History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

313 HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON. [1761.
Disputed Land in A Special meeting was called to inquire into
Middle Meadow. \;]^q ownership of Certain lands in Middle
Meadow. A committee reported that a considerable
part of them belonged to the town. Thereupon
a vote was passed to make the title good. From this action
grew a long drawn out law suit, which was not settled till
1764, and then matters seem to have been left about as they
were when the suit was commenced. Apparently a test
case was made with the heirs of Jonathan Hunt, and in
the course of a couple of years the town expended not far
from £88 in the litigation. Northampton lost the case be-
fore the lower court, and appealed to the Superior Court.
In 17fi4, the town decided that it " would become non
suit if the Hunts would agree to be defaulted." Appar-
ently both sides were ready to compromise on that basis,
for at the September session of the higher court neither
party put in an appearance.
Attempt to make Hardly had the new County of Berkshire
Northampton the been established, when a movement was
"^^
commenced to make Northampton the shiretown
of Old Hampshire, instead of Springfield. A peti-
tion signed by Timothy Dwiglit of Northampton and Oliver
Partridge of Hatfield, in which it was claimed that
Northampton was much more central than Springfield, was
presented to the Legislature in April, 1761. Northampton
suj)plemented this petition by another in the following
May, instructing a committee to "procure & Send Some
proper person an Agent to Boston to prosecute the aff'air."
Col. Timothy Dwight was delegated to perform this duty,
and there remains on file an order on the town treasurer,
signed by the three selectmen to pay him "three £ and
seven pence one fifth part of a penny in full satisfaction for
the like sum paid at Boston by him in and about the affair
of the town of Northampton's application to the Genl
Court to be constituted the Shire Town of the county of
Hampshire." Some towns in the northern part of the
county petitioned in favor of Northampton, and others in
favor of Hadley, while those in the southern portion opposed
any change. In January of the following year,
twenty-one towns in the northern half of the county peti-