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ed well to the fort, and made no discovery of the enemies. And on the 20th day, we guarded the inhabitants about some hay, near the fort, and made no discovery of the enemies. And on the 21st day, kept the Sabbath. And on the 22nd day, ranged the woods after cattle for the inhabitants, and we found some cattle,And killed a Buck and a Doe and made no late discovery of the enemies-And Capt..Ladd guarded the people from this time till [the] 28th day, of said September, and then marched down below with all the men, that belonged below; and the men that belonged up in the woods, staid up there, that is, the Canterbury men. And Capt. Ladd left orders for the Canterbury men, that were under his command, to guard the inhabitants till the aforesaid time of scouting was expired.further saith not. A true copy of the said Journal,

Attest, by me, ABNER CLOUGH, Clerk of [the] company.

[The following extracts from Records of the House of Representatives of N. H. have been found since the preceding Journal was copied.]

"Wednesday, November 11, 1747. The House met according to adjourn

ment.

Alexander Roberts, one of Captain Daniel Ladd's scout, who was taken last August, was twelve month at Penacook-David Bean and Edward West were called into the house, examined upon oath concerning a human scull bone, which they brought into the house, upon a supposition that it was the scull of an Indian which said Roberts killed, and saw buried at said Penacook at the time aforesaid. P. M. Whereas Alexander Roberts and others have been carefully examined upon oath of and concerning a human scull bone which said Roberts and Company found at or near the place, where said Roberts suppose he killed an Indian man, and where he saw said Indian buried, and inasmuch as it appears to the House upon the evidence produced that the said scull is really the scull of the aforesaid Indian. Therefore VOTED, that there be paid out of the money in the public Treasury unto the said Alexander Roberts aud Company the sum of Seventy five pounds, in the following proportions viz. to the said Alexander Roberts, the sum of fifteen pounds; to Daniel Gilman, the sum of seven pounds ten shillings; to the widows of Jonathan and Samuel Bradley each eleven pounds five shillings; and to the heirs or legal representatives of Obadiah Peters, John Lovekin, John Bean and William Stickney each, the sum of seven pounds ten Shil lings."

Communicated by J. H. Peacock, Esq.

Capt. Goffe's Letter to Governor Benning Wentworth. Communicated by Mr. JAMES H. PEACOCK.

May it please your Excellency,

5 May, 1746.

I got to Pennycook on Saturday early in the morning, and notwithstanding I sent the Monday after I left the Bank, yet my bread was not baked, but there was about two hundred and fifty weight baken, which supply[ed] 20 men, which I sent to Canterbury as soon as I got here, and I kept the Baker and several .soldiers to baking all Sabbath day, and purposed to march on Monday, as soon as possible; but about midnight, two men came down from Contoocook, and brought the unhappy news of two men being killed, and the two men that came down told me that they saw the two men lye in their blood, and one man more that was missing, and hearing I was here, desired me to assist in making search; so that I am with all expedition going up to Contoocook, and will do what I can to see the Enemy. I shall take all possible care for the protection of the frontiers and destruction of the Enemy. The Indians are all about our frontiers. I think there was never more need of soldiers than now. It is enough to make one's blood cold in one's veins to see our fellow creatures killed and taken upon every quarter, and if we cannot catch them here, I hope the General Court will give encouragement to go and give them the same play at home. The white man that is killed is one Thomas Cook, and the other is Mr. Stevens, the minister's negro. These

are found, and one Jones,* a soldier, is not found. They having but few soldiers in the fort, have not as yet sought much for him. I am going with all possible expedition, and am

Your Excellency's

most humble and most dutiful subject and servant, JOHN GOFFE,

PENNY COOK, about 2 of the clock, in the morning, May 5th, 1746,

Brief Notices of the Town of Antrim. By Rev. JOHN M. WHITON.

In 1746, several gentlemen of Portsmouthf purchased of the heir of Capt. John Mason, the original grantee of New-Hampshire, his claims on the soil of the Province. To quiet the apprehensions of the people and prevent opposition to their views, they immediately quitclaimed the towns previously granted on the east of the Merrimack by New-Hampshire, and in a few years after, the towns granted by Massachusetts, chiefly on the west of the river. Prior to this purchase, the towns of Hillsborough, Peterborough, Lyndeborough, and New Boston, had been granted by Massachusetts. Between Hillsborough on the North, Peterborough on the

[*His name was Elisha Jones, not Thomus, as in Belknap. He was carried to Concord, and there died. See Rev. Mr. Price's Hist. of Boscawen. p. 112.] [†Theodore Atkinson, Mark Hunking Wentworth, father of Gov. John Wentworth, Richard Wibird, John Wentworth, son of Gov. Benning Wentworth, George Jaffrey, Nathaniel Meserve, Thomas Packer, Thomas Wallingford, Jotham Odiorne, Joshua Peirce, Samuel Moore and John Moffatt. The whole purchase was divided into fifteen shares, of which each proprietor owned one share excepting Atkinson, who owned three shares, and M. H. Wentworth, two shares.]

South, and Lyndeborough and New Boston on the East, lay a large tract of ungranted land divided into two almost equal parts by Contoocook river, including the present towns of Antrim, Hancock, Deering, and portions of Francestown and Greenfield. This tract belonged of

course to the Masonian proprietors; and being for a time undivided, the whole was called Society Land. The north-western portion of it forms the present township of Antrim,

year

The first settler was Philip Really, who éstablished himself on the farm now owned by the Hon. Jacob Whittemore, then supposed to be within the limits of Hillsborough, about the 1746. The Cape Breton war immediately followed. An incursion of the Indians into Hopkinton in 1746, alarmed the few inhabitants of Hillsborough and led them to abandon their inhabitants. Really went with them, and did not return till after the lapse of 15 years, when the capture of Quebec had broken the French power and restrained the hostilities of the northern Indians. On his arival at his little "clearing," the young poplars and wild cherry trees had attained a considerable size, and so effectually concealed the log hut he had formerly erected, that not till after a diligent search was he able to find it.

The Masonian proprietors published an Advertisment in 1766, stating that they had fine lands for sale on the west side of the Contoocook and inviting enterpriseing young men to examine them. Several young men of Londonderry were induced by this notice to visit the place.They were pleased with the lands, and some of them began to fell the trees. The next year, 1767,James Aiken removed his family here, haveing on his first visit prepared for their accom

modation a little log cabin in the south east part of the town, near the tavern and store of the late Mark Woodbury, Esq Of his associates whom he expected to follow him, some never came; and of those who did come, the first did not arrive till four years afterwards. All this time, he braved the perils of the wilderness without a neighbor within several miles. Hancock had then but two settlers, Deering three, and Francestown five. His nearest neighbor on the west was John Bellows of Walpole, at the distance of 25 miles. The Moose then an inhabitant of our forests, often furnished to his family welcome supplies of meat, when none was to be obtained from other sources.

John Duncan, afterwards Esquire, removed his family here in 1773, making the sixth in the place. The cart on which his goods were transported was the first that passed from Francestown to Antrim, and the oxen that drew it, were driven by the Hon. John Bell of Londonderry, the father of the late Governors Samuel and John Bell.. In 1777, when about twenty families had planted themselves here, the town was incorporated. At the request of Mr. Duncan, the agent by whom the act of incorporation was obtained, it was called Antrim from the County of that name in the north of Ireland, whence the ancestors of many of the inhabitants had emigrated, half a century before, to Londonderry. Their remoter ancestors went originally from the west of Scotland to the north of Ireland more than two centuries ago.

In the course of the year, several of the inhabitants joined the forces which under the command of Stark achieved the important victory of

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