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Unknown [Petition to the state of Massachusetts for rights to land within the Waldo patent]

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.09247 Author/Creator: Unknown Place Written: Hancock County, Maine Type: Manuscript document Date: 8 October 1793 Pagination: 8 p. ; docket ; 30 x 19 cm. Order a Copy

All text and signatures secretarially written. Petition to the House and Senate of Massachusetts requesting that the petitioners be allowed to keep their lands in the Waldo patent, even though Henry Knox claims he owns the land. Argues that their service in the revolution and their time spent on the land entitles them to it, that Knox has no legitimate claim to it, and that it is only a small part of the patent. Offer to pay the state of Massachusetts five dollars per acre of land they receive. Also signed later by a two other groups of petitioners. The first was on 8 November 1794 in "New Canaan," most likely Canaan, Maine. The second was in Isleboro, Maine, dated 12 November 1792, but most likely 1794. The later signers also accuse Knox of lying to them about issues regarding their land. In total over one hundred signatures on the petition.

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