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-43-

or adjoining Duxbury, and there were joined by thirteen others who ultimately came to Sandwich." p 8 "Though the original grant of April 3, 1637 does not mention the word Sandwich, the same grant is referred to twice again in Plymouth Colony records. Early in 1648 Bradford formally turned over the initial area he had bought from the Indians to Edmund Freeman and his associates using these words: Whereas about tenn years past the within William Bradford Governor and the Rest of his parteners within written being of the old Companie have Purchased the Towne of Sandwidge of the Indians and have paied to them for the said purchase the vallew of sixteene pound nineteen shillings in Comodities..."

p 8 The Government at Plymouth formally confirmed to each town in the Colony its right to its lands in 1685 and the Act of Sandwich states: "a certayn tract of lands was by William Bradford and his Associates assembled in Court the 3rd of April one thousand six hundered thirty and seven granted unto Mr Edmund Freeman, Henery Feake, Thomas Dexter and other of their Asociates to erect a plantation or town in this Government and to receive in more inhabitants..." p 12 By 1643, however, Plymouth Colony's population was estimated at about three thousand persons. In this year a new settlement was founded by seven families who left Plymouth town for the Outer Cape at Nauset. The settlement became Eastham."

p 16 Andrews gravely wrote to Edmund Freeman (Beauchamp's agent and brother-in-law) to the effect that Beauchamp "will not show any account and Sherley a very unfair and unjust one.... Finally in 1646 five of the Undertakers pledged real estate in Plymouth to raise part of this sum....These pledges are recorded in full in Plymouth Colony records, and each is made to Freeman....The record also indicates that Freeman was Assistant Governor from 1640 through June 1645 but he was dropped and never served again. His role in collecting Beauchamp's debt may well be the factor in this abrupt change of status. 

p 28 Edmund Freeman Senior, 1590-1682

As the Town's founder there is an abiding interest in Edmund Freeman, his origins, family, purpose in founding the town, and his contribution to the town and colony. We have mentioned that he first came to Saugus in 1635 with his wife and four children. He was doubtless in Plymouth or Duxbury by 1636 as he was at a general meeting of all accepted freemen in Plymouth, March 7, 1636/7 and was appointed to a special inquest on the laws and abuses. There is however no reference to his occupying land in Plymouth or Duxbury as there is for several others who came to Sandwich. The historian Thomas Hutchison in paying tribute to Plymouth Colony lists Edmund Freeman after the Mayflower planters and among the later great Assistant Governors (Haterly, Willett, Thomas and Cudworth) as one of the true founders of the Old Colony.

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