The following is the description of the south boundary of New Hampshire as given by King George II to Benning Wentworth when Wentworth was appointed governor, July 3, 1741: 10 province of New Hampshire, within our Dominions of New England in America, bounded on the south side by a simular Curve line pursuing the Course of the Merrimac River at three miles distance, on the North side therof, beginning at the Atlantick Ocean & ending at a point due North of a place called Pautucket Falls, and by a Straight Line drawn from thence due West Cross the said River 'till it meets with our other Governments, The south boundary of New Hampshire as surveyed between 1885 and 1898 is marked by 50 large cut-granite monuments at irregular intervals. The initial point of this survey is the southwest corner of New Hampshire and southeast corner of Vermont, marked by a copper bolt in the top of a block of granite set in a mass of concrete 6 feet square," at or near ordinary low-water line" on the west bank of the Connecticut River, the geographic position of which is latitude 42° 43′ 37.21", longitude 72° 27′ 32.08". A witness mark of polished granite, suitably inscribed, stands on the Massachusetts-Vermont line, 582 feet, N. 87° 48′ W. from the corner. From the State corner the line was run on a general course about 22° south of east (true bearing), measured distance of 57.84 miles to the boundary pine monument, so-called, standing between the towns of Pelham, New Hampshire, and Dracut, Massachusetts, in the pasture land owned by Zachariah Coburn, at a point where one George Mitchell, surveyor, marked a pitch pine tree, March 21, 1741, then supposed to be 3 miles due north of a place in the Merrimack River formerly called Pawtucket Falls, now Lowell. This monument is also granite, and its geographic position is latitude 42° 41′ 50.25", longitude 71° 19′ 22.02". From this point the boundary consists of a series of straight lines, approximately paralleling Merrimack River and 3 miles distant therefrom. The terminal mark is a granite monument 42 by 14 by 12 inches in size, marked Mass. on its south face and N. H. on its north face, which 1890 1890 stands on Salisbury Beach about 80 feet from high-water line and 250 feet from low-water line of the Atlantic Ocean. Its geographic position is latitude 42° 52′ 19.28", longitude 70° 49′ 02.94". From this point the boundary extends for "three miles to the limit of State jurisdiction" on a course 86° 07′ 30′′ E. * * * This survey was approved by Massachusetts 11 and by New Hampshire.12 The acts of the State legislatures give the complete notes of the surveys. Copies of the notes and many geographic positions on 10 Documentary history of New York, vol. 4, p. 331, 1851. 11 Act of May 12, 1899, ch. 369. 12 Act of Mar. 22, 1901, ch. 115. the lines are given in the town boundary atlases prepared by the harbor and land commission of Massachusetts. The question concerning the western boundary of New Hampshire was submitted to the King, who in 1764 made the following decree: 13 AT THE COURT OF ST. JAMES, Whereas there was, this day read at the board, a report made by the Right Honorable the Lords of the Committee of council for plantation affairs, dated the 17th of this instant, upon considering a representation from the Lords Commisioners for trade and plantations, relative to the disputes that have, some years subsisted between the provinces of New-Hampshire and New-York, concerning the boundary line between those provinces-His Majesty, taking the same into consideration, was pleased with the advice of his privy council, to approve of what is therein proposed, and doth accordingly, hereby order and declare the western banks of the river Connecticut, from where it enters the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, as far north as the forty-fifth degree of northern latitude, to be the boundary line PSHIRE between the said two provinces of New Hampshire and New York. Wherefore the respective Governors and Commanders in Chief of his Majesty's said Provinces of New-Hampshire and New-York, for the time being, and all others whom it may concern, are to take notice of His Majesty's pleasure hereby signified and govern themselves accordingly. INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY 520 519 NEW HAMPSHIRE VE RAM ON T "THE Connecticut NEW 1/2 AMPSHIRE 1 MILE FIGURE 7.