public affairs in England during the period of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate afforded him no opportunity to regain possession of his property, and it was not until after the Restoration that any effective legal measures could be taken.

a

Mason's first task was to clear his province of the encroachments of the government of Massachusetts, which had not only granted lands within his domain, but had exercised political jurisdiction over the New Hampshire settlements for several years. The fact that the Massachusetts government was extended over the New Hampshire towns at their own solicitation did not effect Mason's property rights. In answer to his petition of 1660 the Crown reaffirmed his title, but there was no other result. Again in 1675 he petitioned the Crown for relief, and the result was the complete separation of the two provinces by the appointment of John Cutt as President of New Hampshire in 1679, and the establishment of a complete form of government within that province, Massachusetts at the same time receiving peremptory orders to keep within her own territorial limits.

Having accomplished this most important beginning, and secured the official recognition of his title, Mason came to New Hampshire with his family, settled in Newcastle, took his seat in Cranfield's council, and began strenuous efforts to recover possession of his lands by bringing suits in ejectment against those whom he found in possession, their only title being derived from the squatter's title of the early settlers who had taken possession of the lands as well as the goods of Capt. John Mason after his death in 1635. In these operations Robert Mason had the support of the Lieutenant-Governor and that of the King. The influence of Cranfield in New Hampshire, however, was less than his authority, and this was not always respected. Judgment was secured in some cases, but public sentiment was hostile to the Masonian title, and eviction was resisted.

Although during all the years of controversy over the title to the Province of New Hampshire the Masonian claimants seemed to have the favor of the Crown, Robert Mason made an offer to the King in 1682 which was apparently intended to strengthen and firmly establish the Royal good-will towards his cause. Being, as he says, "fully sensible of y° advantages that will arise unto me in p'ticular by the influence of yo' Mats Royall protection & Governm as well as unto all other of your Mats Subjects in that province who have been so lately relieved by yo' Mats great grace & favour from ye oppression of their neighbours," he offered to the King for the support of Lieutenant-Governor Cranfield in New Hampshire one fifth of all the rents, revenues, and other profits arising "as well in that p't of y° Province now under your Mats obedience as in that other p't hitherto unjustly detained from your Mats and myself by y Gov' & Comp of ye Massachusetts Bay"; and he also surrendered to the King all fines and forfeitures accruing in his domain, which he claimed as of right belonging to him under the terms of the original grant.

This offer, read in Privy Council, Jan. 23, 1681-2, was not so generous as it appeared, for the rents and revenues which Mason was able to collect were insignificant in their total value at best. The fines and forfeitures might have easily amounted to a considerable sum, but it is not clear that Mason's right to them as lord of the soil was good in the absence of a Royal charter in addition to the grant received by his grandfather. The inhabitants whom he found settled and established in New Hampshire claimed the land by purchase or inheritance from those who had occupied nearly fifty years without challenge of their title, and although the courts, being of Royal appointment, upheld the Masonian title, the settlers generally refused to pay rents to Mason.

Robert Mason died in Esopus, N. Y., in 1688, leav

ing two sons, John and Robert. Not caring to take up residence in New Hampshire and assume the burden of their father's unprofitable attempts to evict angry settlers and recover the estate by the tedious and expensive process of law, they sold the entire Province of New Hampshire, also Masonia, Mariana, Isle Mason, and Laconia for £2,750 to Samuel Allen, a merchant of London, by a deed dated Apr. 27, 1691. In this deed these towns are mentioned as being within the Masonian bounds: Portsmouth, Hampton, Dover, Exeter, Little Harbor, Greenland, Salisbury, Old Salisbury, Concord, Sudbury, Redding, Billerica, Gloucester, Cape Ann's Town, Ipswich, Wenham, Newbury, Rowley, Haverhill, Andover, Bass Town, and Woburn. Only £1,250 of the purchase price was ever paid.

