A chronological timeline built from the 469 transcribed pages of Sudbury Town Records, Volume One (Powwell_Town_Records_1639-1695_Vol1_transcribed.pdf, page 1, and pages 002–469 in transcribed.html), as transcribed and edited by Sumner Chilton Powell, Ph.D. The Page column gives the page number of Powell's typescript (not the original 1639–1695 manuscript's own foliation) and links to that page. Routine land-allotment rolls are compressed to summary entries rather than fully transcribed; 315 dated entries are listed below, grouped into seven eras.
Founding the TownA Growing PlantationToward ConflictKing Philip's War and Its AftermathRebuilding and DisciplineRevolution and a New Meeting HouseWar Debt and a New Order
| Date | Page | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1639 (earliest entries, undated day) | 003 | Fence order: every landholder in a common field must complete sufficient fencing by April 4 of that year or forfeit 5 shillings per default; Edmund Rice and Robert Darnill appointed overseers for the north field, Thomas Goodnow and Andrew Belcher for the south field. Land granted to Thomas Cakebread (~40 acres upland plus ~16-20 acres meadow) in consideration of his building a mill, plus an additional 30 acres meadow and 40 acres upland toward his estate. Meadow-allotment formula established for all inhabitants: 6 acres per head of family, 6½ acres per wife, 1½ acres per child, plus an allowance per animal (cattle, horse, etc.) valued at £20. |
| December 20, 1639 ("the 20th day of the last month 1639") | 004 | Ordered that two-thirds of every inhabitant's total meadow allotment be laid out this year (first division by discretion, second division by lot). Highway-repair order: inhabitants must turn out for road mending when summoned by the surveyors (Peter Noyse, John Parminter) or forfeit 5 shillings per default. |
| December 22, 1639 ("the 22th day of the last month 1639") | 004 | Rate/levy order: town rates to fund purchase of the plantation and other charges will be assessed according to each inhabitant's granted meadow quantity, per the first-division schedule; men whose acreage was adjusted for poor land quality are not to be rated for the extra allowance acres. |
| First and second divisions of meadow (roll), c.1639-1640 | 005 | Full roll recording the first division of meadow, laid out along the Great River to each inhabitant in turn (examples: Henry Prentisse 1½ acres, Peter Noyes 16 acres, Bryan Pendleton 12½ + 1 allowance, Edmund Browne 16½ + 2½ allowance, Walter Hayme 13½ acres, William Pellam 16½ acres — roughly 45 inhabitants listed in all). Followed by the second division of meadow, by lot, to substantially the same inhabitants (examples: John Howe 4 acres, Bryan Pendleton 30½ acres, William Pellam 33½ acres, Edmund Rice 18½ acres — 36 lots listed). Peter Noyse's second-addition meadow (16 + 16 acres) laid out near the Concord bounds and toward Bridle Point. Edmund Browne granted 15 acres (Timber Neck) and 20 acres (Bridle Point) for his second addition, contingent on arrangements with Mr. Herbert Pellam. Signed: Edmund Browne, Walter Haynes, Peter Noyse, Edmund Rice, Brian Pendleton, George Munnings. |
| April 1, 1640 ("the 2nd month the 1st day 1640") | 008 | Hog ordinance: from April 24, all hogs and pigs kept in town must wear yokes and nose rings; violation forfeits 10 shillings; any person finding an unringed hog may impound it and keep half the resulting fine, the other half going to the town. |
| April 3, 1640 | 009 | Order that if the Treasurer distrains goods/cattle for the Country rate, the town will bear the cost of standing suit against the Treasurer, funded by a town rate (signed by 16 men, including Wm. Pelham, William Kerley, Peter Noyes, John Moore, John Goodnow, John Maynard, Walter Hayme). Land grants: Edmond Rice given 20 acres upland between his own land and Mr. Dunster's farm; John Ruddocke given 10 acres upland. John Toll granted 5 acres meadow ahead of the general third addition (later confirmed in the great meadow), plus 1½ acres upland behind his house adjoining land he bought of William Browne. |
| May 13, 1640 | 009 | At the General Court of Election, Boston: Sudbury's petition for a one-mile addition to the plantation (southeast and southwest sides) is granted, provided it does not interfere with a possible new plantation or with Mrs. Glover's 600-acre farm (to be laid out by Thomas Mayhew and Thomas Flint). Certified as a true copy by Edward Rawson, Secretary. |
| June 18, 1640 ("the 18th, 4th month, 1640") | 010 | Brian Pendleton and Edmund Goodnow authorized to lay out the town's "third addition" lands at their own discretion, with the result to stand firm without contradiction. Perambulation record: boundary line of new grants marked by numbered trees (oaks, a walnut, an ash, a pine, a chestnut, a dead stump with a stone heap at the westerly corner); reported by John Goodnow on behalf of the perambulation party (with Joseph Goodnow and John Grene). (Text damaged) Order establishing a cow common for working and newly-weaned cattle between two named streets. |
| c.1640 (undated, text damaged) | 011 | Common-land order (damaged): town common land not to be used by townsmen unless improved within two months; penalty for felling timber on it without leave. Signed: Peter Noyes, Walter Hayme, John Parmenter, Brian Pendleton. |
| November 18, 1640 ("the eyghteeneth day of the nynth moneth 1640") | 010 | A town-appointed commission lays out the third addition of upland to inhabitants across several named locations (Gravel Pit, south end of Long Hill, the north brook toward Concord, north of Brian Pendleton's 20 acres, the northeast brook, south side of the hill, south side of the river). Grants recorded to roughly 30 men including John Knight (55 acres), Hugh Griffyn (20), Edmond Rice, Edmond Goodenough, William Ward, John Freeman, Solomon Johnson, Bryan Pendleton (38, then 18 more), Walter Hayme (57, then 22 more), Thomas Noyes, John Waterman, John Blanford, Robert Darnill (18), Henry Prentiss, Andrew Belcher, Thomas Cakebread (44), Mr. Noyse (53), Thomas Browne (25), and others, plus 12 acres set aside as pine-land allowance for the field. |
| November 14, 1640 ("the 9th month the 14th day") | 012 | Freemen of the town confirm land formerly given to "Ancient" (Antyient) Cakebread. Signed: Peter Noyes, Walter Hayme, Brian Pendleton, Edm Rice. |
| Late November 1640 ("the first day of the last month 1640") | 012 | Series of individual land grants ordered the same day: Robert Davis, 4 acres upland (wherever convenient); Robert Darnill, 5 acres meadow + 5 acres upland (second division, other side of the river); Goodman Knight, a meadow parcel near Mr. William Pelham's 50 acres (to make up a shortfall in his first/second division); Goodman Hayme, the remainder of meadow yielded up by Pastor Edmund Browne (minus 1 acre reserved for Knight/Hayme); Widow Hunt, 10 acres meadow + 10 acres upland (after the second divisions are laid out, before the third); Henry Prentiss and John Maynard, 3 acres meadow each (to complete their estates); Andrew Belcher, 5 acres upland adjoining his 14 acres; Goodman Bent, 3 acres upland next to Edmond Goodenough's 6 acres. John Bent and Edmund Goodenough authorized to assign timber to any man in necessity. Henry Rice granted 8 (of a previously granted 12) acres meadow on the Great River. |
| 1640 (undated grants, continued) | 014 | Grants recorded to William Warde (7¾ acres meadow in "the gulfe"; 16 acres in Ridge Meadow, partly acquired via John Rediat; 2 acres near the Concord line, acquired via Rediat from Thomas Plympton's third division) and to Edmond Goodnow (6 acres upland near Long Hill and the Widow Cakebread's land, bought partly from John Ruddocke; 5 acres meadow on the Great River bought from William Kerley; 8½ acres in Pine Meadow; 5 acres allowance in Hop Meadow; a further 6 acres upland at the first addition of meadow). Additional 12 acres upland given to William Ward near his third addition. "A record of such land as were given to gratulate some persons for some service done by them": Bryan Pendleton (14 acres meadow + 20 acres upland), George Munnings (10+10), Walter Hayme (10 acres meadow + 10 acres upland, plus a substitute 29-acre meadow lot on the west side of the river when his original 45th-lot allotment couldn't be laid out downriver), John Parmenter Sr. (10 acres meadow), Edmond Browne (20 acres upland + 15 acres meadow), Peter Noyse (20 acres upland, partly adjoining his house lot). |
| March 29, 1641 ("the 29th day of the first month, 1641") | 017 | Wage and price schedule set by the town: a cart with 4 oxen and a man, 5 shillings/day; mowing, 14 pence/acre or 21 pence/day; carpenters, bricklayers, thatchers, 21 pence/day; common laborers, 18 pence/day; sawyers, 3s.4d. per hundred sawn boards, 4s.8d. per hundred for slit work; yearly covenant servants capped at £5/year (best rate), maidservants at 50 shillings/year; farms in common fields must be fenced by the 10th of the second month or forfeit 5 shillings per rod left open; corn transport from Watertown to Sudbury capped at 5 pence/bushel, other goods at 20 shillings/ton. Robert Darnill and Robert Slate granted 6-8 acres near the cranberry swamp, to divide equally. Hugh Griffyn permitted to exchange his 5-acre second-addition meadow in the great meadow for equivalent inland meadow near his third-addition upland and the gravel pit. |
| 1641 (undated, continued) | 018 | Henry Prentiss and Hugh Drury each granted 4 acres near the Pine Brook field, if land remains beyond prior grants. |
| May 4, 1641 ("the 4th day of the third month, 1641") | 018 | Hog ordinance renewed: any hog found in a planted field without a yoke forfeits half a bushel of corn per offense from its owner, split between the finder and the town; anyone keeping more hogs than his own must remove the excess within a fortnight or pay 5 shillings/week per extra hog; fence-viewers empowered to distrain half a bushel of corn per unlawful rod of fence found. Land granted to Mr. Henry Dunster (Harvard College's president) to accommodate his farm: roughly 80 acres upland north of his farm, and roughly 80 acres more south of the town bounds, both adjoining meadow the town had earlier given his wife. |
| 1641 (undated, continued) | 019 | 55 acres of meadow laid out to Mr. Edmund Browne (his third division), in the southwest part of the town bounds, marked by three matched white oaks. Walter Hayme laid out 2 acres meadow (Fligh Meadow, third division) and 6 acres meadow (Hop Meadow, allowance); the 2-acre parcel later passed from Hayme to Solomon Johnson to Hugh Griffyn. Robert Darnill's third-division meadow (due 12¾ acres in Pantry Meadow) fell short after the land was granted instead to Solomon Johnson via William Browne; compensated with 3 acres (north part of town, west of the pantry) and 4 acres (north end of Strawberry Hill meadow). Also granted 18½ acres upland on Pine Plain (near "Groutes," between Edmund Rice's and John Freeman's land) and 5 acres meadow at Pine Brook, south of Edmund Goodnow's land. Highway-labor rule: the poorest men work one day; others work in proportion to meadow held (6 acres of meadow = 1 day's labor), as directed by the surveyors. John Rutter granted 4 acres upland for a house lot near the mill brook, plus two small meadow "sponges" adjoining. Solomon Johnson granted 10 acres upland on the river, wherever available without prejudice to others. |
| September 1641 ("the 7th month, 1641") | 021 | John Goodenough resigns meadow near Mr. Pelham's; town gives him 4 acres of meadow on the other side of the river in exchange. Hog ordinance renewed: hogs found in the meadows without a ring or yoke after September 22 forfeit 12 pence; Edmund Goodnow appointed enforcer, keeping half the penalty. |
| November 11, 1641 ("the eleventh day of eleven month 1641") | 021 | Every inhabitant with land already laid out must submit a copy for the town record by the 20th of the month, on pain of a 20-shilling forfeit for default. Town highway system formalized with fixed rod-widths at several named points (2 rods near Munnings Point/Edmund Rice's meadow; 4 rods from Blanford's bridge to Bridle Point; 4 rods from Walter Hayme's to John Goodnow's land; 5 rods along the river meadow), to be laid out by Peter Noyes, Edmond Goodnow, Brian Pendleton, William Browne, and Walter Hayme. |
| May 2, 1642 | 022 | Cattle-herding order: all town cattle must have a keeper this summer; herds barred from the Great River meadows (Bridle Point toward Concord) to protect the meadows; herdsmen fined 4 shillings and owners 6 pence per head for defaults. |
| 1642 (undated) | 022 | Agreement with Ambrose Leach: the town grants him roughly 6 acres of meadow near Pendleton's second addition, 4 more acres of meadow, 20 acres of upland (west side of the river, north of Walter Hayme's land), 10 acres of meadow (third addition), and admits him as a townsman with commonage rights — in exchange for his building a cart bridge over the river (3 ft above high water, 12 ft wide) by the end of August, with the town supplying and cutting the timber. Recorded land transactions among settlers: Thomas Kinge buys George Munnings's former house/houselot (via Mr. Noyes) plus adjoining upland and meadow; John Parmenter Jr. buys Henry Prentiss's houselot; further individual grants to Thomas Goodnow, Robert Darnill, John Goodnow, and Thomas White (parcels near Hogge Hill and elsewhere). |
| September 1, 1642 | 024 | John Moore buys Edmund Rice's house, houselot, upland, and meadow (with all attached town rights and future division rights), and separately buys Henry Rice's house, cowhouse, and houselot — consolidating several adjoining parcels between John Maynard's and Edmund Rice's land. |
| September 1642 – December 1643 (debt case) | 025 | William Swift of Sandwich borrows £3 from Hugh Drury of Sudbury, secured against a house and land in Sudbury (formerly Witherly's, then John Knight's), due the 29th of the 7th month, 1643. Swift defaults and fails to appear; Hugh Drury takes possession of the property on the 2nd day of the 10th month, 1643, witnessed by Thomas Hoyte and John Freeman. |
| December 26, 1642 | 025 | General order: inhabitants with previously granted but unsurveyed land have six months to lay it out, or the town may reclaim and redispose of it notwithstanding earlier grants. John Rutter granted the side hill between his houselot and the brook (~1½ acres). |
| January 13, 1643 ("the 13th day of the 11th month 1642," Old Style) | 026 | A permanent cow common established: a large tract from Robert Darnill's houselot to the common cart-bridge at Edmund Goodnow's meadow, extending to the Watertown line, reserved forever for common grazing and not revocable without every commoner's consent; stocking rights sized to each inhabitant's meadow acreage, with unused capacity open to all until the herd grows to fill it. |
| February 1643 ("the 13th day of the 12th month, 1642") | 026 | Enclosed but ungranted upland meadows to stay open to the common herd each spring until the first day of the third month; owners blocking herd access forfeit £5 per acre enclosed. Goat ordinance: any goat found in a garden, orchard, or green corn to be impounded, owner fined, effective the 20th of the month. Cattle/fencing order: no "great cattle" allowed in planting fields; fences must be ready by the first day of the first month or forfeit 12 pence/rod; field surveyors named — Walter Hayme (first field), Goodman Rice & John Maynard (next field), Robert Darnill & Henry Lokar (north field), Peter Noyes & William Browne (south and fourth field). |
| February 17, 1643 (Old Style 1642) | 027 | Contract with John Rutter to build the town's first meeting house: 30 ft long, 20 ft wide, 8 ft between joints, 3 ft between studs, two cross dormers, six clerestory windows; frame to be ready to raise the fourth week of May. Town to draw timber and help raise it, and pay Rutter £6 total (£3 in corn at 3s./bushel or money by a set date; £3 more in money/corn/cattle, valued by two appointed men, on completion). |
| Late 1642 ("the 24th day of the last month 1642") | 028 | Annual town officers appointed: John How, marshal (20 shillings + 12 pence per distraint); Thomas Noyes, ferry keeper (2 pence/passenger, 1 pence each if more than one at a time); Hugh Griffyn, town clerk to attend meetings and write town orders (10 shillings/year). Meeting-house rate to be gathered the same way as the county rate. |
| March 7, 1643 ("the 7th day of the first month 1643") | 028 | Canoe-theft order: taking another man's canoe without leave forfeits 2 shillings. |
| March 25, 1643 ("March the 25th, 1642," Old Style) | 029 | Fencing deadline for fields with English corn sown: to be completed by March 30 or forfeit 6 pence per defective rod. |
| April 1643 ("the first day of the second month, 1643") | 029 | Grant to John Parmenter (7 acres upland, formerly Thomas Noyes's). Robert Darnill, acting as attorney for Robert Fordum (per letter of attorney dated June 9, 1642), sells to William Kerley Sr. all of Fordum's land bought from Joseph Tayntor (30 acres meadow, 16 acres upland) with commonage rights. William Kerley the younger granted 11 acres upland near John Goodnow's land and the cow common. Pastor's salary agreed: £30/year, paid in two installments (one month after Midsummer, one month after Michaelmas); Brian Pendleton and Walter Hayme to collect the rate; the pastor excused from all other town rates this year. |
| May 13, 1643 ("further agreed upon the 13 day of the 2nd moneth 1643") | 030 | Three swamps reserved permanently in common for inhabitants' use (behind Walter Haynes's house near a fresh pond; under the north side of Long Hill toward Concord; abutting the Concord line). Third addition of upland to be allotted to inhabitants in proportion to their existing meadow (per their estate rate); a five-man committee (Mr. Noyes, Mr. Pendleton, Edmund Rice, George Munnings, Edmund Goodenough) empowered to lay it out at their discretion. |
| May 8, 1643 ("the 8th day of the third month of 1643") | 032 | Hugh Griffyn appointed to keep the town's vital records — births, marriages, and deaths — to be paid 3 pence per record. (Earliest vital-records-keeping order in the volume.) Hog ordinances renewed: no lodging "strange" hogs in town (5-shilling forfeit, restating a June 1642 order); hogs must be driven to the woods each morning and shut up at night, or ringed/yoked if left in the street, on pain of 4 pence per default. |
| May 8, 1643 (continued) | 034 | Cranberry swamp formerly granted to "Ancient" Cakebread confirmed to John Grout. Sergeant John Grout granted a swamp near Philemon Whale's new house to pen water for the mill, ownership remaining the town's. |
| May 16, 1643 | 034 | Every householder (or a substitute) required to help raise the meeting house on this date, on pain of a 2s.6d. forfeit for default. |
| May 20, 1643 ("the 20th of the 3rd month") | 034 | Cattle-keeper order: all "great cattle" must have a keeper except working cattle during labor, on pain of 4 pence per head; order to stand one year (a later marginal note records it was reaffirmed January 22, 1645, "till some other order be taken"). |
| June 7, 1643 | 034 | Labor-default order: failing to send a sufficient workman for ordered town work (highways, etc.) forfeits 3 shillings per day's work missed, as directed by the highway surveyor. |
| c. August 1643 ("the 4th day of the 6th month") | 035 | £10 rate levied to finish the meeting house, assessed on meadow, improved land, and livestock (schedule: calves 15s., shoats 6s.8d., kids 4d.), invoice taken by the marshal. |
