highly inconvenient for them as it blended part of three towns togetner whose interests had always been separate & would Consequently be apt to create strife and contention That this Court was apprized of their utter Incapacity of doing Corporate act (even as Bow) by a Letter signed Jeremiah Stickney in behalf of himself and others now on file togeather with their dutiful & ready disposition to Comply with every motion of this Court to the utmost of their Power. That the said Inhabitants conceive themselves greatly aggrieved by a late act of this Government imposing a heavy Tax on the Inhabitants of Bow as arrears &c a Tax which Nobody had Power to assess and collect at y time when ye s'd arrearages became due and which if now done must be laid in many Instances on wrong Persons; That what they suffered for want of the Powers [they] had enjoyed by the first mentioned District act was unspeakably more to their Damage than to have paid their Proportion of the Province Expence. That the incapacity complained of all along still continues and yet the People are subjected to pay their part of the Current Charge but no body has power to assess or Collect it. They therefore most humbly Pray that your Excellency and Honors will take the matters complained of under Consideration and either revive the said District Act so far as relates to Rumford or (which wo'd be much more satisfactory to the said Inhabitants) Incorporate them by a standing act and by their former Known Boundaries that the said Inhabitants may be abated at least one half part of said arrearages. And that with respect to their part of the Current Charge of the Province they may be subjected to pay no more than their just proportion with the other Towns in this Province & Grant them such other Relief as in your great wisdom and goodness you shall see meet. And your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall ever pray &c. In Council April 13th 1764 TIMOTHY WALKER. Read & ordered to be sent down to the Hon'ble Assembly T. Atkinson Jun. Sec. Province of In the house of Representatives May 3, 1764. New Hampshire This Petition being read, Voted That what the said town of Bow is now in arrears for the Province tax be collected agreeable to an act passed the second of June 1763 that the Inhabitants settled on the lands between said Bow, Canterbury & New Hopkinton (except such as are already polled off to Pembroke & New Hopkinton) be taxed & pay their proportion thereof & that the inhabitants of Bow with the inhabitants on all the lands between said Bow, Canterbury Boscawen & New Hopkinton except such as are already Polled off to Pembroke & New Hopkinton meet together some time in the month of June next at Bow & (choose all necessary officers for assessing & Collecting the annual province Tax & for trans acting all other town affairs & afterwards some time in the Month of March annually untill further orders of the Gen1 Assembly & that he have liberty to bring in a bill accordingly A. Clarkson Clerk. Petition relating to taxation, &c., 1764. To His Excellency Benning Wentworth Esqr. Governor & Commander in Chief of His Majesties Province of New Hampshire, To the Hon. His Majesties Council of said Province, & General Court Convened October the second day Anno Dom. 1764 Whereas Edward Russel & others have petitioned your Excellency & Honours to be freed from paying any part of those arrearages of Taxes ordered to be assessed upon Bow & whereas so much Notice was taken of said Petition as that the Petitioners were ordered to serve us the Subscribers with a Copy thereof, in order that we may shew Cause, if any we have why the prayer thereof should not be granted These are therefore to inform your Excellency & Honours that there are Forty one Poles with the Estates which they possess within the Limits of Bow as described in the Act of Taxation referred to in the said Petition which are exactly similar to these Petitioners, and also Sixty or more Poles with the Estate which they now possess which were Minors & so not liable to be Taxed when the Rates were supposed to be due for which this Tax is Ordered, but have since come of age & so Rated as fr" the List appears. To Ballance which increase there has been a yearly drain of Inhabitants from us it is out of our Power to ascertain the Number but we are well persuaded from what we know of the affair that if it could be done it would bear some near proportion to the advance-These have all left the Town, & many of them the Province in each of which Cases they are equally exempt from our power of Taxing them. And we humbly submit it to your wise determination whether there is not the same