I have only to add, My Lord, that from all the information I have been able to obtain nothing more seems to me to be requisite for restoring peace than a Revocation of a late order, by which the Grants of this Province were suspended. The inhabitants now amount to between six and seven hundred families, of which number 450 odd have signed a Petition to me, which I have by this Packet transmitted to Your Lordship, praying to be continued in this Government; there is another Petition, as I understand sent home by Governor Wentworth, signed by about 200, praying to be under the Government of New Hampshire ; but how these names were obtained, Your Lordship will easily be able to conceive if you take the trouble of looking into the different papers I have sent by this Packet; but surely 'tis more natural, even supposing that the New Hampshire claim was preferable to that of New York, to have a river such as Connecticut for the boundary. Add to this that the income of Government would be considerably increased annually by receiving half a Crown Quit Rent, instead of nine pence, per 100 acres, for so large a tract of Land as was disputed. I am, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient humble Servant Dunmore. P. S. I have to inform Your Lordship of the death of Joseph Reade1 Esq' one of his Majesty's Council in this Province. I also inclose to your Lordship three affidavits which I have lately received, which confirm our beleif that the disorders above mentioned are promoted by people of the greatest power in the Province of New Hampshire. No 7 My Lord, Earl of Dunmore to the Earl of Hillsborough. [New-York Papers (Slate Paper Office) CLXIII.] New York, 2nd April 1771 I have received your Lordship's letter N° 2 and am pleased to hear that the account which I had transmitted, relating to the disturbances on the borders of New Hampshire has been laid before his Majesty, and I hope that it, together with the further information contained in my succeeding letters to your Lordship, & particularly my last dated 9th of March N° 7 and the papers referred to therein will prove sufficient to determine his Majesty to confirm his Royal Declaration of 1764, and that I shall speedily receive Instructions in consequence thereof. I continue to prorogue the Assembly from week to week, that they may be in instant readiness to meet in case of war. The Acts of the last Sessions of the Assembly are not yet ready to be transmitted. 1 JOSEPH READE was probably brother of Assistant Alderman John R., who represented the East ward in the Common Council of New-York from 1711 to 1713, (Valentine's Manual,) and who was for several years a Vestryman of Trinity Church. Joseph was also a Vestryman and Warden of the same church up to the time of his death. His daughter Sarah married, in 1748, James, son of Abraham de Peyster. Supra, p. 14. He was called to the Council in March, 1764, and took his seat in that body 9th June following. New-York Council Minutes, XXV. Reade Street, N. Y., which was projected in 1760, derives its name, 'tis presumed, from this family. See note, post, p. 269. — ED. A person in this town having received an account of the capture of some whaling Vessells by the Spaniards off the island of Hispaniola, I have thought proper to transmit to your Lordship an extract of the letter which brought the report to this place. Lieutenant Colonel Bradstreet having discovered as he asserts that the patent obtained by Johannes Hardenberg and others in the year 1706, commonly called the great Patent, was issued on false suggestions, and without the formes that are necessary to make it legal and valid; & that therefore the said Patent is void, and the lands pretended to be granted thereby remain vested in the Crown: This the said Lieut. Colonel Bradstreet represented, in a petition to the Governor of this Province, in order that he might obtain a grant of part of the said vacant lands, and the same has been examined before me in Council; & a number of evidences, as well on the part of the Patentees, as the said Lieut. Col. Bradstreet, were heard, all which took up many sittings, and in the end no other decision was made then, as the Council thought fit, to grant 20,000 acres of the said lands to the before mentioned Lieutenant Colonel Bradstreet, as a compensation for the expense he has been at in endeavouring to prove the facts he alledges; the Patentees however object to the said grant, and determine to defend it at law, which Lieut. Col. Bradstreet nevertheless is resolved to prosecute, and seems confident he can support, & prove the whole, or nearly, to be vacant, as above related; This has indeed,1 a number of officers and persons who are possessed of mandamuses, and otherwise entitled to land by having served during the war in America, to petition me that I would, of my own authority, order their several locations to be surveyed for them upon these said lands, and to grant the same to them which they are willing to accept, notwithstanding the claim of the