Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

392 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OE BARNSTABLE EAMILIES.
was a dense swamp, (called Lewis' Swamp) j which remained
more than a century in its natural state. This swamp, in 1653,
had been surrendered as town's commons. On the east, including
a strip on the north, by the edge of the gully, there were about
two acres of good land, which was the only part cultivated by
Goodspeed. On the south of Lewis' swamp there was a strip of
land laid out corresponding in location with the southern part of
Bow lane, called in the records "Goodspeed's Out-Let," and
subsequently "the Widow Hallett's Set-Off." Tliis name seems
to indicate that at the time Goodspeed resided on this lot, he had
no "Out-Let" on the north. "Goodspeed's Out-Let" extended
further east than at the present time, certainly to Josiah Hallett's
house, and probably to Taylor's Lane.
Meeting House Hill was called by the first settlers Goodspeed's
Hill; from 1G60 to 1725 Cobb's Hill, and since by its present
name. A stream of water from Lewis' swamp ran across the
County or King's road, and down the "New Mill Way" between
the hill, and the lot now owned by Ebenezer Bacon, Esq., and
emptied into a swamp in front of the dwelling-house of David
Bursley, Esq., and which was in 1683, purchased by the town for
a common watering place. At the foot of the hill, in front of
Odd Fellows' Hall, there was a foot bridge across the stream,
constructed of a single log 20 feet long, and two feet in diameter,
hewn flat on the upper side.
In 1650, the traveller with a team coming from the west could
not turn down either of the roads now leading to the dwellinghouse
of David Bursley, Esq., because there was a pond and a
swamp that extended across both ways to the margin of the hill.
He could not drive up the precipitous sides of Goodspeed's Hill,
nor through the jagged gully where the road now passes, nor
through the north end of Bow Lane, because there was no roadway
there. He had to pass up the Hyannis road to the present
residence of Mr. James S. Lothrop, thence through Goodspeed's
Out-Let to the lot of John Scudder, and up the hill to the spot
where the Patriot Office now stands, thence continue easterly
across Scudder's and Lewis' lots to Taylor's Lane. *
The inhabitants residing west of the Hill were subject to the
t At a Town meeting lield in Barnstable Oct. 26, 1769,
'"^Voted, Tliat Messrs. Jolin Lewis and Geo. Lewis (sons of Lieut. James) be allowed to
fence a piece of swamp tliat belonf^ed to the town, s'aid swamp being adjoined to their
swamp by their malt house, and they and their assigns to improve it forever, provided tliut
they do not encroach upon tlie King's road, nor the lane leading into the woods, and make
a sufficient drain to carry oif the water."—[Town Records Book 3, page 34.
The bushes in this swamp were very thick. Mr. George Lewis lost a fat hog therein,
which he had stuck and left for dead. It ran into the swamp and there died, and thougii
careful search was made, it could nob be found. When first ploughed, a lar^e deposit of
arrow heads were turned up. They were all made of white quartz, and were afterwards
sent by Mr. Mullen as a present to some ol his friends, connected witli Cambridge College.
*This paper, it will be recollected, was written in 1862, and applied to the lodalities as
then occupied.