plify the Town business" was desired, and a committee consisting of the two magistrates, the elders, Mr. Giles Firman and George Giddings was appointed "to prepare for the next meeting of the freemen, what they shall think meet for yearly maintenance and for the way of raysing of it."

In Feb. 1643/4, Robert Lord was chosen by the Town, "from this time forward to be present at every general meeting of the Town, and of the freemen and of the seven men, and to record in a book what is committed to him by [ ] Moderator of every such meeting, and to tend in some convenient time before the end of the meeting to read over what is written, and he is to have [ ] third parts of the fines for not appearing at meetings, for this service." He was termed Recorder, but the duties of his office were very similar to those of the Town Clerk of later days.

Glimpses are had here of the rigor with which the body of voters directed its own action. In 1648, in general Town meeting, it was ordered that all the inhabitants of the Town that shall be absent from the yearly meeting, or any other whereof they have lawful warning, shall forfeit a shilling. Robert Lord earned his twothirds no doubt, for his duties included ringing the bell, calling the roll, and collecting the forfeit. Twelve freemen were soon called upon to pay a fine of 12a a piece for absence.

In 1643, the tenure of office was extended to a year, and in 1650, the seven men were called by the familiar name of selectmen. In that year, the elective officials were Selectmen, two Constables, four Surveyors, and a Committee of Five" to make the elders' rates," or, in plainer language, to apportion the tax for the support of the ministry. Mr. Robert Payne had been appointed Committee or Treasurer for the Town in May, 1642, but it does not seem to have been an annual elective office.

"The

Road-surveyors were a pointed in January, 1640/1, and the men appointed to that office were Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Symonds, Mr. Payne, and Robert Andrews, four of the most substantial citizens. The roads were hardly more than cart-paths, grassgrown, except in the wheel ruts. In some localities the unused portion of the public way was sufficiently broad to pay for its own maintenance. Thus, in 1640, haye upon Chebacco waye toward Labour-in-vain Creeke [now known as the Argilla road] was granted John Lee, this year only, the land itself being settled for a highway, the Town intending that by like grant he shall enjoy it, he giving no cause to the contrary, it remaining in the Town's hand to give or not to give."

It was also voted, that same year, that "the highway to Chebacco beneath Heartbreak Hill forever be repayred by the benefit of the grass yearly growing upon the same;" and John Leigh (whose name is still associated with "Leigh's Meadow," as the older people among us still call the meadow land, owned by Mr. George Haskell on the south side of the Argilla road) was "to enjoy all profits of the highway, and all the common ground lying at the foot of Heart-break Hill, maintaining the highway from Rocky Hill [now owned by Mr. Moritz B. Philipp], to William Lampson's lot;" "and if there be any ground that may conveniently be planted, he hath liberty to plant it and secure it for himself, he always leaving a sufficient highway for carting and drift."

Within the memory of a venerable lady still living, Green Lane, as Green Street was then called, was a grassy lane with a number of different ruts. Travel was chiefly

on horseback, and the heavy farm teaming was done in two-wheeled carts or tumbrils, drawn by oxen. Four-wheeled vehicles were almost unknown. In many spots the roads were wet and muddy from the outflow of springs. The present Mineral Street, originally Dirty Lane, was a proverbially miry thoroughfare, from its nearness to the swampy lands, that are still low and wet. The deep deposit of leaf mould, which had accumulated for ages, made it difficult to maintain a passable road in many quarters, no doubt.

To keep these primitive highways in fair condition was no mean task in itself. But the highway surveyor had other duties. The lines of roadway were not defined with any accuracy. It was easy for landholders to push out their fences and claim portions of the common highway, and the surveyor was bound to detect such encroachments and determine their extent. Men of the finest quality were needed for this and other delicate tasks, and large powers were given them, as the regulations adopted in 1641 indicate.

1.

"Agreed that road-ways and general ways be done first." 2. "That people work the whole day."

3.

"That defaulters shall forfeit the value of their wages double, both carts and workmen: carts to have reasonable warning."

4. "If any man hath 24 hours warning, it is sufficient, unless his excuse be allowed by one of the surveyors."

5. "All youths above 14 years of age are to work in this common business. It is intended such as doe comonly use to work."

6.

"That the surveyors are to take notice themselves and information of others of encroachment of all ways, and also of annoyances etc - and to bring the same to the Town to be punished."

7. For every day's default, the forfeit is in Summer 38 4d, in Winter 25 64; for defect of a team each day is in Summer 13 4d, in Winter 10"."

To execute these regulations required much discretion. That fifth article alone was enough to involve the unhappy surveyor in much difficulty, if he failed to recognize the dignity of some fourteen-year-old son of a sensitive family.

