The foregoing is a Copy contains the Persons names & the Sums Each Person Borrowd of the Twenty five thousand pound Loan —

June 234 1745

Theod Atkinson} }

Chairm of ye Comitte

[Governor Wentworth to Board of Trade, 1744]

[Copied from a Manuscript obtained in London by the New Hampshire Historical Society, in 1888.]

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE OF ENGLAND

Colonial Correspondence - Board of Trade New Hampshire Benning Wentworth to Board of Trade

23 January 1743/4

L. S.

[Endorsed] New Hampshire - Letter from Mr Wentworth Gov of New Hampshire to the Board, dated at Portsmouth ye 23rd of Janry 1743/4

In obedience to your Lordships Commands Signified to me the 14th of July last, I shall endeavour to set the Impediments to the Settleing and increase of this Province in the clearest light I am Capable of. The first difficulty is, the Massachusetts claim three Miles North of Merrimack from the Sea, to Pantucket falls, this claim that Government made before the Commissioners Court at Hampton and no further North, notwithstanding which, the Towns of Salisbury, Amesbury, Haverhill, Dracut, and Dunstable, have heretofore extended their grants of Common Land as they called it, some five, others Seven, and Haverhill near Eleven miles North of Merrimack, whereby the towns of Hampton, Kingston, Chester and London Derry are incroached upon, which occations a dispute between these Towns, as to the Property of the Land, this dispute between Hampton and Salisbury with the Eastern end of Kingston I have been able to reconcile to the Satisfaction of all partys, and have incorporated the Inhabitants into a Township, by the name of South Hampton, but from the West end of South Hampton to Pantucket falls, and from thence on a West line where it crosses Merrimack River, there remains a Narrow Strip of Land on which may be near

A. Disputes about the Property of Lands and limits of Townships on account of the Incroachments of the Massachusets Colony in the Province of N. Hampshire.

four hundred familys, settled in Virtue of Town and Provinciall grants made by the Massachusetts to the people in possession, which the Towns of Kingston Chester and London-Derry claim, by Virtue of their Charters granted by New Hampshire, the Charter of Kingston was forty eight years, and Chester and London Derry about Twenty Six years Since; the Southern boundary of these towns was to be the Province Line, which they now say, is the Similar Curve line, by His Majestys determination. I was hopeing the Measures I had taken with respect to South Hampton would have Influenced the Settlers on this Strip of Land, and the Towns on New Hampshire Side, to have entered into an agreement among themselves, but they are obstinately Set on both Sides, and are dayly Commencing Law Suits with one another, and unless they are restrained, the Contention will Issue in the ruin, both of the one and other party, The plea the Towns holding under New Hampshire make, is, that while they were under the Governor of the Massachusetts, they were prevented from Improveing these Lands, tho' their claim was as good then as now, which gave the people now in Possession an opportunity of Improving which they were debarred of. The only relief I can offer in behalf of these Inhabitants on this Strip of Land (if it should be His Majesties Pleasure, and meets with your Lordships Approbation) is, that I may have a Possitive, or prudential Instruction, to Incorporate these Inhabitants, into as many townships, as the Land, and their Circumstances will admitt of, Seting off to Each family, a reasonable portion of Land, according to the Improvements they have made; or that New Charters be given to Kingston, Chester and London-Derry, leaving these Inhabitants out of their New. Charter, to be Incorporated into Towns; neither of which can be any Injury done Kingston Chester or London-Derry, since each of these Towns will after that be made Larger, than the Towns, I am permitted to grant by His Majesties Instructions.

My Lords From Pantucket falls to the Northward of the West line, I am not apprehensive of any other Difficulty, than from the grants made by the Massachusetts, of a great number of Towns refer'd to in Mr Hutchinsons Petitions, and many other private grants, in the same Lands, not taken any notice of in said Petitions, made by that Government, which grants were made by the Governor Council and Assembly, who have the power of granting Lands in that Province, and were pretended to be made for services done the Government, which at that time had not so good an aspect, and looks more like takeing Possession of the Kings Lands, at the time the appeal was depending before His Majesty, than rewarding the persons to whom the grants were made, for their Services, more particularly