The Lumber Trade in New England. 109 



tractors that the hcense referred to in the charter was intended 

 to be given. Very httle attention seems to have been paid by 

 the inhabitants to this clause of the charter, and when the gov- 

 ernment undertook the systematic protection of the woods, it 

 was made a part of the surveyor's business to see that the king's 

 rights were maintained. The governors were also instructed 

 to secure obedience to the charter. 



When Mr. Bridger began his duties, he found that it was by 

 no means an easy matter to distinguish the king's land from 

 private grants. He wrote home that thousands of acres were 

 held without any claim whatever.^ The bounds had never been 

 accurately surveyed, and there was the utmost confusion of 

 titles. Bridger proceeded to stir up trouble, by accusing the 

 navy contractors or their agents of cutting without license and 

 of exceeding their contracts. The accusations were made 

 hastily, and in such a manner as to bitterly antagonize the 

 agents. It appears that John Plaisted, factor for John Taylor,- 

 w'as ordering his men to cut trees, from the largest down to 20 

 inches in diameter, in spite of the governor's proclamation to 

 respect the charter. Bridger ordered the men to stop, and 

 obliged Plaisted to give £2,000 bonds not to cut any more. 

 Plaisted insisted that the charter was no law, and the more 

 Bridger opposed him, the more he cut. Finally, be produced 

 a license from Queen Mary, dated 1691, and said that he could 

 cut as long as the contract was not fulfilled. Bridger declared 

 that he had cut a very great number of masts above his con- 

 tract, but Plaisted pleaded that he had cut none except on his 

 own grounds or within townships.^ Upon the question whether 

 the expression "grants to private persons" w^as intended to in- 

 clude townships, hung the long controversy which raged be- 

 tween surveyor and inhabitants. Bridger wrote to the Board 

 of Trade that, hitherto, he had preserved trees in the townships, 

 taking the meaning of private grant to be single persons, not 



I.Mr. Dunbar to the Board of Trade, B. T. New Eng,, R: 29. 



»Cf. Part I, Ch. I, p. 6. 



^Mr. Bridger to the Board of Trade, B. T. New Eng., R: 39. 