To these responsible duties were added, "making up and keeping the wall about the Meeting House in repair" (1650), and “repairing the highway leading to Chebacco and to Castle Neck, that is, beyond that part of the way that John Leigh hath undertaken" (1650). They were instructed, in 1651, to "appoint a considerable company of men to fell the small wood upon the Eastern side of Jeffries Neck, to prepare it for sowing to hay seed;" and in 1653, Mr. Hodges, with one other surveyor calling John Perkins Sen. with them, were ordered to "call out 40 of the Inhabitants to goe to Jeffry's Neck with hoes, to hoe up weeds that spoil the Neck and sow some grass seeds." The surveyors have power also to call out all the Town for one day's work, both men and teams, “to the filling up of a wharf, and mending the street against it." Next to the question of roads and highways, their location, bounds and maintenance, was the great matter of the common lands, which were held by the house

holders in common, and used for pasturage, and supplies of fuel and timber. This was a relic of the ancient system of land-holding in Germany and England, and was reverted to naturally in the primitive colonial life from the necessities of the situation.

In November, 1634, it was agreed that "the length of Ipswitch should extend westward unto [ ] buryinge place, and Eastward unto a Cove of the River, unto the planting ground of John Pirkings the Elder.” The cove here mentioned is that below the wharves, where East street touches the River; John Perkins Sen. owned land on the opposite side of the street. Beyond these limits, the land was held in common. It was further specified that "the Neck of land adjoining Mr. Robert Coles extending unto the sea shall remayne for common use unto the Town forever." This may mean Manning's Neck or Jeffrey's, or even both. "The Necke of land, whereuppon the Great Hill standeth, w'ch is known by the name of Castle Hill," was likewise reserved. This vote, however, was revoked when Castle Hill was granted Mr. John Winthrop Jan. 13, 1637/8 “provided that he lives in the Town, and that the Town may have what they shall need for the building of a fort."

To define this common land, and separate it effectually from the Town proper, a fence was necessary, and the Town voted in January, 1637/8" that a general fence shall be made from the end of the town to Egypt River, with a sufficient fence, and also from the East end of the Town in the way to Jeffries Neck, from the fence of John Perkins to the end of a creek in the marsh near land of Wry Foster, to be done at the charge of all those that have land within the said compass, and by them to be maintained." On the south side of the River, this fence was near Heart-break Hill, (1650) and it extended across to the present County street, near the line of the brook, as seems probable from ancient deeds. Liberty was granted to fell trees for this purpose, and it may have been built easily of logs, piled zigzag fashion, as pasture fences are still built in wooded regions. As early as 1639, a special Committee was chosen to view this fence, the original Fence Viewers," who are still elected at the March town meeting. Their function was of the highest importance.

The principal use of these common lands was for pasturage. Johnson, in his Wonder Working Providence, observes that the cattle had become so numerous in 1646 that many hundred quarters of beef were sent to Boston from Ipswich every autumn. Swine and sheep had also increased rapidly. Every day these great herds were driven out into the commons to find rich and abundant forage in the woods, and along the sedgy banks of ponds and streams. The common fence was necessary to keep them from straying back into the cultivated fields. Any breach in it might involve great loss in growing crops, at a time when a scarce harvest was a very serious menace to the health and comfort of the little community. No wonder they chose men of the greatest sobriety and carefulness for the responsible duty of viewing and having charge of this rude fence.

Their duties became even more onerous we may presume after the year 1653 when, in accordance with the order from the General Court, the town ordered "that all persons, concerned and living in Ipswich shall, before April 20th have their fences in a good state (except farms of one hundred acres) made of pales well nailed or pinned, or of five rails well fitted, or of stone wall three and a half feet high at least, or with

a ditch three or four feet wide, with a substantial bank, having two rails or a hedge, or some equivalent, on penalty of 5s. a rod and 2s a week for each rod while neglected."

These herds of large and small cattle needed to be watched lest they should stray away into the wilderness, or be assailed by wolves. For this service, the cowherd and shepherd and swine-herd were essential, and thus we find the town officials of England in the Middle Ages again in vogue in our midst. Prof. Edward A. Freeman in his Introduction to American Institutional History aptly observes:

1

"The most notable thing of all, yet surely the most natural thing of all, is that the New England settlers of the 17th century, largely reproduced English institutions in an older shape than they bore in the England of the seventeenth century. They gave a new life to many things, which in their older home had well nigh died out. The necessary smallness of scale in the original settlements was the root of the whole matter. It, so to speak, drove them back for several centuries. It caused them to reproduce in not a few points, not the England of their own day, but the England of a far earlier time. It led them to reproduce in many points the state of things in old Greece and in medieval Switzerland."

