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LOCKE'S NECK

In the last chapter it was stated that the town sent a committee to the northeast part of its territory between Little river and the town of Portsmouth, to ascertain what encroachments had been made upon the town's land, and to prevent, if possible, any further encroachment. Twelve years had now passed, and these border difficulties still continued; for, in 1666, John Locke, who afterward fell victim to Indian barbarity, had settled without permission upon the town's land at Jocelyn's Neck--afterward called Locke's Neck--very near the boundary line between Hampton and Portsmouth; and he may have supposed himself within the limits of the latter town. Here he had built his house and enclosed a piece of ground, and hither he had brought his family, with intent to stay. The town, therefore, at the meeting on the 12th of May, directed Thomas Marston and Morris Hobbs to go to Jocelyn's Neck and demolish the fence Locke had built, and to order him to meddle no further with the town's property in that vicinity.

What reception Goodman Locke gave this committee is not stated. Nothing further concerning him or his possessions is found on record till nearly two years afterward, when on the 9th of March, 1668, he made known to the town his desire to be received as an inhabitant. The town acceded to his request and the Lockes came to be among the leading citizens.

DANIEL TILTON, BLACKSMITH

In the summer of 1667, Daniel Tilton asked liberty of the town "to sit down" here as a smith, engaging to do the town's work "upon as good terms as any other man that doth use that trade in these parts, and that for the term of four years." The town voted to receive him, and granted him four acres of land adjoining the farm of Joseph Shaw. The conditions of the grant were that the said Daniel Tilton should have liberty to improve it, or dispose of it to any other smith "that the town could have no just exception against." And if any other smith should come and settle in the town within the term of four years, and succeed in drawing away the custom from Tilton, then the latter should be at liberty to dispose of his land to the town, or, on the town's refusal, to any purchaser that he could find.

Tilton accepted these conditions, and the four acres of land were laid out, having Joseph Shaw's farm on the northwest and the country way on the southeast, the lot being ten rods wide at the northeast end, and twenty-two rods at the southwest end, and forty rods in length (the Akerman place on Hampton Falls hill).

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