January 1781

I RTP Esqr. A.G. for the Cmnwth. of Massats. by virtue of the Law of the Law for Confiscating the Estates of certain Persons commonly called Absentees do hereby Substitute & appoint J.P: J.H: & S.T:1 or either of them in my place and stead and to the use and behoof of the said Cmnwlth. to recieve Seizure & Possession from the Shff. of sd. County to all & singular the Estates late of Certain Absentees lying in the County of Middlesex in the said State lately belonging to Certain Persons called absentees upon which Judgment was rendered at the Inf. Ct. of Cmn. Pleas holden at Cambridge in sd. county on Decr. last past the last Ss. of Novr. last past on behalf of sd. Cmnwlth. to have seized Possessions thereof Wit. my hand & Seal, this blank day of Jany. 1781.

Absentees in Co: Cumb. whose Estates are returned

Francis Waldo

Thos. Oxnard

Jeremh. Pote mov. to Hal.

Thos. Wyer mov. to Hal

Jona. Sewal

John Martin mov: N.York

Arthur Savage

Timo. Prout

Thos. Colson. merch. after Lex:

James Wildridge

Thos. Ross. mov.

John Wiswal

Wm. Brown.

Wm. Tyng

143

Francis Skinner

Saml. Waterhouse

Isaac Royal

Dft.

1.

The governor appointed James Prescott, Joseph Hosmer, and Samuel Thatcher as the local substitutes in Middlesex County. For the full list of committees in the various counties, see the Massachusetts Spy, Mar. 29, 1781.

February 1781

Cmn. Wealth of Massa.

Hampshire Ss. Notice is hereby given that the Att: Genl. of this Comnwlth. hath exhibited to the Justices of the Infr. Ct. of Cmn. Pleas. for the County of Hampshire on the 2d. Tuesday of February current complaints agt. the following Persons for Treasons & high Crimes agreable to the Law of this State entituled an Act for Confiscating the Estates of certain Persons comonly called Absentees & therein alledging their respective estates, lying in the county of Hampshire hereafter described to be forfeited & escheatd to the use of the Cmnwlth. aforsd. vizt: agt. J:C.1, late of Worc: in the Co. of W. Esqr.: his Estate as follows vizt. Lotts N. 9, 13, 14, 15, 33, 56, in 1st. division of Murray fields

agt: Nathl. Dickenson2 late of D. in Co. of H: yeo. his Estate as follows vizt. blank

which complaints are continued to the next IC. of CP. to be held at blank for sd. Ct. on the Tuesday of blank next when & where claims may be entered thereon the said Estates will be proceeded with according to Law if any are before due proceeding will be had thereon.

Feby. 1781. by order of the said Court

R B3 Clerk

Dft. on same sheet as RTP to Caleb Strong, Feb. 5, 1781. The text is printed in the Continental Journal, Mar. 22, 1781, with additional estates noted for Moses Foster, late of Shelburne; James Oliver, late of Conway; Thomas Beaman, late of Petersham; Elijah Williams, late of Deerfield; Jonathan Bliss, late of Springfield; and additional property of Nathaniel Dickinson, late of Deerfield. A similar notice for Bristol County appears in the same issue.

144 1.

John Chandler (1720–1800).

2.

Nathaniel Dickinson (1734–1788) of Deerfield was an outspoken loyalist. He evacuated to Halifax with the British army in 1776 and was among those banished in 1778. His property was confiscated, part of it set aside in 1780 for “the use of the State for pasturing cattle for the use of the Army” (The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1779–1780 [Boston, 1922], Chapter 9 [1780], 518; George Sheldon, A History of Deerfield, Massachusetts [Deerfield, 1896], 2:697). He settled at Westfield, Kings County, New Brunswick (Hampshire County Probate, 17:207–208).

3.

Robert Breck (1737–1799) of Northampton, Mass., was clerk of the courts in Hampshire County from 1781 to 1798 (Samuel Breck, Genealogy of the Breck Family [Omaha, 1889], 45).