| September 26, 1643 | 035 | Contract with Timothy Hawkins of Watertown to build a second cart bridge (5 rods long, 12 ft wide, arches 12 ft wide except a 14-ft middle arch, with detailed timber specifications) by the end of May following, for £13 (paid in corn at the country price and cattle as valued by two appointed men); town to fell/carry timber and help raise the frame; John How to pay Hawkins on the town's behalf and empowered to call a rate-levying meeting in mid-March to fund the bridge. |
| 1643 (undated grants, continued) | 037 | Individual land grants and sales recorded: Edmond Rice (upland near Thomas Axtell's and Henry Dunster's land, on Pine Plain, near Long Hill; also buys Mary Axtell's house and 6 acres), Walter Hayme (meadow near Pantry Brook and Pine Meadow), John Hayme (upland/meadow near Blandford's and Noyes's land), Thomas Noyes (upland/meadow near the Concord bounds), Hugh Griffyn (meadow near Henry Curtiss's land and Hop Meadow Brook), John Moore (upland near the Concord path, several meadow parcels, plus a third-division allowance). |
| October 23, 1643 | 039 | Land formerly granted to Thomas Cakebread (now held by his widow, Sara Cakebread) surveyed and laid out by Bryan Pendleton and Edmond Goodnow: ~32 acres upland around the millhouse plus adjoining meadow, 12 acres meadow near the clay pit and brick kilns, 8 acres upland plus the cranberry swamp near Pine Plain, and 30 acres meadow in West Meadow. Bryan Pendleton granted 17 acres meadow in West Meadow (partly bought from Henry Prentiss). Land sales among settlers: Philemon Whale buys from Edmund Rice (9 acres upland) and from John Hayme (7 acres upland); John Hayme buys from Thomas Flyn (1½ acres upland). |
| Late 1643 (undated grants, continued) | 041 | Further individual grants and purchases recorded: Henry Loker, John Loker, Thomas Axtell (buys from Edmond Rice), Robert Darnill (buys from Anthony White), Henry Rice, Thomas Noyes, John Blandford, Edmund Goodnow (buys from Thomas Flyn) — mostly upland parcels in the southern part of the town bounds and near Pine Plain/the mill/pine brooks. |
| October 24, 1643 | 043 | John Parmenter Sr. and Robert Beast agree to a mutual land exchange: Parmenter's ~10-acre meadow in West Meadow for Beast's ~9-acre meadow near Groute's Head, witnessed by John Parminter Jr., John Grout, and Hugh Griffin. |
| October 1643 | 044 | General relief order: any man short of his due proportion of meadow or upland who appeals to the town shall be given satisfaction in other land. |
| November 13, 1643 | 044 | Mr. Noyes, Mr. Pendleton, Walter Hayme, John Parminter Sr., and Thomas Kinge empowered to inspect the river at Thomas Kinge's and contract workmen to build a cart bridge there as needed. Mr. Pendleton directed to formally record his previously granted third addition of meadow. |
| November 26, 1643 | 044 | The town's permanent cow common (from Robert Darnill's houselot to the cart bridge at Edmund Goodnow's meadow, to the Watertown line) re-recorded in full, with stocking rights tied to each inhabitant's meadow acreage, as before. |
| December 11, 1643 | 046 | Order that men with land in a general field must attend its laying-out when lawfully warned, or forfeit their claim to those who do attend. John Stone and Henry Curtiss each granted 6 acres of land. |
| February 28, 1643/44 | 046 | Thomas Goodnow and William Ward agree to a mutual exchange of adjoining meadow parcels in the Great River meadow (~4-5 acres each). |
| March 1, 1643/44 | 046 | Annual officer appointments: John How reappointed marshal, to work with Hugh Griffyn on the rate invoice and collection (20 shillings/year); Hugh Griffyn reappointed town clerk, also to help compose rates (20 shillings/year); John Bent and John Blandford appointed highway surveyors for the year. Fencing order: all general cornfields to be enclosed by the 16th of the month or forfeit 12 pence/rod defective; named field-fence overseers for six fields (Thomas Kinge; John Moore & Hugh Griffyn; Robert Darnill & John Parmenter Sr.; John Parminter Jr. & Andrew Belcher; John Ruddocke & Henry Curtiss; William Ward & John Freeman). |
| April 3, 1644 | 048 | Order that "foreign" cattle taken in for boarding (winter or summer) are liable to town rates the same as town-owned cattle. Three-way land exchange among Edmund Rice, John Wood/Moore, and John How, swapping parcels near William Ward's houselot, Pine Plain, and the west side of the river. |
| June 1, 1644 | 048 | Edmund Goodnow and John Hayme exchange meadow parcels on opposite sides of the river (part of Hayme's first addition of meadow for a rod-breadth parcel Goodnow bought from Thomas Flyn). |
| June 8, 1644 | 049 | Edmund Goodnow and William Kerley Sr. exchange several land parcels: ~16 acres upland (west side of the river) for a ~5-acre meadow parcel in the Great River meadow (assembled from pieces of Goodnow's, Hayme's, Flyn's, and the minister's first-division meadow). |
| June 25, 1644 | 049 | The town grants a seven-man committee — Mr. Noyes, Walter Hayme, Edmond Rice, Brian Pendleton, William Ward, John Goodnow, and Edmond Goodnow — power to manage town affairs for one year, including authority to grant up to 6 acres of upland on their own judgment as occasion requires (an early form of selectmen's authority). Walter Hayme given liberty to select 10 acres of upland to give his servant Richard Bildcome upon completion of his term of service. |
| July 4, 1644 | 050 | A cluster of land sales and exchanges recorded among settlers on this date: William Kerley to Edmond Goodnow (upland formerly Joseph Tayntor's/Mr. Fordum's, plus meadow); Mr. Edmond Browne buys from Hugh Drury (3 acres upland near Timber Neck); Edmond Goodnow buys John Hayme's house and houselot; John Hayme buys upland from Edmond Goodnow; William How buys upland from Edmond Goodnow (traceable through a chain of prior owners: Tayntor → Fordum → Kerley → Goodnow); John Blandford and William How then exchange that parcel for Blandford's own house and houselot (the former Widow Wright/Blandford property). Witnessed throughout by William How and Hugh Griffyn. Further grants: Edmond Goodnow (12 acres + 1½ acres, Pine Plain); Walter Hayme permitted to trade 10 acres of his second-division meadow for 10 acres in "Ridge Meadow"; Thomas Plimpton granted 10 acres upland at Cranberry Bank (and buys 3 more acres from William Kerley); John Redyatt granted 10 + 3 acres upland. |
| September 1644 | 053 | Hog ordinance: from September 6, hogs found in gardens, planted fields, or meadows without yokes and rings forfeit 12 pence each (applies only to hogs kept at home, not boarded out). |
| November 13, 1644 | 053 | Order barring horses, cattle, hogs, and goats from cornfields with English corn sown, effective the 17th of the month until after the Indian harvest; owners of trespassing cattle fined 3 pence/head (or the fence-owner fined if the fence was at fault); anyone may impound offending animals. |
| November 16, 1644 | 053 | Timber-cutting on the common without leave of Mr. Noyes or Edmond Goodnow forfeits 19 shillings per tree; Edmond Goodnow appointed to police this and keep half the forfeit. |
| January 24, 1644/45 | 054 | Hugh Griffyn's grant of meadow near the gravel pit (originally 5 acres) confirmed in full after survey showed it larger than recorded. John Toll appointed to clean the meeting house for a year, for 6s.8d. Fencing arrangements granted to Edmond Goodnow and William Kerley Sr. (the latter required to maintain two gates for town use). |
| January 28, 1644/45 | 054 | Order that all unpaid rates (past and future) be brought to the marshal's house. (Text damaged) A lumber contract for planking, involving Edmund Rice and payment partly in Indian corn; a related contract with Hugh Griffyn to lay sleepers and double-pin planks, also paid partly in corn (3s.6d./3s. per bushel). |
| March 5, 1645 ("the 5th day of the first moneth 1645") | 056 | Town to pay for two community bulls (20 shillings/year each) to service cows and heifers on the south side of the river, plus one more bull on the west side (Mr. Pendleton to find it); bull owners barred from working their bulls, and the bulls run free with the herd. Rate for meeting-house planking due by month's end; fallow land exempted from rates for the fallow year. |
| May 1, 1645 | 056 | Grants recorded: Thomas Beisbeich (10 acres, Ashen Swamp meadows), Henry Curtiss (10 acres upland, Mill Brook), Sara Cakebread widow (40 acres upland), Robert Beast (12 acres, Walnut Tree Hill), John Maynard (1½ + ½ acres), John Goodnow (5 acres, Pine Plain), Edmond Goodnow (5 + 1 acre, bought from Henry Prentiss). Recorded purchases/consolidations: Peter Noyes buys Thomas Goodnow's house/houselot (and Goodnow buys 5 acres from Noyes in return); John Goodnow buys Andrew Belcher's entire house, houselot, and land rights; John Moore buys John Stone's house and all attached rights, fences, and fixtures; John Goodnow buys 1½ acres from Henry Lokar; John Rutter buys John Bent's houselot (then sells part to John Groute). |
| June 10, 1645 | 059 | William Browne and John Moore appointed to call out men for highway repair, apportioned by each man's estate (invoice to be taken yearly). John Blandford and Hugh Griffyn appointed overseers of the meadows, enforcing the 1642 order against cattle entering the great meadow (5 shillings per herdsman default, 6 pence per head for owner default), keeping the forfeits as pay. Edmond Rice and Hugh Griffyn appointed to assist Mr. Pellam (Herbert Pelham) in laying out the third addition of meadow, paid a penny per acre. Mr. Noyes given liberty to take up land at the point of the hard land, west side of the river. Hugh Griffyn appointed to lay out land jointly with Edmond Goodnow in Mr. Pendleton's place. |
| June 24, 1645 | 060 | Men due a third addition of meadow must attend its laying-out when warned, or pay the surveyors 3 pence/acre to do it for them; no one may mow town meadow within 10 days of laying-out, on pain of 2 shillings/acre forfeit. |
| July 9, 1645 | 061 | Oath of Fidelity. A large group of Sudbury men (roughly 40+ named, including William Kerley Sr., Richard Newton, William How, John Hayme, John Moores, Thomas Kinge, Philemon Whale, Thomas Noyes, Andrew Belcher, John Rutter, and — "since" — Richard Sanger, John Ward, John Grout, John Goodnow Jr., and many others) take the oath of fidelity to the colony government, swearing loyalty, submission to its laws, and to report any plots against it. Full oath text recorded. |
| August 21, 1645 | 062 | Town affairs committee (selectmen) chosen for the year: Captain Pelham, Mr. Noyes, Walter Hayme, Edmond Goodnow, William Ward, John Ruddocke, and Hugh Griffyn. |
| October 1645 | 062 | Contract (partly damaged) for hauling frame timber to the pound, paid partly in corn at 3 shillings/bushel. |
| October 20, 1645 | 063 | Land-boundary agreement between Thomas White, Hugh Griffyn, and John How regarding adjoining parcels. Arbitration (by Walter Hayme and William Ward) between Thomas White and John Ruddocke: White ordered to pay for corn damage done by Ruddocke's hog (~4 bushels) plus 1 bushel to Ruddocke for his trouble, after White was found defective as field surveyor. |
| September 29, 1645 | 063 | Grace-period order: field owners may pasture cattle in a general field for 10 days before it is first broken (plowed); after that, stray cattle/horses/oxen forfeit 5 pence/head, calves and hogs 3 pence, if found on English corn. Fencing deadline: fences for general fields must be sufficient within 10 days of field-breaking or forfeit 12 pence/rod defective; named surveyor pairs for five fields (Mr. Noyes & John Parminter Jr.; John Parminter Sr. & John Goodnow; John How & Hugh Griffyn; William Ward & John Freeman; John Ruddocke & Henry Curtis; Walter Hayme & Thomas Kinge). |
| November 1, 1645 | 064 | Meeting-house seat-payment order: those assigned seats must pay Hugh Griffyn by the 14th or face distraint by the marshal. |
| November 26, 1645 | 064 | Edmond Goodnow granted 6 acres upland + 5 acres meadow "for his service done at the court." William Browne granted a small (~¼-acre) upland parcel adjoining his house. |
| December 11, 1645 | 065 | Timber salvage rule: owners of previously felled timber on the common have a fortnight to remove it, or it becomes the town's; Edmond Goodnow appointed timber warden, empowered to assign felling rights and keep half of any forfeited timber (19 pence/tree penalty for unauthorized felling, per earlier order). Pastor Browne granted 4 acres of meadow (in Pantry Meadow or elsewhere) in compensation for meadow lost to a highway at the bridge end. |
| January 26, 1645/46 | 066 | Meeting-house seat-holders permitted to resell their seats (via Hugh Griffyn). Land grants: William Warde (20 acres near Concord line), Richard Sanger (½ acre, conditional on setting up his shop there), John Ruddocke (½ acre, conditional on surrendering equivalent land elsewhere). Third division of meadow to be laid out by lot, as with the first division; Walter Hayme and Edmond Rice appointed to direct the surveyors. |
| February 19, 1645/46 | 067 | Rate of £12 10s. levied; William Warde, Edmond Goodnow, and Hugh Griffyn appointed to take the invoice, paid for their labor. |
| March 4, 1646 ("the 4th day of the 1st month 1646") | 067 | Hugh Griffyn appointed marshal (to perfect town rates, warn meetings, collect and pay rates, with distraint power — 20 shillings/year), also reappointed town clerk (20 shillings/year) and meeting-house sweeper (10 shillings/year) — holding three town offices at once. |
| c. March 6, 1646 | 068 | Court dispute (Pendleton v. Watertown). Copies of a court-ordered replevin and warrant to the Constable of Sudbury concerning Mr. Pendleton's estate: goods distrained from Pendleton (or Hugh Griffyn) are to be returned to him pending bond, and Sudbury is ordered to send a representative to answer Pendleton's complaint and a related complaint by the town of Watertown over Pendleton's estate rate, at the Court in Boston the last Thursday of April. |
| March 9, 1646 | 069 | The town indemnifies Walter Hayme against loss from a barrel of gunpowder he stood bound for to the Country (colony), on condition he bears a townsman's share of any damage to it. |
| March 28, 1646 | 069 | The former wolf bounty (10 shillings per wolf killed in town) is repealed. |
| May 26, 1646 | 069 | Pastor's maintenance set at £40/year, half payable in commodities (money, wheat, peas, butter, cheese, pork, beef, hemp, flax), paid quarterly. Edmond Goodnow and Hugh Griffyn to lay out replacement land to Widow Cakebread for acreage taken for highway enlargement near the mill. William Browne confirmed in quiet possession of his fenced land (Thomas Browne's former second-division upland). John Moore, John Freeman, and Hugh Griffyn appointed to take the invoice for the pastor's rate. Land grants: Philemon Whale (1½ acres), Henry Rice (1 acre by his barn), Edmond Goodnow (fence-line liberty). |
| August 25, 1646 | 070 | Land grants: William Warde (10 acres meadow, Ridge Meadow), John Ruddocke and Solomon Johnson (6 acres meadow each), Philemon Whale (10 acres meadow), Richard Sanger (6 acres meadow, conditional on staying 4 years as the town's smith). (A later marginal note records Sanger left for Watertown on the 8th day of the 9th month, 1649.) |
| September 4, 1646 ("4th day, 7th month 1646") | 071 | New selectmen chosen "according to the court's order" to manage town affairs for one year: Captain Pelham, John Goodnow, Walter Hayme, William Warde, Edmond Goodnow, John Freeman, and John Maynard. |
| November 30, 1646 | 071 | General town meeting orders all previously granted Pine Plain land to be surveyed and bounded before the next meeting; William Ward, John Freeman, and William Browne appointed to oversee this with Edmond Goodnow and Hugh Griffyn. Thomas Goodnow and Robert Darnill chosen highway surveyors for the year. Small highway-compensation grants (roughly 1 acre each) to Hugh Griffyn, John How, Thomas White, William Kerley Sr., and John Blandford for land taken for a highway crossing their first-division meadows; John Moore given an extra acre for the same reason. Seasonal hog-ringing order: hogs must be ringed from the first day of the first month to the last day of the ninth month, 4 pence forfeit per default. |
| December 4, 1646 | 073 | Oak-timber felling restricted: trees over 18 inches girth at the butt require leave, on pain of 19 shillings/tree; Walter Hayme and Edmond Goodnow, as timber wardens, to receive 5 shillings from each such forfeit. |
| December 14, 1646 | 073 | Fence-line liberty granted to Walter Hayme (with required gates for cart/herd passage); Hayme appointed to grant timber on the west side of the river. Land grants: John Hayme (4 acres upland), William Kerly (liberty to take up outstanding third-division acreage). Meadow exchange between Walter Hayme and Thomas Kinge (parcels on opposite sides of the river, traced through prior owners George Munnings and Peter Noyes). William Ward buys 8 acres meadow from Mr. William Pelham near the Concord line. |
| Late 1646 (undated grants, continued) | 075 | Extensive grants and purchases recorded: Peter Noyes gifts 16+6 acres meadow to John Freeman; Edward Rice buys Hugh Drury's house/houselot (traced through Tayntor→Fordum→Kerley) plus additional land from William Browne and Hugh Drury; grants to Thomas Flyn, Henry Curtiss, Nathaniel Treadaway, John Parminter Sr. (21 acres upland + meadow), Henry Rice, Thomas Goodnow, Henry Loker, John Loker, Richard Newton, and further grants/purchases to Richard Sanger (upland and meadow, plus purchases from Thomas Noyes and Sara Cakebread, continuing his smith-service arrangement), and substantial grants to Mr. William Pelham (17 + 5 acres meadow, and 50 acres upland for his third division, bounded by a 30-rod-wide highway toward the Indian bridge) and William Kerley Jr. |
| January 11, 1646/47 | 079 | Timber order: no man with his own sufficient timber supply may be granted timber from the common. |
| February 9, 1646/47 | 079 | Town debt and pastor's maintenance rate to be raised as previously. Richard Sanger granted timber to build a house (amount at Edmond Goodnow's discretion). Edmond Rice and Hugh Griffyn appointed to run the ferry, and to bound John Rutter's side-hill land. William Kerley Jr. and (posthumously) Thomas Cakebread formally acknowledged as free townsmen by virtue of their original land grants. |
| February 15, 1646/47 | 080 | Foreign-cattle rate order renewed (from April 3, 1644). Use-it-or-lose-it rule: unrecorded land grants may be relaid elsewhere by the surveyors if unused; newly laid-out land must be recorded promptly. Walter Hayme granted liberty to relocate 20 acres from Pine Meadow to a more convenient site. |
| March 8, 1646/47 | 081 | Hugh Griffyn reappointed marshal, meeting-clerk, and meeting-house sweeper for the year at 50 shillings. |
| March 30, 1646/47 | 081 | Two men ordered to Court (Boston, last Thursday of April) to answer Mr. Pendleton's and Watertown's complaints; Captain Pelham and Edmond Goodnow appointed (with power to press a substitute, and to settle or answer the suit). |
| September 3, 1647 | 082 | Edmond Goodnow, John Bent, and John Groute instructed to plead before the magistrates, with William Kerley, whether the town's orders protecting the Great River meadow are legally justifiable. Causeway work ordered at Mr. Pendleton's land (west side of the river), apportioned by each man's rate share, 2-shilling fine per day's default. |
| September 19, 1647 | 082 | Thomas Beisbeich granted 40 acres of upland (outside the common). Pastor's maintenance raised to £50/year, paid as before. Selectmen chosen: Mr. Noyes, Edmond Rice, Walter Hayme, William Ward, John Parminter Sr., Edmond Goodnow, John Goodnow. |
| November 29, 1647 | 083 | Selectmen set a land-valuation schedule for rating: unbroken but fenced land at 2s./acre, broken upland at 20s./acre, two-thirds of meadow at 5s./acre and one-third at 1s./acre; Mr. Noyes and Hugh Griffyn to take the invoice. |
