SHAPLEIGH NOT TO BE CONSIDERED A DUMPING GROUND

            Every parcel of land in the Town of Shapleigh is owned by someone, whether they are a resident, non-resident, business, government entity, etc.  There seems to be a certain element of the population which regards any vacant wooded area as a personal dumping site for their party trash, household trash, old appliances, tires and more.  How would you feel if you came home and your yard contained bags of trash and old appliances?  Outraged, to be sure, and rightly so.  Persons with acreage or forested lands feel the same way at the abuse of their land.

  The transfer station is open 30 hours a week during the summer months:  Tuesdays, Wednesdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is located on Route 11 past Boonies Store and Square Pond Road.  Gates mark the entrance and exit to the facility.  Dump permits are required for persons using the facility and are obtainable at the Town Hall during business hours which are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., as well as Thursday evenings from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.  Thank you for using the Transfer Station for its intended purpose.

GPS WORKSHOP

            Shapleigh Conservation Commission members Charles Gruber and William Hutchins have signed up to attend a course being hosted by the York County Soil & Water Conservation District on July 10, 2010 and held at the Alfred Fire Station.  The course is being offered through the Maine Forest Service and will be followed by information on getting started in the sport of Geocaching. 

            GPS units will be provided for use during the morning workshop.  This workshop will start indoors and cover the basics of using a GPS, finding satellites, marking points and more advanced uses.  Participants will then travel to the Maine Forest Service Office on Route 111 in Alfred for a field session which will be followed by an introduction to the world of Geocaching.  Topics include how to get started, where to find information and geocaching etiquette. 

PRELIMINARY STATE VALUATION

            The Board of Selectmen has received notification from the Maine Revenue Services, Property Tax Division of the preliminary 2011 State Valuation report for Shapleigh.  The figures represent the full equalized value of all taxable property in town as of April 1, 2009.  The State Valuation for 2009 was $522,150,000; for 2010 it is $520,600,000.  The preliminary figure for 2011 is $502,400,000. 

            The State Valuation is compiled by determining, through field work and meetings with local officials, the approximate ratio of full value on which local assessments are made, and then by adjusting the local assessed values in accordance with the Rules of Procedure Used to Develop State Valuation.  State Valuation is a mass appraisal estimate of the 100% market value of all taxable property of a municipality and is established annually by the State Tax Assessor. 

LIBRARIAN’S REPORT

            The statistics for the Shapleigh Community Library for the month of June 2010 as compared with June of 2009 were reported to the Board of Selectmen by Librarian Gene Smith. 

                                                                2010                   2009

            Fiction                                           435                          430

            Non-fiction                                     37                           30

            Juvenile/Young Adult                206                         178

            Renew                                               7                             8

            Videos                                          195                           157

            Periodicals                                      4                              22

            Fines                                        $23.60                       $81.00

            Sales                                        $  4.00                        $11.00

            New Patrons                                   3                                  6

            Patrons             315 (Adults)                                    283 (Adults)    

                                         78 (Juv/YA                                    92 (Juv/YA

                       393 Total                                        375 Total

TRANSFER STATION FEES

            Collected at the Transfer Station for the month of June, the fees amounted to $2,493.00.  These fees are charged for appliances, televisions, and other items which offset charges to the Town for handling such wastes.

SCHOOL PAYMENT

            Shapleigh’s monthly payment to Regional School Unit No. 57 for the 2010-2011 school year is $242,876.59 for 11 months with the 12^th and final month being $242,976.65 in order to meet the total payment of $2,914,519.14 as Shapleigh’s share of the total RSU#57 budget.  The monthly payment during the first six months of 2010 has been $234,817.92 based on Shapleigh’s total share of the RSU#57 2009-2010 school budget being $2,817,815.07, divided by 12.

2010 ANY DEER PERMITS

            The Town Clerk has indicated that the State of Maine will not be supplying Any Deer Permit applications to the town offices.  Persons who are interested in applying to be able to hunt both male and female deer must apply online at www.mefishwildlife.com, by mail or from license agents.  Persons must also possess a valid Maine license to hunt big game at the time you apply for any-deer permits. 

            Maine resident landowners may hunt without a license on their own land if they live on that land, the piece of land exceeds 10 acres in size, and the land is used exclusively for agricultural purposes.  A landowner whose hunting privilege is under revocation is not eligible to receive an any-deer permit.  Landowners may enter the drawing for an any-deer permit by submitting a signed affidavit form with their application. 

