The northern boundary of the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Massachusetts adjoins two other states:
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
and
New Hampshire. The majority of the boundary is roughly a straight line from the northwest corner of the state (
NAD27[Franklin K. VanZandt]
Boundaries of the United States and the Several States
USGS Bulletin 1212, 1966) east to a point in
Dracut, just north of
Lowell. East of that point, the border is a series of line segments about north of the curving
Merrimack River, ending in the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
.
History
The 1629 charter of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony gave the colony the land between the
Merrimack River and
Charles River
The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...
. Specifically, the southern border was to be the line of latitude either south of
Massachusetts Bay
Massachusetts Bay is a bay on the Gulf of Maine that forms part of the central coastline of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Description
The bay extends from Cape Ann on the north to Plymouth Harbor on the south, a distance of about . Its ...
or 3 miles south of the southernmost bend of the Charles River, whichever was farther south. The northern border was to be 3 miles north of the northernmost bend of the Merrimack River. Between these lines of latitude the grant extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 1629 the rivers had not been fully explored and the actual borders of the colony were uncertain. It turned out that the southernmost bend of the Charles is south of the southern curve of Massachusetts Bay. The line of latitude three miles south of the river's southernmost bend, approximately 42°2′ north, forms the basis of the southern border of Massachusetts to the present day. The Merrimack River turned out to originate farther north than expected, flowing south for most of its course and only turning eastward in its last several miles. Thus the 1629 grant gave the colony most of what is today New Hampshire and all of the original 1629 grant that formed the basis of colonial New Hampshire, but it took many decades before this was fully understood.
A new charter was granted to the
Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691, which merged the Colony with the
Colony of New Plymouth, as well as present-day
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...
and
New Brunswick. The northern boundary of what was now the southern piece remained as defined in 1629.
The
Province of New Hampshire and
Province of Massachusetts Bay had disagreements over their mutual boundaries. With respect to the southern boundary of New Hampshire, the two provinces disagreed on the meaning of "three miles northward of the Merrimack River, or any part thereof". New Hampshire drew a line from three miles north of the
mouth of the river, while Massachusetts claimed a line three miles north of the northernmost part of the river, taking its territory far north past what is now
Concord, New Hampshire. New Hampshire appealed to
King George II, who in 1740 decreed the boundary to run along a curved line three miles from the river between the ocean and a point three miles north of
Pawtucket Falls (Lowell), where the river begins to turn north. From there a line was to be drawn due west to meet the
western boundary of Massachusetts (fixed in 1773 with the
Province of New York
The Province of New York (1664–1776) was a British proprietary colony and later royal colony on the northeast coast of North America. As one of the Middle Colonies, New York achieved independence and worked with the others to found the U ...
). The line actually runs slightly northwest to southeast, so it follows no line of latitude. This gave New Hampshire even more than it had claimed, as Pawtucket Falls was south of the mouth of the Merrimack. At this time, the present northern boundary of Massachusetts was established.
The location where these two surveyed lines met (the straight westward line and the curved line following the Merrimack River) was marked by a pine tree called the "Old Boundary Pine". The tree was
marked by George Mitchell, one of the surveyors, on March 21, 1741 to indicate the location where the lines met. The pine tree is long gone, but the point (officially at )
is today marked by a granite monument known as the Boundary Pine Monument, the current form of which was placed in 1890. Elsewhere, the boundary are made by 50 large granite markers, along with several other markers, including a copper bolt set in granite at the
tripoint between Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. The Old Boundary Pine was located east of this point. The "curved" segments roughly following the course of the Merrimack at a distance 3 miles north of it are not true curves, but rather a series of line segments approximating the curved course of the river. Another granite marker, also placed in 1890, stands on the beach between
Salisbury, Massachusetts and
Seabrook, New Hampshire
Seabrook is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 8,401 at the 2020 census. Located at the southern end of the coast of New Hampshire on the border with Massachusetts, Seabrook is noted as the location of th ...
at 80 feet from the high tide line, marking the end of the surveyed border, with the border taken to extend into the Atlantic Ocean to the "
limit of State jurisdiction."
New Hampshire claimed all the land west to roughly the present western boundary of
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
, while New York claimed east to the
Connecticut River, Vermont's present eastern boundary; thus both states claimed all of Vermont. A ruling by King George III established the
ordinary low-water line on the west bank of the Connecticut River to be the border, but the territory between the Connecticut River and Lake Champlain – which had been sold off by New Hampshire – declared independence in 1777 as the
Vermont Republic. New Hampshire gave up its claim to Vermont with a boundary agreement in 1782, and New York gave up its claim to Vermont, contingent upon Vermont's
admission to the Union, in 1790 (Vermont was admitted to the Union in 1791).
See also
*
Southwick Jog, colloquial name of a notch in Massachusetts' southern border with Connecticut
Notes
References
{{Reflist
External links
Fritz Wetherbee: The Old Boundary Pine of Pelhamat
WMUR-TV
WMUR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Manchester, New Hampshire, United States, broadcasting ABC programming to most of New Hampshire. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on South Commercial Street in do ...
Internal territorial disputes of the United States
Borders of Vermont
Borders of Massachusetts
Borders of New Hampshire