THE " QUONAHASSIT" PIONEERS. \ i I 



hasset for each man, even though he had no live stock. 

 Settlers who had not been fairly treated in former grants 

 were to receive enough of Cohasset meadow to make up 

 their lack. The "old planters," as they called themselves 

 because they had been pioneers for three or four years 

 before the others came, intended to divide among them- 

 selves what was left after the others were provided. 



A man who had a hundred and twenty-five dollars' 

 worth of live stock was to receive just twice as much as 

 the man who had none. 



A good cow was worth from thirty to fifty dollars at 

 that time, so that three or four cows were equal to the 

 rights of one man. To him that had much, much was to 

 be given. 



The nine men chosen to prosecute this division were, 

 Joseph Peck, Henry Smith, John Parker, Nicholas Baker, 

 Thomas Hammond, Clement Bates, Henry Tuttle, Ed- 

 mond Pitts, Nicholas Jacob. 



The first man Joseph Peck, and the last man Nicholas 

 Jacob, we may be sure, were Cohasset pioneers of some 

 prominence ; for their names have been attached to two 

 of our meadows from the first.* Peck's Meadow is crossed 

 by Jerusalem Road at the foot of the Hollingsworth and 

 Richardson hill on the north side of the hill, where a 

 brook runs into the salt marsh. Jacob's Meadow is crossed 

 by South Main Street near the Roman Catholic Church. 



These nine men did not get immediately about their 

 work of dividing the Cohasset marsh land ; for, as late 

 as September 12 of that year, 1640, one Thomas Turner, 

 who sold his property to one Thomas Thaxter, could not 

 describe his Cohasset share except by saying, "half the lot 

 at Conehasset if any fall by lot, and half the commons — 

 which belong to said lot." 



*Hingham Town Records, January i, 1650, state: "William Woodcock given 

 a piece of meadow east of Upland whicli lies east of Mr. Joseph Peck's meadow, 

 etc." 



