Research in the Right Place! The Importance of Jurisdiction

Abijah P. Marvin, History of the Town of Lancaster, Massachusetts: from the first settlement to the present time, 1643-1879, 2 vols (Lancaster, Mass.: Town of Lancaster, 1879), heavily annotated by Henry Nourse, with many handwritten pages inserted, vol. 1:2 pages after printed page 19;  Digital Commonwealth, Thayer Memorial Library (https://thayermemoriallibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/History-of-Lancaster-Vol-01.pdf) > image 45. See below for the published version.

 

I am researching a couple whose children's births were recorded in Marlborough, Middlesex County, and Lancaster, Worcester County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, between 1745–1770. They bought or sold land in both towns, but also in Bolton and Templeton, Worcester County. Their deaths were recorded in Boylston, yet probate gives residence as Shrewsbury, both in Worcester County. Did they move? How many times? To follow this family, understanding the local jurisdictions is critical.

Most Massachusetts Bay Colony towns were formed when a group of proprietors petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for a grant of land. Grants stipulated that within two or three years settlers would clear some land, “plant” a church with forty or so members, and call and settle a minister. Towns and counties were constantly redefining themselves: annexing, splitting and changing their bounds.

The pace at which these towns grew and subdivided complicates genealogical research. The resulting boundary changes make it difficult to discern whether people recorded in different towns ever physically moved. Astute researchers will be sure to consult dates of residence and affiliate those with the correct town and even county. It’s no use searching in Worcester County when the town you want was originally in Middlesex County, for that is where you will find the records.

It is amusing to those living in the area today, but almost from the start Massachusetts residents felt crowded. As farmers they desired more land to grow crops and graze their cattle. But other factors drove the push for new towns. Doctrinal disagreements, stronger even than political disagreements are today, could motivate a a minister to relocate, often taking a good portion of the church members with him. Another catalyst was the difficulty of traveling long distances to church, especially in bad weather. As a result a second parish or precinct would form and eventually become a town in its own right.

A Thorough Borough Treatment
As early as 1656 the inhabitants of Sudbury, Middlesex County, petitioned the General Court: "God haveing given us some considerable quantity of cattle; so that wee are so streightned that we cannott so Comfortably subsist … wee have found A place which lyeth westwd about eight miles from Sudbury, which wee conceive might bee comfortable for or subsistence." (1) The petition was granted and Marlborough was established in 1660.

Over the next 100 years three more towns were eventually formed from Marlborough: Westborough, Southborough, and Northborough. I made extensive use of William Galvin’s The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Historical Data Relating to Counties, Cities and Towns in Massachusetts to form an understanding of the genealogy of the many towns involved in my research, and I highly recommend it or a similar one for your state. Town formations and annexations are nicely detailed, and there is a fine map showing the boundaries of every town.

This map shows the towns as they lie today. Their geographical-style names are not intuitive and confuse their locations relative to one another. 

The name Southborough makes sense. Northborough does not. Why is Westborough west of Southborough, and not even bordering Marlborough? Finally, why is Marlborough in Middlesex County, but the other three towns in Worcester County? There is a reason for this and it concerns how and when these towns were set off.

The western precinct or borough of Marlborough was set off in 1717. At that time Westborough still included today’s Northborough, while the Marlborough that remained included today’s Southborough. So at that moment the names of Marlborough and Westborough were indeed indicative of the geographical relationship of two neighboring towns, one west of the other.

The southeastern section of Marlborough was set off as Southborough in 1727. By 1766 when the northern section of Westborough was set off as Northborough it left a muddle of names. A genealogy of the towns is summed up simply in this chart.

To add to the fun, the towns that were set off from Marlborough all joined Worcester County, while Marlborough remained in Middlesex. This is vitally important to researchers for both land and probate records. For Westborough, Northborough and Southborough, any records before 1731 will be in Middlesex County: after that, Worcester County.

Way Away in Nashaway

Further west the frontier town of Nashaway was settled in 1643 and established as the town of Lancaster, Middlesex County, in 1653. At least some portions of today’s towns of Harvard, Bolton, Clinton, Berlin, Hudson, Boylston, West Boylston, Sterling and Leominster belonged to old Lancaster. (3) In 1731 Lancaster joined the newly formed Worcester County, which itself was created from portions of Middlesex, Suffolk and Hampshire Counties. All of these towns are still in Worcester County, except Hudson, which was part of Marlborough at the time, so stayed in Middlesex.

The subject of my research generated records in three mother towns: Marlborough, Lancaster, and Shrewsbury. You can see that without having a precise location in Lancaster the research cannot be targeted. Nine towns covering four counties needs to be whittled down.

In 1717, a large tract between Marlborough in the east, and Worcester in the west; and Lancaster in the north and Sutton in the south, was granted to petitioners mostly from Marlborough and Sudbury. The town of Shrewsbury, Middlesex County, was established in 1723, but joined Worcester County at its creation in 1731. Its territory included portions of today’s towns of Boylston, West Boylston, Grafton, Westborough and Lancaster. Most important to my research, a second precinct of Shrewsbury eventually broke off to become Boylston, right around the time of death of my subject, hence his death in Boylston and probate in Shrewsbury.

The thick line in Figure 2 marks the boundary between Worcester County on the west and Middlesex County on the east. Colors roughly indicate towns born of three main mother towns through nearly four centuries of annexations and separations: Lancaster (yellow), Marlborough (red), and Shrewsbury (blue).

The importance of shifting boundaries and jurisdictions in genealogical research is critical. Both dictate which record holders and repositories are consulted. They define which laws applied to the research subjects, and allow for informed analysis of previous studies on the subject. Knowing the name of the town and county is not enough. We need to consider the date of the records required and investigate the dates of incorporation of towns and counties as well. You will save yourself a lot of time if you make sure you know where to look for the records.

--------
Notes

1. Mary E. Spalding, Franklin P. Rice, Colonial Records of Marlborough, Mass. (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1909), 3, Petition to the General Court of Massachusetts by some inhabitants of Sudbury for the Plantation, May 1656; (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/26684/images/dvm_LocHist011282-00002-1) > image 3. 

2. William F. Galvin, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Historical Data Relating to Counties, Cities and Towns in Massachusetts (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1997). 

3. “Map of Lancaster 1653-1883.” Lancaster, Mass., Henry Nourse, ed., The Early Records of Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1643-1725 (Lancaster, Mass.: Lancaster, 1884), 8; (https://archive.org/details/earlyrecordsofla1643lanc/ ) > image 20. Nourse drew the original map at the top of this post, and refined it when he published his own history of the town.