HISTORICAL SOCIETY. VIII THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR TOWN AND COMMON LANDS AND COMMONAGE. BY T. FRANK WATERS. WITH THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, DECEMBER 4, 1899. Salem Press : THE SALEM PRESS CO., Salem, Mass. Meneral THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR TOWN GOVERNMENT. It was an easy matter, we imagine, for the little handful of original settlers to talk over their affairs and agree on measures of public policy. They might have gathered in a body and selected a spot for their meeting house, located the earliest roads and apportioned themselves home lots and tillage lands. The simplest form of pure democracy was adequate to all their needs; but, as their number increased, some system of representative government was found necessary. The first public official appointed was the Clerk. As the Town Record begins with November, 1634, the Recorder or Clerk had been chosen before that date. The "lotlayers" also appear at this time, a Committee to which was referred the delicate task of assigning lands: Henry Short, John Perkins, Robert Mussey and John Gage. The grants, however, were determined in open meeting, and the function of the lot-layers was merely to determine locations, and fix "by metes and bounds” the lot apportioned. "The seven men" are first mentioned under the date Feb. 20, 1636/7, but they are alluded to in such an incidental way, that it would seem that they were already an established feature of town polity. This first board of government consisted of Mr. John Winthrop, Mr. Bradstreet, Mr. Denison, Goodman Perkins, Goodman Scott, John Gage and Mr. Wade, and they were chosen to order business for the next three months. Mr. Denison was chosen to keep the Town Book, enter the Town orders, and "set a copy of them up in ye meeting house." He was to keep a record of land grants as well, and a fee of sixpence for every entry was granted him. But the sturdy democracy seems to have been suspicious of detriment to its own power and dignity, accruing from the new officials, and forthwith they proceeded to hedge in their authority by ordering that "they shall have no power to grant any land in that which is commonly reputed and accounted the Cow Pasture, nor above twenty acres in any other place." The older board of lot layers was made to feel its subservience to the popular will, by the addition of Mr. Appleton, Serg. Howlett, John Perkins and Thos. Scott to assist them in laying out the large grants made to "Mr. Dudley, Mr. Bradstreet and Mr. Saltingstall" before the 14th of May 1637. "The seven men" seem to have become "the eleven men" in January 1637/8, but in 1639, "the seven men" reappear, and in Feb. 1640/1, their term of office is specified as six months. Mr. Hubbard, Capt. Denison, Jo: Whipple, Good. Giddings, Mark Symonds, John Perkins and Mr. William Payne were then chosen "for the Town's business for six months, provided that they give noe lands, nor meddle with dividing or stinting the Commons." Thus the lengthening of the term of service was balanced by curtailing their authority in regard to lands. In 1642, further "direction to sim plify the Town business" was desired, and a committee consisting of the two magistrates, the elders, Mr. Giles Firman and George Giddings was appointed "to prepare for the next meeting of the freemen, what they shall think meet for yearly maintenance and for the way of raysing of it." In Feb. 1643/4, Robert Lord was chosen by the Town, "from this time forward to be present at every general meeting of the Town, and of the freemen and of the seven men, and to record in a book what is committed to him by [ ] Moderator of every such meeting, and to tend in some convenient time before the end of the meeting to read over what is written, and he is to have [ ] third parts of the fines for not appearing at meetings, for this service." He was termed Recorder, but the duties of his office were very similar to those of the Town Clerk of later days. Glimpses are had here of the rigor with which the body of voters directed its own action. In 1648, in general Town meeting, it was ordered that all the inhabitants of the Town that shall be absent from the yearly meeting, or any other whereof they have lawful warning, shall forfeit a shilling. Robert Lord earned his twothirds no doubt, for his duties included ringing the bell, calling the roll, and collecting the forfeit. Twelve freemen were soon called upon to pay a fine of 124 a piece for absence. In 1643, the tenure of office was extended to a year, and in 1650, the seven men were called by the familiar name of selectmen. In that year, the elective officials were Selectmen, two Constables, four Surveyors, and a Committee of Five "to make the elders' rates," or, in plainer language, to apportion the tax