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this river led up unto; and, indeed, generally all the country round about was an uncouth wilderness, full of timber.
This party from
Salem, passing through
Medford, were the first
European feet that pressed the soil we now tread.
At the Court of Assistants, held in
London, May 21, 1629, it was thus ordered:--
That two hundred acres of land be by them allotted to each adventurer for £ 50 adventure in the common stock, and so, after that rate, and according to that proportion, for more or less, as the adventure is, to the intent they may build their houses and improve their lands thereon.
It is further fit and ordered, that all such as go over in person, or send over others at their charge, and are adventurers in the common stock, shall have lands (fifty acres) allotted unto them for each person they transport to inhabit the plantation, as well servants as all others.
Mr. Cradock, according to this, must have had large grants.
The lands granted must be improved within three years, or forfeited.
If a person came here who had no share in the common stock of the
Company, he could have only fifty acres of land, though a head of a family.
These small grants surprise us till we consider that land in the Old World, and especially in
England, was scarce and dear.
Governor Winthrop in his Journal says: “Thursday, 17th of June, 1630: We went to
Massachusetts to find out a place for our sitting down.
We went up
Mystick River about six miles.”
This was the first exploration of the river, carried probably as far as
Medford lines; and the
English eyes in that boat were the first eyes of settlers that looked upon these fields on which we now live.
The first settlers came from
Suffolk,
Essex, and
Lincolnshire, in England.
The first grant made by the Court of Assistants of lands in Mistick was made to
Governor Winthrop in 1631.
The record says: “Six hundred acres of land, to be set forth by metes and bounds, near his house in Mistick, to enjoy to him and his heirs for ever.”
He called his place, after the manner of the
English noblemen, the “Ten Hills farm ;” which name it still retains.
This favorite selection of the
chief magistrate would naturally turn his thoughts to his fast friend,
Mathew Cradock, and lead him to induce
Mr. Cradock's men to settle in the neighborhood.
Thus we arrive at a natural reason for the first coming of shipwrights and
