changes of name, I shall speak of it by its original Indian name 

 of Pennycook. 



These settlers were to be subsequently selected for their 

 fitness, by a committee 1 appointed by the general court, and the 

 territory thus granted was to be divided between them, the 

 church, the school, and the first settled minister. 



Pennycook, which had been long known to the early settlers 

 of Massachusetts as an extensive tract of rich alluvion, had been 

 previously granted to parties who, for failing to comply with 

 the conditions of their grant, had lost it. 2 Up to this time it 

 had been considered a valuable and undisposed portion of Mas- 

 sachusetts Bay Territory. Its boundaries under this last grant 

 were substantially conterminous with those of the present city 

 of Concord. 



At this time, the northern boundary line of Massachusetts 

 was undetermined. She claimed that it began at the sea, at a 

 point three miles north of the Black Rocks, at the mouth of 

 Merrimack river and thence ran westerly, three miles north of 

 and parallel with this river to a white pine tree standing three 

 miles north of the junction of its two main branches at Frank- 

 lin ; and thence due west to the South sea. 3 



1 This committee consisted of Hon. William Tailer, Esq., Elisha Cooke, 

 Esq., Spencer Phipps, Esq., William Dudley, Esq., John Waimvright, Esq. 

 Capt. John Shipley, Mr. John Sanders, Eleazer Tyng, Esq., and Mr. Joseph 

 Wilder. — Mass. Court Records, Jan. 17, 1725-6. 



2 The character of the lands at Pennycook was well known to the people of 

 the coast towns at an early day. A grant of a tract eight miles square was 

 made in 1659, to Richard Walderne and twenty-one others; but it was subse- 

 quently forfeited by non-compliance of conditions. — Mass. Archives, Vol. 112, 

 p. 117. 



In 1662, Joseph Hills and others, of the town of Maiden, Mass., peti- 

 tioned the general court "That a Tract of Land About fowre Miles Square 

 at A place Called Pennycooke may be Granted As An Addition to us, for our 

 better Support And Incouragement." This petition was not granted. — Mass' 

 Archives, Vol. 112, p. 147. 



June 9, 1721. In pursuance of an order of the general court of Massa- 

 chusetts, a committee was appointed " To take an exact Survey of the Land 

 on each side of Merrimack, between the rivers of Suncook and Cunlacooh." 

 This committee discharged the duty assigned them and made report June 15, 

 1722. It also appears that, as early as 1722, the Scotch-Irish had a knowl- 

 edge of these lands and contemplated a settlement upon them. — Mass. House 

 Journal, June 13, 1722. 



3 Belknap's History of New Hampshire, Ed. 1741, Vol. 2, p. 138. 



