After various trials in the courts of law in all possible shapes, the
whole subject was carried up to the General Court, where it was
decided, in conformity with the report of a special commission in May,
1679, substantially in favor of Putnam and Allen. Endicott petitioned
for a new hearing. Another commission was appointed; and their report
was accepted in May, 1682. It was more unfavorable to Endicott than
the previous one. He protested against the judgment of the court in
earnest but respectful language, and petitioned for still another
hearing. They again complied with his request, and appointed a day for
once more examining the case; but, when the day came, Nov. 24, 1683,
he was sick in bed, and the case was settled irrevocably against him.

The map gives the lines of the Bishop farm as finally settled by the
General Court. It will be noticed, that it is laid directly across the
Governor's Plain, and runs far into the Orchard Farm "up to the rocks
near Endicott's dwelling-house," or, as it is otherwise stated,
"within a few rods of Guppy's ditch, near to" the said house. It may
be said to have been a necessity, as the original three hundred acres
of the grant to Townsend Bishop had to be made up. It could not go
north; for Houlton and Ingersol stood upon the Weston grant, and
Hutchinson and Nathaniel Putnam stood upon Stileman's grants, to push
it back. It could not go west or south-west, for there Swinnerton
stood to fend off upon his grants; and there, too, was Nathaniel
Putnam, upon his own grant, and lands he had purchased of another
original grantee. It could not be swung round to the south without
jamming up the lands of Felton and others, or pushing them over the
grants, made to Robert Cole--under which Downing had purchased--and to
Thomas Read. All these parties were combined to force it
south-eastwardly over the grounds of Endicott. Nathaniel Putnam was