October 10, 1685, one Jonathan Tyng, and nineteen others, purchased from Wanalanset, chief Sachem of the Indians upon the Merrimack River, six miles in breadth, from Souhegan River to Winnipiseogee Lake, and Mason by deed April 15, 1686, for the yearly rental of ten shillings, confirmed this grant by a deed. This was called the Million Acre purchase, and the easterly portion of Gorges was comprehended in this purchase.
About the same time he farmed out to Hezekia Usher and his heirs the mines, minerals and ores within the limits of New Hampshire for the term of one thousand years; reserving to himself one-quarter part of the royal ores, and one-seventeenth of the baser sorts.
Charges were preferred against Cranfield; he was granted leave of absence by the King and he fled from the country in a clandestine manner and went to Barbadoes where he obtained the collectorship of the port. He was deceitful and treacherous as well as vindictive and malicious. He was succeeded by Walter Barefoot, a man of the same class as Cranfield, whose administration lasted about a year.
A new form of government was now determined upon, and Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine were to be under one general government, and Joseph Dudley was appointed governor general 1685, this brought New Hampshire again under the same government with Massachusetts.
Dudley was succeeded in a few months by Sir Edmund Andros. Mason3 returns from England having won his case against Vaughan, but he found obstructions which he little expected, as the government was in the hands of a different set of men, who were unfavorable to Mason3. In the midst of the controversy he died suddenly at Esopus on the Hudson River in New York, September, 1688. He left two sons, John4 and Robert4. During this year James II had succeeded in making large strides towards the establishment of Popery in England, and had so terribly persecuted the Protestants that they openly resisted him and the terrible siege of Londonderry in the north of Ireland was the result. He was expelled from the throne and William III, Prince of Orange, succeeded him. Upon the reception of this intelligence in Boston, and pretending to discredit the same the governor imprisoned the messenger, but the people of Boston rose in arms, and on the 18th of April, 1689, the governor and his adherents were seized and committed to prison by the inhabitants of Boston. Andros and his accomplices were sent home to England to await further decisions to be tried at the King's pleasure, this left New Hampshire with no suitable form of government. A convention was called and they resolved on a second union with Massachusetts. They were readily admitted until the King's pleasure should be made known, and members were sent to the General Court during this and the two following years. The officers selected by the towns were approved by the General Court and matters for a time were favorable to New Hampshire. The King was for some reason averse to the union.
Mason's two sons4 sold their title to all the lands in New Hampshire April 27, 1691, to one Samuel Allen, a merchant of London, for 750�, and the same Allen was appointed governor of New Hampshire March 1, 1692, and his son-in-law, John Usher, lieutenant governor, with power to act in his absence. Allen did not visit the country for some years, and Usher administered the affairs in his absence.
The reason is obvious why the King did not wish that New Hampshire should united with Massachusetts. The administration of Usher was very distasteful to the people of New Hampshire, and his opponents had him superseded by the appointment of William Partridge as lieutenant governor which was very unexpected and mortifying to him.
In 1698 the Earl of Bellomont was appointed governor of New York, Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, and he resided in New York for the first year after his arrival in America.
In the summer of this same year, 1698, Governor Allen came over for the first time, it being uncertain when the Earl of Bellomont would arrive, and as a matter of fact Allen's commission would hold until the arrival of his successor. In the meantime he removed Partridge and replaced Usher. Bellomont assumes the office and was received by the people with great cordiality. His only visit to New Hampshire was in 1699, July 31, where he made a speech to the Council and Assembly of the Province of New Hampshire, and a few extracts from this reveals the political and social relations of the people at that time.
"This Province is well situated for trade; and your harbor here on the Piscataqua River so good that a fort to secure it would invite people to come and settle among you; and as you grow in number, so will your trade advance and flourish; and you will be useful to England which you ought to covet, above all things, not only as it is your duty, but as it will also be for your glory and interest." How significant; forced from home and all its pleasures, it was the duty of these planters to toil and strive to promote the interests of England. This in a few words reveals the policy of the English people toward the American colonies.
Allen's brief administration was little less than a scene of altercation. From the year 1699 onward through a period of forty-two years New Hampshire and Massachusetts were placed under the administration of the same governor although each had it separate council, assembly and own code of laws. Bellomont reversed the appointment of Allen by re-appointing Partridge as lieutenant governor. After a brief interval Bellomont returned to New York where he soon died.
Allen had little prospects of success in the newly established courts. Upon examination of the records it was found that twenty-four pages containing the records of judgments in Mason's favor were gone and the plaintiff must begin anew.
In the year 1700 he brought new suits, and Waldron was selected to stand foremost in the defense as his father did against Mason. Waldron's case and all the others were decided in his favor. Allen appealed to the King, which the New Hampshire Court refused to admit, when he petitioned the King who highly resented the action of New Hampshire in refusing an appeal, and allowed him eight months to prepare for its prosecution. In the meantime King William died and was succeeded by Queen Anne, and when Allen's appeal came before Queen Anne's Council there was some defect in the proof on the part of Allen, which occasioned judgment for Waldron with permit to Allen to begin anew by writ of ejectment in the courts of New Hampshire to try his title to the lands. It was finally held that Allen's claim to the waste land was valid, and that all lands unenclosed and unoccupied be reported as waste land.
