The Evolution of the Town Boundaries of Sudbury

Slideshow: Boundaries of Sudbury 1638-1871

For more on why the changes happened, see The Westerly Precinct and the Shape of Sudbury

While I was writing that and trying to make maps to illustrate the changes I came to the conclusing that I needed to start over with a completely blank basemap. I was able to create such a map at maps.massgis.digital.mass.gov/MassMapper, however, it was too blank. I added an exagerated map of the rivers to give context.

Town bounds after 1871

After 1871 with roads

Map of Sudbury in 1776

1638 Original Grant from the Mass Bay Colony 1640 Second Grant from the Colony 1648+ small notch in north east corner. 1649 Two Mile Grant from the Colony 1721 Addition of Natick Farmers 1730 Land Trade with Stow 1780 Split with East Sudbury 1871 Creation of Maynard 1983 Tweak in line with Wayland. See note in the 1982 Sudbury Warrant.

See All Frames from the Slideshow

Thanks to Notes from R.A., I now know when (about 1948) was the little trianlge added at the join with Weston & Lincoln. I had just added it the 1721 version. I will move it to the 1649 version. And I only recently learned about the 1983 land swap with Wayland. See note in the 1982 Sudbury Warrant.

There is a wrinkle I would like to find out:
How was the land trade with Stow decided in 1730?

I tried using the 1856 Walling map as a base map, but, it just did not work, as you can see here:

Early Town Boudaries

See Also: jch.com/sudbury/Grants.html
thanks to freeconvert.com for free video cropping

jch.com/sudbury/bounds created 2023-09-09 <> update 2025-06-28 <> YON