It does not appear from any sources of information extant, that all the land, included in the incorporated limits, was purchased of the Indians till some time after the settlement had begun, though a part of it might have been. Till May, 1637, no order on the subject appears. The court at that time gave “Concord liberty to purchase lande within their Limits of the Indians; to wit: Attawan and Squaw Sachem.” The land was accordingly fairly purchased, and satisfactory compensation made; and Aug. 5, 1637, the Indian deed was deposited in the Secretary’s office in Boston. The Colony Records give the following account of this transaction. “5th. 6mo. 1637. Wibbacowett; Squaw Sachem; Tahattawants; Natanquatick, alias Old man; Carte, alias Goodmand; did express their consent to the sale of the Weire at Concord over against the town: and all the planting-ground which hath been formerly planted by the Indians, to the inhabitants of Concord; of which there was a writing, with their marks subscribed given into court, expressing the price.” Whether this transaction related to the whole town is uncertain.

A tradition has been handed down that the purchase took place under a large oak, which was standing in front of the Middlesex Hotel within the memory of our oldest inhabitants, and called, after one of the original settlers, “Jethro’s tree”; and which is said to have been used in early times as a belfry on which the town bell was hung.