Map of Martha's Vineyard
To His Excellency The Governor and Council and Representatives in General Assembly
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Having seen an act which tax any place unsettled to pay to the town next them, and an additional act that done, the towns on Martha’s Vineyard which will be very grievous to the poor of Tisbury and more especially, to my knowledge, the most of them have not raised their bread corn this hard year, who have but small cottages to sleep in and buy their hay from Chilmark, who have impropriated a Country by a fence to themselves if the Island had been [dom'd] and the town's estates, being adjusted by commissioners for the same, we should have found out a right way to collect the sum, but, being sensible of the inequality, I am bold to make a draught of how the Island of Martha’s Vineyard is divided, and that Tisbury have the least running stock by estimation. But if the Honorable House would consider to pass an act that Tisbury and Chilmark and the dependences with the west end of the Island of Martha’s Vineyard be made one parish for the better caring on all public affairs there, in order to the like accomplishments, already there are Commission officers in the military over the Foot Company of Tisbury and Chilmark. It’s a rare thing to accomplish anything without error, but if Major Mayhew[1] do deny the substance of what I here offer, to be true, I humbly petition opportunity, face to face, to defend the truth above-written.
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Who am your right honorable most humble supplicant,
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As I think, in general, Martha’s Vineyard is overtaxed so if there may not be a considerable abatement of the tax [dom'd] on Tisbury, your supplicant humbly prayeth this Honorable House that the assessors of Tisbury and the assessors [of] Chilmark and precincts be forthwith empowered to assess the whole in one body, for the payment of the two sums in one sum, so may every person bear his own burthen. If it should happen, that jurymen, be sent for from Martha’s Vineyard to attend Plymouth Courts, it would be overburthen us that a man for sixpence should unavoidably at the least be exposed to expend twenty shillings, besides the waiting [difficulty?] of passing over the Sound
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Township about [ illegible ] / October 20
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Map: |
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The Gay Head |
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This included lands is considered unsettled but is in property by a fence made across the Island by the people of Chilmark, and Chilmark is fenced by the same under their peculiar improvement. This included, is by patent called the Manor of Tisbury and named Chilmark and includes Chickemmoo and the Naushan Isle |
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A farm claimed by two patents |
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This included is patent from York[3] called the town of Tisbury / The Meeting House |
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Holmes, his hole / Holmes his hole have neither to paid rates to Tisbury |
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This included lands is claimed by and pay rates to Chilmark / It's called Chickemmoo |
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Edgartown hath about 35 or 36 houses / Edgartown patent included with the Isle called Chappaquiddick . |
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Chappaquiddick Island / The Vineyard Harbor |
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Cataloguing: |
94, 95 V |
[1] Major Matthew Mayhew (1648-1710)
[2] It was the plan of Simon Athearn to merge the three communities to Tisbury, Chilmark, and Gay head into one single precinct for the "better carrying on all publique affairs there." For more on this, see Banks, History of Martha’s Vineyard, 198-202.
[3]On March 12, 1665, Charles II granted to his brother, the Duke of York a patent whose jurisdiction included the territory of New York, Pemaquid in Maine, Long Island, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. After a series of meetings with Governor Francis Lovelace in July of 1671, Thomas Mayhew was commissioned Governor of Martha's Vineyard and received the additional title of Lord of the Manor of Tisbury. However, an alternative and independent government of the Island developed in 1673, with Simon Athearn as one of its leaders at Tisbury. Ida M. Wightman and Charles Edward Banks, The Mayhew Manor of Tisbury: An Address prepared for the New York Branch of The Order of Colonial Lords of Manors in America (Baltimore, MD, np., 1921), 29-36. Banks, History of Martha’s Vineyard, 139, 147-151, 160.