Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 9.

[p. 26] his family, from Cambridge, were protested against as becoming legal inhabitants of Medford, and warned to be gone, which was filed and entered at the County Court in Cambridge. I cannot state whether William went away or not, but probably he did not.

The first list of taxes, or County Rate, as it is called, is under date of February 9, 1684-5, and contains nineteen names, among which are many that were common through later years in our local matters, such as Wade, Hall, Brooks, Willis, Tufts, Francis, Whitmore, Bradshaw and others.

On October 19, 1686, the Court of Pleas and General Sessions at Cambridge appointed Stephen Willis to take account of all births and deaths within the ‘Township of Medford.’ This evidently was the beginning of the census of births of our present time, and the record, which is in the back part of this book of which I am writing, was undoubtedly commenced then. Stephen Willis, who was town clerk, either through personal knowledge or obtaining information from the families, wrote up these records for the previous years, which do not come in chronological order, but in such manner as to indicate that he entered a record of a birth, marriage or death which had occurred since 1674 as it came to his memory or knowledge. He seems to have been well informed in regard to the Willis family, as on page 273 are entered collectively the birth of seven members thereof between 1673 and 1682.

On June 4, 1689, occurs the following record:—‘Ensighne Peter Tufts was chosen by the Towne as Representitive According to the Honored Councils Signification dated may 30, 1689.’

Probably the Provincial Government had granted the settlement a representative to the General Court, and had thus removed all obstacles to the complete powers and authority of Medford as a town—it was no longer a ‘peculiar.’

The first action relative to the construction of a meeting-house