said Patentees. I have not thought proper to comply with the said Petitions, untill I had represented the affair to your Lordship, & for that purpose transmit the petition above mentioned & with it a state of the case to prove the suggestions contained therein, and in consequence of which, if orders be sent me to grant the said Petitions, the Crown will be brought into no expense thereby, the Petitioners being willing to carry on the suit at their own expence and risk; however I shall not proceed in this affair until I receive instructions from your Lordship thereupon. It is necessary to observe to your Lordship that the said Patent, which contains about fifteen hundred thousand acres was granted to seven persons only, and no more than three pounds annual quit rent reserved, whereby a manifest prejudice is done to his Majesty's Revenue and tho the Patentees have been in possession of the said lands since the year 1706 yet there are not ten families settled thereon at this time. I am, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient 'Sic. induced. - ED. DUNMORE. N° 1 Sir. Earl of Hillsborough to the Governor of New-York. [Now-York Papers (State Taper Office) CLXIII. ] Whitehall 4th May 1771 By the last New York Mail I received Lord Dunmore's Dispatch of the 9th of March No 7 & have laid it before the King. I was glad to find by that letter that the Session of Assembly had ended in general to his Lordships satisfaction, and that although the House of Representatives had suffered the tranquillity of their Proceedings to be in some degree interrupted by a renewal of their resolutions concerning Mr Livingston, they nevertheless shewed a proper attention to the public Interests, excepting only in the case of the arrears due upon account of supplying his Majesty's troops, which I observe they have not thought proper to discharge. So just a demand upon the Province speaks for itself, and therefore I hope that when the Assembly meets again, the bare mention of it by you will be sufficient to prevail upon them to desist from their refusal. The attention shewn by the Assembly to the signification of his Majesty's pleasure concerning the expediency of some Law for regulating the Indian Trade is very pleasing to the King, and his Majesty approves of Lord Dunmore's having requested the advice & assistance of Sir William Johnson in that business. As the Province of New York is more particularly interested in preserving the good will and affection of the Oneida Indians I make no doubt that if Sir William Johnson's funds are not sufficient to supply them with the necessaries they require in their Message to Lord Dunmore in December last, the Assembly will make proper provision for that service. The spirited proposal of the Body of German Protestants in the City of New York, contained in their Memorial presented to Lord Dunmore in January last, could not fail of being pleasing to the King, and although there is not now any occasion for their service in the Military Line, you will signify to them his Majesty's approbation of the Zeal, and the satisfaction it gave his Majesty to receive from so respectable a Body such declaration of sincere affection to his Royal Person and Government, and earnest desire to assist in the defence of his Majesty's possessions. With regard to the lands in the Eastern parts of the province, where I am sorry to find the disorders, early complained of by Lord Dunmore, continue to increase, I can only say what I have frequently expressed to his Lordship, that the matter is under consideration of the Board of Trade, and that I have not failed to communicate to that Board every thing that has been represented upon that subject. It only remains for me to acquaint you that the Lords of Trade having recommended William Axtell Esq to be of the Council in the place of Mr Read, their recommendation has been approved and the warrant for his admission will be delivered to his Agent. (Gov' of New York) I am, &ca HILLSBOROUGH. 1 WILLIAM AXTELL was brother-in-law of James de Pcyster, who had married the daughter of Mr. Reade, (supra, p. 267,) whom he now succeeded in the Council, Mr. Axtell having for his wife, Margaret, 3d daughter of Abraham and sister of James de Peyster. He was appointed to the Council 4th of May, 1771, and resided at Flatbush. Whilst he was entertaining a party of British officers there in 1776, a gunner belonging to the American army threw a shell into the house, to the great alarm of the family. Ondcrdonk't Revolutionary Incidents. Mr. Axtell having adhered to the Crown, his property was confiscated, and he returned to England in 1783, having lost his wife, however, before his departure, who died without leaving any issue. De Peyeler Genealogy, 109. — ED. Sir. No 16. Earl of Hillsborough to Sir William Johnson. [New-York Papera (State Paper Office) CCLVII.] Whitehall, May 4,h 1771. I have received and laid before the King your dispatch N° 15 containing general observations on the state of Indian interests, and repeating your