First Parish in Boothbay v. Wylie
Supreme Judicial Court of Maine
This is an action of trespass quare clausum, and comes forward on Eeport of the evidence for the decision of the full court. The locus described in the writ contains between eight and nine acres of land in Boothbay, title to which the plaintiffs claim to have acquired by appropriation for parochial purposes, by votes of said town, and user by them for more than twenty years.
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This is an action of trespass quare clausum, and comes forward on Eeport of the evidence for the decision of the full court. The locus described in the writ contains between eight and nine acres of land in Boothbay, title to which the plaintiffs claim to have acquired by appropriation for parochial purposes, by votes of said town, and user by them for more than twenty years. The trespass alleged is the digging of a foundation and erection of a meeting-house by the defendants, who justify as servants of the Freewill Baptist society, under a license from the town of Boothbay. The evidence…
1Opinion of the CourtTenney, C. J.
From the evidence in the case, it appears that prior to the year 1768, a Congregational meeting-house *388was erected in Boothbay, when the town consisted of one parish only; and that the two corporations so existed till a Baptist society was incorporated in the town, on February 23, 1809.
By the statute of Massachusetts, passed in 1786, chap. 10, sec. 4, the remaining part of the town became the principal or first parish, and the estate of the town consisting in lands appropriated to the benefit of the parish or religious society, by whatever description incorporated, remained with the residue of…
2Cases cited4 opinions
- Brown v. PorterMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1813
- Inhabitants of the First Parish v. DunningMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1811
- Weston v. HuntMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1807
- Inhabitants of the First Parish in Sutton v. ColeMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1811