At the end of this first volume of records, there is a catalogue of births, marriages, and deaths, mixed up with county rates, &c. The last item in the volume is dated Aug. 20, 1718, and is the receipt of Rev. Aaron Porter for his salary. His signature is in that round and manly style, which, as it stands, seems to be a fit guarantee for the truth of all the preceding records.

The second volume is a small folio, bound in parchment. It is twelve inches and a half long, eight wide, and one inch and a half thick. It begins Feb. 12, 1718, and ends June 23, 1735. From 1674 to the present time, the town-records are unbroken.

The third volume is a large folio, but sadly torn and injured. A proper index of the records is greatly needed.

The first volume of church records is bound in parchment. It is eight inches long, six and a half wide, and half an inch thick. It begins May 19, 1712, and ends April 13, 1774. It contains all the records during the ministry of Rev. Mr. Porter, and that of Rev. Mr. Turell. It records births, baptisms, and marriages, the doings of the church, the admissions to the Lord's supper, &c.; but it does not notice any deaths.

The second volume of church records is bound in rough leather, and is of the same form and size as the first. It contains all the facts belonging to the ministry of Dr. Osgood. It begins Sept. 14, 1774, and ends with his last entry, Dec. 2, 1822, made twelve days before his death.

Of the later records in town and church (all unbroken and accurate), it is not necessary to speak. They are well secured in strong books; but those above mentioned should be copied by a careful hand, and bound in uniformity. The iron or stone safe, where old manuscripts are kept, should be emptied, aired, and well heated once in every six months.

In early times, one page was sufficient to contain a full record of a town-meeting; but, in our day, the record of a March meeting is spread over fifteen or twenty pages.

The earliest records of the town-treasurer, which are preserved, are those of Capt. Samuel Brooks. For many years, this gentleman was placed on the most important committees. On the Sunday after his death, July 10, 1768, Mr. Turell preached two funeral sermons from Phil. i. 21. The first person in Medford who seemed to have any true regard for posterity, in making his records, was Mr. Thomas Seccomb, who, for twenty-two years, recorded with admirable particularity the facts most important for the historian.

FIRST SETTLEMENT.

To show properly the first coming of our ancestors to this region, it will be necessary to trace their last movements in England. This can be done most briefly and satisfactorily by giving extracts from the truthful and interesting letter of Governor Dudley, dated March 28, 1631, to the Countess of Lincoln. The extracts are as follows:

"To the Right Honorable, my very good Lady, the Lady Bridget, Countess of Lincoln.

"MADAM,-Touching the plantation, which we here have begun, it fell out thus: About the year 1627, some friends, being together in Lincolnshire, fell into discourse about New England and the planting of the gospel there; and, after some deliberation, we imparted our reasons by letters and messages to some in London and the West Country, where it was likewise deliberately thought upon, and at length, with often negotiation, so ripened, that, in the year 1628, we procured a patent from his Majesty for our planting between the Massachusetts Bay and Charles River on the south, and the river of Merrimack on the north, and three miles on either side of those rivers and bays; as also for the government of those who did or should inhabit within that compass. And the same year we sent Mr. John Endicott, and some with him, to begin a plantation; and to strengthen such as we should find there, which we sent thither from Dorchester, and some places adjoining; from whom, the same year, receiving hopeful news, the next year, 1629, we sent divers ships over, with about three hundred people, and some cows, goats, and horses, many of which arrived safely.

"These, by their too large commendations of the country and the commodities thereof, invited us so strongly to go on, that Mr. Winthrop, of Suffolk (who was well known in his own country, and well approved here for his piety, liberality, wisdom, and gravity), coming in to us, we came to such resolution, that in April, 1630, we set sail from Old England with four good ships. And, in May following, eight more followed; two having gone before in February and March, and two more following in June and August, besides another set out by a private merchant. These seventeen ships arrived all safe in New England for the increase of the plantation here this year, 1630; but made a long, a troublesome, and costly voyage, being all wind-bound long in England, and hindered with contrary winds after they set sail, and so scattered with mists and tempests, that few of them arrived together. Our four ships, which set out in April, arrived here in June and July, where we found the Colony in a sad and unexpected condition; above eighty of them

:

