In 1628 (1629), before the arrival of Gov. Winthrop and his company at Charlestown, the place had been occupied by the Spragues, from Salem, under the direction of Mr. Graves, an agent of the company; and one of the first things they did was "to model and lay out the form of the town, with streets about the hill," which was approved by Gov. Endicott. They next "jointly agreed and concluded that each inhabitant have a two acre lot to plant upon and all to fence in common." The same year Mr. Graves wrote to England, "The increase of corne is here farre beyond expectation," showing that it had been grown, and most probably in the common cornfield; for it is afterwards said that Thomas Walford "lived on the south end of the westermost hill of the East Field." Another vote was passed the next year, 1630,--probably before the arrival of Gov. Winthrop,--that each person "dwelling within the neck, shall have two acres of land for a house plot, and two acres for every male that is able to plant." In the months of June and July, 1630, Gov. Winthrop and his party arrived at Charlestown, after a passage by some of the ships of seventeen or eighteen weeks, many of them sick of the scurvy. "The multitude set up cottages, booths and tents about the Town Hill;" and it is said "provisions were exceedingly wasted, and no supplies could now be expected by planting; besides, there was miserable damage and spoil of provisions at sea." Many of the party died,--some two hundred before December,--and others started out for other locations; and finally in September, 1630, by the invitation of Mr. Blackstone, the larger part of Gov. Winthrop's party crossed the river to Boston. This year there was a scarcity of corn, as will be seen by the following extract from Hutchinson's history:-- "In August, 1724, John Quttamug, a Nipmug Indian, came to Boston, above 112 years of age. He affirmed that in 1630, upon a message that the English were in want of corn, soon after their arrival, he went to Boston with his father, and carried a bushel and a half of corn all the way on his back; that there was only one cellar began in town, and that somewhere near the _Common_." Wood, in speaking of Boston in 1639, says, "This place hath very good land, affording rich cornfields and fruitful gardens," which, no doubt, were in existence years before he wrote his book. In 1635, it was voted, "Each able man is allowed two acres, and each able youth one acre to plant." Provision of some sort on the subject was no doubt made before this time, and gradually reached the regulation here recorded. In 1633, great scarcity of corn is mentioned by Winthrop, as he says, "By reason of the spoil of our hogs, there being no acorns, yet the people lived well with fish and the fruit of their gardens."