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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��twelfth range, and one in the thirteenth, known as the Walker lot.
In the first draft of lots, as drawn for the proprietors by the Rev. Stephen Peabody, in 1779, in accordance with the original plan and survey as sub- mitted to the grantees, there were but one hundred and four divisions into lots, and those of seventy-five acres each, located upon either side of a road running through the midst of the township, as mapped and numbered by the surveyor, Col. Henry Gerrish. Of these, ninety were distributed among the petitioners, and four were reserved for the cause of religion and for the support of schools. This distribution of shares and location of lots remained in force for twenty-three years, and formed the basis for the levying of all taxes and for the apportionment of expenses necessary to the settlement and development of the new country.
But in 1802, there having been no really permanent settlement made, and time having obliterated all marks, metes and bounds of the Gerrish survey, a new one was ordered, and all previous divisions and allotments were declared " null and void ;" and to Jere- miah Eames, jr., Esq., was appointed the task of dividing into suitable lots, and resetting the metes and bounds of the township of VVhitefield. This he did in the summer of that year, and the present plan was adopted on the 28th of September, 1802, which divided the town into two hundred and ten lots. From these a draft was made of two to each original right or title, and thus one hundred and eighty- eight lots found distinct owners, at least in name. It must be remem- bered, however, that years ago most of the individuals whose names were at- tached to these divisions of land were already dead, and their earthly titles extinguished.
The first material change in the ownership of these Whitefield lands, from the original or granted owner- ship, was in October, 1793.
Tax claims had been unnoticed by the proprietors until it became neces-
��sary to sell the lands to pay the assess- ments. This was done in accordance with the law for such cases enacted, and at the house of Capt. Benjamin French, inn-holder at Dunstable, Mass., October 28, 1793. at vendue, Frederick French and Samuel Minot became the principal owners of the entire township of Whitefield.
This Frederick was a son of Capt. Benjamin French, who was one of the "committee of safety" in those 1776 days, and an active partisan of the loyal order. His mother was a grand- daughter of Capt. John Lovewell, the hero of the " Pigwacket" fight with the Indians in 1725. He was twenty- seven years old when he bought the fourth part of Whitefield's forfeited land titles, and was acting as clerk at this vendue.
As a justice of the peace he admin- istered the oath of office to Col. Sam- uel Adams, who was chosen to preside at the first meeting of the proprietors of Whitefield. Col. Adams was also chosen assessor, along with Capt. Robert Foster and Josiah Melvin, at this meet- ing.
Samuel Minot, who in 1793 became prospective if not real owner of a large portion of Whitefield's undevel- oped timber lands, was a land spec- ulator of Concord, Mass. Taking advantage of the accidental or forced sales of the valuable tract thus thrown upon the market by the demands of unsatisfied claims, he purchased, by payment of a proprietor's tax of 33s. 9//. per share, about one half the area of the township, or nine thousand acres. His son, Jonas Minot, was proprietors' clerk and fiduciary through all the years between the second organization of the proprietary, in 1 790, and the final establishment of a town with incorporated rights and privileges in 1804.
Upon the northern outskirts of the village, on the hill road to Lancaster, is the " Benjamin Bowles " farm — a title derived from the early tiller of its soil. It formed a part of the Asa King purchase from Samuel Minot, in
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