| December 7, 1647 | 083 | A permanent cow common established on the west side of the river (bounded by Bridle Point, Hog Meadow brook, the Gulf, Pantry brook, and the west line), "never to be violated"; Walter Hayne and John Grout to bound it. Authority to dispose of common timber transferred from Edmond Goodnow to Walter Hayme; John How appointed to assign timber in Goodnow's stead. |
| December 17, 1647 | 084 | The prior timber-disposal order repealed; timber now allotted to inhabitants in proportion to what they paid toward ministry/town rates (2 shillings paid = timber share), priority decided by lot when men are tied; Walter Hayme to oversee this on the west side of the river, John How on the east side. |
| c. early 1648 (undated) | 085 | Thomas White granted 16 shillings in full satisfaction of claims tied to Mr. Smith's land and Mr. Bulkley's cattle. Meadow-measurement grievance process set: any man believing he lacks his due meadow acreage may have it surveyed by March 1, with shortfall made up from unallotted town meadow. |
| February 1647/48 ("the last of February 1647-48") | 085 | Hugh Griffyn's account shows the town £8 4s. in debt. John How granted 5 shillings for his service as constable; Hugh Griffyn re-chosen marshal/clerk/sweeper (50 shillings); John Grout and Thomas Kinge appointed to take the rate invoice. Pastor granted liberty to relocate his third-division meadow next to his upland near Mr. Herbert Pelham's land; John Rediat granted a similar relocation liberty. Edmond Goodnow, William Browne, and John Parminter Jr. appointed to run the boundary line with Watertown men. Rate of £8 9s. levied for the town debt, a constable's staff, mending the stocks, and a marking iron. |
| May 26, 1648 | 086 | Two highway surveyors chosen for the year: Walter Hayme and Robert Darnill. Hayme and Hugh Griffyn appointed to go before the Governor and magistrates to confirm a land bargain made with "Goodman" and arrange his payment. Edmond Goodnow asked to negotiate with Concord's men over laying out the road between Concord and Sudbury. Land grants: William Browne (meadow), John Goodnow (upland/meadow, including part of his Andrew Belcher purchase, and Andrew Belcher's former third-division meadow allotment). |
| September 11, 1648 | 088 | Rate to fund the £5 owed to "Goodman" to be raised solely from meadow acreage; William Kerley Sr. and Thomas Noyes appointed to take the invoice. |
| October 1, 1648 | 088 | Walter Hayme and Hugh Griffyn reimbursed for their trip to Boston (and the recorder's fee) confirming the "Goodman" land bargain. Commonage rights extended to gratuity meadows (same as first/second/third-division meadow); all meadow to be rated equally for the Goodman-purchase rate. Richard Smith contracted to carry "Mr. Webb's" payment from Sudbury for 9 shillings/bushel. Selectmen chosen: Walter Hayme, Mr. Noyes, Edmund Rice, John Parminter Sr., John Goodnow, William Kerley Sr., Edmond Goodnow. |
| November 22, 1648 | 089 | Contract with William Browne and Edmond Goodnow to build a town pound (7-rail fence, ~6–6½ ft high, foot-square posts) by early the next month, for 3 shillings plus cartage. |
| January 19, 1648/49 | 089 | Swine ordinance: unyoked/unringed swine found off their owner's property after March 1 forfeit 1 shilling (or 6 pence if only one of yoke/ring is missing), plus damages; detailed yoke specifications given so swine cannot root. Edmond Goodnow appointed enforcer (though any man may also collect the penalty). Meeting house to be enlarged 13 feet at one end, doubling as a watch house; a committee (two deacons, Walter Hayme, Edmond Rice, Edmond Goodnow, John Moore, Thomas Noyes) empowered to contract and oversee the work. |
| January 26, 1648/49 | 090 | Meeting-house enlargement plan revised: a 10-foot extension along the south side with two gable ends (replacing the earlier northwest-end plan, now repealed); Mr. Browne (the pastor) pledges 20 shillings toward the cost. Same committee to oversee, plus general repairs to the back of the building. Rental of the minister's meadow divisions to Henry Loker (1st division, 5s./year) and William Kerley Jr. (2nd division, 7s.8d./year). |
| February 9, 1648/49 | 091 | Rate schedule: all meadow (first, second, third division, and gratuity) rated at 5 shillings/acre; John How and Goodman Moore to take the invoice. Edmund Rice, Edmund Goodnow, John Bent, and John Grout appointed to lay out a road from the Watertown bounds to Mr. Dunster's farm; Mr. Noyes and Edmund Goodnow to confer with Mr. Dunster about it. Compensation grants: Goodman Kinge (3 acres meadow, bridge damage) and payment from John Groute for the old pound's ironwork. |
| March 19, 1649 | 091 | Edmund Goodnow, John Parminter Jr., and John Stone appointed to inspect and re-head the town's gunpowder barrel and arrange for its safekeeping. Hugh Griffyn continued for half a year in his combined marshal/clerk/sweeper role (£1 5s.); grain-price schedule for rate payments set (corn 3s., rye 4s., wheat 5s.), with Griffyn empowered to send attachments against non-payers. |
| May 14, 1649 | 092 | recorded deed. John Bent of Sudbury formally deeds his entire third-division meadow in Pantry Meadow (10 acres, with commonage rights to 7 of them) to Thomas Plympton of Sudbury, in full legal deed form; signed by Bent, witnessed by John Grout and Hugh Griffyn, and later acknowledged before Thomas Flint on the 23rd of the 2nd month, 1650. Hugh Griffyn certifies the town-book copy against the original. |
| May 22, 1649 | 093 | John Groute and Thomas Kinge chosen highway surveyors for the year. |
| August 6, 1649 | 093 | Hugh Griffyn and William Browne appointed to take the pastor's-rate invoice. Cattle-herding order: all cattle over a year old must be kept under a keeper by day from the first month through September 10; unherded cattle forfeit 5 shillings each. |
| August 20, 1649 | 094 | Thomas Beisbeich granted 20 acres meadow (west side of the river) in place of an earlier 10-acre grant. |
| September 26, 1649 | 094 | Peter Noyes personally gifts 6 acres of his own third-division meadow (Gulf Meadow, with commonage) to Thomas Plympton, his former servant. |
| December 4, 1649 | 094 | Selectmen chosen: Mr. Noyes, Edmund Rice, Walter Hayme, William Ward, John Moore, John Parminter Sr., Edmond Goodnow. William Kerley compensated (rent waiver plus an extra year's free use of hired meadow) for water/land damage to his houselot. |
| c. May 1649 | 094 | General Court grant (recorded here). At the General Court in Boston (2nd of the 3rd month, 1649): Sudbury granted a two-mile westward enlargement, provided it does not prejudice William Browne's already-granted 200 acres. Certified true copy by Edward Rawson, Secretary. |
| December 9, 1649 | 095 | Edmund Goodnow and William Ward chosen to run the Concord-Sudbury boundary line. Hugh Griffyn, John Groute, and Edmund Goodnow appointed to search the records for Watertown's grant and find ways to stop Watertown's boundary from encroaching on Sudbury. John Blandford granted 6 acres meadow in exchange for his wife's third-division allotment (surrendered because it fell inside the cow common). Edmund Goodnow asked to arrange for Sergeant Wheeler to teach John Goodnow to beat the drum (militia training), diet paid by John Parminter. |
| February 7, 1649/50 | 095 | Selectmen order a £12 10s. rate (paid in wheat or money) to buy and prove a barrel of gunpowder, 150 lbs. of musket bullets, and 25 lbs. of match — militia provisioning. |
| February 13, 1649/50 | 096 | Mr. Noyes, John Parminter Sr., Robert Darnill, and John Moore empowered to arrange relief for Mrs. Hunt (her person, house, and estate) at the town's charge. Hugh Griffyn and John Moore appointed to take the invoice for the powder/bullets/matches and the pastor's and town rates. |
| March 5, 1649/50 | 096 | Hugh Griffyn's wages and terms continued (plus £2 back pay); £8 6s. town-debt rate to be paid in corn. Committee named — Edmund Goodnow, John Ruddocke, John Groute, Thomas Noyes, Hugh Griffyn — to work to stop Watertown's encroachment and seek further enlargement toward Watertown, at town expense. |
| May 17, 1650 | 097 | William Warde and John Maynard appointed to settle (or sue) Robert Proctor of Concord for trespass — burning the town's pine to make tar. John Parminter Sr. and Robert Darnill appointed fence surveyors. |
| September 16, 1650 | 097 | Pastor paid £25 for the half-year. Robert Darnill and John Ruddocke appointed rate-invoice takers. Walter Hayme, John Moore, Thomas Kinge, and John Groute empowered to mend the bridge, using highway labor where possible and hiring carpenters (with rate-levy power) otherwise. |
| September 23, 1650 | 097 | Hugh Griffyn continued in his combined town-business role for another year (50 shillings). The deacons tasked with repairing the meeting house, reimbursed from the town rate. |
| November 16, 1650 | 098 | Bridge repair specifics: Hugh Griffyn to fell and hew pine poles (Goodman Ward to haul them) and pin the planking; Goodman Moore and Thomas Kinge to oversee, paid from the town rate. |
| November 19, 1650 | 098 | Rate-payment schedule set: funds for the drum, halberd, and town debts due to Goodman Moores by November 23; remainder due to Hugh Griffyn December 3. |
| February 19, 1650/51 | 098 | Hugh Griffyn released from his prior rate/hiring terms, paid his half-year wages, and required to give his account. Walter Hayme and Edmund Rice appointed to go to Watertown on the boundary business. £10 rate levied (payable in wheat, butter, or money at set exchange prices) for that business. Selectmen chosen: Mr. Noyes, Walter Hayme, Edmund Rice, Edmund Goodnow, Thomas Noyes, John Moore, John Groute. |
| Date | Page | Event |
|---|---|---|
| March 25, 1650/51 | 099 | Pastor paid £25 for sufficient maintenance to date; John Maynard's discharge from an earlier country-rate levy (from his time as constable) confirmed; Hugh Griffyn renders his account. |
| 1651 (undated, major grant) | 099 | William Browne granted 67 acres of upland and 20 acres of meadow in the southwest part of the town bounds, with an extensive metes-and-bounds description (marked oak and pine trees, brooks, Ridge Meadow); laid out by Edmond Goodnow and Hugh Griffyn. Of this, 40 acres upland and 20 acres meadow had originally been granted to Thomas Beisbeich (in exchange for his surrendering an earlier 10-acre Ashen Swamp grant), with the remaining acreage traced to William Parker's and Thomas Browne's third-division upland, both since bought by Browne. John Blandford granted 6 acres meadow (near Pantry Meadow, in several parcels) in exchange for his wife's third-division allotment, surrendered when it fell within Pine Plain bounds between Watertown Path and Pine Brook. |
| 1651 (continued grants) | 100 | Mr. Herbert Pelham given land adjoining his farm (Indian Bridge to the great pond) in full satisfaction of his demand, negotiated by Mr. Noyes, Walter Hayme, and Bryan Pendleton; plus 20 acres upland conditioned on Pelham paying Mr. Browne for 4 acres at Bridle Point. The town's minister (Mr. Edmund Browne) granted ~16 acres upland near the little pond and common swamp, plus 25 acres meadow on the east side of the Great River meadow. |
| October 27, 1651 | 102 | Town meeting agrees the rate for paying off the town's boundary/enlargement grant will be paid equally per man, with the resulting 2-mile tract to be divided equally as well. |
| November 10, 1651 | 102 | Town meeting votes to build a new meeting house, 25 to 14. Edmond Goodnow and Hugh Griffyn to lay out a cart way to West Meadow, compensating any landowners crossed. Thomas Noyes and John Groute to inspect the highway near the gravel pit that John Ruddock had broken up. Thomas White ordered to move his fence (by the pond, atop the hill) and given no claim to the swamp. |
| November 23, 1651 | 103 | Bounty ordinance against "common offensive blackbirds": 6 pence per dozen heads brought to a town meeting, for five years, birds to be killed by townsmen within the town. Hugh Griffyn's combined town-business role continued at £4/year (raised from 50 shillings), term beginning September 23, 1651. Town-debt rate payment deadlines set; Griffyn to collect all outstanding back-rates. |
| January 5, 1651/52 | 104 | Town authorizes Hugh Griffyn to sue John Smith and Richard Smith for unpaid highway rates. |
| January 14, 1651/52 | 104 | John Rutter to mend the stocks (6 shillings) to avoid a court presentment. Land satisfactions granted: Mr. Noyes (6 + 8 acres meadow, for a gratuity shortfall and second-division shortfall), the pastor (15-20 acres upland, for meadow owed near Bridle Point), John Groute (6 acres meadow, for over-rating and his father Cakebread's shortfall). Ordinance: felling oak poles for hop-poles forfeits 4 pence each. |
| January 21, 1651/52 | 104 | Selectmen appoint fence surveyors for five named fields, plus John Parmenter Sr., John Goodnow, and William Browne as general surveyors of fences town-wide, to judge sufficiency where local surveyors are negligent or disputes arise. |
| January 23, 1651/52 | 105 | All prior orders for enlarging the old meeting house or building a new one are repealed ("to be of no good") — reversing the November 10, 1651 vote. Thomas Goodnow granted a small land relocation. Edmund Rice Sr., William Browne, John Ruddocke, and Henry Rice authorized to seek the pastor's approval to build galleries in the old meeting house and, if approved, to contract the work. Cart path and highway ordered laid out over the west brook (6 rods wide through meadow, 5 rods in upland). |
| February 19, 1651/52 | 106 | Selectmen chosen: Mr. Peter Noyes, Walter Hayme, Edmond Ryce, John Parmenter Sr., Edmond Goodenowe, William Browne, Thomas Noyes. |
| June 1652 | 106 | Land grants/satisfactions recorded: John Grout (6 acres meadow, for his father Cakebread's shortfall), John Wood (multiple parcels — upland on Pine Plain and Hog House Hill, a swamp, meadow in the Gulf, Pine Meadow, and Hop Meadow, completing his second/third divisions), Edward Rice (5 acres meadow above Mr. Pelham's pond, part of Philemon Whale's grant), John Maynard (upland on Pine Plain, meadow in West Meadow). |
| July 5, 1652 | 108 | Selectmen direct Edmond Goodnow and Hugh Griffyn to repair the bridge (rails, planks, butting-ends), paid 3 shillings/day between them. |
| August 2, 1652 | 108 | Goodnow and Griffyn to take the country/pastor's/town rate invoice. Meeting house designated for use as a watch house until further order. Edmund Goodnow and Thomas Noyes chosen highway surveyors for the year. |
| November 1652 | 108 | Detailed bridge-repair contract with John Rutter and William Kerley (rails, planks, string-pieces, tenanting, pricing per rail/string-piece), incorporating earlier work by Timothy Hawkins. |
| December 1652 | 109 | Selectmen empowered to have the constable distrain those behind on rates levied for the Watertown boundary dispute. Edmund Goodnow's son contracted to beat the drum twice on lecture days, twice each forenoon/afternoon on the Lord's Day, to signal meeting times — paid 20 shillings/year from the town rate. |
| December 27, 1652 | 109 | new meeting house contracted. Following renewed boundary-marking with Concord (Feb 14 & 25/28, 1652, by Edmond Goodnow, John Parminter Jr., Hugh Griffyn, and Thomas Noyes) and a highway settlement through the Goodenows' meadow at West Meadow, the town contracts with Thomas Plympton and Peter Kinge (later also Hugh Griffyn) to build a new 40×20-foot meeting house — detailed specifications for windows, gables, doors, flooring, framing — for a total of roughly £85, paid in installments of Indian corn/cattle, wheat/butter/money, and rye, with distraint power against late payers. Edmond Goodnow, Thomas Noyes, John Rutter, and John Grout to finalize the agreement; the workmen given use of the minister's meadow/upland and hay for the year. |
| February 9, 1652/53 | 112 | Lieutenant Goodnow, Ensign Noyes, and Ensign Griffyn (military titles now in use) chosen to run the boundary line with Concord, and with John Parminter Jr. to run the line with Mr. Dunster's farm and along the river. |
| March 7, 1652/53 | 112 | Selectmen chosen: Mr. Peter Noyes, William Warde, John Ruddocke, Henry Rice, John Moore, Thomas Kinge, John Groute. Pastor paid £25 for the half-year. Mrs. Hunt's relief confirmed (John Smith acknowledges receipt of her prior grant); an additional 50 shillings from the town rate granted to her. |
| March 24, 1652/53 | 112 | Fence surveyors appointed by field, plus John Maynard, John How, and John Blandford as general surveyors town-wide, per a court order requiring fence inspection. |
| June 18, 1653 | 113 | Thomas Noyes and John Moore appointed highway/causeway surveyors (replacing Goodnow and Noyes) with authority to call out labor. Old Goodman Smith released from his outstanding highway-work debt from his time living in Sudbury. |
| July 5, 1653 | 113 | Edmund Goodnow and Hugh Griffyn appointed to divide the town's remaining gunpowder shot and surplus bullets among inhabitants by proportion of what each paid. |
| August 1, 1653 | 114 | Henry Rice and Hugh Griffyn to take the invoice for the country, pastor's, town, and meeting-house rates. |
| October 18, 1653 | 114 | Carpenters to hire 12 men to help raise the (new meeting) house, paid half a crown/day from the March town rate. Lieutenant Goodnow and Ensign Noyes to lay out the boundary way with Nashaway (later Lancaster) men within Sudbury's bounds. |
| January 9-10, 1653/54 | 114 | land-division dispute. Contentious town meeting over how to divide the colony's most recent land grant to Sudbury: one faction wanted division by estate and family size (household head valued at £40, wife/child/servant at £10 each, per the next survey), which would repeal the 1651 rule of equal division per man; three men (John Smith, Walter Kinge, Obadiah Warde) dissented from the vote. The next day, a re-vote was held to settle it decisively: 20 men voted for equal division per man (the original 1651 rule), only 3 for division by estate, and 6 (including Mr. Pelham's agent, John Parminter Sr., John Bent, John Hayme, Robert Darnill, John Parmenter Jr.) voted against both options. Land reserved from the new grant for two "cowpens" (5 acres meadow + 80 acres upland each), never to be sold or given away without unanimous consent of those holding rights in them. |
| February 14, 1653/54 | 115 | Hugh Griffyn to demand overdue Watertown-business rate money from Goodman Kerley, suing if necessary. Griffyn also to speak with Mr. Howell and Mr. Gookin about "College money" (a Harvard College-related rate/contribution) regarding delivery/carriage terms. John Toll appointed with Griffyn to take the invoice. |
| March 7, 1653/54 | 116 | Selectmen chosen: Edmund Rice, Mr. Noyes, Walter Hayme, William Ward, Edmund Goodnow, John Ruddocke, Thomas Noyes. |
| March 14, 1653/54 | 116 | Extensive fence-surveyor appointments by field (many named pairs), plus Lieutenant Goodnow, John Parmenter Sr., and Hugh Griffyn as general surveyors town-wide. Swine ordinance renewed: unyoked/unringed swine forfeit 12 pence (or 6 pence if only one requirement is missing), effective March 14 through the Indian harvest (yoking) and continually (ringing); Edmund Goodnow to enforce and keep the fines. |
| c. 1654 (date as recorded: "March 28, 1654-55" | 117 | appears out of sequence with surrounding entries). Constable given distraint power over unpaid town rates after a second warning; Hugh Griffyn empowered to issue distraint warrants. Lieutenant Goodnow, John Moore, and Thomas Kinge (any two of three) authorized to contract filling the meeting-house walls with tempered clay, up to £5 10s. |
| c. 1654 | 118 | Sudbury-Lancaster (Nashaway) highway agreement. Formal boundary/highway commissioners' return: Edmund Goodnow and Thomas Noyes (for Sudbury) and William Kerley Jr. and John Moore (for Lancaster) lay out and mark the highway from the Great River meadow toward Lancaster (via Thomas Plympton's house and Hart Pond), per Court order; certified copy by Hugh Griffyn. |
