...vate enterprise as were those of Broughton and Wade. Twenty-three years before, a verdict had been given against the former in favor of Symmes, whose meadows above Mistick ponds were flooded. Yet Prout , who was then (in 1698) proprietor, declared thirty or forty years of use, which covered nearly the time since Broughton began. We find no evidence that Broughton sought legislative action for li...