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NEW PLANTATION LAWSUITS SETTLED

Early in the year 1756, Nehemiah Brown, of Kensington, and Anne his wife made a claim in her right to one hundred acres of land, said to have been originally granted by the inhabitants of Hampton to the right of Thomas Ward, to be laid out and satisfied on some part of the common land in the town not previously laid out and appropriated to any private or particular use. The right, it was claimed, had been vested in Nathan Longfellow, late of Hampton Falls, and by him bequeathed to his daughter Anne, the present claimant, who now with her husband demanded that the quantity of land claimed should b laid out to them. A writ was served on the inhabitants by the sheriff and the damaged laid at £1500.

This case was similar to others previously brought against the inhabitants for not laying out land at the New Plantation, according to certain grants made in 1663. The principal ground of defense seems to have been, that by the act of the government, incorporating the town of Kingston in 1694, the town of Hampton had been precluded from making good these grants, as a considerable portion of the New Plantation, lying within the limits of the new town, had been thus put beyond their control.

On this occasion, they held a meeting, February 16, and appointed Col. John Weeks and Mr. Philip Towle as their agents, with full powers to manage the case in their behalf. The same men were also empowered to act as agents in any other suit or suits that might be brought against the inhabitants and freeholders, with like powers as in this case, and to do any other matter and thing, that they might judge proper in the premises, and also to confer and join with any committees chosen by any of the parishes formerly included in the town of Hampton. The suit of Brown and wife was entered at the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, where it was expected to come to trial in June.

At the next annual town meeting, March 15, 1757, the selectmen of the last year were authorized to settle accounts with the three agents, Col. Weeks, Philip Towle and John Smith, about all the cases brought against the town by Jonathan Longfellow, who was the attorney in the several suits in satisfaction for early grants at the New Plantation.

CAST UP BY THE SEA

"A large whale, 40 or 50 feet in length, having 3 irons in her, drove on shore at Hampton" about the first of November.

The wreck of a Hampton-built vessel occurred, which is thus announced in the New Hampshire Gazette of December 13, 1756: -- "Last Monday Night between 8 and 9 o'clock, a new Ship belonging to this place [Portsmouth], was cast away upon Ragged Neck [in Rye] in coming round from Hampton, where she was built. She is so bilged and broken, that there are no hopes of getting her off again."

In 1758, another shipwreck occurred, the only account of which that now remains, as far as can be ascertained, being this item from the New Hampshire Gazette of February 24:

"Mr. [W^m] Long sailed from Lisbon in a Brig, bound to Marblehead, and yesterday sennight was cast away on Hampton Beach. Her cargo which is salt is entirely lost; but it is hoped the Brig will be got off again. The men were all very much frozen."

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