No 36. My Lord. Governor Tryon to the Earl of Dartmouth. [New-Tork Papers (S. P. 0.) CLXV.] New York. 3. June. 1773. The enclosed abstract will serve to give your Lord an idea of the state of the Militia of this Provce, though not of the strength of the Companies and Battalions, which I am unacquainted with myself, not having had, as yet, any Regimental returns from the Colonels. I am with the greatest respect and esteem My Lord. Your Lord's most obedient servant, Wm Tryon. Return of the Militia of the Province of New-York. An Abstract of the State of Militia in the Province of New York, shewing the Sir. William Johnson Bar* Major General of the Northern District Coll: G. Johnson Adj* General Lieut: Col: John Glenn Qr Master General VOL. VIII. 48 Wm TRYON. Edmund Burke, Esq., to Secretary Pownall. [New York Papers, Bundle V. T., No. 71.] 15 June 1773. Sir, I am honoured with your letters of the 14th wishing to be informed, on whose behalf, and on what question, I desire to have Counsel heard against the Canadian Grants on Lake Champlain. You will be so good as to acquaint their Lord?'", that I would have Counsel heard on behalf of the grantees under New York Govern', who are composed in a great measure of half pay Officers, that have received grants, agreably to His Majesty's Proclamation. And I am instructed to take care of the interests of these Grantees, not only so far as they are concerned, but also so far as the territorial rights of the Province may be affected by the French claims. I beg leave to be heard by Counsel (if their Lord should not expressly confine the Counsel) to all such matters, as they, or the parties shall advise as proper and effectual towards invalidating the said French Grants, and establishing the rights of the New York Grantees— I am with great regard Sir Your most obed' and humble serv Representation of the Lords of Trade to the Committee of the Privy Council. [New-York Entries, LXIX., 9.] To the Right Honhle the Lords of the Committee of His Majesty's most Honhle Privy Council for Plantation Affairs. My Lords, In obedience to His Majesty's Order in Council of the 5,h of March last We have taken into Our Consideration the Petition of Major General John Bradstreet setting forth amongst other things that the Petitioner for himself and in behalf of others his associates in the year 1769 in the Presence of Sir Henry Moore then Governor of New York and with the approbation of Sir William Johnson Superintendant of Indian Affairs did in His Majesty's name purchase for a valuable Consideration of the Tribe of Aughquagey Indians at a public Meeting of the said Indians held for that purpose by His Majesty's said Governor agreably to the several Rules and Forms in such case prescribed by His Majesty's Royal Proclamation a large Tract of Land therein particularly described containing by estimation 300,000 Acres and humbly praying for the Reasons therein contained that His Majesty will be graciously pleased to grant and confirm to the Petitioner and his Associates under the Great Seal of Great Britain the said Lands to be holden under the like reservation of Quit Rent & as in Case of Lands purchased by Sir William Johnson and confirmed to him or in such other manner as to his Majesty shall seem meet. This is the substance of Major General Bradstreets1 Petition but before we enter into any discussion of his particular Case it will be necessary in General to premise to your Lordships that upon full and early Conviction of the many prejudicial Consequences which were found to result from the practice of obtaining Grants and Concessions of Lands from the different Tribes and Nations of Indians it was considered as a matter of Great Importance both to the Interest of the Crown and the welfare of the Provinces within whose Limits such Grants had been obtained to restrain by particular Instructions all persons purchasing Lands of the Indians without special and particular licence for that purpose from the Governor of the Colony within which the lands should lye and this Policy in General obtained throughout the Provinces till his Majesty's Proclamation of the 7th of October 1763 put a more effectual stop to the practice by an express prohibition strictly forbidding any private person to presume to make any Purchase from the Indians of any Lands reserved to the said Indians within those parts of the Colonies where his Majesty had thought proper to allow Settlement this being the case whether we consider the circumstances of the purchase which the Petitioner alledges to have finally concluded with the Indians in the year 1769 or advert to what has been offered in his behalf of his having enter'd into agreement with them during the course of the War previous to his Majesty's Proclamation it does appear to us that proceeding has been such as can neither in the one instance be reconciled to the Spirit and intent of his Maju'' Instructions subsisting before the Proclamation by which all private purchases whatever are forbidden at the same 'Major-General Johx Bradstkekt was born in 1711, and accompanied the expedition against Louiebourg in 1745, as Lieutenant-Colonel in Pepperell's York Provincials, Maine. Of his conduct in that campaign, Gen. Pepperell observes: "No person in the army could possibly have behaved with more zeal, activity and judgment in the measures taken for the accomplishment of our design, which added to his particular knowledge in the circumstances of this place, justly entitle him to the esteem and thanks of every well wisher to the success of the expedition." 