Independent New Hampshire Journalism · Northfield, NHThe Webster-Ashburton Treaty took effect on November 10, 1842, and settled the line Pittsburg had fought over; the same date chartered Lyman in 1761 and sent Portsmouth’s firemen to Boston in 1872.
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New Hampshire’s northern border was once a question with a militia attached to it. Five dates fall on November 10 across 249 years: a royal land grant, a treaty that fixed a disputed frontier, a Portsmouth general’s fall, a night train of firemen, and two rulings from the state’s highest court.
November 10, 1842
The treaty that drew the line at Hall’s Stream
The United States proclaimed the Webster-Ashburton Treaty on November 10, 1842, according to the treaty text published by Yale Law School’s Avalon Project. Secretary of State Daniel Webster and Britain’s Lord Ashburton had signed it at Washington on August 9. The United States ratified it August 22, and ratifications were exchanged in London in October.
Webster was New Hampshire-born. The U.S. Senate Historical Office records his birth in Salisbury, New Hampshire, and the State Department’s Office of the Historian lists Massachusetts as his state of residence when he served as secretary from March 1841 to May 1843.
Article I ran the boundary along the highlands “to the head of Hall’s Stream,” then down the middle of that stream until it met the old line surveyed by Valentine and Collins before 1774 as the 45th parallel. The article never names New Hampshire.
The town of Pittsburg’s history page says roughly 300 residents of the disputed Indian Stream country declared an independent republic in 1832 and adopted a constitution on July 9 of that year, with a legislature, courts and a militia. After arrests on both sides of the border in 1835, the governor of New Hampshire ordered the state militia to occupy the territory. The town’s account says the British gave up their claim in January 1838, residents accepted New Hampshire’s authority that May, and the legislature incorporated Pittsburg in its November 1840 session.
A heritage guide from the Hereford township in Quebec explains the stakes: Canada had pressed for the chain of Connecticut Lakes as the line, while the United States held out for Hall’s Stream. Hall’s Stream won. The guide says the stream still forms part of the border between Quebec and New Hampshire. The treaty did more than draw lines. Article VIII committed both nations to naval squadrons off Africa against the slave trade, and Article X set out extradition for fugitives charged with listed crimes.
November 10, 1761
Lyman gets its charter, and its name
Governor Benning Wentworth granted the township of Lyman, east of the Connecticut River, on November 10, 1761, to Daniel Lyman and 63 others. E. B. Hoskins’s Historical Sketches of Lyman, New Hampshire (1903) says the name came from the eleven grantees who were Lymans.
The grantees could not meet the charter’s settlement terms in time and stood to forfeit the grant. An extension came on July 20, 1769, after a petition from Abraham Thompson of Connecticut, agent for the original grantees, Hoskins writes. Few settlements were made before the Revolution, he adds.
November 10, 1862
A Portsmouth-born general loses his command
Fitz John Porter was born in Portsmouth on August 31, 1822, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica. Brian Burton’s entry for the Essential Civil War Curriculum says Porter had commanded the V Corps since May 1862, and gives the sequence: George McClellan was relieved on November 7, and three days later Porter was relieved as well, which places Porter’s removal on November 10.
The charges centered on Second Bull Run, where he was accused of disobeying orders from August 27 to 29 and attacking weakly on August 30. The court reached its verdict on January 10, 1863, guilty on six of nine specifications, and President Lincoln confirmed it on January 21. Porter was cashiered. A board under John Schofield recommended in 1879 that he be restored, and President Grover Cleveland signed a relief bill on July 1, 1886.
November 10, 1872
Portsmouth’s steamer rides the rails to Boston
The Great Boston Fire started about 7 p.m. on November 9, 1872, at Kingston and Summer streets and was contained by midday on November 10, Britannica reports. It took more than 60 acres of the commercial district and 776 buildings, and about 30 people died.
A little past midnight, the telegram reached the mayor of Portsmouth. The Portsmouth Fire Department’s historical notes, quoting an account published in 1916, give its text: “Fire in Boston beyond control. Come immediately to our aid.” It came from the Eastern Railroad’s superintendent. Portsmouth answered with a steam fire engine and forty firemen. The Kearsarge company mustered, other companies each sent four men, and the engine was loaded at the Dover Street side track. Two hours later the crew unloaded it at the Eastern Railroad station on Causeway Street and set off through the North End.
A second account in the same notes, from 1909, places the steamer at the Old South by daylight, its boiler plate reading “Kearsarge, Portsmouth, N.H.,” and says its water broke through the belfry slats and put out the fire there.
November 10, 2010
Two Supreme Court rulings: a Seabrook flood and a Manchester charter
The New Hampshire Supreme Court decided Allianz Global Risks U.S. Insurance Co. v. State, No. 2009-745, on November 10, 2010. Henkel Corporation’s Seabrook property flooded in May 2006, and Henkel and its insurer blamed the design and construction of Interstate 95, including a culvert and a deceleration lane. They sued New Hampshire and Massachusetts for inverse condemnation, a claim that the government had in effect taken their property without formally exercising eminent domain.
