USA > Maine > Maine Public Lands 1781-1795 : claims, trespassers, and sales > Part 18
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and selling it to someone else. It may be pertinent to observe that the people who wrote or initiated letters were often people who claimed 222 more than a hundred acre share. The Committee wrote on its part that it was sorry people had not been able to agree among themselves but the situation of their affairs "does not admit of our doing it in such a manner as will preclude further uneasiness." It added that & study of the situation revealed that the town had been lotted by the Tylers and most of the island inhabitants had received deeds and were satisfied with the doings of the Tylers and it was convinced it would be to the islanders' best interest to settle with the two brothers. It
did propose that the Tylers receive a deed with such reservations as might be agreed upon. Cr, if this was not satisfacotry, a second possible solution was suggested: the people should lot the town out according to their wishes, return a plan pointing out the disposition of all territory, and pay a stated sum to the state treasury. Upon receipt of the purchase money in the State Treasury, the Government would give a quitclaim deed to the settlers. If this latter course were taken they urged that the Tylers be paid one hundred thirty eight
221. Deer Isle Settlers to Committee, May 3, 1791, Eastern Lands, Box 14; Thompson to Committee, Nov. 2, 1791, Eastern Lands, Box 14; Solomon Haskell to Jarvis, Jan. 17, 1792, Eastern Lands, Box 14; undated petition to General Court, Eastern Lands, Box 14.
222. Undated petition to General Court, EasternLands, Box 14 (stated that Thomas Thompson has four rights, Ignatius Haskell about eight rights.).
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pounds, ter shillings for their expenses and time. In all matters cn which they found it impossible to agree, they should get the decision of judicious dlainterested men to be chosen by mutual agreement. Other proposals bad been made, it was added, but none that were not beset with difficulties. 223
One group agreed to pay twelve hundred pounds in stato securities for a certain township, but before the transaction was completed, it was discovered that the tract was in York County, which had not at that time been ;aced under the jurisdiction of the Committee. When the Committee was given the necessary jurisdictional powers and a binding sale was about to be made the purchasers wanted to pay part in specie reckoning securities at four shillings. In reporting this request Phillips noted that he could not ever remember the Committee making a change of this 224 kind after an agreement had been reached.
The fluctuating value of paper money finally created a problem which was so serious that the Committee felt it should be reported to the General Court. Many people who had contracted for land for which they were to pay in state notes were reporting that it would be im- possible for them to complete their contract unless they were allowed to make the remaining installments in specie at a ratio equal or about equal to the equivalent value of the notes when they made the purchase.
223. Committee to Deer Isle inhabitants, June 16, 1791, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
224. Phillips to Jarvis, March 28, 1788, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
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Here the General Court gave the Committee blanket authority to handle the 225 situation in whatever equitable manner it considered best. A
month earlier one man who had already paid his bill had written that he could have gotten three times as much land then as he had gotten 226 earlier when he had made a purchase. Bullock, in his work on
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Massachusetts finances in this period, informs us that the State started to reduce its debt to manageable size after 1781 by resorting 227
to legal depreciation. In the late 1780's consolidated notes 228
were hawked about at one sixth of their face value.
After Knox and Duer bought two million acres they ran into difficulty trying to get money to pay for it. At one point they tried to return 300,000 acres on certain terms that would ease their situation. Jackson first broached the subject to Phillips and Jarvis, the only Committee members in Boston at that time, but they felt that the Committee had no power to act, as the original agreement had been approved by the General Court. However, they did agree to convene the whole Committee to discuss the matter and Jackson felt they would finally agree to the changes if they were given a year's interest which otherwise they would lose by a provision that the
225. Mass. Resolve, Feb. 11, 1791, Chap. 28.
226. Daniel Lunt to Wells, Jan. 10, 1791, Eastern Lands, Box 17. 227. Bullock, Historical Sketch of the Finances and Financial Policy of Massachusetts from 1780 to 1905, p. 7.
228. Ibid, p. 11.
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payments be set back one year. The meeting was held but the request was not granted because the Committee did not feel it had the power to. make so great a change after the contract had been approved by the 230 General Court.