            The number of permits available is 48,825.  Permittees will be selected by a computerized random drawing in September 2010.  There is no application fee or permit fee for an any-deer permit.  If you apply for and are drawn to receive a bonus deer permit, you must pay a $12 fee for the bonus deer permit.

            The application deadline by mail or in person is July 30, 2010.  The application deadline online only is August 16, 2010.

            You can now choose up to 3 Wildlife Management Districts (WMDs) for an Any-Deer Permit.  For assistance call (207) 287-8000 or email: ifw.online@maine.gov

MLRA NEWS

            Upcoming events sponsored by the Mousam Lake Region Association (MLRA) are listed below.  Already the annual “Light Up the Lake” took place on the evening of Saturday, July 3 with many of the property owners around the lake lighting flares, turning on floodlights, and doing other forms of illuminating the shoreline making it look like a giant birthday cake.  Earlier in the day the Boat Parade started at Carpenter’s Cove.  After registration at 11:30 the parade began at noon, proceeding down the Shapleigh side of Mousam Lake and ending at the foot of the pond for presentation of awards.  Winners names will appear in this column if available for next week’s column.

            Next event will be the Kids’ Fishing Derby on Saturday, July 17.  Registration will be at 8:30 a.m. at Baxter’s dock.  The final weigh-in and prize ceremony will be held at 1:00 p.m.

            Acton Fairgrounds will be the site of the MLRA annual meeting on Saturday, July 24.  Registration is at 8:30 a.m. with the meeting commencing at 9 a.m.

            The Acton/Shapleigh Youth Conservation Corp (ASYCC) Golf Tournament will be held on Friday, August 6.  Proceeds from the tournament will be used to benefit the ASYCC.  More details on this as the date approaches.

WATER QUALITY MONITORING PROGRAM

            Mousam Lake Region Association on Saturday, June 19 hosted the re-certification of Water Quality Lake Monitors for the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program (VLMP).  Training took place at the home of Skip Bartosch, MLRA’s local Water Quality Monitor’s home.  The training was run by Judy Potvin from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.  Representatives from 12 lakes in York County attended the training and were all re-certified on Dissolved Oxygen, Secchi Disk and Total Phosphorous Surface Grab techniques.

HISTORY OF SHAPLEIGH

Last week in honor of the 225 anniversary of the incorporation of Shapleigh the chapter of the History of Shapleigh by Rev. Amasa Loring was published.  Each week there will be a segment of the book published here in the Shapleigh column.  Collect the column each week and in the end you will have the whole story as presented by Loring.  (week 2) 

(Week 2.)

PROPRIETORSHIP

            There were two distinct claimants to the soil of New England, “to wit,” the British Crown, and the Native Indians.  The claim of the former was grounded on the fact of discovery, and on the higher right to reclaim savage wastes, subdue them, and convert them into fruitful fields; the claim of the latter, on the fact of first and actual possession.  The practice of civilized nations, the enlarged benefits that would be conferred on the old by their dispossession, and the evident design of the Great Proprietor of all things that the earth should be brought into its most productive state, sustained for former claim; and the law of possession, and the equal rights of the races, sustained the latter.  The rights of discovery gave the English the precedence of all civilized nations, but did not of themselves authorize them to dispossess the Natives unceremoniously.  If they had a claim which the “laws of nations,” or the principles of unbending right, would maintain them in, justice to them required that it should be honorably extinguished.

            But did the occupation of these regions by the Aborigines constitute a real, a substantial possession?  They cultivated the soil but little.  They occupied it mainly as hunting grounds.  They roved from place to place, like the Nomads of the East, without fixed habitations.  So that was not the soil, but the game that roamed over it, was the object of their pursuit.  But if they had a claim on the soil, it was barely as so much hunting ground.  And as civilization has a pre-eminence over savage life, the circuit sufficient to sustain one by the chase, would support two thousand when brought under cultivation, the Natives were under a morale obligation, either to adopt the arts of civilization, or to relinquish their right at a fair equivalent, and retire before the march of improvement.

            The crown of England did not stop to examine these points, but without any regard to the claims of the Aborigines, granted large tracts of lands to companies and individuals by Royal Charters, Patents, or Deeds; and thereby made them Proprietors, bodies politic, sometimes subordinate governors over those limits.  In this manner, York, Cumberland, and a part of Lincoln Counties were granted by Charles I. to Sir Fernando Gorges, in 1639.  Under the authority of this Charter, the first tier of towns upon the sea coast, in York County was surveyed and conveyed to their respective proprietors, by Tho’s Gorges, a nephew of Sir Fernando, who acted as Deputy Governor under his uncle.  The natives were then numerous.  And however others might regard their claims, they were disposed to insist upon them, and to defend them with the tomahawk and scalping knife.  And as they would sell large tracts for a trifle, proprietors and settlers found it a matter of economy and safety to extinguish their title, or to pacify them by such purchases.

