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 the 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 1628,1 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 said Court was confided 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 guardianship of persons appointed by the Government, relied on its protection and on the preservation of their property.  But through the negligence and want of fidelity of some of the Trustees, over whom neither the original grantors nor their descendants could have any control, the whole trust fund has been diminished so as 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 monies which originally belonged to them have been under the sole management of its officers and have been lost or wasted by them without any fault or misconduct of the petitioners or their ancestors.  Or that such allowance may be made them as justice may seem to require, annually, for ten or more years to come, commencing at the expiration of the ten years in which the Commonwealth have paid to the petitioners the annual sum of fifty dollars through the hands of the Judge of Probate in and for said County of Worcester.

• 1. This certainly is a typographical error. The date was March 19, 1728. For a copy of the Indian deed, see Frederick Clifton Pierce, The History of Grafton, Worcester County, Massachusetts (Worcester, MA: Press of Chas. Hamilton, 1879), 36-40.