to the terms of the Treaty, the Govern' will take some measures for your satisfaction on my making a proper representation of the matter. Here is a Map drawn by myself, from which you will see the real course of the River and be satisfied that as it was not formerly conceived it took that direction. There could have been no design in view to deceive you, I recommend it therefore to you to be satisfied with my assurances, and you shall soon hear further respecting it. Then shewed them a Map1 lately made of that Country, after which they returned thanks for the kind assurances they had received and begged, the affair might be attended to as it affected 4. Villages. After which, they represented, that several of their old people were in great want, and they were accordingly supplied with some necessaries and departed March 6th Examd Joseph Chew Secr'* Warrant to Lieutenant-Colonel Maclean to raise a Regiment in the Colonies. GEORGE R. [Plantations General (S. P. O.) CCLXI.] (secret) (L. s.) Additional Instruction to our trusty and Welbeloved William Tryon Esqre Our Captain General and Governor in Chief in, and over our Province of New York, in America; or to our Lieut: Govr or Commander in Chief of our said Province for the time being.—Given at our Court at S' James's the third day of April 1775. in the 15th year of our Reign. [A like Instruction, mutatis mutandis to Our Trusty and Wellbeloved Josiah Martin Esqre, Our Captn General & Govr in Chief, in and over our province of No Carolina, in America, or to our Lieut. Govr or Commander in Chief of our said province for the time being Given, ettc.] Whereas an humble application hath been made to us by Allen Mclean EsqTM late Major to our 114 Regiment, and Lieut Col: in our Army setting forth, that a considerable number of our subjects, who have, at different times, emigrated from the North West parts of North Britain, and have transported themselves, with their families, to New York, have expressed a desire, to take up Lands within our said Province, to be held of us, our heirs and successors, in fee simple; and whereas it may be of public advantage to grant lands in manner aforesaid to such of the said Emigrants now residing within our said province as may be desirous of settling together upon some convenient spot within the same. It is therefore our Will and pleasure, that upon application to you by the said Allen Maclean, and upon his producing to you an Association of the said Emigrants to the effect of the form hereunto annexed, subscribed by the heads of the several families of which such Emigrants shall consist, you do cause a proper spot to be located and surveyed in one contiguous Tract within our said Province of New York, sufficient in quantity for the accommodation of such Emigrants, 1 1In New-York Documentary History, IV., is a "Map of the country of the VI. Nation Proper with Part of the Adjacent Colonies. By Guy Johnson 1771." - ED. allowing 100 acres to each head of a family, and 50 acres for every other person of which the said family shall consist; and it is our further will and pleasure that when the said Lands shall have been so located as aforesaid, you do grant the same by letters patent under the seal of our said Province unto the said Allen Maclean,1 in trust, and upon the conditions, to make allotments thereof in Fee simple to the heads of Families, whose names, together with the number of persons in each family, shall have been delivered in by him as aforesaid, accompanied with the said association, and it is Our further will and pleasure that it be expressed in the said letters patent, that the lands so to be granted shall be exempt from the payment of quit-rents for 20 years from the date thereof, with a proviso however that all such parts of the said Tracts as shall not be settled in manner aforesaid within two years from the date of the grant shall revert to us, and be disposed of in such manner as we shall think fit; and it is our further will and pleasure, that neither yourself, nor any other of our Officers, within our said Province, to whose duty it may appertain to carry these our orders into execution do take any Fee or reward for the same, and that the expense of surveying and locating any Tract of Land in the manner and for the purpose above mentioned be defrayed out of our Revenue of Quit rents and charged to the account thereof. And we do hereby, declare it to be our further will and pleasure, that in case the whole or any part of the said Colonists, fit to bear Arms, shall be hereafter embodied and employed in Our service in America, either as Commission or non Commissioned Officers or private Men, they shall respectively receive further grants of Land from us within our said province, free of all charges, and exempt from the payment of quit rents for 20 years, in the same proportion to their respective Ranks, as is directed and prescribed by our Royal Proclamation of the 7,h of October 1763. in regard to such Officers and Soldiers as were employed in our service during the last War. G. R. 1 Colonel ALAN MACLEAN, or Torloiah was, in 1747, Lieutenant in the Scotch brigade, which also went by the name of "the Dutch brigade," from the circumstance of its being at the time in the pay of the States-General. In catling his way through the French lines at the famous siege of Bergen op Zoom, Lieutenant Maclean was taken prisoner and immediately admitted to parole by General Lowenduhl, with this complimentary address: "Had all conducted themselves as you and your brave corps have done, I should not now be master of Bergen op Zoom." Having left the Dutch service, he obtained a company in the 62d or first Highland battalion on its organization in 1757. With this regiment, whose number was afterwards changed to the 77th, he came