(except in Rhode Island) the same equal shares to all the children, save that the eldest son received a double share. This modified preference was, not quite ingenuously, described by some of the colonies' agents as "like that of England"; but the right of primogeniture in that country was a very different thing, and the colonial rule was probably of Mosaic origin. Just as the law in England had—and has to this day-its effect upon the voluntary distribution of property by will in the custom of making "eldest sons," so the more natural provisions of colonial law encouraged the equal division of property in this country among all the children of a testator.
Laws subjecting the lands of a debtor to levy and execution, and those making the heir or executor in effect a trustee for creditors, had much to do with the prosperity of the colonies. To them, says Chalmers, " much of the populousness and the commerce of Massachusetts is owing."
The transfer of land, as has been said above, was greatly facilitated by laws passed at an early day providing for the registration of titles and the simplification of conveyances, and the law thus established was substantially that which prevails at the present time.
All these rules of law, it will be seen, harmonized with the general spirit of colonial legislation, and favored the perpetuation of that order of things which the founders of New England sought by their system of settlement to produce.
For their wisdom and foresight in all these regulations respecting the disposition of public lands, and in the private law of real property, a great debt is due to them; and the more closely the causes of the prosperous social and economical condition of New England are studied, the fuller will be our appreciation of the benefits which have inured to us as the result of the land system whose foundations were laid in the early days of colonial history.
MS. in possession of Mass. Hist. Soc. (cited Acts and Res. of Mass. Bay, I. 107).
Johns Hopkins University Studies
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE.
ICAL
Aborigines, right of to land, 551.
Acre rights in New England, 596,597.
Adams, Charles F., Vice-President of
Free-Soil Party, 429.
Adams, Herbert B., review of St.
Clair Papers, 373.
Adams, John, asked advice as to
form of government, 197.
Adams, John Q., eulogy on, in New
Haven, 481.
Agrarian laws of the United States
and Rome, 268.
Alaska, purchase of, 327, 330; dis-
covery of, 328; Sumner on the
purchase, 332.
Aldermen, choice of, in New Haven,
539.
Aldworth, R., land grant to, 560.
Andover, town-meeting refuses to
empower general court to frame
constitution, 204.
Andros', Sir Edmund, measures in
Rhode Island, 91.
Anne Arundel County erected, 233;
government perfected, 234.
Annapolis, beginning of, 230, 253.
Arnold, Wm., antagonism to Roger
Williams, 83.
Atherton, Humphrey, land company
formed by, 117.
Atwater, Jeremiah, selectman of New
Haven, 489.
![[blocks in formation]](https://books.google.com.mx/books/content?id=nwk7AAAAIAAJ&output=html_text&pg=RA8-PA57&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&q=editions:LCCN01001758&cds=1&sig=ACfU3U0Mt0th8_BffzlxrYRRL7wvv0uD7g&edge=0&edge=stretch&ci=447,671,394,222)
Baltimore, Lord, colonial policy of,
226; Puritans' compromise with,
249; feudal conceptions of, 255.
Bancroft, Geo., on Rhode Island in-
fluence on the United States, 102;
on Jefferson's anti-slavery pro-
posal, 343.
Baptists in Rhode Island, 125.
Barber, Joseph, issues The Columbian
Register, 469.
Barber, Capt., named for Governor-
ship, 243.
Barnstable settled from Scituate, 578;
lands for widows in, 586; restric-
tions of alienations, 594; house-
lots, 596.
Beauchamp, land grant to, 560.
Beers, Isaac, nomination of for town
office, 450; appointed on committee
of hospitality, 457.
Behring, Capt., discovers Alaska,
328.
Beisassen, Laveleye on,
580.
Bennett, Edward, land grant to, 217.
Bennett, Richard, leaves Virginia,
222; settles in Maryland, 224; | Catlin on New Haven party politics,
charged with instigating rebellion,
Chalmers on New England land laws,
Beunett, Rev. Wm., Puritan preacher 599, 600.
in Virginia, 217, 218.
Benton on Louisiana Purchase, 317;
on the authorship of the Ordinance,
362.
Berkeley, Gov., "Concessions," 142;
unfriendly treatment of the Puri-
tans, 220, 222.
Berkshire County, town-autonomy
theory in. 206.
Billerica, restrictions on laud sale,
594; acre lots in, 597.
Bishop, Samuel, election of, 450;
municipal letter of, 465.
