FOREST COMMISSIONERS REPORT. lOI 



With an index or catalog of all of these islands, it then 

 became a process of eliminating those already conveyed. 



I find, like all other lands in Maine, the three great sources 

 of island titles along the coast are from ancient grants by the 

 British Crown and its grantees (which will be more fully dis- 

 cussed later) ; the Commonwealth of Massachusetts — Colony 

 of Massachusetts Bay, the Province and State of Massachu- 

 setts — before the separation of Maine and afterwards during 

 its joint ownership in the public lands; and the State of Maine. 



There is on file in the State Land Office copies of deeds given 

 by Massachusetts and Maine, and a separate index of island 

 conveyances. The island index is arranged alphabetically, and 

 was made by going through the list of deeds and listing each 

 island as therein named. 



From the fact that Massachusetts commenced deeding these 

 islands as early as 1780, invariably designating them by letter 

 rather than name, with reference to some ancient plan or sur- 

 vey ; the fact that these islands have often changed names since 

 their conveyance; and the fact that many of them were con- 

 veyed by name without sufficient description as to location to 

 distinguish them from other islands of the same name — made 

 this index of little use, in determining whether an island as 

 known and designated on the maps today was ever conveyed 

 by Massachusetts or Maine. For illustration: If you wanted 

 to know whether Ingall's Island had been conveyed by Massa- 

 chusetts or Maine, an examination of the index would not show 

 its conveyance, as it was conveyed by Massachusetts under the 

 name of island A, and the index would so have it. To deter- 

 mine just what island as shown on the maps today, was intended 

 in each of these conveyances, either by other names or imper- 

 fect description, involved considerable labor. Fortunately the 

 old Massachusetts plans under which most of these islands were 

 deeded have been preserved, and are on file at the Land Office ; 

 so by a comparison with the coast charts, it has been possible 

 to locate the islands intended. From various other sources I 

 have located islands granted under meager descriptions and 

 feel that I have had good success in locating the islands intended 

 in these conveyances, and making this index of practical use 

 today. 