Bingham wanted to change some of the terms of his payment in 1793. Jackson first showed the proposition to Phillips and others of the 231 Committee members and, so he said, got their promise of support. A
resolve embodying the changes was passed by the house apparently with- out difficulty but when it got to the Senate; Cony and Wells found fault with it. Wells said that the changes would remove the inducement to place settlers on the land as the funds the contractors proposed to . deposit to guarantee that action would not be of enough value to exert pressure. He also said that the exchange proposed would make money for the contractors and the State ought to have a portion of the saving. The legislature therefore proposed a higher rate of exchange -- higher than Jackson cared to agree to. Finally, Phillips said they were asking for a complicated change, that he did not understand, after the contract had been made and agreed upon. The end result of the negotiations was 232
that the whole matter was referred to the next session.
229. Jackson to Knox, Sept. 23, 1792, in William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis. p. 147.
230. Jarvis to Jackson, Oct. 9, 1792, Eastern Lands, Box 15.
231. Jackson to Bingham, March 10, 1793, in William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis. p. 252.
232. Jackson to Bingham, March 31, 1793, in William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis. pp. 259-261.
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Grantees did not always meet all the requirements placed on them on the dates specified.
In order to keep from losing their land because of this failure they asked for extensions of time on occasion. As the time to pay the bill for their land approached, the inhabitants of Fox Island decided that they were not going to have the necessary money. Therefore they wrote a petition to the General Court asking for an extension. This set forth the reasons for their inability to pay and expressed an intention 233
to forward the money when they could. After reviewing this petition 234 the General Court granted the request. The resolve which confirmed five of the Marsh townships east of the Penobscot River had made pro- visions for special conditions to accommodate the settlers there. It was found, however, that more time than had been specified was needed and the General Court granted an extension to those involved -- to the settlers to pay the thirty shillings required of them, and to the 235 On another occasion a proprietors to lay out the settlers' lots.
resolve made the general statement that the grantee should have further 236
time to accomplish the requirements found in his grant. To put on a
233. Petition of Vinal to General Court, Feb. 10, 1787 with Mass. Resolve, Feb. 19, 1787, Chap. 33.
234. Mass. Resolve, Feb. 19, 1787, Chap. 33.
235. Mass. Resolve, March 8, 1787, Chap. 126.
236. Mass. Resolve, Feb. 17, 1789, Chap. 122
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township the number of families required by contract often proved to be a very difficult thing to do. On at least two occasions groups of pro- prietors asked for extensions of time to meet this condition, requests 237 which the General Court granted.
At times steps were taken to collect overdue payments. In order to encourage people to get caught up with these payments, the Committee members often wrote to them. Their minutes of June 1787 indicate that 238 they planned to write to all such people who were in arrears. When writing to Fowler and Brewer Jarvis used a tactful approach saying, "We flatter ourselves that you will prevent us by payment from doing what must be very disagreeable to us and expensive to you." However, he told them if the money were not paid by a certain date, the case would have to be put into the hands of the Attorney General. 239 The Committee
wrote letters with a request for payment of money due and a statement that, if the money were not paid, the matter would have to be placed 240
in the hands of the Attorney General on other occasions, too. Robert Page, one of these delinquents, wrote a letter explaining his difficulties and stating that since receiving the Committee's letter he had put a farm
237. Mass. Resolve, Nov. 24, 1788, Chap. 82; Mass. Resolve, June 25, 1792, Chap. 37.
238. Committee Minutes, June, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 46.
239. Jarvis to Brewer & Fowler, Feb. 20, 1794, Eastern Lands, Box 18.
240. Committee to Edmund Bridge, Nov. 23, (1786 or 1787), Eastern Lands, Box 17. Note on above says same kind of letter written Robert Page.
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on sale at so low a rate he expected it to bring money. He hoped the Committee would not put his case in the hands of the Attorney General as he was going to exert every effort to get the required money as soon as possible.
241 Phillips was a fellow townsman of several sets of grantees. On one occasion he approached one group asking if they might not be able to pay part of what was owed.
