pon the Table.

[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 81), January 3,
1752.]

The Memorial of _John Whitney_ and others, as entred _October_ 9th
1751, Inhabitants of the Southwesterly Part of _Groton_ and the
Eastwardly Part of _Lunenberg_, setting forth that in _November_
1749, they preferred a Petition to this Court, praying to be set
off from the Towns to which they belong, and made into a distant
[distinct?] and seperate Town and Parish, for the Reasons therein
mentioned; praying that the aforesaid Memorial and Petition, with
the Report of the said Committee thereon, and all the Papers
thereto belonging, may be revived, and again taken into
consideration.

Read again, and the Question was put, _Whether the Prayer of the
Petition should be so far granted as that the petition and Papers
accompanying it should be revived_?

It pass'd in the Negative. And _Voted_, That the Memorial be
dismiss'd.

[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 92), January 9,
1753.]

The discussion in regard to the division of the town resulted in setting
off the district of Shirley, on January 5, 1753, three months before the
district of Pepperell was formed. In the Act of Incorporation the name
was left blank, as it was in the one incorporating Pepperell, and
"Shirley" was filled in at the time of its engrossment. It was so named
after William Shirley, the governor of the province at that period. It
never was incorporated specifically as a town, but became one by a
general Act of the Legislature, passed on March 23, 1786. It was
represented, while a district, in the session of the General Court which
met at Watertown, on July 19, 1775, as well as in the Provincial
Congress of Massachusetts, and thus tacitly acquired the powers and
privileges of a town, which were afterward confirmed by the act just
mentioned.

The act for establishing the district of Shirley is as follows:--

Anno Regni Regis Georgii Secundi Vicesimo Sexto.

An Act for dividing the Town of Groton and making a District by the
Name of....

Whereas the Inhabitants of the Southwesterly part of the Town of
Groton by Reason of the Difficulties they labour under being remote
from the place of the publick worship of God have addressed this
Court to be Sett off a Separate District whereunto the Inhabitants
of Said Town hav