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The Bay State Monthly. Volume 2, No. 2, November, 1884
Sent up for Concurrence.
[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 156), November 14, 1770.]
The Committee appointed to consider the Plan of two Tracts of Land granted to James Prescot, Esq; and others, reported.
Read and accepted. Resolved, That both the above Plans, the one containing Four Thousand one Hundred and thirty Acres, the other containing two Hundred and seventy Acres, delineated and described as is set forth by the Surveyor in the Description thereof hereunto annexed, be accepted, and hereby is confirmed to James Prescot, Esq; and others named in their Petition, and to their Heirs and Assigns in Lieu of and full Satisfaction for Four Thousand four Hundred Acres of Land lost by the late running of the Line between this Province and New-Hampshire, as mention'd in a Grant made by both Houses of the Assembly, A.D. 1765, but not consented to by the Governor. Provided both said Plans together do not exceed the Quantity of Four Thousand four Hundred Acres, nor interfere with any former Grant.
Sent up for Concurrence.
[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 73), June 22, 1771.]
It is evident from these reports that the Prescott brothers took the forty-four hundred acres in the westerly part of the province, rather than the fifty-eight hundred and eighty acres on the easterly side of the Saco river, though I have been unable to identify, beyond a doubt, the tract of land thus granted. I am inclined to think however, that it is the one mentioned in the Memorial of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Incorporation of Middlefield, Massachusetts, August 15, 1883. The town is situated on the westerly border of Hampshire County,—forming a jog into Berkshire,—and was made up in part of Prescott's Grant. A map is given in the "Memorial" volume (page 16) which shows that the Grant was originally in Berkshire county, very near to the tract of land given to the proprietors of Groton.
Professor Edward P. Smith, of Worcester, delivered an historical address on the occasion of the anniversary, and he says:—
Prescott's Grant, the nucleus of the town, appears as a large quadrilateral, containing more than a thousand acres in the north and west part of the town. Who the Prescott was to whom the grant was made is not known, further than that he must have been some one who had rendered military or other services to the State. That he was the Prescott who commanded at Bunker Hill is, indeed, possible; but, as the grant was probably made before the Revolutionary War, that supposition seems hardly tenable. (Page 15.)
By an act of the General Court, passed February 25, 1793, a large section of territory was taken from Groton and annexed to Dunstable. This change produced a very irregular boundary between the two towns, and made, according to Butler's History of Groton (page 66), more than eighty angles in the line, causing much inconvenience. The following copy from the "Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts" gives the names of the families thus transferred:—
An Act to set off Caleb Woods, and others, from Groton, and to annex them to Dunstable.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That Caleb Woods, Silas Blood, Amaziah Swallow, Nathaniel Cummings, Ebenezer Procter, Silas Blood, jun. Silas Marshall, Levi Parker, Amos Woods, Isaac Lawrence, Peter Blood, Caleb Blood, jun. Henry Blood, Caleb Woods, jun. and Silas Marshall, jun., together with their families and estates, and also the estates of Doctor Jonas Marshall, the heirs of Captain Solomon Woods, deceased, and Joseph Parkhurst, which they now own in said Groton, be, and they are hereby set off from the town of Groton, in the county of Middlesex, and annexed to Dunstable, in said county, and shall hereafter be considered a part of the same, there to do duty and receive privileges, as the other inhabitants of said Dunstable. Provided, nevertheless, That the persons above-mentioned shall pay all taxes that have been legally assessed on them by said Groton, in the same manner as if this Act had never been passed.
[This act passed February 25, 1793.]
The zigzag line caused by this act was somewhat modified by the two following ones, passed at different times a few years later. I think that the very irregular boundary between the two towns, with its eighty-six angles, as mentioned by Mr. Butler, was produced by the subsequent annexations to Dunstable.