242 They answered that they would pay a certain amount but could not give more. Their trouble, they said, was that the value of their money had dropped terrifically since they had made the agreement to buy. The tone of Phillips's letter reporting this conversation gives the impression that he felt sympathetic toward them. However, he stated that he was very careful not to give them any encouragement since, as their fellow townsman, he might be subject to undue bias. He had pointed out to them that an indulgence to them might be seized upon as a precedent. However, they claimed that nobody else had been so adversely affected by a change in the value of the money. Jackson was notified personally on one occasion that the Committee expected certain payments on given dates. In this case notice 243 One memorandum states that some settlers
was made prior to that date.
241. Robert Page to Committee, Feb. 23, 1788, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
242. Phillips to Wells, et al., Feb. 2, 1790, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
243. Jackson to Bingham, March 23, 1793, William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 258; Jackson to Bingham, April 14, 1793, William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis. p. 270.
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had not paid the sums due, therefore it had become necessary for the Attorney General and Solicitor General to take appropriate action.
244
SALES OF NOTE
Two particular groups of sales transactions were significant, interesting, and in some ways different from standard practice.
In 1786 the General Court decided that a land lottery would facilitate land sales and be otherwise beneficial. The State would receive a handsome revenue, it hoped (the aim was 163,200 pounds in securities), the tax burden weighing down the people would be lightened, and the settlement and development of wild lands would be encouraged. With these visions in mind it passed a resolve on November 9, estab- 245
lishing such a lottery.
Fifty townships between Penobscot and Schoodic Rivers which the General Court set aside for the lottery were divided up into prizes of various sizes, the number of which totalled 2720. The tickets cost sixty pounds each for which a person might get anything from a whole township to a one hundred sixty acre tract. The complete schedule of prizes was as follows:
1 of Township
2 of 1/2 Township each
244. Undated Manuscript on dispute between Eddy and Oliver, regarding Lots 15 and 16, Eastern Lands, Box 13.
245. Mass. Resolve, Nov. 9, 1786, Chap. 12.
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4 of 1/4 Township each
6 of 3 mile x 2 mile tract each
20 of 2 mile x 2 mile tract each
40 of 3 mile x 1 mile tract each
120 of 2 mile x 1 mile tract each
400 of 1 mile square tract each
761 of 1 mile x 1/2 mile tract each
1366 of 1/2 mile square tract each
In addition to the land that was included in the prize allot- ments in these townships, the customary four lots were reserved for schools and religion. The original resolve said nothing about settlers 246 but later legislation granted them their improvements.
The Land Committee, to be sworn to faithful performance of its duty, was made a board of managers for the scheme and given explicit instructions as to how to carry on the business.
A must in any lottery, of course, is the tickets. These were to be printed on "good" paper and numbered anc checked.
The heart of the records was to be an account book, which the Committee was to procure and keep until after the drawing. It was to enter there the numbers of the lots and towns in which the lot vas located and delineate the towns.
There was to be wide advertising coverage, the Committee using whatever newspapers it thought best to assure a speedy sale of the tickets.
246. Mass. Resolve, June 20, 1788, Chap. 17.
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The drawing of the prizes was to take place in Boston on the first Wednesday of March 1787 at the latest, and before, if all tickets had been sold. Before the drawing took place the Committee was to turn into the Treasurer's office all unsold tickets with a list of their numbers
When the drawing had taken place the Committee was to publish a list of the lottery numbers with the prizes drawn in some public newspaper and enter in the record book the number of the ticket after the lot it had won. The Committee members were then to sign the book with their seals annexed and turn it over to the Secretary of the Commonwealth. The "winners" were to come to him within six months to have their winnings registered. He in turn was to write the person's name, his residence, and his "addition" after the lot number and ticket number in the book given him by the Committee. He was also to certify the amount of the prize on the reverse side of the ticket and return it to the individual if so requested without further fee. This was all the paper work required to give the winner complete ownership of his property. An attested copy of this registry was to be sufficient proof of ownership.