| April 24, 1654 | 118 | Lieutenant Goodnow, Hugh Griffyn, and John Goodnow renew the Watertown-Sudbury boundary marks, meeting Watertown's representatives (Lieutenant Beards, Sergeants — and Brush) on site. |
| April 28, 1654 | 119 | Thomas White granted 3 acres upland (part of John Knight's old third-division allotment) near John Rutter's house lot. |
| June 9-10, 1654 | 119 | meadow leasing. Town leases out several reserved "minister's meadow" and common meadow parcels for terms of years, with rent and fencing arrangements: to Edmund Goodnow (5s./year, later 10s., near his house lot); to John Ruddocke and Henry Loker jointly (10s./year down-river parcel); the Ashen Swamp meadows (formerly Mr. Beisbeich's) to John Groute and John Rutter (7s./year); Pine Meadow's common grass to John How (10s.6d.); Timber Swamp meadow grass to Ensign Noyes (1s.6d.); Strawberry Hill meadow grass to Walter Hayme (5s.); Gulf meadow (formerly the pastor's) to John Parminter Sr. (6s.6d.); Ridge Meadow patches to Josiah Hayme (12d.) — a systematic first instance of the town renting out its reserved/common meadows for cash rather than granting them outright. |
| June 16, 1654 | 121 | Public review and approval of the town's entire land-grant record: all records of grants to inhabitants publicly read and approved; inhabitants given a standing right to obtain certified copies from town clerk Hugh Griffyn as a valid title. 50 acres upland near Hay Meadow Brook reserved permanently for a future town mill site — not to be laid out for any other use. |
| September 4, 1654 | 121 | Bounty ordinance: 1s.6d. per fox killed in town, 1 penny per jay or woodpecker. Selectmen empowered to have the constable distrain rate-delinquents. |
| September 1654 (continued) | 122 | Edmund Rice Sr. paid £6 (in wheat, plus carriage) in full satisfaction for his service and expenses as Sudbury's deputy (to the General Court) this year. Pastor's maintenance set at £60/year (£30 per half-year). |
| September 25, 1654 | 122 | Mr. Noyes, John Parminter Sr., and John Groute to stake the boundary between Prentiss's meadow, Widow Goodenowe's land, and the Bridle Point highway. |
| January 1, 1654/55 | 122 | Mrs. Hunt granted 50 shillings for the year, paid through the deacons. John Goodnow discharged from his drum-beating engagement (calling people to meetings). |
| January 15, 1654/55 | 122 | sizing the commons. Selectmen vote to "size" (allocate stocking rights on) all common land within Sudbury's original five-mile grant: for every 2 acres of meadow held (first/second/third division or gratuity, excluding "allowance" acres), an inhabitant may pasture one beast (cow, bull, steer, heifer, or — at 1.5 units — a horse; 5 sheep counted as one beast); cattle under a year exempted for now. John Ruddocke voted against (also on behalf of the absent William Ward). |
| January 22, 1654/55 | 123 | town meeting debate and vote on the sizing act. After the pastor sought "the Lord's blessing" on the proceedings, the town debated and voted on the selectmen's sizing act. A detailed poll was recorded by physically dividing into two groups in the meetinghouse: In favor (with each voter's meadow acreage noted): John Parmenter Sr. (voting as agent for Herbert Pelham, Thomas Walgrave, and Capt. William Pelham), Edmund Browne, William Browne (for himself and Thomas Browne), Edmund Goodnow (for Joseph Tayntor), John Hayme, John Parmenter Jr., Henry Curtiss, John Groute, Jane Goodnow widow (for herself and Andrew Belcher), Peter Noyes Jr., Thomas Flyn, James Pendleton, John Freeman, John Smith, Hugh Griffyn, Philemon Whale, and the four selectmen who authored the act (Peter Noyes Sr., Walter Hayme, Edmund Goodenowe, Thomas Noyes). (Pelham's and Walgrave's votes were challenged as ineligible.) Opposed: William Ward, John Ruddocke, John Wood, John Blandford (for himself and wife), Robert Darnill, Thomas Goodnow, John Howe, Henry Loker, John Bent, John Maynard, Richard Newton, Henry Rice, Mary Loker, John Toll, plus ten men with no meadow acreage (Thomas Kinge, Thomas Rice, John Rutter, Edward Rice, John White, John Rediat, Peter Kinge, John Woodward, Peter Bent) whose votes were challenged as ineligible. Edmund Rice, Robert Davis, and Thomas Plympton abstained entirely. (This vote directly exposes the emerging factional split between larger landholders favoring commons management and smaller/newer settlers opposing it — one of the richest civic-conflict records in the volume.) |
| February-March 1654/55 | 126 | Feb 19: Standard invoice procedure continued (William Ward with Hugh Griffyn). Feb 27: Swine yoke/ring order reaffirmed; summer cattle-herding mandate renewed (6 pence/beast forfeit for unherded cattle, oxen exempted after work), Hugh Griffyn to enforce and keep forfeits. March 5: £6 town-debt rate and £30 pastor's-maintenance rate levied. March 13: Selectmen chosen: John Parmenter Sr., William Ward, John Ruddocke, John Maynard, Robert Darnill, Thomas King, John Toll. Extensive fence-surveyor appointments follow, plus John Moore, John How, and John Blandford as general surveyors. |
| March 28, 1654/55 | 133 | John Stone contracted as town clerk/rate-collector (attending selectmen meetings, warning town meetings, recording orders, collecting and disposing of rates) for 50 shillings/year — succeeding Hugh Griffyn in this role; John Ruddock to keep the town book. Mr. Noyes and Edmund Rice chosen commissioners (for unspecified charges). John How appointed (by the pastor and selectmen) to restrain youth from profaning the Sabbath during public worship. |
| May 14, 1655 | 133 | John Ruddocke buys ~4 acres meadow from the Widow George of Watertown in the Great River meadow. |
| May 28, 1655 | 129 | new meeting house completed and furnished. John Moore and Philemon Whale chosen highway surveyors for the year, with rules on calling out labor (3-shilling fine for unexcused absence) and a £17 10s. budget (half the carpenters'-payment rate). The pastor's and deacons' seats moved from the old meeting house into the new one (Hugh Griffyn paid 18 shillings for the move); the pastor granted a seat for his wife under the window by the pulpit. Hugh Griffyn ordered to hand over the town's copies of Court orders (relating to the town) to be kept thereafter by John How. Edmund Goodnow and William Ward to take 2 acres of meadow from Goodnow's meadow near the landing place below Mr. Pelham's land. Town votes to furnish the new meeting house with new seats; selectmen empowered to contract workmen; a seat already installed ordered removed and redone; selectmen given power to assign people to seats once built. |
| December 2, 1655 | 130 | Selectmen order uniform seat pricing (all seats built alike in workmanship and size, so all owners pay the same); John Maynard and John Reddock to negotiate with carpenters. Seating rule: congregants to be seated according to how much they paid toward building the meeting house (a status-by-contribution seating hierarchy) — John Parmenter dissents. |
| December 27, 1655 | 131 | meeting-house seating contract. Formal contract with Thomas Plympton and Peter King to build the meeting-house seats (five in the middle, six at each end, matching the old house's form but taller, of oak/spruce board with oak posts, rails, and benches), to finish by mid-May 1656, paid 1s.8d./seat (half wheat at 4s.6d./bushel, half rye at 3s.6d./bushel). |
| December 28, 1655/56 – January 14, 1655/56 | 132 | the "New Grant" land division begins. Selectmen commit to paying the seat-builders; then turn to dividing the town's 1649 two-mile "New Grant" westward addition, long undivided: Jan 4: Vote to proceed with laying out the New Grant land (Ward, Reddocke, Kinge, Maynard, Toll for; Parmenter and Darnill against); plan to graze a common herd there next summer; the 1654 "sizing of the commons" order formally struck from the town book. Also Jan 4: Parmenter, Davis, Kinge, and Ruddocke appointed to a religious-oversight committee, checking that town children and servants are gainfully employed and instructed "in the grounds of religion," per General Court order. Jan 14: Town votes to proceed with laying out the New Grant: 30-rod-wide highways between "squadrons," land (meadow and upland together) to be divided into one lump per man's lot by chance, the whole tract split into four squadrons; Lieutenant Goodnow and John Grout to scout cow-pen land and rerun the boundary with the old grant; Ruddocke, How, and Rice to find a surveyor. (Various named dissents recorded at each vote — Groute/Smith on highway widths, Hayme/Plympton/Parmenter Jr. on the lump-lot method.) |
| January 4, 1657/58 | 133 | New Grant surveyed, divided, and lots drawn. After further delay, the town finally votes to measure and divide the "New Grant" (Sudbury's 1649 two-mile westward addition): two parallel 30-rod-wide highways run south-to-north through it (plus the existing Lancaster highway), dividing it into four squadrons (numbered SE, NE, NW, SW); Mr. William Browne's farm and "great lot" placed in the squadron's north end against Concord bounds; Thomas Noyes engaged as surveyor; a workaround voted for a pond blocking the middle highway. Full list of the 51 lots (130 acres each) as drawn, squadron by squadron: First squadron (1-12): John Blandford, Thomas Noyes, Walter Haine, William Kerly Jr., Joseph Freeman, Henry Curtis, Brian Pendleton, Thomas Rice, Edward Rice, Herbert Pelham, Lt. Edmund Goodnow, Robert Davis. Second squadron (13-26): William Ward, Josiah Haine, Henry Loker, John How, Edmund Rice, Philemon Whale, John Loker, Edmund Brown, John Parmenter (deacon), John Maynard, Robert Darnill, Thomas White, Richard Newton, John Ruddock (part). Third squadron (27-39, plus William Browne's farm and lot, and Ruddock's remaining part): John Warde, Peter Kinge, John Smith, Hugh Griffyn, Henry Rice, John Rediat, Robert Beast, William Kerley Sr., John Wood, John Rutter, Solomon Johnson Sr., John Toll, Widow Goodnow. Fourth squadron (40-51, including the 130-acre cow-pen reservation): John Moore, John Woodward, John Grout, John Bent Sr., Thomas Goodnow, Thomas Plympton, John Haine, Peter Noyes, William Pelham, John Parmenter Jr., Thomas Kinge, cow-pen land. A 12-rod-wide public highway noted running through John Toll's and Solomon Johnson's lots at the west end of a pond, with compensating allowance to them. |
| January 3, 1658/59 | 139 | Henry Rice, John Rutter, and John Rediat voted free townsmen by joint consent (citing the original 1639 commissioners' act and the town's history of land grants to them; Rutter and Rediat's grant also honors the 1655 colony committee of Major Willard, Thomas Danforth, and Ensign John Sherman). Town restricts common timber grants to men on the town's record as townsmen or rights-holders (Henry Rice, Thomas King, and John Ruddocke dissenting). |
| February 16, 1658/59 | 140 | Town votes to add stairs, floors, and railed fronts to both meeting-house galleries at town expense; the church officer given full power to assign gallery seating. |
| October 11, 1659 | 141 | John Moors and Lieutenant Goodnow each granted 6-8 acres compensatory upland (west side of the river) for land they gave up to build a way to West Meadow and the new mill under construction. |
| January 7, 1659/60 | 141 | Hop Brook mill granted. Thomas Noyes and Peter Noyes granted 50 acres upland + 15 acres meadow to build a mill at Hop Brook (below the Ridge Meadow cart way), plus timber rights from the commons; in return they covenant to build a sufficient corn mill for the town, operational by December 1 following, and to maintain the highway and a 6-rod way over the mill brook. |
| February 3, 1659/60 | 142 | Lanham settlement grants. Small house-lot grants at "Lanham" (a new outlying settlement area) to Peter Bent (~1 acre, 20 shillings in corn), Thomas Reed (70 rods, 10 shillings — William Ward dissenting), and Matthew Gibbs (~40 rods), laid out by Lieutenant Goodnow and Thomas Noyes. |
| February 7, 1659/60 | 142 | highway survey, west side of the river. Selectmen formally lay out and width-standardize (6 rods) several highways on the west side of the river: from the gravel pits (through land newly bought from Goodman Moors and Lieutenant Goodnow) to the new mill site; along the meadows of John Grout, Widow Goodnow, John Maynard, and Lieutenant Goodnow; and a new way to the woods/Pantry meadows between Thomas Noyes's and Thomas Plympton's land. |
| March 9/19, 1660/61 | 144 | Selectmen chosen: William Ward, Lieutenant Goodnow, Deacon Parmenter, John Ruddocke, Thomas Noyes, Thomas Kinge, John Grout. Boundary-running parties appointed for both Watertown (Goodnow, Grout, Rutter) and Concord (Hains, Moors). John Ruddock chosen to carry the town's votes for the nomination of magistrates (colony-level civic participation). Widow Hunt granted 25 shillings for the half-year; land-exchange liberties granted to Robert Darnill and Thomas Noyes for parcels crossed by the new mill highway. |
| September 9, 1661 | 146 | Smith Thomas Pinion granted Richard Sanger's former meadow plus 6 acres upland in exchange for 6 years of smithy service (Darnill and Maynard dissenting); Pinion ultimately declined and the grant was repealed. |
| January 17, 1661/62 | 146 | Thomas Noyes ordered to formally record the "New Grant" squadron/lot divisions into the town book against each inhabitant's existing land record. |
| February 17, 1661/62 | 146 | Selectmen chosen: Deacon John Parmenter, Lieutenant Edmund Goodnow, Thomas Noyes, John Grout, Philemon Whale, Thomas Rice, John Maynard. Goodnow, Grout, and Noyes chosen commissioners to end small causes in Sudbury (a local small-claims judicial role). Thomas Noyes chosen town clerk (succeeding John Stone), with Peter King to help take rate invoices. Timber wardens appointed by quarter of town: John Maynard (northwest, replacing William Ward), Lieutenant Goodnow (east/southeast, replacing Thomas Goodnow) — with a 5-shilling trespass fine collected from a Concord man (Thomas Wheeler) for illegal timber-cutting at the town's northwest corner. |
| April 5, 1662 | 148 | Thomas Noyes exchanges his 130-acre "New Grant" lot (near Doeskin Hill) for an equal lot near Dunsdell meadow; the surrendered Doeskin Hill tract is reserved as a permanent town timber reserve, felling barred except by public-meeting vote, on pain of 19 shillings/tree. |
| January 5, 1662/63 | 148 | Contracts for pound repair (Peter King) and meeting-house underpinning/paving (John Rutter, 12 shillings) to prevent water damage. Sergeant John Parmenter chosen town marshal (rate collection, 20 shillings/year, with distraint power). Town resolves to petition the General Court that neighboring farms/outlands bordering Sudbury contribute equitably to its public and ministry charges. A boundary dispute between Jane Goodnow (widow), Peter Bent, and Joseph Bradish over West Meadow lines resolved by agreement, with Lieutenant Goodnow, Sergeant Grout, and Thomas Noyes to measure and correct the Widow Goodnow's shortfall. Rating rule: English pastures and enclosed swamp-meadow now rated the same as regular meadow (5 shillings/acre). |
| February 16, 1662/63 | 150 | posted town-meeting notice; causeway lottery. Notably, this meeting was publicly warned in advance by posted notice on the meeting-house door (read out at a lecture 10 days prior) — an early instance of formal public notice procedure. Selectmen chosen: Lieutenant Goodnow, Thomas Noyes, Philemon Whall, Sergeant John Grout, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Thomas Rice, Peter Noyes; Thomas Rice chosen constable. Causeway repair (gravel-pit and Great River bridge sections) ordered completed by June 24, apportioned by a lottery drawing of every inhabitant's name to fix the working order along the causeway, recorded on the spot by the clerk. Land relocation grants to John and Josiah Hains and Thomas Plympton for parcels near Bridle Point/Pine Plain. |
| March 2, 1662/63 | 153 | new town smith recruited. Mr. Stevens of Charlestown, ironmonger and blacksmith, recruited as town smith: granted Richard Sanger's former meadow, 6 acres upland, firewood/coal timber, grazing rights for 8 cattle, and a shop site, conditioned on his relocating to Sudbury by June 24 and serving as town smith during his residence. Town agrees to pay Thomas Rice £5 to care for Thomas Gosling for a year (with extra compensation if Gosling falls ill) — another instance of town-funded personal welfare support. |
| June 2, 1663 | 154 | new mill area laid out. Detailed land laid out around the new Hop Brook mill: 15 acres to Thomas Noyes (including the mill, dams, and part of the ponds) in exchange for land given up near his dwelling; 40 acres upland to Lieutenant Goodnow adjoining the West Meadow. |
| June 20, 1663 | 156 | 8 acres upland (formerly Richard Newton's, surrendered near the Indian Bridge) laid out to Thomas and Peter Noyes east of the mill; surveyed by Henry Rice and Lieutenant Goodnow. |
| November 23, 1663 | 156 | Marlborough road. Sergeant John Grout, Sergeant John Parmenter, and Thomas Noyes chosen to join with Marlborough men in laying out the country road between Marlborough and Sudbury. |
| Date | Page | Event |
|---|---|---|
| February 5, 1663/64 | 157 | Selectmen chosen: Lieutenant Goodnow, Thomas Noyes, Philimon Whall, Sergeant Grout, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Henry Rice, Sergeant Hains; John Toll chosen constable; Goodnow/Noyes/Grout again chosen small-causes commissioners (under 40 shillings). A committee to assess whether the Sudbury-Concord country road could be altered, at the requesters' expense. Mrs. Hunt granted 50 shillings; £4 added to the rate for Thomas Gosling's continuing sickness and care. Pound-repair contract renewed with John Rutter. |
| June 6, 1664 | 158 | John Toll fence dispute. Land grant to Matthew Gibbs at Lanham. Long-running fence dispute with John Toll over his Pine Hill boundary resolved by ordering him to move sections of fence inward; Mr. Joseph Noyes, John Rutter, and others recorded as dissenting/discontented with the resolution. |
| May 16 – June 6, 1664 | 159 | Land relocations for Mr. Thomas Stevens (the town smith) and Lieutenant Goodnow; small grant to Thomas Reade at Lanham (with a 20-shilling trespass/purchase payment required). |
| July 2, 1664 | 160 | Widow Loker granted 4 acres of meadow (Strawberry Hill) in compensation for half an acre of upland taken for the site of the meeting house, with a reversionary condition once her heirs confirm title to the town. |
| December 16, 1664 | 160 | The old town pound and its land granted to Jonathan Stanape for 7 years in exchange for his keeping the meeting house clean and swept weekly throughout that term. Lieutenant Goodnow, Henry Rice, and Thomas Noyes authorized as official land surveyors for the town. |
| December 16, 1664 (continued) | 161 | Town votes to build a new, larger pound (10 ft longer/wider than the old one), contracted out by Goodnow, Grout, and Noyes. Committee to bound/confirm reserved minister's meadow parcels, including reconciling land Rev. Edmund Browne surrendered to the town. Land exchange for Thomas Plympton (Strawberry Hill, replacing surrendered parcels near Bridle Point and Pantry); Joseph Noyes appointed pound-keeper (4 pence per impounded animal). Land relocations for John Smith, Philemon Whale, and Jonathan Stanape. Elias Keyes, a cooper, recruited with 6 acres upland + 4 acres meadow + timber and hoop-pole rights, conditioned on 6 years of coopering service to the town at Boston-area rates, with reversion if he leaves the trade or town. |
