...Gould and William Howard, in the behalf of Topsfield, the Court doth grant that Topsfield shall, from henceforth, be a town, and have power within themselves...to order all civil affairs, as other towns have." Obscurity has long rested upon the origin of the name, which was thus conferred upon this locality...

...Gould and William Howard, in the behalf of Topsfield, the Court doeth grant that Topsfield shall, from henceforth, be a town, and have power within themselves...to order all civil affairs, as other towns have." The town was named after Topsfield, England, and it is claimed that the name is eight hundred years...

...England, "in answer to the petition of the inhabitants of Topsfield * * * that from henceforth they shall be a town and have power within themselves to order all civil affairs, as other towns have," and we, the successors of those who came seeking to build a Commonwealth in the New England wilderness,...