Boroughs, Pennsylvania, by Wm. P.
Holcomb, 131; beginnings of, 135;
Thomas Madox on the antiquity
of, 136; Stubbs on, 136; in New
Jersey, 136; in Connecticut, 136;
in Virginia, 137; in Maryland, 137;
in Maine, 137; Toulmin Smith on,
162; legislation of this century,
170; offices, 173; council, 174;
finance, 175.
Bounties, military, 389.
Bradford, Wm., land grant to, 560.
Bradstreet, Simon, land company of,
Braxton's, Carter, address, 197.
Brenton and Coddington antagonistic,
83.
Bristol, borough of, 161; town-meet-
ing, 164.
Brodhead on the Patroon, 15.
Brooke, Robt., land grant of, 231;
offends Gov. Stone, 239.
Brooklyn, municipal privileges given
to. 20.
Buchanan's veto of Homestead Bill,
432.
Champlin, Col., estate of, 119.
Channing, Edward, on Narragansett
planters, 105.
Charles County, Maryland, Puritan
colony in, 231.
Charlestown. original extent of, 577.
Chase's eulogy on the Ordinance of
1787, 358.
Chauncey, Charles, appointed to com-
mittee of hospitality, 457.
Checkley, editor of Leslie's work, 111.
City and town government of New
Haven, 443. (See New Haven.)
Clarke, John, sent to England to
secure charter rights, 90.
Clay, Henry, offers a million dollars
for the cession of Texas, 319; on
Alaska Purchase, 328; on land
question, 409, 412; distribution
bill, 415; against pre-emption,
421; visits New Haven, 481.
Claybourne, Wm., settles on Kent
Island, 224.
Coddington and Brenton antagonistic,
83.
Cole, Josias, refuses to take oath, 251.
Coles, Gov., ascribes authorship of
the Ordinance to Jefferson, 367.
Colfax on Homestead Law, 431.
Colonies, land tenure in, 273; grants
of land in New England, 561:
orders from the company relating
thereto, 562.
Columbian Register, The, issued by
J. Barber, 469.
Common lands, claims of, 281; for
pasturage and forestry on the Hud-
son, 38; division of in New Eng-
land, 586, 594.
Burnett, David G., President of Commoners and Non-Commoners, dif-
ferences and disputes between, 580;
in Groton, Hampton, etc., 582.
Concord, settlement of, 579.
Connecticut, boroughs in, 136; In-
dian land deeds in, 552, 553; Colo-
ny incorporated, 557.
Constitutional and Political History
of States, by Dr. J. F. Jameson,
183.
Copp, Mr., eulogy on Homestead
Bill, 436.
Cox, Wm., chosen a Puritan delegate,
233.
Cradock, land grant to, 568.
Crandall, Miss Prudence, teaches ne-
groes, 473.
Crawford's system of relief, 408.
Credit feature of American land sys-
tem, 402; abolition of, 406.
Crown lands, claimants to, 280;
right to land titles, 550.
Cunningham on the land laws of the
United States, 276.
Curtis on the Ordinance of 1787, 357.
Cutler, Manasseh, authorship of the
Ordinance ascribed to, 369; agent
of the Ohio Company, 398.
Daillie, Rev. Pierre, minister in New
Paltz, 62.
Dane, Nathan, authorship of the Or-
dinance, 362, 363, 365.
Darby, Pa., town-meeting, 166.
Day, Stephen, land grant of, 569.
Dedham, land grant, 578; common-
age in, 587; allotment, 590.
Delaware County, town-meeting in,
166.
Denison, Daniel, land company,
Desert Land Acts, 437.
Domain, Public, origin of, 263; future
of, 265; administration of, 335;
relation to national life, 277; for-
mation of, 279.
government in, 12; education in,
Dutchess County, landholding in, 40.
Duzine, powers of, 55, 60.
Dwight, President, on New England
prejudice to city market, 456; on
New Haven in 1810, 474.
East India Company, trading enter-
prises in America, 11, 12; coloni-
zation by, 12.
Eastham, commonage in, 586; land
division, 592.
Eaton, land grant to, 569.
Education in Dutch colonies on the
Hudson, 14; land grants for, 436.
Edwards, Jonathan, on land and
landless parties, 585.
Edwards, Pierpont, appointed on
committee of hospitality, 457; dele-
gated to Convention, 458.
