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They wanted to make the New Towne the capital of the colony.
To this end, they granted it unusual amounts of land and offered
influential people inducements to move there. Eventually, its
boundaries extended 35 miles, from Billerica on the north to
present Waban (a village of Newton) on the south.1
In 1638, the Court assigned to the New Towne the name of Cambridge.
Cambridge never did become the capital. As its population grew unevenly in later decades, it split into several communities.
The village of Cambridge Towne grew up around present Harvard
Square. To the west, the Precinct of Menotomy became West
Cambridge in 1807 and then Arlington (after the Virginia cemetery)in 1867. Even farther west, Cambridge Farms was incorporated as Lexington in 1712/3.
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