An Act to set of Nathaniel Lawrence with his Estate, from the Town of Groton, and annex them to the Town of Dunstable.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That Nathaniel Lawrence of Groton, in the county of Middlesex, together with his estate, which he now owns in that town, be, and hereby is set off from said town of Groton, and annexed to the town of Dunstable, in the same county; and shall hereafter be considered as part of the same; there to do duty and receive privileges as other inhabitants of said town of Dunstable: Provided nevertheless, That the said Nathaniel Lawrence shall be holden to pay all taxes that have been legally assessed on him by said town of Groton, in the same manner as if this Act had not been passed.
[This act passed January 26, 1796.]
An act to set off Willard Robbins with his estate from the town of Groton, in the county of Middlesex, and to annex the same to the town of Dunstable, in the same county.
Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same. That Willard Robbins, of Groton, in the county of Middlesex, with his estate, be, and hereby is set off from said town of Groton, and annexed to the town of Dunstable, in said county, there to do duty and receive privileges in the same manner as other inhabitants of the said town of Dunstable.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the said Willard Robbins shall be holden to pay and discharge all legal assessments and taxes, that have been assessed upon him by said town of Groton prior to the passing this act.
[This act passed June 18, 1803.]
The boundary between the two towns now remained unchanged until February 15, 1820, when another act was passed by the Legislature making a further surrender of territory. It took a considerable parcel of land and gave it to Dunstable, thereby straightening and simplifying the jurisdictional line, which at this time formed but five angles.
In the autumn of 1794 a plan of Groton, Pepperell, and Shirley was made by Dr. Oliver Prescott, Jr., which gives a few interesting facts. The following notes are taken from the copy now in the office of the Secretary of State. It will be seen that Dr. Prescott refers to the land set off by the Act of February 25, 1793:—
This Plan contains the Bounds of three Towns, viz. Groton, Pepperrell & Shirley,—all which, together with whatsoever is delineated on said Plan, was taken by an actual Survey, agreeably to a resolve of the General Court, passed June 25, 1794, & under the Inspection of the Selectmen & Committee's from the respective towns, appointed for that purpose in the month of Septr. 1794.
By OLIVER PRESCOTT, Jur. Surveyor.
The reputed distance of Groton from Cambridge [the shire-town] is Thirty two Miles, & from Boston Thirty five miles; The River Nashua is from 8 to 10 rods in width. The River Squannacoock 4 or 5 rods in width. In Groton are twenty natural Ponds, six of which are delineated on the Plan, by actual Survey. Several of the other Ponds are in size, nearly equal to those on the plan, & may in the whole contain about two Thousand Acres. There are no Mines in said Town, except one of Iron Ore, nearly exhausted. Every other Matter directed to be delineated, described or specifyed, may be found on the Plan.
SAMll LAWRENCE} ZACHh FITCH} Committee. OLIVER PRESCOTT Jur.}
The reputed distance of Pepperrell from Cambridge is thirty seven miles; from Boston forty Miles.
The River Nissitisset is about four Rods in width.
The reputed distance of Shirley from Cambridge is thirty five Miles; & from Boston thirty Eight Miles.
Catacoonamug & Mulpus Brooks are from one to two Rods in width. The Plan contains every thing relative to the two last mentioned Towns necessary to be described.
OLIVER PRESCOTT, Jur.
What is enclosed in this Blue line, contains about the quantity of Land set off from Groton to Dunstable, by Act of the General Court, passed February 25, 1793. As by said Act, the petitioners and their Farms were set off, without specifying particular bounds, Accuracy cannot be obtained, with respect to this Line, without very great expence and Trouble.