            Hence nearly all of York County, except the townships on the coast, was deeded to different proprietors, by Indian Chiefs.

            In 1676 the heirs of Gorges conveyed their right to the colony of Massachusetts; reserving those tracts which had been deeded to certain individuals by the native Sagamores.

            The Provincial officers were disposed to respect the Indian titles, and the holders of them usually retained, undisturbed, the tracts thus conveyed.  Therefore all scruples concerning a moral and equitable title to the soil of York County are removed:  for it comes primarily from the natives, and has been sanctioned and confirmed by Provincial and State authority.

            So it was , with  the title to the town of Shapleigh:  which was obtained in the following manner:  In 1661 Captain Sunda, an Indian Chief of the Ossipee tribe, deeded to Francis Small of  Scarboro’, the Ossipee tract, embracing what are now called the “Ossipee towns,” to wit, Cornish, Parsonsfield, Newfield, Limerick and Limington, a record of which is on the County Registry.

            A tradition has come down which makes this conveyance characteristic of those adventurous times—It runs thus:

            Small, in the winter, was keeping a “trading house,” upon this tract somewhere in the present town of Limington or Cornish Many of the Indians became largely indebted to him, promising furs in the spring.  Plotting upon an easier way to extinguish their debt, they conspired together to surround his house, on a certain night, and to reduce it, with its contents and occupant to ashes.  This chief, being apprised of it, went and secretly informed Small, and besot him to make a timely escape.

            Small at first regarded this as a cunning contrivance to deprive him of his property; but for this, the Chief generously promised to remunerate him, by a conveyance of lands.  But knowing something of savage vengeance, and reflecting that “discretion is the better part of valor,” on the day previous to the night named for the attack, he left his house  in its usual state, and retired to a neighboring hill, where he concealed himself, to see whether the Sachem’s account was a friendly warning or a wily trick.

            When the shades and silence of the night had come, the flames of that trading house lighted up the surrounding forest, and revealed a host of ferocious savages, carousing over the supposed destruction of its inmate.

            Small, of course, hastily and  secretly left those regions and returned to Scarboro’.

            Captain Sunda, faithful to his promise, afterwards met him at Saco, and gave him the above-mentioned deed to indemnify him for his loss.

            No one will endorse this story, but certain points in it are well authenticated.  It is a well established fact that Francis Small kept a trading house at that time, in those regions, the claimants under him so stated in a petition to the General Court of Massachusetts.

            A Mr. Chadbourne of Berwick filed an affidavit, which is still preserved, stating that “when he was out on a scouting party, scouring those regions, in the Indian wars, another man observed to him, that they were near the place where Small’s trading house was, and on going a little further, they saw the spot where the house had stood, and drank water from a well there.”  It is also an established fact, that Major Nicholas Shapleigh of Kittery, was in company with Small in the trading house enterprise; and that Small deeded to him, an undivided half of all the lands conveyed by Sunda’s deed.

            A long period of Indian wars now commenced.  Small, perhaps fearing that he should be an object of savage vengeance, went to Cape Cod and died there, but his family continued in Scarboro’.

            These wars suspended all new settlements, and carried desolation into many of the towns already settled.  Hence deeds of these new sections, from any source, were for a long time, but a “dead letter.”

            At length these cruel and destructive wars were ended.  The foe no longer lay in ambush by the path of the white man, nor drove him to the crowded block house.  The settlements began to recover from their reduced state, and the tide of civilization, began to set back into the unbroken forest.  Sanford, including Alfred, was surveyed in 1734, and the settlement commenced about six years later.  This was at first called Phillipstown from the Phillips family, to whom it was deeded by the Indians. 

            Lebanon was surveyed in 1733, and the permanent settlement of it commenced about ten years later.  This retained its Indian name, Tow who, till its incorporation.

            Lyman began to be settled in 1764, and Waterboro soon after, called Massabesic, from the pond lying west of “Shaker Village, as it was pressing back the forest frontier, and claimants began to look up their titles. 

