John Hill, Esq; brought down the Petition of a Committee of the Town of Dunstable, as entred the 4th of April last, and refer’d.  Pass’d in Council, viz.  In Council June 5th 1753.  Read again, together with the Answer of the Inhabitants of that Part of Groton commonly called Joint-Grass, and likewise William Lawrence, Esq; being heard in Behalf of the Town of Groton, and the Matter being fully considered, Ordered, That the Prayer of the Petition be so far granted, as that Joseph Fletcher, Joseph Spaulding, Samuel Comings, Benjamin Rabbins, Timothy Read, John Swallow, Joseph Parkhurst, and Ebenezer Parkhurst, Jun. with their Families and Estates, and other Lands petitioned for, be set off from the Town of Groton, and annexed to the town of Dunstable, agreable to the Vote of the Town of Groton on the 18th of May 1747, to receive Priviledge and do Duty there, provided that Timothy Read, Constable for the Town of Groton, and Collector of the said Parish in said Town the last Year, and Joseph Fletcher, Constable for the said Town this present Year, finish their Collection of the Taxes committed or to be committed to them respectively; and also that the said Inhabitants pay their Proportion of the Taxes that are already due or shall be due to the said Town of Groton for the present Year, for which they may be taxed by the Assessors of Groton, as tho’ this Order had not past:  provided also that the Meeting-House for the publick Worship of GOD in Dunstable be erected agreable to the Vote of Dunstable relating thereto in May 1753.  Sent down for Concurrence.

Read and concur’d.

[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 21), June 7, 1753.]

The part of Nottingham, mentioned in these petitions, was not joined to Dunstable until a later period.  On June 14, 1754, an order passed the House of Representatives, annexing “a very small Part of Nottingham now lying in this Province, unable to be made into a District, but very commodious for Dunstable;” but the matter was delayed in the Council, and it was a year or two before the end was brought about.

The west parish of Groton was set off as a precinct on November 26, 1742.  It comprised that part of the town lying on the west side of the Nashua River, north of the road from Groton to Townsend.  Its incorporation as a parish or precinct allowed the inhabitants to manage their own ecclesiastical affairs, while in all other matters they continued to act with the parent town.  Its partial separation gave them the benefit of a settled minister in their neighborhood, which, in those days, was considered of great importance.

It is an interesting fact to note that, in early times, the main reason given in the petitions for dividing towns was the long distance to the meeting-house, by which the inhabitants were prevented from hearing the stated preaching of the gospel.