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him of the said Edward Goffe's, wherein Samuell Eldred witnesseth:—Edward Goffe desired his calves of Richard Cutter, promising to pay all damages and cost as two men should apprehend to be right; but the said Richard Cutter denied to let him have them except he would take a course with his boy and promise they should never come there again; and a second time, being desired to let Edward Goffe have the calves, he answered, No. The Townsmen, having considered the business, they thus order,—that Edward Goffe shall pay fourteen pence damage to Richard Cutter, and Richard Cutter shall pay for the costs of the same witnesses, four shillings and seven pence.”
Nov. 20, 1648. “Ordered, That there shall be an eight-penny ordinary provided for the Townsmen every second Monday of the month, upon their meeting day; and that whoever of the Townsmen fail to be present within half an hour of the ringing of the Bell (which shall be half an hour after eleven of the clock), he shall both lose his dinner and pay a pint of sack, or the value, to the present Townsmen; and the like penalty shall be paid by any that shall depart from the rest, without leave.
The charges of the dinner shall be paid by the Constable out of the town stock.”
The practice, thus inaugurated, of dining or partaking of other refreshments at the public expense, seems to have been generally observed by the selectmen for nearly two hundred years, until the municipal form of goverment was changed; not indeed at every meeting, nor was the expense always limited to eight pence each.
Feb. 16, 1648-9.
Voted, by the Town, “That the Townsmen should prosecute suit in law against such of the inhabitants of Watertowne as have trespassed in our Great Swamp.”
1
1 At this time Sparks Street and Vassal Lane formed part of the boundary line between Cambridge and Watertown; and the Great Swamp extended northerly from Vassal Lane on both sides of Menotomy River. It would seem that the Townsmen immediately commenced suit against one of the trespassers. In the Court Files of Middlesex County, 1649-50, is still preserved “The Reply of Richard Jackson and Thomas Danforth, plaint., in the behalf of the town of Cambridge, against Samuel Thatcher, of Watertown, def., unto his several answers in the action of the cause for taking away wood out of their bounds.” In answer to the allegation that the swamp was common property, it is declared that, “The present inhabitants of Cambridge purchased the whole dimensions of the town (this legally settled their bounds by order of Court) of the Harford Company about fourteen years since, at which time the chiefest and best parts of this swamp for wood was allotted into particular propriety and fenced in with their planting land by a general fence.” If the trespass continue, “It would then be a groundwork of endless contention, if not the desolating of our poor straitened town, and that for these reasons. (1.) The branches of the swamp so runeth over all our bounds, which is for five miles together not much if any above a mile broad, so that hereby no man can peaceably enjoy his own propriety. (2.) It is the chief supply of the town for wood, being near to us, and many having none elsewhere within the compass of four miles and a half of the town, which cost them two shillings a load more than they can have it for in the swamp: Besides the expense of the inhabitants, it is not unknown the great expense of wood in our town by the College, which we cannot estimate much less than 350 load a year, the chief supply whereof if it be not out of the swamp, it will be costly, as every load must be fetched above five miles.” It is added that the wood from the swamp costs four shillings per load in Cambridge; the cost of cutting and hauling being twenty pence.
Boston. Houghton and Mifflin. 1877.
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