In order to keep anyone from tampering with the tickets or other records penalties were set for any culprit convicted of any connection with "forgeing, counterfeiting or altering." And, indeed, these penalties were enough to cause a person to give the matter a second thought before yielding to temptation. Anyone convicted before the
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Supreme Judicial Court was to be fined not more than one thousand pounds or less than one hundred pounds, or imprisoned not more than twelve months, or publicly whipped a maximum of thirty-nine stripes, or set on the gallows with a rope about his neck for an hour, or branded, or sentenced to hard labor, or "to suffer all or any of the said punish- ments, according to the discretion of the said Justices, and the nature and aggravation of the offense."
The board of managers was to turn into the treasury the moneys as it received them.
As payment for the tickets the Committee was to receive specie or State consolidated notes or "public securities of the United States called final settlements, or for any other public securities on interest of the United States, or of this Commonwealth."
In order to further persuade people to buy tickets and "encourage the settlement of and improvement of the said lands" all land won in the lottery was to be exempted from state and continental taxes for fifteen years. Furthermore, the poll taxes, both state and continental, of people actually taking up residence on lands so won were to be exempted for fifteen years.
247 The towns were surveyed, and tickets were printed as directed, signed by Committee members -- usually two -- and distributed among the
247. Receipt of Wells to Jarvis, Jan. 19, 1788, Eastern Lands, Box 16, papers relating to Land Lottery, 1786-1791.
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Committee members and others considered in a position to sell them, advertisements appeared, and the project was underway.
However, Shays's Rebellion was on, times were hard, and there was no rush to buy the tickets. Not only was there no drawing before March came but, indeed, the Court decided to postpone the drawing until the following June. At this time it felt a number of maps spread around among the various towns in the state would promote the scheme. Therefore it ordered that some should be made and distributed. 249 A bill from a David Burns dated April 3, 1787 for printing lists two hundred fourteen 250
maps as having been made. The ticket returns from Lincoln County were not in on the June date chosen so again the drawing was postponed, with a letter being sent to the party with the tickets urging him to 252
251
get them in.
Despite the fact that the drawing was thus changed to a later date, results were far below expectations. Only four hundred thirty one tickets were sold and the amount realized was only #86,200 (25,860 pounds) for 82,640 acres won. However, the Committee in its report pointed out
248. Papers in Eastern Lands, Box 16; Putnam to Jarvis, Dec. 29, 1786, Eastern Lands, Box 17.
249. Mass. Resolve, March 10, 1787, Chap. 148.
250. Bill to Committee from David Burns, April 3, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 16.
251. Mass. Resolve, June 21, 1787, Chap. 45.
252. Letter of Jarvis to someone not indicated, June 22, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 16.
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that the State had fared better than the adventurers and suggested 253 continuing the lottery. In addition to those sold, the General Court gave two men named Barr six tickets for the "ingenuity" and "publick spirit" which they displayed by inventing a machine to card and spin 254 cotton and wool about which they had informed the State.
Winnings in the lottery were scattered widely over the area involved and indeed a number of people who had bought several tickets had prizes in widely separated locations. To remedy this situation the Court passed an act permitting these winners to swap their various 255 tracts for one piece equal in size to the total of all their winnings. In order to effect this exchange, groups of proprietors having together prize land equal to a township had to apply for an exchange -- the town to be received would be one of the fifty towns on the edge of the tract and would not include the land in that town won by other ticket holders or that claimed by anyone who had settled or made improvements there prior to this act (the latter were to have the privilege of purchasing). This was supposed to be done within six months, but the deadline was set 256 at a later date from time to time. The division of the towns going to those getting an exchange was to be made in any way those people should
253. Report of Committee, (no date), Eastern Lands, Box 16. 254. Mass. Resolve, May 2, 1787, Chap. 39; Mass. Resolve, March 8, 1787, Chap. 120.
255. Mass. Act, June 20, 1788, Chap. 17.
256. Mass. Resolve, June 25, 1789, Chap. 110; Mass. Resolve, Feb. 4, 1790, Chap. 69.
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decide and they were to pay the cost of any surveying that might have to be done. One list of land holders has a note with it stating that the deed had been executed and would be delivered when Jarvis had received 257 all endorsed tickets. Towns which were received in exchange for original drawing were numbers thirteen, fourteen, fifteen eighteen, 258 and twenty-three in the eastern division. However, not every winner took advantage of this opportunity and a letter of 1796 states that there 259
were still prize lots scattered throughout the tract.
