Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 24.

But who were the gentlemen of the Historical Society, the iconoclasts who assailed the bogus history, and established beyond doubt the identity of the house in question? In reply we name three: Hon. William Cushing Wait, in his article on ‘Maps of Medford,’ Mr. Walter H. Cushing, in ‘The Cradock Farm,’ both read at Society meetings and published in the Register. Then, Mr. John H. Hooper took up the ‘burden of proof,’ by a careful search in the Middlesex Registry. The result of his work, read before the Society, preserved on our pages (Vol. VII, pp. 49-64), fixes the erection of the so-called ‘Cradock house’ as at about 1680 (not 1634) at the instance of Peter Tufts (commonly called Captain Peter), a leading citizen of Medford at that time. Both gentlemen before named agree that Mr. Hooper's work fully establishes as a fact what they only made as assertion regarding the house.

But the question may be asked, ‘Why do people still continue to call it the Cradock house?’ We can only reply that because of long continued habit by the many, and because comparatively few, even after twenty years, know the facts before stated.

The Register (which of course has a limited circulation) Vol. XVIII, p. 60, on ‘Tufts Family Residences,’ by the editor, deals with this subject, supplementing Mr. Hooper's work, referring to the same for authoritative statement, and showing the fallacy of some newspaper criticism of his work.

Recently the same author has in a local paper dealt with the same subject, which latter evidently is the cause of the article quoted from above, and in which it is stated that prior to the publication of the History of Medford in 1855, the name of Cradock was not attached to that house.

But since the publication of the above quoted extract,