Wearied with extensive litigation and weakened with age he makes overtures to the people of New Hampshire to purchase his claims, and they viewing the situation from all angles, pleasing and displeasing, concluded to buy him out.
A general meeting of deputies being held at Portsmouth on the 3rd day of May, 1705, a proposal was drawn up which was to be presented to Allen for his acceptance on the 6th day of May. But the happy issue and end of the controversy was prevented by his sudden death on the preceding day.
After his death his only son, Thomas Allen, ignored his father's proposition and renewed the suit, but was unsuccessful; he then appealed to the Superior Court where it had been tried three years before. The jury were twice instructed to find a special verdict but they each time found for the defendant. The counsel for the plaintiff moved for an appeal to her Majesty and Council but before the appeal could be heard Allen's death which happened in 1715 put an end to it, and his heirs did not renew it during the lifetime of that generation.
Sanborn's History of New Hampshire, page 96, says: "There is probably no controversy on records that involved so many parties, continued so many years and created so many law-suits as Mason's claim to New Hampshire. Kings and Queens, nobles and plebeians, proprietors and councilors, courts and legislatures, for nearly a century, were constantly agitating the question of the right of soil of this wild, rough and rocky state. Generation after generation of claimants died, but still the controversy lived. Judges of the King's bench and of the state courts again and again decided cases at issue, but still the spirits which avarice had conjured up 'would not down at their bidding.' The people outlived their prosecutors, and the fire went out for want of fuel."
It is impossible at this late day to determine why the government of Massachusetts did not purchase the province of New Hampshire from Robert Mason, when they purchased the province of Maine from Gorges in 1677. It could have been purchased for a trifle and much controversy and litigation prevented. But it was not so purchased and we do not propose to seek a reason.
When John4 and Robert4 Mason sold to Samuel Allen in 1691, the transaction was closed in England, and the lands was supposed to be there,1 and the description in the title of conveyance made Allen's deed of non-effect. This was the means of vacating the title and the estate reverted to the Masons5. Likewise claim was set up that John Tufton Mason4 and Robert Tufton Masons4 who sold to Allen could not sell for any longer term than their own lives.
With these ideas in his mind, excited with the expectation of recovering the estate, John Tufton Mason5 set sail for Havana for the purpose of procuring money for carrying on the contest. But very soon after his arrival in Havana he died in 1718 leaving two sons, John Tufton Mason6 born 1713, and Thomas Tufton Mason6 born later. The title now vests in John Tufton Mason6, his brother Thomas6 being a minor.
The matter seems to have lain comparatively dormant until 1738 when John Tufton Mason6, aroused by the controversy which was then going on relative to the southern boundary of New Hampshire, thought that this was a very opportune time to assert his pretensions to the ancestral claim. Massachusetts now made overtures and purchased of Mason6 for 500� all the lands which lay within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts or in other words, all the lands lying southerly of a line three miles north of the Merrimack River, and immediately they sent him to London at the expense of Massachusetts to assist their agent in the line controversy which was then pending.
Soon after his arrival in London he came under the watchful eye and vigilance of Mr. Thomlinson who entered into an agreement with him to sell the rest of his claim to New Hampshire for 1,000� which was looked upon with favor by the people of New Hampshire. Thomlinson urged the Province of New Hampshire to close the trade at once but they seemed in no hurry, and the matter delayed. Mason6 was in doubt whether they would in reality purchase, and he told the Assembly February 22, 1745, that he would wait no longer, and if they did not care to purchase the sale would be made to other persons who stood ready to purchase.
At length the house came to a resolution that they would close the trade and pay the price, but while they were thus delaying the matter Mason6 had sold his claim and conveyed by deed for the sum of 1,500� to twelve persons in fifteen shares and the deed was dated July 30, 1746.
This transaction raised a great commotion among the people of New Hampshire who were very angry and could blame no one but themselves, and consequently dropped the matter. Much blame was cast on the purchasers for taking the matter out of the hands of the Assembly, but they offered in turn to sell to the province what they had bought for the price they had paid and expense, but the Assembly did not see fit to buy. The Allen heirs again came in for their share, but their demands availed nothing.
The twelve purchasers were known as the Masonian Proprietors, who soon began to grant townships often without fees, and always without quit-rents, and on very liberal terms, sometimes only insisting upon immediate improvements.
And these are the twelve men who granted the town of Goffstown to Rev. Thomas Parker and others mentioned in Chapter II. Thus closed the long drawn out controversy of more than one hundred years.
They take the name of Mason.
John Tufton Mason3 dies without issue.
Robert Tufton Mason3 takes his share.
Robert Tufton Mason3 has two sons.
John Tufton Mason4 and Robert Tufton Mason4.
John Tufton Mason4 died without issue.
Robert Tufton Mason4 took his brother's share, and is sold heir; he died in 1696.
Robert Tufton Mason4 had a son John Tufton Mason5; he died in Havana 1718; inherited his father's interest.
John Tufton Mason5 had a son John Tufton Mason6, born in 1713, who conveyed by deed to the Masonian Proprietors.
Chapter 3