CHAPTER VIII. 



DIVIDING THE LAND. 



AFTER the militia turmoil of 1644-47 the bitter ani- 

 mosities among the pioneers at Hingham increased 

 their demand for exact boundaries between their marshes 

 at Cohasset. It will be remembered (page 1 10) that 

 seven years before this, July 6, 1640, an unsuccessful 

 effort was made to get the Cohasset meadows divided. 

 Another committee of nine men was therefore appointed 

 February 28, 1647-48, to get this thing done. 



Three of the old committee were reappointed, Thomas 

 Hammond, Clement Bates, and Nicholas Jacob ; and added 

 to these were William Hersey, Anthony Eames, John 

 Otis, Joshua Hobart, Matthew Cushing, and Joseph Un- 

 derwood. One of the original committee, Henry Smith, 

 one of the first two deacons of the Hingham church, lay 

 dying that same year in Rehoboth. Another, Nicholas 

 Baker, had removed to Hull. 



This new committee of nine were to divide the land 

 " according to equity," and the grantees were to pay for 

 the expense of measuring it. 



In the mean time, as early as 1645, the dry cattle were 

 each year pastured and properly herded without too much 

 injury to the hay crops upon the marshes. This distin- 

 guished function of being a pasture for Hingham was the 

 main fact about Cohasset for a whole generation. If any 

 herdsman, in driving cattje to and from Cohasset, allowed 

 to join his own cattle any of the young herd kept by the 

 town herdsman, he should forfeit two shillings for every 

 beast so brought home, and he must drive it back within 

 one day, upon penalty of twelvepence a day for every day 

 it stayed away from the herd. What trail was followed 



