ional religious organization and with the land system of the
colonies of that section, under which the colonial governments made
grants--not in tracts to individuals, but in townships to groups of
proprietors who in turn assigned lands to the inhabitants without cost.
The typical form of establishing a town was as follows: On application
of an approved body of men, desiring to establish a new settlement, the
colonial General Court would appoint a committee to view the desired
land and report on its fitness; an order for the grant would then issue,
in varying areas, not far from the equivalent of six miles square. In
the eighteenth century especially, it was common to reserve certain lots
of the town for the support of schools and the ministry. This was the
origin of that very important feature of Western society, federal land
grants for schools and colleges.[74:1] The General Courts also made
regulations regarding the common lands, the terms for admitting
inhabitants, etc., and thus kept a firm hand upon the social structure
of the new settlements as they formed on the frontier.

This practice, seen in its purity in the seventeenth century
especially, was markedly different from the practices of other colonies
in the settlement of their back lands. For during most of the period New
England did not use her wild lands, or public domain, as a source of
revenue by sale to individuals or to companies, with the reservation of
quit-rents; nor attract individual settlers by "head rights," or
fifty-acre grants, after the Virginia type; nor did the colonies of the
New England group often make extensive grants to individuals, on the
ground of special services, or because of influence with the government,
or on the theory that the grantee would introduce settlers on his grant.
They donated their lands to groups of men who became town proprietors
for the purpose of establishing communities. These proprietors were
supposed to hold the lands in trust, to be assigned to inhabitants under
restraints to ensure the persistence of Puritan ideals.

During most of the seventeenth century the proprietors awarded lands to
the new-comers in accordance with this theory. But as density of
settlement increased, and lands grew scarce in the older towns, the
proprietors began to assert their legal right to the unoccupied lands
and to refuse to share them with inhabitants who were not of the body of
proprietors. The distinction resulted in class conf