d.

* * * * *

THE BOUNDARY LINES OF OLD GROTON.--III.

By the Hon. Samuel Abbott Green.

The running of the Provincial line in 1741 cut off a large part of
Dunstable, and left it on the New Hampshire side of the boundary. It
separated even the meeting-house from that portion of the town still
remaining in Massachusetts, and this fact added not a little to the deep
animosity felt by the inhabitants when the disputed question was
settled. It is no exaggeration to say that, throughout the old township,
the feelings and sympathies of the inhabitants on both sides of the line
were entirely with Massachusetts. A short time before this period the
town of Nottingham had been incorporated by the General Court, and its
territory taken from Dunstable. It comprised all the lands of that town,
lying on the easterly side of the Merrimack River; and the difficulty of
attending public worship led to the division. When the Provincial line
was established, it affected Nottingham, like many other towns, most
unfavorably. It divided its territory and left a tract of land in
Massachusetts, too small for a separate township, but by its
associations belonging to Dunstable. This tract is to-day that part of
Tyngsborough lying east of the river.

The question of a new meeting-house was now agitating the inhabitants
of Dunstable. Their former building was in another Province, where
different laws prevailed respecting the qualifications and settlement of
ministers. It was clearly evident that another structure must be built,
and the customary dispute of small communities arose in regard to its
site. Some persons favored one locality, and others another; some wanted
the centre of territory, and others the centre of population. Akin to
this subject I give the words of the Reverend Joseph Emerson, of
Pepperell,--as quoted by Mr. Butler, in his History of Groton (page
306),--taken from a sermon delivered on March 8, 1770, at the dedication
of the second meeting-house in Pepperell: "It hath been observed that
some of the hottest contentions in this land hath been about settling of
ministers and building meeting-houses; and what is the reason? The devil
is a great enemy to settling ministers and building meeting-houses;
wherefore he sets on his own children to work and make difficulties, and
to the utmost of his power stirs up the corruptions of the children of
God in some way lo oppose or obstruct so good a