able Leven. We desire the Committee & Selectmen & the Principal Inhabitants of the Neighboring Towns would attend at Mr Bliss's Inholder in Lebanon, on Monday the 30th of October 1780 for this purpose A Coppy of a Letter sent to the adjacent Towns Attest Elijah Dewey Jun' [6-29] [Relative to Vermont Controversy, 1782.] State of New Hampshire Grafton County Lebanon 15: May 1782 To the Honble the Council and General Assembly of the State of New Hampshire We the Subscribers Did prefer A Petition to your Honours Dated at Lebanon 15th Decem' 1778. Setting forth Some Difficultys & grievances we Laboured under,-& praying for Redress in the premices,-We Rec an Answer to Said Petition from the Comitee of Safety Dated 8th Jan 1779 informing us that the General Assembly had Resolved to take up & Consider the matter and Endeavour to Redress our Grievances,-Recommending to us to pay no Obedience to any Authority but what was Derived from the Legeslature of New Hampshire, which Recommendation we have Steadily Adheared to-and have publickly Remonstrated against the Illegal & irregular proceedings of the Town in Town Meeting, as will Appear by A Remonstrance herewith Exhibitted, which was Laid before the Town &c We would inform your Honours we have always Stood Ready to pay our Equal proportion of the Taxes Call for by the Authority of New Hampshire, but by Reason of being over powered by Numbers Could Never obtain to have A Regular List made up to have our Tax proportioned or any Legall officer to Collect, by which means the money haith Died in our pockets, We now putting Confidence in your Great wisdom and Goodness being fully purswaded that you will Compasionate & hear the prayer of your Distressed Leage Subjects, Do now again most Earnestly Petition to your Honours to Consider our Case, and grant us Such Releife in the premises as in your wisdom you Shall think Just & Reasonable, So as that your Petitioners may be as Little Sufferers as possible by the Disorderly & Dis obedient Conduct of the Town, and the Great Evils and Disadvantages they have involved themselves in by not Continuing Loyal Subjects of the State, and paying their Taxes in SeasonJesse Heath Charles Hill Comte [6-31] [Disputed Jurisdiction, 1782.] To the Honble the Gen" Assembly of the State of New Hamp To be Holden at Portsmo in sa State, the third Wednesday of Dec' Instant, May it please Your Hon's We the Subscribers Inhabitants of the Town of Lebanon in the County of Grafton in Sa State; having taken into Consideration the Several Resolves of the Honble the Continental Congress, Respecting the Disputes that have Arisen about the Jurisdiction of the State of N: Hamp over the Hampe Grants (So Called) are of the Opinion that S Resolves, implicitly declare it to be the Opinion of that August Body, that that part of S Grants Lying East of Connecticut River (in which we are included) Should be under the Jurisdiction of the State of New Hamp; with which we Readily Comply; and Acknowledge the same; Yet, Nevertheless for us to be Obliged to pay the back State Taxes; for the time being that we have been unconnected with the State of New Hampre in matters of Government, we Look upon it to be a Hardship, & Trust that your Hon will Consider us in that matter; & as there is a Considerable Number of the inhabitants of this Town that wholly Deny the Jurisdiction of N: Hampe,-if your Hon" should find yourselves Laid under the Disagreeable Necessity of using Coercive measures, with Opposers, to your Authority we Hope that your Hon" will make a Specifick Difference between them & Us, & we as in Duty bound Shall Ever pray Joseph Tilden Stephen Billing Sam' Bailey Solomon Millington Heze Waters [Documents relative to the dispute concerning the jurisdiction over the New Hampshire grants, east of Connecticut river, may be found in Vol. X.-ED.] [6-32] [Relative to recording Grants in Office of the Secretary of State, 1782.] To the Honourable Council of the state of New Hampshire and to the general Assembly of said State to meet at Concord in said State on the second Tuesday of June in the Year of our Lord Seventeen hundred and eighty two We the Subscribers Inhabitants of the town of Lebanon in the County of Grafton in said State humbly petition and shew to your Honors-That they are, either original Grantees of land, granted either by Benning Wentworth, Esq; or John Wentworth, Esq; late Governors of said State, or claim land by virtue of conveyances from such original Grantees-That in consequence of the confusion that has prevailed in said County but a small part of the Laws of said State have been received in said County, for a number of Years so that your Petitioners never heard of the act of the General Assembly of said State, entitled An Act For Recording Grants, Locations or Charters of Lands granted by the late Governors thereof-passed March the fourth in the year of our Lord Seventeen hundred and Eighty, until the time limited in said Act for filing said Grants &c in the Secretary's Office in said State was elapsed-That your Petitioners have lately been informed that the time of filing said Grants &c as aforesaid has since been lengthned by an Act of said Assembly, but