for the support of the ministry. Mr. Robert Payne had been appointed Committee or Treasurer for the Town in May, 1642, but it does not seem to have been an annual elective office. Road-surveyors were appointed in January, 1640/1, and the men appointed to that office were Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Symonds, Mr. Payne, and Robert Andrews, four of the most substantial citizens. The roads were hardly more than cart-paths, grassgrown, except in the wheel ruts. In some localities the unused portion of the public way was sufficiently broad to pay for its own maintenance. Thus, in 1640, "The haye upon Chebacco waye toward Labour-in-vain Creeke [now known as the Argilla road] was granted John Lee, this year only, the land itself being settled for a highway, the Town intending that by like grant he shall enjoy it, he giving no cause to the contrary, it remaining in the Town's hand to give or not to give." It was also voted, that same year, that "the highway to Chebacco beneath Heartbreak Hill forever be repayred by the benefit of the grass yearly growing upon the same;" and John Leigh (whose name is still associated with "Leigh's Meadow," as the older people among us still call the meadow land, owned by Mr. George Haskell on the south side of the Argilla road) was "to enjoy all profits of the highway, and all the common ground lying at the foot of Heart-break Hill, maintaining the highway from Rocky Hill [now owned by Mr. Moritz B. Philipp], to William Lampson's lot;" "and if there be any ground that may conveniently be planted, he hath liberty to plant it and secure it for himself, he always leaving a sufficient highway for carting and drift." Within the memory of a venerable lady still living, Green Lane, as Green Street was then called, was a grassy lane with a number of different ruts. Travel was chiefly on horseback, and the heavy farm teaming was done in two-wheeled carts or tumbrils, drawn by oxen. Four-wheeled vehicles were almost unknown. In many spots the roads were wet and muddy from the outflow of springs. The present Mineral Street, originally Dirty Lane, was a proverbially miry thoroughfare, from its nearness to the swampy lands, that are still low and wet. The deep deposit of leaf mould, which had accumulated for ages, made it difficult to maintain a passable road in many quarters, no doubt. To keep these primitive highways in fair condition was no mean task in itself. But the highway surveyor had other duties. The lines of roadway were not defined with any accuracy. It was easy for landholders to push out their fences and claim portions of the common highway, and the surveyor was bound to detect such encroachments and determine their extent. Men of the finest quality were needed for this and other delicate tasks, and large powers were given them, as the regulations adopted in 1641 indicate. 1. 2. 3. "Agreed that road-ways and general ways be done first." "That defaulters shall forfeit the value of their wages double, both carts and workmen : carts to have reasonable warning." 4. "If any man hath 24 hours warning, it is sufficient, unless his excuse be allowed by one of the surveyors." 5. "All youths above 14 years of age are to work in this common business. It is intended such as doe comonly use to work." 6. "That the surveyors are to take notice themselves and information of others of encroachment of all ways, and also of annoyances etc and to bring the same to the Town to be punished." 7. 66 For every day's default, the forfeit is in Summer 3o 4d, in Winter 25 6d; for defect of a team each day is in Summer 138 4d, in Winter 10a." To execute these regulations required much discretion. That fifth article alone was enough to involve the unhappy surveyor in much difficulty, if he failed to recognize the dignity of some fourteen-year-old son of a sensitive family. To these responsible duties were added, "making up and keeping the wall about the Meeting House in repair" (1650), and “repairing the highway leading to Chebacco and to Castle Neck, that is, beyond that part of the way that John Leigh hath undertaken" (1650). They were instructed, in 1651, to "appoint a considerable company of men to fell the small wood upon the Eastern side of Jeffries Neck, to prepare it for sowing to hay seed;" and in 1653, Mr. Hodges, with one other surveyor calling John Perkins Sen. with them, were ordered to " call out 40 of the Inhabitants to goe to Jeffry's Neck with hoes, to hoe up weeds that spoil the Neck and sow some grass seeds." The surveyors have power also to call out all the Town for one day's work, both men and teams, "to the filling up of a wharf, and mending the street against it." Next to the question of roads and highways, their location, bounds and maintenance, was the great matter of the common lands, which were held by the house |