History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

agreed to And the said vote is as follows, viz
Voted, That two new Towns, each containing a
Quantity of land not exceeding six miles square, be
laid out in as regular Forms as the Land will allow
to be settled in a defensible manner, on the Westerly
side of Groton West line, and that William Tailor,
Samuel Thaxter, Francis Fullam, Esqrs., Capt.
John Shipley, and Mr. Benjamin Whittemore, be
a Committee fully impowered to allot and grant
out the land contained in each of the said towns,
(a lot not to exceed Two hundred and fifty acres)
to such persons, and only such as will effectually
settle the same within the space of three years next
ensuing the laying out and granting such by the
Committee, who are instructed to admit eighty
families or persons in each Town at least, who shall
pay to the said Committee for the use of the Prov-
ince, the sum of Five Pounds for each allotment,
which shall be granted and allotted as aforesaid
and that each person to whom such lot or lots
shall be granted or laid out, shall be obliged to
build a good Dwelling Uouse thereon and inhabit
it; and also to break up and fence in three acres
of land at the least within the Term of three years ;
and that there be laid out and reserved for the first
settled Minister a good convenient Lot; also a
Lot for the School, and a ministerial lot, and a lot
for Harvard College, of two hundred and fifty
acres each ; and the Settlers be obliged to build a
good, convenient House for the Worship of God
in each of the said Towns, within the term of four
years ; and to pay the charge of the necessary sur-
veys, and the Committee for their service in and
about the premises ; and that the Committee give
public notice of the time and place when and where
they will meet to grant allotments.
" Consented to — Sam'' Shute."
The townships of Lunenburg and Townsend, by
this order or grant of the General Court, were called
into legal existence from the " country land " of
the province and from a territory previously called
Turkey Hills. From the date of this grant till
each of these towns was surveyed and received
its respective charter Lunenburg was called Turkey
Hills, and Townsend was called The North Town,
sometimes Turkey Hills North Town.
The committee named in this grant called their
first meeting at the inn of Jonathan Hobart, of
Concord, on the 11th of May, 1720, when seventy-
two of the eighty shares in North Town were
taken up, some subscribers paying the five pounds.
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TOWNSEXD. 383
others paying only a part, and others nothing at
that time. Twenty-four of these seventy-two share-
holders belonged to Concord. At a subsequent
meeting the other eight shares were taken, but the
names of those who took them do not appear on
the manuscript record of Francis Fullam, clerk of
the committee. This manuscript is preserved in
Harvard College Library. It was impossible for
the original proprietors of the town to conform to
the strict letter of the grant. The "convenient
house for the worship of God " was not built till
17-50. It was a rude structure, and the only one
in town at that time built of sawed lumber. Only
a few of the men who met at Concord in 1719,
and subscribed for an eightieth part of the town,
ever became settlers in the North Town. Accord-
ing to the town recordsj the first birth was in 17;J8,
during which year several families came here from
Chelmsford, Groton, and Woburn.
On the 29th of June, 1732, Townsend was
incorporated and its boundaries made ; but not till
October, 16, 173+, did the town settle "a learned
orthodox minister." Just before, and at this time,
there was a sharp controversy going on between
the land proprietors of the townships of Townsend
and Old Dunstable, the point in dispute beuig a
tract of land in the northeast corner of Townsend,
then in Dunstable. It appears, from all the records,
that the Townsend proprietors held unreasonable
views concerning the boundary line between these
towns. During the next decade the town advanced
considerably. The General Court made a law em-
powering the selectmen to assess and collect a tax
of one penny on every acre of " Non-resident land,"
which was a great help towards the support of their
minister. In 1733 a saw and grist mill was built
at the Harbor ; still, the settlers were very poor,
and subject to many privations.
In 1741 the province line between Massachu-
setts and New Hampshire was established, by
which Townsend lost about one third of its terri-
tory, which is now embraced within the limits of
Brookline, Mason, and New Ipswich, in New
Hampshire. This was another source of trouble
to the land-loving proprietors of the town, who
soon petitioned the General Court for indemnifica-
tion. The subject was not acted upon till 1765,
when the assembly "granted a township somewhere
at the eastward of the Saco River, six miles
square, to the Townshend proprietors and others,
for military services and other losses and services."
Of this township Townsend was to have 10,212