accompanying it should be revived_?

It pass'd in the Negative. And _Voted_, That the Memorial be
dismiss'd.

[Journal of the House of Representatives (page 92), January 9,
1753.]

The discussion in regard to the division of the town resulted in setting
off the district of Shirley, on January 5, 1753, three months before the
district of Pepperell was formed. In the Act of Incorporation the name
was left blank, as it was in the one incorporating Pepperell, and
"Shirley" was filled in at the time of its engrossment. It was so named
after William Shirley, the governor of the province at that period. It
never was incorporated specifically as a town, but became one by a
general Act of the Legislature, passed on March 23, 1786. It was
represented, while a district, in the session of the General Court which
met at Watertown, on July 19, 1775, as well as in the Provincial
Congress of Massachusetts, and thus tacitly acquired the powers and
privileges of a town, which were afterward confirmed by the act just
mentioned.

The act for establishing the district of Shirley is as follows:--

Anno Regni Regis Georgii Secundi Vicesimo Sexto.

An Act for dividing the Town of Groton and making a District by the
Name of....

Whereas the Inhabitants of the Southwesterly part of the Town of