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[18] there [and] continues there, without leave from the [ ] until the meeting be ended, shall forfeit [for each] default XII. pence: and if it be not paid [before the next] meeting, then to double it, and so until [it be paid].

Although a general subscription seems to have been contemplated, only two signatures are appended, namely, Thomas Dudley and John Haynes; and Mr. Haynes must have subscribed his name several months after the order was adopted, as he did not arrive until Sept. 3, 1633. At the first meeting holden in pursuance of this “agreement,” several municipal arrangements were made, to secure the beauty and safety of the town, to wit:—

Jan. 7, 1632-3.

It is ordered, that no person whatever [shall set] up any house in the bounds of this town [without] leave from the major part.

Further, it is agreed, by a joint consent, [that the] town shall not be enlarged until all [the vacant] places be filled with houses.1

Further, it is agreed, that all the houses [within] the bounds of the town shall be covered [with] slate or board, and not with thatch.2

Further, it is ordered, that all [the houses shall] range even, and stand just six [feet on each man's] own ground from the street.

1 “The town,” technically so-called, was embraced in the district bounded northerly by Harvard Street and Square, westerly by Brattle Square and Eliot Street, southerly by Eliot and South streets, and easterly by Holyoke Street, which was then very crooked.

2 This was a reaffirmation of an agreement made by the original projectors of the town, nearly two years earlier. In his letter to the Countess of Lincoln, dated March 28, 1631, Dudley speaks of recent disasters by fire, and adds: “For the prevention whereof in our new town, intended this summer to be builded, we have ordered that no man there shall build his chimney with wood, nor cover his house with thatch.” As an additional prevention, the townsmen ordered, Oct. 3, 1636, “That no child, under the age of ten years, shall carry any fire from one house to another, nor any other person unless it be covered, upon the forfeiture of XII. pence a time for every such fault: the one half to the person that sees it, the other to the Constable.” In these days of lucifer matches, such an order may seem unnecessary; but even within the last fifty years, it was not unusual to send from house to house for fire.

Boston. Houghton and Mifflin. 1877.

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