Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

210 SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
or disturbance amongst his neiglibors at Longmedow, he promises to
foregoe y^ s'^ Towns allowance of 30s."
Longmeadow got its heart's desire in 1715, when the General Court
granted it permission to maintain a separate minister, although not
" fully up to the number of 40 families," and a £120 meeting-house
was begun the next year. By another j^ear (October 18, 1716)
Longmeadow had a minister, — the famous Stephen "Williams, whose
capture at Deerfield by the Indians, with his father and his sister
Eunice and others, make up a tragic chapter in New England history.
Springfield, on March 28, 1716, recognized no less than six pre-
cincts : (1) The west side of the river, (2) Longmeadow, (3) West
side of the Agawam, (4) The Upper Chicopee, (5) The Lower Chico-
pee, (6) Skipmuck. Here were distinctly recognized the potentiality
of towns, and not merely topographical expressions. Each precinct,
with aid from the town, was required to keep a school running, the
town school tax for 1716 being no less than £82. These precincts ;
conform somewhat to the various commons, and we have seen how !
the proprietors of each common used to gather together by the con-
sent of the town-meeting, appoint moderators and clerks, and legislate
concerning the lands. The management of the turpentine business
in 1708 gave rise to another instance of delegated legislative func-
tions by vote of the tovvn. The inhabitants were prohibited from
" boxing terpentine trees" on the " Inmost comon." A committee,
headed by Joseph Parsons, was appointed to " regulate the drawing
of turpentine." The region for operating in boxing pine-trees was
duly regulated by the proprietors of the commons, and no one was
allowed to work more than one thousand new trees, and for this a |
certain license fee was imposed, the money going to the schools.
This was not a town-meeting, but a gathering of the proprietors, who
voted the proceeds of a franchise into the town treasury, — a curious
phase of town government. This was, in fact, running local govern-
ment on shares.
The colonial laws class towns, villages, precincts, and proprietors