By an act passed February 6, 1798, a considerable portion of territory lying on the easterly side of the Nashua river, in the south-west corner of Groton, was annexed to Shirley. This tract continued to form a part of Shirley until the incorporation of Ayer, on February 14, 1871, when its political condition was again changed, and its government transferred to the new town. The act authorizing the annexation is as follows,—and I give it entire in order to show the loose way of describing boundary lines during the latter part of the last century:—
An Act to set off certain Lands from the town of Groton, and annex the same to the town of Shirley.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That a tract of Land at the south western extremity of the town of Groton, bounded by a line beginning at a large white oak stump, on the southeast side of Nashua River, being the northwest corner of the town of Harvard; thence running southeasterly on Harvard line, as the town bounds direct, till it comes to the stump of a pine tree lately fallen down, an antient bound mark in said town line; thence northerly to a heap of stones by the road leading to Harvard at SIMON DABY'S southerly corner, thence northeasterly on said SIMON DABY'S line to a pine tree marked, thence northerly to a heap of stones on a ledge of rocks; thence northerly on said SIMON DABY'S line to a heap of stones on a large rock; thence northwesterly still on said SIMON DABY'S line to a stake and stones in the roots of a pine tree, fallen down, in a valley, said SIMON DABY'S northeast corner and SAMUEL CHASE'S southerly corner, thence northerly on said SAMUEL CHASE'S line, to the road leading to ABIL MORSE'S mill, at a heap of stones on the north easterly side of said road, thence northeasterly on said SAMUEL CHASE'S line by said road to a heap of stones, thence northeasterly on said CHASE'S line, to a stake and stones at the end of a ditch at a brook; thence down said brook to Nashua River, thence up said river, to the bounds first mentioned, together with the inhabitants thereof, be, and they are hereby set off from the town of Groton and annexed to the town of Shirley, there to do duty and receive privileges in the same manner as other lands and inhabitants of the said town of Shirley.
SECT. 2. Provided nevertheless, and be it further enacted, That the said tract of land and the inhabitants thereof shall be liable to be taxed by the town of Groton, their full proportion in a tax to the amount of the debts now due from said town of Groton, in the same manner as if this act had not been passed: Provided such tax be made and assessed within one year from the time of passing this act; and shall also be liable to pay their proportion of all state taxes that may be assessed on the town of Groton until a new valuation be taken.
[This act passed February 6, 1798.]
All the changes of territorial jurisdiction thus far noted have been in one direction,—from Groton to the surrounding towns; but now the tide turns, and for a wonder she received, by legislative enactment, on February 3, 1803, a small parcel of land just large enough for a potato-patch. The annexation came from Pepperell, and the amount received was four acres and twenty rods in extent. The following is a copy:—
An act to set off a certain parcel of land from the town of Pepperell, in the county of Middlesex, and to annex the same to the town of Groton, in the same county.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That a certain tract of land, bounded, beginning at the end of a wall by the road leading by Zachariah Fitch's, in said Groton; thence running easterly, by land of Jonas Fitch, to the Nashua River, (so called;) thence up said river to said road, near the bridge over the same river; thence, bounding by the same road, to the bounds first mentioned, containing four acres and twenty rods, be, and hereby is set off from said town of Pepperell and annexed to said town of Groton forever.
[This act passed February 3, 1803.]
The Worcester and Nashua Railroad was opened through the township of Groton in the month of December, 1848. It ran at that time a distance of eight miles through its territory, keeping on the east side of the Nashua river, which for a considerable part of the way was the dividing line between Groton and Pepperell. The railroad station for the people of Pepperell was on the Groton side of the river, and in the course of a few years a small village sprang up in the neighborhood. All the interests and sympathies of this little settlement were with Pepperell; and under these circumstances the Legislature, on May 18, 1857, passed an act of annexation, by which it became in reality what it was in sentiment,—a part and parcel of that town. The first section of the act is as follows:—
An act to set off a part of the Town of Groton, and annex the same to the Town of Pepperell.
