Relief of your subjects of New Hamp' in all Respects and that in such manner as to y Majesties Great Wisdom & Justice shall seem

meet

And yr Pet' as in duty bound shall ever Pray &c.

[Endorsed] Thomlinsons Complt. — Copy –

John Thomlinson

[3-57] [Answer to the Foregoing. Copy in Waldron's Hand]

Breif of an answer to John Tomlinson's Petition & Appeal to his Majesty.

IN. H. does not extend from Sea to Sea. Nothing is N. H. but what was made so by the royal Grant to John Mason, which extended but sixty miles from ye atlantic into the Country, and in all the Governor's Commissions since that Grant, there has been onely the northern & southern side bounds mentioned viz' from 3 miles to the northward of Merrimack River & every part thereof to Piscataqua River without saying any thing of Extent Eastward or Westward, wherefore according to the most genuine Construction of the several Commissions the extent of N. H. can be no longer E. & W. than are the rivers of Merrimac on one side & Piscataqua on the other, or at most but 60 miles

2 All that was ever called N. H. was Granted to Mr Mason, & if the Grant was valid & legal the soil of that Prov. appertains to the lawful heirs & assigns of the sd Mason, and His Majty has no right therein - N. B. If the soil is in part in the heirs of Sam' Allen, and the residue in His Majesty wch is pretty plumply acknowledged, what right has an agent of the representatives to dispute the property or the boundaries

3 Series of encroachments & oppressions (true eno') But the Gov as soon as he had opened his Commission used & Continued his utmost endeavours to heal the differences which he found among the Borderers, and which had been subsisting many years and carryed often to much higher pitch formerly than latterly except a few years ago that Colo Dunbar went with an armed force from Derry and with great wrath and assulted some Haverill Mowers, swearing death and destruction to the Persons which made them flee for their lives. Such an Instance of threatened violence there never was before or since & that was on the part of N. H. — Also the expensive & numerous oppositions from the Massa Agent that doubtless is right, but that the Gov prevented the raising of money to carry on the affair

by prorogations & dissolutions is equally vain & absurd when they had sessions as frequent and of as long duration as any under the adm" of former Governours

4 The Commission sued out at ye Expence of N. H. How could that be, if the Gov took effectual care as suggested in the next preceding paragraph to prevent the raising any public money.

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14th paragraphs are about ye Commission & what passed at home previous and subsequent to it wch are facts I cant speak to, neither am I able to undisguise the misrepresentations

15 Gov Belcher contrived to break thro' His Majty Instructions It is an audacious imputation but as his onely Gratis dictum, that he did not is a sufficient answer

16 As to the prerogations from time to time they were fully answered in the reply to ye Complaints of Wiggins & others, and the assembly Singly and the Council and assembly joyntly had as many opportunitys for doing what they tho't, and more than any Council & Assembly have had before, but in plain truths the maj' part of the Council & Most of the principal Members in the Assembly could not think Mr Rindge's Capacity equal to an undertaking of that kind, & had the utmost reason to Suppose both him & Mr Tomlinson wth some Discontented designers in the province to be in a Combination to Promote some selfish Schemes to the Part of the provinces under the Specious pretense of Geting ye line setled which had labord at certain seasons between 40 & 50 years under the Adm3 of Lt Gov' Usher Gov Allen Lt Gov Partridge Govr Dudley - Lt Gov Usher again, Lt Gov Vaughan Gov Shute Lt Govt Wentworth Govt Burnet Lt Gov Wentworth again, during which time all the Essays proved fruitless, tho the province sent home three or 4 Agents besides what they Employed in Engld & it is to be noted that 3 of the persons above named were N. Hamp' so that the affair had no better success when a N H man was at ye head of the Governm' than now Massa and the NH Agents were once and Again advised by their Council learned in the law to make no Stir about the line, for they had no right to dispute it, & that it be their highest to hold their possessions as quietly & Silently as possible as the most Effectual way of Securing the title of what they enjoyed & the Gov' apprehends that this was one principal & weighty Consideration which occasioned the Councils acting in the affair, who were Gentlemen well knowing in ye premesis & throughly deleberated on them while the Maj' part of those who were for raising mony to Settle the line than planters or Comon laborers in the field utterly ignorant of their interest & so easily Misled by the hissing of the snake in the Grass.

