(Largely taken (and edited) from: History of Plymouth County, MA with Biographical Sketches Compiled by Simeon D. Hamilton Hurd, 1884. Retyped for the web by Barbara Pahlow.)
Samuel Rich moved to Truro prior to 1706 when he married Elizabeth Mulford there. This was only a few years after the first official English settlement in Truro. Although the Pilgrims stopped briefly here on their way to Plymouth, Truro was largely unoccupied by the English until after the settlement of Eastham. It was this settlement that first called the attention of the English to the land beyond its north bounds. As early as 1689 the Eastham proprietors purchased as much Truro land as the Indians would sell.
Thomas Paine was made an agent to purchase of the Indians from time to time all the lands obtainable. In 1696 a meeting in Eastham, “ordered by the proprietors of Pamet lands, that henceforth there be no cordwood or timber cut upon any of the common or undivided land belonging to Pamet, to be carried off from said land “under a penalty of 15s. for every cord or proportionable for other timber—and payable to any proprietor who may sue therefor.” The names of proprietors who subscribed were: Jonathan Paine, Stephen Snow, Thomas Paine, Caleb Hopkins, Ephraim Doane, John Savage and Israel Cole.
A record of several divisions of upland and meadow were made several years previously; one to Ensign Jonathan Bangs, on the southerly side of Eastern harbor, another to William Twining, on the south of Bangs’ lot; the third to Constant Freeman, and to be next south of Twining’s; Israel Cole was to have the fourth, and next south of Freeman’s; south of the last was that of Thomas Paine; south of this was the lot of Thomas Clark; Lieutenant Joseph Rogers had the seventh, next south of Clark’s; John Snow, the next lot south; Thomas Paine, the next one south, and Caleb Hopkins had the tenth, and next south of the last.
These lots extended from the bay easterly, and they are the first recorded of a division of any portion of the lands of Truro. Not until July 24, 1697, did these proprietors—still residents of Eastham—hold a meeting to arrange for a removal to Truro. A compact was also made with the Indians that the proprietors should have one-eights of all the drift whales of both shores. (Continued on August 28).
Comments