the name of the Proprietors of Marshpee, whose property he claimed, was as tenants in common, on the ground that the old Queen, though she occupied it in severalty during her life, could not, as one tenant in common, convey the interest of her co-tenants in common.  It was tried in the Supreme Court, and the deed was set aside, for insufficiency of title.  This insufficiency of title vitiated the conveyance on the ground that the old Queen had no power to convey when she made the deed, and that the General Court had no power to make good, by a resolve, a title originally invalid.

Crocker also set up the claim of quiet possession, for thirty years, which it was supposed would secure the title; but the Court decided that this gave no title, and the land was restored to the Indians, and now forms a portion of their common land.  Mr. Crocker of course, lost all he had furnished to the old Queen, and in this respect, his case was harder than it would be, were Mr. Fish dispossessed of the parsonage, after enjoying it for twenty-four years, without any title thereto.  It would he difficult for any lawyer to show why Crocker’s deed confirmed by the General Court, should have been set aside in 1798, and Lot Nye’s deed, of the parsonage, be held valid in 1834.

On referring to my minutes of the trial of the petition of the Indians, for their liberty, in 1834, before a Committee of the Legislature, I find the following facts stated by Rev. Phineas Fish, who was a witness before that Committee.  They will throw some light on the subject of inquiry.

Rev. Phineas Fish, sworn.  Testifies that he was ordained at Marshpee in 1811.  Was invited there by the Overseers of Marshpee.  There were five persons of color belonging to the church, and sixteen whites.  At the ordination, a white man rose up and protested against it.  He said all were not satisfied.  It was not a vote of the Indians by which he was settled, and no vote of the church was taken.  Five Indians had expressed a wish that he would remain.  He received two-thirds of the Williams fund, from Harvard College.  It had varied from 390 to 433 dollars.  Received about 150 dollars per year from the wood-land of the parsonage.  Has built a dwelling house, and made improvements on an acre and a half of land of the plantation, of which he holds a deed from the Overseers, confirmed by a resolve of the General Court.

Mr. Gideon Hawley testified that the Meeting-house was built by the funds of the English Society for propagating the gospel, before 1757, when his father was sent as a missionary to the Indians, by the London Missionary Society.  In 1817, five hundred dollars were granted on petition of the Indians, as a donation by the Legislature, to repair the church for the Marshpee Indians.  After Mr. Fish had preached in Marshpee, 5 Indians came to Mr. Hawley and expressed a wish he would stay with them.  There was no vote and no record.  Before his father came to