Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/105

 CH. IVV [sic].] patent; and there was a covenant on the part of Mason, that he would establish such government therein, and continue the same, "as shall be agreeable, as near as may be, to the laws and customs of the realm of England;" and that if charged with neglect, he would reform the same according to the discretion of the president and council; or in default thereof, that the aggrieved inhabitants, or planters, tenants of the lands, might appeal to the chief court of justice of the president and council. A further grant was made to Mason by the council of Plymouth about the time of the surrender of their charter, (22 April, 1635,) "beginning from the middle part of Naumkeag river [Salem], and from thence to proceed eastwards along the sea-coast to Cape Ann and round about the same to Piscataqua harbour; and then covering much of the land in the prior grant, and giving to the whole the name of New-Hampshire." This grant included a power of judicature in all cases, civil and criminal, "to be exercised and executed according to the laws of England as near as may be," reserving an appeal to the council. No patent of confirmation of this grant appears to have been made by the crown after the surrender of the Plymouth patent.

§ 80. Various detached settlements were made within this territory; and so ill defined were the boundaries, that a controversy soon arose between Massachusetts and Mason in respect to the right of sovereignty over it. In the exposition of its own charter VOL. I.