 Sudbury is one of 3 inland towns |
 WestTownsZoom |
| Sudbury is one of 3 inland towns |
WestTownsZoom |
| Town | On the map | Date | Considered a corporation by | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salem | not coloured | Before 1629 | Usage (prescription) | Existed before the colony's government arrived; never created by any order |
| Charlestown | 1630 | Before 1630 | Usage (prescription) | Settled and treated as a town with no founding order |
| Boston | not coloured | 7 Sep 1630 | Usage, recognised by the naming order | The order names an existing settlement; it creates nothing |
| Watertown | 1630 | 7 Sep 1630 | Usage, recognised by the naming order | Same order, same reasoning |
| Cambridge | 1636 | 1630–31; renamed May 1638 | Usage, recognised by the renaming | Settled as Newtowne with no founding order |
| Concord | 1635 | 2 Sep 1635 | Grant | The Court's order that there be a plantation at Musketaquid, six miles square, to be called Concord |
| Dedham | 1636 | 8 Sep 1636 | Grant | The Court's order on the settlers' petition |
| Sudbury | 1639 | 4 Sep 1639 | Grant | The Court's order on the inhabitants' petition |
All eight became corporations by law under the Act of 1785, which declared the inhabitants of every town a body politic and corporate.
"Usage" means the town was settled first and recognised afterwards; no order created it. "Grant" means a General Court order created the plantation on a petition, which is the nearest thing to a charter.
Every date here is from memory and unverified, except Sudbury's 4 September 1639, which is from the Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England. AI assist: Claude Opus 5.5 as prompted by jch.com/jch - YON - Jan C. Hardenbergh
Lancaster Highway on Haynes Map In 1653, the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony ordered a road built from Sudbury to Lancaster. After it rounds Goodman's Hill and gets up to what is now Hudson Road, it essentially divides the Town in half. We know the middle part of this as Old Lancaster Road. It ran up from the river along the current Wolbach Road connected with Cato road. It is a reference point for many land transactions.
Billerica Dam might come down!!! TALBOT MILLS DAM REMOVAL other notes The boatman : Henry David Thoreau's river years <> Middlesex Canal
Freemen
Walter Haynes was Born 1583, Age 55 in 1638. died Feb. 14, 1665. __ Hudson says about him: In his history of Sudbury, Hudson says of him: He was a freeman May 13,1641. He represented the town in the General Court in the years 1641, 14,'48 and '51, and was a selectman ten years. Mr. Haynes was probably one of the first grantees to erect a house on the west side of the river, which house was probably the “Haynes Garrison."
Freeman. What does that mean? It clearly means one is not a slave or other form of servant. There were many indentured servants that had their ships passage paid for. Depending on the contract, they may be indentured for 1-4 years and the may receive land upon completion of their service. For example, Walter Haynes brought three men with him: John Blanford, John Riddot, Rich Biddlecomb. John Blandfold stayed in Sudbury and I assume Blandfold Pond on Cavvichio's land is named for him or a descendent. However, John Blandfold is not in the Colony's list of Freemen before 1650.
Not a servant, a member of a church, and take the oath.
P.67 Town Records 1 - the Oath.
I, being by Gods providence an Inhabitant within this Jurisdiction doe truly and solemnly acknowledge myself to be subject to the government of the same, and therefore doe here sware by the great and dreadful' name of the ever livinge God that I will be true and faithful to the same and will accordingly yield Assistance thereunto with my person and that as in equity I am bound. And I will allsoe truely endeavour to maintayne and preserve the libertyes and privileges thereof submittinge myselfe to the wholesome lawes made and established by the same. And further that I will not plott or practice any evill against it nor consult with any that shall soe doe, but will tymely discover the same to lawful Authority now here established for the suppressinge of the same soe help me God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I assume taking the oath is what made Walter Haynes a freeman in 1641.
---------- Powell, Puritan Village p.100
The phrase "free townsman" was very similar, of course, to the same phrase used in the old borough of Sudbury. But the new Sudbury had a very different philosophy. All male adult citizens, once sanctioned by a town-meeting vote and given a grant of common land, were considered free townsmen. For this privilege, they were expected to live in Sudbury, pay all taxes, and be called on to serve in any town post which the town meeting decided was necessary for that particular year.
The Puritans expected everyone to contribute and to work the land they had, other wise the town would reassign it.
---------- Powell, Puritan Village
Where Watertown's first records cited "the Freemen" as a source of local political authority, Sudbury's governing body hardly used the term at all Now and then Noyes, Pendleton, Haynes, and Goodnow signed as "freemen" in the first five years, but the overwhelming majority of the early laws stated boldly, "ordered and agreed by the inhabitants of this Town of Sudbury."
| History of Sudbury Massachusetts 1638-1889 | Alfred S. Hudson | 1889 | Town of Sudbury | |||
| Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town | Sumner Chilton Powell | 1963 | Wesleyan University Press | |||
| A Puritan Village Evolves | Helen Fitch Emery | 1981 | Wayland Historical Commission | |||
| A Brief History of the Towne of Sudbury in Mass 1639-1939 | Federal Writers* | 1987 | Sudbury Historical Society | |||
| Descendants of Walter Haynes and Peter Noyes, of Sudbury, Mass. | Frederick Haynes Newell | 1893 | Privately Published |
2026-10-13 jch.com/history/WesterlyPrecinct/WesterlyTowns.html <> jch, aka YON - Jan C. Hardenbergh