            In 1770, the original “Deed” from Captain Sunda to  Francis Small was found by his family among his papers, having lain unrecorded more than one hundred years.  The heirs of Nicholas Shapleigh, it seems, well knew that they had an interest in the tract thus deeded.  Honestly supposing that the “Shapleigh Township” was included in the tract conveyed, they called a legal meeting of said heirs, at the Inn of William Leighton in Kittery, on the first Monday in March 1772, and took preliminary measures “to go up and possess the land.”

After several adjournments and meetings, they appointed Joshua Hubbard and Dependent Shapleigh a Committee, to go and run out the tract.

               This committee, accompanied by James Warren, Surveyor, and Joseph Hasty and Gilbert Warren, Chainmen, went into the wilderness in May 1773, and run a line around it, which eventually became its original boundary.  The Committee also cleared a small opening, enclosed it with a fence, and planted it with corn and potatoes, in presence of this survey company, as a formal act of possession.

               An undivided half of the tract originally conveyed to Small was made over to Maj. Nicholas Shapleigh.  His heirs early endeavored to effect a partition by honorable and fair negotiation.  They appointed Committees to go to Scarboro’, and treat with the heirs of Small, proposing at first, to take the Parsonstown township ( now Parsonsfield), the “Shapleigh township,” and enough lying towards the New Hampshire line to make up one half of the whole amount conveyed.

            It does not appear that this proposal was accepted in full, though Parsonsfield and Shapleigh were conceded to them, for they afterwards voted to petition the Supreme Court for a legal division.  It appears however the division was amicably effected at length; the heirs of Shapleigh taking Parsonsfield, Shapleigh, and one half of Limerick; and the heirs of Small the rest “to wit,” Cornish, Limington, Newfield, and one-half of Limerick—a division by no means equitable to the heirs of Shapleigh, as the sequel will show.

            The Shapleigh township, as surveyed by the above=mentioned Committee lies entirely south of the Little Ossipee; and was not included in Sunda’s deed to Small.  How then it may be asked were these claimants entitled to it?  Proprietors, who held lands south and east of it, by Indian deeds, did not extend their claims over it.  These proprietors justly claimed a large tract lying contiguous to it on the north.  Boundaries were not then well-defined and known.  The Colonial governments were at that time engaged in contests with the Crown, which led on to the Revolution; so that subjects of this kind could not be closely scrutinized.

            The heirs of Shapleigh therefore, it may be, under a misapprehension, stepped in and took possession of it.  Nor did they for some time seem to doubt the validity of their claim.  They lotted it out, in part; apportioned it among the different share holders; granted and sold lots; made reserves for public uses; and encouraged the peaceable and lawful settlement of it.  They consented to a division with the heirs of Small, much to their disadvantage, if their claim to this tract was not valid.

            At length the validity of their claim was questioned.  Two families were settled upon it, before they run out the township and took possession of it, others came and settled, before the township was fully lotted and assigned to separate proprietors.  Trespassers were committing depradations upon the timber it bore, and they never failed to dispute any title but their own.

            The Proprietors attempted to maintain their claim.  Agents were appointed to prosecute trespassers, and to protect the timber, but while the title was doubtful they forbore to do it.  The Proprietors evidently began to tremble; for in 1777, they voted to grant to the Hon. James Sullivan, one half of the Limerick township, on the condition that he would defend all lawsuits brought against their title.

            The next year (1778) they employed Mr. Sullivan to present a petition to the General Court, to have the southern boundary of the township established; concealing under this modest request the question of their title to it, which must of course be confirmed if this boundary was thus established.

            In this petition, they set forth in addition to their claim from its connection with the Ossipee tract, that they had expended considerable money in surveying it, laying it out and making roads; had reserved certain lots for public uses; and had at that time nearly forty families peaceably and lawfully settled upon it.”

            But at this time the Country was engaged in a burdensome war, and the Province of Massachusetts was abandoning its old English Charter and adopting a constitution, consequently Legislative business of that kind lingered.  For some time, the petition made no progress.  The Proprietors endeavored to urge it on, and added the  Hon. Edward Cutts, who had been one of the Provincial council, to Hon. J. Sullivan, as an Agent to prosecute it, before the Legislature.  While the subject continued in suspense, a way was opened to effect the object.

            The General Court, in May 1781, passed a resolve appointing a Committee on “Eastern Lands,” a part of whose duty was to examine private claims, and to confirm peaceable and honest settlers of the public domain, in their title to lots taken up and improved by them.  This Committee consisted of Hon. Jedediah Preble of Falmouth, Hon. Jonathan Greenleaf of New Gloucester, Hon. David Sewall of York, John Lewis, Esq. of North Yarmouth, and William Lithgow, Esq., of Georgetown. 

