DIVIDING THE LAND. 



151 



The surveyor measured the whole block and was then 

 ready to lay out each man's acres in a long, narrow strip 

 lying parallel with the colony line. 



But who should have lot number one or number two and 

 so on ? They voted, December 6, 1670, to have one man 

 to draw lots for them all. The first lot fell to Nathaniel 

 Baker, who held fifteen shares ; therefore strip number 

 one was measured off to him wide enough to contain 

 twenty-nine acres one rood and thirty rods. The width 

 of this piece was two hundred feet, stretching for one mile 

 along the Scituate line from Bound Rock up into the 

 Beechwoods. Each long, narrow strip was laid out in 

 succession according to the man's number of shares. 



Men who owned but two shares had a strip only twenty- 

 five feet wide, for all the strips had to be a mile in length. 

 Some of the small shareholders, however, took the privi- 

 lege of combining their shares so as to draw one wider lot 

 for both, or for several as the case might be. 



The surveyor measured off the distance to each man's 

 corner and placed there a heap of stones or some other 

 mark which was the permanent boundary, whether the 

 acres were more or were less than the surveyor estimated. 



The back ends of these eighty-three lots butted against 

 a line drawn perpendicular to the colony line, and running 

 through Lily Pond coincided for part of the way with our 

 present King Street. 



The front ends butted upon a very crooked line, which 

 traced along the boundary at the edge of the marsh land, 

 leaving room for a broad highway between the lots and 

 the marsh fences. 



This space was in some places more than three hundred 

 feet wide, and the owners of the lots were to be the owners 

 of whatever timber grew upon the land in front of them, 

 provided the space was not more than three hundred and 

 thirty feet wide. An old cart track used in hauling marsh 

 hay led along outside of the meadow fences towards Scit- 



