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Oakham.-Mr. Jonathan Bullard.

Hubbardston.-Mr. John Clark.

Westborough.-Capt. Stephen Maynard, Doct. James Hawse.
Northborough.-Mr. Levi Brigham.

Shrewsbury.-Hon. Artemas Ward, Esq., Mr. Phineas Hayward. Lunenburgh and Fitchburgh.-Capt. George ||"Kimball,|| Capt. Abijah Stearns, Capt. David Goodridge.

Uxbridge.-Capt. Joseph Reed.

Harvard. Mr. Joseph Wheeler.

Bolton. Capt. Samuel Baker, Mr. Ephraim Fairbanks.

Petersham.-Capt. Ephraim Doolittle.

Southborough.-Capt. Jonathan Ward.

Hardwick. Capt. Paul Mandell, Mr. Stephen Rice. 1 Western. Mr. Gershom Makepeace.

Sturbridge.-Capt. Timothy Parker.

Leominster. Thomas Legate, Esq., Mr. Israel Nichols
Dudley.-Thomas Cheney, Esq.

Upton. Mr. Abiel Sadler.

New Braintree.-Capt. James Wood.

Holden-Mr. John Child.

Douglass.-Mr. Samuel Jennison.

Grafton.-Capt. John Goulding.

Royalston. Mr. Henry Bond.

Westminster.-Mr. Nathan Wood, Mr. Abner Holden.

Templeton. Mr. Jonathan Baldwin.

Athol. Mr. William Bigelow.

Princeton. Mr. Moses Gill, Capt. Benjamin Holden.

Ashburnham.-Mr. Jonathan Taylor.

Winchendon.-Mr. Moses Hale.

2 Woodstock. [None.]

Northbridge.-Mr. Samuel Baldwin.

COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND.

Falmouth and Cape Elizabeth.-Enoch Freeman, Esq.

a ||Campbell.

and by his having thus acted, it has become fit and just that every honorable memorial of him should be obliterated and cease:" Therefore, it was enacted, that the town of Hutchinson should no longer bear that name, but thenceforth should be called Barre.

(1) The name of Western was altered to Warren, March 18, 1834.

(2) Woodstock is erroneously inserted in the text. The inhabitants of that town, settled in 1686, long attached to Suffolk, afterwards connected with Worcester county, seceded from the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, in 1747; in 1752 they were admitted to the privileges and protection of Connecticut, and on the settlement of her boundary line, became, and have remained citizens of that state.

Scarborough.-Mr. Samuel March.

North Yarmouth.-Mr. John Lewis.

Gorham.-Solomon Lombard, Esq.

Brunswick and Harpswell.-Mr. Samuel Thompson.

1COUNTY OF LINCOLN.-[None.]

2COUNTY OF BERKSHIRE.

Sheffield, Great Barrington, Egremont and Alford.-John Fellows, Esq., Doct William Whiting.

Stockbridge and West Stockbridge.-Mr. Thomas Williams.
Tyringham.-Capt. Giles Jackson.
Pittsfield-John Brown, Esq.

Richmond.-[None.]

Lenox.-Mr. John Patterson.

Becket.-Mr. Jonathan Wadsworth.

The Congress proceeded to the choice of a Chairman, when the Hon. John Hancock, Esq., was elected.

Benjamin Lincoln, Esq. was chosen clerk.

Upon a motion, Voted, That the Congress be adjourned to the || court house in Concord, there to meet on Tuesday next, at ten o'clock in the forenoon.3||

TUESDAY, October 11, 1774, A. M.

The Congress met according to adjournment.

Upon a motion ||Resolved, That the Congress be adjourned to the meeting house in Concord: Being met there, upon a motion|| the

a Meeting house at.

(1) This county, established in 1760, extended at the period of the entries in the journal over the vast territory of Maine, where the counties of Lincoln, Hancock, Waldo, Washington, Kennebeck, Somerset and Penobscot have risen. The figures prefixed to the names of the towns existing in 1774, indicate the date of incorporation of each: 1716, Georgetown; 1753, Newcastle; 1759, Woolwich; 1760, Pownalsborough, changed to Wiscasset, June 10, 1802; 1762, Bowdoinham; 1764, Boothbay, Topsham; 1765, Bristol; 1771, Hallowell, Winthrop, Vassalborough, Winslow; 1773, Walioborough, Belfast; 1774, Edgecomb; Gardnerstown received the name of Pittston, February 4, 1778.

(2) In Berkshire were the following towns, in addition to those enumerated in the text, incorporated prior to 1774, in the year annexed to each name; Patridgefield, 1771, named Peru, June 19, 1806; New Marlborough, 1759; Lanesborough, 1765; Sandisfield, 1762; Williamstown, 1765; Gageborough, 1771, called Winsor, 1778; Otis, 1773.

(3) Conventions of delegates in the several counties had appointed the second Tuesday of October and the town of Concord, as the time and place for the meeting of the Congress of the province, long before writs were issued by the governor for convening the general court. The adjournment was in conformity with the resolutions of the local assemblies.

"The meeting was first held in the old court house, but that being too small to convene so large an assembly, it was adjourned to the meeting house. Two sessions, one at nine, and the other at three o'clock, were held each day.”—Shattuck's Concord, 91.

question was put, whether they would reconsider their vote relative to the appointing a chairman, and then proceed to the choice of a president, by written votes, and passed in the affirmative.

Upon a motion, Ordered, That Capt. Heath, Hon. Mr. Dexter, and Hon. Col. Ward, be a committee to count and sort the votes for a president.

The Congress proceeded to bring in their votes for a president, and the committee having counted and sorted the same, reported that the Hon. John Hancock, Esq., was chosen.