Be it enacted, &c., as follows:
All that part of the town of Groton, in the county of Middlesex, with the inhabitants thereon, lying north of the following described line is hereby set off from the town of Groton, and annexed to the town of Pepperell, to wit: Beginning at the boundary between said town of Groton and the town of Dunstable, at a stone monument in the wall on land of Elbridge Chapman and land of Joseph Sanderson, and running south, eighty-six degrees west, about six hundred and sixty rods, to a stone monument at the corner of land called the "Job Shattuck Farm," and land of James Hobart, near the Nashua River and Worcester and Nashua Railroad; thence in same line to the centre of Nashua River and the boundary of said town of Pepperell: provided, however, that for the purpose of electing a representative to the general court, the said territory shall continue to be a part of the town of Groton, until a new apportionment for representatives is made; and the inhabitants resident therein shall be entitled to vote in the choice of such representatives, and shall be eligible to the office of representative in the town of Groton, in the same manner as if this act had not been passed.
Map of Groton Plantation in 1884.
The latest legislation connected with the dismemberment of the original grant—and perhaps the last for many years to come—is the Act of February 14, 1871, by which the town of Ayer was incorporated. This enactment took from Groton a large section of territory lying near its southern borders, and from Shirley all that part of the town on the easterly side of the Nashua River which was annexed to it from Groton on February 6, 1798.
Thus has the old Groton Plantation, during a period of more than two centuries, been hewed and hacked down to less than one-half of its original dimensions. It has furnished, substantially, the entire territory of Pepperell, Shirley, and Ayer, and has contributed more or less largely to form five other towns. An examination of the accompanying map will show these changes more clearly than any verbal or written description.
SAILS
The ship's white sails are all unfurl'd To the salt breath of the sea;And never a ship in all the world Sails on with the wind more free.For the white sails are white hopes of youth, The breath of the future blows;But whither the vessel flies, in truth, There is no man that knows.ELIZABETH. 1
CHAPTER I.
ON THE TIDE
One August evening of the year 1743 a boat lay as if anchored in the beautiful Piscataqua; her sail seemed swung only to show its whiteness in the bright moonlight. Every cord upon it hung lifeless, serving only the purpose of pictured lines, one silvered in the light, the dark shadow of the other traced in clear outlines on the sail. The swash of the waves against the side of the boat was too slight to sway it; the sheet dipped in the water and swung almost imperceptibly, while now and then a few straws floated against it and caught there. The moon, high in the heavens, gave pearly tints to the clouds that floated near it; the pines on the shore flung dark masses against the oaks and maples, or stood as a Rembrandt background for the boughs of the trees on which the moonlight fell, or for some ghostly procession of the white birch trunks. The water, in the shadows as dark and smooth as a Claude Lorraine glass, showed far off in the moonlight faint quivers of its surface here and there, as if the breeze so longed for were coming to the idle boat. But it was too far off, or too faint, for it spent itself before reaching the watchers there, although at the symptoms one of them rose with great show of solemnity, and making a trumpet of his hands, blew vigorously against the sail. But neither these movements nor the concerts of whistling were successful. At last another of the company leaning over the side of the boat busied himself with the sheet.
"I'll tell you the reason this boat don't go," he said, gravely, "the rope was all twisted. I've straightened it out, and taken off the straws."
A burst of laughter greeted him as he turned around his face, still grave, but his dark eyes, roving from one to another, their laughing expression hidden in the shadow, for the moon was behind him.
"What a useful member of society you are, Stephen," cried Katie Archdale. "I don't see how we could get on without you."
"I don't think we're getting on with him very fast," remarked a young gentleman sitting opposite Katie, pointing significantly at a curve of the shore that they had not drifted out of sight of in the last half hour.
"At least he has roused us," returned the girl, "for I half believe I was sleepy before."
"I believe it wholly," answered Stephen, taking his seat beside her again and looking down into her face teazingly with a cousinly freedom. But it was not altogether a cousinly regard from which Katie drew back after a moment, tossing her head coquettishly, and with a heightened color, glancing past at her friend beyond him, who sat dipping one hand in the water and looking dreamily at the shore. Stephen Archdale and his cousin Katie lived within a few miles of each other, and there had always been constant intercourse between their families. When boy and girl, Stephen, four years the elder, the two had played together, and they had grown up, as people said, like brother and sister. But of late it was rumored that the conduct of young Archdale was more loverlike than brotherly, and that, if Katie choose, the tie between them would one day be closer than that of cousinhood. The stranger who sat opposite Archdale, watching them both in silence, was of the same opinion. He was rather portly for his age, which could not have been over thirty, and as he sat in the boat he looked a taller man than he proved to be when on his feet. His dark-brown beard was full, his eyes, like Archdale's, were in shadow, for he had drawn down his hat well over his brows, while Stephen and young Waldo sat bareheaded in the August air.
