estates were during that period abandoned, the wild animals of the woods might have been left to a freer range than was allowed them for a season before the war. A wolf bounty was granted as late as 1709, when the town allowed " any of ye inhabitants of Sudbury that kills any wolf or wolves above a month old within ye Bound of Sudbury shall have ten shillings allowed him or them."
LAWS CONCERNING AMMUNITION AND FIRE-ARMS.
In 1653, "The town appointed Edmund Goodnow and Hugh Griffin to divide the shot and overplus of bullets to the inhabitants, what was wanting in shot to make up out of the overplus of bullets, and the shot and bullets to be divided to each man his due by proportion according to what every man paid so near as they can."
In 1669, "Edmund Goodnow, John Parmenter, Jr., and John Stone were to see to the barrel of powder, to the trial of it, to the heading it up again, and to take some course for the safe bestowing of it."
The same year the selectmen not only ordered for the pro- viding of a barrel of powder, but a hundred pounds and a half of musket bullets, and a quarter of a hundred of matches. When the third meeting-house was built, it was ordered that there should be in it " a conveniant place for the storing of the ammunition of the town over the window in the south- west gable." About that time the town's stock of ammuni- tion was divided and intrusted to persons who would "engage
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to respond for the same" in case that it was "not spent in real service in the resistance of the enemy."
The Colonial Court at an early date ordered that "the town's men in every town shall order that ev'y house, or some two or more houses ioyne together for the breeding of salt peetr i' some out house used for poultry or the like." The duty of looking after this matter for Sudbury was assigned to Ensign Cakebread. The saltpetre thus obtained was for the manufacture of gunpowder. In 1645, Sudbury was "freed from ye taking further care about salt peeter houses : : : in answer to their petition."
In 1642 the Court made more stringent the laws previously existing against selling fire-arms to the Indians, exacting a forfeiture of £10 for the sale to them of a gun, and £5 for a pound of powder.
In 1643 the Court ordered "that the military officers in every town shall appoint what arms shall be brought to the meeting-house on the Lord's days, and other times of meet- ing, and to take orders at farms and houses remote that ammunition bee safely disposed of that an enemy may not possess himself of them."
COMMON PLANTING FIELDS.
In the town's earlier years it was the practice to plant fields in common ; and repeatedly in the records are these common fields referred to. These planting places were situated in dif- ferent parts of the town ; between the old North and South street in the neighborhood of the Gleasons, also between Mill Brook and Pine Brook along "the Plain " in the vicinity of the Drapers, and towards the south bound of the town, near the new bridge. In 1642, five general planting fields are spoken of. Various reasons suggest themselves for this planting in common. The "plow lands " that were easily worked were comparatively few as late as 1654, as Johnson states in his " Wonder Working Providence." (See Chap. I.) When there was a large open space of easy cultivation, it was better to make of it one field, that several might share in its benefits. Moreover, these fields required vigilant watching to protect them from marauding beasts and birds ;
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HISTORY OF SUDBURY.
the several owners of the crops could stand guard by turns, and so many hands make light work; sometimes, also, it would be necessary to join teams. Besides these general fields, there were also " men's particular fields."
FENCE VIEWERS AND FENCES.
A good degree of attention was early bestowed by the town on its fences. Several surveyors were appointed each year to look after them ; and although the office of " fence viewer" has now gone into disuse, it was once one of considerable responsibility. As early as 1655, " Surveyors were appointed to judge of the sufficiency of the fences about men's particu- lar properties in cases of damage and difference." We read in the records that Jolin Maynard and John Blanford were, a certain year, to attend to the fences "of the field and the cornfield on the other side of the way from the pond to the training place." "Edmund Rice and Thomas Goodenow for all the fences of cornfields from new bridge southward within the town bound."
In 1674, " The work of fence viewing on the west side of the river was assigned to Serjeant : : Haynes, Thomas Reed and Edward Wright. These were appointed surveyors of all the field fences on the west side of the great river of the town and Lanham Penobscott new mill." The persons ap- pointed to view the fences, likewise, had power to enforce their orders. In 1641, " It was ordered that those men who were deputed to look after the fences shall have power to distrain for every rod of fence not lawful, half a bushel of corn, the one-half to him that looks to the fence the other half to the town."
In 1666 the records state that " Persons were appointed surveyors for this year over the fields where Henry Loker dwells, and the field fences, where Solomon Johnson dwell- eth." Field fences are mentioned as being on the south side of Pine Brook, also as being between Mill Brook and Pine Brook; also, "upon the hill from the little pond by the dwelling house of John Blanford unto Mill brook." Sev- eral kinds of fences were used. One kind was made by ditching. It was ordered, in 1671, "That all the great river
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meadows shall be fenced, that is to say that all the proprie- tors of the great river meadows shall fence the heads or both ends of the meadows, and where it may be necessary, to have a ditch made from the upland to the river at the charge of the squadron that shall lie on both sides of the said ditch accord- ing to their benefit." For the upland, also, this mode of fencing was sometimes used. By the roadside, about half way between Wayland Centre and the Plain, are distinct traces of one of these ancient fences.
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