In the earliest contract with the cowherds mentioned in our Town Records, under date of Sept. 1639, agreement was made with Wm. Fellows to keep the herd of cows on the south side the river, from the 20th of April to the 20th of November. He was bound "to drive them out to feed before the sunne be half an hour high, and not to bring them home before half an hour before sunset." He was to drive the cattle, "coming over the River, back over the River at night," and to take charge of them "as soon as they are put over the River in the morning." He was liable for all danger coming to the cattle, either by leaving them at night or during the day, and was to re⚫ceive 12 pence for each cow before he took them, a shilling and sixpence fourteen days after midsummer and the rest at the end of the term in corn or money, a total of £15. The cows on the north side of the river were herded by themselves in 1640, and Wm. Fellows, Mark Quilter and Symon Tompson were the cow-keepers, receiving them at Mr. Norton's gate. In 1643, the cows were gathered, "over against Mr. Robert Payne's house," i. e. at the corner of High and Market streets. The cowherds were instructed in 1647, at "the first opportunity to burn the woods, and to make a Bridge over the River to Wilderness Hill," and all herdsmen were ordered "to winde a horn before their going out." The herds were driven out, partly "over Sanders", i. e. over Sanders's brook on the Topsfield road, and partly up High street. The owners of cows were bound to provide men to relieve the cowherds every other Sabbath day. The herdsmen warned two on Friday night for each Sabbath day and refusal to do the service required was punishable with a fine of three shillings for each instance of neglect. In 1649, Daniel Ringe was ordered to "attend on the green before Mr. Rogers house" (the South Green) and the cowherd was obliged to keep the herd one Sunday in four.

The whole time and attention of the cowherd and his assistants were regulated

1 Johns Hopkins University Studies, 1.

2 This was the name of a hill near the present line of division between Essex and Ipswich, in the vicinity of Haffield's Bridge. The name is still remembered in connection with the range of hills on the east side of the Candlewood road, near Sagamore Hill.

by law. By order of the General Court in 1642, the "prudentiall" men of each town were instructed "to take care of such [children] as are sett to keep cattle be set to some other employment withal, as spinning upon the rock,' knitting, weaving tape, etc., and that boys and girls be not suffered to converse together so as may occasion any wanton, dishonest or immodest behaviour." Wm. Symonds needed a special permit in 1653, before he could cut two parcels of meadow in the common, near Capt. Turner's Hill, while he kept the herd.

"No great cattle, except cows and working cattle in the night," were allowed on the cow commons and any mares, horses or oxen found in the commons two hours after sunrising, might be driven to the Pound by the finder (1639).

The cowherd's recompense varied from year to year, but was always a modest return for his service. Haniel Bosworth contracted in 1661 to keep the herd on the north side of the river for thirteen shillings a week, "a peck of corn a head at their going out, one pound of butter or half peck of wheat in June, and the rest of his pay at the end of his time, whereof half to be paid in wheat or malt; the pay to be brought to his house within six days after demanded or else to forfeit 6d a head more." "" Agreed with Henry Osborn to join Bosworth to keep the cows on the same terms. One of them to take the cows in Scott's lane and to blow a horn at the meeting-house green in the morning." In 1670, the town voted that every cow of the herd should wear a bell and the early morning air was full of rural music, with lowing cows, tinkling bells and the sounding blasts upon the cowherd's horn.

Swine caused more trouble than the great cattle. Certain sections of the common lands were set apart for their special use. In 1639 it was agreed with Robert Wallis and Thomas Manning to keep four score hogs upon Plum Island from the 10th of April "until harvest be got in;""and that one of them shall be constantly there night and day, all the tyme, and they are to carry them and bring them home, provided those that own them send each of them a man to help catch them, and they are to make troughs to water them in, for all which paynes and care they are to have 12 penc a hogg, at the entrance, 2 shillings a hogg at mid summer, for so many as are then living, and 2 shillings a hogg for each hogg they shall deliver at the end of harvest." A herd of swine is alluded to in 1640 on Castle Neck and on Hogg Island.

But many of the inhabitants preferred to keep their hogs nearer home, and as the idea of confining them in pens about the premises had not been conceived, they were driven out into the commons to graze. A good two miles was to separate them from the town, and for any big pigs found within that limit the owners were liable to pay a forfeit of five shillings apiece; but it was “ 'provided that such small pigs as are pigged after 1st of February shall have liberty to be about the Town, not being liable to pay any damage in house lots or gardens, but if any hurt be done in house lots and gardens, the owner of the fence through which they came shall pay the damage. The pigges have liberty until 16 August next."

The pigges" used their liberty injudiciously, and brought upon themselves the severer edict of 1645, that no hogs should run in the streets or commons without

1 Mrs. Alice Morse Earle in "Home Life in Colonial Days," page 178, says that the hand distaff, upon which thread was spun, was called a "rock."