who promptly entered into negotiations to sell it to the Board of Ordnance; and in 1671, the 31 acre estate was given to the board in exchange for the Gun Wharf and a substantial amount of cash. The board at the time declared the site to be "a convenient place for building a storehouse for powder and other stores of war, and for room for the proof of guns". The first Storekeeper, Captain Francis Cheeseman, was appointed in 1670 by Warrant of the Master-General of the Ordnance.

Proof and experiment