Allen was commissioned Governor of New Hampshire, and John Usher Lieutenant-Governor, Mar. 1, 1691-2. Usher was a Boston stationer, and Allen's son-in-law. In 1701 Allen mortgaged the province to Usher for £1,500. Allen continued the course begun by Robert Mason, to establish title to the settled lands by course of law, and so to build up a rent roll which should yield an adequate return from his investment. The most famous of these suits was that of Mason v. Waldron, brought in 1683, continued as Allen v. Waldron by Samuel Allen, and after his death by his son, Thomas Allen, which was I decided in 1707 for the defendant.

When the Mason claim became the Allen claim it continued to receive the support of the Crown, but the Assembly, elected representatives of the people, and including in their number many whose lands were subject to the claim, refused to agree to any measures tending to invalidate their titles. They recognized Allen's title to the unsettled portions of the province, but not to the towns which they had settled and defended by a great expenditure of money and lives. In this position they were upheld by an

opinion of Sir Edward Northey, Attorney-General of England, who advised Queen Anne not to interfere with the lands in possession of inhabitants, holding their title good by right of possession. In accordance with a vote of the Council and Assembly a convention of representatives, specially elected, was held May 3, 1705, to devise methods for a settlement of the dispute. The convention recognized Allen's title to all lands outside of the towns of Portsmouth, Hampton, Dover, Exeter, Newcastle, and Kingston, and proposed that if Allen would give the inhabitants of these towns warrantee deeds of their lands they would lay out to him 500 acres in Portsmouth and Newcastle, 1,500 acres in each of the towns of Dover and Exeter, and 1,500 acres in Hampton and Kingston together; also they were to pay Allen £2,000, and all suits were to be withdrawn; all these conditions to be subject to the approval of the Crown. Allen's death the next day, however, prevented the further consideration of this proposition.

Samuel Allen died May 4, 1705, and his rights passed to his only son, Thomas Allen. He died in 1715, and the Allen contest waned. The Allen title was disputed by the colonists on the ground that the Masonian entail was docked in the courts of England, which course they claimed to be invalid because at the time sufficient courts existed in New Hampshire, whose jurisdiction could not be denied. It was held that Allen's interest, therefore, could be only a life interest. This point was not brought to a legal decision, but the Allen contest was allowed to lapse. With it went the Hobby claim, which was created by the sale of half the Province to Sir Charles Hobby by Thomas Allen in 1706.

In the meantime John Tufton Mason, oldest heir in tail of Capt. John Mason, died unmarried in Virginia, and his brother Robert succeeded to the estate. He married Katherine Wiggin, and was lost at sea, in 1696, leaving a son John, who died in Havana in

1718, leaving a son John, born in Boston Apr. 29, 1713. This was the John Tufton Mason who finally recovered title and possession of the Masonian grants, and sold his rights to the Masonian Propriety and to the Massachusetts Bay.

It is quite probable that the Masonian title would not have been revived as it was in 1738, after twelve years of absolute silence in the official archives of New Hampshire following John Hobby's appeal to the Council in behalf of his father's interests in 1726, when he was dismissed with the advice that he use the facilities offered by the courts of law for the adjudication of his claim, had it not been for the approaching settlement of the boundary between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, which had been in dispute for more than half a century. John Tufton Mason had arrived at legal age five years before, and had shown no inclination to test his title. He called himself as "of Boston, mariner," and was unknown to public life. After the Boundary Line Commissioners had rendered their decision in September, 1737, and both provinces had appealed to the Crown, Massachusetts called to mind the Masonian title, with its possible bearing on the case. An opinion was secured from John Read and Robert Auchmuty of Boston in June, 1738, that the sale to Allen did not affect the title on account of the entail, which was not legally docked, and that Mason was sole and legal owner of the lands of the Province of New Hampshire. On the 1st of July Mason executed a deed to William Dudley, Samuel Welles, Thomas Berry, Benjamin Lynde, Jr., Benjamin Prescott, John Read, Thomas Cushing, and Thomas Hutchinson, agents for Massachusetts Bay, by which, in consideration of £500, he accepted and confirmed the boundary line established by Charles II in 1677, which was the line following the Merrimack river to the headwaters at a distance of three miles north, and quitclaimed to the inhabitants and proprietors thereof all his right to