Deputy, who is to attend at such Sales, receive from him a Bill of Sale of the Lot or Lots so purchased, upon producing whereof to you our Governor, or to our Governor, or Commander in Chief of our said Province for the time being, he shall be forthwith entitled to a grant in Fee simple of the Land, so purchased, as aforesaid, by Letters Patent under our public Seal of our said Province, subject to no Conditions or Reservations whatever, other than except the Payment to Us, our Heirs, and Successors of the annual Quit Rent of one halfpenny Acre, as aforesaid, and also of all Mines of Gold, Silver or Precious Stones.

7th That the Fees to be paid by purchasers of Land in manner herein before recited, be such as are allowed by Law and no other, and that neither our Governor, or Commander in Chief of our said Province, or any other Officer or Officers entrusted with the Execution of these our Instructions, do for the present and until some other Arrangement be made for that purpose take any other or greater Fees.1

And it is our further Will and Pleasure, that neither you our Governor, nor our Governor, or Commander in Chief of our said Province for the Time being do, upon any pretence whatever, presume to grant any Lands, Tenements or Hereditaments within our said Province, which are in our Power to dispose of, upon any other Terms, or in any other manner than as herein before recited, without our express Authority for that purpose under our Signet, and Sign Manual, or by our order in our Privy Council, except only in the Case of such Commission Officers and Soldiers, as are entitled to Grants of Lands in Virtue of our Royal Proclamation of the 7th of October 1763, to whom such Grants are to be made and passed in the proportions, and under the Conditions prescribed in the said Proclamation.

And it is our further Will and Pleasure, that in all Districts, which shall hereafter be Surveyed, in order to a sale of the Lands in Manner herein before recited, there be a Reservation of such Parts thereof, as shall appear from the Report of the Surveyor to be necessary for public Uses.

And it is our further Will and Pleasure, that you our said Governor, or our Governor or Commander in Chief of our said Province for the Time being do, from time to time, and as often as any Survey or Sales of Land shall be made in Manner before mentioned, make a full and particular report to Us, by one of our principal Secretaries of State, of all proceedings in Regard thereto, together with a State of the expenses attending the said Survey, and Sales,

'The following is Clause 1 as originally drawn: (London Doeumentt, XLIII., 403, 404.)

7th That the Fees to be paid by purchasers of Land in manner herein before recited be as followeth and that neither Our Governor or Commander in Chief of Our said Province or any other Officer or Officers entrusted with the execution of these Oar Instructions do take any other or greater Fees, that is to say

and your or their Opinion of the Allowances it may be proper to make on that Account, to the end and Intent that We may take such Orders therein, as shall appear to be reasonable and proper.

G. R.

(N° 18)

Earl of Dartmouth to Governor Tryon.

[N«w-T»rk, CLXVI. ( No. 18. )]

Whitehall 2d March 1774.

Sir,

Since my letter to you of the 5th of last month, I have received your Dispatches N* 2, 3, & 5. and have laid them before the King.

4

As your letter N° 2 relates to a matter which must remain for discussion upon your arrival here, and as no final resolution has as yet been taken upon what has passed in America, respecting the Teas sent thither for sale by the East India Company, I have not at present any thing in command from the King on the subject of those Dispatches, but I must lament that the Body of the People within your Province should have been so influenced by the audacious insult offered to the Authority of this Kingdom at Boston, that in your opinion the landing those Teas at New York could be effected only under the protection of the Point of the Bayonet, & Muzzle of the Cannon.

P. S.

I am &c»

DARTMOUTH

Just as I was closing my Letter, I received your Dispatch of the 2* Febry to which I can now say nothing more than express my concern for the present ill state of your health, and my hopes that your intended voyage to England will perfectly restore you.

Governor Tryon

Lords of Trade to the Lords of the Privy Council.

[New-Tork Entrlet, LXIX., p. It.]

To the Right Honhle the Lords of the Committee of His Majesty's most Honorable Privy Council for Plantation Affairs.

