Here is the legislative measure that created the town of Lowell in 1826. The language and punctuation is true to the original document.

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CHAP. CXII

An Act to incorporate the town of Lowell.

Sec. 1. BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That the northeasterly part of the town of Chelmsford, in the County of Middlesex, lying easterly and  northerly of a line drawn as follows, viz:

Beginning at Merrimack river, at a stone post, about two hundred rods above the mouth of Patucket Canal, so called;

Thence running southerly, in a straight course, until it strikes the Middlesex Canal, at a point ten rods above the Canal Bridge, near the dwelling-house of Henry Coburn;

Thence southerly, on said canal, twenty rods,

Thence a due east course to a stone post at Concord river,

Be, and hereby is, incorporated into a Town, by the name of Lowell, and the inhabitants of said town of Lowell are hereby invested will all the powers and privileges, and shall also be subject to the duties and requisitions of other incorporate towns, according to the constitution and laws of this Commonwealth.

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That the inhabitants of said town of Lowell shall be holden to pay all arrears of taxes which have been assessed upon them by the town of Chelmsford, before the passage of this act; and the said town of Lowell shall be holden to pay two-fifths parts of the balance or residue of all debts due and owing from said town of Chelmsford, on the first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, after deducting therefrom the sum of twenty-seven hundred and twenty-six dollars; and after applying to the payment of said debts all the money belonging to said town, and all the taxes assessed by said town of Chelmsford, before the passing of this act.

Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That the said towns of Chelmsford and Lowell shall, hereafter, be liable for the support of all persons who now do or hereafter shall, stand in need of relief, as paupers, whose settlement was gained or derived from a settlement gain or derived within their respective limits. And in all cases hereafter, wherein the settlement of a pauper was gained or derived from a settlement gained or derived, before the passing of this act, partly within the limits of both of said towns; or wherein it shall not be proved within the limits of which of said towns such settlement was gained, the said towns of Chelmsford and Lowell shall be equally liable for the support of said pauper.

Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, That until a new valuation is taken by the Commonwealth, the state and county taxes, and any reimbursements required by the Commonwealth, for the payment of the representative of the present and past years, of said town of Chelmsford, which may be called for from said towns of Chelmsford and Lowell, shall be paid jointly, by said towns, and in the proportion of three-fifths for said Chelmsford, and two-fifths for said town of Lowell.

Sec. 5. Be it further enacted, That any Justice of the Peace, in the County of Middlesex, be, and hereby is, authorized to issue his warrant to any principal inhabitant of the town of Lowell, requiring him to notify and warn the inhabitants of said town of Lowell to assemble and meet at some convenient time and place, in said town, to choose all such officers as towns are required to choose, in the months of March and April, and to do and transact any other lawful business, relative to the affairs of said town.

[Approved by the Governor, March 1, 1826.]