Nathaniel Ingersol, towards Beaver Dam, and the first settlements in that direction and to the westward.  In general it may be said, that the structural proportions and internal arrangements of the house, taken in its relations to the vestiges and indications on the face of the grounds, show that it is coeval with the first occupancy of the farm.  But we do not depend, in this case, upon conjectural considerations, or on mere tradition, which, on such a point, is not always reliable.  It happens to be demonstrated, that this is the veritable house built and occupied by Townsend Bishop, in 1636, by a singular and irrefragable chain of specific proof.  A protracted land suit, hereafter to be described, gave rise to a great mass of papers, which are preserved in the files of the county courts and the State Department; among them are several plots made by surveyors, and adduced in evidence by the parties.  Not only the locality but a diagram of the house, as then standing, are given.  The spot on which it stood is shown.  Further, it appears, that in the deeds of transference of the estate, the homestead is specially described as the house in which Townsend Bishop lived, called “Bishop’s Mansion.”  This continues to a period subsequent to the style of its architecture, and within recent tradition and the memory of the living.  In the old Salem Commoner’s records, it is called “Bishop’s Cottage,” which was the name generally given to dwelling-houses in those early times.  Having, as occasion required, been seasonably repaired, it is as strong and good a house to-day as can be found.  Its original timbers, if kept dry and well aired, are beyond decay; and it may stand, a useful, eligible, and comely residence, through a future as long as the past.  It may be doubted whether any dwelling-house now in use in this country can be carried back, by any thing like a similar strength of evidence, to an equal antiquity.  Its site, in reference to the surrounding landscape, was well chosen.  Here its hospitable and distinguished first proprietor lived, in the interims of his public and official service, in peace and tranquillity, until ferreted out by the intrusive spirit of an intolerant age.  Here he welcomed his neighbors,—­Endicott, Downing, Peters, John Winthrop, Jr., Read, and other kindred spirits.[A]

[Footnote A:  Not only the storms of two hundred and thirty years, but the bolts of heaven, have beat in vain upon this mansion.  The view given of it in the frontispiece is from a sketch taken in winter.  The leafless branches of a tall elm at its western end are represented.  At noon on Saturday, July 28, 1866, during a violent thunder-storm, the electric fluid seems to have passed down the tree, rending and tearing some of its branches, and leaving its traces on the trunk.  It flashed into the house.  It tore the roof, knocking away one corner, displacing in patches the mortar that coated the old chimney top and sides, hacking the edges of the brick-work, splitting