The New England town, already noted as one of the three typical institutions in the development and influence of that section, may be considered in its origin as “the politically active congregation,” bound together, in addition to its church ties, by a peculiar agrarian policy.[363] Originating at Plymouth, it became universal throughout the Puritan colonies on the mainland, and was reproduced with extraordinary fidelity of detail wherever New Englanders migrated. The New England colonies, for the most part, neither sold nor rented their land, but granted it freely in fee to actual settlers, in rough proportion to their present ability to use it.[364] In general most of it was granted primarily to towns, which owned it in their corporate capacity; and by them it was allotted to individuals in the form of home-lots or arable land and meadow. The remainder formed the “common,” for the use of all, under certain restrictions. The whole land-system, as well as the methods of cultivation, exhibited many striking resemblances to those of our early Teutonic ancestors; and, some years ago, these coincidences were largely insisted upon as cases of genuine survival.[365] It is more probable that a return to favorable wilderness conditions merely strengthened those primitive elements still remaining in the manorial system, with which the settlers were familiar in England. As we have already pointed out, the geographical environment in New England, as contrasted with that of the other colonies, tended strongly to develop the type of compact settlement. This was further reinforced by the form of emigration, which was distinctly of neighborhood groups, and by the type of church government. Footnote 363: M. Eggleston, _The Land System of the New England Colonies_, Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, Baltimore, 1886. _Cf._ also C. M. Andrews, _The River Towns of Conn._, J. H. U. S., 1889; W. E. Foster, _Town Government in Rhode Island_, J. H. U. S., 1886; A. B. Maclear, _Early New England Towns_, Columbia Univ. Studies, 1908; H. L. Osgood, _American Colonies_, vol. I, pp. 424 _ff._; and for English towns on Long Island, J. T. Adams, _History of the Town of Southampton_ (Bridgehampton, 1918), pp. 94-103. Footnote 364: The occasional few and unimportant exceptions do not affect the general statement. Footnote 365: _Cf._ H. B. Adams, _The Germanic Origin of New England Towns_, J. H. U. S., 1882; Id., _Village Communities of Cape Anne and Salem_, J. H. U. S., 1883; G. E. Howard, _Local Constitutional History of the U. S._, J. H. U. S., 1889. Too enthusiastic believers should read “The Survival of Archaic Communities,” in F. W. Maitland, _Collected Papers_ (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1911), vol. II, pp. 313 _ff._