Bishop, the town, from time to time, made grants to Stileman of land
north of the Bishop grant. Stileman's grants adjoined Skelton's at the
north-eastern corner of the Bishop farm. That part of Stileman's land
had come into possession of Nathaniel Putnam, and the residue
westwardly, together with the grant to Weston, into the possession of
Hutchinson, Houlton, and Ingersol. Still further west, the town had
made grants to Swinnerton. Their respective locations are given in the
map. The point of difficulty which gave rise to litigation was this:
The Bishop farm was required, by the terms of the grant, to be one
hundred and sixteen rods wide at its eastern end. But there was no
room for it. The requisite width could not be got without encroaching
upon either Putnam or Endicott, or both. As Endicott stood upon an
earlier title than that of Bishop, and from a higher authority, and
Putnam upon a later title from an inferior authority, the court of
trials might have disposed of the matter, at the opening, on that
ground, and Putnam been left to suffer the encroachment. But it did
not so decide; and the case went on. The struggle was between Endicott
to push it north, and thereby save his Orchard Farm, and the land
between it and the Bishop grant, given by the town to his father,
called the Governor's Plain, and Nathaniel Putnam to push it south,
and thereby save the land he had received from his wife's father,
Richard Hutchinson, who had purchased from Stileman. Allen stood on
the defensive against both of them. The Nurses had nothing to do but
to attend to their own business, carrying on their farming operations
up to the limits of their deed, looking to Allen for redress, if, in
the end, the dimensions of their estate should be curtailed. But,
being the occupants, and, until finally ousted, the owners of the
land, if there was any intrusion to be repelled, or violence to be
met, or fighting to be done, they were the ones to do it. They were
equal to the situation.