The Boston Ten Townships refers to an area of 230,400 acres (932 km²) in Tioga County and

Broome County Broome County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 United States census, the county had a population of 198,683. Its county seat is Binghamton. The county was named for John Broome, the state's lieutenant governor when ...

New York State New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...

, between the

Chenango River The Chenango River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Susquehanna River in central New York in the United States. It drains a dissec ...

(to Chenango Forks) and

Tioughnioga River The Tioughnioga River () is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Chenango River in central New York in the United States. It drains a dissecte ...

(east boundary) and the west branch of Owego Creek (west boundary), from the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River ( ; Unami language, Lenape: ) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, crossing three lower Northeastern United States, Northeast states (New York, Pennsylvani ...

about twenty-five miles northwards; it includes the northern half of the town of Owego and the towns of Newark Valley,

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

, and Richford in Tioga County, and a portion of the

towns of Lisle, Nanticoke and

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

east of these. It is bounded on the west by the Watkins and Flint Purchase and a small portion of the original Chemung County, and on the north by the

Central New York Military Tract The Military Tract of Central New York, also called the New Military Tract, consisted of nearly of bounty land set aside in Central New York to compensate New York's soldiers after their participation in the Revolutionary War. Establishment ...

(present-day

Cortland County Cortland County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population of Cortland County was 46,809. The county seat is Cortland. The county is named after Pierre Van Cortlandt, president of the convention a ...

). The boundary between Tioga County and

is very irregular. The Treaty of Hartford of 1786 settled the western boundary between Massachusetts and New York at the modern largely north–south east of the Hudson River (except for Boston Corners, which was transferred later). As part of the treaty, New York gained undisputed sovereignty over the area, but granted the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the right to purchase the property rights from the local Indians. This right was subsequently purchased in the same year by a company of

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

investors (originally 11, later 60) named the Boston Purchase Company. One of the investors, Colonel Avid Pixley, came to the area to negotiate with the native inhabitants for the land rights. Most of the investors actually settled in the area, and were soon able to extinguish the Indian claims by purchase from the

Oneida Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * Oneida N ...

; one half-township of Owego (including the

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

) had already been acquired from the Oneida by James McMaster; some delicate negotiations led to his claim being recognized as the McMaster Patent.

References

{{reflist History of Massachusetts Geography of Broome County, New York Geography of Tioga County, New York History of New York (state)