The original grant of New Hampshire to John Mason, Esquire, of
London, on November 7, 1629 contained the first mention of the Merrimack
River as the southern boundary of the state.1 The area of
the grant north of the river proceeded up New Hampshire’s short coast to
the Maine border and sixty miles up the Salmon Falls River (as it is
known today), then on an arched course back to the southern border near
the area of Dunstable, Massachusetts. The border was recorded in the
early records of the Massachusetts Bay Company as three miles north of
the outlet of the Merrimack River where it met the Atlantic on the east,
to a point where it was mistakenly believed the course of the river ran
westerly across the length of the border.2 The northwesterly
course of the river was later discovered, but Massachusetts held to the
river as the border.3 As a result, the Bay Colony granted
new townships throughout the Merrimack River valley area and other areas
west of the Merrimack in what is now New Hampshire. New Hampshire went
ahead and issued grants on competing land to her sons.4 On
the eastern border, the original three-mile mark was overshot north of
the outlet of the Merrimack, adding land to Salisbury, Massachusetts, at
the expense of the area of Hampton Falls, New Hampshire.
On July 16, 1713, after peace with France and the eastern native
tribes was achieved by Queen Ann, a committee was chosen to work with
contemporaries from Massachusetts “to run ye devideing line between the
Provinces According to the Royall Charter Granted to the Massathusetts.5In
1726, Lieutenant Governor John Wentworth appealed to the king to
establish a boundary line between the two colonies.6 The two
provinces continued to demonstrate that a settlement was not to be
reached mutually. After much ado, on June 5, 1734, the Lords of Trade
accepted the opinion of New Hampshire’s attorney general and the
solicitor general and reported that the king should appoint
commissioners comprised of representatives from the provinces of New
York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Nova Scotia to settle the line.7
Upon completion of their work, the commissioners had a doubt in point
of law and referred the matter to the king in council.
The lingering dispute was taken up on August 5, 1740. At that time it
was determined that “The Northern Boundaries of the Province of the
Massachusetts Bay, are and be a similar curve line Pursuing the course
of the Merrimack River, at three miles distance, on the north side
thereof, beginning at the Atlantic Ocean and ending at a point due north
of a place in the plan returned by the said Commissioners, called
Pawtucket Falls, and a strait line drawn from thence due west, cross the
said river till it meet his Majesty’s other Governments.”8
This decision was given to Governor Belcher who served as governor of
both provinces. Much accusation has been made regarding his leanings
toward New Hampshire in the form of bribes and such.9 The
subjects of Massachusetts were well known to the Monarch as more
rebellious and difficult to rule. New Hampshire’s small landmass and
sparse population caused her to be quite interdependent on her rebel
neighbors to the south. No doubt the New Hampshire subjects’ loyalty to
the Church of England, and other politics of the mother country, played
into the settling of the border in 1741 to what we have today, much in
New Hampshire’s favor.
Prior to the settlement of this issue, citizens were frequently
caught in uncertainty. It was not uncommon for those in the disputed
territories to be taxed by both provinces. At times the other province
penalized citizens for refusal of payment when they had paid tax to the
province, which they believed they were a part of. Property was taken
and, in some instances, townspeople were imprisoned. The settled line
cut many border towns apart. Families wound up residing in different
states, let alone towns. Settlers had to travel many miles to their
meetinghouse, rather than the one close by, which they had helped to
build.
One area greatly affected was Dunstable,
Massachusetts. The title page of History of the Old Township of
Dunstable: including Nashua, Nashville, Hollis, Hudson, Litchfield, and
Merrimac, N.H.; Dunstable and Tyngsborough, Mass., by Charles J. Fox
(Nashua, 1846) gives part of the picture of what became of Dunstable. A
map on page 12 of that volume shows that Dunstable encompassed all of
Brookline and Milford; parts of Mason, Wilton, Lyndeborough, Mount
Vernon, Amherst, Londonderry, Windham and Pelham, NH; and parts of
Townsend, Shirley, Groton, Westford, Chelmsford, Lowell and Dracut, MA.
