Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 3.

[p. 2] bridge, to the hindrance of boats, and exacting toll for cattle that passed over the bridge, and appointed a committee to prosecute the suit, and also appointed parties to attend court as witnesses.

Charlestown records say that on the 26th of the 10th month, 1638, It was ordered that Mr. Walter Palmer and Richard Sprague should follow the suit at the Quarter Court against Mr. Cradock's agent, for stopping up Mistick river with a bridge, to the hindrance of boats, and exacting toll (without any orders) of cattle that go over the bridge.

‘George Buncker, Geo. Hutchinson, and James Hayden were appointed to be at the General Court next, to witness to the concerning of Mr. Cradock's bridge.’

No mention is made of this suit in the records of the General Court.

In 1879, when the old drawbridge was removed to prepare for the foundations of the present stone bridge, a portion of an ancient structure was found on the north side of the river, and the removal of this old structure disclosed the methods of its construction. First, there was laid in the mud at right angles with the river, and a little below low-water mark, a quantity of brush nearly a foot in thickness, cut about four or five feet in length; then on this brush, laid lengthwise the river, were large elm logs. Then on these logs was built the abutment of the bridge, composed of logs roughly squared by the axe, laid in courses, each course laid in an opposite direction from the one on which it rested. This abutment was about 10 feet in width, and was found to be in a perfect state of preservation.

From what is known of the preservation of wood in tidal waters we may be justified in believing that this old structure was the work of Governor Cradock's agent in those early days.

It is probable that the same method of construction was followed the entire length of the northerly abutment, as the bridge extended some 70 feet northerly from the