annexed to the town of _Shirley_, there to do duty and receive privileges in the same manner as other lands and inhabitants of the said town of _Shirley_. SECT. 2. _Provided nevertheless, and be it further enacted_, That the said tract of land and the inhabitants thereof shall be liable to be taxed by the town of _Groton_, their full proportion in a tax to the amount of the debts now due from said town of _Groton_, in the same manner as if this act had not been passed: _Provided_ such tax be made and assessed within one year from the time of passing this act; and shall also be liable to pay their proportion of all state taxes that may be assessed on the town of _Groton_ until a new valuation be taken. [This act passed _February_ 6, 1798.] All the changes of territorial jurisdiction thus far noted have been in one direction,--from Groton to the surrounding towns; but now the tide turns, and for a wonder she received, by legislative enactment, on February 3, 1803, a small parcel of land just large enough for a potato-patch. The annexation came from Pepperell, and the amount received was four acres and twenty rods in extent. The following is a copy:-- An act to set off a certain parcel of land from the town of _Pepperell_, in the county of _Middlesex_, and to annex the same to the town of _Groton_, in the same county. BE _it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same_, That a certain tract of land, bounded, beginning at the end of a wall by the road leading by Zachariah Fitch's, in said _Groton_; thence running easterly, by land of Jonas Fitch, to the _Nashua River_, (so called;) thence up said river to said road, near the bridge over the same river; thence, bounding by the same road, to the bounds first mentioned, containing four acres and twenty rods, be, and hereby is set off from said town of _Pepperell_ and annexed to said town of _Groton_ forever. [This act passed _February_ 3, 1803.] The Worcester and Nashua Railroad was opened through the township of Groton in the month of December, 1848. It ran at that time a distance of eight miles through its territory, keeping on the east side of the Nashua river, which for a considerable part of the way was the dividing line between Groton and Pepperell. The railroad station for the people of Pepperell was on the Groton side of the river, and in the course of a few years a small village sprang up in the neighborhood. All the interests and sympathies of this little settlement were with Pepperell; and under these circumstances the Legislature, on May 18, 1857, passed an act of annexation, by which it became in reality what it was in sentiment,--a part and parcel of that town. The first section of the act is as follows:--