"AN HIGHWA V SHALL BE THERE, AND A IV A K." 2 I I 



way which used to be traveled towards Beechwood. The 

 hollow track made by the carts of old times may still be 

 followed for several hundred yards. Whether this old cart- 

 way was traveled in lieu of a public way, or whether Joshua 

 Hersey's land was used substantially as the road now runs, 

 is uncertain. It is plain that any road across lots could 

 not be used after the lots were fenced for pastures, with- 

 out trouble to the owners. Therefore Joshua Hersey in 

 the year 1724 requested the town meeting at Hingham to 

 appoint another committee to do again the work of the 

 previous committee. 



It was done. The committee laid out the new way 

 along the north side of Joshua Hersey's lot next to Sam- 

 uel Orcutt's lot* where Beechwood Street now lies. It is 

 the only place where a straight way into the Third Divi- 

 sion could be made without severe hill climbing. 



The width was to be three rods running nearly straight 

 for six sevenths of the way ; then it was to bend south- 

 ward at a point fifty-two and a half rods from the division 

 line, and run to the south side of Joshua Hersey's lot, 

 keeping a width of only two and a half rods. For thirty 

 rods it skirted the south side of Hersey's lot with a 

 breadth of three rods, then for eleven rods more it ran 

 diagonally across James Hersey's and Joshua Bates' land 

 to the division line near Turtle Island. Joshua Hersey 

 was to receive the old highway lying between lots seven- 

 teen and eighteen in exchange for the new highway 

 through his own lot.f This highway was not accepted by 

 the town until eight years later, 1732 ; but it was probably 

 used long before it was formally accepted. At about the 

 same time with the trouble of locating this end of Beech- 

 wood Street, the other end was being fixed. No land for 

 a highway through the Beechwood lots had been reserved 

 by the Fisher plan, but it will be remembered that the lots 



♦Samuel Orcutt's lot seems to have been number twenty-one. 

 t Joshua Hersey owned lot twenty, as nearly as I can ascertain. 



