Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 25.

[p. 46]

Of the four ships, which came with Governor Winthrop in 1630, two, the Ambrose and Jewel, were owned by Governor Cradock. His farmers, shipwrights and fishermen came in them, and some of these men doubtless from his ‘Manor of Metford’. When a name was needed for their new home on the banks of the Mystic, how natural it was to propose that of ‘Metford’; thus giving them something of home familiarity in the wilderness, besides being a graceful tribute to the Governor, their employer and friend.

That the name thus proposed was adopted, is proved from the fact that the large grant of land, made to Governor Cradock by the General Court, March 4, 1634, was called by the Cradock family ‘Our Manor of Metford in New England,’ thus being in contradistinction to the ‘Manor of Metford’ in Staffordshire.

That the laborers, sent by Governor Cradock, should not have known exactly how to spell the name they had brought with them and had given to their American home is not strange; and as there were very few occasions for writing it the true orthography was left, as in several other cases, to chance. That chance, or something worse, had much to do in this matter, is proved by the fact that uniformity in spelling the name did not obtain till 1715, eighty-five years after the first settlement!

In the early records it was variously spelled and probably according to the different methods of pronouncing the name. The early leasing and sale of these lands confirm the above suppositions.

March 1, 1644 (the year in which Governor Cradock died) his widow rents half of her ‘Manor in Metford in New England’ to Edward Collins; thus indicating a distinction between the two ‘Manors’.

June 2, 1652, after the death of the widow, the heirs of Governor Cradock give a quitclaim deed of said land to Ed. Collins; and in that instrument it is called ‘Meadford in New England’; thus indicating a variation of the name from ‘Metford’ in Staffordshire. The Cradock family adopt the American orthography, because their ‘deed’ was to take effect and be recorded here.

Both of these facts thus mutually confirm the supposition that it was first called ‘Metford’ by Governor Cradock's men, after ‘Metford’ in Staffordshire, but suffered orthographical manglings in its Americanization.

Why it came to assume its present form I cannot discover. It is spelled in three different ways in the town records up to 1715, after which date it is uniformly written ‘Medford’.