Neither has or Can obtain the mony he paid for the aforesaid Land therefore your petitioner Humbly prays that your Honours in your Great wisdom would Direct some person to Convey the Land aforesaid or that your petitioner may Receive his money that he paid out of the Sales of Sir William's Estate which has been Sold by order of Government or Relieve your petitioner in some other way that your honours may Direct and as in Duty bound will ever pray

Timothy Hodgdon

Arundel, Decem' 20 1782

Petition Town of Bristol.

To the Honourable the Senate Council & House of Representatives in General Court Assembled

The Petition of the Town of Bristol in the County of Lincoln humbly sheweth that by reason of the late War this Town has been reducd to great distress & tho now by the Blessings of Providence peace be restor" unto us yet we still sorely feel the Effects of the War-By our Enemies taking Post at Penobscut & continually infesting this Coast with their privateers & small Boats our lumber & fishing Trade in which alone we had any Concern has been almost totally Suppress Almost every Vessel we own in the Beginning of the War fell into their hands & tho from time to time Vessels have been purchas—wh money borrow for this purpose whereby a debt has been contracted as the Inhabitants could not possibly subsist without some to convey their lumber to Market yet of this we have been stript with our lumber & Fish on Board or the returns of it in Provision for the Support of our families So that by a late Computation our losses by Water amount to £4240 besides the Arms Ammunition provisions

& Apparel that have been taken out of our Houses by plundering Refugees - The Seasons for a Number of Years past have been very unfavourable & the Drought So Severe that tho people's Attention have been more than ever turn to the Cultivation of their Farms yet they have not been able to raise above half enough of Bread for their Consumption & the risque of Importation being so great & many dispos to take Advantage of the Necessities of others thereby the Price of the Necessaries of life has been rais- so high that people were involva in the greatest difficulties & obligd to part with every Commodity they had to dispose of at the Buyers Price So that Corn has been sold for four Dollars or more & other Articles in Proportion - Our Hay has also been cut of with the Drought for several years so that our Stocks are greatly diminish by what they were at the Beginning of the War & at present there is such a Scarcity of Bread that hardly all the Lumber we have on hand can procure us bread for the Season a Cord of Wood not fetching above half a Bushel Corn-Besides the debt contracted by Individuals thro the distresses occasion by the War the most part of the State Taxes for some Years have not been dischargd We acknowledge that a few Individuals could at the proper time have paid their proportion & were willing to do so, but the majority however dispos to pay their part were utterly unable & numbers among us inimically inclin'd—to these States who carried on a clandestine Trade with the Enemy greatly to the detriment of the Town threaten the Collectors with utter destruction so that they durst not discharge the duties of their OfficeIf your Honours should now exact from us these Taxes it would utterly ruin Individuals & give such a crush to the whole Town as it could not for many Years recover of & put it out of its power for the future to pay such a proportion of Taxes for defraying the Expenses of Government as otherwise it might We would therefore beg your Honours would

take our distressing Situation under your Serious Consideration & discharge us of these Taxes that were due before Peace was made & your Petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray Sign in name & by Appointment of the Town by

Henter Hunter,

Thomas Johnston

Selectmen of
Bristol

Petition of George Smith.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts To the Hon'ble the Senate

and House of Representatives in General Court assembled. The petition of George Smith, late an Inhabitant of Ireland, humbly sheweth that in the year 1779 — having been informed that great encouragement was given to those who should emigrate from other countries, and undertake the Cultivation of the American Wilderness, he with his wife removed from their native country, hoping to approve themselves useful Inhabitants in some parts of the United States;

During the continuance of the war, your petitioner did not pursue the object which he had immediately in view, but engaged in the manufacture of Gunpowder in this Commonwealth, and pursued that hazardous business in such manner as he presumes has proved advantageous to the Community; -The return of Peace renders his continuance in that business longer unnecessary; and he now wishes to prosecute the original design of his coming to America, and to put himself in a capacity to exercise the employment of a Malster and Brewer in which he served an apprenticeship- & being informed of a small gore of land | in the County of Cumberland laying between the Towns Bakerstown & Raymondtown & supposed to contain about six hundred acres, he humbly offers himself as a purchaser thereof, & hopes he shall meet

with such encouragement as that he may invite over to this Country, some of his Relations who are waiting to hear of his

success.

And your petitioner as in duty bound shall pray

George Smith

Report of Committee in re Lands in Town of Sanford.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Jan 1st 1783

The Committee appointed by the general Court by a Resolve passed the 9th of Feb 1782 to make Enquiry into the Circumstances of the Settlement of certain Lands laying in the Town of Sanford in the County of York by Ebenezer Hall & others which according to their Representation in their Petition did belong to the late Governor Hutchinson &c have attended that Service & find that the said Lands were Settled under the Circumstances represented by the Petitioners & have Viewed said Lands containing Three Thousand Six Hundred & Fifty Acres including Ponds & heaths Bounded as follows Viz beginning at the Western Corner of a Tract of Land called Coxhall at a pitch pine Tree marked on four Sides thence running North East Eight Hundred & Eighty Rods to a white oak Tree marked on four Sides thence North West Six Hundred & Sixty Three Rods Ten feet & an half to a small white oak Tree marked on four Sides thence South West Eight Hundred & Eighty Rods to a white Oak Tree marked on four Sides & thence South East Six Hundred & Sixty Three Rods Ten Feet & an half to the place begun at Your Committee are of Opinion that within the Limits aforesaid are contained about Five Hundred Acres of Heaths & Ponds which being allowed as such & deducted Your Com

mittee Estimate the Residue considered as in a State of Nature at the Rate of Three Shillings an Acre amounting in the whole to Four Hundred Seventy Two pounds Ten Shillings

Your Committee beg leave to mention that from the best Information which they have been able to obtain that the Fee of the said Lands was never vested in the said Governor Hutchinson & that he only held a part thereof as a Tenant by Courtesy but the Fee of the said Lands was Vested in one Grizzel Sanford, the Heirs of the Wife of the said Hutchinson & the Heirs of the last Wife of the late L' Governor Oliver dec therefore can not in the Opinion of your Committee be regularly granted to the Petitioners untill it shall appear that the said Lands are the property of this Commonwealth from a Confiscation thereof in due Course of Law

John Hill p' order

Memorial of Proprietors of Land in York County.

To the Honourable the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled

The Memorial of the Proprietors of Certain lands in the County of York under Hartaken Symonds humbly sheweth that your Memorialists are informed that Jeremiah Eastman and others have petitioned your honours to grant them certain lands said by them to have formerly belonged to Thomas Hutchinson Esq & situate in Sandford in said County - Now your Memorialists beg leave to represent to your honours that said lands are their property, that they never were said Hutchinson's & are situated in Coxhall in said CountyThat the determination of the Question depends upon settling