1 Massachusetts Historical Collection*, I., 40. On the 5th of September, 1745, he received a commission of Captain in a Royal regiment called Sir William Pepperell's foot, ( Parsons' Life of Pepperell, 160, 169, 312, 347) and as an additional reward for his services, was appointed on the 16th September, 1746, to the sinecure place of Lieutenant-Governor of St. John, Newfoundland. London Magazine, XV., 480; Gentleman's Magazine. Captain Bradstreet remained in garrison at Louisbourg with his regiment until 1748, in which year it was disbanded. On the renewal of hostilities in 1755, he was ordered by Braddock to march with a party of Provincials to Oswego, preliminary to operations against Niagara; and when Shirley succeeded to the command, he made Bradstreet his Adjutant-General. 1 Massachusetts Historical Collections, VII., 96, 116. In the following year he was again ordered to conduct supplies to Oswego. On his return, after having successfully performed that duty, he was attacked on the 3d July, nine miles south of that place, by a strong party of the enemy, which he defeated. New-York Documentary History, 8vo., L, 482-487. In March, 1757, he was appointed to a company in the 60th or Royal Americans, and became Lieutenant Colonel in the Regular army on the 27th December following, at which time he was Deputy Quarter Master General. Army List. He served in 1758, under Abercrombie, in the unsuccessful attack on Ticonderoga, immediately after which he was permitted to march at the head of 3000 Provincials against Fort Frontenac, which he reduced on the 27th of August. Dunlap's History of New-York, L., 394; Knox's Campaigns, L, 150. The details of this achievement were published the following year, under this title: "An Impartial Account of Lieutenant-Colonel Bradstreet's expedition to Fort Frontenac. To which are added a few reflections on the conduct of that enterprise, and the advantages resulting from its success. By a Volunteer in the Expedition. London." 8vo., pp. 60. In 1759, he accompanied General Amherst as Quarter-MasterGeneral, in the expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and had his head quarters the following summer at Oswego, where the necessaries were provided to facilitate the descent of the Army to Montreal, but ill health prevented him accompanying the troops. In February, 1762, he was promoted to be Colonel, and continued Quarter-Master-General for a few years after. Army Lists In 1764, he commanded an expedition against the Western Indians, and negotiated a peace with these tribes at Detroit on the 7th September of that year, after which he returned to the East. Parkman's Pontiac. On the 25th May, 1772, he was advanced to the rank of Major-General; and after a life of great activity, and after rendering essential service to his country, died at New-York 25th September, (Allen incorrectly says 21st October) 1774. The civil and military officers, and the 47th regiment attended his remains to Trinity Church. Duidap's History of New-York, II., celii. General Bradstreet's will bears date 23d September, 1774, and is recorded in the surrogate's office, New-York. It is, says Mr. E. F. DeLancey, a model of brevity and clearness, and was drawn by the famous William Smith. Further particulars of the family are to be found in Wendell's Supreme Court Reports, XIL, 602. — Ed. time we cannot omit observing to your Lordship that the present petition goes to a very considerable extent being for a Tract which by Estimation contains 300,000 Acres and we doubt not that your Lordships are well apprized of the objections which operate against recommending or confirming Grants and Concessions to private persons of so exorbitant a nature at the same time it is a justice we owe to the Character of Major General Bradstreet to observe that thro' a long Course of public Service his merits have been such as seem to recommend him in a particular manner to the Bounty and Munificence of His Majesty. Having therefore laid before your Lordships this together with every other Circumstance which may serve to direct your Judgements in the Case we must submit it to your Lordships to give such advice to His Majesty upon the whole as your Lordships duly weighing the Matter of the Petition on the one hand and the Merits of the petitioner on the other shall in your Wisdom think expedient. The confidence with which your Lord is pleased to honor me in your dispatch N° 8. as it is a proof of your favourable opinion calls for my gratitude. However difficult and delicate