38 



here ; and they were thus prepared to take advantage of 

 the best locations for their dwellings. We should there- 

 fore naturally expect to find that they at once availed 

 themselves of the good building ground, excellent and 

 numerous springs of water and convenient harborage, 

 which the central portion of the town afibrds. Whether 

 this was actually the case, or whether the opinion is cor- 

 rect which has recently prevailed, that the first settle- 

 ment was in the vicinity of Collins Cove, and near the 

 Salem end of Beverly Bridge, we cannot at present decide 

 with certainty. The facts of record, however, so far as 

 they have yet been investigated, as well as the descrip- 

 tions by contemporaneous writers, do not confirm the 

 latter opinion, but on the contrary seem to lead to the 

 conclusion that the fij^-st houses built in Salem, were in 

 what is to-day the most central part of the city. Some 

 of these facts will appear in the course of this article. 



After the arrival of Gov. Endicott, in 1G28, the town 

 seems to have been regularly laid out in house-lots, in 

 compliance with the order to that efiect by the Company 

 in London. We propose here to show, so far as we have 

 been able to ascertain, the situation of some of these 

 house-lots, and to give the names of their first known 

 occupants. For our authority for the facts stated, we 

 must refer generally to the various town and county 

 records, from which they have been almost wholly de- 

 rived. To secure certainty, we have traced the history 

 of many of these house-lots down to the present time ; 

 and in many instances, in order to establish a single 

 point, it has been necessary to bring together a great 

 amount of facts, all of which we are obliged to omit here. 

 In this inquiry we have found great assistance from the 

 lists of Commoner's rights, in the Commoner's Eecords of 

 the year 1714, when every person owning land on which 



