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were receiveable at the rate of one silver dollar for every bushel of wheat expressed therein.

Most of these certificates and bills had not been issued, at the date of the act, over four years, and the commissioners of forfeitures were directed not to receive in the aggregate ́over five millions of dollars in these bills and certificates for lands sold by them under the act. A large nominal sum of public debt was by this process extinguished with a small amount of actual cash, or its equivalent. This was a heavy depreciation of public securities, and was severely felt by the people, who were compelled to take them from the government. The purchasers of the public domain, however, were in no respect losers by the operation. Having purchased these securities at the current specie market price, or at the sum fixed by the continental scale of depreciation, they exchanged them in most instances for some of the best lands in the state, at a price per acre a little more than nominal, and thus accumulated large fortunes, which have been or soon will be wasted by their posterity. These purchasers hazarded nothing; the state warranted the title against all claims, and assumed to pay the debts of any person owning the forfeited estate which existed prior to 9th of July, 1776, and were due to an inhabitant of this state on that day, who had not been attainted or convicted of adhering to the public enemy during the war.

The commissioners of forfeitures of the western district of the state, sold and deeded between September, 1784 and September, 1788, ninety-three lots in the 1st allotment of the royal grant; ninety-one in the second allotment; one hundred and thirty in the 3d allotment; and one hundred and thirty-seven in the fourth allotment.

This proceeding on the part of the state was founded on the attainder of Sir John Johnson, by the act of 1779.

The map made by Lawrence Vrooman, in 1797, shows that Sir William gave by his will to six of his natural children by Molly Brant or Brandt, fifteen thousand acres of this grant, as follows: To Margaret, 2000 acres; George, 3000;

Mary, 2000; Susan, 3000; Ann, 3000; Brandt, 1000; and to William, 1000 acres. The portion of this tract thus devised adjoins the East Canada creek, and is in the present towns of Manheim and Salisbury.

The lots as numbered on the map are, 166 in the 1st allotment; 102 in the second; 136 in the third; and 143 in the fourth. These are the highest numbers, but in several instances intervening numbers below are not found.

A specific half of eighteen lots in Jerseyfield patent, was also sold and deeded by the commissioners of forfeitures, within the periods above mentioned. The original patentees of this large tract were mostly of the Dutch extraction, not German, and residents in Albany, Schenectady and the lower Mohawk valley. None of these names appear in the attainder act of 1779. Some party known to be obnoxious to the penalties of the act, must have been proceeded against by indictment for treason against the state, and the lands declared forfeited on inquisition found. The whole of five lots and a specified half of four others in Livingston's patent was also sold and conveyed by the commissioners. Peter Du Bois, who was attainted by the act of October 22d, 1779, was one of the patentees of this grant, and the sales probably covered his interest, or what remained of it, in the whole patent.

One lot, No. 52, Bayard's patent, was also sold by the commissioners, under the attainder of some of the patentees.

A part of Glen's purchase seems to have been owned by some one obnoxious to the law attainder. James De Lancey was one of the three joint patentees of several lots in this purchase. He was attainted by the act of 1779. Six small lots in that tract were sold and deeded for £1095, New York currency, on the 27th August, 1788, to replenish an exhausted treasury. James Caldwell purchased five of the lots and Michael Myers one of them. Johan Jurgh Kast's little patent of eleven hundred acres in Schuyler, contributed five hundred dollars to pay war expenses. One lot in that patent seems to have been sold to make compensation for treason

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The county covers an area of 1570 square mes, or 001," 000 acres, and is bounded on the north by the county of St Lawrence, on the east by the counties of Hamilton, Fulton and Montgomery, on the south by the county of Otsego, and

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ttle patent of eleven hundred acres in Schuyler, contributed five hundred dollars to pay war expenses. One lot in that patent seems to have been sold to make compensation for treason

against the state. Surely none of the descendants of that sturdy old Palatine could have been recreant to his country and a traitor to humanity.

Two of the Bayards, grantees in the patent of that name, were attainted by the act of 1779, and if they had not then disposed of their interest, the commissioners of forfeitures no doubt gave their attention to a subject of so much importance, and a portion of that patent is held under a title from them.

Diligent search and examination has been made in the proper quarter to find some evidence of grants under the authority of the state, of the John Joost Herkermer's property, but without success.

Some part of the Herkimer property came into the hands of Alexander Ellice, soon after the revolution. The precise time has not been ascertained by the writer, nor has he been able to lay his hand upon any papers showing the title to have come from the state. This, however, must be so, for Mr. Ellice, being a British subject, would not have been allowed to hold forfeited lands except by a grant from the state.

In respect to that part of the royal grant, devised by Sir William to his Indian children, the sale by the commissioners could not be sustained, and consequently was abandoned in regard to some of them, who had not committed any overt act of treason or offense against the statute. One of these children, however, did bear arms against the colonies, and may have been proceeded against under the attainder act, by indictment. The present titles of a portion of the grant are therefore derived from Sir William's will, through his Indian children, but all the remainder, which passed to Sir John Johnson, as heir at law, is held under the state by virtue of his attainder.

The county covers an area of 1370 square miles, or 887,000 acres, and is bounded on the north by the county of St Lawrence, on the east by the counties of Hamilton, Fultor and Montgomery, on the south by the county of Otsego, and

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