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town of Cambridge,” and was declared to be “a distinct village and place of itself,” or, in other words, was incorporated as a town, by the order passed Jan. 11, 1687, old style, or Jan. 11, 1688, according to the present style of reckoning.1
A few matters of less public nature, belonging to this period, should not be entirely overlooked.
I quote from the Town Records.
Dec. 14, 1657. “Liberty is granted unto Mr. Stedman, Mr. Angier, &c., the owners of the Ketch Triall, to fell some timber on the common for a ware-house.”
Nov. 14, 1670. “Granted to the owners of the Ketches that are to [be] builded in the town liberty to fell timber upon the common for the building of the said Ketches.”
By the County Court Records, it appears that in April, 1672, Daniel Gookin, Walter Hastings, and Samuel Champney, recovered ten pounds damage and costs of court, against William Carr for the unworkmanlike finishing of two ketches, or vessels, of thirty-five tons and twenty-eight tons.
Among the papers in this case, remaining on file, is a deposition, to wit: “John Jackson, aged about 25 years, testifieth that, being hired to work upon the two vessels (whereof William Carr was master-builder) in Cambridge, I wrought upon the said vessels about four months in the winter 1670,” etc. Sworn April 2, 1672.
These were probably the vessels mentioned in the Town Order, Nov. 14, 1670.
They were small in size; but it appears from Randolph's narrative,2 written in 1676, that more than two thirds of all the vessels then owned in Massachusetts ranged from six tons to fifty tons.
Feb. 18, 1658.
The Town voted, “That the Great Swamp lying within the bounds of this town, on the east side of Fresh Pond meadow and Winottomie Brook, shall be divided into particular allotments and propriety.”
March 23, 1662-3. “Ordered, that if any man be convicted that his dog is used to pull off the tails of any beasts, and do not ”
1 The orders in council are dated Jan. 1687; but that this was in the Old Style, calling March 25th the first day of the year, and thus equivalent to Jan. 1688, commencing the year, as we now do with the first day of January, is certain, because (1) according to the present style, Wednesday was not the eleventh day of January in 1687, but it was in 1688; and (2) King Charles II., died Feb. 6, 1684-5, and consequently the third year of the reign of James II. did not commence until Feb. 6, 1686-7, and the only January in that “third year” was in 1687-8, that is, in 1688, by the present style of reckoning.
2 Hutchinson's Coll. Papers, 496.
Boston. Houghton and Mifflin. 1877.
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