The Council wisely considered the people of New Hamp' never had any grant or Charters for their province from the King, and tho't it better to rest till some new scheme could be projected by Men of Experience & wisdom than to rush Precipitantly after blind leaders into the dark track, which had proved a labyrinth to them near 50 years — They concluded till they could make out a property in the soil they must fail in setling the bounds, and that the property was in his Majestys was the opinion of Gov Shute & the Council in his day and of many others who accepted Six Townships under His Majesty by the Grant of the sd Gov' Shute, since wch L Gov Wentworth granted 6 or 7 Towns more in His Majestys name & took care that himself & 4 or 5 of his sons with all the Council and every Member of the House of Representatives of that day was a proprietor in every one of them. This is said to shew the sense & opinion of the Gov Council & Assembly at that time that the soil was His Majestys, and of the same opinions continued the Council to last October when they advised the Gov' to grant a new Township at the head of Rochester formerly granted by Gov' Shute & were afterward every man of them Voted in & admitted associates with the proprietors of the said new Town - and it may be further observed, that several of the Towns granted by L' Gov' Wentworth were granted home to Merrimack, and the bounds of one of them (namely Barnstead) carryed several miles on the South side of that. Those persons (say the Council) who accepted Controversial lands in part of their Townships took 'em at their peril and that it is of all things most unequitable, that the poor distressed People who have no interest in the Grants which have principally occasioned the Quarrel, should pay any duty to support it, further the Council said a Contention about the line might probably give a fresh alarm to the heirs or assigns of Mr Mason, and bring on new disputes with them, which probably might subject the prov: to new and greater inconveniency on ye score than any heretofore - These and many other considerations influenced the Council in their conduct in this affair as the Gov' was convinced by the whole tenour of their Conversations and arguments at ye Board and not any bias to humour the Gov as has been suggested contrary to sense & reason — But yet the Council did once Joyn with Assembly to give 500 to reimburse for expences past & to Grant 500 more to Defray the charge of Com's if any should be appointed which some of 'em declared was an offering violence to y' reason and afterward the Council voted pay for ye Com's but ye Assembly would not consent

17 The petitioner says under this extraordinary situation &c - Extraordinary situation indeed, that a poor little province (as he calls it & rightly eno') should be so involved plagued & incumbered with

the charge of a busyness, which the most wise & thinking people esteem an unjust burden on the people - But to recurr the petitioner says a Committee of the House of representatives subsisting wch had formerly corresponded wth him about geting out and prosecuting ye så Commission presented unto ye Com's a demand which is a most flagrant falsehood, that being done by a Committee appointed by the General Court (viz') four Council's (not of ye Gov's appointm') & 4 representatives chosen ye 2 April 1737

18 That the sd Committee did chuse 2 persons is false, it was the Committee of ye Gen1 Court yt chose them

19 The Com's did receive the nomination of ye two persons yt is true but never made any use of ye persons & declared they would receive ye choice of ye Gen1 assembly if they wd choose

20 That the 2 persons protested before ye Com's is a downright falsehood, they were never notifyed of their being chosen either by the Commissioners or Committee, nor ever did one act in consequence of the choice

21 The said Agent of N. H. objected, tho' in paragraph 17 tis sa a Committee of ye House of represene made the demand

22 The Gov made a speech 10th of Augt & recommended the chusing 2 officers True

23 The assembly would not chuse but adheard to the choice of ye Committee, that is as true, & it is a manifest evidence the Settlemt of the line was not so much at ye heart of the leaders of the flock as was the design of rendering the Gov' obnoxious to the Ks displeasure, & making the matter of the line the handle for it, the whole tenour of the proceedings evince the truth of the suggestion - For the assembly well knew, the Com's would have recd a choice if they had seen meet to make one at any time before there was occasion to make use of the officers

[Endorsed] Answer to Thomlinson's Petition.

[3-59]

[Extract from Charter of Kingswood, 1737.1

[Copy of a charter of a town by the name of Kingswood, by Jonathan Belcher. Dated October 20, 1737. The bounds were as follows: "Beginning at the Southeasterly corner of Barnstead and from thence to run upon the same course as Barnstead Easterly side line runs to Winnipiseokee pond, from thence upon a right angle till it comes to the Boundary line between our said Province of New Hampshire and that which was formerly called the Province of Main, from thence as the said Boundary line runneth to the North

easterly corner of the Town of Rochester, from thence by Rochester and Barrington head lines to the Bounds first mentioned."— ED.]

A Schedule of the Persons names to whom the within Charter is

[Petition of Eleazer Bickford; was in the expeditions to Cape Breton and Annapolis, in which he contracted a disease; wanted an allowance. — ED.]

[3-60]

[Copy of a mandamus to admit John Rindge as a member of the Council in place of Benjamin Gambling, deceased. Dated at Kensington, England, July 22, 1738, and signed "By His Majestys Command Holles New Castle." - ED.]

[3-61]

[Letter of Marque, 1739.]

JONATHAN BELCHER Esq' Captain General and Governour in Chief in and over His Majestys Provinces of the Massachusets Bay and New-Hampshire in New England in America and Vice Admiral of the Same