Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/91

Rh

In 1653, we find that they purchased Sowams of Massassoit and formed the Plantation into a Proprietary under the name of "Sowams and Parts Adjacent." Sowams or Barrington had been known to the settlers from 1620, through their frequent visits to Massassoit, their constant friend and benefactor. From its beautiful location on Narragansett Bay and Pawtucket River, its intersection by several streams, the fertility of the soil and the large quantity of salt and fresh meadows, with plenty of timber for building and fuel, it was called "The Garden of the Colony."

The social, civil and business relations of the Pilgrims made their society a pure Commonwealth. With the exception of the ownership of house and garden by the individual settlers, all things were for common possession or protection. At first one acre was allowed to each for present use, then two, afterward sixteen, and at the end of ten years from the landing at Plymouth, many of the settlers possessed large tracts of land. As their numbers and possessions increased, other plantations or settlements grew up around Plymouth, each with its church as the centre of population, as at Duxbury, Marshfield, and Scituate. The lands in that section were held by occupancy or by grant from the Plymouth Court, the title being sometimes confirmed by royal patent. With reference to Indian purchases, the Court ordered that no title to land should be valid unless confirmed by it. In order to secure larger areas of land, of which they soon became greedy, several persons united in the purchase of a large tract of the Indians and, on application to the Court, the purchase was confirmed and a charter issued to the purchasers under the title of a Proprietary, the owners of which were styled proprietors.