Proctor v. Wells
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort for entering the plaintiff’s close in Ipswich, digging clams thereon and carrying them away; submitted to the judgment of the court on facts agreed, of which the following is the material part: The close on which the trespass was alleged to have been committed consisted of flats, adjoining the upland along Ipswich River and the seashore, granted by the colony to the commoners o^ Ipswich; 1 Mass. Col.
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Tort for entering the plaintiff’s close in Ipswich, digging clams thereon and carrying them away; submitted to the judgment of the court on facts agreed, of which the following is the material part: The close on which the trespass was alleged to have been committed consisted of flats, adjoining the upland along Ipswich River and the seashore, granted by the colony to the commoners o^ Ipswich; 1 Mass. Col. Rec. 172; 2 Ib. 283; 4 Ib part 2, 427; and in 1844 conveyed by the town of Ipswich for a valuable consideration to Daniel Dole, who died before the time of the alleged trespass and devised…
1Opinion of the CourtGray, J.
The law which governs this case is well settled by repeated and carefully considered decisions of this court. The right of fishing in the sea or rivers in any town in this Commonwealth, either for swimming fish or for shell fish, is a public right, which belongs to all the inhabitants of the town, unless restricted by acts of the legislature or of the town, inconsistent therewith, or by prescription; and a grant by the legislature to a town of the title in the bed of a river, or in flats covered by tide water, within its limits, does not convey by implication the right of fishing to the town…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Coolidge v. WilliamsMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1808
3Cited by13 opinions
- Marks v. WhitneyCalifornia Supreme Court · 1971
- Commonwealth v. HiltonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1899
- State v. Black River Phosphate Co.Supreme Court of Florida · 1893
- Commonwealth v. VincentMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1871
- Town of Wellfleet v. GlazeMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1988
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