execution of their
will to twelve selectmen, who were to meet monthly. Our towns now have
an annual meeting for the same purpose, and elect generally three
selectmen, who meet at stated times,--sometimes as often as once a week.
Watertown followed, about the same time, selecting three men "for the
ordering of public affairs." Boston appears to have done the same thing
in 1634, and Charlestown in the following year, the latter being the
first to give the name _Selectmen_ to the persons so chosen, a name
which soon was generally adopted and has since remained.

The reason of this action it is easy to conjecture, but it is fully
stated in the order of the inhabitants of Charlestown at the meeting in
which the action for the government of the town by selectmen was taken:
"In consideration of the great trouble and charge of the inhabitants of
Charlestown by reason of the frequent meeting of the townsmen in
general, and that, by reason of many men meeting, things were not so
easily brought into a joint issue; it is therefore agreed, by the said
townsmen, jointly, that these eleven men ... shall entreat of all such
business as shall concern the townsmen, the choice of officers excepted;
and what they or the greater part of them shall conclude of, the rest of
the town willingly to submit unto as their own proper act, and these
eleven to continue in this employment for one year next ensuing the date
hereof."

Town government, thus instituted, was recognized the next year--1636--by
the General Court, and thereafter the towns were corporations lawfully
existing and endowed with certain fixed though limited powers.

The plantations of the Plymouth Colony followed the example. In 1637,
Duxbury was incorporated, and at the General Court of the colony, in
1639, deputies were in attendance from seven towns.

"Thus," says Judge Parker,[A] "there grew up a system of government
embracing two jurisdictions, administered by the same people; the
Colonial government, having jurisdiction over the whole colony,
administered by the great body of the freemen, through officers elected
and appointed by them; and the town governments, having limited local
jurisdiction, such as was conceded to them by the Colonial government,
administered by the inhabitants, through officers and agents chosen by
them."

[Footnote A: Origin, Organization, etc., of the Towns of New England.]

By this change,--the invention of the colonists themselves without copy