Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/323

 Boimdarv Line.

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��four score years, and which has been so solemnly determined.

And it may be added here, also, that the legislature of New Hampshire stiifiilemented the above appeal of Gov. Wentworth with a prayer to the king, never, under any circumstances, to admit of the slightest infraction of the boundary line, thus determined and established according to his royal will and pleasure ; and to the credit of that province and state it may also be stated here that that work, the boundary line as then established and recorded, has never been called in question by either.

Newspaper correspondents and oth- ers have agonized over the matter more or less, but the state has never gone back on her own record.

Jonathan Belcher to the Board of Trade. 7 Slay 1741.

Indorsed Massachusetts, new Hampshire Letter from Mr. Belcher Governor of Xew England, dated at Boston ye 7th of May 1741, concerning a difficulty, arisen upon ye construction of His Majesty's Judg- ment respecting ye Boundaries betwixt ye Province of Massachusetts Bay and that of New Hampshire.

This is a very important document, and, as will be seen, effectually dis- poses of all claims New Hampshire may have been supposed to have to a slice of Massachusetts, and forms a very valuable and important state paper.

In connection with these documents Ml-. Spofford has also received copies of three very important and valuable maps relating to the boundary line controyers}' of 1741.

No. 1 is a map of Merrimack river and the boundary line at three miles distant on the north side thereof, by

��George Mitchell, surveyor. This map is about 18x24 inches, and bears the following inscription on the upper left hand corner, enclosed in scroll work :

To

His Excellency Benning Wentworth Esqr. Captain General & Commander in Cbief over His Majesty's Province of New Hampsiiire Tills Map is Humbly Inscribed by His Excel lencys

Most Obdt. Servt. George Mitchell Surv'r.

And immediately under this we find the following note :

By Lines drawn on the North side of ye River there is as much land as water, which have their corresponding parallels at three miles distance ; but as ye Sudden Bends renders it impracticable to come up to the Truth, the difference is divided equally in (ieneral.

In the lower left hand corner is the following note :

Received April 20th, with Governor Wentworth's Letter dated at Portsmouth in New Hampshire 6th March 1741 &2

In the Lower right hand corner is the title enclosed in scroll work.

A MAP

Of the River Merrimack from the Atlantick Ocean to Pawtucket Falls de- scribing Bounds between His Majesty's Province of New Hampshire and the Massachusetts Bay, agree- able to His Majesty s Or- der in Council 1741

On the back of the map we find the following sworn statement :

George Mitchell makes Oath, that this survey made by him of the River Merri- mack, from the mouth of said River to Pawtucket Falls, is true and exact to the best of his skill and knowledge, and that the line described in the plan is as con-

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