Such Rules and Regulations as your Honours think properand as your petitioners in Duty Bound will Ever pray— Samel Marsh Joseph Winn Phinehas Underwood Eleazer Cummings John Pollard Nottingh West November 20th 1797 [An act was passed December 9, 1797, incorporating the library by the name of " Nottingham West Social Library." -ED.] JACKSON. This town was incorporated December 4, 1800, by the name of Adams. It included Fowle's Location; the grant to Lt. Samuel Gilman, of Newmarket, of 2,000 acres, made March 1, 1770; the grant of 3,000 acres made to Capt. Richard Gridley, February 5, 1773; the grant to Capt. Robert Rogers, of Portsmouth, of 3,000 acres, made July 4, 1764; the grant of 8,740 acres, made March 4, 1774, to Mark Hunking Wentworth, Daniel Rogers, and Jacob Treadwell, of Portsmouth; and 13,893 acres of land belonging to the state. Jonathan and Clement Meserve petitioned for the incorporation in 1796, and again in 1797. The grants to Gilman, Gridley, and Rogers were made for service in the French war, by virtue of a proclamation of the king, of October 7, 1763. Capt. Gridley was in command of a regiment under Gen. Amherst at Crown Point in 1756; was at Louisbourg in 1758, and went from thence with the Fleet, and acted at the Seige of, and Reduction of Quebec in 1759, with the forces under General Wolfe." June 14, 1806, 300 acres of state land in Adams was granted the town for school purposes. June 22, 1819, the farm of " William Stephens was severed from Adams, and annexed to Bartlett. July 3, 1822, the farm of Nathaniel Carlton was severed from Bartlett, and annexed to Adams. July 3, 1839, the farms of Nathaniel Tufts and Stephen Carleton, 2d, were severed from Bartlett, and annexed to this town. The name of the town was changed to Jackson, July 4, 1829, in honor of Andrew Jackson, then president of the United States. It received its first name when John Adams was president. [5-174] [Petition for an Incorporation, 1796.] To the Honourable the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened at Exeter on Wednesday the first day of June 1796 The petition of Jonathan Meserve and Clement Meserve humbly Sheweth your petitioners having moved with themselves & Families on Gridley's Location in the County of Grafton and the most northerly part of the State of New Hampshire and the most Mountanious part of the State, and perhaps the most mountanious part of North America, but by the Industry & exertions of your petitioners & Families has been a means of bringing a number of good Settlers on the other Locations adjoining viz Wentworth's Roger's, Gilmans, and Martins Locations, and Land sold by the Commitee for makeing & reparing Roads from Conway to Cohas, but Still your petitioners & other Settlers is put to many difficulties in that Mountanious Country for want of haveing good Roads & in no regular order to do anything in respecte to Roads Schools &c but what every Man thinks proper to do by his own free will, All which is a very great Greviance and Discouragement to the Settlement of the Northerly part of the State therefore your petitioners pray a Township may be laid out joining Southerly on Bartlett Easterly on Chatham, Northerly on Shelburne Addition and Westerly on the White Hills, Including the Locations before mentioned, According to a plan herewith exhibited & incorporated with all the privileges that other Towns in the State have & enjoy and your petitioners pray that all the unlocated Land contained in said plan may be granted to your petitioners and associates on such terms & Čonditions as you in your wisdom shall think proper and your petitioners as in duty bound shall ever Pray.— June ye 25 1796 Jonathan Meserve [The plan is No. 175 in manuscript volume. It is well executed, showing points of compass and distances, bounds of the locations, etc.—ED.] [5-176] [Another Petition relative to Incorporation, 1797.] To the Honorable Senate and house of Representatives of the State of New Hampshire in General Corte convened at Concord on the first wednesday in June 1797 Respectfully Sheweth Jonathan Meserve and Clement Meserve now living on Gridley's Location in the County of Grafton and State aforesaid in behalf of themselves and those of your Citersons living upon the Tracts of land hereafter Discribed and for those who may hereafter reside thereon. That the present Inhabitants labor under many and Singular Disadvantages by reason of not being in a situation to trancat public buseness, and also that the granted lands within Said limits is not Sufficiant to make a Town. That their are some ungranted lands within Said limits but mostly mountains which cannot be of no real service to this State but if granted might be Som to the Settlers Wherefore they pray your Honors to Incorporate all the Lands with the Inhabitants thereon within the lines and boundarys herein after Set forth into a Town by the name of and grante to them