The Congress then appointed Benjamin Lincoln, Esq., secretary. Upon a motion, Ordered, That Capt. Barrett, Doct. Warren, and Hon. Col. Ward, be a committee to wait on the Rev. Mr. Emerson, and desire his attendance on the Congress, that the business might be opened with prayer.

The committee appointed to wait on the Rev. Mr. Emerson, reported that they had attended [to] that service, and that the Rev. Mr. Emerson would soon attend on the Congress agreeable to their desire.

Adjourned to three o'clock this afternoon.

Three o'clock, P. M.-The Congress is further adjourned to half after eight o'clock to-morrow morning.

WEDNESDAY, October 12, 1774, A. M.

|||| Upon a motion, Ordered, That Major Fuller, Col. Prescot, Doct. Warren, and Doct. Holten, be appointed to return the Congress when necessary, in order the more easily to ascertain a vote, and that they observe the following divisions, viz: The wall pews on the right of the desk for one division; [those] on the left for another; the men's seats and the pews adjoining them, a third; and the women's seats and the pews adjoining them, the fourth.

Upon a motion, the question was put whether the several resolutions entered into by the counties respectively, be now read, and passed in the affirmative. They were read accordingly.1

Resolved, That a doorkeeper be appointed.

Resolved, That Capt. Barrett be desired to appoint some suitable person for a doorkeeper; he appointed accordingly, Mr. Jeremiah Hunt for that purpose.

Ordered, That the Hon. John Hancock, Esq., Hon. Joseph Hawley, Esq., Doct. Warren, Hon. Samuel Dexter, Esq., Hon. Col. Ward, Hon.

a Congress met agreeably to adjournment.||

(1) The records of the county conventions so far as they can be recovered will be found in the Appendix.

Col. Warren, Capt. Heath, Col. Lee, Doct. Church, Doct. Holten, Mr. Gerry, Col. Tyng, Capt. Roberson, Major Foster, and Mr. Gorham, be a committee to take into consideration the state of the province, and report as soon as may be.

Then the Congress|| adjourned to three o'clock this afternoon.

Adjourned to nine o'clock to-morrow morning.

Afternoon.

THURSDAY, October 13, 1774, A. M.

Adjourned to three o'clock this afternoon.

Afternoon.

The committee on the state of the province, reported the following message to his excellency. The same was considered and accepted by the Congress with one 'dissentient|| only, and the president was ||'ordered to attest the same.

May it please your Excellency:

The delegates from the several towns in the province of the Massachusetts Bay, having convened in general Congress, beg leave to address your excellency. The distressed and miserable state of the province, occasioned by the intolerable grievances and oppressions to which the people are subjected, and the danger and destruction to which they are exposed, of which your excellency must be sensible, and the want of a general assembly, have rendered it indispensably necessary to collect the wisdom of the province by their delegates in this Congress, to concert some adequate remedy for preventing impending ruin, and providing for the public safety.

It is with the utmost concern we see your hostile preparations, which have spread such alarm throughout this province and the whole continent, as threatens to involve us in all the confusion and horrors of a civil war; and while we contemplate an event so deeply to be regretted by every good man, it must occasion the surprise and astonishment of all mankind, that such measures are pursued against a people whose love of order, attachment to Britain, and loyalty to their prince, have ever been truly exemplary. Your excellency must be sensible that the sole end of government is the protection and security of the people. Whenever, therefore, that power, which was originally instituted to effect these important and valuable purposes, is employed to harass, distress, or enslave the people, in this case it becomes a curse rather than a blessing.

al Congress met agreeably to adjournment.||

b dissentient voice.||

c requested.||

The most painful apprehensions are excited in our minds by the measures now pursuing. The rigorous execution of the Port Bill, with ["increased] severity, must eventually reduce the capital and its numerous dependencies to a state of poverty and ruin. The acts for altering the charter and the administration of justice in the colony, are manifestly designed to abridge this people of their rights, and to license murders; and, if carried into execution, will reduce them to a state of slavery. The number of troops in the capital, increased by daily accessions drawn from the whole continent, together with the formidable and hostile preparations which you are now making on Boston Neck, in our opinion, greatly endanger the lives, liberties and properties, not only of our brethren in the town of Boston, but of this province in general. Permit us to ask your excellency, whether an inattentive and unconcerned acquiescence [in] such alarming, such menacing measures, would not evidence a state of insanity; or, whether the delaying to take every possible precaution for the security of the province, would not be the most criminal neglect in a people heretofore rigidly and justly tenacious of their constitutional rights?

Penetrated with the most poignant concern, and ardently solicitous to preserve union and harmony between Great Britain and the Colonies, so indispensably necessary to the well being of both, we entreat your excellency to remove that brand of contention, the fortress at the entrance of Boston. We are much concerned that you should have been induced to construct it, and thereby causelessly excite such a spirit of resentment and indignation as now generally prevails.

We assure you, sir, that the good people of this colony never have had the least intention to do any injury to his majesty's troops; but, on the contrary, most earnestly desire that every obstacle to treating them as fellow-subjects may be immediately removed; ["and we] are constrained to tell your excellency, that the minds of the people will never be relieved till those hostile works are demolished; and we request you, as you regard his majesty's honor and interest, the dignity and happiness of the empire, and the peace and welfare of this province, that you immediately desist from the fortress now constructing at the south entrance into the town of Boston, and restore the pass to its natural

state.

Upon a motion,

Ordered, That a fair copy of the foregoing report be taken and presented to his excellency Thomas Gage, Esq., and that a committee be

a [improved.]

b [to]

c ||constituted.||

d [but.]

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