apprehensions that notwithstanding the meeting of the Indians at Scioto (which had given so much alarm) had ended only in general Resolutions of continuing their alliances, yet that there still remained some latent intention in the Savages to form a Confederacy dangerous to the King's possessions. You will allow me, Sir, however to observe that I am fully convinced, as well from what has passed at this Meeting as from my Observations of the Disposition of Savages in general, that those natural enmities and jealousies which subsist between one nation and another, if left to have their own operation without any interfering on our part, are a full security against any hostilities which (they well know) must in the end terminate in their own destruction, & which therefore they will never attempt, unless provoked by such injuries and injustice as being common to all may make the Resentment of them a common cause. To prevent such abuses therefore, and, when they cannot be prevented, to endeavour to redress them, will, I doubt not, be the principal object of your attention, avoiding as much as possible interfering or becoming party in any Councils the Indians may think fit to hold relative to their own Interests. I do not mean by what I have said to express an opinion that there may not be some cases in which it may be adviseable for the Servants of the Crown in the Indian Department to take some share, nor would I have it understood that they ought to be totally indifferent about what passes at such meetings; on the contrary they cannot be too active to obtain the fullest Intelligence of the Views and Proceedings of the Savages, because nothing will be more likely to defeat any designs which they may form to the prejudice of the public peace, than the lettting them see we know what those Designs are, but if we persist in making ourselves parties in their politics, either directly or through the intervention of any particular tribe in which they know us to have a particular confidence, it is impossible to say to what consequences it may lead, and therefore I was concerned to find that the Deputies which were sent from the Northern Confederacy to the Meeting at Scioto had insisted with the Indians, whom they met returning from that meeting, that the Congress should be re-assembled. With regard to the Continuation of the Boundary line from where it was made to terminate by the Treaty of 1768 it is a matter which requires much consideration but it is impossible for me to give you any Instructions upon that head without knowing precisely in what direction and to what point the Indians wish to have it carried. I am &c* Hillsborough. (Sir William Johnson Bart.) Lords of Trade to the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council. [New-York Entries, LXVIII., 466. ] To the Right Honhle the Lords of the Commtee of His Majesty's most Honble Privy Council for Plantation Affairs. My Lords Pursuant to your Lordships Order of the 6 of this Month we have taken into Our Consideration the address of Rector and Inhabitants of the City of New York humbly requesting His Majesty to remit the whole or such part as His Majesty in his Royal Wisdom shall judge meet & expedient of certain Quit Rents reserved to his Majesty and payable upon a Tract of Land in Glocester County within the said Province granted by Lieutenant Governor Colden to that Corporation to be for ever appropriated for the sole use and benefit of the church belonging thereto. Whereupon we beg leave to report to your Lordships That the encouragement protection and support in the Colonies of the Church of England. as by law Established are objects which do in Our opinion well deserve your Lordships attention and therefore we think that it will be adviseable in point of Policy to comply with the prayer of the above recited address but how far it may be expedient in Reference to the state of His Majesty's revenue of Quit Rents and the Establishments thereon is a consideration which belongs to other Departments If however his Majesty shall be graciously pleased to grant the remission of the Quit Rents in the Case in Question we think that in lieu thereof it may be adviseable that an annual Rent of Six Shillings and eight pence should be reserved to be paid by the Rector and Inhabitants of the City of New York concerned in this petition to the Governor and Commander in Chief of the said Province sitting in Council in the Council Chamber on Monday after Easter in each year conformable to what we proposed and was approved by your Lordships in the Case of an Application for a Grant of Lands in New York made to his Majesty in 1764 on behalf of the College of New York. We are My Lords Your Lordships most obedient and most humble Servants I have received and laid before the King a letter from the Earl of Dunmore as Governor of New York, dated the 2d of April, and as his Lordship continues to urge, with great Propriety, the expediency of some speedy decision in respect to the lands on the West of Connecticut |