The Bay State Monthly, Volume 1, No. VI. June, 1884 | Page 7

The statement is confirmed by the report of a
committee on the petition of Josiah Sartell, made to the House of
Representatives, on June 13, 1771. Willard's farm, however, was not
laid out before the original plantation was granted, but in the spring of
1658, three years after the grant. At this time Danforth had not made
his plan of the plantation, which fact may have given rise to the
misapprehension. Ralph Reed was one of the original proprietors of the
town, and owned a fifteen-acre right; but I do not find that any land was
granted him by the General Court.
It has been incorrectly supposed, and more than once so stated in print,
that the gore of land, petitioned for by Benjamin Prescott, lay in the
territory now belonging to Pepperell; but this is a mistake. The only
unappropriated land between Dunstable and Townsend, as asked for in
the petition, lay in the angle made by the western boundary of
Dunstable and the northern boundary of Townsend. At that period
Dunstable was a very large township, and included within its territory
several modern towns, lying mostly in New Hampshire. The
manuscript records of the General Court define very clearly the lines of
the gore, and leave no doubt in regard to it. It lay within the present
towns of Mason, Brookline, Wilton, Milford, and Greenville, New
Hampshire. Benjamin Prescott was at the time a member of the General
Court and the most influential man in town. His petition was presented
to the House of Representatives on November 28, 1734, and referred to
a committee, which made a report thereon a fortnight later. They are as

follows:--
A Petition of _Benjamin Prescot_, Esq; Representative of the Town of
_Groton_, and in behalf of the Proprietors of the said Town, shewing
that the General Court in May 1655, in answer to the Petition of Mr.
Dean Winthrop and others, were pleased to grant the Petitioners a tract
of Land of the contents of eight miles square, the Plantation to be called
_Groton_, that in taking a Plat of the said tract there was no allowance
made for prior Grants &c. by means whereof and in settling the Line
with Littleton Anno 1715, or thereabouts, the said Town of Groton falls
short more than four thousand acres of the Original Grant, praying that
the said Proprietors may obtain a Grant of what remains undisposed of
of a Gore of Land lying between Dunstable and _Townshend_, or an
equivalent elsewhere of the Province Land. Read and _Ordered_, That
Col. _Chandler_, Capt. _Blanchard_, Capt. _Hobson_, Major _Epes_,
and Mr. _Hale_, be a Committee to take this Petition under
consideration, and report what may be proper for the Court to do in
answer thereto.
[Journal of the House of Representatives, November 28, 1734, page
94.]
Col. Chandler from the Committee appointed the _28th._ ult. to
consider the Petition of _Benjamin Prescot_, Esq; in behalf of the
Proprietors of _Groton_, made report, which was read and accepted,
and in answer to this Petition, _Voted_, That a Grant of ten thousand
eight hundred acres of the Lands lying in the Gore between Dunstable
and _Townshend_, be and hereby is made to the Proprietors of the
Town of _Groton_, as an equivalent for what was taken from them by
Littleton and Coyachus or _Willard's Farm_ (being about two acres and
a half for one) and is in full satisfaction thereof, and that the said
Proprietors be and hereby are allowed and impowred by a Surveyor and
Chain-men on Oath to survey and lay out the said ten thousand eight
hundred acres in the said _Gore_, and return a Plat thereof to this Court
within twelve months for confirmation to them their heirs and assigns
respectively.
Sent up for Concurrence.

[Journal of the House of Representatives, December 12, 1734, page
119.]
The proprietors of Groton had a year's time allowed them, in which
they could lay out the grant, but they appear to have taken fifteen
months for the purpose. The record of the grant is as follows:--
A Memorial of Benj'a Prescott Esq: Represent'a of the Town of Groton
in behalf of the Proprietors there, praying that the Votes of the House
on his Memorial & a plat of Ten Thousand Eight hundred Acres of
Land, lately Granted to the said Proprietors, as Entred in the House the
25 of March last, may be Revived and Granted, The bounds of which
Tract of Land as Mentioned on the said Plat are as follows viz't.:
begining at the North West Corner of Dunstable at Dram Cup hill by
Sohegan River and Runing South in Dunstable line last Perambulated
and Run by a Com'tee of the General Court, two Thousand one hundred
& fifty two poles to Townshend line, there making