"oldcomer" now 1640 and 1641; not in OED

[Joel S. Berson]

My previous submission for "oldcomer" was 1652.   (Not in OED
on-line, in a region reached recently.)

1640 Dec. 1.

"Whereas by the act of the Gen[er]all Court held the third day of
March, 1639, it was agreed that the purchasers, or old comers, shall
make choye of two or three plantac[i]ons for themselues & their
heires by this December Court, --- now the said purchasers, or old
comers, do signifie vnto the Court that accordingly they haue made
choyce of these three places, vi[delicet]:"

Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England.  Court Orders:
Vol. II, 1641--1651.
page 4
-----
1641 [NS] March 2.

"now, for the better setling of the state of the said land[es]
aforesaid, the said Will[ia]m Bradford and those first instrument[es]
termed and called in sondry orders vpon publike record, the
purchasers, or old comers, witness two in espaciall, th[e] one
beareing date the third of March, 1639, th[e] other in Decemb[e]r
[th]e first, 1640, wherevnto these pr[ese]nt[es] haue speciall
relac[i]on & agreement, and whereby they are distinguished from
other[es] the freemen and inhabitant[es] of the said corporation, ---".

Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England.  Court Orders:
Vol. II, 1641--1651.
page 10

[Don't ask me to parse this!  I included just as much of a two-page
sentence -- although it does have some semicolons and em dashes -- as
would distinguish "old comers" and "purchasers" from (other)
"freemen" and "inhabitants".]
-----

Brackets indicate special marks for abbreviation replaced by the
letters they represent; or in one place thorn replaced by "th".
-----

I also have an instance of "Oldcomer's town" (distinguishable from
"Newcomer's town", reached earlier in the same paragraph), from Hugh
Henry Brackenridge, _Narrative of a Late Expedition Against the
Indians_ (Andover, Mass: Ames & Parker, [1798?]), page 39 (courtesy
of EAI and ECCO).

Joel

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