Leyden — Organization
Extracted from "History of the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Volume II," by Louis H. Everts, 1879.
In response to a petition of certain inhabitants of Bernardston, setting forth that they labored under difficulties and inconveniences in their present situation, the Legislature passed an act, March 12, 1784, erecting a part of. Bernardston into a district with the name of Leyden. The boundaries were laid out to be as follows:
"Beginning at the northwest corner of Bernardston, from thence to run smith, eighty degrees east, three miles and two hundred and eighty rods on the New Hampshire line* (so called), to a beech-tree, then south to the south line of said town, then west on the line between said Bernardston and Greenfield to Green River (so called), which is the said boundage between the said Bernardston and Colrain, then northerly along by said Green River to the northeast corner of Bernardston."
The town was named in honor of Leyden, in Holland, where the Puritan ancestors of many of the settlers of Massachusetts lived for some time previous to emigrating to America. The first town-meeting was held April 26, 1784, and the warrant therefor was served by Caleb Adams, under instructions from David Smead, Justice of the Peace.
* Vermont was then called "The New Hampshire Grant."
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