Chapter 1 - The Beginning

Section III - Mendon
"Whereas upon a petition put up to the Honorable General Court of Massachusetts by the inhabuitants of Braintree for a tract of land within the Government for the settleing of a plantation upon it. It pleased the Hon. Court to gratify their request as more fully appears by their choosing Mr. Preter Bracket & Ensign Moses Paine for to purchase a title of the Indians containing eight miles square about fifteen miles from Medfield Town at a place commonly called Mascousapoug more fully appears by a deed of sale bearing date 22d day of April one thousand six hundred sixty & two made to the said gentlemen from the Indians that were the proper owners of the said land which was signed sealed and delivered the twenty second day of April one thousand six hundred & sixty two. Under the above said Peter Bracket & Moses Paine and assigns to the Selectmen of Mendon for the use of the town by the above said gentlemen upon the twelfth day of May in the year one thousand six hundred & seventy in presence of Samuel Simons Esqr:
 
The Grant of the great Meadow.
 
"At a General Court the 15th May 1667 in answer to the petition of the inhabitants of a new plantation called Sgshapauge. The Court doth grant them the meadow lying out of their line it running through that parcel. --And that the name of their town be Mendon -- And that they & their successors be invested with town privileges as other towns of this jurisdiction enjoy."
 
Mendon MapThe founding of Mendon in 1667 was also the establishment of the first formal governing body over a portion of Bellingham.
 
The area from just east of the Beaver Pond to the present Mendon town line was originally part of the Town of Mendon.
 
The land division in this area was done by the Proprietors of Mendon, nearly all from 1701 through 1710. This area was not a part of the original Grant of the great Meadow.
 
Instead it was purchased from the heirs of John Awasamog, a Nipmuck Indian, by deed in 1692.
 
Among the first proprietors listed for Mendon was Grindol Rawson, the minister of the Church. Also listed as landowners in the Town during the late 1600's was Edward Rawson, his brother.