Egleston, Melville, on the Land Sys-
tem of New England Colonies, 545.
Elbridge, G., land grant to, 560.
Ellsworth, advocacy of ratification by
Convention, 199.
Elting, Irving, on the Dutch Village
Communities on the Hudson River,
1; family in New Paltz, 67.
Eltonhead, Envoy of Gov. Stone,
243; death of, 247.
Endicott, Agent of Land Company
in American colonies, 564; land
grant to, 570.
Donaldson on rectangular system, English Folk-land, 270; feudal land
Donation lands, 427.
Don Morales prohibits the use of New
Orleans as a depository, 304.
Don Onis protests against United
States' occupation of West Florida,
315; opens negotiations relating
thereto, 316.
Dorr on Roger Williams, 82.
Du Bois, Daniel, survivor of the last
Duzine, 61.
Durand leaves Virginia, 222; settles
in Maryland, 224; compared with
Roger Williams, 257.
Durfee, Judge, on Rhode Island
Charter, 96.
Dutch Village Communities on the
Hudson River, by I. Elting, 1;
Esopus given a charter, 30; ground-
lots in, 37.
Evans on Land Reform, 428.
Everett, John, refuses to take arms,
251.
Executive of the city of New Haven,
520, 534. (See New Haven.)
Fayerweather, library of, 111.
Federalism in New Haven, 464; fall
of, 468.
Fendall, Josias, commissioned Lieut.-
Governor, 248; conspiracy. 252.
Feudal land laws of England, 272.
Fire Department in New Haven, 459,
475, 491; insurance proposed, 493.
Folk-land in England, Germany and
America, 270.
Foster, Wm. E., on town govern-
ment in Rhode Island, 71.
Floridas, purchase of, 311; revolution
and independence, 314.
Force, Peter, on the Ordinance of
1787, 350.
Franklin, Pa., laying out of, 149.
Free-Soil Democracy, 429.
Friends' Advent into Rhode Island,
83, 125; into Maryland, 250.
Fuller, Capt. Wm., advance of upon
Indians, 238.
Fustel de Coulanges, on village com-
munity, 6.
Gordon on Pennsylvania land sys-
tem, 140.
Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, land grant
to, 556; feudalism of, 570.
Gorham on the appointment of
judges, 198.
Gosnold's expedition, effect of, 554.
Graduation Act, 428.
Gravesend Charter, 26.
Gray, Captain, discovers Oregon
coast, 329.
Grayson and the Ordinance of 1787,
347.
Green on the Puritans, 217.
Greenberry's Point, settlement on,
230.
Greenbriar Company formed, 283.
Grigsby's Phi Beta Kappa Address
referred to, 197.
Gross, Charles, "Medieval Bor-
oughs" referred to, 170.
Groton, land grant to, 576, 577;
commonage in, 582; home lots,
596; acre lots, 597.
Grow, Mr., on Homestead Law, 431.
Guilford, Conn., land division in, 591;
restrictions on alienation, 593.
Gwin, Senator, proposes the purchase
of Alaska, 330.
Hadley, division of land in, 589;
home lots in, 596.
Hale, John P., elected President of
Free-Soil Democracy, 429.
Hamilton, Alexander, on the election
of the Senate, 198; plan for land
office, 379, 399.
Hampton, N. H., settlement of, 573,
579; commonage, 582.
Hardwick town-meeting, 206.
Harris antagonistic to Roger Wil-
liams, 83.
Harrison banished from Virginia,
222; returns to England, 223.
Hartford, rivalry with New Haven,
500; common lands in, 587.
Hartranft, Gov., commissions to
study municipal government, 529.
Haverhill, commonage in, 583, 584,
587; home lots, 596.
Hawthorne, Captain, land grant to,
Hayne on the authorship of the
Ordinance of 1787, 362.
Haynes, land grant to, 568.
Hazard, Robert, estate of, 119.
Heffernan, Wm., accused of horse-
stealing, 113.
Hegel Township, Pa., population, 172.
Henry, Patrick, letter referred to,
Hillhouse, James, appointed on com-
mittee of hospitality, 457; nomi-
nated for Convention, 471; adorn-
ment of New Haven Green, 462.
History, Constitutional and Political,
of States, by Dr. J. F. Jameson,
183; of the Land Question in the
United States, by Dr. S. Sato, 259.
Holcomb, Wm. P., on Pennsylvania
Boroughs, 131.
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