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[42] every birth, marriage, and burial, according to the order of Court in that case provided, and give it in, once every year, to be delivered by the Deputies to the Recorder; and shall gather for every particular entrance 1 penny for the Recorder's fees, and xiid. for himself.


——1640.

Granted unto Joseph Cooke a farm of 400 acres of the nearest upland adjoining to his meadow lying beyond Cheesecake Brook1 and between that and Charles River; and also liberty to go with a straight line, (on the hithermost side of his meadow on this side Cheesecake Brook), down by the edge of the highland, to Charles River.


At the same meeting grants of farms were made to other persons, to wit: to Samuel Shepard 400 acres adjoining and beyond the farm of Joseph Cooke; to Capt. George Cooke, 600 acres; to Edward Goffe, 600 acres; to John Bridge, 350 acres; severally “about the outside of the bounds between Watertowne, Concord, and Charlestowne.”

During this period, the General Court passed several orders, affecting the comfort and prosperity of the people dwelling here:—

Oct. 28, 1636.

The Court agreed to give 400l. towards a school or college, whereof 200l. to be paid the next year, and 200l. when the work is finished, and the next Court to appoint where and what building.2


Dec. 13, 1636.

It is ordered, That all military men in this jurisdiction shall be ranked into three regiments, viz., Boston, Roxberry, Dorchester, Weimoth, Hingham, to be one regiment, whereof John Winthrope, senior, Esquire, shall be colonel, and Tho. Dudley, Esquire, lieftenant colonel:

Charlestowne, Newetowne, Watertowne, Concord, and Deddam, to be another regiment, whereof John Haynes, Esqr. shall be colonel, and Roger Herlakenden Esqr. lieftenant colonel:


1 Cheesecake Brook is in the westerly part of Newton.

2 Mass. Col. Rec., i. 183. President Quincy (Hist. Harv. Coll., i. 1), states that this foundation of the College was laid Sept. 8, 1636, overlooking the fact that the General Court, which met on that day, adjourned until October, and made this grant on the 28th day of that month. The College was ordered to be established at Newtown, Nov. 15, 1637, and the town granted “to the Professor” 2 2/3 acres of land, on which Holworthy, Stoughton, and Hollis Halls are supposed to stand. This grant to the Professor, made May 11, 1638, is defined on the record to be “to the Town's use forever, for a public school or college; and to the use of Mr. Nathaniel Eaton as long as he shall be employed in that work; so that at his death, or ceasing from that work, he or his shall be allowed according to the charges he hath been at, in building or fencing.”

Boston. Houghton and Mifflin. 1877.

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