44 POLITICS IN HOPKINTON.
merous years about the time of this transaction prevents a confident statement in regard to all the conditions that may have been implied in the Mason grant of this township. The absence of any reference to the "fifteen rights" of the Mason proprietors, leads to the conjecture it may be that those rights were bought by the grantees.
The distribution of the rights of the proprietors of the township under the new grant was as follows: Thomas Mellen, 4;[1] Dea. Henry Mellen, 3; John Jones, Esq., John Chad wick, Jonathan Straw, Sampson Colby, Peter How, Jr., and Enoch Eastman, 2 each; Daniel and John Annis, 2; Joseph Haven, Esq., Rev. Samuel Haven, John Haven, Thomas Bixbee, Peter How. Joseph Haven, Timothy Townsend, Elder Joseph Haven, Simpson Jones, Esq., Isaac Pratt, Jedediah Haven, Mark Whitney, Nathaniel Gibbs, Isaac Gibbs, John Jones, Jr., Benjamin Goddard, Eleazer Howard, Daniel Mellen, James Lock, David Woodwell, Nathaniel Chandler (heirs of), James Chadwick (heirs of), Samuel Osgood, Aaron Kimball, Thomas Eastman, Timothy Clement, John Rust (heirs of), William Peters, Ebenezer Eastman, Jacob Straw, Samuel Putney, Joseph Putney, Thomas Merrill, Joseph Eastman, Jacob Potter, Matthew Stanley, Abraham Colby, Isaac Chandler, Jr., Abuer Kimball (heirs of), John Burbank, Caleb Burbank, Samuel Eastman, Stephen Hoyt, Isaac Whitney, Thomas Walker, Isaac Chandler, and Joseph Eastman, Jr., 1 each; John and James Nutt, 1; Enoch and Ezra Hoyt, 1.
Soon after the first occupation of the territory by the proprietors, this township began to be called New Hopkinton, though known at first as No. 5. The present name of Hopkinton became the legal appellation under the act of incorporation. Our readers will be interested in our notice of
THE INCORPORATING CHARTER.
Anno Regni Regis Georgii Tertii. Magnæ Brittanicæ, Franciæ, et Hiberniæ, etc., Quinto.
[S. S.] An Act to incorporate a Place called New Hopkinton, not within a Place heretofore incorporated, together with that Part of the Township of Bow which covers a Part of the said New Hopkinton, into a Town, invested with the Powers and Privileges of a Town.
WHEREAS the Inhabitants of New Hopkinton (so called) together with the Inhabitants of that part of the Township of Bow which covers a part of said New Hopkinton have petitioned the General Assembly, representing the Difficulties which they are under for want of the Powers and Privileges of a Town, and therefore prayed that they might be joined, united and incorporated together into a Town and be invested with the Powers and Privileges which other Towns in the Province enjoy,
THEREFORE
Be it enacted by the Gouvernour, Council and Assembly, That that part of the Township of Bow which covers a Part of New Hopkinton be, and hereby is, separated from the rest of the said Township of Bow, and is joined to and united with the said New Hopkinton, to all Intents and Purposes: and that all the Land contained within the Bounds and Limits hereafter mentioned, and all the Persons who do or shall inhabit the same, their Polls and Estates, be and hereby are incorporated together into a Town, including all that part of the township of Bow which covers a part of New Hopkinton, with the Polls and Estates; and are hereby invested and enfranchised with all the Powers and Privileges of any other Town in the Province; and shall be called Hopkinton.
A description of the boundaries of Hopkinton, together with certain general laws and regulations, conclude the act of incorporation, done in the House of Representatives for the Province of New Hampshire, on 10th of January, 1765, and signed by H. Sherburne, Speaker; recorded in the Council the next day as passed, and signed by T. Atkinson, Secretary; consented to by B. Wentworth, Governor; and copies attested by the Secretary of the Council, and Enoch Eastman, Town Clerk.
The act of incorporation provided that
- ↑ This is a doubtful figure in the original record.
