itched and laid out by the
committee appointed by the Legislature, according to its own best
judgment, following certain rules laid down by the proprietors. During
that year and according to those rules, the town plat was laid out.

It was originally intended to lay out the settlement on the hill
immediately east of the present village, from this circumstance called
Town Hill to this day. In point of fact, it was laid out on Aspetuck
Hill, and consisted of the town street and sixteen home lots. The street
was twenty rods wide. It began at the south end of the brow of the hill,
or at the lower end of what was then called the "Plain on the Hill" and
extended northward. Eight lots were laid out on each side of this
street, each lot being twenty-one rods wide and sixty deep.

By the rules adopted by the proprietors, these lots were to be taken up
successively in regular order by the settlers as they should arrive.
John Noble took the first lot on the east side of the street at the
lower end, he being the first settler to arrive. John Bostwick took the
lot on the opposite side of the street, he being the next settler on the
ground. This method was followed by others until there were twelve
settlers with their families, numbering seventy souls located on this
street in 1712. Of these twelve families, four were from Northampton and
Westfield, Mass., four were from Stratford, two from Farmington, and
only two from Milford. In 1714, the town street was extended southward
to the south end of the present public green.

The first houses constructed here by the settlers were of the rudest
description. They were built of logs fastened by notching at the
corners. They were usually from fifteen to eighteen feet square, and
about seven feet in height, or high enough for a tall man to enter. At
first they had no floors. The fireplace was erected at one end by making
a back of stones laid in mud and not in mortar, and a hole was left in
the bark or slab roof for the escape of the smoke. A chimney of sticks
plastered with mud, was afterwards erected in this opening. A space, of
width suitable for a door, was cut in one side and this was closed, at
first, by hanging in it a blanket, and afterwards by a door made from
split planks and hung on wooden hinges. This door was fastened by a
wooden latch on the inside, which could be raised from the outside by a
string. When the string was pulled in the door was effectually fastened.
A hole was c