There is a chapter on Court Grants. Following is info related to Edmund Chandler and descendants and a little background: "The Court Grants in Duxbury, laid out according to the Second land Division of 1627, began at the mouth of the Jones River and extended north around Kingston Bay, up around Island Creek Pond, down into the Nook, and, in a few instances, away from the shore. The Plymouth Colony Court ordered all grants to be laid out at right angles to the shore, five acres in breadth along the shore, and four in length inland. Since the acreage varied according to the size of the family, some lots were long and narrow, running as far inland as necessary to encompass the established total. Whenever a contour in the shore was met, the four acres per person continued, but the lots sort of fanned out to follow on around the bay. Many of the original grants can be located today, their original boundaries can be traced, their successive owners listed, and the many changes in sizes accounted for. It is theoretically possible for twenty people today to trace their own one-acre lots back to the! original one share part of a grant." "The Colony Court was explicit in setting forth the rights and privileges that went with the grants. Briefly, all paths and ways were to remain; every man was to have a right of way to the shore, no matter where his land lay; all could hund and fish on all lands; and all cut cut wood, timber excepted, on the Common Lands. The Common Lands, or Commons, were the areas beyond the grants and lay, roughly, beyond what is not Tremont Street, stretching far inland over much of present Pembroke. They were granted to those who came later; or to individuals for various reasons; or sold to defray town expenses." "Land changed hands rapidly in the early days. The locations were drawn by lot, which procedure may account for some moves; early deaths, personal preferences, or family ties explain other transfers. In some instances the original owner stayed long enough to give his name to the area; in others, only long enough to be a name on a deed. It was a time when the private ownership of farms was new in the Colony, and a man quickly took advantage of the right to choose his home site." I think this pretty much fills in the background, but to go into who owned what would make this too long, so I'll put that in the next email Thanks all for being receptive to info. I personally think this is the kind of info that allows us to relate to everyday life of our ancestors. Joan Earnshaw