Warning Out In New England 1656 1817 PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II. Admission Of Inhabitants.--Grants Of Land By Towns.-- Restraint Of Alienation Of Lands.--Proceedings In Boston And Other Massachusetts And Plymouth Towns. At first the New England towns exercised the right to exclude new-comers from inhabitancy by providing that no person should be received as an inhabitant without a vote of the town or of the "townsmen" or selectmen, and also by providing that no inhabitant should receive or entertain persons who were not admitted as inhabitants, or, as they were termed, strangers. This right of exclusion from inhabitancy was still further exercised by orders providing that inhabitants should not sell or let their land or houses to strangers without the consent of the town. In Connecticut the colony law of 1659 provided that No inhabitant shall have power to make sale of his accommodation of house or lands until he have first propounded the sale thereof to the town where it is situate and they refuse to accept of the sale tendered.* This restraint upon alienation by inhabitants of towns was not a new thing. Similar restraints existed in the Old World, and exist to-day in the village communities of Russia, where one may not sell to a stranger to the mir, or village, without the consent of the inhabitants, f In addition to this right to deny admission to the town it was assumed that the right to exclude from inhabitancy included the right to admit to inhabitancy upon condition, and the towns frequently ad * Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, Vol. I, p. 351. t Egleston, The Land System of the New England Colonies, p. 40; Maine, Early History of Institutions, p. 109. mitted inhabitants upon conditions, in some cases, that the person admitted should set up a mill within a given time and...