128 NATURAL HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF GROTON, MASS. 



An Act relating to the great Bridge in Billerica. 



TyWT'HEREAS the Agents for the Towns of Billerica and Chelms- 

 ford, by Direction of the said Towns in their Petition to this 

 Court at their present Session, have shelved forth, that there is a Great 

 Bridge erected over Concoxd-RxvQX, in the To7vnship of B\\\QX\cdi, and 

 that the said Bridge was built by the Towns of Billerica, Chelmsford 

 and Groton ; and according to a former Settlement made by a Com- 

 ?nittee appointed for the Settlement of the Charge of the Bridges in the 

 County of Middlesex. But the Town of Groton, upon Application to 

 this Court in 1699, did obtain a Discharge from either building or re- 

 pairing for the future, 7vithout firthcr Order frotn this Court. And 

 further it was alledged in the said Petition, that the said Bridge is 

 fallen into such Decay, that it is no Ways profitable to Repair, or safe 

 to Improve any longer as it now is, but that the same must of Necessity 

 be new-built ; and that it is apprehended the Charge will be so great 

 that the Burthen will be too heavy for Billerica and Chelmsford to 

 bear, for the Reasons therein given, which more properly ought to come 

 under Consideration of the Justices of the Court of General Session of 

 the Peace in the County of Middlesex : 



Be tt tljcreforc ticclareli anti enactetj bo t'je Ijanourabk i\i iLiciitrnnut 

 (gobcrnaur, Council anti 3.\cprcscntat;bcs, \\\ (general Court assnnbleti, 

 anil fig tijc Sliitl)on'to of tljc same, That the Matters contained in the 

 said Petition be referred to the Consideration of the Justices of the 

 Court of General Sessions of the Peace for the said County of 

 Middlesex, at their Quarter Sessions ; who are hereby fully authorized 

 and impowred to take such Order about the said Bridge from Time 

 to Time, and at all Times hereafter, as shall be judged meet and con- 

 venient, and to settle the Charge of the same, upon any, or every the 

 Towns of the said County. And the Paragraph in the Law exempting 

 the Town of Groton, from the Charge of the said Bridge, is hereby 

 repealed, and made null and void. 



" Acts and Laws, of his Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts-Bay in New- 

 England" (Boston, 1759), p. 191. 



How long after this time the town was called upon to help 

 support the bridge, I am unable to say, but probably not for 

 many years. The line of travel from Groton gradually worked 

 its way to Boston in a straighter direction, and left the Billerica 

 bridge eight or ten miles to the northward. 