your petinors and their Heirs and Assigns forever all the ungranted lands within Said lines and boundarys under such restrictions as may appear proper Beginning at the Sothwesterly corner of fowlses Location thence running westerly by Bartlet to Bartlet norwesterly corner bounds thence northley to the Southwesterly corner of Rogers and Wentworths Location then running nothley to Shilburn addition leaving the white hills to the west so to include Martins Location and others then by Shilburn addition to the Province of main thence by Said province of Main to Chatham north westerly corner thense by Chatham to the first mention bounds. These petitioners further pray your Honors that if to you it Shall Seem proper that a hearing on this petition may be granted at your next Session and that in the mean time Sum Sutable measures may be pursued as will furnish you with the evidence whairby to enable you to Judge and Determine respecting the propertity of granting the prayer of your Petitioners and they as in Duty bound will ever pray— Jonathan Meserve [5-177] [Another, relative to Incorporating a Town, 1799.] To the Honourable Senate & House of Representatives in General Court convened The Petition of the Inhabitants of Fowls Gilman's Gridley's Rogers' Wentworth's and Treadwell's Locations in the County of Grafton and State of Newhampshire Humbly shews That your Petitioners are greatly incommoded by reason of their unincorporated situation-That they forego many & singular advantages which Towns corporate enjoy, and labour under embarrassments from which, in a corporate capacity, they would be exempt-That they, by legal process, are unable to make and repair necessary roads & highways and to raise money for the support of schools and the Ministry in the aforesaid Locations-That the Grievances abovementioned can only be redressed by an act of Incorporation—That the aforesaid Locations are capable of forming a convenient Town-Wherefore your Petitioners humbly pray that said Locations may be formed & incorporated into a Township to be known and called by the and as in duty bound shall ever Pray name of May 16th AD 1799 Petitioner's Names Clement Meserve John Young Samuel Gray Junier Joseph Pinkham Timothy Perkins George Pinkham John Parkins Samuel Gray Benjamin Copp Isaac Meserve Daniel Nute Benjamin Copp Junyer Jonathan MeserveJun John Meserve Henry Sawyer John Nute Natthanniel Davis Ralph hall Daniel Meserve William Copp [They were successful this time. The town was incorporated by an act approved Dec. 4. 1800, and named in honor of President John Adams.-ED.] JAFFREY. The township was granted November 30, 1749, by the Masonian Proprietors, to Jonathan Hubbard and thirty-nine others, residents of Hollis, Dunstable, and Lunenburg, and was known by the names of Monadnock No. 2, Middle Monadnock, and Middletown, until it was incorporated by the governor and council August 17, 1773, and named in honor of Hon. George Jaffrey, a member of the council. The first meeting of the proprietors was held in the house of Joseph French, of Dunstable, January 16, 1750. Settlements were made by Moses Stickney and others in 1752, but were abandoned. In 1758 permanent settlements were made by John Grout and others. Wolves had dens on the Monadnock mountain, and occasionally one was killed. In 1793 Benjamin Dole killed four and Benjamin Spaulding one, and each received a bounty therefor. The township granted was a parallelogram, nearly rectangular, five miles by seven, and so remains to this day. Lieut. John Harper, Jacob Pierce, Benjamin Dole, John Dole, and Dudley Griffin were in the battle of Bunker Hill. Ebenezer Hathorne was a veteran of the French war, and was taken prisoner by the Indians at the surrender of Fort William Henry. He manufactured steelyards as early as 1775, and one of his make is now in use in the family of the editor of this volume, who is, maternally, a lineal descendant of said Hathorne. [5-178] [Bounds of the Township, as granted November 30, 1749.] The Bownds of ye Township of middle monadnock No Two In ye County of Cheshire and province of New Hampshire as By ye originall Charter Signed By Joseph Blanchard Esq' of Said Township appears is as follows (viz) Begining at y Southwest Corner of peterborough Slip So called from thence Runing North Eighty degrees west Seven miles to a Hemlock Tree marked from thence Runing North by ye Needle five miles to a Hemlock Tree marked from thence Runing South Eighty degrees East Seven miles to a Beach Tree marked in ye west Line of peterborough from thence South by ye Needle to ye first Bounds mentioned a True Copy Examined— per Matthew Wallace Pro Clerk [5-180] [Petition for an Incorporation of the Town, 1773.] Province of New Hamp To His Excellency John Wentworth Esq' Captain General, Governor and Commander in Chief, in and over his Majestys Province of New Hampshire, and Vice Admiral of the Same in Council: |