Research

Scope and Content Note

Commissioners from New York, New Jersey, and Nova Scotia held hearings to settle a Rhode Island-Massachusetts boundary dispute.

Records of the commission's proceedings include: summaries of each party's argument; questions asked of and testimony given by surveyors, residents of the disputed areas, and other witnesses, usually concerning their knowledge of the area and the character of other witnesses; and copies of documentary evidence produced by the parties, such as Indian treaties, acts of the Rhode Island General Assembly, and letters patent. The commission concluded by upholding Rhode Island's right to expand its jurisdication eastward and by ordering that records of the proceedings be placed with the Secretary of New York. The records were damaged in the 1911 State Capitol fire.