Signed the date above mentioned being then a generall voat of the freeholders of this Town.

THOMAS WHEELER

STEVEN HOSMER

JOSEPH FRENCH

Select men in yo name of ye Rest."

The votes of other towns were sufficiently firm in their tone, showing a due appreciation of the serious condition of public affairs, and affirming the popular view of the questions involved. They were, however, couched in general terms, and the official communication from the Concord Selectmen, as given above, ill-spelled and ungrammatical as it is, was the only formal declaration sent to the seat of government, of readiness to go to war in defence of popular rights.

The emergency was an education. The citizens forgot their dislike of free speech; their minds were lifted out of the range of petty scandal and neighborhood gossip, to loftier considerations of the welfare of the race. They were ennobled by the occasion, and when the rights of Englishmen were assailed, stood shoulder to shoulder, as if they recognized the immense significance of their action to future generations of men.

It was not difficult for the people of Concord to take this stand. It was the way of their ancestors, established long years before in the old country; and the sons were but giving expression, in their day and generation, to the ancient Kentish spirit,

which had already become the spirit of Massachusetts, and was destined at a later day to animate a great nation.

"The Puritan Spirit, perishing not,

To Concord's yeomen the signal sent,
And spake in the voice of the cannon shot,
That severed the chains of a continent."

INDEX.

AANTONUISH, 14.

Acton, 54; its eastern boundary, 7, 8, 65; part of, joined to Carlisle, 8.
Adams, John, 71; his house, 71, 73; sells estate to Stratton, 87.

Samuel, 15.

Thomas, sells estate to Stratton, 87.

Allen, Thomas, grant to, 61, 65.

Amusements, 140, 141.

Andros, Sir Edmund, Governor, 148; his character and proceedings,
148, 149; his government subverted, 148, 150.

Angier's Mills, 15.

Annursnack Hill, 70, 103.

Atawans, 16. (See Tahatowan.)

BAKER, William, his house-lot, 86.

Ball, John, 125, 146.

Nathaniel, 32, 83, 147; his house-lot, 87.

Barker, Francis, his dwelling-place, 86.

John, his dwelling-place, 86; Junior, 136.

Barnes, John, killed by Indians, 105.

Barrett, Humphrey, 20; his house-lot, 88; ensign, 127; selectman,

146.

Widow, 73.

Barron, John, 35.

Bateman, Thomas, 40, 83; on committee to divide highways, &c., 70;
overseer, 76; his house-lot, 88.

Bateman's Pond, 83.

Bay Road, The, 80; house-lots on, 86, 87.

Beaver Dam, 79.

Pond, 10, 32, 82, 95.

Bedford, 8, 9, 61; plan of, 6; its bounds in part, 10.

Beers, Richard, 53; his return of land, 54.

Bellows, John, 73.

Bennett, James, 35.

Berry Corner, 8.

Bigelow Tavern, 140.

Billerica, 6, 54, 61, 84, 113, 114; extracts from its records, 9; bounds
renewed with, 9; old line of, 6, 10; bridge, 77; road, 80; old
line of, 6, 10; collects rates of the Bloods, 62; new grant to, 65;
controversy with Concord and the Bloods, 65, 66.

Billings, John, 20.

Nathaniel, 99; his house-lot, 87; selectman, 146; Junior, 73.
Births, record of, 21.

Blackbirds, destruction of, 19.

Black Point, 125.

Blood, Elizabeth, 51, 65.

James, 40, 57, 59; sergeant, on committee to divide highways,
&c., 70; his second division, 82; his house-lot, 88; his servant,
103; Junior, his second division, 82; his house-lot, 88.
John, part-owner of Blood's Farms, 62.

Josiah, 65, 146.

Robert, 143, 146; his petition, 51; acquires land, 62; pays rates
in Concord and Billerica, 62-64; assaults Concord officers, 63;
his agreement with Concord, 64; his controversy with Concord
and Billerica about bounds, 65, 66; Junior, 63, 64, 146.
Samuel, 65.

Simon, 64, 146.

Blood's Farms, bounds of, 6; how acquired, 61, 62; taxed by Concord,
63; annexation of, 64, 65; their bounds, how renewed, 65;
occupants seek shelter in Concord, 104.

Bohow, Benjamin, 58.

Sarah, 58.

Books, belonging to town, 19, 128; reading of, 130.

Boston, road to, 80.

Brick-kiln field, 19, 67.

Bridge, foot, over North River, 19; over South River, 69, 70; North
River, land reserved for, 70; assigned to East Quarter, 74;
carried away by flood, 78.

Bridges, support of, 69; assigned to the quarters, 74; county, 77; their
location, 77, 78; over Mill Brook, &c., 79; allowance for, 79.
Brooke, Caleb, his dwelling-place, 87.

Gershom, 20.

Joshua, 20; his dwelling-place, 87.
Thomas, 1; on committee for valuing cattle, 37; to divide
highways, &c., 70; other committees, 52, 66; takes second
division in East Quarter, 68, 71; land assigned to, 73; sells
estate to Wheeler, 87; licensed to sell liquor to Indians, 101.