[p. 41] May 29, 1644, an order was passed by the General Court ‘that henceforth these towns (according to the entry) as also all other towns that already are or hereafter shall be erected within this jurisdiction shall (according to their antiquity) take their places of precedency, both in the transacting of the affairs of this house, as also in all such other occasions, as may fall out within this Colony respecting such precedency of place.’
Twenty-four towns are named; Meadford is not in the list.1
When Deputy Governor Dudley, and those with him came to this neighborhood, they visited several places; they named one Boston. . . another Meadford,. . .[P. 120.]This action by Dudley and his associates does not alter the fact that Meadford was settled prior to the arrival of the above party. There is a good reason why the farm that Governor Cradock's servants had planted should be given a distinctive name. All the land on the north side of Mystic river, from Mystic pond to the creek (now known as Island-end river) which separates the cities of Everett and Chelsea, was called Mistick, or Mistickside; also, the land on the south side of the river was called Mistick. In 1631 the Court of Assistants granted to Governor Winthrop six hundred acres of land, ‘to be set forth by metes and bounds, near his house at Mistick,. . .’ [See map in Register, Vol. I, p. 123.] July 4, 1631, the governor's bark, the Blessing of the Bay, was launched at Mistick. The governor's house, as shown on the map above referred to, was on the easterly slope of Winter hill, near the Medford line, within the present limits of the city of Somerville. May 11, 1649, ‘In answer to a petition of several inhabitants of Mistick-side, their request is granted, viz.: ’
