Form prayed for or to Break in upon Either Town. The Committee are of Opinion that the Petitioners in Dunstable are under such Circumstances as necessitates them to Ask Relief which will be fully Obtained by their being made Township, which if this Honᵇˡᵉ. Court should Judge necessary to be done; The Committee are Further of Opinion that it Will be greatly for the Good and Interest of the Township that the Non Resident Proprietors, have Liberty of Voting with the Inhabitants as to the Building and Placing a Meeting House and that the Lands be Equally Taxed, towards said House And that for the Support of the Gosple Ministry among them the Lands of the Non Resident Proprietors be Taxed at Two pence per Acre for the Space of Five Years.
All which is Humbly Submitted in the Name & by Order of the Committee
Read and ordered that the further Consideration of this Report be referred to the next Sitting, and that the Petitioners be in the meantime freed from paying any thing toward the support of the ministry in the Towns to which they respectively belong
Sent down for Concurrence
In the House of Repᵗⁱᵛᵉˢ June 7: 1739
Read and Concurred
Consented to
Read again and Ordered that this Report be so far accepted as that the Lands mentioned and described therein, with the Inhabitants there be erected into a Separate & distinct precinct, and the Said Inhabitants are hereby vested with all Such Powers and Priviledges that any other Precinct in this Province have or by Law ought to enjoy and they are also impowered to assess & levy a Tax of Two pence per Acre per Annum for the Space of Five years on all the unimproved Lands belonging to the non residents Proprietors to be applied for the Support of the Ministry according to the Said Report.
Sent down for Concurrence
In the House of Repᵗⁱᵛᵉˢ Dec 28. 1739
Read and Concur'd.
Januᵃ. 1: Consented to,
[Massachusetts Archives, cxiv, 272, 273.]
While this petition was before the General Court, another one was presented praying for a new township to be made up from the same towns, but including a larger portion of Groton than was asked for in the first petition. This application met with bitter opposition on the part of both places, but it may have hastened the final action on the first petition. It resulted in setting off a precinct from Dunstable, under the name of the West Parish, which is now known as Hollis, New Hampshire. The papers relating to the second petition are as follows:—
To His Excellency Jonathan Belcher Esquire Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over His Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, the Honourable the Council and House of Representatives of said Province, in General Court Assembled Dec. 12ᵗʰ, 1739.
The Petition of Richard Warner and Others, Inhabitants of the Towns of Groton and Dunstable.
Most Humbly Sheweth
That Your Petitioners dwell very far from the place of Public Worship in either of the said Towns, Many of them Eight Miles distant, some more, and none less than four miles, Whereby Your Petitioners are put to great difficulties in Travelling on the Lord's Days, with our Families.
Your Petitioners therefore Humbly Pray Your Excellency and Honours to take their circumstances into your Wise and Compassionate Consideration, And that a part of the Town of Groton, Beginning at the line between Groton and Dunstable where inconvenient to Erect a Township in the
