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 meeting. 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. "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 Woodward, 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 themselves planted in their new homes. A more complex form of municipal agencies was not needed; especially as the celebrated 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: "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 freeman'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 Commonweal, 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 thereunto, 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; beans, nays. The conditions of voting in towns was fixed by the General Court as early as April 17, 1729. "Voted that no person but what has been rated 1s., at least, to the last province-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 disposing 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 privileges 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; betwixt 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. S 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 declared 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 Meadford 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 soundness of their hearts, we will give here two or three specimens of those laws: "There shall never be any bond slavery or villanage."—"If any good people are flying from their oppressors, they shall be succored." "There shall be no monopolies.". "All deeds shall be recorded."—"No injunction shall be laid on any church, churchofficer, or member, in point of doctrine, worship, or discipline, for substance or circumstance.” - 66 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 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 selectmen 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 0 0 2012 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 |