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CHAPTER II.

THE BOUNDARIES.

FOR more than fifty years the people of New Hampshire had endeavored to bring about a settlement of the boundary lines between their territory and that of Massachusetts. During all that time Massachusetts had evaded the issue or sought for delays on all sorts of pretexts. The matter was brought before the king in 1747. He decided that the question should be referred to eight commissioners who belonged to some of the other American provinces. Eight commissioners were appointed three of whom belonged in Nova Scotia and five in Rhode Island. They met at Hampton and decided the eastern boundary should begin three miles north of the mouth of the Merrimack river, thence along the coast and including one-half of the Isle of Shoals to the mouth of Piscataqua river, then up the middle of the river to its head and thence sixty miles north ten degrees west. As they were not able to agree upon the southern boundary the matter was then referred to the King. He assumed that when the first charters of lands were given by the Plymouth Company all parties supposed that the source of the Merrimack was in the west and he decided that the northern boundary of Massachusetts should be a curved line conforming to the course of the river three miles distance from its north bank to Pawtucket Falls, in Dracut, thence due west to his majesty's other governments. In surveying the line, it is said that the surveyor purposely allowed ten degrees for the variation of the needle instead of six degrees and forty minutes as he should have done.

The King also decided that the east boundary of New Hampshire, as agreed upon by the commissioners, should extend to Canada to conform to the west boundary of Maine.

After the Lord's Proprietors had purchased the claims to the unoccupied lands belonging to the Mason heirs they made many grants of townships, and it is probable that

this investment proved to be a good speculation. The grant to Mason included only about one-sixth of the territory of the State as it stands to-day.

THE NEW YORK CONTROVERSY.

Previous to the Revolution both New York and New Hampshire claimed what now constitutes the State of Vermont. New Hampshire's claim was based on the fact that by the charter of Massachusetts, which was given before the charter of New York was given to the duke of York, its western boundary extended within twenty miles of the Hudson river, and that the western boundary line of Connecticut also extended to that point. New York resisted the claim; but Benning Wentworth, who was then the provincial Governor of New Hampshire, insisted and granted charter for one hundred and forty townships of six miles square each. These were called the New Hampshire grants. Both parties finally appealed to King George II., and he decided that the east line of New York should be the west bank of the Connecticut river.

In 1776, the people of this territory, in convention, declared that the territory should thereafter be an independent jurisdiction by the name of Vermont.

THE SECESSION MOVEMENT IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.

In 1781, five years after the people of Vermont had declared their independence, a majority of the people who resided in thirty-four of the towns in New Hampshire near the Connecticut voted to form a union with that State. The legislature of Vermont voted to receive the representatives of the New Hampshire townships, and the act of union was consummated. The seceding towns were formed into counties by the Vermont authorities, new courts were established, taxes were levied, and the laws of New Hampshire were set at defiance. This movement caused great excitement among the people of the Confederation, who at the time were battling with Great Britain in defence of their liberties. The people of Vermont were anxious to come into union with the thirteen colonies, but they soon discovered that such a union was impossible unless they relinquished their hold upon New Hampshire. Gener

t

al Washington wrote a letter to the Governor of Vermont advising the people to give up the attempt to enlarge their boundaries by encroaching upon the rights of New Hampshire and intimated that force would be employed against them in case they refused to comply with his advice. The letter had the desired effect. The Vermont legislature resolved that the Connecticut river should thenceforth be the east boundary line of that state and the New Hampshire secessionists took their hats in their hands, and like certain secessionists of a later day returned to their homes sadder if not wiser men.

THE NORTHERN BOUNDARY.

At the close of the war of the Revolution in 1783 the treaty of peace which was agreed to by the contending powers provided that the boundary line between New Hampshire and Canada would be from the northwest angle of Nova Scotia along the highlands dividing those rivers which empty into the St. Lawrence river and those running into the Atlantic ocean to the northwestern head of Connecticut river: thence down along the middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude.

In running the line the outlet of Lake Connecticut was considered the north-western head of Connecticut river, and the boundary was established in accordance with that view. In 1823, another and a more careful survey showed that Hall's Stream, another tributary to the Connecticut river, had its source in the highlands several miles farther west than the outlet of Connecticut lake.

In 1842, when the great northeast boundary question was settled at Washington by Webster and Lord Ashburton, the boundary line was extended west to Hall's stream and New Hampshire gained territory sufficient for three good-sized townships.

CHAPTER III.

SETTLEMENT OF CHESTER.

FOR many years the growth of the settlements in New Hampshire was exceedingly slow on account mainly of the great wars between the English colonists throughout New England and the Indians, which began in 1675 and raged with greater or less violence until 1698. Portsmouth, Dover, Hampton and Exeter, the four original plantations, continued for a long time to be the centres of population and trade. Hostilities were at length suspended and colonies began to go forth from the old towns and settlements were made upon the unoccupied lands in their immediate vicinity. Among the towns which were settled next to Portsmouth, Dover, Hampton and Exeter, were Northampton, Southampton, Hampton Falls, Seabrook, Stratham, Kingston, Epping, Poplin now Freemont, Brentwood and New Market; but the western portion of Rockingham county remained an unbroken wilderness about one hundred years from the first time the settlements were made upon the banks of the Piscataqua river.

Near the close of the first quarter of the eighteenth century the settlements near the sea coast had so increased that there was a considerable demand for more territory for townships for the accommodation of people who were anxious to provide themselves with farms. At this time a large number of companies were organized in some of the oldest towns in New Hampshire and Massachusetts for the purpose of securing grants of lands in the province for settlement, as was alleged, but more frequently for the purpose of speculation on the part of those most directly concerned in the enterprises.

In 1719, a company was organized at Hampton for the purpose of securing a grant of territory lying between Exeter and the Merrimack river. The members of the company, more than one hundred in number, belonged mostly to Portsmouth and Hampton; but a few were residents of Ha

verhill, Bradford and Newbury in Massachusetts. In 1719, the company presented a petition to His Excellency Samuel Shute, then the Provincial Governor of New Hampshire, for a township of land ten miles square, situated between Exeter and Merrimack river. The territory was surveyed and a township was laid out by a committee of four persons appointed by the Governor. Upon May 8, 1723, Governor Shute gave the association a charter for a township, bounded on the north by Nottingham, now Deerfield and Nottingham, east by Exeter, now Kingston and Epping, south by Londonderry and west by Merrimack river and Harrytown, now a small part of the city of Manchester. The territory, which was of irregular shape, was fourteen miles in length in the longest part and ten miles in its greatest width, was at first called the Chestnut country from the circumstance that chestnut trees were found in abundance upon the soil; but when it was incorporated it was named Chester after old Chester, in England. The charter provided that one proprietor's share should be reserved for a parsonage, one for the first settled minister and a third for the support of public schools.

One class of the original proprietors consisted of the Governor and members of the Council. The others could well afford to give the Governor and the members of his Council a liberal share in the enterprise for their good-will, besides allowing them very heavy fees for other services which they rendered. Some idea in regard to the amount of the fees paid to Governor Shute and the members of his Council may be obtained from a statement of the amount of fees which were paid to Lieutenant Governor Colden, who was acting Governor of New York, in 1764, when Vermont was claimed as a part of that province. It is said that he received the sum of $31.25 for every thousand acres in the towns to which he gave charters in Vermont at that time, amounting to about $500 for a township six miles square. The total amount of fees paid to the governor, secretary, attorney general, surveyor general and clerk, amounted to $2,300. It is fair to presume that Governor Shute was willing to receive the same fees which were allowed to the other royal governors. While he was governor of New

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