Collins, & Mr Edward Jackson, & Ensigne Daniel Fisher, a com'ittee to pervse those exceptions wch his majestjes com'issioners hath made against our lawes, & to consider what is necessary to be donne in order therevnto, & present the same to the court.'

1666, May Session. "On the request of the deputjes of the County of Norfolke, Majo' Symon Willard is appointed by this court to keepe the county courts at Hampton & Salisbury for the yeare ensuing."†

1667, May Session. In the return of a committee, of eight thousand acres of land laid out to Concord in 1666, mention is made of one thousand eight hundred acres "formerly granted to Majo Willard."

Reference will be made to this grant in the sequel.

1667, May Session. "In ans" to the petition of Mrs Grace. Bulkley, y relict of ye late Mr Peter Bulkley," Major Symon Willard, Mr. John Parker, and Mr. John Furnill, were appointed a committee "to repaire to Concord, at such time as Majo' Willard shall appoint, & call all partjes concerned before them, & make their report," &c.

The subject seems chiefly to be in relation to "flowing," which has been a very fruitful source of litigation in the present century. The careful return of the committee, at the next May session of the General Court, was "approoved."

1670, May Session. "The Court, considering the honoured Gouerno's [Bellingham] age, & the Dep' Governor's [Willoughby] infirmitje, doe release them from being of the com'ittee for the toune of Marlborough; & doe appoint Majo' Willard to joyne wth Mr Russell & Majo' Generall Leueret, to be a com'ittee to regulate that affaire." That affair was to hear and determine their "greivances and differences." In June, 1671, a change was

* Further reference will be made to the commissioners' proceedings on a subsequent page.

† His numerous sittings in Middlesex will be noticed in the sequel.

-some seventy or eighty in number

made in the committee; and "Mr Stoughton and Cap Hugh Mason were associated with Willard "to effect all things yet remayning as the setling peace at Marlborough."

The inhabitants seem to have been in a very disturbed state, equally with the inhabitants of Sudbury and Watertown, years before, when Major Willard was on the committee to heal their divisions, and to have become involved in very grave and complicated difficulties in relation to their land-titles, ever in a new country occasioning protracted and complex litigation.

The committee were not able to report until the May session, 1674. "Seuerall journeys," they say, "we have made to them, and much tjme we have spent in hearing and discussing matters of difference and difficultjes amongst them, the result of all which is now mostly conteyned in the new toune booke, which we haue caused to be finished," containing the fundamental orders and grants, and the particular stating and bounding of all the lands laid out.

"This new toune booke . . . we haue by our order publicly approoved, enstamping vpon it what authority is wth us to convey, humbly representing to this honor'd Court that their acceptance & confirmation thereof will be, in our apprehensions, a competent way, and (as matters are now circumstanced) the likeliest way for the attainement of the peace of that place, and a foundation of future good to them..

"SYMON WILLARD

"W" STOUGHTON "HUGH MASON."

"The Court thankfully accepts of the labour & paynes of this com'ittee and doe . . . allow & confirme the toune booke by them finished & stated as aboue, wch toune booke shall from henceforth be the authentick record of the toune of Marlborough as to the seuerall particculars therein conteyned & concluded."

1672, May Session. In answer to the petition of several of the inhabitants of Concord and Sudbury for "preventing damage by overflowing on their meadows," "the Court doeth order & impouer

the honoured Dep'y Goù, Jn° Leuret, Esq, Major Symon Willard &c. . . to order & determine whateuer may be judged by them necessary for the end desired."

1675, May Session. "Symon Willard Esq is appointed to keepe the County Courts in Douer & Yorks for this yeare ensuing."

Philip's war broke out in the following month, involving the Colony in the deepest distress, and so fully engrossing the time and thoughts of Major Willard in his chief military command in Middlesex, as probably to prevent his holding these terms of the court.

188

CHAPTER VII.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SIMON WILLARD.

(Continued.)

AT the May Session of the General Court in 1653 (June 2), Major-General Denison was ordered to issue his warrants to the several towns in Middlesex, directing them to send in their votes for sergeant-major "within one month." Accordingly, in the same summer, pursuant to the law then in force, the "train soldiers," consisting of freemen and those who had taken the oath of fidelity, made their nomination. When the votes were returned, and opened at the shire-town, it was found that the choice had fallen on Captain Simon Willard; and, the votes being "presented" to the major-general, he "instaulled, confirmed, and established" Willard in the new office. The sergeant *-major was the chief military officer in his county, and was next in rank to the sergeant *-major-general, who had command of all the military forces of the Colony. The majors and their families were exempted from the operation of the law against "excesse in apparrell." In the preamble to this law, great complaint is made of the "jntollerable excesse and bravery" that have crept in, "especially among people of meane condition . . . taking vppon them the garbe of gentlemen, by wearing gold or silver lace, or points at their knees, or to walk in great bootes, or weomen of the same

* This prefix fell gradually into disuse in the latter days of the Colony. †This provision about great boots was on account of the scarcity of leather in the Colony.

rancke to weare silke or tiffany hoodes or scarfes." All these offenders were to be assessed in the " country-rates at two hundred pounds estates." Magistrates and other public officers were also exempted, and "any other whose education and emplojments have binn above the ordinary degree, or whose estates have binn considerable, though now decajed."*

The law military, which extended to all the duties of the soldier of every rank, was very minute in whatever pertained to discipline, and demanded a constant state of preparation to meet and repel all hostile attacks. The Colony, in a degree, resembled an armed camp.

Even per

sons exempt from military service, with some exceptions, were required to appear twice every year, completely armed, "to bee exercised;" and not only so, but lads from ten to sixteen years of age were required to be instructed on the usual training-days, by some experienced soldier, “in yo exercise of armes, as small guns, half pikes, bowes & arrowes," if not "against yir parents minds."

It was no holiday enjoyment in which the soldier indulged, gaudily dressed, and marching to the sound of sweetly discoursing music. It was no valorous exploit of carpet-knight gathering a harvest of conquests in the smiles of the fair, with the rabble crowd in full escort, and feasted and fêted after a few hours of pleasant tramp. The rough pastime of the Colony soldier was found in the eight† days of hard drilling each year, and the exciting apprehension that his sleep might be invaded by the sound of the war-whoop and the blow of the tomahawk, or that the shrieks of wife and children might suddenly arouse him to buckle on the harness for the conflict, to repel the insidious foe, and

This savored somewhat of a privileged order. The law was honestly designed to suppress a great evil in a new and poor country, and perhaps was as wise and practicable as subsequent sumptuary laws on our statute-book, even down to the present day.

† During all the time that Willard was in command of the Concord company. It was reduced to six days in 1660.