The history of Lynn - Lynn Massachusetts Genealogy Project

86 HISTORY OF LYNN [1645.such losse, as is befallen ye first stock, by forbearance, orotherwise, to ye time of ye newe adventurers paying in their adventures,and all such, as will adventure are desired to hastentheir resolutions yt ye worke may go on spedily."^A question has arisen, whether the first forge might nothave been established at Braintree. It certainly was not.The first purchase of land for the iron works at Braintree,which has been discovered, was not till some months after thistime, namely, on the twenty ninth of September 1645, whenGeorge Ruggles sold Richard Leader twenty acres.^ Thegrant of " 2860 acres," made for the iron works " to be setup" at Braintree, was not laid out till the eleventh of January1648."' It is certain that an Iron Foundry was in successfuloperation at Lynn as early as 1645, and as mention is onlymade by the court of one forge, it follows of course that it musthave been this. In 1691, iron ore, called " Rock mine," wastaken from the ledges at Nahant for the forge at Braintree.The court ordered, that youth, from ten to sixteen years ofage, should be exercised, on training days, in the use of smallguns, half pikes, and bows and arrows. They also ordered,that any person who should make or publish a false report,should be fined ten shillings, or set in the stocks.^Mr. Edward Burcham was chosen " Clarke of the Writts,and to record deaths, births, and marriages for ye Towne."i" Thomas Layton hath Liberty granted him by the house ofdeputies, to drawe wine for ye town for one yeare."*" Thomas Layghton, Edw. Burcham, and Thorns. Puttnamare chosen by ye house of dept^ to end small controversies."*The number of inhabitants having been considerably diminishedby the removal of so many families to Reading, LongIsland, and other places, a petition was presented to the courtfer an abatement of taxes. The original paper, very much-torn and trampled by tlie mob, which dilapidated GovernorHutchinson's house and papers in 1765, is still in existence.It conamences with " humbly shewing, that whereas the overrulingeProvidence of God hath much weakened our hands,{which yet were never of like strength with others about us,) to"bear such a share in the Publique disbursements and debts of