Connecticut claimed certain lands in Northern Pennsylvania, which came within her jurisdiction by the extension of her lines, as expressed in her charter of 1662, westward to the South Sea. New York, being then in the possession of a Christian power, was excepted, but the claim was preserved farther west. In 1753 a company was formed to colonize these Connecticut lands in the Susquehanna valley, and lands were bought of the Indians at Wyoming. The government of Pennsylvania objected, and claimed the lands to be within the bounds of William Penn’s charter. (Cf. Penna. Archives, ii. 120, etc.) The defeat of Braddock checked the dispute, but in 1761 it was renewed. In 1763 the home government required the Connecticut people to desist, on the ground that they had not satisfied the Indian owners. New bargains were then made, and in 1769 settlements again took place. General Gage, as commander-in-chief of the British troops on the continent, refused to interfere. In 1774, William Smith prepared an Examination of the Connecticut claim to lands in Pennsylvania, with an appendix and map (Philadelphia, 1774); and Benjamin Trumbull issued A Plea in vindication of the Connecticut title to the contested lands west of the Province of New York (New Haven, 1774). See entries in the Brinley Catalogue, Nos. 2121, etc. The dispute was later referred to the Continental Congress, which in 1781 decided in favor of Pennsylvania, and Aug. 8, 1782, commissioners were appointed. (Journals of Congress, iv. 59, 64.) Connecticut still claimed west of Pennsylvania, and though she retained for a while the “Western Reserve,” she finally ceded (1796-1800) to the United States all her claims as far as the Mississippi.[444] The claims of Massachusetts, on similar grounds, to land in Michigan and Wisconsin were surrendered to the general government in 1785.
The original patent for the Massachusetts Company made its northern line three miles north of the Merrimac River. New Hampshire claimed that it should be run westerly from a point on the coast three miles north of the mouth of that river. When the Board of Trade, in 1737, selected a commission to adjudicate upon this claim, Massachusetts was not in favor, and New Hampshire got more than she asked, the line being run north of the river three miles, and parallel to it, till it reached the most southerly point of the river’s course, when it was continued due west.[445]
Respecting the boundaries on the side of Maine, there is a journal of Walter Bryent, who in 1741 ran the line between New Hampshire and York County in Maine.[446]
Massachusetts also lost territory in the south. The country of King Philip on the easterly side of Narragansett Bay had been claimed by Plymouth, and Massachusetts, by the union under the province charter, succeeded to the older colony’s claim. An arbitration in 1741 did not give all she claimed to Rhode Island, but it added the eastern towns along the bay.[447] On the frontiers of Connecticut, the towns of Enfield, Suffield, Somers, and Woodstock had been settled by Massachusetts, and by an agreement in 1713 she had included them in her jurisdiction.[448] In 1747, finding the taxes in Massachusetts burdensome from the expenses of the war, these towns applied to be received by Connecticut, and their wish was acceded to, while Massachusetts did not dare risk an appeal to the king in council.[449]
The disputes of Connecticut and Rhode Island respecting the Narragansett country resulted on that side in a loss to Connecticut.[450]
In an interesting paper on the “Origin of the names of towns in Massachusetts,” by William H. Whitmore, in the Proceedings (xii. 393-419) of the Mass. Hist. Society, we can trace the loss of towns to Massachusetts, which she had incorporated, and find some reflection of political changes. Up to 1732 the names of towns were supplied by the petitioners, but after that date the incorporation was made in blank, the governor filling in the name, which may account for the large number of names of English peers and statesmen which were attached to Massachusetts towns during the provincial period. The largest class of the early names seems due to the names of the places in England whence their early settlers came. Prof. F. B. Dexter presented to the American Antiquarian Society, in April, 1885, a paper of similar character respecting the towns of Connecticut.
E. Forts and Frontier Towns of New England.—The large increase during recent years in the study of local history has greatly broadened the field of detail. As scarcely one of the older settlements to the west, north, and east escaped the horrors of the French and Indian wars, the student following out the minor phases must look into the histories of the towns of New England. Convenient finding-lists for these towns are the Check-list of Amer. local history, by F. B. Perkins; Colburn’s Bibliog. of Massachusetts; Bartlett’s Bibliog. of Rhode Island; and A. P. C. Griffin’s “Articles on American local history in Historical Collections, etc.,” now publishing in the Boston Public Library Bulletin.
For the Maine towns particular reference may be made to Cyrus Eaton’s Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston (1863), vol. i.; E. E. Bourne’s Wells and Kennebunk; Cushman’s Ancient Sheepscot and Newcastle; Willis’s Portland (2d ed.); Folsom’s Saco and Biddeford; Eaton’s Warren (2d ed.), which gives a map, marking the sites of the forts about the Georges River; Johnston’s Bristol, Bremen, and Pemaquid, which gives a map of the Damariscotta River and the Pemaquid region, with the settlements of 1751; R. K. Sewall’s Ancient Dominions of Maine; James W. North’s Augusta; G. A. and H. W. Wheeler’s Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, including the ancient territory known as Pejepscot, Boston, 1878 (ch. iv. and xxiii.).
See the present History (Vol. III. p. 365) for notes on the local history of Maine, and (Ibid., p. 364) for references to the general historians,—Sullivan, whose want of perspicuousness Grahame (i. 253) complains of, and Williamson.
At the present Brunswick (Maine), Fort Andros had been built in 1688, and had been demolished in 1694. Capt. John Gyles erected there in August, 1715, a post which was called Fort George. Ruins of it were noticeable at the beginning of this century. There is a sketch of it in Wheeler’s Brunswick, Topsham, and Harpswell, pp. 624, 629.