198 FACTS RELATING TO GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS. 



the Journal of the House of Representatives, June 6, 1764, the 

 following entry is found : 



A Petition of Capt. Abel Lawrence and others, Agents for several 

 Towns in the County of Afiddlesex, praying that sundry Towns in the 

 County of Middlesex and Worcester as mentioned, may be erected 

 into a separate County. 



Read and Ordered, That the Petitioners insert Copies of this 

 Petition in all the Boston ISlews Papers three Weeks successively, 

 that so the several Towns in the Counties of Middlesex and Worcester, 

 may shew Cause, if any they have, on the second Wednesday of the 

 next Session of this Court, why the Prayer thereof should not be 

 granted. Sent up for Concurrence (p. 39). 



The petition is given in " The Massachusetts Gazette. 

 And Boston News-Letter," August 23, 1764, and sets forth 

 the reasons for the division. It is as follows : 



Province of the 

 Mas sack iisetts-Bay. 



To His Excellency Francis Bernard, Esq; Captain- 

 General and Governor in chief in and over His MAJESTYS said 

 Province ; and to the Honorable His Majesty's Council, and House 

 of Representatives, in General Court assembled at Boston, Decem- 

 ber, A.D. 1763. 



THE Petition of the Subscribers, Agents for the several Towns 

 and Districts, viz. of Groton, and District of Shirley, and 

 Pepperrell^ as also the Towns of Westford, Lyttletoti and Townshend, 

 in the County of Middlesex, and the Town of Lioienburg, and the 

 Township oi Ipswich- Canada [Winchendon], and Dorchester-Canada 

 (so called) [Ashburnham] in the County of Worcester, 



Humbly sheiveth, 

 THAT Your Petitioners and their Predecessors, inhabiting the 

 several Towns and Districts aforesaid, from the first Settlements of 

 said Towns and Districts have, and still do labour under great Difi(i- 

 culty and Burthen, by Reason of the great Distance they live from 

 the usual Place of holding the several Courts of Justice within the 

 Counties aforesaid, as well as the Courts of Probate in the same 

 Counties; many of the Inhabitants living fifty, some forty, and few 

 less than thirty Miles from the Courts of Probate aforesaid, which 

 renders it at all Times very difficult, and sometimes impossible, for 



