A relic of the Royall house.
Published by request.
[Read before the Medford Historical Society, October 19, 1909.]THE Medford of earliest days comprised a strip of territory on this side the Mystic, supposed to extend back therefrom a mile for nearly the entire length of the river. After a time portions of old Charlestown were annexed to it, until in 1754 that portion beyond the river was added, and the locality we know as Medford Square was no longer within twenty rods of the boundary, and the Great Bridge was wholly within the limits of the town.
Our society is supposed to be especially interested in Medford history and incidents, and though the one of which I wish to speak occurred in ancient Charlestown, yet because of our Medford acquisition I feel sufficient warrant for so doing.
Governor Winthrop's farm limit was at the Great or Cradock bridge, but his farm house was just beyond the farther end of our acquired territory. He had been there less than two years when in a spirit of exploration he took an evening ramble to the westward. Far different was it than one we might take over the same ground. No clay-pits or race-tracks, brick-yards or railway cuts were there; no houses or barns, but a heavy growth of forest, through which coursed the streamlet called Two-penny brook. As wolves had been prowling around, the Governor took his gun along for safety, and had his tinderbox also. These enabled him to light a fire, when a little later at nightfall he found himself lost in the solitude of the forest.
As the governor wandered along he crossed the ‘Sorrelly Plain,’ treading down the undergrowth and doubtless pressed into the soil the seeds fallen from the pine cones of the forest monarchs. Somewhere thereabout one of them took root in friendly soil, and overcoming all adverse conditions grew, year after year, till well-nigh
