had a better one chiefly on account of the deeper water
in its harbour), and in 1635-1637 many of the original settlers removed
to the valley of the Connecticut where they planted Windsor. New
settlers, however, arrived at Dorchester and in 1639 that town
established a school supported by a public tax; this was the first free
school in America supported by direct taxation or assessment on the
inhabitants of a town.[1] In October 1695, a few of the inhabitants of
Dorchester organized a church and in December removed to South Carolina
where they planted another Dorchester (on the N. bank of the Ashley
river, about 26 m. from Charleston); by 1752 they had become
dissatisfied with their location, which was unhealthy, and they
gradually removed to Georgia, where they settled at Medway (half way
between the Ogeechee and Altamaha rivers), their settlement soon
developing into St John's Parish (see GEORGIA: _History_). It was the
fortification of Dorchester Heights, under orders from General
Washington, on the night of the 4th and 5th of March 1776, that forced
the British to evacuate Boston. At one time Dorchester extended from
Boston nearly to the Rhode Island line; but its territory was gradually
reduced by the creation of new townships and additions to old ones.
Dorchester Neck was annexed to Boston in 1804, Thompson's Island in
1834, and the remaining portions in 1855 and 1870.

See W. D. Orcutt, _Good Old Dorchester_ (Cambridge, 1893).

FOOTNOTE:

[1] In 1635 the general court of the colony of Massachusetts Bay had
granted to Dorchester Thompson's Island, situated near the coast of
the township. By the township of Dorchester this island was
apportioned among the freemen of the township. On the 20th of May
1639 it was ordered that the proprietors of land in this island
should collectively pay a "rent of twenty pounds a year forever,"
this rent "to be paid to such a school-master as shall undertake to
teach English, Latin, and other tongues, and also writing," it being
"left to the discretion of the elders and the seven men for the time
being whether maids shall be taught with the boys or not." In 1642
the proprietors of the island conveyed it to the township "for and
toward the maintenance of a free school in Dorchester aforesaid for
the instructing and teaching of children and youth in good literature
and learning."

DORDOGNE, a river of central and sout