e year from the time of passing
this act; and shall also be liable to pay their proportion of all
state taxes that may be assessed on the town of _Groton_ until a
new valuation be taken.

[This act passed _February_ 6, 1798.]

All the changes of territorial jurisdiction thus far noted have been in
one direction,--from Groton to the surrounding towns; but now the tide
turns, and for a wonder she received, by legislative enactment, on
February 3, 1803, a small parcel of land just large enough for a
potato-patch. The annexation came from Pepperell, and the amount
received was four acres and twenty rods in extent. The following is a
copy:--

An act to set off a certain parcel of land from the town of
_Pepperell_, in the county of _Middlesex_, and to annex the same to
the town of _Groton_, in the same county.

BE _it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in
General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same_, That a
certain tract of land, bounded, beginning at the end of a wall by
the road leading by Zachariah Fitch's, in said _Groton_; thence
running easterly, by land of Jonas Fitch, to the _Nashua River_,
(so called;) thence up said river to said road, near the bridge
over the same river; thence, bounding by the same road, to the
bounds first mentioned, containing four acres and twenty rods, be,
and hereby is set off from said town of _Pepperell_ and annexed to
said town of _Groton_ forever.

[This act passed _February_ 3, 1803.]

The Worcester and Nashua Railroad was opened through the township of
Groton in the month of December, 1848. It ran at that time a distance of
eight miles through its territory, keeping on the east side of the
Nashua river, which for a considerable part of the way was the dividing
line between Groton and Pepperell. The railroad station for the people
of Pepperell was on the Groton side of the river, and in the course of a
few years a small village sprang up in the neighborhood. All the
interests and sympathies of this little settlement were with Pepperell;
and under these circumstances the Legislature, on May 18, 1857, passed
an act of annexation, by which it became in reality what it was in
sentiment,--a part and parcel of that town. The first section of the act
is as follows:--

An act to set off a part of the Town of Groton, and annex the same
to the Town of Pepperel