(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
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Surveyors or "artistes" were hired to lay out new towns in 17th-century New England. Joshua Fisher (d. 1672) of Dedham, Massachusetts, drew this piece of the 1671 first survey laying out the new town of Deerfield, Massachusetts. The upper left corner shows the northern half of the village area. Lots on the east side number 43 to 32 and on the west side number 1-13. The block of land south of Lot 13 was set aside for the minister - later also the training field and town common. The other numbered lots (at the bottom of the piece which is North) were for farming and the numbers match the homelot numbers on the street. This plan is common among the towns in the Connecticut River Valley.