History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

"20 day last Mo. 16-39. It was ordered that
for neglecting to come forth to the mending of the
highway, when lawfidly summoned thereto, the
penalty shall be five shillings."
"On the ig"" day of Nov. the following rule
was agreed upon for working on the higliway
1. The poorest man shall work one day; 2. For
every six acres of meadow land a man hath, he
shall work one day ; 3. Every man who shall neg-
lect to make all fences ap])ertaining to his fields by
the Si of April shall forfeit 5 shillings."
About this time a great cliange took place in
the price of cattle. The ruling price, which be-
fore this year had been enormous, now, in conse-
quence of the cessation of importation of settlers,
fell to about one third of the former value. Milch
cows, which had bronght from £25 to £30, now
fell to £5 or £6.
In 1639, to prevent abuses on the part of both
employers and employees, as also on the part of
borrowers and lenders of money, the prices of labor
and the rates of interest were established by law.
Dr. Stearns says : " Very soon after the incor-
poration of the town a road was made on either
side of the river, from north to south, the length
of the town. These roads were on the east side
four rods wide, and on the west side six rods
wide.
"The meadow lands, altogether, are larger on
the west tlian on the east side of the river.
"In 1648 a highway was laid out between Sudbury
and Concord by men appointed by their re-
spective towns : as the year before a committee was
appointed to lay out the line with Watertown men,
between Watertown and Sudbury."
In 164-8 a pound was built under the direction
of Mr. "William Brown and Edmond Goodnow.
December 7, 161'7, ten years after Sudbury
began to be settled, as looking towards its incor-
poration as a town, a cow common was laid out on
the west side of the river. This common included
nearly all the upland not laid out in house-lots,
between the river meadow on the east. Hop
Meadow (or Washbrook Meadow) on the west,
and Pantry Brook and Gulf Meadow on the north
and northeast. The inhabitants were allowed to
pasture in this common cattle, horses, sheep, etc.,
according to their valuation as proprietors of
meadow-lands. There was an equally valuable
cow common for the convenience of the inhabitants
on the east side of the river, in the southeast part
of the town.
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SUDBURY. 361
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Especial pains were taken to prevent idleness,
and to promote the highest tone of morality among
the rising generation. Schools were early estab-
lished, — reading schools and a grammar school;
the latter kept by a man capable of fitting pupils
for college, and this school was movable from dis-
trict to district.
"While from year to year the town made provis-
ion for the poor, at quite an early date they raised
the question of providing a workliouse for idle ^
in the records it reads iilul — people, for the pur-
pose of preventing the multiplication of tramps;
and such a house was built in Lanum district, but
after the trial of a few years it was given up.
June 16, 164-7, " Ordered, That the surveyors
of the Town land shall lay out 50 acres of upland
about Hop Brook meadow, near the cart path that
goes over the brook, to be reserved for the use of
the town when they shall set a mill upon the
brook."
January 1, 1659, " Granted unto Mr. Thomas
N'oyes and to Mr. Peter Noyes for and in consid-
eration of a mill at Hop Brook, lying and being
on the west side of Sudbury great River, below
the cart way that leads to Ridge meadow, viz. fifty
acres of upland and fifteen acres of meadow, with-
out Commonadge to the said meadow, four acres
of the said fifteen acres of meadow lying and being
within the demised tract of uplands. Also granted
to the above named parties, timbers of any of the
Sudbury common land, to build and maintain the
said mill.
" Also the said Thomas and Peter Noyes do
covenant with the town for the foregoing considerations
to build a sufficient mill to grind the town
of Sudbury's corn, the mill to be built below tlie
cart way that now is leading to Ridge meadow, the
said grantees their heirs and successors are to have
nothing to do with the stream above, four rods
above the aforementioned cart way of said mill; to
be ready to grind tlie corn by the first of December
next ensuing, and if the said grantees, their heirs
and assigns, shall damage the highway over the
brook, by building the said mill, they are to make
the way as good as it now is, from time to time,
that is to say, the above specified way over the
mill brook, and said Thomas Noyes and Peter Noyes
are also to leave a highway six rods wide joining
to the brook, from the cart way that now is to the
widow Loker's meadow."
"In 1659 a new mill for grinding the corn
of the town was built on Hop Brook, now "Wash
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