-Map of the Gore, at the northeast corner of Vermont Notwithstanding this decree of the King controversy attended with violence was kept up for many years, but the line was finally accepted and now forms the boundary between the States of New Hampshire and Vermont. (See p. 87.) The northern boundary of New Hampshire was fixed by the British treaty of 1842 (p. 18) and is described as follows: Commencing at the "Crown Monument," so called," at the intersection of the New Hampshire, Maine, and Province of Quebec boundaries, in latitude 45° 18' 20", longitude 71° 05' 04", thence by an irregular line along the divide to the head of Halls Stream and down the middle of that stream to a line established by Valentine and Collins previous to 1774 as the 45th parallel of latitude. The end of this line in the middle of Halls Stream is in latitude. 45° 00′ 48.7'', longitude 71° 30′ 05.7". The New Hampshire-Vermont line then runs east for about 134 miles to the west bank of the Connecticut River, the approximate position of which is latitude 45° 00' 50", longitude 71° 27' 57". This small area east of Halls Stream, known locally as "The Gore" (see fig. 7), is often incorrectly shown as a part of New Hampshire. 13 Slade, William, jr., op. cit., p. 19; Documentary history of New York, vol. 4, p. 355, 1851. 14 Now monument 475 of the International Boundary Commission. A historical description of the boundaries of New Hampshire is given by Harriman.15 The title to the New Hampshire area in the vicinity of the Connecticut Lakes and north of the 45th parallel was for many years in dispute between New Hampshire and Canada. In 1829 the settlers in that locality organized an independent republic, which was called the Indian Stream Territory. Local government was in effect until after the Indian Stream War, in 1835, when New Hampshire took control.16 VERMONT The grants from King Henry of France in 1603 and King James of England in 1606 both included the territory which forms the present State of Vermont. It was also included in the charter of New England of 1620. In the grants to the Duke of York in 1664 and 1674 all the territory between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers was included. New York therefore claimed jurisdiction of the territory now known as Vermont. (See fig. 8.) Massachusetts, however, had made claim at an early period to the tract west of the Connecticut River now forming a portion of that State and claimed also the greater part of the Vermont territory. By the terms of the charter of Massachusetts Bay, of 1629, that colony was granted all the lands which lye, and be within the space of three English Myles to the Northward of the said River called Monomack alias Merrymack, or to the Northward of any and every Parte thereof." Under this clause Massachusetts Bay claimed that its jurisdiction extended to a line 3 miles north of the northernmost part of the Merrimack River, which would embrace a large portion of New Hampshire and Vermont. New Hampshire contested this claim and after several years' controversy was more than sustained by a decision of the King in 1740. (See p. 81.) New Hampshire in turn claimed the territory of Vermont on the ground that as Massachusetts and Connecticut had been allowed to extend their boundaries within 20 miles of the Hudson River its territory should go equally far, and contended that the King's decree of 1740 left that fairly to be inferred; also that the old charters of 1664 and 1674 were obsolete. By a decree of the King, however, the territory west of the Connecticut River, from the 45th parallel to the Massachusetts line, was declared to belong to the Province of New York. (See New Hamp 15 Harriman, Walter, The history of Warner, N. H., pp. 550-581, Concord, 1879. 16 See Bacon, E. M., The Connecticut River and the Valley of the Connecticut, pp. 369-370, New York, 1906; and Faris, J. T., The romance of the boundaries, pp. 33-43. New York, 1926. For a historical sketch of the area see 25th Cong., 3d sess., H. Rept. 176, Jan. 16, 1839. 17 Thorpe, F. N., op. cit., vol. 3, p. 1847. shire, p. 84.) As most of the settlers of Vermont were from New Hampshire, this decision of the King caused great dissatisfaction, and the Revolution found Vermont the scene of conflicting claims and the theater of violent acts, some culminating in actual bloodshed. On January 15, 1777, delegates representing 51 towns comprised in the territory known as the "New Hampshire grants," on the west side of the Green Mountains, declared the area an independent State,18 to be called "New Connecticut, alias Vermont," but the title generally used in official papers for several years thereafter was "the New Hampshire grants." Sixteen towns in New Hampshire sought union with the new State, but this action was vigorously opposed by New Hampshire and was not approved by the Continental Congress. Massachusetts agreed to the independence of Vermont in 1781, and New Hampshire adjusted its differences with that State in 1782, but 8 years more passed before New York consented to the admission of Vermont to the Union. Vermont in the meantime had fixed