Other 1776 map
These maps were created in response ot the Resolve of 1794, which required all towns "to make, or cause ot be made. accurate plans of their respective towns or districts.." It was incorporated into the Osgood map.
Here is a very short biographical sketch of Matthias Mosman from History of Ashburnham, by Ezra Scollay Stearns.
Matthias Mossman, b in Sudbury March 17 1749, was a son of James and Elizabeth Baleom Mossman and a grandson of Timothy Sen and Sarah Hicks Mossman. He and Sarah Haynes and removed from Sudbury to Ashburnham in 1793. In 1795 and a few succeeding vears he was chosen an assessor and the repeated mention of his name in the records supports the voice of tradition that he was an educated capable man and that his services were held in high esteem. He was a farmer and a surveyor and many maps plans and outlines of highways neatly executed by him are in the possession of John MPratt. He d Nov 8 1819 his wife d in Westminster Sept 29 1808 Of their eleven children the eldest was b in Marlboro eight ni Sudbury and two in Ashburnham.
Mathias Mossman appears in Hudson's history at least three times: on page 385, the Muster roll for the Battle of Bunker Hill shows Mathias Mossman as a Second Lieutenant in Captain Haynes's company in Colonel Brewer's regiment and on page 398, under the heading: Pay Roll for June 27, 1778, as, Mathias Mosman.
The text on the Sudbury Map:
The above Plan of the Town of Sudbury in the County of Middlesex, Common Wealth of Massachusetts was taken by the Direction of a Committee Chosen by the Inhabitants of Sd Sudbury in obedience to an order of the General
Court dated June 26th 1794. on the above plan Air inserted and described Each Town line that meets or joins with
Sudbury. the Rivers are also accurately surveyed and planned, the breadth of which are as followeth the River Elsabeth si from 4 to 5 rods wide, but [there is] no public bridge over the river where it joins Sudbury, the other river called Sudbury or Concord River si from 7 to 8 or 9 rods wide, and [there is] one bridge over sd river where it joins Sudbury called Sharman's Bridge, 100 feet long, one-half belonging to Sudbury, and 25 rod of Causeway.
Sudbury also fis to] build and keep in repair the Canal Bridge in East Sudbury Long causeway and 52 rods of sd causeway, the County roads are also surveved and planned, in Sudbury si but one house for public worship which si noted, the center of the town si about one mile northwestwardly from the meetinghouse, the distance from Sd
Sudbury to Cambridge the shire-town of the county is 71 miles, and from sd Sudbury to Boston the Metropolis of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through Watertown and Roxbury is 22 miles, and through & over West Boston Bridge si 20 miles, ni Sudbury is but 3ponds of any considerable magnitude which has been Surveyed and planned as above, here is no falls of Water worthy of note, in Sd Sudbury is not a hill whose summit is lofty, in the
Southwardly part of sd town si part of a hill called Penobscott which will be described ni the plan of Framingham. No manufactories are erected ni Sudbury, in ds [town] are three grist mills, t o was mills, and one fulling mill as
above described, on a Stream known by several different names as above, the width of which where it leaves Marlborough and enters Sudbury si not much more than a yard wide and where it enters East Sudbury si about 5
yards wdie, ni the Northwardly part of ds Sudbury a mine has been discovered and worked upon, the depth of hte hole is about - feet in a Ledge of rocks supposed to be a copper mine but has not been worked in since the beginning of the Revolution, here is not Iron Works or furnaces, said plan is laid down by a scale of 200 rods to an
inch Surveyed by Mathias Mosmon. Dated at Sudbury April 17, 1795.