that the time allowed by this Act had also expired before they received this information-And that your Petitioners are in danger of losing their lands in consequence of their not knowing of the passing of said Acts Your Petitioners therefore pray that a further time may be allowed for the receiving and recording such Grants &c as aforesaid or that such other relief may be granted to your Petitioners as to your Honors shall seem meet, as in duty bound shall ever pray Sam" Bailey James Jones Wm Downer William Downer ju. Charles Hill Joseph Tilden Ju [6-33] [Protest against the Incorporation of a District to be called Dresden, 1783—incomplete.] Objections against the Incorporation of a part of Lebanon & Hanover in the County of Grafton into a distinct Town I-The freeholders of that part of Lebanon, which is subject to taxation, & proposed to be taken into said corporation, are unanimously opposed to such an Incorporation-That is, those of them, who reside in said Lebanon-Fourteen hundred and forty Acres are all the land (exclusive of College lands) lying in said Lebanon proposed to be taken in-Thirteen hundred Acres of which are owned by said resident Freeholders, and a considerable part of the one hundred and forty Acres remaining are owned by a Minor— 2. That the said resident Owners, have done already their proportion for building up Dartmouth College, and they can see no reason why they should be subject to the Authority of said College and their dependants-They have given one hundred and fifty Acres of Land, and in money and labour, to the amount of Fifteen pounds-Altho but eight in number, and subject to those difficulties, which generally attend those, who settle a new Country, And if such an Incorporation should be made every vote would be carried according to the Inclinations of the said Autohrity, who will always have a sufficient number of Dependants to assist them in carrying any point-whereby the situation of the said resident Owners would be exceedingly uncomfortable. 3. By such an Incorporation the said Freeholders will be excluded from all benefit to public rights, and to ministerial and school privileges in s Lebanon-The public rights in sa Lebanon are so far improved and disposed off that a considerable sum accrues to Lebanon from such Improvements and disposal, A minister is settled-a meeting house and several Schoolhouses are built From which benefit, the sd Freeholders would be excluded by such an Incorporation— 4. Many new roads must be made to accomodate such a Town as is desired—whereas if the sa Freeholders remain as they are in conjunction with Lebanon, the expence of said new roads will be saved 5. That the sd Incorporation will ever greatly be burthened with poor to maintain-Dependants must be introduced and not warned out 'till they become a town-charge 6. That the expence of maintaining town order will be great, & a very large part of that expence will fall upon the sd Freeholders in proportion to their interest. The sd Freeholders are the owners of double, if not treble the land in s proposed township, which will be subject to taxation-and the College will ever own stock and other ratiable property whereby the sd Freeholders are apprehensive that they shall be obliged to do a great, if not the greatest part towards supporting the poor, and discharging other town expences, which they feel unable ever to perform 7. That it would be unprecedented to seperate any from a particular Corporation, they had joined without their consent either explicit or implicit [See Hanover papers, ante.-Ed.] [6-34] [Relative to the Collection of Taxes.] To the Honourable the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of New Hampshire now setting in Concord The petition of the Select Men of the Town of Lebanon in the County of Grafton Humbly sheweth That from the year 1777 till the year 1781-sundry sums of money were from time to time voted by said Town for defraying necessary Town charges, and for defending ourselves on the Frontier against the Common Enemy, that tax bills were from time to time made out agreeable to said Votes, but Collected only in part, untill the year 1781 when at a Legal Meeting of the Inhabitants of said Town M' Constant Storrs was appointed to Collect the aforesaid Taxes, and they were accordingly Committed to him to Collect-That as said Bills were made on Inventories not conforming to the then Laws of this State, though at the same time makeing the Average to each person so taxed very nearly the same, as the law in that Case would have done, and were made by the General Order Vote, and direction of the people of sd Town, yet as we apprehend it unsafe to proceed to collect said Taxes unless the said Collector is duly authorized so to Do Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that your Honours would pass such act or resolve as may enable said Collector to complete the Collection of s Bills And your Petitioners as in Duty bound will ever prayConcord 12th of June 1783 David Hough, in the behalf of sd Select Men [6-35] [Relative to the Incorporation of Dresden, 1783.] To the Speaker of the house of Representatives of the State of New Hampshire Now Seting att Concord |