In 1644, Capt. Myles Standish applied to the General Court of Plymouth Colony for expansion of the Duxbury area to the west. The land purchased eventually became the town of Bridgewater.

Bradford Govr. 1645: The inhabitants of ye towne of Duxborough are granted a competent porson of Land above Saughtucket toward the West for a plantation for them and to have it for ? miles every way from the Place where they shall set up their center, provided it intrench not upon Wumetuckquet, formerly granted to Plymouth, and have nominated Captn Myles Standish, Mr. John Alden, George Soule, Constant Southworth, Joseph Rogers, and Willm Brett to be Feoffes in Trust for ye equal dividing and laying forth of said lands for their inhabitants.

A true copy as appears of Record. Examined per Josiah Cotton, Regr. [Archives of the Superior Court of Judicature in Boston. Case 80]

Original Proprietors of Bridgewater

William Bradford

William Merrick

John Bradford

Abraham Pierce

John Rogers

George Partridge

John Starr

Mr. William Collier

Christopher Wadsworth

Edward Hall

Nicholas Robbins

Thomas Hayward*

Nathaniel Willis*

John Willis*

Thomas Bonney

Mr. Miles Standish

Love Brewster

Mr. Ralph Partridge

John Paybody

William Paybody

Francis Sprague

William Basset*

John Washburn*

John Washburn, Jr.*

John Ames*

Thomas Gannet*

William Brett*

Edmund Hunt

William Clark

William Ford

Mr. Constant Southworth

John Cary*

Edmund Weston

Samuel Tompkins*

Edmund Chandler

Moses Simmons

John Irish

Philip Delano

Arthur Harris*

Mr. John Alden

John Fobes*

Samuel Nash

Abraham Sampson

George Soule

Experience Mitchell*

Henry Howland

John Brown

John Haward*

Francis West

William Tubbs

James Lindall

Samuel Eaton

Solomon Leonard