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New Hampshire |
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Other info
| Name | Business Name | Occupation | Location 1 | Location 2 | City | State | Year |
| USHER W. Cutts | South | Great Falls | NH | 1882, 1883 |
Samuel T. Worcester, comp. History of the town of Hollis, New Hampshire,
from its first settlement to the year 1879, Boston, MA: A. Williams &
Co., 1879.
Before the year 1729, most of the land of these proprietors lying
in the present towns of Nashua, Hudson and Litchfield, N. H., and Tyngsborough
and Dunstable, Mass., had changed ownership, and much of it was then in the
occupation of actual settlers. Previous to that year, no record of any sale or
grant to any one of the early settlers of Hollis of land in that town is to be
found in the books kept by these proprietors. But in the month of January,
1729-30, O. S., as is shown by these records, the modest quantity of 37 1-2
acres was set off by the proprietors to Peter Powers, in the right of John Usher.
The survey of it was made by Col. Joseph Blanchard, Dunstable, and a noted
surveyor of the time, and was set off to Powers by Henry Farwell, Joseph French
and William Lund as a committee acting for the association. This tract is
described in the record as lying in that part of Dunstable called "Nissitissit,"
which was the Indian name of Hollis. It was laid out in an oblong 120 rods east
and west, and 50 rods from north to south. Some years afterwards, as is shown by
these records of the proprietors there were set off to Powers as purchaser and
grantee, in a similar way several other tracts of land in Hollis, amounting in
all to nearly 1400 acres, among which was one tract of 1000 acres lying between
Long and Pennichuck ponds, but he is the only person among the early settlers of
Hollis whose name is found as a grantee upon the books of that association.
John B. Hill, comp. History of the town of Mason, New Hampshire, from the First Grant in 1749, to the Year 1858. Boston, MA: Lucius A. Elliot & Co., 1858.
His commission gave him almost absolute power. He
commenced his rule in 1682. Mason was named in his commission as one of the
council, and seems to have had a great share in the management of affairs. Suits
were brought to enforce his claims. They were resisted. Nothing effectual was
done to establish his title. When he succeeded in obtaining judgment, he was
forcibly resisted in his attempts to get possession. Many of the tenants claimed
under Indian deeds, which were then much regarded; others shew possession for
from forty to sixty years, uninterrupted by any successful enforcement of his
rights. In 1686 a purchase was made of the Indians, of a tract on both sides of
the Merrimack river, six miles in breadth, extending from Souhegan river to
Winnipisseogee lake. The purchasers were Jonathan Tyng, Joseph Dudley, Charles
Lidgat, John Usher, Edward Randolph, John Hubbard,
Robert Thompson, Samuel Scrimpton, William Stoughton, Richard Warton, Thomas
Hinchman, Thaddeus Maccarty, Edward Thompson, John Blackwell, Peter Bulkley,
William Blathwayt, Daniel Cox and "three other persons, to be thereafter
named and agreed upon." Mason, by deed, confirmed this purchase, reserving
to himself and his heirs a yearly rent of ten shillings. This was called the
million acre purchase. About the same time he farmed out to Hezekiah 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; and having put his affairs in
the best order the times would admit, he sailed for England, to attend to the
hearing of a case appealed against him to the king.
....
The appeal to the king was decided in his favor, and
he returned in the spring of 1687, full of hope of realizing something out of
his claims; but unexpected obstructions were in his way. The government, under
Andros, was in the hands of a set of harpies, who could not look on without
determining to come in for a share of his success. He succeeded in getting his
case brought before the Supreme Court in Boston, but before he could get a
decision he died at Esopus, N.Y., on a journey to Albany, where he had
accompanied the governor, Sir Edmund Andros, leaving his sons, John and Robert,
heirs of his claims and controversies. They sold their claim to Samuel Allen, of
London, for seven hundred and fifty pounds. John Usher
married Allen's daughter. He was a native of Boston, and by profession a
stationer; was rich, was one of the partners in the million acre purchase, and
had sanguine expectations of gain from that quarter; as also, probably, from the
mines he had purchased of Mason. He was appointed lieutenant governor, and
administered the affairs of the province. He resolved to enforce Allen's claims.
He found that Pickering, the defendant's lawyer, had with a company of armed
men, taken out of the hands of Chamberlain, the secretary and clerk, the records
and papers relating to the Mason suits. After having recovered the papers, he
seems to have made no effectual progress with the suits. In 1700, Allen took the
matter in hand himself, but found, when the records were examined, that
twenty-five leaves were missing, in which it is supposed the judgments recovered
by Mason were recorded. No evidence appeared of his having obtained possession,
and the whole work was to be gone over again. Suits were commenced anew. The
jury found for the defendant. Allen claimed an appeal to the king, which the
court would not allow, and he was compelled to apply to the king by petition, on
which his appeal was granted. Allen appointed Usher to
act for him in prosecuting his appeal, having previously mortgaged one half the
province to him for œ1,500. When the appeal came on for hearing, it appeared
that no proof was produced to show that Mason was ever in possession, and
therefore judgment was rendered against him, but with the right to commence
again in the courts in the province. New suits were commenced, ending as before,
in judgment for the defendant and appeal by the plaintiff. Allen was now old and
poor, and proposed a settlement by compromise, but before it was effected he
died. His son, Thomas Allen, renewed the suits with the same result, judgment
for the defendants and an appeal to the queen in council. Before the appeal was
ready to be heard, Allen died in 1715. This put an end to the suit, which his
heirs, being minors, did not renew.
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