| November 23 – December 30, 1664 | 164 | The 1645 meeting-house seating order re-ratified. Sergeant John Grout granted 6 acres upland in full satisfaction of a claim. Sergeant Joseph Hains appointed (in his father's stead) to license timber-cutting west of the river. New rule: the town will grant no more land unless a majority of those empowered to grant land affirmatively vote for it — tightening land-grant procedure. |
| January 20, 1664/65 | 165 | John White excused from town and ministry rates due to his family's poverty. Selectmen chosen: Thomas Noyes, Lieutenant Goodnow, John Grout Sr., Henry Rice, Henry Loker, Thomas Plympton, Peter Kinge; Peter Kinge chosen constable; Goodnow/Noyes/Grout again small-causes commissioners. Sergeant Parmenter's marshal accounts settled (nearly balanced — he owed the town 1s.8d.). Thomas Noyes reappointed town clerk. Bird-bounty payments conditioned on producing the actual heads. Thomas Noyes compensated for ~6 weeks' service as Sudbury's deputy to the General Court in 1664 (self-funded attendance), plus reimbursed for procuring "colours" (flags/ensigns) for the Sudbury military company, paid partly in a meadow grant near Dunsdale. Town to decide whether to grant land to encourage Mr. Walker to keep a school in Sudbury — an early reference to formal schooling. |
| February 20, 1664/65 | 166 | Lieutenant Goodnow and Sergeant Grout appointed to defend the town's land rights at Bridle Point against a claim by Thomas Danforth (agent for Herbert Pelham) — Danforth being a prominent Massachusetts Bay magistrate. |
| February 21, 1665/66 | 167 | poor-relief and settlement ordinance. Physician Mr. Alcock paid 5 bushels of wheat (by private subscription) for treating Widow Hunt. Peter King chosen rate-gatherer; town agrees to pay for removing a "wandering vagrant person" before the authorities this past winter. Meadow-boundary dispute in Gulf Meadow resolved (Plympton/King confirmed in 24+ acres). Selectmen chosen: Lieutenant Goodnow, Thomas Noyes, Sergeant John Grout, Corporal Henry Rice, Mr. Joseph Noyes, John Bent Sr., Thomas Plympton; John Blanford chosen constable; Joseph Noyes & William Moores chosen highway surveyors (£20 rate). Thomas Noyes again compensated for General Court service and clerking, plus for procuring military "colours." Mrs. Hunt granted another 50 shillings for her poverty. A major settlement/poor-law ordinance enacted: no inhabitant may lease house or land to any "stranger" not already a town dweller without selectmen's license (or must bond surety against town charges) — penalty 19s.6d./week; no inhabitant may harbor an "inmate" without leave, same penalty; and no one may bring in "any bruised, maimed or defective person... likely to become a town charge" without bonding surety — explicitly motivated by concern over the town's growing poor population and absentee landowners renting to outsiders. |
| March 29 – June 23, 1665 | 171 | Land relocations for Philemon Whall and Jonathan Stanape (the latter partly "upon the instigation of the pastor, Mr. Brown"). Highway laid out from Sergeant Ruddocke's house through Pine Plain toward Watertown, crossing Henry Curtis's land, with compensating land grants to Curtis. |
| March 12, 1666 | 173 | comprehensive fence and safety orders. Extensive, town-wide fence-surveyor appointments covering every field district (over a dozen pairs/trios named), plus Peter Noyes, Sergeant Grout, and Corporal Rutter as final arbiters of fence disputes (paid 12 pence each per case, prepaid). Boundary-running parties set for Watertown, Concord, and the outer south/west lines. Fire-safety ordinance: every householder must keep a ladder reaching his roof, on pain of 10 shillings; Jonathan Stanape to enforce. Cornfield fencing standards (4-rail or equivalent, 3.5 ft high) and deadlines reaffirmed; summer cattle-herding and swine yoking/ringing ordinances renewed in full detail. |
| April 14, 1666 | 176 | Town agrees to cover Joseph Noyes's debt to a Roxbury man for medical treatment/board of William Taylor, injured (lame hand) and treated in Roxbury — another instance of town-funded medical care. |
| July 2, 1666 | 176 | Meadow grants finalized for Elias Keyes (Long Meadow) and Jane Ross (Strawberry Hill), surveyed by Edmond Goodnow and Thomas Noyes. |
| February 20, 1666/67 | 177 | formalized annual officer slate. Town meeting adopts a more formal, tabulated record of annual offices: Selectmen — Lt. Edmund Goodenough, Sgt. John Grout, Thomas Stevens, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Deacon John Haynes, Sgt. Josiah Haynes, Thomas Plympton; Constable — John Maynard; Town Clerk — Thomas Stevens. Joseph Noyes to join Stevens taking the estate invoice, now explicitly including "broken up" land adjoining the town and all livestock, rated for the minister's support. Goodnow ordered to hand over town measuring-weights to the new clerk (paid 5 shillings for care of them); a committee to number and account for pages in the town record book (evidence of the volume's physical upkeep); Grout, Goodnow, and Rice empowered to lay out all town lands. |
| March 6 & 11, 1666/67 | 178 | Prior year's land/fence/cattle/swine orders (recorded in "folio 76") reconfirmed for 1667; Stanape continues as swine-order enforcer and meeting-house sweeper (20 shillings + old pound timber + 15 shillings arrears). Mr. Thomas Walker (a Town Right holder, likely connected to the earlier schoolkeeping discussion) given free timber to repair fences disrupted when he bought his land. Joseph Graves, a smith, granted timber to build a house on his shop lot, with an unusual restrictive covenant: he may only sell/mortgage/lease it to a townsman or approved person, with a two-arbitrator dispute process if needed, and no additional common rights beyond pine for his forge (regulated by Joseph Noyes and William Moores). Mrs. Hunt's 50-shilling pension continued. |
| January 13, 1667/68 | 180 | Lieutenant Goodenowe and Corporal Henry Rice directed to investigate reported encroachments on the Cow Common by Peter Bent (at Lanham) and John Smith, and report back to the town. |
| Early 1668 (undated, continued) | 181 | Deacon John Haynes and Sergeant Josiah Haynes to answer any legal claims about a highway through the New Grant, joining with Concord and Marlborough men to site it. Selectmen to address John Woodward's intrusion onto town common land. Meeting-house grounds to be leveled/raised in front. The town's common and reserved "minister's" meadows leased out for the year to numerous inhabitants (John Blanford, Thomas Steevens, Sergeant John Rutter, Ensign John Grout, James Ross, Corporal Henry Rice, Thomas Eames, Peter King, and others) for small annual rents in wheat/Indian corn/shillings — by now a well-established yearly practice (see June 1654 entry for its origin). Land-exchange requests reviewed (Henry Rice, John Toll); Peter King confirmed in land at Sweet Hame for causeway-related damage; Joseph Noyes confirmed on the site of his new dwelling house in exchange for removing 4.5 acres from the Cow Common; further land laid out to Joseph Noyes and to Thomas & Peter Noyes for the mill (detailed bounds, ~50 acres upland + several meadow parcels). |
| February 10, 1667/68 | 186 | Selectmen chosen: Lt. Edmund Goodnow, Ensign John Grout, Deacon John Haynes, Corporal Henry Rice, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Thomas Steevens, Sergeant John Rutter; Joseph Noyes chosen constable, Thomas Steevens clerk; Goodnow/Grout/Rice again small-causes commissioners. Thomas Walker granted timber for a barn; Thomas Eames's estate to be rated normally; a standing rule set exempting briefly-wintered "stranger" cattle from the rate invoice unless kept over a month. |
| February 24, 1668 | 187 | John Bent Sr. granted meadow to complete his third division; Mrs. Hunt's 50-shilling pension continued; Jonathan Stanhop continues as meeting-house sweeper (26 shillings). A five-man committee (Goodnow, Josiah Haynes, Toll, Peter Noyes, Steevens) appointed to systematically re-page and audit the entire town book, flagging any grants/records likely to cause future disputes, with public notice so affected inhabitants can be present — a significant record-keeping/quality-control initiative. |
| June 9, 1668 | 188 | Ensign Grout and Thomas Steevens to urgently arrange purchase of gunpowder, match, and bullets per law; a town meeting called to fund new military "colours" (flags) via sale of town land; mill lands ordered formally recorded; selectmen to pursue collection of debts owed to the town and minister. |
| June 24, 1668 | 189 | Land sold to Katherine Reed of Lanham (6 acres, £6) with proceeds partly used by Grout and Steevens to buy silk for the military company's colours. Rating agreement with Thomas Eames regarding his lease of Mr. Pelham's farm. |
| February 10, 1668/69 | 189 | Selectmen chosen: Lt. Edmund Goodnow, Ensign John Grout, Sergeant Josiah Haynes, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Thomas Steevens, Deacon John Haynes, Henry Rice; Henry Rice constable, Steevens clerk; Peter King and Jonathan Stanop chosen highway surveyors (£20 rate budget). |
| March 15, 1668/69 | 191 | Summer cattle-herding ordinance renewed in standard form (April 15-Oct 21, 6 pence/beast penalty, oxen exempted). Annual common/minister's-meadow leasing list recorded again (John Blanford, Thomas Steevens, John Grout, Joseph Grane, Ephraim Curtice, John Allen, Jonathan Stanhope, Peter King, Sergeant Haynes, etc.). |
| November 9, 1669 | 192 | town-funded childbirth care. The town arranges for "Roger Willise & child" to be lodged with Widow Loker until she [presumably the mother/wife] is delivered and recovered, with the town covering Widow Loker's costs via the deacons — a notable instance of town-funded maternity/lying-in care for a needy family. |
| February 10, 1669/70 | 193 | Selectmen chosen: Lt. Edmund Goodnow, Ensign John Grout, Deacon John Haynes, Sergeant Josiah Haynes, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Thomas Steevens, Peter King; Matthew Rice constable, Steevens clerk; Ensign Grout appointed sealer of weights and measures. Rule that livestock boarded out to farms/day-herds elsewhere still pay town rates as if kept in town; Widow Loker to sweep the meeting house (26 shillings). |
| March 24, 1669/70 | 194 | Great River meadow renters excused from payment (meadow unmowable that year). Deacon John Haynes to run the west boundary line. Land exchanges: Joseph Freeman (14 acres relocated to Lanham); Thomas Reed (fence-line straightening, 10 shillings). Annual common-meadow leasing list recorded again for the coming summer. |
| November 14, 1670 | 196 | Country Rate receipts recorded. Sergeant John Rutter contracted to underpin the meeting house (20 shillings); Jonathan Stanhop empowered to summon rate-delinquents before a magistrate. Formal discharge receipts from the Massachusetts Bay Treasurer recorded verbatim: Henry Loker's receipt for the 1669 Country Rate (£21 17s.2d.) signed by James Richard Russell; Joseph Noyes's 1668 receipt (£6 2s.) and Peter King's 1665/66 receipt (£32 6s.8d.), both signed by Richard Russell, Treasurer — direct documentary evidence of Sudbury's colony-tax payments. Further land grants/exchanges to Thomas Reed and Matthew Gibbs. |
| November 20, 1670 | 198 | timber conservation order. Major conservation order against wasteful timber-cutting on the commons: no more lopping of oak trees (2s.6d. fine per violation), no felling oak for firewood, and anyone felling any tree must clear both body and top within 4 months, enforced by Ensign Grout and Sergeant Rutter — a direct response to "intolerable spoil and waste" of common wood and timber. Contract with Ephraim Curtis to board and shingle the meeting house (plus new floorboards) for £28, to finish by June 24, 1671, paid in installments through March 1672 at set grain-conversion rates. Land exchange for Sergeant Rutter; Rutter replaces Goodnow (temporarily) in granting east-side timber. |
| February 10, 1670/71 | 199 | Selectmen chosen: Lt. Edmund Goodnow, Ensign John Grout, Deacon John Haynes, Sergeant Josiah Haynes, Mr. Peter Noyes, Thomas Steevens, Mr. Joseph Noyes; Jonathan Stanhope constable, Steevens clerk; Goodnow/Grout/Josiah Haynes again small-causes commissioners; Widow Loker continues sweeping the meeting house. |
| February 27, 1670/71 | 201 | Rating enforcement: non-cooperating landholders (residents or bordering owners) to be rated by the selectmen's own judgment. Several land exchanges (Joseph Freeman/Josiah Haynes highway swap, John Goodnow's Hop Meadow relocation, Samuel Winch, Matthew Gibbs). Timber-trespass fine reaffirmed at 19 shillings/tree for unauthorized felling on common land, with a grace period to clear already-felled timber by June 24; town timber barred from being carried to the sawmill for payment-in-kind, to keep it from leaving town. Annual common/minister's-meadow leasing list recorded again (Blandford, Maynard, Gleasing, Goodnow, Wright, Haynes, Steevens, Rutter, Stanhope). |
| June 19 – October 2, 1671 | 204 | Selectmen ordered to crack down on intrusions onto town land and watering places. Lt. (William) Goodnowe permitted to let his son Capt. Pendleton's farm to Thomas Gates of Marlborough without the usual settlement security — notable given the 1665 anti-stranger ordinance, showing exceptions were made. £50 rate levied to restock the town's ammunition (bullets and match) and repair meeting-house glass. |
| 1671-72 | 205 | Country Rate receipts and annual offices. More verbatim Treasury discharge receipts recorded (John Blandford for 1666; Matthew Rice for 1670-71 — £21 18s.2d.; a receipt naming "the Constable of Sudbury in Indian Town" for £14 3s.10d., April 1672 — an intriguing reference suggesting a Sudbury-linked Native American settlement/praying town paying into the same Country Rate). Selectmen chosen (Feb 19, 1671/72): Lt. Edmund Goodnow, Ensign John Grout, Deacon John Haynes, Sergeant Josiah Haynes, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Thomas Reed, Thomas Steevens; John Goodnow & Sergeant Rutter constables. Joseph Parmenter granted clay-digging and brick-kiln rights on town land. |
| February 26, 1671/72 | 207 | river-clearing project. Great River meadow-fencing and river-clearing project: all Great River meadow proprietors required to fence their meadow ends; a 4-pence/acre levy on river meadow (Concord line to the south line) funds clearing the river channel, administered by a six-man surveyor committee (Peter Noyes, Joseph Noyes, Rutter, Deacon Haynes, Plympton, Moore). The Long Causeway (bridge to gravel pits) to be raised and repaired, work apportioned by lottery among inhabitants. |
| March 11, 1671/72 | 208 | Goodman Stratton of Concord's son-in-law, William Howard, admitted as a new town inhabitant upon bond. Bridge workers paid 3 shillings/day; annual common-meadow leasing list recorded again. |
| 1672 (undated, continued leasing) | 209 | Multi-year meadow leases now appearing (Sergeant Rutter given a 7-year lease with fencing/river-clearing obligations; Edward Wright & Elias Keayes given a 9-year lease on similar terms) — a shift toward longer-term meadow tenancies. Sergeant Josiah Haynes to work with James Adams of Concord on staking Cedar Swamp meadow; Adams granted limited grazing/deadwood rights on Sudbury's bounds in exchange for reporting trespass by Concord's herds. |
| February 19, 1672/73 | 211 | Selectmen chosen: Lt. Edmond Goodnow, Ensign John Grout, Mr. Joseph Noyes, John Toll, Peter King, Sergeant John Rutter, Thomas Steevens; Peter Noyes & Thomas Plimpton constables; Goodnow/Grout/Josiah Haynes small-causes commissioners; Widow Loker continues as meeting-house sweeper (24 shillings). |
| March 17, 1672 | 212 | Benjamin Crane's highway contract. Annual meadow-leasing list recorded again (compressed as before). Formal contract with Benjamin Crane: in exchange for permanently maintaining, at his own cost, the public road through his land between Concord and Marlborough, the town remits the 5-shilling annual fee the County Court had assessed him for the military company, and exempts him and his heirs from all other highway-work obligations in Sudbury forever — a notable privatized-road-maintenance arrangement, signed and witnessed March 24, 1672. |
| December 12, 1673 | 215 | medical crisis care for Widow Hunt. The town arranges for a physician, "Sr. Avery of Dedham," to examine and treat Widow Hunt, described as gravely afflicted with "breakings out and running sores"; Matthew Gibbs's wife enlisted to attend and dress the widow's wounds per the doctor's direction; a £10 rate levied and given to Mr. Peter Noyes to cover the costs and her other necessities — one of the most detailed individual medical-care records in the volume. |
| February 9 & 13, 1673/74 | 215 | Selectmen chosen: Lt. Edmund Goodnow, Deacon John Haynes, Sergeant Josiah Haynes, Ensign John Grout, Mr. Peter Noyes, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Thomas Steevens; John Grout & Samuel How constables; William Eames chosen meeting-house sweeper (26 shillings). Annual meadow-leasing list recorded again (longer-term leases to Elias Keyes and Jabez Browne at 6-7 years, 1 penny-1 shilling/year, appearing among them). Committee to resolve John Smith's encroachment onto town land near the new mill and Lanham roads, and to review Jabez Browne's inherited (Blandford) land for a possible exchange. £3 added to the rate to cover the town deputy's board at Hugh Drewey's in Boston during General Court sessions; Peter Noyes chosen rate-collector/marshal. |
| April 11, 1674 | 219 | £7 6s.8d. Country Rate levied, collected by the constables and paid to the County Treasurer. Comprehensive fencing order reaffirmed (citing the March 12, 1666 order, "folio 76"): all field fences to be sufficient by April 20 or forfeit 12 pence/rod defective; extensive named surveyor assignments covering every part of town including Lanham and "Pnobscott" (Nobscot). Fire-ladder ordinance and swine yoking/ringing ordinance both renewed in standard form. |
| October 6-12, 1674 | 222 | Great Causeway crisis. A full town meeting specially warned (by notice posted on the meeting-house door after a lecture) to address chronic neglect of the Great Causeway and other highways; a survey committee (Haynes, Joseph Noyes, Plimpton) identifies defects and delinquent parties. Delinquents given 10 days to finish their causeway allotments or forfeit 10 shillings each, collectible by distraint; a £20 rate levied for country-highway repair; John Smith made to finish Benjamin Rice's neglected portion, with the pastor contributing 5 shillings toward it. |
| December 21, 1674 | 224 | new bridge over the Great River. Detailed construction order and named timber-supply contracts (Capt. Goodnow, Peter Noyes, Sergeant Haynes, John Goodnow, Thomas Read) for a new railed bridge over the Great River, matching the old bridge's height, with precise post/cap dimensions and payment in shillings from the town rate. |
| February 12, 1674/75 | 226 | land seizure for neglect. Town ratifies the selectmen's seizure of William Kerley's land for neglecting his Great Causeway repair obligation, failing to pay rates, and unlawfully housing a tenant against town order — his land held at the town's disposal until he makes satisfaction. A separate settlement with Benjamin Chamberlin (5-shilling fine plus completing his causeway portion and back-rates) approved. Selectmen chosen for 1675: Capt. Edmond Goodnow (now styled Captain — a militia rank), Deacon John Haynes, Sergeant Josiah Haynes, Ensign John Grout, Mr. Peter Noyes, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Thomas Steevens; Thomas Read Sr. & John Brower constables. |
| March 1, 1674/75 | 227 | £15 added to the rate for the new bridge; non-resident landowners bordering the town set to pay half the standard town-rate share; a committee to press Thomas Eames on his minister-rate obligations "as christian duty & the church covenant obligeth." Annual common-meadow leasing list recorded again. |
| Date | Page | Event |
|---|---|---|
