157 John Hoar to President Leverett

    [Between 1708 and 1724]

    May the 20th

    Reverend and ever Honnored Sir I have this day ben at black hall farm and Peter Clayes and Phillip Prat with me. We found John Eames Senior and his wife and children there in a house which he the said Eames [infamously] ownes was of his erecting. We saw a concederable number trees that had ben newly felled down, and a concederable [. . .] of fence newly made. All which said Eames told us he had done and caused to be done. And he told us he had been at work in the cedar swamp and had cut seaveral load of ceder. All which I have here mentined said Clayes and Prat are redy to attest to if they are called. So I remain yours to [serve].

    John Hoar

    Sir Nathaniel Eames tels me if you can come the 28 of this instant may he will attend to show the bounds of [those] parker farme.

    [Addressed:] For the Reverend and Ever Honored John Leveret in Cambridge.

    [Endorsed:] Information about cutting trees in a cedar swamp at Black-Hall Farm.

    Lands Papers, Shawsheen Farm, Billerica. This paper is part of a larger collection on the Farm, though I do not find the names mentioned in the Vital Records for Billerica of this period. A tear obliterates the date, which could be any time during Leverett’s administration. The writer of the letter might even be Howe, not Hoar.