agreed to chuse a Committee of indifferent Persons to Determine that matter:-which they did accordingly & the Comittee Resolved upon a proper place after having view'd the Parish, & Declared the same.

That the said Comittee determined the matter before the said Line between Salem & Windham was fixt as it now stands, as above mentioned, and tho' it might have been well with Respect to the whole of what was Windham by the said Act, yet by the taking off & annexing to Salem those Polls & Estates by the Last Line, that place which was near the center of the Parish before, was very ex-centrical afterwards.

That after all this a number of said Parish in a private way erected a meeting house at the place agreed upon [by] the said Comittee without regard to the Line last stated, and have lately obtain'd a vote (after it had been rejected at one meeting) that the Parish shou'd take or receive the said house & pay the charge of building the same.

That the said meeting-house is by no means conveniently situated as it now stands for the majority of the Parishioners considering the present extent of the Parish, but especially if it be considered that the greatest part of the future settlements in the Parish must be at the remotest part of the same from said house, and as it is likely there will be much contention in said Parish (already almost ruined by Divisions and Debates) about the place where said house had best be finally fix'd for it can't be that the majority shou'd long agree it shall stand where it is at present. Your Petitioners humbly pray that this matter may be put out of the power of said Parishioners to contend about, and for that purpose that a comittee of disinterested impartial persons may be appointed by the General Assembly to view said Parish & consider it in all circumstances as it now stands with respect to boundaries, as also with respect to the situation of the present Inhabitants & the Prospect of future settlements & additional inhabitants, and to determine upon the whole matter where it is proper the said meeting-House shou'd be placed and to make Report thereof as soon as may be: And the said House or another (if the Parish shall chuse rather to build a new one than Remove this which may be easily done) may be placed accordingly, and your Petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray.

David Gregg
John Kyll
Wm. Gregg
Hugh Grayham
Thos Campbell
John Davidson
Arthur Grayham
George Davidson
John McCoy

Wm. Waugh
John Waddel
John Karr
Joseph Corning
John Grag
Hugh Clyde
John Kyl

John Clyde

Hugh Montgomery

[NOTE. On the above petition a hearing was granted: When, April 11h 1754, "Voted in the House that this Petition be dismissed." ED.]

Petition of Oliver Saunders.

To his Excellency Benning Wentworth, Esq Governor & Commander in chief in & over his Majestys Province of New Hampshire, the Hon his Majesty's Council & House of Representatives for said Province in General Assembly Convened, Jan 25 1757.

The humble Petition of Oliver Saunders of Salem in said Province, yeoman, shews: That your petitioner on the 13th day of October 1756, exhibited a Petition to your Excellency & Honours relating to the Rates supposed to be wrongfully assess'd on sundry of the Inhabitants of said Salem in the manner set forth in said Petition, signed by himself & others aggrieved, on which a time was appointed for hearing of the Petitioners on their Petition, which they mistook and so lost the opportunity whereby the merit of their case has not been considered: Wherefore your Petitioner most Humbly prays That the said Petition may be revived that the Petitioners may be heard thereon and such measures pursued relative thereto as in your great Wisdom & Goodness you shall judge to be Right and your Petitioners in Duty bound shall ever pray &c. OLIVER SANDERS.

NOTE. On the foregoing petition a hearing was granted, "on the second day of the sitting of the Gen' Assembly next after the 1st day of February," when, In the House of Representatives

Voted, That the prayer of this petition be granted & that the petitioners be exempted from paying any arrears of Province Tax to Salem before the year 1753, it appearing they had paid their province taxes to Windham from the year 1743 to 1752 (1).

(1) Bee Salem Town Papers. ED.

Deposition of John Dinsmoor.

The Deposition of John Dinsmoor of Lawful Age, doth testifie & say that the persons hereafter named, were and are Inhabitants dwelling within the bounds of Londonderry According as Mr. Bryant run

[Sworn to before Daniel Peaslee, Just. Peace, Jany 20h, 1757. ED.]

[Similar Depositions were made by Samuel Moran, Daniel Dow, Alexander Park and Francis Smiley and Sworn to before Daniel Peaslee, Just. Peace, Jan 19, Jan. 20, Jan 31st, 1757. ED.]

