It is not unlikely, that hostile feelings towards the Nurses, which contributed afterwards to serious results, may have been engendered in this long-continued land quarrel.  There is evidence that no such feeling existed on the part of the Endicotts:  but there were many others interested; for, by testimony at the trials and in outside discussions, the whole community had become more or less implicated in the strife.  The Nurses, as holding the ground and having to bear the brunt of defending it in all cases of intrusion, had a difficult position, and may have made some enemies.  At any rate, this controversy was one of the means of stirring up animosities in the neighborhood; and an account of it has been deemed necessary, as contributing to indicate the elements of the awful convulsions which soon afterwards desolated Salem Village.

When we reach the story, for which this account of the farms of the village and the population that grew up on them is a preparative, we shall come back to the Townsend-Bishop grant, and to the house, still standing, that he built and dwelt in, upon it.  It may be well to pause, and view its interesting history prior to 1692.  While occupied by its original owner, the “mansion,” or “cottage,” was the scene of social intercourse among the choicest spirits of the earliest age of New England.  Here Bishop, and, after him, Chickering, entertained their friends.  Here the fine family of Richard Ingersoll was brought up.  Here Governor Endicott projected plans for opening the country; and the road that passes its entrance-gate was laid out by him.  To this same house, young John Endicott brought his youthful Boston bride.  Here she came again, fifteen years afterwards, as the bride of the learned and distinguished James Allen, to show him the farm which, received as a “marriage gift” from her former husband, she had brought as a “marriage gift” to him.  Here the same Allen, in less than six years afterwards, brought still another bride.  In all these various, and some of them rather rapid, changes, it was, no doubt, often the resort of distinguished guests, and the place of meeting of many pleasant companies.  During the protracted years of litigation for its possession, frequent consultations were held within it; and now, for twelve years, it had been the home of a happy, harmonious, and prosperous family, exemplifying the industry, energy, and enterprise of a New England household.  A new chapter was destined, as we shall see, to be opened in its singular and diversified history.  But we must return to the enumeration of the original landholders of the village.