Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/71

 The Boiindary Lines of Old Groton. — //.

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��supposed to comprise the Gore. It was destined, however, to remain only a few years in the possession of the proprietors; but during this short period it was used by them for pas- turing cattle. Mr. John B. Hill, in his History of the Town of Mason, New Hampshire, says : —

Under this grant, the inhabitants of Groton took possession of, and occupied the territory. It was their custom to cut the hay upon the meadows, and stack it, and early in the spring to send up their young cattle to be fed upon the hay, under the care of Boad, the negro slave. They would cause the woods to be fired, as it was called, that is, burnt over in the spring; after which fresh and succulent herbage springing up, furnished good store of the finest feed, upon which the cattle would thrive and fatten through the season. Boad's camp was upon the east side of the meadow, near the residence of the late Joel Ames. (Page 26.)

In connection with the loss of the Gore, a brief statement of the boun- dary question between Massachusetts and New Hampshire is here given.

During many years the dividing-line between these two provinces was the subject of controversy. The cause of dispute dated back to the time when the original grant was made to the colony of Massachusetts Bay. The charter was drawn up in England at a period when little was known in re- gard to the interior of this country; and the boundary lines, necessarily, were very indefinite. The Merrimack River was an important factor in fixing the limits of the grant, as the northern boundary of Massachusetts was to be a line three miles north of any and every part of it. At the date of the charter, the general direction of the river was not known, but it was incor- rectly assumed to be easterly and

��westerly. As a matter of fact, the course of the Merrimack is southerly, for a long distance from where it is formed by the union of the Winne- peseogee and the Pemigewasset Rivers, and then it turns and runs twenty-five or thirty miles in a northeasterly direc- tion to its mouth ; and this deflexion in the current caused the dispute. The difference between the actual and the supposed direction was a matter of little practical importance so long as the neighboring territory remained im- settled, or so long as the two provinces were essentially under one government ; but as the population increased it became an exciting and vexatious question. Towns were chartered by Massachusetts in territory claimed by New Hampshire, and this action led to bitter feeling and provoking legislation. Massachusetts contended for the land " nominated in the bond," which would carry the line fifty miles northward into the very heart of New Hampshire ; and on the other hand that province stren- uously opposed this view of the case, and claimed that the line should run, east and west, three miles north of the mouth of the river. At one time, a royal commission was appointed to consider the subject, but their labors produced no satisfactory result. At last the matter was carried to England for a decision, which was rendered by the king on March 5, 1739-40. His judgment was final, and in favor of New Hampshire. It gave that j^rovince not only all the territory in dispute, but a strip of land fourteen miles in width, lying along her southern border, mostly west of the Merrimack, which she had never claimed. This strip was the tract of land between the line running east and west, three miles north of the southernmost trend of the river, and

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