GROTON PROBATE COURT. 205 



GROTON PROBATE COURT. 



At my request, some years ago, the late Ellis Ames, Esq., 

 of Canton, furnished the following account of the Probate 

 Courts held here, which forms a fit supplement to this article. 



No statute in the Provincial period regulated the times and places 

 of holding Probate Courts. I suppose the Probate Judges held 

 their Courts at the Court House on days of which they had before 

 given notice to the public. 



By the Constitution of Massachusetts, which went into effect on 

 October 25, 1780, the Judges of Probate were required to hold their 

 Courts at such places, on fixed days, as the convenience of the 

 people should demand, and the General Court was required from 

 time to time thereafter to appoint times and places for holding Pro- 

 bate Courts, until which appointments the Courts were to be holden 

 at such times and places as the respective Judges of Probate should 

 direct. 



The General Court did not, by any law, fix times or places for 

 holding Probate Courts in Middlesex County until, by a statute 

 passed June 14, 18 13, a Probate Court was ordered to be held at 

 Groton on the first Tuesday in March, on the second Tuesday in 

 May, and on the third Tuesday in October. 



A change was made in the law by statute passed February 14, 

 1822, when the Probate Courts in Groton were required to be held 

 on the first Tuesday of May, the last Tuesday of September, and 

 the last Tuesday of December. 



By a law passed on March 20, 1832, the Probate Courts at Groton 

 were required to be held on the first Tuesdays of May and Novem- 

 ber, which was continued by the Revised Statutes of 1836. 



By statute of 1856, Chap. 273, the first Tuesday of November 

 was changed to the third Tuesday of October. By statute of 1857, 

 Chap. 78, the Probate Courts at Groton were required to be held 

 on the fourth Tuesdays of May and September, which last provision 

 was carried into the General Statutes, and by the statute of March 

 30, 1866, these two Groton Probate Courts were removed to be held 

 at Cambridge, since which time no Probate Court has been held at 

 Groton. 



October 20, 1877. 



