Petition of John Hector and Other Hassanamisco to the Massachusetts General Court
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General Court Assembled
The subscribers, descendants from the Hassanamisco Tribe of Indians, formerly holding the lands included within the Town of Grafton in the County of Worcester respectfully represent that in the Year of our Lord 1728, their ancestors, by leave of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts Bay, sold to the English planters the territory, now the Town of Grafton, for the consideration of two thousand and five hundred pounds, lawful money, which sum by order of the said Court as1 conceded to Trustees appointed by the Legislature to be held for the benefit of the grantors and their descendants forever. The said tribe, having parted with all their lands, and being placed under the guardianship of persons appointed by the government, relies on its protection and on the preservation of their property, but through the negligence and want of fidelity or some of the trustees, [ crossout ] over whom neither the original grantors nor their descendants could have any could not, the whole trust fund has been diminished so as to almost to be without value and to afford no income. Wherefore, your petitioners pray that the amount of said fund may be made good to them by the Commonwealth, inasmuch as the money which originally belonged to them have been under the sole management of its officers, and have been lost or wasted by2 them, without any fault or misconduct of the petitioners or their ancestors.3
Or that such allowance may be made them, as justice may seem to require,
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Legislative Action: |
Petition of the descendants of the Hassanamisco Indians, praying that a fund for their benefit, 6 which has been lost under the management of Trustees appointed by the Commonwealth, may be made good / PLC / Lincoln of Worcester / $50 Judge of Probate / House of Representatives, January 23, 1839. Referred to the Committee on Claims. Sent up for concurrence. Luther Sterns Cushing, Clerk. Senate, January 23, 1839 / $50 / Concurred, Charles Calhoun, Clerk |
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Docketing: |
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- 1. Deleted Text: entrusted
- 2. Deleted Text: its officers
- 3. John Milton Earle discusses some of these instances in his 1861 report. Because the original 1727 sale of Hassanamisco was conducted with “old tenor” money, whose value fluctuated, the tribe lost $1,330.39 to the benefit of the government. Furthermore, the tribal funds were further reduced at the end of the Eighteenth-Century by the malfeasance of two of the community’s trustees, Benjamin Heywood and Captain Isaac Harrington. Earle Report, 89-93.
- 4. Possibly Moses Hector, who would have been eight years old at the time.
- 5. Since Susan Hector signed her name, the "m" here would not seem to indicate her mark
- 6. Deleted Text: [ illegible ] by the Trus