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

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 an angle, and Runing West 31 1-2 Deg. North on Townshend line & province Land Two Thousand and Fifty Six poles to a Pillar of Stones then turning and Ru?ing by Province Land 31 1-2 deg North two Thousand & forty Eight poles to Dunstable Corner first mentioned
In the House of Represent'a. Read & Ordered that the prayer of the Memorial be Granted, and further that the within Plat as Reformed and Altered by Jonas Houghton Survey'r, be and hereby is accepted and the Lands therein Delineated and