the task, I should be wanting in duty to my Sovereign, and respect to your Lord, if I did not readily obey your commands by communicating without reserve, my candid & undisguised sentiments on so interesting a subject. This appears to me the more necessary, as your Lord seems to be apprehensive, with good reason, that there are facts and circumstances unstated, the knowledge of which may be found essential to any plan for reestablishing the public tranquility to a province unfortunately involved in disputes with several of the neighboring Governts. Your Lord is already apprised that the measures recommended by the Lords of Trade cannot be carried into execution without the authority of the Legislature, and you will permit me frankly to declare that I think, I cannot flatter myself with the slightest hope of procuring the concurrence of the Assembly of this Provee in a scheme so repugnant to the claims of persons who from their numbers and connections have a very powerful influence in the Colony. With respect to that part of it, which concerns the Land in controversy between this Province & the Massachusetts Bay, I foresee no great difficulties, for the late agreement at Hartford I believe will, if it receives the Royal approbation, happily terminate these disputes, whether they regard private property or public Jurisdiction. There are four Tracts of Land affected by that Partition, the Manor of Renselaerwyck granted in 1685 the Manor of Livingston in 1686. The Patent of Hosick in 1688. and the Patent of Westenhook in 1708. and I do not learn there are any possessions under either of them to the Eastward of the line agreed upon by the Commissaries. As these Grants are very extensive and valuable on the western side of the Line and charged with trifling rents and reservations, I have no reason to imagine the New York Patentees will either set up their claims in the Massachusett's Courts, or seek for a compensation out of any other of the waste lands that belong to the Crown. It is also very improbable on the other hand, that these N. York Proprietors will meet with any further trouble from the Massachusett's Claimants, whose titles and possessions on the West side of the line are modern, and whose losses can be abundantly recompensed by the Govern under which they settled, out of the vacant lands of Sagadahock which are comprehended within the Charter. In the list of claimants under the Massachusett's Bay, I do not reckon those whose lands were discovered to be on the North side, which was adjudged on the settlement of the controversy between that Provce & New Hampshire in 1739, to be the North boundary of the Massachusett's Bay. These composed the Townships of Brattleborough and Putney, and that Part of Hinsdale, which was granted to Coll. Howard, the first settlers of which, upon that determination all acquired new Patents under New Hampshire, esteeming the Massachusett's title a meer nullity, and those Patents to have issued through mistake. Besides, My Lord, as to Brattleborough and Putney, they are both confirmed under New York, and so Hinsdale might have been, if the occupants, either from an unwillingness to pay the quit-rents, or a slight of their Interest, had not neglected to make themselves and their case known to this Govern', until a part of their Township was granted to Coll: Howard, who brought over the Royal order for a grant of Ten thousand Acres, and agreeable to the priviledges given him in the Mandamus made his Election of that spot. To me therefore it appears clear, that no person can justly avail himself of a Massachusett's title out of the line assigned for the North Boundary in 1739. and I submit it therefore to your Lord, whether it will not be inexpedient to excite applications to the Crown for compensations; and to guard agst frauds, I must observe, that as some of the New York Patents extend several miles beyond the partition agreed to at Hartford, an ill use may be made of the generosity of the Plan by a concert between the New York Patentees, and the Massachusett's Possessors to set up a very extravagant demand of fifty acres for every three that are improved by the latter, beyond the partition, and within the letter of the New York Patents, the Proprietors of which have made no improvements there, as I have already observed, and who, (the extent of their Grant remaining out of controversy considered, with the smallness of the rents they are chargeable with) ought to be content, though they should receive no allowance. But the chief objection that will be raised against any Law grounded upon the plan proposed by the Lords of Trade will relate to the second and third Articles of it, which respect the disposition of the Country to the Northward of the Massachusett's Bay. I presume that their Lordpp* were not aware that the curve line they propose for the Western side of that immense Tract which is the object of their Report, will run to the Westward of Lake Champlain, before it reaches the Northern extent of this Provce in the latitude 45°. But |