| February-March 1675/76 | 229 | into King Philip's War. Selectmen chosen for 1676 (Feb 14, 1675/76): Capt. Edm. Goodnow, Ensign John Grout, Sergeant Josiah Haynes, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Sergeant John Rutter, Peter King, Thomas Steevens. A second officer slate is recorded for "Anno 1677" at the same Feb. 14 date heading (likely a dating/compilation quirk in the source) naming Joseph Moore and Matthew Gibbs Sr. as constables and noting Peter King replacing Thomas Plimpton, "deceased," as highway surveyor — Plimpton's death is the only direct mortality reference in this stretch, though the record does not say whether it was war-related. (King Philip's War was raging in this period; the famous Sudbury Fight occurred April 21, 1676 — see notes below on the fortification entries, which appear to be the town's direct administrative response.) |
| February 26, 1676 | 231 | Bird-bounty ordinance formally abolished ("the Towne will here forth pay for noe more birds"). Annual meadow-leasing list recorded again; Jonathan Treadaway granted land for a house with a resale restriction; selectmen directed to pursue rate delinquents to fund the new bridge. |
| March 5 – March 21, 1676/77 | 232 | the meeting-house "fortification". Bridge-timber and meeting-house-gate repairs ordered. A rate ordered "for the fortification about the Meeting House of this Towne" — logs rated at 2s.6d. each, boards at 5s.6d./hundred feet, labor at 18d./day, with "strangers and sojourners" excluded from the assessment — this is the town's defensive fortification/garrison measure tied to King Philip's War (1675-76), which had included the Sudbury Fight of April 1676; the surrounding entries (below) show ongoing settlement of war-adjacent town business. Land grants and exchanges continue in parallel: Sergeant Josiah Haynes (land swap near Pantry), Henry Loaker, John Parmenter (half-acre common swamp, 10 shillings), Mr. Thomas Browne (adjoining common swamp, 20 shillings/acre, one acre discounted to 16 shillings, with a 3-year clearing obligation). Land laid out to Thomas Reed referencing a boundary against "Mr. Danforth's line" (Thomas Danforth, the colony magistrate, evidently now a Sudbury-area landowner). A committee (Goodnow, Grout, Deacon Haynes, Sergeant Haynes, Joseph Noyes) appointed to assess the impact of a proposed new sawmill site. |
| February 1677/78 | 236 | annual offices amid war's financial aftermath. Selectmen chosen for 1678: Capt. Edmund Goodnow, Ensign John Grout, Mr. Peter Noyes, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Thomas Steevens, Sergeant Josiah Haynes, Jonathan Stanhope; Mr. Thomas Browne & Thomas Read Sr. constables. Common-meadow leasing list recorded again (Feb 25 / March 11, 1677/78). William Addams granted timber for a small dwelling. County Rate of £5 3s.8d. paid to Treasurer John Stedman (a new treasurer, replacing the Russell family). Town debts reviewed; payment due for boards used "about the watch house" and logs/labor for the meeting-house fortification, with a firm deadline (March 11) after which unclaimed contributions would be forfeited — the town winding down its wartime construction accounts. Boston, February 27, 1677 — Treasurer John Hull's receipt records that Sudbury's 1676 Country Rate obligation (22 single rates, £386 12s.) was settled including "three bills of disbursement & the General Court's abatements & some other small payments of Soldiers' Debenters" — direct documentary evidence that Sudbury's colony-tax burden that year was offset by credits for soldiers' pay ("debenters") tied to King Philip's War military service. Sawmill granted on Hop Brook (March 26, 1677) to Peter King, Thomas Read Sr., John Goodnow, John Smith, and Joseph Freeman, above Peter Noyes's existing mill, with a covenant to build a replacement corn mill if Noyes's mill ever ceases operating, and seasonal restrictions on damming (not between mid-April and September). A 1675 Country Rate receipt (£3 6s.8d.) recorded from James Russell as executor of the late Richard Russell, Treasurer. Land laid out to John Parmenter Sr. (half-acre, near his grandfather's former land). Free-will contribution ordered (via Deacon Haynes) to fund pulpit supply during Pastor Edmund Browne's sickness — Browne had served as Sudbury's minister since the town's founding in 1639/40, and this is the first indication in the record of his declining health. |
| 1678 | 241 | the town searches for a new minister. A standing committee (Capt. Goodnow, Deacon Haynes, Joseph Noyes, Peter King) empowered to arrange substitute preaching during Pastor Browne's incapacity; a rotating schedule of townsmen volunteers to fetch and return traveling preachers weekly. A separate committee empowered to audit and collect all arrears owed to Pastor Browne from individual parishioners, suing where necessary; a £16 town-debt rate levied. (May 6, 1678) The town engages Mr. James Sherman to preach during Browne's illness, boarding him at Peter King's house, funded by a £20 rate. (July 8, 1678) After unanimously affirming their approval of Sherman's ministry, the town votes to formally settle Mr. James Sherman as their new minister: a £60-80 settlement payment (half money, half country pay) over two years, plus £60-80/year ongoing maintenance in specified goods (wheat, pork, beef, mutton, butter, cheese, rye, corn). (Sept-Dec 1678) The town purchases John Loker's house and land next to the meeting house for £50 (partly in cash, partly in a 40-acre land grant), including negotiating the surrender of the reversionary interest held by Loker's mother, Widow Mary Loker (who is granted a 25-shilling/year annuity for life or until remarriage, plus £15 for repairs) — intended as the new minister's residence. (Dec 30, 1678) Final settlement with Mr. James Sherman: the town deeds him the purchased Loker house and land outright (contingent on his lifetime service as "Teaching Elder"), plus funds toward buying out Widow Loker's adjoining lot, 6 acres upland, 6 acres meadow, an annual salary of £80 (in money, provisions, and grain) plus £5/year for firewood, and free commonage/meadow/timber use — with a reversion clause if he ever leaves before death. Sherman accepts, noting he would forgo money payment "if the Mint House be put down" (a reference to the Boston mint's uncertain status). |
| December 25, 1678 | 251 | Harvard College contribution. Selectmen ordered to collect any outstanding pledges from Sudbury residents toward the new college building at Harvard, per General Court order, and settle accounts with William Manning at Cambridge; a receipt for corn contributions is recorded (March 10, 1678/79). |
| February-March 1678/79 | 253 | Selectmen chosen for 1679: Capt. Edm. Goodnow, Lt. Josiah Haynes, Ensign John Grout, Mr. Thomas Steevens, Mr. Thomas Brown, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Corporal Jonathan Stanhope; Joseph Rice & Jabesh Brown constables. Standard annual orders (fences, swine, ladders, cattle) reconfirmed by reference to the prior year's filed orders — a bureaucratic shorthand now well established. Rating equity enforced: Capt. William Pelham's and Mr. Walgrave's meadows made subject to ordinary rates like everyone else's. |
| May 1679 | 255 | Mr. Peter Noyes elected Sudbury's deputy to the General Court, donating his own time/expenses for the first session. Treasurer John Hull's receipt records three years of Sudbury's Country Rate settled (minus a 20-shilling warrant discrepancy). |
| September 29, 1679 | 256 | lawsuit against Widow Loker. The town authorizes a lawsuit against Widow Mary Loker for refusing to fully vacate/surrender the house premises as previously agreed, empowering Lt. Haynes, Joseph Noyes, and Peter King to litigate or settle for up to £15. A Treasurer's receipt (Joseph Hull) records a £36 19s.6d. partial payment, partly in silver at a premium exchange rate. |
| January 18, 1679/80 | 257 | tithingmen and family inspections instituted. Selectmen order a house-to-house inspection of every family in town, checking for unauthorized "inmates" and "loose persons," and specifically examining children's and servants' progress in reading and catechism — divided among selectmen by geographic precinct (Lanham/Nobscot, the King's/Rice's area, the southern district). The town's first "tythingmen" appointed (John Blandford, Henry Loker, Corporal Henry Rice, Mr. Peter Noyes, Sergeant Edward Wright, Thomas Read Sr.), each assigned 10-13 named families to morally oversee — a new institution of Puritan social/religious discipline, sworn into office over the following weeks. |
| January 1679/80 | 258 | Capt. Edmund Goodnow elected deputy to the General Court for the February 1679/80 session. John Loker executes a formal receipt/release acknowledging full payment of the £50 owed for his house and land, referencing the original deed of September 24, 1678 (acknowledged October 26, 1678) — dated "in the two and thirtieth year of his Majesty's reign" (Charles II). |
| January 30, 1680 | 259 | Selectmen report back on the family inspections: children and youth found generally "in a forward & growing way" in reading and catechism, and diligently employed — a rare direct assessment of community welfare/education. Tithingmen formally sworn. |
| February 12, 1679/80 | 260 | Selectmen chosen for 1680: Capt. Edmond Goodnow, Lt. Josiah Haynes, Ensign John Grout, Thomas Steevens, Mr. Thomas Brown, Jacob Moore, John Brewer; John Allen & Peter Haynes constables. |
| March 1, 1679/80 | 261 | Minister Sherman's half-year rate (£40 + 50 shillings firewood) ordered paid. Wolf bounty reinstated at 10 shillings/wolf (repealing whatever interim order had lapsed it), extended even to non-resident landowners who kill wolves on their Sudbury-area land. Annual common-meadow leasing list recorded again. Peter King and Thomas Read Sr. deputized to collect overdue meadow rates from Concord-area landholders and from Samuel Goffe (as attorney for Mr. Pelham/Mr. Walgrave), each keeping half of what they recover. Meeting-house repairs planned (underpinning, walls, glazing, gallery enlarged by two seats, stairs relocated). |
| March 8-15, 1679/80 | 264 | Sudbury's report to the County Court. Thomas Danforth, Recorder of the Country, orders every town to report on its rateable population, ministry support, schools, and tithingmen to the County Court at Cambridge. Sudbury's formal return (signed by constable Sabesh Browne) is transcribed in full: 62 rateable males, 59 families, £17 16s.8d. in rateable estate, £80/year minister's salary (quarter in money); no single stated school because the town is too geographically scattered, but two "school Dames," one on each side of the river, teach small children to spell and read — an early record of women running informal elementary schools; Mr. Thomas Walker and others teach writing/ciphering; six sworn tithingmen listed; the selectmen report finding no families living in disorderly or ungoverned fashion. |
| March 15 – April 1680 | 266 | Swine yoking/ringing, fencing, ladder, horse/mare, and sheep ordinances all reconfirmed in detailed standard form with named surveyors for each district. |
| May 5, 1680 | 270 | settlement of Rev. Edmund Browne's estate. A formal deed of release confirms that Rev. Edmund Browne, Sudbury's founding pastor, has died (referenced as "till his death" and "his dying day"), survived by his widow Ann Browne. His executors — John Joyliffe, James Whetcombe, and Samuel Goffe — formally acknowledge full payment of all sums owed to Browne (including £12 13s.11d. paid to him before death, £4 16s.11d. to his widow, and £43 6s.4d. more to the executors) and release the town from all further claims, in an extensively worded legal instrument dated May 5, 1680, witnessed by Roger Toothaker, Joseph Foster, James Barnard, Thomas James, Henry Bartholomew Jr., and Mary Greene. This closes the book on the town's four-decade relationship with its first minister. |
| January 16, 1680/81 | 272 | A schedule recorded of Sudbury meadow parcels sold to Concord men (Thomas Noyes, Richard Newton, Thomas White, John Freeman, George Munnings, John Goodnow, John Parmenter Jr., Anthony White/Robert Davis lands, now held by George Howard, Joseph Howard, Nathaniel Billings, etc.), still liable for Sudbury rates. County Rate payment respited pending town discussion; new tithingmen chosen for 1681, replacing several of the prior year's. |
| February 14, 1680/81 | 274 | Selectmen chosen for 1681: Capt. Edmond Goodnow, Lt. Josiah Haynes, Ensign John Grout, Corporal Jonathan Stanhope, Peter King, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Thomas Steevens; Joseph Curtise & Robert Man constables. Minister Sherman's 1678 settlement agreement ordered formally drawn up into signed duplicate instruments. Old town pound ordered repaired using leftover logs from the meeting-house fortification (explicitly confirming the fortification's wartime construction and its post-war dismantling), with Joseph Noyes providing his team to haul the logs; Samuel How contracted to build new stocks. Tree-preservation order: no felling/lopping of trees between Peter King's house and the town bridge, "to be carefully preserved for shade" (10-shilling fine) — a rare aesthetic/amenity-driven conservation order rather than a purely economic one. Town votes to refuse paying its share of a County Rate, pledging to indemnify the constables for withholding it — a notable act of local tax resistance. Common land north of the town street opened for temporary enclosure/plowing by lot (4-year terms, then returned to common pasture sown with English grain) — an early instance of shifting common land toward individual improvement, with named takers and acreages (Jacob Moore & Peter King 16 acres; Rutter & Brown 6 acres; Joseph Noyes, Daniel Willard, Zech. Maynard, John Allen 3-6 acres each in March). Widow Mary Loker's dispute over her house reversion finally resolved by her selling her remaining right outright to the town, ending the annual annuity arrangement. The Rev. Browne estate-settlement committee (Goodnow, Deacon Haynes, Joseph Noyes, John Greene) thanked and paid £5 for their service closing out his accounts. Daniel Willard, a smith, recruited with free residence and pine-wood/coaling rights, continuing the town's pattern of incentivizing tradesmen. Peter King contracted to maintain the town pound for 4 years, paid partly in leftover fortification timber (the watch house and gate timber excepted, reserved to the town). |
| Spring 1681 | 279 | Country Rate receipts. Several more Treasury receipts recorded (James Russell and John Stedman, Treasurers) for 1679-1680 Country Rate payments, including a note that Country payments were required one-third in silver by Court order. |
| January 9, 1681/82 | 280 | New tithingmen chosen for 1682 (Samuel How, Jabesh Brown, Zechariah Maynard, John Brewer, and others), each again assigned specific geographic precincts covering named households — the institution now a settled annual practice. |
| Date | Page | Event |
|---|---|---|
| February 13, 1681/82 | 281 | Selectmen chosen for 1682: Capt. John Greene, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Ensign John Grout, Deacon John Haynes, Goodman Peter King, Mr. Peter Noyes, Corporal Jonathan Stanhope; Capt. John Greene also chosen town clerk (Thomas Steevens, the long-serving prior clerk, noted as unwell); Zechariah Maynard & Benjamin Moore constables. Poor-relief case: Jonathan Griffin's family, found in need, prompts a town committee (Joseph Noyes, Peter King, Zechariah Maynard, later joined by Peter Noyes) to negotiate placing the Griffins' child with its grandfather in Newbury to ease the family's burden — with authority to petition the County Court for custody if the father resists. A notable early child-welfare/poor-relief intervention. Land grants to John Graves (4 acres, with a resale restriction and a public right-of-way through his meadow) and Daniel Willard the smith (a shop lot on the town street, similarly restricted); several land-exchange requests reviewed (John Haynes Jr., John Goodnow, John Brewer). Jonathan Griffin chosen meeting-house sweeper. |
| March 6-18, 1681/82 | 285 | Minister Sherman's half-year rate (£42 10s.) delivered; £8 5s.3d. town rate made for debts. Exceptionally detailed, town-wide fencing, swine, cattle, horse, and sheep ordinances re-issued with eight numbered fence-surveyor circuits covering the entire town, penalties spelled out precinct by precinct, and a requirement that the orders be publicly nailed up at the meeting house and read aloud after lecture — the most elaborate single instance of this recurring regulatory apparatus in the volume. |
| April-May 1682 | 290 | Country Rate receipts recorded (Stedman, James Russell) including funds specifically "for fitting forth the Country's Agents, Mr. Dudley & Mr. Richards bound for... England" — the colony's agents sent to London regarding the Massachusetts charter crisis. Town weights sent to the county for re-certification. Thomas Carter ordered banished: the constable directed to warn him to "depart & quit this Town" within a week — a rare explicit expulsion order. Freemen vote in colony-wide elections for Governor, Deputy Governor, Treasurer, Secretary, Major, Lieutenant, Commissioners, and 26 nominated magistrates — direct evidence of Sudbury's participation in Massachusetts Bay colony governance. |
| July-December 1682 | 294 | unimproved-land tax survey. Capt. Edmund Goodnow chosen commissioner to help assess a new Country Rate. A comprehensive survey of unimproved land ordered and reported: 3,896 acres unimproved held by Sudbury residents, 1,522 acres held by absentee owners elsewhere in the colony, and 5,130 acres of neighboring/bordering land (excluding Mr. Danforth's, the Gookins', and the Hows' uncertain-acreage holdings) — assessed at 2 shillings per 8 acres for the county tax; a list of local troopers (cavalry militia) also compiled and sent to Cambridge. Treasurer James Russell's warrant (Dec 26, 1682) itemizes Country Rate payment in specific grains at fixed prices (wheat 5s.6d./bushel, peas 4s.6d., barley 3s.6d., rye 4s., Indian corn 3s., oats 2s.) — receipted paid April 20, 1683. |
| February 1, 1682/83 | 298 | Selectmen address Pastor Sherman's outstanding rate arrears, naming specific delinquents (Mr. Edward Pelham owing £10 18s.10d., John Graves £10 13s.10d., John Gleason and Henry Rand smaller sums) and arranging a final 40-shilling top-up to close out all accounts through February 1681/82. Seven new tithingmen chosen for the coming year. |
| February 12, 1682/83 | 299 | Selectmen chosen for 1683: John Greene, Deacon John Haynes, Capt. Edmund Goodnow, Ensign John Grout, John Allen, Mr. Thomas Brown, John Brewer; John Parmenter & Hopestill Brown constables. Constables' pay standardized: 10 shillings/year added to their standard 12-pence-in-the-pound collection fee. Pastor Sherman's accounts through February 1681/82 formally balanced and closed to his satisfaction. |
| March 5, 1682/83 | 301 | town meeting moved from February to October. A procedural reform to keep the minister's rate payments from lapsing between selectmen terms. The town votes to permanently move its annual officer-election meeting from February to the first Monday in October, explaining that western-river residents were often unable to cross the causeway in February — the ice being neither solid enough to bear weight nor melted enough for canoes — a rare piece of practical/environmental reasoning preserved in the record. Several poor inhabitants (Ephraim Garfield, John Gleason, Jonathan Griffin, John Graves) made rate-exempt. Committee members (Haynes, Noyes, King) thanked for settling the Widow Mary Loker payment. Numerous individual land exchanges resolved (Joseph Moor, John Haynes Jr., John Goodnow, John Brewer, Joseph Noyes, Joseph Gleason). Long Meadow leased to Zechariah Maynard; the 1680/81 sheep-pasture enclosure lots confirmed rate-free while being improved. |
