The Bay State Monthly, Volume 2, No. 2, November, 1884 | Page 9

Enjoy Excepting only the Priviledge of choosing a Representative to represent them in the Great & General Court, in choosing of whom the Inhabitants of Said District Shall Joyn with the Inhabitants of the Town of Groton, as heretofore has been Usual, & also in paying said Representative
Provided nevertheless the Said District Shall pay their proportionable part of all such Town County Parish and Province Charges as are already Assessed upon the Town of Groton in like manner as though this Act had never been made.
And Be it further Enacted that M'r Jn'o. Whitney be and hereby is impowred to Issue his Warrant directed to Some principal Inhabitant in s'd District requireing Him to Notifie & warn the Inhabitants of S'd District qualified by law to vote in Town affairs to meet at Such Time & place as shall be therein Set forth to Choose all such officers as Shall be Necessary to manage the affairs of s'd District
In the House of Rep'ives June 4, 1752
Read three several times and pass'd to be Engross'd
T. HUBBARD Spk'r.
Sent up for concurrence
In Council Nov'r. 28, 1752 Read a first Time 29 a second Time and pass'd a Concurrence
THO's. CLARKE Dp'ty Secry.
[Massachusetts Archives, CXVI., 293, 294.]
This act did not take effect until January 5, 1753, when it was signed by the governor.
On June 3, 1771, thirty years after Groton Gore had been lost by the running of the provincial line, the proprietors of the town held a meeting, and appointed Lieutenant Josiah Sawtell, Colonel John Bulkley, and Lieutenant Nathaniel Parker, a committee to petition the General Court for a grant of land to make up for this loss. They presented the matter to that body on June 7, and the following entry in the records gives the result:--
The Committee on the Petition of _Josiah Sartel_, and others, reported.
Read and accepted, and _Whereas it appears to this Court, That the Proprietors aforesaid, had a Grant made to them by the General Court in_ April 1735, _of Ten Thousand, Eight Hundred Acres of Land, in Consideration of Land taken from said_ Groton by Littleton, Major Willard and Read's _Farms being prior Grants, and for their extraordinary Suffering in the former Indian Wars and in_ June 1736 _said Grant was confirmed to said Proprietors, since which Time, the said Proprietors have been entirely dispossessed of said Land by the running of the Line between this Province and_ New-Hampshire: And whereas it appears there has been no Compensation made to the said Proprietors of Groton, _for the Lands lost as aforesaid, excepting Three Thousand Acres granted in_ November _last_, to James Prescot, William Prescot, and Oliver Prescot for their Proportion thereof. Therefore _Resolved_, That in Lieu thereof, there be granted to the Proprietors of _Groton_, their Heirs and Assigns forever, Seven Thousand and Eight Hundred Acres of the unappropriated Lands belonging to this Province, in the Western Part of the Province, to be layed out adjoining to some former Grant, and that they return a Plan thereof, taken by a Surveyor and Chainmen under Oath into the Secretary's Office, within twelve Months for Confirmation.
Sent up for Concurrence.
[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 44), June 13, 1771.]
These conditions, as recommended by the report of the committee, appear to have been fulfilled, and a grant was accordingly made. It lay on the eastern border of Berkshire county, just south of the central part, and was described as follows:--
The Committee on a Plan of a Tract of Land granted to the Proprietors of _Groton_, reported.
Read and accepted, and _Resolved_, That the Plan hereunto annexed, containing three Thousand nine Hundred and sixty Acres of Province Land, laid out in Part to satisfy a Grant made by the Great and General Court at their Sessions in June 1771, to the Proprietors of Groton, in Lieu of Land they lost by the late running of the _New-Hampshire_ Line, as mention'd in their Petition, laid out in the County of _Berkshire_, and is bounded as followeth, viz. Beginning at a Burch Tree and Stones laid round it the Southwest Corner of _Tyringham-Equivalent_ Lands standing on the East Branch of Farmington River; then North eighteen Degrees East in the West Line of said Equivalent five Hundred and sixty-one Rods to a small Beach Tree and Stones laid round it, which Tree is the Southeast Corner of a Grant of Land called _Woolcut's_ Grant; then running West eighteen Degrees North in the South Line of said Grant two Hundred and forty Rods to a Beach Tree marked I.W. and Stones laid round it, which is the Southwest Corner of said Grant; then running North eighteen Degrees East in the West Line of said Grant four Hundred Rods to a Heap of Stones which is the Northwest Corner of said Grant; then running East eighteen Degrees South