Representatives (page 156), November 14,
1770.]

The Committee appointed to consider the Plan of two Tracts of Land
granted to _James Prescot_, Esq; and others, reported.

Read and accepted. _Resolved_, That both the above Plans, the one
containing Four Thousand one Hundred and thirty Acres, the other
containing two Hundred and seventy Acres, delineated and described
as is set forth by the Surveyor in the Description thereof hereunto
annexed, be accepted, and hereby is confirmed to _James Prescot_,
Esq; and others named in their Petition, and to their Heirs and
Assigns in Lieu of and full Satisfaction for Four Thousand four
Hundred Acres of Land lost by the late running of the Line between
this Province and _New-Hampshire_, as mention'd in a Grant made by
both Houses of the Assembly, A.D. 1765, but not consented to by the
Governor. _Provided_ both said Plans together do not exceed the
Quantity of Four Thousand four Hundred Acres, nor interfere with
any former Grant.

Sent up for Concurrence.

[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 73), June 22, 1771.]

It is evident from these reports that the Prescott brothers took the
forty-four hundred acres in the westerly part of the province, rather
than the fifty-eight hundred and eighty acres on the easterly side of
the Saco river, though I have been unable to identify, beyond a doubt,
the tract of land thus granted. I am inclined to think however, that it
is the one mentioned in the Memorial of the One Hundredth Anniversary of
the Incorporation of Middlefield, Massachusetts, August 15, 1883. The
town is situated on the westerly border of Hampshire County,--forming a
jog into Berkshire,--and was made up in part of Prescott's Grant. A map
is given in the "Memorial" volume (page 16) which shows that the Grant
was originally in Berkshire county, very near to the tract of land given
to the proprietors of Groton.

Professor Edward P. Smith, of Worcester, delivered an historical address
on the occasion of the anniversary, and he says:--

Prescott's Grant, the nucleus of the town, appears as a large
quadrilateral, containing more than a thousand acres in the north
and west part of the town. Who the Prescott was to whom the grant
was made is not known, further than that he must have been some one
who had rendered military or other services to the State. That he
w