BOG-ORE. 93 



y' is now common one the est sid of uncuttanaset brook and so to 

 nashua riuer and groton line est ward & south ward to good man 

 greens masobog medow for ther incorigment in y e s d worke allways 

 prouided y e inhabatnts of y e afere s d towne resarue to y" 1 selus the 

 liberty to cut the wood for y e ues of s' 1 works and also for carting of 

 y e s d wood or coall prouided y e s' 1 workes be up or seteng up betwen 

 this day and the 21 th day of may next; no man inhabiting with in 

 y e s d town to be hundred from wodo or timbr for his one ues 



Atest Josiah Parker Clarke 



(Pp. 97,98.) 



A sworn declaration of John Lowwell and Thomas Blan- 

 chard.both of Dunstable, is recorded in the Middlesex Regis- 

 try of Deeds at East Cambridge (XVIII. 488, 489,) setting 

 forth the fact that they were at Massapoag in Groton, on the 

 twentieth day of May, 1689, and did "help both to dige for 

 & to sett up some part of an Iron Worke." From this record 

 it appears that the vote of the town had its desired effect. 



"The Sledges" is the name of a meadow lying northeast 

 of Reedy Meadow, and is mentioned in the early records of 

 the town. Mr. Butler, in his History (p. 273, note), says: 



" This word seems to signify strips of meadow, or parcels 

 of low lands, abounding in iron ore." 



About the year 1768 Jabez Keep, of Westford, established 

 a forge and bloomery on the site of Jonas Prescott's first grist- 

 mill in Harvard, where ore from the Groton swamps was 

 smelted. " His son Jabez and his grandson Jabez, ' bloomers,' 

 succeeded him in the business. The latter probably returned 

 to Westford and carried on the same business there " : so Mr. 

 Nourse, the historian of Harvard, writes me. 



Just before the town of Lowell was incorporated, but dur- 

 ing the period when its rapid growth was assured, an iron- 

 foundry was established at North Chelmsford, where bog-ore 

 was smelted. The supply was furnished largely from towns 

 in that neighborhood, and it was carried to the foundry for 

 the most part by farmers with their own teams. A consider- 

 able amount of native ore was dug from various meadows in 

 Groton, principally in the eastern part of the town, and taken 

 there to be smelted ; and in this way the farmers during dull 