            The proprietors then concluded to bring their claim before this Committee.  They accordingly appointed Hon. Benjamin Chadbourne, (who had been a member of the Provincial Council, and was now a member of the Governor’s Council), the Hon. James Sullivan, and Capt. Wm. Rodgers, as Agents to effect it, and to manage the cause before them.  A petition to that effect was presented to this Committee, accompanied with an agreement, to abide their decision provided the general Court would confirm it.

            A question had also arisen about the boundaries between this township and the Phillips tract, which lay on the south and east of it. 

            Capt. Sunda, and Fluellin Habinowell, an Indian Chief of Saco River, deeded it to Maj. Wm. Phillips about the year 1662, a territory extending from Saco River to Lebanon, and this unappropriated territory, and from Berwick to the Little Ossipee, excepting Lyman which had been previously conveyed to John Saunders.  But Fernando Gorges in 1670 confirmed this title, with more definite boundaries.  The Major’s wife, Mrs. Bridget Phillips, out-lived her husband, and by will, conveyed it to Peleg Sandford, her son by a former marriage.

            Sandford and Waterboro’, and Lebanon likewise were bounded by lines running North-East and South-West, and such as were at right-angles with them.

            As this was run out, with the south and east lines, directly East and West, North and South, its boundaries only touched the most northern corner of Lebanon and the most western of Waterboro’, leaving four triangles between it and these contiguous towns.

            The Committee, which run out, and took possession of the Shapleigh Township, went with the same Survey Company, run a line around them, and ascertained their respective dimensions—but it does not appear that the “Shapleigh Proprietors” claimed them, excepting part of the tract lying on the N.W. side of Lebanon. 

            It was necessary to have this question concerning the boundaries, examined and adjusted.  Hence they solicited the claimants under Mrs. Bridget Phillips, to submit their claim to the same committee of reference.

            To this the Phillips heirs consented, and appointed Col. J. Waters, Hon. Tristram Dalton, John Mason Esqr., and John Avery, Esqr., Agents, to manage it before them.

            Thee claimants respectively agreed, that if their claims should be established, they would not distress settlers already upon the territory, and would sell them land as cheap as they were selling lands of the same quality to others.

            This Committee, in the Summer of 1782, met in Sanford, and went into a thorough investigation of the different claims.

            On the 19^th of July they reported to the General Court of Massachusetts, in substance as follows: --

“After hearing statements of both parties, examining original deeds, and obtaining information from all available sources, it appeared to them that the claimants under Mrs. Bridget Phillips were entitled to all the land lying above or West of the head line (i.e. the line on N.W. side) of Biddeford, Arundal and Wells, to the South-Western and North Western lines of Sanford;--thence from the North-East corner of Sanford adjoining Waterboro, on a North-West line till it struck the Little Ossipee river—thence by said river till it entered the Saco—thence on the Saco river to the North-West corner of Biddeford.  This included the towns of Sanford, as originally surveyed, with Alfred, Lyman, Hollis, and Waterford, together with quite a large tract on the North East corner of the Shapleigh Township.  This did not embrace the Southern Gore, which lay between Sanford, Lebanon and “Shapleigh Township,” nor the South-Eastern Gore, now known as Alfred Gore, which were afterwards attached to Lebanon and Sanford.”

Why Lyman was not excepted, I cannot understand, for it appears to be a fact in history that it was never claimed by the Phillips heirs.

This Committee further reported that the territory call the “Ossipee Tract,” in their opinion, was the lawful property of its claimants.   And as the Shapleigh Proprietors apprehended that they had a claim to lands South of the Little Ossipee, and had entered upon it, expending considerable money in making settlements upon it, they recommend that these Proprietors have the tract granted to them, included within the following boundaries—on the following conditions, to wit:--.

“Beginning at the Point on the line running from the North-East corner of Sanford, North West to Little Ossipee river—said Point to be 780 rods from the North-East corner of Sanford—thence South 1070 rods, till it strikes Sanford North-West Line—then to Salmon Falls river:--then by said river and New Hampshire line—(called “Province Line,” run by Gov. Belcher, in 1741) 10 miles to the Little Ossipee Pond—then on this pond and river, till it struck the line of the Phillips claim—then South-East on the line of the Phillips claim, till it came to thee point first mentioned—which was the South-East corner of Waterboro, on “Fort Ridge,” likewise to include the Small Gore of 300 acres which lay South of this line, and between New Hampshire line and Lebanon;--provided they faithfully reserve the lots already appropriated by them for public uses, and pay 400 pounds, current money, into the State Treasury within one year.”