to America and served under Forbes, at the taking of Fort du Quesne in 1758. and in the following year was with Amherst in the expedition up the Northern lakes. He raised the 114th Highland regiment in 1759, of which he was appointed Major commanding, but it was reduced in 1763 and Major Maclean went on half pay. On 25 May, 1771, he became Lieutenant-Colonel in the army, but was not again called into active service until 1775, when the paltry scheme detailed in the Text was concocted to raise men in America, to support the Royal cause. With that warrant and some followers, Colonel Maclean came to New-York in the spring of 1775; next visited Boston, where his scheme got wind; then hastened back to New-York, repaired to Col. Guy Johnson on the Mohawk river and thence proceeded to Oswego and so to Canada, where he collected, in the course of the summer, a body of men, chiefly Sc*tch refugees and disbanded soldiers, formerly belonging to the 42d, 77th and 78th Highlanders, under the title of the Royal Highland Emigrants. On the approach of the American army by Lake Champlain, Col. Maclean was ordered to St. Jolbis Wtth & party of militia, but got only as far as St. Denis when he was deserted by his men. Quebec being next threatened by the American army, under Arnold, Col. Maclean inade the best of his way to that city, which he entered on the 12th November, 1775, just in time to prevent the citizens surrendering the place to the Americans. His conduct during the siege is mentioned in the handsomest terms. But after all his zeal, his corps was not yet recognized, though he had at the outset been promised establishment and rank for it. He therefore returned to England, where he arrived on the 1st September, 1776, to seek justice for himself and men. They were not received until the close of 1778, when the regiment, which consisted of two battalions, one in Canada and one in Nova Scotia, was numbered the 84th. In January, 1780, he was appointed Colonel in the Army. The Royal Highland Emigrants were disbanded in 1783 and Colonel Maclean died in 1784. Army Lists; Broun't Highland Clant, IV., 242, 307, 868; Smith't Canada, IL, 83; Garneau't Canada, 2d ed., II., 436; 5. American Annalt, I., 24, 626. — ED. FORM OF ASSOCIATION. We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, do hereby severally and respectively promise and engage, that we will demean ourselves as good and Loyal subjects to His Majesty King George the Third, and peaceably submit to the Laws enacted by the Parliament of Great Brittain, and that we will, at the hazard of our lives & fortunes, oppose all illegal combinations or insurrections whatever, and give our utmost aid in suppressing all such proceedings & practices as are contrary to the Laws of the Land and the authority of the King.—And if His Majesty or those acting under His Royal authority, shall judge it necessary or expedient for us to be assembled and embodied for the purpose of maintaining the peace, order and good Government of the respective provinces in North America, wherein we reside, We, the subscribers, to hereby bind and oblige ourselves, forthwith to assemble and embody accordingly, and to serve on the same terms, and under the same regular discipline and command, as in His Majw'' other Military service & establishments. And moreover, if his Maj", or those acting under his Royal authority, shall deem it requisite for such of us, as are fit for actual service, to be embodied, and to act in conjunction with His Majesty's regular forces, we do hereby bind and oblige ourselves forthwith to assemble and to be embodied accordingly, to obey all the orders of our proper Officers, and commanders respectively, and to continue to serve, in our respective stations, during his Majesty's Royal Will and pleasure. Lieutenant-Governor Golden to the Earl of Dartmouth. [New-Tork Papert (S. P. O.) CLXVII., No. 14.] My Lord New York 4"" April 1775 The General Assembly of this Province being yesterday adjourned, by my directions, to the third day of May, I am now to give your Lordship some account of the Bills which have been past, I have assented to seventy one Bills, and refused two; viz a naturalization Bill, and one for making perpetual a particular Section (the VI) of the Quit Rent Act It has been on this occasion mentiond to me, my Lord, that His Majestys Instruction, prohibiting his Governors from passing a naturalization Bill, opperates very partially to the prejudice of this Cofony surrounded as we are by charter Governments where such Instructions have no effect. Many usefull Foreigners are by this means driven out of this Province where they cannot acquire landed property, and settle in the Charter Governments, where they meet with the greatest encouragement The Bill for making perpetual the sixth Section of the Quit Rent Act, I did not assent to, because I thought it was inadviseable to make any part of that Bill perpetual, while those, which provide for collecting the Quit Rents, are left to expire A Militia Act appeared to me to be very expedient at this Time, to prevent that confusion which the Province might otherwise be thrown into, by the endeavors that some People would certainly make, to establish a militia, by election of the People—This was so strongly represented to me by the friends of Government that I could not doubt of the propriety of passing the Militia Bill, which was one of the number prepared for my Assent. There are only two other Acts on which it is necessary to trouble your Lordship with any remarks the rest being Cheifly to revive other Acts with a few new ones for ordinary & immaterial purposes Upon the Act for the general quiet of His Majestys subjects in this Colony, against all pretence of concealment whatever, I need only to observe to your Lordship, that