Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register

The selectmen of Cambridge plaintiffs against Capt. Lawrence Hammond and John Cutler, jun., defendants, do humbly declare as followeth, &c. In the year 1634 the General Court granted them liberty to erect a ware upon Minottomy River, and they accordingly so did, and have had quiet possession of the same from that time until now, without any disturbance of their neighbors of Charlestown or any other; and hath been in a manner the stay and support of the town by fishing their Indian corn, which is the principal part of their husbandry and livelihood. But this last spring the defendants, to the great damage of the plaintiffs, have interrupted their fishing by crossing said River below the wares granted to Cambridge by the Court, whereby the grant of the Court is made null and void, and they are put out of the possession of that which they have peaceably enjoyed forty-six years, contrary to law and equity. And after that the plaintiffs had obtained a writ of nuisance to bring the case to a legal trial, the defendants have both violently and contemptuously proceeded to obstruct the passage of the fish to the wares, which they so long possessed as above said, to their great damage