A List of those men that now live in Salem which formerly lived in the Parish of Windham and paid their Province Tax to sd Windham: viz.

A true Copy given under my hand at y Parish of Windham, Janī

824

NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN PAPERS.

Province of New
Hampshire

WOLFEBOROUGH.

[Was incorporated in 1770.] Petition for Incorporation.

To his Excellency John Wentworth Esq Capt. General, Governor and Commander in Chief in and over the Province aforesaid, and the Honorable his Majesty's Council for said Province:

The Humble Petition of Ammi Ruhamah Cutter, Physician and John Parker, Merch both of Portsmouth in said Province as a Committee of the Proprietors of Wolfeborough in said Province shews:

That there are in the Township of Wolfeborough upwards of Thirty Families settled and more coming to settle there, which makes an Incorporation necessary in order to transact their common affairs with ease & dispatch, and in that case many wou'd be induced to settle there, who would be backward without that advantage.

That the Proprietors aforesaid are desirous of obtaining this Privilege as it will enable them to carry on the settlement with more Regularity and enable them to carry into Execution any of their Resolutions in which all are concerned, with Justice as well as with dispatch, and have therefore chosen your Petitioners with another person now absent to apply to your Excellency & the Hon Council for this purpose.

ble

Wherefore they humbly Pray that the said Inhabitants & Proprietors may be Incorporated with the usual Franchises, Privileges & Emoluments: that they be authorized & Intitled to use the Powers with which other Corporations are Invested, and your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall pray &c. A. R. CUTTER Comm. JNo PARKER

}

To call 1st Town meeting
Mr. Jonathan Rindge.
1st Meeting 21st Sept.
Annual meeting

last Tuesday in M'ch.

ADDENDA.

NOTE BY THE EDITOR.

Readers of the foregoing Papers relating to TOWNS, will have noticed that no mention is made of a very considerable number of Towns in the State, some of which hold an important place in our history. In relation to some of the towns thus omitted, the reason may be, that they never had occasion to make application to the Legislature by peti tion or otherwise; or that making such application, the Papers were not preserved or have not been found: Other towns are of modern date, i. e. subsequent to 1784, and therefore not properly included in this volume. The Editor, however, has carefully printed every paper which he has found on file or on record, relating to early towns. The following notices of towns omitted, are given as supplementary;—the facts stated being derived from such authorities and documents as were accessible to the Editor (1).

Towns not included among the foregoing Papers.

ALEXANDRIA, granted March 13, 1767; incorporated, Nov. 23, 1782; its first settlement was made in December 1769, by Jonathan, John M. and William Corliss.

ALLENSTOWN, so named from Gov. Samuel Allen, the purchaser of Mason's claim; the tract was reserved for Allen's children. (See Prov. Pap. Vol. 4, P. 42.). A settlement was begun by John Wolcutt, Andrew Smith, Daniel Evans, Robert Buntin and others, about 1740.

ANDOVER was granted by the Masonian proprietors in 1746, to Edmund Brown and others, and was called New Breton in honor of the capture of Cape Breton, 1745. It was incorporated, with its present name, June 25, 1779.

ANTRIM derives its name from a county of that name in Irelandthe original settlers being mostly of the Scotch-Irish stock that settled Londonderry in 1719. The first settlement was made by Dea. James Aiken, about 1768; it was incorporated, March 22, 1777.

BARNSTEAD was granted May 20, 1727. Settlements commenced in

1767.

BATH. The original charter of Bath was granted Sept. 10, 1761, to Rev. Andrew Gardner and 61 others. It was re-chartered to John Sawyer and others, in March 1769, on the ground of the forfeiture of the first charter; settlement was made in 1765, by John Harriman, from Haverhill, Ms.

BRADFORD was granted to John Pierce and George Jaffrey, in -? Settlement was made in 1771, by Dea. William Presbury or Presby. Incorporated Sept. 27, 1787.

BRIDGEWATER formerly comprised the whole of New Chester (now Hill), Bridgewater and Bristol; the first settlement was made in 1766, by Thomas Crawford, Esq. BRISTOL was taken from Bridgewater and

(1) Much reliance has been placed on statements found in the N. H. Gazetteer, by Farmer & Moore, 1823. ED.