A principal reason, undoubtedly, for the lack of success of the project was the unsettled conditions of the times. One man who had been given some tickets to sell reported this as a reason for returning all of them. He also added that uncertainty regarding the time of drawing 260
was a deterrent.
The speculation fever rampant throughout the land at this time hit Maine in a big way in the 1790's. Henry Knox, then Secretary of War, and William Duer were among the many who tried their hand at increasing their fortunes by dealing in wild land. Knox already had interests in
257. Slip entitled "Quantity drawing in Township 14,", Eastern Lands, Box 16.
258. Slips in Eastern Lands, Box 16.
259. Baring to Hope & Co., May 26, 1796 in William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 647.
260. Samuel Tufts to Committee, June 14, 1787, Eastern Lands, Box 16. -
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Maine as one of the proprietors of the Waldo Claim, and he and Duer got together and decided to try their luck with some of the unappropriated land that the State was selling in the District. For this purpose they hired Henry Jackson and Royal Flint to act as their agents. A full account of this business may be found in William Bingham's Maine Lands, 1790-1820 edited by Frederick S. Allis, Jr., but a brief resume will be given here.
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The first agreement was signed July 1, 1791. At this time Jackson and Flint contracted to buy two million acres. One million included the lottery townships exclusive of the tracts that had been won by "the lucky adventurers." The other million was on the Kennebec 262
River, a site picked after some deliberation on the part of Knox and Duer -- they could have taken the whole two million between the Penobscot and the Schoodic. It will be remembered that the Committee had obtained explicit permission from the General Court before it sold land in these large quantities. Taken from these two million acres were the four usual public lots of three hundred twenty acres each for each thirty-six square miles plus not over five tracts equal in total to one tract six miles by thirty miles. This last reservation was for mast trees and was to be relinquished if no sites suitable for the purpose in the opinion of the Committee were found. No mast tracts were to be within
261. Jackson and Flirt -- Massachusetts Contract, July 1, 1791 in William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, pp. 47-53.
262. Knox and Duer to Jackson and Flint, July 30, 1791 in William Bingham's Maine Lands, ed. Allis, p. 55.
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six miles of any boundary except the northern and all of them were to be located within two years. None were to be located in the Lottery Townships unless it was done within one year.
For this land the contractors were to pay ten cents an acre of land and water, allowing six per cent interest per year after twelve months from the date of the agreement.
Five thousand dollars was to be paid forty-five days after the contract date with annual payments of from 25,000 to 32,802 dollars, the first falling due on the first anniversary of the contract. All payments were to be in specie.
Personal security approved by the Committee was required. This security was divided into groups equal in number to the number of in- stallments.
Deeds were to be given for quantities of one hundred twenty-five thousand acres or more as soon as they were paid for as long as the following conditions were met.
The contractors could make payments in advance if they so de- sired. When such payments were made, they would receive a discount which would "leave a sum to be received by the Treasurer of the said Commonwealth which with an interest of six per centum paid annually would have completed the payment so anticipated at the period it would have become due."
Jackson and Flint were to put people on this land at the rate of four hundred in five years, two hundred each year for three years,
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and three hundred seventy-five per year for the last four years making a grand total of twenty-five hundred. The Committee was very anxious that these people should be put on the land and it therefore took steps to insure that it would be done, stipulating that deeds for only half the land paid for would have to be given until the settlements were made. However, if advance payments were made of a sufficiently large amount to warrant the granting of a deed, that deed could be given even if the settlers were not all there provided thirty dollars of six per cent stock of the United States for each settler not there was deposited in the treasury. When the time fell due for the settlers to be there, the contractor would get back thirty dollars with interest for each settler whom he had succeeded in putting there, and lose the rest.
Within sixty days after the completion of the survey the con- tractors were to present bonds to the treasurer which, with the bonds already given, should be equal to the value of the land with interest thereon. The Committee would then make out sixteen deeds each for fif- teen thousand dollars worth of land. Each sixteenth, of course, was half the amount scheduled to be conveyed annually and was all that the buyers would get for their annual installment if all the required settlers were not on the land or proper bond was not paid.
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