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and near adjoining unto the said dwelling house of the said 

 Giles Corey" with one acre and a half of land "altogether 

 within fence near unto ,the bridge." John Norton con- 

 veyed to Jeremiah Meacham, in 1670, the same, except 

 the Alderman house, which with about twenty poles of 

 land on which it stood, a little to the north-west of Fowler 

 street, appears to have been previously sold to Robert 

 Wilson. In 1680 Jeremiah Meacham conveyed to his 

 daughter Bethia, wife of George Hacker, "fourteen poles 

 of land (on which said George Hacker has lately built a 

 small dwelling house) , lying at the townes end near the 

 bridge or causeway, without the fortification, and bounded 

 on the North River with a highway north-west, by my 

 land north-east and south-east and on the highway or 

 street south-west." In the division of Meacham's. estate 

 in 1696 this was increased to half an acre, and in 1731, 

 it came into the possession of Isaac Hacker, who in 1719 

 had bought a piece of land next south-east with a house 

 on it ; which latter house was perhaps the same now 

 standing on the corner of Federal street, in which Jere- 

 miah Hacker afterwards lived. 



The history of the Buffum estate which was next east 

 is particularly interesting as it furnishes the only clue we 

 have as to the time when Boston street was first laid out. 

 The homestead of Robert Buffum, who died in 1669, con- 

 sisted of about four acres next east of the Alderman lot, 

 and extending from the North River to Essex street, and 

 probably, as we have shown, including the triangular 

 piece of land south of Boston street where his son-in-law, 

 Wm. Beans lived. This homestead came into possession 

 of his sous, Joshua and Caleb Buffum. On the Common- 

 ers Record is entered for Caleb Buffum "two common 

 rights for his house and for his father's cottage right in 

 the same place ; " also for Joshua Buffum " two rights for 



