The reputed distance of Shirley from Cambridge is thirty five
Miles; & from Boston thirty Eight Miles.

Catacoonamug & Mulpus Brooks are from one to two Rods in width. The
Plan contains every thing relative to the two last mentioned Towns
necessary to be described.

OLIVER PRESCOTT, Ju'r.

What is enclosed in this Blue line, contains about the quantity of
Land set off from Groton to Dunstable, by Act of the General Court,
passed February 25, 1793. As by said Act, the petitioners and their
Farms were set off, without specifying particular bounds, Accuracy
cannot be obtained, with respect to this Line, without very great
expence and Trouble.

By an act passed February 6, 1798, a considerable portion of territory
lying on the easterly side of the Nashua river, in the south-west corner
of Groton, was annexed to Shirley. This tract continued to form a part
of Shirley until the incorporation of Ayer, on February 14, 1871, when
its political condition was again changed, and its government
transferred to the new town. The act authorizing the annexation is as
follows,--and I give it entire in order to show the loose way of
describing boundary lines during the latter part of the last century:--

An Act to set off certain Lands from the town of _Groton_, and
annex the same to the town of _Shirley_.

BE _it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in
General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same_, That a