Settlement in Watertown, just up the river from Cambridge pennensula, was an act of deference to those early Pilgrims that had claimed lands close-on to Boston Bay. Rowing hard against the river current, the boat's party from the newly-arrived ship found a steep grade on the bank that they thought would give on to good ground for fields and homes. They spent an uncomfortable night at their landfall, and established their settlement.

Some years later, Dr. Henry Bond drew an exact map of the property holdings of Watertown's 1600s freeman inhabitants at a certain moment as seen below.

(Click on the Map to see a larger image.)

A description of early town development in Massachusetts Colony can be found in Sumner C. Powell's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Puritan Village - The Formation of a New England Town.