upon a western boundary practically the same as at present, which was then described by reference to town boundaries as far north as the Poultney River, thence down the middle channel of that river to East Bay and northward to and through the middle of the deepest channel of Lake Champlain.1 19 Vermont was admitted as an independent State by an act approved February 18, effective March 4, 1791.20 In 1767 astronomic observations were made on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, and a mark was set at the supposed position of the 45th parallel. From this point Valentine and Collins in 1772 surveyed and marked a line as far east as the Connecticut River for the eastern part of the northern boundary of the Province of New York (now the State of Vermont). Recent surveys show that this boundary for its entire length is from a quarter of a mile to 1.1 miles north of the 45th parallel,21 but by the convention between the United States and Great Britain of 1842 the line as marked west of Halls Stream to the deepest part of Lake Champlain, was agreed upon as part of the boundary of the United States. The northwest corner of Vermont, which is the northeast corner of New York, falls in Lake Champlain at latitude 45° 00′ 38.9", longitude 73° 20′ 38.9". 18 See Fourteenth Census, vol. 1, p. 27, note 50, 1921, "Vermont; Independent republic of Vermont admitted to the Union as a State in 1791." 19 Slade, William, jr., op. cit., pp. 69-70, 193. 201 Stat. L. 191. In an official report to the Governor of Vermont made in 1806, Samuel Waters declared that his observations showed that the boundary of Vermont near its eastern terminus was 6' 14" south of the 45th parallel, a statement which was grossly in error, if he referred to the geographic latitude. Joint resolutions by the Legislature of the State of Vermont, approved November 22, 1912, and February 13, 1913,22 authorized the institution of a suit in the Supreme Court of the United States for the determination of the position of the boundary line between that State and New Hampshire. Vermont in its bill of complaint filed at the October term, 1915, asked that the New Hampshire boundary line be declared to be in the middle of the Connecticut River; New Hampshire in its reply asked that the boundary be fixed at the high-water line on the west bank of the river, also that the north boundary of Vermont end at Halls Stream, instead of at the Connecticut River 134 miles farther east. This case has not yet been decided. The south boundary of Vermont is part of the north boundary of Massachusetts, which was fixed by the King in council under date of August 5, 1740, and surveyed under the direction of Governor Belcher in 1741. It was resurveyed and re-marked by commissioners representing the two States between 1885 and 1898. This survey was commenced at the northwest corner of Massachusetts, at a monument consisting of a granite post 8 feet long and 14 inches square set nearly 5 feet in the ground. The faces toward the different States were marked "N. Y. 1898," "Mass. 1896," and "Vt. 1896." Its geographic position is latitude 42° 44′ 45.20", longitude 73° 15′ 54.90'. From this point the boundary is a nearly straight line, bearing about 2° south of east (true bearing), and runs 41 miles to the southeast corner of Vermont, which is a mark on the west bank of the Connecticut River. A description of this mark is given on page 83.23 The line between Vermont and New York was surveyed and marked by commissioners from the two States in 1814 and is as follows: 24 * * * Beginning at a red or black oak tree, the northwest corner of Massachusetts, and running north 82° 20′ west as the magnetic needle pointed in 1814, 50 chains, to a monument erected for the southwest corner of the State of Vermont, which monument stands on the brow of a high hill, descending to the west, then northerly in a straight line to a point which is distant 10 chains, on a course south 35 degrees west, from the most westerly corner of a lot of land distinguished in the records of the town of Pownal, in the State of Vermont, as the fifth division of the right of Gamaliel Wallace, and which, in the year 1814, was owned and occupied by Abraham Vosburgh; then north Acts and resolves passed by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont at the session of 1912, pp. 627-628. "The full notes of this survey are given in the State acts ratifying it (Massachusetts Acts of 1900, ch. 131, and Vermont Acts of 1900, ch. 137); also in the folio atlases of the harbor and land commission of Massachusetts. See report of the commissioners (Massachusetts H. Doc. 300, 1900). New York Rev. Stat., 6th ed., vol. 1, pp. 122-123, Banks & Brothers, 1875; 7th ed., vol. 1, p. 128, 1882. |