My Lords

Pursuant to your Lordships Orders of the 21 of Feb" last we have takin into Our Consideration the humble Petition of George Clarke Esq: Secretary of His Majestys Colony of New York complaining of William Tryon Esq: Governor of the said Colony for having disposessed him of a Branch belonging to his said office Viz: That of Register to the Ordinary

and Prerogative Court of the said Province of New York for the Granting Probates of Wills and Letters of Administration and other business of that kind and for his having disposed of the same in favour of Edmund Fanning Esquire his private Secretary and humbly praying for the reasons therein contained that such appointment of the said Edmund Fanning may be declared void and that the Petioner and his deputy may be restored to the exercise and Enjoyment of the said Branch of his Office and that he may be also restored to the Fees he has lost by having been dispossessed thereof we have likewise had under Our Consideration the answer of Governor Tryon to the said Petition together with copies of several papers and Documents relative to this Matter. Whereupon we beg leave to report to your Lordships.

That having duely weighed and examined what is here set forth by the parties concerned on each side of the Question We are of opinion that the duty of Register to the ordinary or Prerogative Court of the said Province of New York for granting of Probates of Wills & Letters of Administration and other business of that kind together with all Fees Perquisites and Emoluments legally appertaining thereto is a Branch of the office of the Secretary of the Province constantly held and enjoyed both by the Deputy of the Province1 Patentee and all other preceeding Secretaries and agreable to such usage was virtually confirmed and renewed to the Petitioner by His Majesty's Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain bearing date the 10lh day of April in the first year of his Reign when the Commissioner8 of Secretary was renewed to him together with all Fees Rights Privileges and Advantages whatsoever thereunto belonging in as full and ample manner as any Secretary in the said Colony had heretofore held and enjoyed or of right ought to have held and enjoyed the same and we think that his Majesty's Gov' Mr Tryon was not warranted in excluding the Petitioner and his Deputy from the possession of the said Branch of his office and in disposing of the same in favour of the said Edward Fanning Esq: his private Secretary thereby depriving the said Patentee of the exercise of the Ministerial parts of the office of Register to the ordinary together with the fees and emoluments incident thereto which are stated to constitute a considerable part of the profits appertaining to the general office of Secretary

With respect to the reasoning adopted by Mr Tryon in his answer to the petition wherein he contends that by an Act of the Colony passed in the year 1692 there was a severance of the Register from the Secretary's Office of3 the said Registry put under the disposal of the Governor we can by no means concur with him in his interpretation of this Act on the contrary it does appear to us to operate rather in confirmation of the Petitioners claim and against the Governors position in as much as the Courts of Common Pleas which in some of the Counties are impowered by this law to take the examination of Witnesses to Wills are thereby expressly required to transmit the same with the Will to the Secretary's Office that the Probate thereof may be granted accordingly thereby implying a precedent Right in the Secretary to issue such Probates.

Viewing the Case of the Petitioner in this light we think it Our duty to propose to your Lordships to advise His Majesty to comply with the prayer of the petition by instructing and directing His Governor to revoke and declare void the Grant Appointment and Authority given by him to the said Edmund Fanning to do and transact the aforesaid Branch of business of Register to the Ordinary appertaining to the said Patent Office of Secretary and to restore the Petitioner and his Deputy to the Exercise and enjoyment of the same as fully as it was

'Sic. present. Book of Commissiont, in Secretary of State's office, Albany, VI., 129. - Ed.

-

held and enjoyed before the late innovation took place and also to restore the said Petitioner to such Fees as it shall appear he has lost by means of the said Acts and proceedings of his Majesty's said Governor.

In my private letter to you, by a former mail, I expressed a wish that you should not come away from your Government until you should be relieved by a Lieutenanf Governor, but having learnt from your Friends here that your Disorder increases upon you, I must not suffer that Restraint upon your Intentions to continue any longer, & therefore you will consider yourself at liberty to come to England, whenever it shall be most convenient to you.

Colonel Skeene1 having presented a Memorial to the Lords of the Treasury praying a remission of the Quit Rents payable from his Lands in New York, I have reason to believe

