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

“ [186] circumstances it is very difficult to ascertain its value to the proprietor; that he has mentioned no sum of money for which he would discharge the Commonwealth from the warranty,” etc. The Committee thus reported the facts, without any specific recommendation. It would seem that Mr. Craigie did not succeed in obtaining any further compensation, and that he preferred to abandon all claim for it, rather than to forfeit the privilege of erecting the dam and bridge before mentioned; for on the 9th of May, 1808, he executed a deed releasing all such claims for damage, in consideration of the right granted to him by two Acts of the General Court, in 1807 and 1808, to erect a bridge from Lechmere Point to Boston; which release was accepted and approved by the Governor, May 12, 1808.

Having thus released the Commonwealth from liability to damage for breach of warranty, Mr. Craigie completed his record-title by receiving, for the nominal consideration of one dollar, a conveyance, dated Sept. 20, 1808, of the reversionary right to “all the estate which was set off to Mary Lechmere,” which had been held for him since Oct. 14, 1799, by his friend and kinsman, Mr. Haven. The actual value of the property was much enhanced by the privilege to erect a bridge, and to make the other improvements authorized by the General Court. But the apparent inflation of value was scarcely exceeded by the more recent and almost fabulous transactions in coal-fields and oil-wells. As nearly as can be ascertained from the records, Mr. Craigie paid less than twenty thousand dollars for the whole estate. Reserving sufficient land and flats for the construction of the bridge and the location of a toll-house, he put the remainder on the market at the price of three hundred and sixty thousand dollars, in sixty shares of six thousand dollars each. At this price, three shares were conveyed to Harrison G. Otis, three to Israel Thorndike, and one, each, to Ebenezer Francis, William Payne, Thomas H. Perkins, and John Callender, by deeds dated Nov. 30, 1808. The bridge was completed in 1809, and roads were opened to Cambridge Common, to Medford, and elsewhere, to attract travel from the country to Boston over this avenue. To enable the proprietors to manage and dispose of their valuable real estate, which had hitherto remained apparently undivided and uninhabited (except by a single family in the old Phips farm-house), the General Court, by an Act approved March 3, 1810, incorporated “Thomas Handasyde Perkins, James Perkins, William Payne, Ebenezer Francis, and Andrew Craigie, ”