of the House of Representatives (page 41), June 22, 1750.]
A Petition of sundry Inhabitants of the westerly Part of Groton, and the easterly Part of Lunenburg, praying that their Memorial and Report thereon, which was dismiss'd the 22d of June last, may be revived and reconsidered, for the Reasons mentioned.
Read and Ordered, That Mr. Turner, Mr. Tyng, and Major Jones with such as the honourable Board shall join, be a Committee to take this Petition under Consideration, and report what they judge proper to be done thereon. Sent up for Concurrence.
[Journal of the House of Representatives (pages 76, 77), October 3, 1750.]
John Greenleafe, Esq.; brought down the Petition of sundry Inhabitants of Groton and Lunenburg, as entred the 3d Currant, and referr'd. Pass'd in Council, viz. In Council October 3d 1750. Read and nonconcur'd, and Ordered, That this Petition be dismiss'd.
Sent down for Concurrence.
Read and nonconcur'd, and Ordered, That the Petitioner serve the Town of Lunenburg with a Copy of this Petition, that they shew Cause, if any they have, on the second Wednesday of the next Sitting of this Court, why the Prayer thereof should not be granted.
Sent up for Concurrence.
[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 93), October 9, 1750.]
A Memorial of John Whitney and others of the Southwesterly Part of Groton, praying that their Petition exhibited in November 1749 may be revived, and the Papers prefer'd at that Time again considered, for the Reasons mentioned.
Read and Ordered, That the Petition lie on the Table.
[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 64), October 9, 1751.]
Ordered, That the Petition of John Whitney and others of the Southwesterly Part of Groton, lie upon the Table.
[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 81), January 3, 1752.]
The Memorial of John Whitney and others, as entred October 9th 1751, Inhabitants of the Southwesterly Part of Groton and the Eastwardly Part of Lunenberg, setting forth that in November 1749, they preferred a Petition to this Court, praying to be set off from the Towns to which they belong, and made into a distant [distinct?] and seperate Town and Parish, for the Reasons therein mentioned; praying that the aforesaid Memorial and Petition, with the Report of the said Committee thereon, and all the Papers thereto belonging, may be revived, and again taken into consideration.
Read again, and the Question was put, Whether the Prayer of the Petition should be so far granted as that the petition and Papers accompanying it should be revived?
It pass'd in the Negative. And Voted, That the Memorial be dismiss'd.
[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 92), January 9, 1753.]
The discussion in regard to the division of the town resulted in setting off the district of Shirley, on January 5, 1753, three months before the district of Pepperell was formed. In the Act of Incorporation the name was left blank, as it was in the one incorporating Pepperell, and "Shirley" was filled in at the time of its engrossment. It was so named after William Shirley, the governor of the province at that period. It never was incorporated specifically as a town, but became one by a general Act of the Legislature, passed on March 23, 1786. It was represented, while a district, in the session of the General Court which met at Watertown, on July 19, 1775, as well as in the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, and thus tacitly acquired the powers and privileges of a town, which were afterward confirmed by the act just mentioned.
The act for establishing the district of Shirley is as follows:—
Anno Regni Regis Georgii Secundi Vicesimo Sexto.
An Act for dividing the Town of Groton and making a District by the Name of....
Whereas the Inhabitants of the Southwesterly part of the Town of Groton by Reason of the Difficulties they labour under being remote from the place of the publick worship of God have addressed this Court to be Sett off a Separate District whereunto the Inhabitants of Said Town have Manifested their Consent Be it therefore enacted by the Lieutenant Governour Council and House of Representatives that the Southwestwardly part of the Town of Groton Comprehended within the following boundaries viz begining at the the [sic] mouth of Squanacook River where it runs into Lancaster [Nashua] River from thence up Said Lancaster River till it Comes to Land belonging to the Township of Stow thence Westwardly bounding Southwardly to said Stow Land tilll it comes to the Southwest Corner of the Township of Groton thence Northwardly bounding westwardly to Luningburgh and Townsend to Squanacook River aforesd thence down said River and Joyning thereto to the mouth thereof being the first bound—Be and hereby is Sett off from the said Town of Groton and Erected into a Separate and Distinct District by the name of … and that the Inhabitants thereof be and hereby are Vested with all the powers priviledges and Immunities which the Inhabitants of any Town within this Province do or by law ought to Enjoy Excepting only the Priviledge of choosing a Representative to represent them in the Great & General Court, in choosing of whom the Inhabitants of Said District Shall Joyn with the Inhabitants of the Town of Groton, as heretofore has been Usual, & also in paying said Representative
Provided nevertheless the Said District Shall pay their proportionable part of all such Town County Parish and Province Charges as are already Assessed upon the Town of Groton in like manner as though this Act had never been made.
And Be it further Enacted that Mr Jno. Whitney be and hereby is impowred to Issue his Warrant directed to Some principal Inhabitant in sd District requireing Him to Notifie & warn the Inhabitants of Sd District qualified by law to vote in Town affairs to meet at Such Time & place as shall be therein Set forth to Choose all such officers as Shall be Necessary to manage the affairs of sd District
In the House of Repives June 4, 1752
Read three several times and pass'd to be Engross'd
T. HUBBARD Spkr.
Sent up for concurrence
In Council Novr. 28, 1752 Read a first Time 29 a second Time and pass'd a Concurrence
THOs. CLARKE Dpty Secry.
[Massachusetts Archives, CXVI., 293, 294.]
This act did not take effect until January 5, 1753, when it was signed by the governor.
On June 3, 1771, thirty years after Groton Gore had been lost by the running of the provincial line, the proprietors of the town held a meeting, and appointed Lieutenant Josiah Sawtell, Colonel John Bulkley, and Lieutenant Nathaniel Parker, a committee to petition the General Court for a grant of land to make up for this loss. They presented the matter to that body on June 7, and the following entry in the records gives the result:—
The Committee on the Petition of Josiah Sartel, and others, reported.
Read and accepted, and Whereas it appears to this Court, That the Proprietors aforesaid, had a Grant made to them by the General Court in April 1735, of Ten Thousand, Eight Hundred Acres of Land, in Consideration of Land taken from said Groton by Littleton, Major Willard and Read's Farms being prior Grants, and for their extraordinary Suffering
