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

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[42] bridge on the south side of the river. After the death of Mr. Russell, his heirs sold three hundred and fifty acres to Mr. Peter Tufts. The deed is dated April 20, 1677. This tract is now the most thickly settled part of Medford.

The names of early settlers are found in their deeds of land. Oct. 20, 1656: James Garrett, captain of the ship “Hope,” sells, for £ 5, to Edward Collins, “forty acres of land on the north side of Mistick River, butting on Mistick Pond on the west.”

March 13, 1657: Samuel Adams sells “to Ed. Collins forty acres of land; bounded on the east by Zachariah Symmes, south by Meadford Farm, on the south and west by James Garrett.” Paid £ 10.

Ed. Collins sells to Edward Michelson five and a half acres on the highway to the “oyster-bank” and “long meadow.”

March 13, 1675: Caleb Hobart sells to Ed. Collins, “for £ 660, five hundred acres in Meadford, now in possession of Thomas Shepherd, Daniel Markham, Thomas Willows, (Willis); bounded by Charlestown northerly, Mistick River southerly, Mr. Wade's land easterly, and Brooks's and Wheeler's lands westerly.”

March 29, 1675: Ed. Collins sells “a piece of land to Daniel Markham; bounded by the river on the south, by Joshua Brooks on the west and north, and by Caleb Hubbard on the east.”

Jan. 3, 1676: Ed. Collins sells thirty acres of land to George Blanchard. Ed. Collins was now seventy-three years old.

The “Blanchard farm” was a large one, and is frequently mentioned in the records.

Mr. Nicholas Davison, the mercantile agent of Mr. Cradock, and who lived near Mr. Wade, petitioned the General Court, in the name of Mrs. Cradock, for £ 676, which she said was due to her estate. The Court replied, that “the government were never concerned in Mr. Cradock's adventure,” and therefore could not allow any such claim. Another attempt was made in 1670, and met with a similar fate. It was not long afterwards that the General Court took into consideration the munificent “disbursement of Mr. Cradock in planting the Colony,” and resolved to show their grateful estimate of his worth; and accordingly gave his widow, then Mrs. Whitchcot, one thousand acres of land; and they relinquished all further rights.