This report, being presented to the General Court, was committed to a Joint Committee, consisting of Hon. Abraham Fuller and Nathaniel Wells of the Senate—and Mrs. Bartlett, Mr. Vaus and Col. Grow of the House; which, after adding to the conditions that the Proprietors pay one-half of the expense of the Committee which sat upon it, recommended its passage.

The Bill accordingly passed both branches of the Legislature, and Oct. 30, 1782 was signed by Nath’l Gorham, Speaker of the House, and Sam’l Adams, President of the Senate; John Avery, being Secretary of State, and John Hancock, Governor. 

The Southern boundary as thus established did not differ materially from the line ran by Surveyor Warren in 1773.  But the East line, instead of continuing North the whole length, as originally run, sheered to the North-West from the South-West corner of Waterford, and continued in this course till it struck the Little Ossipee.  This would cut off six or eight hundred acres, originally embraced.  The Shapleigh Proprietors purchase this of the Phillips heirs and paid them 60 pounds for it.  The East line was therefore restored to its first land-marks.

It will now be seen, as this township ws not included in the tract held jointly by the heirs of Small and Shapleigh, the latter did not obtain a full share of the tract originally conveyed, in the division with the heirs of Small.  Yet they appeared to be well pleased with the terms, on which their title was confirmed.  At their next meeting after the Bill passed, they voted “to confirm a grant of 100 acres to Hon. B. Chadbourne, and also to make him a Proprietor in the Township, to share one forty-fourth part of the whole original survey.”  This was to compensate him for his efforts in conducting their cause before the Committee and the General Court, as he had borne the principal part of the burden.

They also took measures, to raise the sum required by the terms of the grant, and assessed 640 pounds, upon the share-holders.  But the collection was not seasonably made; or else was not completed,--Money was hired of Hon. David Sewall, to meet the demand, and time elapsed, suits were brought, shares were advertised, and probably sold, before the debt was extinguished.

The Proprietors now feeling that they were “Lords of the soil,” resumed their business with redoubled efficiency—and took measures to secure an act of incorporation. 

Those who were the lawful heirs of Major N. Shapleigh—and  who were admitted to right of Proprietors by the consent of the claimants, will now be given:--

Samuel Shapleigh                      Dr. David Pierce

John Shapleigh              Rev. Alpheus Spring

James Shapleigh                       Capt. John H. Bartlett

Dependent Shapleigh                Nathaniel Remick

Elisha Shapleigh                        Capt. Phillip Hubbard

Joshua Hubbard                       Gen. Ichabod Goodwin

Nathan Bartlett Jr.                    Capt. James Garvin

Simon Jenness                          Humphrey Scammon Jr.

Jonathan  Sayward, Esq            Nicholas Scammon

Hon. James Susllsivan   Wm. Stacy

Daniel Moulton             Dennis Fernald

James Gowen                           Capt. Wm. Rodgers

Hon. Edward Cutts                   Robert Rodgers

Jonathan Moulton                     Dea. John Hill

Capt. John Frost                       Maj. Samuel Leighton

Dea. Wm. Leighton                  Wm. Parsons

Jonathan C. Chadbourne          Tobias Fernald, Jr.

Alexander Scammel                  Mark Fernald

William Frost                            Robert Parker

Capt. Samuel Stacy                  Andrew P. Fernald

Samuel Jenness             Hon. Benj. Chadbourne

Moses Hanscom

The name of a Rev. Mr. Foster appears among the Proprietors, in some of their business, and he, probably, made the 44^th—though it is not in the list—as recorded by the Clerk.

A question some time afterwards arose, in respect to the Southern boundary upon which Commissioners were appointed by the State,.  These Commissioners run off a strip 30 rods wide, formerly claimed by the Shapleigh Proprietors and attached it to the town of Lebanon.  The Proprietors voted to indemnify the settlers who had purchased the lots thus reduced.          

(Next week in this Shapleigh column the next segment of the “History of Shapleigh” as written by Rev. Amasa Loring will continue with “A Geographical View.” This is being printed during this year 2010, it being the 225^th anniversary of the incorporation of the Town of Shapleigh.)

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