History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

176 HISTOBY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
poration : " In answer to the peticon of seuU in-
habitants of Misticke side, tlieir request is granted,
viz., to be a distinct tonne of themselves, & the
name thereof to be Maulden,"—thirty words in all
the act of the same General Court, ilay 3, 1850,
two hundred years afterwards, incorporating Mai-
den's fair daughter, Melrose, contains seven sec-
tions, with six hundred and forty-eight words.
Wiien Maiden was incorporated nearly all of its
territory above the settlement, a tract of 2,300
acres of undivided land, covering what was after-
wards North Maiden, now Melrose, was a dense
forest " full of stately timber," and " indeed gen-
erally all the country round about was an uncouth
wilderness." In time it came to be known as the
"common lands," or "the commons," becoming
valuable as woodland and pasturage ; and various
votes were passed by the town for its preserva-
tion and utility. The Maiden Records, March ii6,
1694, contain the report of a committee " to run
lines between the Common and proprietors' lands,
as follows : Run y' bounds Round Reedy pond
y' bounds are first a great buttenwood tree before
Joseph Lines dore — and so bounded Round with
seuerall trees marked with letter C next common."
November 20, of the same year, it was " Voted,
That y' common shall bs divided : bottom and top,
yt is, land and wood ; " and. six days afterwards,
a committee of tliree, Major William Johnson, Cap-
tain John Brown, and Captain John Smith, re-
ported to the town the manner in whicli it should
be done, giving to every freeholder in the town
a proportion 'according to his ratable estate. A
committee of seven was then appointed to proceed
with the division, and it was ordered that they
" employ an artis to lay out the lots." Every lot
was to " run 82 poles in liMigth," and there was to
be allowed " two poles in breadlli between every
range of lots for highways Every proprietor's
name to be written distinctly, and ye lots be well
shutHed togetiier, and (me man chose by the town
to draw them out of a bag. Tiie first name drawn
to have the first lot." Tiiis division was tiius made
in 1695, when seventy-four freeholders, then in
Maiden, received their respective allotments.
Melrose had been occupied several years before
"the commons" were divided. The SpiMu-ui-;,
Lyndes, and Greens had possessions hiic bi Imv
then, and at about tliat time or a liilli- lnlci-
came the Barretts, Uphams, Howards, and A'iii-
tons. Some of these families have been bi ic o\cr
two ccMturies, and the descendants of all of thi'iii
:
are among our citizens to-day. There are some
of the old homesteads now standing, portions of
which are at least two hundred years old ; such is
the case with the Jabez and Jonathan Lynde houses
on Washington Street, and the Joseph Lynde house
on Main Street, near Maiden line. The Lyndes
once owned nearly all of the southern part of Mel-
rose, and several of the old homesteads are still
occupied by members of this numerous family.
They are all descendants of Ensign Tiiomas Lynde,
who settled in Maiden very soon after its incor-
poration in 164.9, and who was the eldest son of
Thomas, who came from England, settled in Charles-
town, and became a freeman in 1634.
Li the " Possesion of Richard Sprague in
Charltowne limites," in the Charlestown land
records of 1638 the twelfth item is, " Sixtie acres
of land by estimation, more or lesse, scituate in
pond fielde, bounded on the one side by Ralph
Sprague, on the northeast by ell pond and the river
that conies through the meadow into Ell pond, and
on the northwest by the coihon." Richard Sprague
was one of the three brothers, Ralph, Richard, and
William, who came to Charlestown in 1629. The
Spragues of Melrose are descendants of Ralph, the
oldest of the three. His son John early settled in
Maiden, and his son Phineas came to what is now
Melrose about the year 1700. A grandson of this
Phineas, also named Phineas, was the Revolution-
ary patriot of whom many interesting anecdotes
have been told. His farm was on the plain, and
his homestead on Foster Street, where now stands
the residence of Mr. Liberty Bigelow. He kept a
diary, and his account of the ever-memorable Dark
Day is worthy of record.
"Friday May the 19th 1780.— This day was
the most Remarkable day that ever my eyes beheld
the air had bin full of smoak to an uncommon
degree So that wee could scairce see a mountain at
two miles distance for 3 or 4 days Past till this
day after Noon the smoak all went off to tiie South
at sunset a very black bank of a cloud appeared in
the south and west the Nex morning cloudey and
thundered in the west about ten oclock it began
to Rain and grew yere dark and at 12 it was all-
most as dark as Nite so that wee was obliged to
lite onr candels and Eate our dinner by caiidel lite
at Noon day but between 1 and 2 oclock it grew
lite again but in the Evening the cloud caim
over us again the moon was about the full it was
the darkest Nite that ever was seen by us in the