[70] This recognized existing local practice. Cf. No. 66.
[71] This democratic advance had been taken two years earlier in Connecticut. Cf. No. 93.
[72] Actual practice disregarded this limitation to nine, and also the attempt to restrict the "select men" and the voters to "freemen." 74 should have followed 66.
[73] This with the first half of the next law is based upon the Jewish law.
[74] This noble provision soon became a dead letter.
[75] To give the prefix Mrs. (Mistress) to this poor woman would be wholly out of keeping with the usage of that day.
[76] Cf. also some of the entries in the extracts from the Watertown Records, No. 83, below.
[77] The heading is missing (by mutilation) from the Records.
[78] This was a fee for a very indefinite description of title: cf. (8), below, and note.
[79] The descriptions of such divisions of lands were exceeding vague,—illustrated by the following entry from the Records of the Town of Plymouth,—rather clearer than the average but selected here because of its brevity:—