...recent day, at Lowell. All these places were regarded as half-shires ; but the County Records were never removed from Cambridge, as the principal shire, except as follows: During the usurpation of Sir Edmund Andros , he appointed Capt. Laurence Hammond of Charlestown to be Clerk of the Courts and Register of Probate and Deeds, who removed the records to Charlestown. After the revolution and the resumption of ...