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 mulcts 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.

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 To show the expansion of their minds and the soundness of their hearts, we will give here two or three specimens of those laws:

-

"If any

"There shall never be any bond slavery or villanage."—" 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." - "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 68 To entering the petition at Boston to the General

Court

For copy out of the records

Caleb Brooks, for serving the attachment

For entering action . . . .

20121

0

6

0

0

0

3

0

6"

Stephen Willis, for charge at court

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

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 portions 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 consent 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 following 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. Throughout 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

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 Bradshaw; 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 unlawfully 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 transcribe 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."