Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES. 319
the aforesaid marsh, that needs the privilege of the said way,
shall pay unto the said Thomas Dexter six pence per acre, in lieu
and full recompense for the said marsh wayed, forever, himself
and such others as make use thereof, to make and repair the said
way, proportionable to the use made of it—the gates or bars to be
shut after any one's use thereof by them, to prevent damage."
Right in this case, is apparent. If Thomas Dexter built, as
he did, a causeway and bridge on his own meadow, no one had a
legal right to use the same without his consent. The owners of
the meadows on Scorton Neck had a right of way to the
same, and the town had a legal right to lay out such way ; and if
they laid it out over Thomas Dexter's private way, he had a legal
right to claim compensation. This he claimed, and the parties
interested refused to pay. The ^referees decided the case in his
favor, giving him six pence an acre, or about six dollars in all, not
enough to pay the law expenses he probably incurred. He had
legal right on his side ; but there were other considerations which
should have deterred him from exacting "the pound of flesh." It
was the only convenient place to build a bridge, it was the natural
outlet of the meadows above, and before the bridge was built the
owners had sometimes crossed over at that place. It was not an act
of good neighborhood on the part of Mr. Dexter to maintain a
quarrel more than five years, that he might have his own way.
In the following year, 1657, he commenced his lawsuit against
the inhabitants of the town of Lynn for the possession of Nahant,
which he claimed as his private properly by virtue of purchase
made about the year 1637, of the Indian Sachem, Poquanum, or
Black Will, for a suit of clothes. This was a mercantile speculation,
and the law suits which it produced were very expensive.
In February 1657, the inhabitants of Lynn voted to divide Nahant
among the householders, to each an equal share, and Mr. Dexter
thereupon brought an action against the town for taking possession
and occupying his property. He had, up to that time, manufactured
tar from the pine trees ; and the town had also exercised
some rights of ownership. This unusual mode of division made
every householder an interested party against Mr. Dexter, who
was then a non-resident. The court decided in favor of the
defendants, and Mr. Dexter appealed to the Assistants, who confirmed
the judgment of the lower court. Whatever might have
been the justice of his claim, it would have been difficult for him
to have obtained a verdict where nearly all the witnesses in the
case liad an adverse interest.*
After his death his administrators, Capt. James Oliver, his
son-in-law, an eminent merchant of Boston, and his grandson,
* The law forbidding purchases of land from the Indians except by public permission,
had not been passed when Mr. Dexter bought Nahant ; so that it would seem that he had a
legal l-ight to make the purchase. S.