reason that these other persons should be freed as that the petitioners should Which if the Case, we are well assured that it will be absolutely impossible for the small remainder to pay the whole of said Tax. We are Your Excellency's & Honours most Humble Ser vants. EZRA CARTER Assessors of Bow Selectmen of Pembroke Petition of Concord to be annexed to Hillsborough County. To His Excellency John Wentworth Esq' Capt General Governor and Commander in chief in and over his Majestys Province of New Hampshire the Honble his Majesty's Council & House of Representatives in General Assembly convened the 18th day of Jan' Anno Domini 1774 The Petition of Andrew McMillan Esqr. Agent For the Inhabitants of the Town of Concord in the County of Rockingham and Province aforesaid, Humbly sheweth That said Town of Concord is Forty miles from Exeter and Fifty five miles from Portsmouth where the Courts of Justice are held for said County of Rockingham, and the Inhabitants of said Concord very little if any thing benefited by the late Division of this Province into Five Counties. Secondly that many of the Inhabitants of the Towns in the north part of the County of Hillsborough have applied to your Petitioner's Constituents and earnestly desired that the inconveniences they labour under may be represented to your Excellency and Honours by a Petition which they say are First as there is but one Superior Court of Judicature in a year held in said County of Hillsborough and Prisoners committed for capital Crimes must lay in Goal sometimes Eleven nine or six months according to the time they are committed before it can be known whether they are or are not guilty; and in case they should be acquitted your Petitioners constituents, humbly apprehend it a great Pity that they have suffered so long and if found guilty they thing it a grievous burthen to maintain such bad Subjects so long at the expense of poor, honest industrious beginners in the Wilderness. Secondly Creditors in General in said County of Hillsborough who incline to sue at any time except July term in said County are obliged to indorse their notes &c over to Persons who live in the County of Rockingham or other Counties & some to the Massachusetts and the expense is as great as before they were a County. Thirdly the place where the Courts are held in said County of Hillsborough is at such a Distance from them that they are of opinion that the Inhabitants of the south part of said County will not oppose their having Justice done in that respect. Fourthly that the situation of the Town of Concord is such that it will accommodate all the Inhabitants of the upper or Northerly part of the said County of Hillsborough and give them general satisfaction Therefore the said Inhabitants of the Town of Concord by their said Agents humbly pray your Excellency & Honours that said Town of Concord may be annexed to the County of Hillsborough and that there may be annually held there one Superior Court of Judicature one Inferior Court of common pleas one Court of general Sessions of the peace for said County or otherwise act in the premises as your Excellency & Honours Wisdom for the benefit of his Majesty's Subjects shall direct and your Petitioners by their said Agents as in Duty bound will ever pray &c Portsm° Jan 18th 1774. In Council Jany. 19, 1774. Read and ordered to be sent down to the Honble Assembly In the House of Representatives Jany 19th 1774 Geo King D. Secy Voted that the Petitioner be heard thereon on the third day of the Sitting of the General Assembly after the first day of March next and that in the meantime the Petitioner cause the Substance of this Petition and order of Court thereon to be printed three weeks successively in the New Hampshire Gazette that any person may have opportunity to appear & Shew cause why the prayer of said Petition Shou'd not be Granted J. Wentworth Speaker In Council Jano 20, 1774. The within vote was read & concurrd Geo King, D. Sec. CONWAY. [Conway began to be settled in 1764; the grant of the township was made, Oct. 1, 1765. ED.] CONWAY, &c. A list of the original Proprietors of Conway, the Number of the Lots by Whom Claimed, the Lots settled, under whom they first Improved, the Lots Improved, the Lots not Improved. the State of the Rights Settled 2 Familys under Col Frye Settled under Conway Settled under Brown Two Familys settled under Brown Do about 30 acres improved one Family on his original Right for this Improved for Pasture some Trees Fell Improved Largely by Brown Improved by Hazen Ösgood 1st improvement Considerable Improvement, the Greatest part was made under Brown 2 acres of Trees Fell 2 acres of Trees Fell |