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

1758.--Rev. Ebenezer Turell wrote his first will, in which he gave the house he purchased of John Giles to the church in Medford, “for the use of the ministry for ever.” He afterwards wrote two different wills. The bonds and mortgages owned by him in 1772 amounted to £ 4,860.

1759.--In recording marriages, the Rev. Mr. Turell often designated the trade or profession of the bridegroom. Jan. 4, 1759, he married a man, and called him “a ranger.”

1759.--The first time of using the silver baptismal basin was Sept. 9, 1759, when Benjamin, son of Benjamin Francis, was baptized. The last baptism in the second meeting-house was of Rhoda, daughter of Moses Tufts, Feb. 4, 1770. The first in the new meeting-house was Lydia, daughter of Samuel Teel, March 18, 1770.

Nov. 24, 1759.--The name of Mead occurs for the first time in the Medford records.

1760.--The word dollar occurs in the Medford records for the first time.

1760.--A certain clergyman said to an Indian, “I am sorry to see you drink rum.” The Indian replied, “Yes, we Indians do drink rum; but we do not make it.”

1761.--The first record of any vote of thanks in Medford bears date of May 13, 1761, “thanking Mr. Thomas Brooks for his good services as treasurer.”

1762.--Wages for a man's labor one day, three shillings and fourpence (lawful money); for a man and team, six shillings and eightpence.

Nov. 1, 1763.--The Stamp Act went into operation.

In 1763, there were nine hundred and five full-blooded Indians in the Old Colony.

Sept. 7, 1767.--Voted that the one hundred and three hymns written by Dr. Watts be used in public worship, in connection with Tate and Brady's version of the Psalms.

Thomas Seccomb was town-clerk for twenty-two years, and resigned in 1767. He wrote a very legible hand, spelled his words properly, and was the only person in Medford who seemed to have any care for records, or any thought of posterity in them.

Oct. 13, 1768.--Rev. Edward Brooks preached for Mr. Turell.

Royalton, Worcester County, Mass., was named in honor of Colonel Royal, of Medford.

1770.--The engraving of the house in which the writer of this history was born is placed at the end of this volume, as his signature.

March 26, 1770.--“Last Tuesday, Henry Lloyd, Esq., set out on a journey to New York, Philadelphia, and the southern colonies; and it was observed that the gentleman's whole apparel and house furniture were of American manufacture. His clothes, linen, shoes, stockings, boots, gloves, hat, even wig and wig-call, were all manufactured and made up in New England. An example truly worthy of imitation.”