'Colonel Pnn.iT Seine was the grandson of John Skene, of Halyards, in Fifeshire, Scotland, and a descendant of the famous Sir William Wallace. He entered the army in 1739, in which year he served in the expedition against Portobello, and in 1741 was at the taking of Carthagena. He fought in the celebrated battle of Fontenoy in 1745, in that of Culloden the following year, and in 1747 was present at the battle of Laffeldt, under the Duke of Cumberland. Gentleman'i Magazine, LXXX., 672. He came to America in 1756, and on the 2d of February, 1757, was promoted to a company in the 27th or Enniskillen regiment of Foot, which formed part of the force under Lord Loudon's command that year. He was next engaged under Lord Howe at the unfortunate attack on Ticonderoga in July, 1758; was appointed, on the Slst July, 1759, Major of Brigade by Sir Jeffery Amherst, with whom he served on Lakes George and Champlain, and in October following was left in charge of Crown Point, the works of which he had orders to strengthen. Wilson's Manuscript Orderly Book. His position at Crown Point made him familiar with the surrounding country, and encouraged by Sir Jeffery Amherst, he projected a settlement at Wood Creek and South Bay, at the head of Lake Champlain, and in the prosecution of that design, soon after settled about thirty families there; in 1762 he was ordered on the expedition against Martinique and Havana, and was one of the first to enter the breach at the storming of Moro Castle. On his return to New-York, in 1763, he renewed his efforts to complete his settlement at Wood Creek; went to England; obtained a Royal Order for a considerable tract of land at that place, for which a patent was granted, March, 1765, and his tract was formed into a township under the name of Skenesborough. New-York Land Papers, XVII.; Book of Patents, XIV., 66. His regiment having been ordered to Ireland, Major Skene exchanged into the 10th Foot, in May, 1768, so as to remain in America; but he did not continue long in the army, for he sold out in December of the following year, (Army Lists,) and in 1770 established his residence at Skenesborough, (now Whitehall, Washington county.) Here he erected forges for smelting iron, mills for sawing timber, and opened a road to Salem and Bennington, which was afterwards known as Skene's road. Fitch, in Transactions of New-York State Agricultural Society, VIII, 967. His plans were interrupted by the Revolution. In May, 1775, a detachment of volunteers from Connecticut entered Skenesborough and seized Major Skene, his family and servants, (Barber's Historical Collections of Neu-York, 349,) and carried them prisoners to Hartford. He was allowed to reside on parole at Middletown,

their Lordships are well disposed to favor his request; In the mean time as he is apprehensive that some process may issue for inforcing the Payment of what is due, I should be very glad if any step might be taken to suspend such Process untill the determination of the Treasury can be known.

I am 8ca

It has given the King great satisfaction to find, by your Dispatch N° 7, that the result of your meeting with the Indians, on the subject of the murder committed by the Senecas at Lake Ontario, has been so favourable to your own wishes, and that you have been able to impress upon the minds of those Savages such proper ideas of publick justice.

I intirely agree with you in thinking that we ought to shew as much clemency as is consistent with the Dignity of Government to the Delinquents that are to be delivered up upon this occasion, and you will do well, if they have not already been brought to trial to urge every argument that may induce the Court, before which they may be tried, to consider the matter in the same light.

The conduct and character of Mr Klock induced me to wish that it had been in my power, upon his arrival here, to have taken any step that might have vindicated the honour of Government by subjecting him to due punishment; But, tho' I found that I could do nothing that would have that effect, yet the enquiries I made concerning him created such an apprehension in him of being proceeded against that I understand he remained here but a few days, & then took his Passage back to America with the Indian that accompanied him.

Sir William Johnson.

I am &ca

DARTMOUTH

Connecticut; but in May of the following year, on refusing to renew his parole, was committed to prison. He was finally exchanged in October, 1776, when he was conveyed to the city of New-York, whence he sailed in the beginning of 1777 for England. 4. American Archivet, VI., 601, 602; 5. American Archives, II., 919; III., 146S. He volunteered to accompany Burgoyne the same year, and in August was ordered to attend Lieut. Col. Baume, in his secret expedition, which met a disastrous defeat at Bennington, at the hands of General Stark, on the 16th of that month. Burgoyne'e Expedition, App. xxxvi– xxxix. In this campaign Colonel Skene had his horse twice shot under him, and was afterwards taken prisoner with Burgoyne's army. In 1779, he was attainted and his property confiscated by the Legislature of New-York. After the war, Colonel Skene, 'tis said, came to this country during Governor Clinton's administration and tried to recover his property, but not succeeding, went back to England, where he lived in retirement and died on the 9th October, 1810, at an advanced age, at Addersey Lodge, near Stoke Goldington, Bucks. In the obituary notice he is styled: "formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and surveyor of his Majesty's woods and forests bordering on Lake Champlain." Gentleman't Magazine, — ED.