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BOUNDS BETWEEN HAMPTON AND COLCHESTER

At a meeting on the 29th of May, the town voted as follows: "Upon consideration of the bounds to be sett betwixt this [town] and Colchester, the Teacher is desired, & bro^r Hussey & bro: Jo[hn] Moulton, appointed to goe & meet the Commissioners that are to view the grounds belonging, or neare to Colchester & this Town."

Colchester was the name first given to the town on the southerly side of Hampton, since called Salisbury. The vote here cited is the first allusion in the records, to a protracted controversy concerning the boundary line between the two towns. The subject had, however, been previously brought to the notice of the General Court, and Mr. Edward Woodman, Mr. William Paine and Mr. Thomas Nelson had, on the 13th of the same month, been appointed to view and settle the bounds, and make their return to the court. It was to meet these commissioners, that the men here named were appointed on the part of this town. At the next fall session of the General Court, the commissioners made their return, as follows: [Provincial Papers I:149].

"Wee whose names are under written, according to the order of the General Court, have taken viewe of the bounds of Hampton and Colchester, according to o^r best light, by o^r discovery and fro^m information of both the townes, wee judge it most equall that the line begining at Hampton Ryver mouth, runing from thence so as to leave Mr. Bachiler's farme layde out, in Hampton bounds, from the southerlist line of Mr. Bachiler's farme, the line to extend westerly between Colchester and Hampton, the same point of the compass that Merrimack Ryver runes, from the mouth to the end of Colchester bounds.

Thomas Nelson,
Willi: Paine,
Edward Woodman.
Septemb^r 24, 1640."

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