Prior  to  the  establishment  by  the  King,  in  1741,  of  the  boundary
line  between  the  Provinces  of  New  Hamsphire  and   Massachusetts,   the


38  HISTORY   OF   THE   TOWN   OF  BROOKLINE

latter  Province  had  claimed,  and  virtually  exercised,  jurisdiction  over  all
that  part  of  southern  New  Hampshire  lying  west  of  the  settlements  at
Dover  and  Portsmouth;  and  under  that  claim  had  issued,  at  various
times  and  to  different  individuals  and  companies,  grants  of  lands  lying
in  the  valley  of  and  on  both  sides  of  the  Merrimack  river  in  New  Hamp-
shire.
These  tracts  of  land  thus  distributed  were  known  as  Farm  Grants.
Among  the  larger  of  them  were  the  Charlestown  School  Farm  containing
1000  acres,  and  located  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Souhegan  river  in  the
present  town  of  Milford;  and  of  which  the  southwest  corner,  now  marked
by  a  granite  monument,  was  at  Dram-Cup  hill,  and  was  identical  with
the  northwest  corner  of  Old  Dunstable;  and  the  Artillery  Farm  Grant,
which  was  made  in  1673  to  the  Honorable  Artillery  Company  of  Boston,
Mass.,  and  which  comprised  1000  acres  of  land  lying  on  the  north  bank
of  the  Nashua  river  and  west  bank  of  the  Merrimack  river  in  Nashua.
In  the  year  1073  the  number  of  acres  that  had  been  disposed  of  by
these  grants  amounted  to  about  fifteen  thousand;  and  the  grants  were
scattered  over  a  large  territory,  few  of  them  being  contiguous,  some  of
them  unsettled,  and  others  sparsely  settled.
