105 



III 1805, the question of the town's right to sell this 

 island was introduced at a town meeting, and a committee, 

 consisting of Joseph Story (afterwards Justice U. S. 

 Sup. Court) and others, was directed to report on the 

 subject — the report was favorable and was submitted at a 

 meeting held Aug. 12 (see Salem Gaz. , Aug. 16-20, 1805) , 

 and was not accepted. Samuel Putnam (afterwards a Judge 

 Mass. Sup. Court) expressed views in opposition, and it is 

 intimated that AVm. Prescott entertained similar opinions. 



Some fifty years afterwards the subject of selling Winter 

 Island was again agitated and referred by the city council 

 to the city solicitor for his opinion (see Report on the 

 sale of the Neck Lands, communicated to the city council, 

 Dec. 27, 1858, by W. C. Endicott, the city solicitor (now 

 Judge Mass. Sup. Court). 



This document, in addition to the legal opinions therein 

 expressed, contains a history of the Neck Lands, in par- 

 ticular, and notices of the commoners' grants, the cir- 

 stances under which they were made, the policy pursued 

 by them at that period, and also the town's connection 

 with these lands. It is well known that all the lands in 

 this vicinity were originally held by the commoners, the 

 proprietors of lands lying in common and undivided. At 

 meetings held in 1713 and 1714, votes were passed, 

 granting to the town, the roads, the burial places, the 

 neck, the common, and other unappropriated lands, lying 

 within the body of the town. Grants were also made to 

 the poor for a pasture under the care of the selectmen, 

 and to the ministry in the several parishes, also, that all 

 the common lands be measured and divided amoni^ the 

 commoners, according to the number of cottage rights 

 each one held. Several distinct proprietaries were formed 

 under an act of the legislature. The Great Pasture, 

 Sheep Pasture, etc. Scarcely a vestige now exists of 

 this old custom of holding lands in common. In this 



