Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
As I had no oppy. of laying before you a State of our Claim to a certain small Island in Kennebec libelled as the estate of Dr. Gardner, while at Boston, I now take the Liberty of doing it. About the year 1763 the Plymo. Compy. agreed with my Father to take a survey for them at his own expence, of a certain Stream which empties itself into Kennebec, as a Compensation for which, they were to make him a Grant of Land, in which Grant, was meant to be included the said Island. The survey was accordingly made by my Father,1 & a Grant by made him by said Compy. of certain Lands, but either by mistake or design the said Island was not comprized in the Grant, though my Father had been at the expence of taking a survey thereof & was in actual possession thereof for a Number of years, prior to its coming into the Docktor’s hands, it contains about 2 Acres & as it lies contiguous to our Lands can be of no value to any one else. If I am to be opposed to Coleman’s Claim to the Chops farm I could wish to be apprised upon what it is bottomed if that is in your Power, this will be especially necessary if a Recovery by him at the lower Court should be conclusive agt. the Commonwealth.
William Lithgow (c. 1713–1798) was among the early settlers of the Kennebec region and served as judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Lincoln County when it was first established in 1760 (William Dawson Bridge, Genealogy of the John Bridge Family in America, 1632–1924 [Cambridge, Mass., 1924], 425).