The history of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, By a committee of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical society ...

HISTORY OF DORCHESTER. 21
debate). During the summer, their investigations
induced the company to relinquish the Charles river
project entirely, and to establish their permanent
settlement in the vicinity of their first encampment.
For purposes of mutual defence and the establishment of social order, the Court held in London,
May 21, 1629, contemplated that the settlements
must be very compact, and that a certain plot or pale
should be marked out, within which every one should
build his house, and a half acre is named as the size
of a house lot within the pale. This arrangement is
recognized in the Dorchester records, and as late as
September, 1635, the General Court ordered that no
dwelling house be built more than' half a mile from
the meeting-house without leave. The spot selected for the town, was doubtless upon Allen's plain,
south of Old Harbor, and extending far enough to
include Rock Hill, but the limits of the pale are
not now known. The growth of the settlement and
entire subjection of the neighboring Indians, in a
few years rendered these regulations needless, and
left the inhabitants free to exercise their own discretion in selecting their residences.
As we learn from Dr. Fuller, June 28, 1630, that
the Dorchester Company still entertained their original design of settling on the Charles river, a month
after landing at Mattapan, they had of course made no
arrangements for future supplies of food by planting
corn or other vegetables the first year, and Roger
Clap informs us that bread was very scarce and that
plenty in their dwellings applied only to the article
of fish. Gov. Winthrop, anticipating the scarcity