Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/339

 NEW LONDON CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.

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��it now is, for besides several other pieces that have been taken off from it, the whole township of Danbury was incor- porated June 1 8th, 1795, out of terri- tory that before was the southwesterly portion of Alexandria, so that when New London, in 1779, began at the southwest corner of Alexandria it would be the same now as beginning at the southwest corner of Danbury on the patent line.

But what was this patent line ? New Hampshire as it seems was grant- ed by the Council of Plymouth, Eng- land, to one John Mason, in 1629. This patent included the land " from the middle of Pascataqua River and up the same to the farthest head thereof, and from thence northwest- ward, until sixty miles from the mouth of the harbor were finished ; also, through Merrimack river to the farthest head thereof, and so forward up into the land westward until sixty miles were finished ; and from thence to cross overland to the end of the sixty miles accounted from Pascataqua Riv- er ; together with all Islands within five leagues of the coast." This tract of land was called New Hamp- shire. In 1 768 the Masonian pro- prietors procured one Robert Fletch- er, as a surveyor to run out their territory, claiming that their line should be a curve line drawn from the point on the south line of the State, 60 miles west from the sea-coast, to a point on the east line of the State sixty miles north of the sea- coast, in such a way that it should at every point be 60 miles from the coast. This claim of Mason, and after him of the Masonian proprietors, to this curve line had never been disputed by the government of England, and so Fletcher run the line as requested, starting on the south, on the west of the town of Fitzwilliam. and so running northerly and north- easterly through Marlow, Sullivan, Goshen, and so on what was afterwards the northwest line of New London and Wilmot, and thence through Hebron. Plymouth, Campton, and Sandwich, to the town of Conway. This was known as the westerly line of the Mason

��patent, and is hence called the patent line.

So New London after starting at the corner of Alexandria (now Danbury) on this patent line was to run on this patent line to Fishersfield Corner. Fish- ersfield had been incorporated the year before New London (1778, Nov. 27), and is bounded on the northwest by the same patent line. Its name was changed to Newbury in 1837. Then the line of the town runs easterly on the north line of Fishersfield, to the corner of Perrystown, now Sutton, thence on Perrystown north line a given number of rods to a marked tree, and there, turning off and running north, 39 east, to Alexandria Corner (now Danbury South Corner) and thence on Alexandria (now Danbury) to the place of beginning.

Perhaps I may here be allowed to state that this patent line remained un- changed, though undecided, marking the claim of the Masonian proprietors, until after the termination of the Revo- lutionary War in 1783, when various disputes arising, relating to the titles to the land, several parties petitioned the Legislature to locate and establish this line. Whereupon, by an act of 1787, the bound on the south line of the State was fixed near the southwest corner of Rindge, and thence running a straight line instead of a curved line to the bound on the easterly line of the State. This line run through Peterborough, Francestown, Hopkinton, Concord, Gilmanton, and so across the lake through* Ossipee, making a difference, here in the centre of the line, of some 30 miles between the two lines.

Having thus ascertained what was meant by the patent line, the next ques- tion that arises is, how came the terri- tory now known as New London to have been called "Alexandria Addi- tion?" or the addition of Alexandria? It is so called in the petition of the inhabitants for their act of incorpora- tion and is so designated in said act of incorporation. But wh y was it so called ? I have looked in vain for an answer to that question among all the books of charters and acts of incorporation and

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