Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/373

 NEW LONDON CENTENNIAL ADDRESS.

��on his bondsmen, Hunting and Brockle- bank, to respond. They called on the town, but the town was still deaf to the call ; so after various town-meetings, Harvey sued Hunting and Brocklebank on their bond. The town still refusing to come to their rescue, they defended themselves as best they could in the suit, but were finally beaten and a judgment recovered against them for the whole amount that Harvey had been obliged to pay. Then there were more town-meetings,. but the town was still persistent in doing nothing.

I infer that in the mean time Brockle- bank had become irresponsible, and as Hunting was good, Harvey at length arrested Deacon Hunting and lodged him safely in jail for the non-payment of the debt. Hunting was stubborn, and Harvey was resolute, so Hunting laid in jail over a year ; but finding that Harvey would not yield, he finally paid the money and went home to his family. Then he called on the town, and the town refusing to act, he brought his suit against the town, and then more town- meetings followed ; but the suit went along, and the town in the end was beaten, as it deserved to be, and a judg- ment was recovered against the town.

On the 24th day of May, 1808, a special meeting was called on that mat- ter, and the town voted, that there be assessed upon the polls and estate in this town, and that part of Wilmot which was taken from this town in June last, a sum of money sufficient to satisfy the judgment rendered against the town in favor of Deacon Ebenezer Hunting, at the last term of the supreme court in this county. They do not state how large the sum thus raised was ; but it is reported that the amount of this claim had by this time, with all the costs of the various suits, reached the sum of nearly Si 500, which for those times was a large amount.

In 1809 there was an article in the warrant to see if the town will pay Dea- con Ebenezer Hunting the amount of interest which he has been obliged to pay on the execution which Levi Harvey, Esq., obtained against him.

��But the town passed over the article. Again, on the 13th January, 181 2, a special meeting was called to see if the town will pay to Deacon Ebenezer Hunting a sum of money equal to the amount of interest which he paid on the Harvey execution, and also to see what compensation the town will make Dea- con Ebenezer Hunting for damages he sustained by being imprisoned on said execution. But the town made quick work of it by voting at once not to do anything about it. This ended the controversy which had been in agitation more than twenty years in town.

Let us now look for a moment at the boundaries of the town at different pe- riods of its history. When the town was incorporated it was, as you have seen, in very regular shape, extending from Alexandria to Fishersfield and Sutton in length, and of about equal width between the patent line and Kearsarge Gore. June 19, 1793, the Legislature disannexed lots No. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 from the north- westerly part of Kearsarge Gore, and annexed the same to New London. By this change the southerly line of New London was extended east to the north- east corner of Sutton. The piece thus annexed was a triangle, with its base rest- ing on Sutton north line. December 1 1. 1804. the Legislature disannexed a large number of lots from Wendell and annexed the same to New London : and on the 19th of June, 181 7, another tract was taken from Wendell' and an- nexed to New London, so that the line between these towns was described as follows : Beginning at a point in Suna- pee Lake, which is described, "thence running north 16 east, 108 rods to Otter Pond and thence on the same course across said pond to Springfield south line." By these two additions to New London, it was intended to make the line between Sunapee and New London one continuous straight line from Fishersfield (now Newbury) north- west corner through Otter Pond to Springfield line. I find by your town records that the old patent line run over the top of Burpee Hill, a little

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