On the Massachusetts North Shore
When the Town of Ipswich was established, ownership of a house and land within the town bounds carried with it the right of pasturage beyond the Common Fence. In 1788, the commoners resigned all their land interests to pay the heavy town debt incurred during the Revolution.
In Ipswich, cows would be put to pasture on the Neck in the spring, and every October they would be rounded up and herded into a pen. Many of the town's laws regarding land use, property rights, labor and sanitation grew from issues surrounding the keeping of livestock.
Historic Ipswich 