And now that direct tradition of the descendants, independently of any knowledge that John Procter owned this land, confirms this view by so remarkably agreeing with
long forgotten records as to the locality, it may be said confidently that we know with reasonable certainty the spot where these revered and honored relics were laid so long ago. The "bars as you go into the Philip H. Saunders place" are still there, and the way through is still used and marks the place where in 1708 John Higginson 3d and Hannah wife, in conveying to Daniel and Lawrence Southwick the nine acre lot next east of Procter's lot, reserved the liberty of a "highway of one pole wide at the western end of said land to be for ye use of Anthony Needham Sen," "they to maintain a pair of sufficient bars next ye common highway so long as they use the same."
Anthony Needham, Sen., at that time owned what has recently been known as the Philip H. Saunders place, and this right of way was for the benefit of that place. Mr. Dennis now lives at the westerly end of the nine acre lot conveyed by Higginson, as above mentioned, which was long known as the "Flint Pasture." The bars and the way are now on the west side of the wall dividing the Dennis land from the Procter lot instead of being on the east side; indicating that the dividing line was at some time changed. This change may have been made without any evidence of it appearing on record, by Zachariah King, who owned both lots from 1811 till 1818; and this would account for the apparent change in size of the two lots as described in the deeds, the westerly (or Procter) lot increasing while the easterly lot decreased.
On the north side of Lowell Street, about half way between these bars and the John G. Walcott, Jun., house, is a well on the edge of the road against a steep rocky hill rising back of it. This, I understand, has sometimes been called the "Procter well." There seems to be no room for a house close by it on that side of the road, but it is possible that the road may anciently have turned more to the south at this point, though I have not found any evidence in the records to that effect.
The history of the John Procter house and fifteen acres of land, as derived from the records, may be briefly stated as follows:—
Before we can understand the meaning of the deeds of the Procter lot we must know something of the history of the Downing Farm and particularly of the nine acre lot known formerly as the Flint Pasture, which is the large area of cleared land on the north side of Lowell Street, on the west end of which is at present the house of Mr. Dennis. That this may be better understood at a glance I have marked on my sketch, by a broken line, the bounds of the Downing Farm, which included the "Flint Pasture."
It seems that about two hundred and seventy years ago Roger Morey, a companion and it is thought a relative or connection of Roger Williams, had a grant of forty or fifty acres, which was located to the west or southwest of a large tract granted to Robert Cole and sold to Emanuel Downing before 1638. The Roger Morey grant was on both sides of what is now Lowell Street, that part on the northerly side being the same nine or ten acres above mentioned as afterwards known by the name of the Flint Pasture.
In a deposition by Nathaniel Felton Sept. 18, 1700, he being then 85 years of age, he says: "Soon after Roger Morrey removed from Salem, which was before 1644, I, this deponent, heard that said Morrey had sold his land in the woods to Emanuel Downing and I do further testify [as to?] a parcel of swamp or upland & meadow being a part and belonging to ye said Morrey, and [it] lyeth at the westerly end of Mr. Downing's farm"—deponent "has lived about 55 years a near neighbor to said farm and never heard that said Morrey's land was claimed by anybody but the tenants living on Mr. Downing's farm." [Reg'y of Deeds, Salem, B. 15, Fol. 5.] Fortunately for the identification of this land, a most remarkable bound often referred to in the ancient deeds is still to be seen marking the exact northeasterly
corner of the Morey grant. It is a high and precipitous rock about twenty rods northerly from Lowell street just opposite the house on the south side which was formerly the house of Nathaniel Flint, and a few rods westerly from the easterly way leading southerly to the Wyman Farm. It forms the northeasterly corner bound of the "Flint Pasture," and is marked on my sketch "Morey's Bound," that being the name given to it in the numerous ancient deeds and depositions.
The return of the settlement of the northwesterly bounds of the Downing Farm in 1681, recorded in Salem town records, gives the line from the extreme northwestern corner by Putnam's land as running "strait on to a white oak called Morey's Bound."