HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF MEDFORD, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, FROM ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT, IN 1630, TO THE PRESENT TIME, 1855.
Charles Brooks, Ed.

Put to vote, whether the town doth accept of the result of the committee, referring to a meeting-house in Medford, as a perfect result according to the votes of said town. Voted in the negative.

It does not appear what were the grounds of objection to the result of the committee; but the vote above, of Feb. 20, drew forth the following protest from the Westenders:--

We, the subscribers, do enter our dissent against the town's proceedings in the above-written vote (of the 20th of February), for the following reasons; to wit:--

1 That, at a meeting legally convened, March 14, 1720, the town did make choice of a committee of five gentlemen, to advise and determine the affair of the meeting-house in said town, as may at large appear by said votes referring thereto; and did also bind themselves, by a vote, to abide by, and rest satisfied with, the advice and determination of said committee.

2. The gentlemen chosen by the town as a committee, being met at Medford, April 2, 1720, after consultation upon said affair, drew up a result, under all their hands, and publicly read and declared the same to the town, or those of them then present.

3. That said committee, by their result, did oblige the inhabitants of the West End of the town to procure the land for erecting a new meeting-house upon, at their own cost and charge; and also to remove all encumbrances, as expressed in said result.

4. That we, the subscribers, have, in obedience to said result, procured the land and removed the encumbrances, as above slid, at our own cost and charge; and, for these and the like reasons, we enter against said vote as being illegal and unjust.

John Whitmore. Caleb Brooks. Nathaniel Francis. John Winship. William Willis. Stephen Hall. Jonathan Hall. Stephen Willis. Oliver Attwood. Abner Harris. John Francis. Samuel Francis. Thomas Willis. John Whitmore. John Francis. Ebenezer Brooks. Francis Whitmore. Samuel Brooks. William Pottony. Thomas Hall.

As this subject created local or territorial interests. it was prudently thought best not to force any measure relating to it. More than a year elapsed before any decisive action was taken. July 19, 1722, voted “to build a meeting-house according to the advice and determination of the honored committee chosen and empowered by the town to state that affair, and in the same place which said committee stated and ordered in the result.”