it is passed with a suspend^ clause, and therefore it is entirely in His Majestys Power to give it effect or not The Act to regulate elections for Representatives in general Assembly for the City and County of Albany is thought necessary to prevent the exhorbitant Influence which the very large Mannors in that County give to the Proprietors or Lords of the Mannors as they are called: There are two Mannors & a Borough, my Lord in that County which each send a Representative to the Assembly, besides the two Members that are return for the City and County. The Freeholders in the Borough & Mannors have had a right to vote in the County, as well as in the Borough or Mannor upon a Freehold which lay [in] the Mannor or Borough only. This Right they have never exercised, but should they at any time do it, they are now become so populous that it is in their power to determine every Election in the County & may in effect return all the five Members In this light the People of the City & County view the privilege claimed by the Mannors, as dangerous to them; and in my opinion it must be very disadvantageous to Government, that any one or two families should be able to return so large a proportion of the Members of our assembly. The present Representatives of the Mannors have distinguished themselves in the opposition to Government, and were the warmest supporters of the Congress. I therefore thought it was a proper time, my Lord, to abridge this privilege, when the Majority both in Council and Assembly were for it. It may not hereafter be in the power of Government, to have it done, when the Effects have taken place An other Act which your Lordship may take notice of, is one for admitting the mode of administering an oath practiced in Scotland to be used by such persons in this Colony as make matter of Conscience of it. There are many sober discreet Inhabitants, who from the prejudices of education, have suffered great uneasiness for want of such an indulgence in this Government. No alteration is made by this Act, but that of holding up the Right hand, in place of kissing the Book. I could not therefore my Lord, discover any thing to induce me to refuse my assent to the Bill, which the Council & Assembly upon mature deliberation thought proper to pass I am with perfect submission My Lord Lieutenant-Governor Colden to the Earl of Dartmouth. [New-York Papers (S. P. O.) CLXVII., No. 15.] New York 5 April 1775 I have received your Ldps commands of the 7th of January N° 26 and your circular letter of the 4,h of the same month. I have the pleasure to inform your Lordship that the conduct of our Assembly, with respect to the congress proposed to be held at Philadelphia in May, is entirely agreeable to His Majestys Sentiments, as expressed in your circular letter. No person has been appointed by them to attend that Congress, and when it was proposed in the House, the motion passed in the Negative by a large Majority. The disaffected party are however exerting their utmost influence to obtain an appointment of Delegates by the people It is not in the power of Government to prevent such measures; they are supported by individuals in their private characters and do not come within the energy of our Laws. Your Lordship may however be assured that a great part of the people are against appointing Delegates to meet the May Congress, and that their disapprobation will be public. I therefore hope His Majesty will look upon the Majority in the Assembly as speaking the sentiments of their constituents When I reflect my Lord upon the event of this Session of Assembly how much the measures pursued have tended to preserve this Government from the dangerous and extravagant Plans which are formed in almost every other Part of the Continent. The moderation, loyalty and affection with which the Assembly have laid their Greivances before His Majesty and Parliament & the hearty disposition they have testified to obtain a permanent reconciliation, I feel a satisfaction which can only be heightened by His Majestys approbation, and the final happy accomplishment of this important business On Monday last I gave my assent to all the Bills which passed the Council and Assembly, except two, and then directed the speaker to adjourn the House to the third day of May. In an other letter I gave your Lordship a particular account of the Bills I now transmitt the printed Journals of the Assembly from which your Ldp will be able to judge of the disposition of the different parties, and I am persuaded you will be convinced that the Majority in the Assembly have acted with a very sincere Inclination to accomplish a permanent reconciliation with great Britain. About a month agoe I received accounts of farther outrageous and most illegal proceedings of the Benington Rioters, of which your Ldp has already heard so much. Their Acts grow from time to time more daring and dangerous. They have now had the hardiness to seize a justice of the Peace, to try him before a mock Tribunal of their own, formally to pass sentence upon him, and after inflicting a punishment of 200 Lashes on him, to banish him from that part of the Country which they call their own Indeed the authority of Government is entirely lost among them, and I am afraid can not be restored but by Force. They began with pretending only to hold possession of the Lands on which they had settled, but your Ldp. may be assured they have extended their Designs much farther, and are dayly growing more and more formidable and dangerous to Government. 1 have lately received accounts likewise, my Lord, of a dangerous Insurrection in Cumberland County of this Province which is connected with Massachusetts Bay on one side and New Hampshire on the other. A number of People in Cumberland, worked up by the example |