Lynn was incorporated in 1630, by the admission of its freemen as members of the Massachusetts General Court. There were no acts of incorporation for several of the early towns. Boston, Salem, and Charlestown, were no otherwise incorporated, than by their freemen taking their seats in the General Court. That year the General Court passed an order regulating the prices of labor: no master carpenter, mason, joiner, or bricklayer shall take more than 16d. (16 pence) a day for their work, if they have meat and drink, under pain of a fine to both the employer and worker. This order probably occasioned some dissatisfaction, as the Court determined that wages should be left unlimited, “as men shall reasonably agree."
In 1633, the Court passed an order that no person shall take any tobacco in public, under pain of punishment; also that “every one shall pay one penny for every time be is convicted of taking tobacco in any place." In 1634 a tax, made by the General Court, indicated the relative wealth of the several towns. The apportionment was, to Dorchester, 80 pounds; to Boston, Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, and Roxbury, each, 48 pounds; Lynn, 36; Salem, 28.
In 1634, the inconvenience of having the Legislature composed of the whole number of freemen, and the danger of leaving the plantations exposed to the attacks of the Indians, induced the people to form a House of Representatives, who first assembled on the 1-4th of May. Eight towns were represented, each of which sent three representatives -Boston, Charlestown, Roxbury, Dorchester, Cambridge, Watertown, Lynn, and Salem. The representatives from Lynn were Captain Nathaniel Turner, Edward Tomlins, and Thomas Willis. The General Court this year consisted of the Governor, Deputy Governor, six Assistants, and twenty-four Representatives. Turner was a representative in the first seven sessions of the General Court.
In 1637 a large number of people left Lynn, and started a new settlement at Sandwich, MA. The grant of the town was made to them on the 3d of April, by the colony of Plymouth. This year the name of the town was changed from Saugus to Lynn. The record of the General Court, on November 30th, consists of only four words: "Saugust is called Lynn." – which is the shortest law ever passed by the legislature. This relates merely to the change of the name, the town was incorporated in 1630. The name was given in compliment to Mr. Whiting, the new minister, who came from old Lynn, in Norfolk county, England. Old Lynn, in England, was called Lynn Regis, or King's Lynn. It was patronized by King John, who, in 1215, received great service from that town in his war against France. He granted them a mayor, and gave them his own sword to be carried before him, with a silver gilt cup, which they have to this day." (Camden's Britannia.) The ancient Britons gave it the name of Lhyn, a word signifying a lake or sheet of water. In 1607 it was called Bishop's Linne, it then belonging to the Bishop of Norwich. When the revenues of the bishopric came into the bands of the king, those of Linne among the rest, it began to be called Lynn Regis, or King's Lynn.
In 1638, the lands of Lynn were divided between the settlers. Nathaniel Turner is not in the list of proprietors so he must have left for New Haven. Edward Holyoke, who bought Turner’s land at Sagamore Hill, is listed with 560 acres. Though the 8680 acres of land thus laid out among 100 families (mostly in 60 acres lots), comprised the best portion of the plantation, the people thought they had not sufficient room, and petitioned the Court for more. On the 13th of March, “Lynn was granted 6 miles into the country; and Mr. Hawthorne and Mr. Davenport to view and inform how the land beyond, whether it be for another plantation or no." The land laid out by this order was for many years called Lynn End, and now constitutes the town of Lynnfield. This concludes the story of Lynn in Nathaniel Turner's time.
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