| March 13, 1682/83 | 306 | Freemen deliver colony magistrate votes to Cambridge; jury duty assignments (Grand Jury: Ensign Grout; Trial Jury: Jonathan Rice). |
| March 26, 1683 | 307 | Comprehensive annual fencing/swine/cattle/horse/sheep/ladder ordinances reissued with a full eight-circuit fence-surveyor roster (largely continuing prior assignments) — again ordered publicly posted and read after lecture. |
| April-May 1683 | 312 | settlement-restriction enforcement intensifies. Rates levied on the town's 18 troopers, the Country Rate, and a waste/unimproved-land rate, all tied to colony Treasurer warrants. Matthew Rice ordered to post a £40 bond or face 19s.6d./week penalties for admitting tenant Dennis Headly (with wife and child) without town leave, reviving the 1665 settlement ordinance; when unresolved, the constables are ordered to expel Dennis Headly and family from the town outright (May 1, 1683) — a second explicit banishment case following Thomas Carter's the prior year. |
| August-October 1683 | 315 | Standard invoice-taking, rate-making, and pastor's-rate payment cycle continues under the new October election schedule. Selectmen chosen (October 5, 1683): John Greene, Capt. Edm. Goodnow, Deacon John Haynes, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Ensign John Grout, Mr. Thomas Brown, John Allen; Jonathan Rice & John Bush constables. A third settlement-restriction case: James Barnet ordered to remove Christopher Portingal, described as "a person of vicious nature, an evil tongue, & behaviour," from his land, or post security; Portingal ordered to depart the town. A welfare/moral-oversight investigation: Capt. Goodnow and Thomas Read Sr. directed to inquire into the treatment of Benjamin Crane's servant boy, and separately into the condition of Crane's daughter — "suspected to be with child & hath no husband" — with instructions to admonish her parents to look after her, a rare direct trace of an unmarried-pregnancy case in the town's moral-discipline apparatus. |
| December 3, 1683 | 319 | meeting house repair vs. rebuild debate. After extended discussion, the town defers building a new meeting house for another year, opting instead for repairs to keep the current building warm and as accommodating as possible. |
| December 1683 – March 1683/84 | 319 | Routine Country/County Rate cycles continue under Treasurer warrants; tithingmen sworn in; town meeting scheduled to review the annual invoice and town debts/credits. |
| March 3, 1683/84 | 321 | Invoice-taking schedule moved earlier (to January) to speed up the minister's rate. Land-exchange confirmed for the late Deacon William Browne's heir, Hopestill Brown (Nobscot/Pine Plain/Pine Slad parcels). Joseph Graves's occupation of unrecorded "Walgrave Meadow" investigated for back rates; Deacon Haynes to measure it. Annual common-meadow leasing list recorded again (Zechariah Maynard, Lt. Haynes, John Goodnow, Peter Haynes, James Rosse). Several more land exchanges requested (Ensign Grout, Joseph Curtise, John Rutter) referred to committee. |
| March 17-26, 1684 | 324 | boundary-running with three neighboring towns. Minister's and town-debt rates delivered; comprehensive fencing/swine/cattle/horse/sheep/ladder ordinances reconfirmed by reference to the prior year's filed text (a now-standard shorthand). A pointed enforcement warrant against minister's-rate delinquents — Edward Pelham, John Gleason, Henry Rand, Jonathan Treadaway, James Smith — accusing them of persistent, willful non-payment "to the dishonor of God, contempt of his worship" and ordering distraint. Boundary-running parties formally organized with all three neighboring towns simultaneously: Joseph Noyes/Thomas Brown/John Allen with Watertown (east line) and southern farmers; John Goodnow/Zechariah Maynard/James Haynes with Concord (north line); Deacon Haynes and sons with "Stow Men (alias Pompositicut men)" (west and southern lines) — Pompositicut being Stow's earlier Native name, an interesting toponymic detail. |
| March-June 1684 | 328 | Jury duty and colony election participation continues (Grand Jury, Trial Jury, votes for Governor/Deputy Governor/Assistants/Treasurer/Secretary/Major General). Deacon John Haynes elected Sudbury's deputy to the General Court for the year. |
| August-October 1684 | 329 | Standard Country Rate assessment cycle (John Goodnow commissioner); jury duty continues; tithingmen chosen for the new year, and the town flags Jonathan Griffin's family as needing attention at the upcoming meeting — foreshadowing the extended welfare case below. |
| November 3, 1684 | 330 | Selectmen chosen: Capt. Edm. Goodnow, John Greene, Deacon John Haynes, Mr. Peter Noyes Sr., Ensign John Grout, Lt. Josiah Haynes, Mr. Joseph Noyes; Edmond Pace & Joseph Freeman constables. Peter Noyes Sr. added to the standing committee overseeing the Griffin family's welfare. Further land exchanges reviewed (Joseph Curtis's Pine Plain parcels, Joseph Noyes's land near the pound, tied to a reference to an "Indian purchase" of the new-grant lots originally reserved in common). |
| November 24, 1684 | 332 | the Jonathan Griffin welfare case unfolds. Jonathan Griffin's wife has left him, taking their two children to her father's house in Newbury. With Griffin himself in "crazy state & poor condition," the town arranges a rotating month-by-month boarding system: Peter Noyes Sr. to house, feed, and employ him through December; Thomas Read Sr. for January; John Goodnow for February — each paid 5 shillings/week from the town rate. The town also funds a waistcoat, breeches, and shirting for him. A committee (Allen, Wright, Maynard) ordered to inventory and secure Griffin's remaining property (2 cows and 2 swine held by Thomas Carter, plus household goods), selling one swine and leaving the other with Carter as payment for his recent care of Griffin. |
| December 4-27, 1684 | 333 | banishment and tavern-discipline cases. William Dowle ordered banished from the town (constables to see he departs and doesn't return without leave). The wife of Mr. Benjamin Eyres, harbored by Joseph Curtise, ordered expelled unless Curtise or Ensign Grout posts a £100 bond; when unresolved after three weeks, a formal warrant is issued for her removal and for Curtise to pay 19 shillings/week in penalties, signed by seven selectmen (Goodnow, Haynes, Noyes, Moore, Greene, Noyes, Brewer). The town's tavern ("ordinary"), run by Mr. Thomas Walker, investigated following complaints of "miscarriage of things"; selectmen directed to persuade Walker and his wife to take down their sign and cease selling drink — an early temperance-adjacent intervention. Two of the seven newly elected selectmen refuse to serve; Jacob Moor and John Brewer chosen to replace them. Jonathan Griffin turns "unruly," refuses the town's care arrangement, and the town suspends further support for him — a stark reversal from the elaborate relief plan just weeks earlier. John Loker's claim regarding meadow granted in exchange for meeting-house land taken up again (see March 1685 resolution below); Deacon Haynes's survey of "Walgrave Meadow" completed (17 acres). |
| February 9, 1684/85 | 338 | Thomas Read Sr. and Jr. excused from rates "their house getting burned up" — a rare direct reference to a house fire and resulting hardship relief. |
| March 16, 1684/85 | 338 | the meeting-house/burying-ground land exchange formally recorded. John Loker's decades-old exchange of a half-acre (on which the meeting house and the town's burying ground now stand) for 4 acres of meadow is formally re-confirmed and recorded, since no record of the original exchange could be found — permanently settling title to the land under Sudbury's meeting house and burial ground. Widow Mary Loker's separate 12-acre purchase at Walnut Tree Hill also recorded. Land grants confirmed for Joseph Noyes (near the pound) and Sergeant Edward Wright (6 acres, on a 99-year lease "from this sixteenth day of March 1684"). |
| March 16, 1684/85 (continued) | 340 | Land granted to a son-in-law of Elizabeth Whale, described as "blind & in want," in recognition of his care for her. Wolf bounty reinstated at 10 shillings/head (repealing whatever had superseded it). The Lancaster/Marlborough country highway (30 rods wide) formally confirmed as laid out. Timber-conservation enforcement expanded: eight more named men added to the surveyors policing the cutting, wasting, and unauthorized export of timber from the commons. ~£13 town-debt rate ordered, covering the prior year's Griffin relief costs among other charges; annual common-meadow leasing list recorded again. |
| March-November 1685 | 343 | Annual fence/swine/cattle ordinances reconfirmed with minor personnel changes; jury duty and colony-election participation continues. The Griffin welfare case resumes: the town revisits Jonathan Griffin's "sick & very poor condition," ratifies a formal covenant (dated May 25, 1685) with Thomas and Elizabeth Carter to board him for a year at town expense. Joseph Curtis's Pine Plain/Concord Road land exchange finalized and recorded. A pointed distraint warrant issued against pastor's-rate delinquents (Ephraim Garfield, Dennis Headly, Joseph Chamberlin, and others, totaling over £5), with a note that the town itself absorbs interest costs on rates owed by men judged too poor to pay (Griffin, Samuel Hadden, Jonas Whitney, Nathaniel Wilder) — a quiet but real subsidy for the town's poorest debtors. Selectmen chosen (Nov 2, 1685): John Greene, Deacon John Haynes, Mr. Peter Noyes Sr., John Goodnow, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Ensign John Grout, Mr. Thomas Brown; Benjamin Rice & Daniel Stone constables. |
| November 16, 1685 | 351 | Griffin's confinement and the new pound. Land-title confirmations recorded for Henry Loker's house lot and Joseph Noyes's Strawberry Meadow/Long Meadow exchange; a 10-acre timber reserve marked out at Goodman's Hill (19-shilling/tree penalty for unauthorized cutting). The selectmen order a log house built to confine Jonathan Griffin — by now suffering recurring "Lunatick or frenzy fitts" — "for his & his keeper's security," at the town's expense, with Thomas Carter paid 30 shillings for his extraordinary care of him. A new 40-square-foot town pound contracted to Samuel How (£5, 20-year maintenance obligation); the town bridge near Peter King's repaired (40 shillings to Peter King). Lt. Josiah Haynes's 1676/77 land exchange (26 acres on the west side of the river) formally reconfirmed. |
| November 23 – December 14, 1685 | 354 | Country Rate cycle continues; Thomas Carter's own back-rates reconciled against his Griffin-care payment. Jacob Bullard ordered banished from the town (constable warrant, 19-shilling/week penalty for return or for harboring him). John Gleason's family investigated for neglect: selectmen directed to visit, counsel, and admonish the Gleasons to provide for their children and pay their rates, reporting back. |
| February 15, 1685/86 | 355 | Jonathan Griffin's death; a childbirth-linked expulsion threat. Jonathan Griffin is recorded as deceased; a four-man committee (Stanhope, Wright, Joseph Noyes, Allen) appointed to inventory his estate and settle his affairs — closing out a poor-relief saga that ran for well over a year. John Gleason granted 10+ bushels of Indian corn in relief for his family, plus corn to cover debts for boarding his cattle. A notable expulsion case involving a woman about to give birth: the town refuses to admit Samuel Allen and his family, currently lodging with Benjamin Parmenter — "the said Samuel's wife is ready to lye in childbed" — but accepts a bond from Samuel's father, Daniel Allen, guaranteeing the family will depart within three months of the birth, rather than forcing immediate expulsion. Annual common-meadow leasing recorded in unusually fine detail (many named parcels and tenants across Ashen Swamp, Strawberry Hill, Hop Brook, Gulf Meadow — 6 acres of which reserved for the minister — Long Meadow, Cedar Swamp, and more). Blackbird bounty reinstated at 12 pence/dozen heads — reversing the 1676 repeal. |
| March 15, 1685/86 | 359 | Annual swine/fence ordinances renewed with adjusted dates (April 1 – October 16); Corporal Jonathan Stanhope and Robert Man appointed "hog constables" with a pointed warrant admonishing them to enforce more rigorously than predecessors had, citing chronic laxity in swine-law enforcement. |
| March 26, 1686 | 361 | Jonathan Griffin's estate settled. Griffin's inventoried estate (12s.9d., plus other goods worth £3 12s.) presented to the town, to be delivered to the County Court at Cambridge — formally closing his case. The selectmen formally write to Concord's selectmen asking them to keep their cattle from trespassing on Sudbury's commons and meadows. Widow Wedge excused from the Country Rate due to her poverty. The pastor's letter (dated March 8, 1686) read aloud to the town, along with the colony's "Capital Laws" — a rare direct reading of criminal law into the town record. |
| July 1686 | 363 | under the Dominion government. Selectmen receive orders "of the Honorable President & Council" — reflecting the new Dominion of New England government (under the revoked charter) now administering Massachusetts — requiring an updated jury list; the list is drawn up late but delivered to the County Marshal at Cambridge. |
| November 1, 1686 | 365 | Selectmen chosen: John Greene, Lt. John Grout, Mr. Peter Noyes, Deacon John Haynes, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Sergeant John Rutter, Joseph Freeman; Joseph Gleason & John Bent constables (Bent later replaced by John Haynes Jr.). |
| Date | Page | Event |
|---|---|---|
| November 8-22, 1686 | 366 | a new meeting house proposed. A welfare inquiry into the Widow Wedge's family (reported sick and in distress) finds, on investigation, that the situation is not as dire as reported. Peter King appointed pound keeper, explicitly barred from using the pound to fatten hogs. A landmark inter-jurisdictional agreement: outlying "farmers" living near but outside Sudbury's formal bounds (Henry Rice, John Bent, Matthew Rice, Benjamin Rice, William Brown, Daniel Stone, David Stone, David Rice) agree to pay full town rates (meeting house, minister, town debts, poor relief) in exchange for poor-relief reciprocity and exemption from highway-repair duty — a mutually negotiated arrangement between the town proper and its penumbra of border residents. The town initially votes the meeting house will not be repaired or enlarged; a title correction finalizes a long-disputed meadow grant to the heirs of the (deceased) Elias/Eliah Keyes. |
| December 6-27, 1686 | 370 | the new meeting house decided. The town votes to build an entirely new meeting house, to stand on the town's burying ground behind the old one, modeled explicitly "after the mode of Dedham meetinghouse" — following extended debate, a square building design is chosen. A building committee (Deacon Haynes, Capt. Thomas Brown, Capt. John Goodnow, Sergeant James Barnard, Sergeant Edward Wright, Matthew Rice) empowered to negotiate with carpenters. |
| January 10, 1686/87 | 372 | construction contract signed. Meeting relocated to Mr. Walker's house due to extreme cold — the first of several such relocations this winter. Formal construction covenant with Deacon John Haynes, who will have Lt. Daniel Pond of Dedham and his son actually frame and build the new meeting house, matching Dedham's meeting house in dimensions and strength (four gables omitted), to be raised by July 1, 1687 and finished by July 1, 1688, for £200 (£160 in country pay, £40 in money), paid in staged installments. A separate proposal reserves parcels of upland and meadow on both sides of the river as a permanent ministerial land endowment, held by the town "from generation to generation" for the use of whoever serves as minister, never to be alienated without unanimous proprietor consent. |
| February 14-28, 1686/87 | 374 | construction details finalized. Town Clerk John Greene falls sick; Lt. John Grout serves as clerk pro tempore for several meetings, which are again relocated to Mr. Walker's house "by reason of the extremity of the cold." Sergeant James Barnard, refusing to voluntarily contribute to the new meeting house, is rated by the selectmen's own judgment ("by Will and Doom") — a notable instance of coercive rating against a holdout. Building specifications refined: cedar clapboards inside and out, 240 square feet of window glass, one-third rate abatement for those paying in money instead of country pay; a seven-man inspection committee (Pond, King, Brewer, How, Rutter, Goodnow, Brown) appointed to oversee construction quality. Complaint investigated against Benjamin Wright for encroaching on common land near Lanham. |
| March 15, 1686/87 | 379 | boundary running with Watertown and Concord. Formal boundary-running parties scheduled for April 19, 1687 with both Watertown and Concord "according to law." |
| August 1687 | 379 | Dominion-era administration. Capt. John Goodnow chosen commissioner for the Country Rate under the Dominion government. Reference to a land survey/copy "made by his Excellency the Governor & Council" — i.e., Sir Edmund Andros's Dominion of New England administration, now firmly in place following the 1686 revocation of the Massachusetts Bay charter — for which the town reimburses Peter Noyes's expense at double value in grain. Town Clerk John Greene, apparently now residing "at Stow wards," asked to bring the town's books back for the selectmen's use. |
| November 7, 1687 | 381 | Selectmen chosen: Capt. John Goodnow, Capt. Thomas Brown, Lt. John Grout, Matthew Rice, Peter King, Sergeant Edward Wright, Corporal John Brewer; Capt. John Goodnow also chosen town clerk, succeeding the ailing John Greene, who is ordered to hand over the town's books, parchments, and papers. Detailed schedule of ~£13 in town debts to individual creditors (east and west sides of the river) settled by rate. A decades-old omission corrected: Thomas Smith's inherited New Grant lot (John Smith's original 130-acre allotment) formally recorded in the town's book of land possessions after being overlooked for years. Samuel How's son John How confirmed in an acre-and-a-half Lanham grant, with an indemnity clause protecting the town from claims by Mr. Edward Pelham related to money Samuel How held for Pelham (How had been "attached" — arrested for debt — at a Cambridge court over the matter). |
| December 6, 1687 | 385 | Lt. John Grout refuses to serve as selectman; Sergeant James Barnard chosen in his place — the second such refusal-and-replacement in two years. Design details for the new meeting house: Lt. Daniel Pond given discretion on a center aisle vs. Dedham-style closed seating, provided seats hold 7 men and 7 women per section. Land sold to Joseph Chamberlin (5 acres, £4, with a requirement to build and maintain a public highway). |
| January 30 – February 15, 1687/88 | 387 | Wolf bounty raised to 20 shillings per wolf, young or old. Annual common-meadow leasing list recorded again. Fence surveyors chosen explicitly "in obedience to the act of the Governor and Council" (the Dominion administration) rather than by the town's own customary process — a visible shift in the source of local regulatory authority. Seating policy reaffirmed: meeting-house seating assigned chiefly by financial contribution to its construction, with some allowance for age and other qualifications. An 11-person committee appointed to formally receive the finished new meeting house from Deacon Haynes and assign seating. |