being dead the winter before, and many of those alive weak and sick all the corn and bread among them all hardly sufficient to feed them a fortnight. But, bearing these things as we might, we began to consult of our place of sitting down; for Salem, where we landed, pleased us not. And, to that purpose, some were sent to the Bay to search up the rivers for a convenient place; who, upon their return, reported to have found a good place upon Mistick; but some other of us, seconding these, to approve or dislike of their judgment; we found a place liked us better, three leagues up Charles River, and thereupon unshipped our goods into other vessels, and, with much cost and labor, brought them in July to Charlestown. But, there receiving advertisements (by some of the late arrived ships) from London and Amsterdam of some French preparations against us (many of our people brought with us being sick of fevers and the scurvy, and we thereby unable to carry up our ordnance and baggage so far), we were forced to change counsel, and for our present shelter to plant dispersedly; some at Charlestown, which standeth on the north side of the mouth of Charles River; some on the south ride thereof, which place we named Boston (as we intended to have done the place we first resolved on); some of us upon Mistick, which we named Meadford; some of us westward on Charles River, four miles from Charlestown, which place we named Watertown; others of us two miles from Boston, in a place we called Roxbury; others upon the river Sangus between Salem and Charlestown; and the Western-men four miles south from Boston, in a place we named Dorchester. They who had health to labor fell to building, wherein many were interrupted with sickness, and many died weekly, yea, almost daily. "After my brief manner I say this: that if any come hither to plant for worldly ends, that can live well at home, he commits an error, of which he will soon repent him; but, if for spiritual, and that no particular obstacle hinder his removal, he may find here what may well content him, viz., materials to build, fuel to burn, ground to plant, seas and rivers to fish in, a pure air to breath in, good water to drink till wine or beer can be made; which, together with the cows, hogs, and goats brought hither already, may suffice for food: as for fowl and venison, they are dainties here as well as in England. For clothes and bedding, they must bring them with them, till time and industry produce them here. In a word, we yet enjoy little to be envied, but endure much to be pitied in the sickness and mortality of our people. If any godly men, out of religious ends, will come over to help us in the good work we are about, I think they cannot dispose of themselves nor of their estates more to God's glory, and the furtherance of their own reckoning; but they must not be of the poorer sort yet, for divers years. I am now, this 28th March, 1631, sealing my letters.

"Your Honor's old thankful servant,

"THOMAS Dudley."

"The five undertakers were Governor Winthrop, Deputy Governor Dudley, Sir Richard Saltonstall, Isaac Johnson, Esq., and Mr. Revil."

"The settlement of the patent in New England" meant the establishment of the government here. Hutchinson says: "It is evident from the charter, that the original design of it was to constitute a corporation in England, like to that of the East India Company, with powers to settle plantations within the limits of the territory, under such forms of government and magistracy as should be fit and

necessary.

The decision of the Court respecting the occupancy of land, after their arrival, was known to our fathers. At the meeting in London, March 10, 1628-9, the Court say:

"This day being appointed to take into consideration touching the division of the lands in New England, where our first plantation shall be, it was, after much debate, thought fit to refer this business to the Governor (Cradock), and a Committee to be chosen to that purpose to assist him; and whatsoever they shall do therein, that to stand for good."

May 28, 1629: In the "second general letter," the Court say:

"We have further taken into our consideration the fitness and conveniency, or rather necessity, of making a divident of land, and allotting a proportion to each adventurer; and, to this purpose, have made and confirmed an Act, and sealed the same with our common seal."

In the Charlestown records, 1664, John Greene, giving a history of the first comers, says:

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Amongst others that arrived at Salem, at their own cost, were Ralph Sprague with his brethren Richard and William, who, with three or four more, by joint consent and approbation of Mr. John Endicott, Governor, did, the same summer of anno 1628 (9), undertake a journey from Salem, and travelled the woods above twelve miles to the westward, and lighted of a place situate and lying on the north side of Charles River, full of Indians, called Aberginians. Their old sachem being dead, his eldest son, by the English called John Sagamore, was their chief, and a man naturally of a gentle and good disposition. . . . They found it was a neck of land, generally full of stately timber, as was the main, and the land lying on the east side of the river, called Mystick River, from the farm Mr. Cradock's servants had planted called Mystick, which

this river led up unto; and, indeed, generally all the country round about was an uncouth wilderness, full of timber."

This party from Salem, passing through Medford, were the first European feet that pressed the soil we now tread.

At the Court of Assistants, held in London, May 21, 1629, it was thus ordered:

"That two hundred acres of land be by them allotted to each adventurer for £50 adventure in the common stock, and so, after that rate, and according to that proportion, for more or less, as the adventure is, to the intent they may build their houses and improve their lands thereon. It is further fit and ordered, that all such as go over in person, or send over others at their charge, and are adventurers in the common stock, shall have lands (fifty acres) allotted unto them for each person they transport to inhabit the plantation, as well servants as all others."

Mr. Cradock, according to this, must have had large grants. The lands granted must be improved within three years, or forfeited. If a person came here who had no share in the common stock of the Company, he could have only fifty acres of land, though a head of a family. These small grants surprise us till we consider that land in the Old World, and especially in England, was scarce and dear.

Governor Winthrop in his Journal says: "Thursday, 17th of June, 1630: We went to Massachusetts to find out a place for our sitting down. We went up Mystick River about six miles." This was the first exploration of the river, carried probably as far as Medford lines; and the English eyes in that boat were the first eyes of settlers that looked upon these fields on which we now live. The first settlers came from Suffolk, Essex, and Lincolnshire, in England.

The first grant made by the Court of Assistants of lands in Mistick was made to Governor Winthrop in 1631. The record says: "Six hundred acres of land, to be set forth by metes and bounds, near his house in Mistick, to enjoy to him and his heirs for ever." He called his place, after the manner of the English noblemen, the "Ten Hills Farm;" which name it still retains. This favorite selection of the chief magistrate would naturally turn his thoughts to his fast friend, Mathew Cradock, and lead him to induce Mr. Cradock's men to settle in the neighborhood. Thus we arrive at a natural reason for the first coming of shipwrights and