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

592 HISTORY OF DORCHESTFR.
and nothing nearer than Plymouth on the South,
and no highway to it from either place, we cannot
suppose it more than a foot bridge. In the autumn
following, the town ordered a road to be made to the
mill, and five pounds were voted to build it. A road
that could be built through the wilderness at five
dollars a mile, would hardly afford a passage for a
horse with a sack upon his back carrying a bushel
of grain. When we reflect that most of the grain
brought to mill was by means of boats, we must
conclude that a foot bridge was all that was in.
tended.
For the purpose of travel between the Bay and
Plymouth Colony, it was ordered, in 1635, by the
General Court, that John Holland should keep a
ferry between the Captain's (now Commercial) Point
and Mr. Newbury's (now Billings's) Creek, for which
he was to receive fourpence for each passenger, and
threepence apiece if there were two or more. This
not being a paying concern, Mr. Holland could do
better with navigation of a larger kind, and s'oon
gave it up.
To accommodate the same travel, the General
Court, in 1638, granted to Bray Wilkins liberty to
set up a house of entertainment and keep a ferry
Aear Neponset River, for which he was to receive a
penny a person. Mr. Stoughton and Mr. Glover
were to direct the location of it. This ferryway
was from the public landing on Davenport's Creek,
at the end of Marsh Street, to the end of the tongue
of land which makes out into the marsh to tide
water, about half way between Neponset and Gran.