| April-May 1688 | 391 | costs of Dominion administration. Sudbury residents personally lend money to cover the cost of obtaining printed copies of "the acts of the Governor and Council" (the Dominion's laws) — an itemized list of ~14 contributors and a disbursement accounting, including funds "for a clerk to take an account of births and deaths" — direct evidence of vital-records administration continuing under the Dominion. Selectmen chosen "according to the act of the Governor and Council" at a meeting on the third Monday of May (a Dominion-mandated schedule change): John Goodnow, Capt. Thomas Browne, Peter King, Sergeant Edward Wright, Ensign Jacob Moore, Thomas Reade, John Rice, Mr. Thomas Walker; Joseph Noyes & Roger Willis constables (one for each side of the river); Peter Noyes commissioner. New meeting house nears completion: old meeting house's seats relocated; the old meeting house itself sold to Peter King for £6 (minus the pastor's and deacons' seats); detailed carpentry orders for doors, galleries, seating layout, an ammunition storage nook, and a fire ladder; Widow Mary Loker paid £1 15s. to sweep the new building. Constables' staves purchased by subscription (itemized list of contributors). |
| December 1688 – February 1688/89 | 396 | a meeting-house vandalism case. Rates made for meeting-house repair costs and Deacon Haynes's final construction payment. A disorderly incident: someone secretly cuts down several of the new meeting house's seats and erects an unauthorized private pew in their place; selectmen order the illicit pew nailed shut pending investigation. Mr. Peter Noyes admits responsibility, explaining he intended no wrong; ordered to remove the pew, restore the original seats, and make good the damage or face prosecution at the next court session — a rare direct account of an intra-congregation property dispute over meeting-house seating status. |
| May 7, 1689 | 398 | the Glorious Revolution reaches Sudbury. Following the April 1689 Boston uprising that overthrew Governor Edmund Andros's Dominion government, Sudbury receives direction from the colony's new "Council of Safety for the People and for the Conservation of the Peace." Peter King is chosen to consult and assist the Council, under explicit instructions: (1) not to resume the former (pre-Dominion) charter government yet; (2) the present Council of Safety to continue governing "until we receive orders from His Royal Highness, the Prince of Orange" (i.e., William of Orange, who had just landed in England as part of the Glorious Revolution); (3) prisoners then held (including, implicitly, the arrested Andros and his officials) to be kept safely until brought to lawful justice. This is the clearest direct trace in the volume of a major transatlantic political upheaval reaching Sudbury in real time. Same meeting: Widow Mary Gleason granted 20 shillings relief for her "necessitous state," reported by her father James Ross. |
| September-December 1689 | 398 | Selectmen chosen (Sept. 1, 1688 entry, filed out of strict order): Capt. Thomas Browne, John Goodnow, Peter King, Thomas Read Sr., Daniel Stone, Jonathan Rice, Jonathan Stanhope; Peter Noyes & John How constables; John Goodnow clerk — the meeting explicitly called "by the advice of the Honorable Convention of the Governor and Assistants and representatives," reflecting the post-Andros interim government. New meeting house financing wrapped up (final rate delivered to Deacon Haynes's agent, Joseph Noyes); a £20 highway-repair rate levied. John Gleason (father of the relieved Widow Mary Gleason) dies intestate; John Allin sent to County Court with an estate inventory to await the court's disposition of the estate. A tax-resistance episode: several men refuse to declare their taxable estate; the town orders them rated "by will and doom" (the selectmen's own assessment) — except John Haynes Jr., excused "considering the hand of God that had been long upon him" (i.e., his long illness) — a rare compassionate exception recorded alongside a punitive default rule. |
| 1690 | 400 | post-revolution civil life resumes. Routine pastor's-rate and county-rate cycles continue; John Goodnow chosen the town's representative to the County Court. Comprehensive fence/swine/horse/sheep ordinances reissued (April 1, 1690) with a full slate of named surveyors; militia ammunition stock inspected household by household, with a 12-pence-per-pound charge for any powder found missing — reflecting renewed frontier defense concerns as King William's War (against France and its Native allies) got underway. Boundary perambulations scheduled with Watertown, Concord, Stow, and along the southern line "between Mr. Danforth and we." Selectmen chosen (June 19, 1690): John Goodnow, Capt. Thomas Brown, Deacon John Haynes, Daniel Stone, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Samuel How, Joseph Gleason; Mr. Joseph Noyes also chosen town clerk. Eliezer Whiting hired to sweep the meeting house and — notably — to dig graves as needed, for 1s.6d. each — a rare explicit sexton/gravedigger appointment. Peter Noyes elected deputy to the General Court; a commissioner appointed for the colony's tax assessment. A committee formed to pursue a £50 bequest left by the late Pastor Edmund Browne "towards the erecting a school" in the town — the origin of a formal Sudbury school, funded from Browne's estate roughly a decade after his death. Five of six newly chosen tithingmen refuse to take their oath of office unless first given a written copy of the laws defining their duties — a notable instance of local officials pushing back on the town/colony for clearer legal authority before serving. |
| 1688-1690 | 410 | militia armament roll and subscription records. A detailed subscription list for the new meeting house's four gables (May 1685, ~£10 total, itemized by contributor) and Treasury receipt records for 1683-1687 Country Rates (signed variously by James Russell, Samuel Andrew, Samuel Newbell, and John Usher's agent Michael Perry — tracking real changes in the colony treasurership through the Dominion period). A full militia-armament distribution roster (January 1688/89): 42 named Sudbury men each entrusted with a standard issue of gunpowder (~4.5 lbs each), shot (~33.75 lbs each), and 13 flints from the town's public stock, explicitly to be accounted for "in case it not be spent in real service in the resistance of the enemy" — direct evidence of household-level militia preparedness amid the outbreak of King William's War. Boards lent by John Goodnow toward finishing a house for the relieved Widow Mary Gleason at Edmund Rice's. |
| Date | Page | Event |
|---|---|---|
| June 1691 – July 1692 | 416 | Selectmen chosen (June 1, 1691): Joseph Noyes Sr., Capt. John Goodnow, Capt. Thomas Brown, Deacon John Haynes, Daniel Stone Sr., Samuel Howe, Mr. Peter Noyes Sr.; John Bent & Edmond Goodnow constables. Land exchanges, timber-reserve protections, and tithingmen sworn in as usual; a stronger fence-enforcement rule fines negligent surveyors themselves (12 pence/rod, split between informer and town). Selectmen order a town-wide inspection of how children and youth are educated in reading and catechism and how they spend their time — echoing the 1679/80 inspection. January 1691/92: the town's rate share of a colony-wide "£24,000" tax assessment is set up — reflecting the massive war-debt levy Massachusetts raised for Sir William Phips's 1690 expedition against Quebec during King William's War — with four constables split by river-side to collect it. May 1692: Capt. John Goodnow and Capt. Thomas Brown chosen as Sudbury's "Assembly men" to the General Court — terminology reflecting the new Massachusetts charter of 1691/92 (under which the colony became a royal province with an elected House of Representatives), replacing the old "deputy" title. A letter from Mr. Sherman (the minister) to the town is received and deferred for response — the first sign of possible tension or a pending change with the ministry, to be watched in subsequent pages. Ministerial land reservations on both sides of the river ordered staked out per the 1687 plan. |
| July 25, 1692 | 421 | "a troublesome time with the Indians". A town meeting called to choose officers draws only sparse attendance, explicitly attributed to it being "a troublesome time with the Indians" — direct evidence that King William's War-era frontier anxiety was disrupting normal civic life in Sudbury; only enough attendees to choose an invoice-taker. |
| March 8, 1691/92 | 423 | outdwellers formally annexed to Sudbury. The General Court grants Sudbury's petition to formally annex a group of "outdwellers" adjoining the town (including Matthew Rice, William Brown, Corporal Henry Rice, Thomas Drury, Thomas Walker Jr., John How, Samuel Winch) who were not part of any other town, confirming their existing rate obligations and privileges — signed by Secretary J. Addington, a true copy entered in the book. |
| October 3, 1692 | 421 | Selectmen chosen: Joseph Noyes, Deacon John Haynes, Lt. Edward Wright, Daniel Stone, Capt. John Grout, Ensign Peter Noyes, Joseph Noyes (again — likely two men of the name), Corporal Joseph Glezen; Matthew Rice & Samuel How constables. |
| 1692-1694 | 423 | heavy war-tax collection under the new province treasury. A long run of Treasury receipts (Treasurer John Phillips at Charlestown) records Sudbury paying enormous sums — "twenty rates," a "twenty-four thousand pound rate," and a "four thousand pound rate" — reflecting the province's crushing war-debt burden from King William's War and Phips's failed Quebec expedition; individual payments run into the hundreds of pounds, an extraordinary escalation from the town's earlier single-digit-pound Country Rates. John Goodnow appointed to hold the town's two record books plus "the acts late made by the Governor & Council & Representatives" — reflecting the new mixed provincial governance structure. Boundary perambulations scheduled with Watertown, Concord, Stow, and Danforth's land; extensive fence-surveyor rosters; a formal fence-viewer fee of 1 shilling/man established. |
| March 2, 1693 | 426 | Selectmen chosen: Capt. John Goodnow, Capt. Thomas Brown, John Rice, Lt. Edward Wright, Jonathan Rice, Joseph Noyes, Colonel William Brown; Capt. John Goodnow again clerk. Selectmen given broad standing authority to "make orders and bylaws" for fences, swine, meadow-fencing, and appointing tithingmen, fence-viewers, highway surveyors, a clerk of the market, and swine inspectors — a general grant of local regulatory power. John Allen appointed to recover overdue meadow rents from Concord-area occupiers. A receipt from Jeremiah Bummer acknowledges £6 5s.5d. collected from Sudbury as a "free contribution... for the poor" — evidence of inter-town/colony-wide charitable collections. |
| March 1, 1691 | 435 | the great flood (memorandum). A retrospective note records: "the greatest flood by several feet perpendicular that ever was remembered by English or natives then surviving" occurred on March 1, 1691 — a striking piece of environmental/disaster history preserved as a marginal memorandum. |
| 1693 | 429 | highway districts, war expenses, and an overseas deportation. Detailed highway-district assignments group outlying households (Daniel Stone's river/Cochichewick Brook area; Lanham) into permanent maintenance responsibility for their local bridges/causeways, exempting them from general highway work except for the Great River bridge and Long Causeway. Representatives Capt. Thomas Brown and John Goodnow paid for General Court service; Deacon Haynes and Sergeant Joseph Freeman likewise paid for their attendance, with one payment explicitly described as "for his service at the General Court under the Revolution Government" — the town's own contemporary label for the post-1689 regime. £8 rate levied "for the sending and transporting of Thomas Blake to Old England" — an intriguing, unexplained case of a town-funded deportation or passage back to England. Constable ordered to warn Mary Pope out of the town — another settlement-law expulsion case. A 1678 Sudbury-Marlborough road survey committee report (originally filed then) is transcribed into the book retroactively in 1694 for the permanent record, detailing the chosen route and comparative costs (~£100 difference between the two proposed roads). Rating rule: those who neglect to submit a written estate list will be rated "by Will and Doom" — "except hindered by some inevitable providence of God" — a rare acknowledgment that illness/disaster is a legitimate excuse built into an otherwise punitive default rule. |
| February 1693/94 | 442 | Sudbury establishes a district school system. Samuel Wright appointed to teach children reading, writing, and arithmetic ("cast accounts"), and — remarkably — six named women appointed as school mistresses for younger children across every district of town: the wives of Mr. Thomas Walker and Clerk John Grout (east side), Mrs. Elizabeth Bent (Farm End), the wife of Daniel Stone (south end), and the wives of Thomas Read Sr. and Sergeant Richard Taylor (Lanham) — a fully articulated, geographically distributed local school system built on women's informal teaching (building on the "school Dames" first noted in 1680). |
| March 5, 1693/94 | 442 | Selectmen chosen: John Goodnow, Capt. Thomas Brown, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Lt. Edward Wright, Clerk John Rice, Joseph Curtis, Corporal Edmond Rice; Sergeant Jonathan Stanhope & Benjamin Wright constables. Selectmen given standing discretion to appoint all other minor town officers (fence viewers, field drivers, swine/horse/sheep overseers) without a full town vote each year — a further step toward administrative delegation. Land grants and exchanges continue (Joseph Curtis, Capt. Jacob Moore, a 7-year meadow lease to Lt. Thomas Smith). A list recorded of Concord residents holding meadow within Sudbury's bounds (Nathaniel Billings, John Howard, Joseph Hayward, and others), some dating back to 1683 — ongoing cross-town land tenure. |
| April-July 1694 | 446 | Pastor's-rate delinquents listed by river side with distraint warrants attached. Capt. Thomas Brown elected representative to the General Court; the town funds transporting "Clarke" (unclear whether the town clerk or another person) to England, 8 pounds plus freight costs. Joseph Graves fined for "selling drink contrary to law", with half the fine directed to the poor — direct liquor-law enforcement, distinct from the earlier (1684) informal pressure on Mr. Walker's tavern. |
| 1694 | 447 | the war-tax burden peaks. An extended run of Treasury receipts (Treasurer James Taylor, via agent Jeremiah Allen, and continuing John Phillips receipts) documents Sudbury's crushing tax load: repeated references to a "twenty-four thousand pound rate" and, new here, a "thirty thousand pound tax" — the colony's mounting King William's War debt. Selectmen's meeting expenses (dinners, rum) at Corporal Samuel How's house recorded repeatedly — likely the venue for assessors' work sessions, itemized in detail through into 1695. Renewed complaint against Benjamin Wright for encroaching on town land near Lanham, referred to a five-man committee. A committee sent to the Court of Quarter Sessions to contest the routing of the Sudbury-Marlborough highway, continuing the town's decades-long negotiation over that road (see 1663, 1678 entries). |
| March 1, 1694/95 | 457 | Selectmen chosen: John Goodnow, Clerk John Rice, Daniel Stone, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Jonathan Rice, Zachariah Mainord, Lt. Edward Wright; constables split by river side (John Grout east, Samuel Winch west). A selectmen's attendance-enforcement rule adopted: any selectman who neglects to attend a duly warned meeting (absent "extraordinary providence of God") forfeits 2 shillings to the town — addressing chronic quorum problems. Thomas Rutter appointed as the town's gravedigger and bier-carrier, paid 2s.6d. per burial — the most detailed sexton contract in the volume; Benjamin Parminter appointed meeting-house sweeper (£1 10s./year). |
| May 20, 1695 | 459 | near the volume's end. Mr. Joseph Noyes chosen representative to the General Assembly. Common meadows let out for the year (routine list). Poor relief continues: Joseph Braddish compensated (20 shillings plus use of several meadow parcels) for housing and caring for the Widow Bemon; a subscription drive organized (Corporal Samuel How to inspect contributions) to build a house for the Widow [Wedge/"Edge"], with over a dozen named contributors pledging money, grain, or labor. |
| June-July 1695 | 461 | a new bell for the meeting house. Detailed town-debt accounting recorded (payments to Deacon Haynes, Joseph Noyes, Capt. Brown, and others for days spent making "the King's Tax," clerking, invoice-taking, and a bounty for killing a wolf). A committee appointed to resist the newly laid-out Marlborough highway route, continuing the town's long boundary/road dispute with its neighbor. Anti-squatting order re-posted on the meeting-house door after "woeful experience" of outsiders intruding without leave. The town purchases a bell for the meeting house from Caleb Hubbard of Braintree, for £25 total (paid in two installments, £17 then £8, by John Goodnow and Edward Wright) — a substantial capital purchase, with an extensive carpentry/ironwork order (July 2, 1695) for a turret, ladders, iron bolts, bracing timber, and a weathercock to properly hang and house it, overseen by Samuel How and John Brewer with smith Joseph Graves contracted for the ironwork. Jonathan Treadaway's "sad and deplorable" condition is raised at a town meeting and referred to the selectmen; a committee is later formed to negotiate his care with Capt. Jacob Moore. A permanent public highway to Lanham formally secured by purchase from James Smith (£3, paid in grain) with a full indemnity covenant, signed by the selectmen and Smith — a fully realized legal highway-taking instrument. |
| November 9 – December 23, 1695 | 463 | the pastor crisis. Pastor James Sherman is reported to have absented himself from the town. After "free and full debate," the selectmen appoint a committee (Deacon Haynes, Capt. Brown, Lt. Josiah Haynes, Henry Rice, Lt. Edward Wright, Daniel Stone, John Goodnow) to discuss his reasons for leaving and whether he intends to return — warning that his salary will stop if he does not. (Nov. 15) Selectmen review "Mr. Sherman's proposals to the Town and Church" and call a general town meeting to consider them, also raising the idea of transcribing parts of the town book, which is "much defaced and almost worn out" — the volume's own physical fragility noted by its contemporary keepers. (Nov. 18) The town formally votes it cannot and will not meet Mr. Sherman's financial proposals, but also will not release him from his covenant obligations; if he does not return, the town resolves — unanimously, "not one dissenter" — to find a substitute preacher for the winter, with Capt. Thomas Brown to host and be reimbursed for entertaining visiting ministers. (Dec. 23) A joint Town-and-Church meeting hears a letter from "the Reverend Elders" (an advisory council of area ministers) regarding the Sherman dispute; a committee is chosen to draft a formal letter of thanks, and a rate is ordered — set at roughly one-quarter of Sherman's normal annual salary — to fund a temporary substitute minister, with the underlying dispute still unresolved as the volume closes. |
| November 8, 1695 | 468 | the volume's final entry. A committee (Deacon Haynes, Capt. Thomas Brown, Mr. Joseph Noyes, Corporal Samuel How, John Goodnow) is appointed to settle final accounts with Lt. Daniel Pond of Dedham for the new meeting house and obtain a general discharge for the town — closing out, nearly nine years later, the major building project begun in December 1686. The book notes the next page (316) is blank, followed by: "END OF VOLUME ONE, SUDBURY RECORDS 1639-1695," with the transcription credited to Sumner C. Powell, Ph.D., of The Choate School, Wallingford, Connecticut. |