other records in the office of the Secretary of State at Concord, where such records should be found. Upon going to the records of the town of Alexandria, I find that the town had been granted by the Masonian proprietors to Joseph Butterfield, Jr., and others, March 13, 1767, including much of what is now Alexandria, and all of Danbury. But the conditions upon which this grant was made were not performed by the grantees; and so the grantors, the Masonian proprietors, re-entered upon the land, and thus became legally seized and possessed again of the lands.
On the 7th day of July, 1773, the Masonian proprietors at a meeting held at Portsmouth, issued a new grant of Alexandria, including the same land which had been included in the former grant, to Jonas Minot, Matthew Thornton and others. This grant was described as bounded on the northwest by Mason's patent line. The said Masonian proprietors at the same time, July 7, 1773, voted that there be and there hereby is granted unto the before named Jonas Minot, and others, upon the terms, conditions, limitations, and reservations hereinafter mentioned, "A certain tract of land situated in the county of Hillsborough and Province of New Hampshire, bounded as follows, viz.: begining at the southwesterly corner of Alexandria, aforesaid, on the patent line, and running on said patent line to Fishersfield Corner in Great Sunapee Pond; from thence east on the northerly side line of Fishersfield, 472 rods, to Perrystown Corner; thence north, eighty-five degrees east, about four miles to a beech tree marked on the Perrystown line; from thence north, thirty-nine degrees east, about 1672 rods, to a beech tree marked in Alexandria Corner; from thence north, 12 degrees west, to the patent line aforementioned on the westerly side of said Alexandria." One of the terms and conditions of the grant was, that "within ninety days from this date, the lots of said grantees shall be drawn or divided and a schedule of the numbers returned to the said grantors within that time, with a list of the settling lots and the lots thereto belonging, and that said grantees, within said ninety days, shall vote an acceptance of both said grants and make a record of such acceptance."
There was a meeting of the grantees of these lands, holden at Londonderry, September 7, 1773, at which it was voted "that the proprietors accept of the grant agreebly to the condition of the charter, granted to them by the proprietors of Mason's Patent, bearing date July 7th, 1773, which grant in eludes the township called Alexandria, in the county of Grafton, and- the land called the "Addition of Alexandria," lying in the county of Hillsborough, both in the Province of New Hampshire."
Here we have the origin of the term Addition of Alexandria, which addition, as you see, was bounded precisely as the town of New London was when first incorporated. We also find that all the lands in the town of New London, and much of Wilmot, were lotted and drawn to the proprietors, while it was thus known as the Addition of Alexandria, and probably within the ninety days after the date of the grant, for the records of Alexandria show the drawing of these lots, and among the different lots drawn by one Robert McMurphy was lot No. 108, and at the end of his drawing it says, "and all the common land adjoining the lot 108 by Little Sunapee Pond." The records of the proprietors of Alexandria, to whom this addition was also granted, have been destroyed by fire, from 1779. the year New London was chartered, down to 1793. After this latter date I find that the Addition is often spoken of as the Alexandria Addition, alias New London, and a number of the meetings of these proprietors were held in New London after 1793, at the house of Joseph Colby, Esq.
Thus we see that the lands in New London were originally and are still held under this grant of the Masonian proprietors to Jonas Minot and others of this territory as an addition to the