Justice Conboy wrote for a unanimous court. It affirmed judgment for the states: the flooding was not shown to be inevitably recurring, so the damage to the land was consequential and not a taking. The court left open whether New Hampshire recognizes inverse condemnation claims for personal property.
The same day, in City of Manchester v. Secretary of State, No. 2009-791, Justice Hicks wrote for the court on a proposed amendment to Manchester’s city charter: “We conclude that the amendment is invalid.”
Your Turn
Tell us: Does your family have roots in Pittsburg, Lyman, or the Portsmouth fire companies? Send stories, papers or photographs to granitestatereport@gmail.com.
Fact check
| # | Claim | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Webster-Ashburton Treaty proclaimed November 10, 1842; signed at Washington August 9, 1842; U.S. ratified August 22, 1842 | VERIFIED | Avalon Project treaty text |
| 2 | Ratifications exchanged in London in October 1842 (day differs between compilations: October 15 in Avalon, October 13 in Malloy) | ATTRIBUTED | Avalon Project; Malloy, Treaties, Conventions, vol. 1, p. 650 |
| 3 | Article I runs the line to the head of Hall’s Stream, down its middle to the Valentine and Collins line of the 45th parallel; Article I does not name New Hampshire | VERIFIED | Avalon Project, Article I |
| 4 | Article VIII: naval squadrons off Africa against the slave trade; Article X: extradition | VERIFIED | Avalon Project |
| 5 | Webster born in Salisbury, New Hampshire | VERIFIED | U.S. Senate featured biography |
| 6 | Webster secretary of state March 1841 to May 1843; state of residence Massachusetts | VERIFIED | Office of the Historian |
| 7 | About 300 residents declared the Indian Stream Republic in 1832; constitution July 9, 1832; 1835 militia occupation; British claim dropped January 1838; Pittsburg incorporated in November 1840 session | ATTRIBUTED | Town of Pittsburg history markers page |
| 8 | Canada favored the Connecticut Lakes line, the U.S. Hall’s Stream; the stream forms part of the Quebec-New Hampshire border | ATTRIBUTED | Hereford heritage circuit guide |
| 9 | Lyman granted November 10, 1761, to Daniel Lyman and 63 others; eleven grantees named Lyman; extension July 20, 1769, on petition of Abraham Thompson | ATTRIBUTED | Hoskins, Historical Sketches of Lyman (1903), transcription; date and Daniel Lyman also in a transcribed 1875 New Hampshire gazetteer entry for Lyman |
| 10 | Fitz John Porter born Portsmouth, N.H., August 31, 1822 | VERIFIED | Britannica |
| 11 | Porter commanded the V Corps from May 1862; McClellan relieved November 7, 1862; Porter relieved three days later (November 10) | ATTRIBUTED | Burton, Essential Civil War Curriculum |
| 12 | Verdict January 10, 1863, guilty on six of nine specifications; Lincoln confirmed January 21; Schofield board 1879; relief bill signed July 1, 1886 | ATTRIBUTED | Burton, Essential Civil War Curriculum |
| 13 | Boston fire began about 7 p.m. November 9, 1872, at Kingston and Summer streets; more than 60 acres, 776 buildings, about 30 deaths, contained by midday November 10 | ATTRIBUTED | Britannica |
| 14 | Telegram text, Portsmouth’s reply of an engine and forty firemen, Dover Street loading, Causeway Street arrival two hours later; Kearsarge at the Old South (1909 account) | ATTRIBUTED | Portsmouth Fire Department historical notes, pp. 20-21, citing Marvin (1916) and Murdoch (1909) |
| 15 | Allianz v. State, No. 2009-745, decided November 10, 2010; Conboy, J.; Seabrook flooding May 2006; I-95 culvert and deceleration lane; affirmed | VERIFIED | Justia opinion |
| 16 | City of Manchester v. Secretary of State, No. 2009-791, decided November 10, 2010; Hicks, J.; amendment held invalid | VERIFIED | Leagle opinion |
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Related GSR coverage: October 17 in New Hampshire History; October 19 in New Hampshire History.
Editor’s note. This edition draws on the Webster-Ashburton Treaty text, the U.S. Senate Historical Office, the State Department’s Office of the Historian, New Hampshire Supreme Court opinions, the City of Portsmouth Fire Department’s historical notes, the Town of Pittsburg, E. B. Hoskins’s history of Lyman, the Essential Civil War Curriculum and Encyclopaedia Britannica. The Avalon Project dates the London exchange of ratifications to October 15, 1842, and Malloy’s compilation to October 13; this edition says October and leaves the day open.
Corrections: Granite State Report corrects verified errors promptly and appends a dated note identifying what changed and when. The corrections policy and the corrections register are public, and correction notes are never removed.