Nottingham had been carved out from the easterly side of the Merrimack
River and granted by the Bay Colony to the inhabitants of Dunstable
residing in that part of town in 1732.10 This area fell into
New Hampshire when the line was settled in 1741. The province of New
Hampshire chartered Nottingham-West in 1746. The addition of “West” was
added due to the existing town of Nottingham in the eastern area of the
state. Nottingham-West became Hudson in 1830.
In the History of the town of Hollis, New Hampshire, from its
first settlement to the year 1879, by Samuel T Worchester (Nashua,
1879); one may read all about the ebb and flow of towns such as Monson,
(a town which existed for 24 years), Duxbury, Mile Slip, Raby, etc. On a
map of New Hampshire done by Col. Joseph Blanchard in
1761, Nottingham-West is on the east side of the Merrimack River,
Dunstable on the west side of the same river, Hollis west of Dunstable
on the Massachusetts border, and Monson directly north of Hollis. The
same is visible on Bowles's New Pocket Map of 1780, except Monson is not
shown. Jeremy Belknap's “New Map of New Hampshire,”1791, shows Dunstable
and Hollis with Litchfield in place, but it does not show
Nottingham-West, or Hudson.
The title and explanations pages from Dunstable (MA) Vital
Records to 1850 do not address the issue of early records and
the border dispute, except to state, "The early records of the
Congregational Church, organized in 1685, now the First Congregational
Church of Nashua, New Hampshire, cannot be found." An interesting
question for another day is whether vital records are reported in both
locations.
Hampton,
New Hampshire is another area that was affected by the moving
border. Dow covers the many changes that occurred in the southern
regions of the town in The History of Hampton.11
Page 145 of that volume gives the circumstances surrounding the
formation of the town of South Hampton incorporated in 1742 with
individuals who were originally in the towns of Salisbury and Amesbury,
Massachusetts. So an ancestor born in Salisbury, Massachusetts might
well die in South Hampton, New Hampshire without ever having moved.
Other Massachusetts towns affected were Haverhill, Methuen and Dracut.12.
In the final analysis, researchers who find ancestors in these border
towns of New Hampshire during this time frame should carefully consult
vital records on both sides of the border. Land records will also be
helpful to see if indeed their ancestors moved or whether instead they
were involved in this moving border matter.
1. Albert Stillman Bachellor, State Papers New Hampshire
vol. XXIX (Concord, NH: Edward N. Pearson, 1896) p. 30
2. Kimball Webster, History of Hudson
(Manchester, NH: Granite State Publishing, 1913) p. 88
3. Frank B. Sanborn, New Hampshire an
Epitome of Popular Government (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co.
1904) p. 166
4. See James O. Lyford, History of Concord
vol. 1 (Concord, NH: Rumford Press, 1903) p. 188, for more on the Bow
Controversy.
5. Albert Stillman Bachellor, State Papers
New Hampshire vol. XIX (Manchester, NH: John B. Clarke, 1891) p. 44
6. Frank B. Sanborn, New Hampshire an
Epitome of Popular Government (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co.
1904) p. 167
7. Joseph Dow, The History of Hampton, NH
(Salem, MA: Salem Press Publishing & Printing, 1893) p. 141
8. Nathaniel Bouton, Provincial Papers of
New Hampshire vol. VII (Concord, NH: 1875) pp. 221-226
9. Joseph Dow, The History of Hampton, NH
(Salem, MA: Salem Press Publishing & Printing, 1893) p. 144 and
Frank B. Sanborn, New Hampshire an Epitome of Popular Government
(Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. 1904) p. 171
10. Kimball Webster, History of Hudson
(Manchester, NH: Granite State Publishing, 1913) p. 93
11. Joseph Dow, The History of Hampton, NH
(Salem, MA: Salem Press Publishing & Printing, 1893) pp. 137-145
12. Frank B. Sanborn, New Hampshire an Epitome
of Popular Government (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co. 1904) p.
170