196 FACTS RELATING TO GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 



GROTON AS A SHIRE TOWN. 



On May 10, 1643, the Colony of Massachusetts Bay was 

 divided into four counties : namely, Middlesex, Suffolk, Essex, 

 and Norfolk ; though the Norfolk County of that period did 

 not comprise in any respect the same territory now known 

 by that name. 



Middlesex is therefore one of the oldest counties in the 

 Commonwealth, as it is one of the largest in population. In 

 the year 1729 an attempt was made to divide it and form a 

 new county from the northwestern section. The subject is 

 referred to in the Reverend Wilkes Allen's History of Chelms- 

 ford (p. 44), where the author says that a committee was 

 appointed by the town of Chelmsford in 1729, and the next 

 four years, to meet with committees from other places in order 

 to carry out the plan. He then gives a list of the towns which 

 were to be embraced in the new county, as follows: Groton, 

 Townsend, Pepperell, Dunstable, Merrimack, Dracut, Litch- 

 field, Chelmsford, Westford, Littleton, Concord, Bedford, 

 Billerica, and Tewksbury. At that time Merrimack and 

 Litchfield were considered as belonging to Massachusetts ; 

 but after the new Provincial line was settled in the spring of 

 1 74 1, both these towns fell on the New Hampshire side of the 

 boundary. It is a mistake, however, to include Pepperell in 

 the list, as that place was not incorporated for many years 

 after this period, either as a precinct or a district. Both 

 Bedford and Westford were set off as towns on September 23, 

 1732, and Townsend was granted on June 29, 1732 ; but, being 

 new settlements, and expecting soon to be made towns, they 

 were interested in the scheme. Tewksbury was incorporated 

 on December 23, 1734, and probably took no part in the 

 movement. 



Rufus Campbell Torrey, Esq., in his " History of the Town 

 of Fitchburg, Massachusetts" (1836 edition), refers to the 

 same subject, and says that the inhabitants of Lunenburg in 

 the year 1729 chose Captain Josiah Willard as their agent 

 " to join with others to consider what may be best in order to 



