Gilberts: Early surveyors, Part 1: Patrick McNiff was a complainer

Weeks ago, I began looking at the great local history in Kentiana, the 1939 Kent Historical Society publication. But as I looked more carefully at its articles, I found they often needed updating. They either exhibited outdated attitudes, or there was just more information available 86 years later. And some later papers are quite brief. So, while summarizing the papers, I have also riffed on them, following up with other, related columns.  I hope you don’t mind that I have taken you a