"I wonder"—began Katie.
"A sturgeon!" cried Mrs. Eveleigh, the last member of the party.
But the sound proved the soft dip of the paddle in the water as a canoe came toward them going down the stream. Its Indian occupant when he shot by turned his gaze stealthily upon the gay party.
"How many more of your red savages are there coming to spy upon us?" And the speaker pushed back his hat a trifle, and looked up and down the river with an anxiety that he could not quite conceal.
"You've not been out here long enough," laughed Waldo. "There's no danger; the red savages are friendly with us just at this moment, and will remain so until we forget our rifles some day, or they learn that we're short of ammunition. Shoot 'em down without mercy whenever they come spying about—it's the only way. They're friendly so long as they are afraid, and not a moment longer. For instance, why should that fellow stop? He saw three men whom he knew were armed, besides that young man who's pretending to sail the boat—why don't you do it, Kit?" and Waldo laughed good-humoredly at the lad whose office had become a sinecure. "When you get used to them, Mr. Harwin," he added, "they will not make you shiver."
"Oh, they don't do that now," returned the other, indifferently, "but, the ladies"—
"As to the ladies," laughed Katie, "one of them is quite fond of the red-skins; the other," glancing at her friend, "has gone into a brown study; I don't believe she's heard or seen anything for the last half hour. Elizabeth, when you fish up any pearls there out of the water, share them with us, won't you?"
"No, she'll do no such thing," interposed Mistress Eveleigh; "she'll give them all to you." The tone was so serious that Elizabeth cried, indignantly,—
"Cousin Patience, how can you?"
"I suppose she likes to tease you," retorted Katie, still laughing, "and so do I. It's so funny to see you wake out of a revery and find yourself."
"And not find myself, you mean," returned Elizabeth, joining in with a ripple of merriment.
"Master Waldo knows all about the red-skins," said Archdale to his opposite neighbor; "he had the pleasure of shooting one last winter."
"Did you?" exclaimed Mrs. Eveleigh, while Harwin looked at the young fellow with a new interest. "How did it happen? Tell us about it."
"Yes, tell us about it," cried Katie, turning toward Waldo. But Elizabeth was still looking at Archdale. Suppose the shooting had been necessary, how could he speak of killing a human being as he would an animal, and then lean back and look at Mr. Waldo with a smile on his face?
Kenelm Waldo, on his part, gazed at the speaker in astonishment.
"'Pon honor," he cried, "I never killed a red-skin in my life, or even had a shot at one. Oh, I know now what he means; he is talking of a fox that I shot two miles from his house, one that you ought to have secured yourself, Mr. Archdale. This was the way I did it, the best way."
When he had finished his account, Katie said:—
"I have a plan for amusing ourselves. Let us make every one tell a story, and we'll lay forfeits on the person that doesn't give us an interesting one. Mistress Eveleigh, please begin."
"That is rather arbitrary, Mistress Katie, with no warning," returned that lady, smiling. "But since we've been talking about the Indians, I will tell you something that my mother did once before she was married, while she was living down on the Cape."
"What a pity, Katie, you did not keep Mistress Eveleigh until the last," cried Archdale; "I know she will have the best story of us all."
"You have too high estimation of my powers," returned Mrs. Eveleigh, flattered; "but if I do well," she added, "it must be remembered that none of you have had forty-five years in which to find one."
The story, like a thousand others of that time, was of the presence of mind and courage of one of the early settlers of America, and was listened to with the attention it deserved. All, with one exception, were outspoken in admiration of its heroine.
