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Figure 1. Homesteads of our Ancestors1 in Cambridge Towne, 1635
When the Massachusetts Bay Colony chartered NewTowne in 1635, the original homesteaders included at least four of our direct ancestors, representing three ancestral lines. The map in Figure 1 indicates the locations of their homestalls relative to the Harvard Square neighborhood as it appeared in the year 2000. Figure 2 shows more of the modern Square, for the sake of context.

Our eighth great-grandfather the Reverend Thomas Hooker, the community’s first preacher and a charismatic and controversial character, would soon lead a major exodus from Cambridge via Watertown to the Connecticut Valley to found Hartford. Much of our family in the area joined this secondary migration. His original homestead is now occupied by part of Wigglesworth Hall, near the southwest corner of the present Widener Library.
1Relationship codes throughout refer to Richard and Brent Anderson. "8GGF" denotes an eighth great-grandfather.
2By the way, Jefferson owned Hooker’s published sermons and apparently borrowed from them for the Declaration of Independence.
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