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

1658: In answer to a petition of the inhabitants of Mistick, the Court, Oct. 19, decided that they should have half proportion with the rest of the inhabitants of Charlestown in the commons lately divided, unless Charlestown leave the inhabitants of Mistick and their lands to Malden, and the latter accept them.

We have here the names of the first persons who purchased of Mr. Cradock's heirs; viz., Edward Collins, Richard Russel, Jonathan Wade, and Peter Tufts. These laid out new lots and made many sales; and, being added to the settlers already on the ground, the town may be said to have thus had two beginnings. The descendants of Mr. Tufts became the most numerous family in Medford; those of Mr. Wade were few, but rich: he came over in June, 1632. The names of Collins and Russell survived only a short period. The first bounds of lots cannot now be traced.

The Squa Sachem, residing in Medford, Aug. 1, 1637, gives lands to Jotham Gibbon, aged four, son of Ed. Gibbon. Jotham was born in 1633, and afterwards lived in Medford. For the deeds of these lands, as proofs of legal possession, see our account of “Indians.”

Edward Collins, who bought so much land of Mr. Cradock's heirs and resided in Medford a long time, was the first specimen of a genuine land-speculator in the Massachusetts Colony. Besides his frequent purchases and sales in this neighborhood, we find him making investments elsewhere: for example, Dec. 10, 1655, he sells to Richard Champney five hundred acres in Billerica. In 1660 he sold four hundred acres for £ 404, in West Medford, to Thomas Brooks and Timothy Wheeler. These lands, held under the old Indian deed, have continued in possession of the Brooks family to the present day.

Jonathan Wade, who for several years paid the highest tax in Medford, bought land on the south of the river, near Mystic Bridge. Oct. 2, 1656, he bought four hundred acres of Mathew Avery, then living in Ipswich.

The purchasing of land was the most important business transacted by our early fathers. As a specimen of their keen appetite and steady perseverance, we give a list of purchases by Mr. Peter Tufts, chiefly on “Mystic side:” --