Mathew Pratt. Pinxt.

P. Purdon Graham. Sc.

LIEUT. GOV. CADWALLADER COLDEN.

From the Portrait in possession of the Chamber of Commerce, N. Y

CHARTER.50

EORGE THE THIRD, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and so forth-To all to whom

these presents shall come, Greeting:

WHEREAS, a great Number of Merchants in our City of New York, in America, have, by voluntary Agreement, associated themselves for the laudable Purposes of promoting the Trade and Commerce of our said Province; and Whereas, John Cruger, Esq., the present President of the said Society, by his humble Petition presented in Behalf of the said Society, to our Trusty and well-beloved CADWALLADER COLDEN, Esq., our Lieutenant Governor and Commander-in-Chief of our said Province of New York, and the Territories depending thereon in America, and read in our Council for our said Province, on the Twenty-eighth Day of February, last past, hath represented to our said Lieutenant Governor, That the said Society (sensible that numberless inestimable Benefits have accrued to Mankind from Commerce; that they are, in proportion to their greater or lesser Application to it, more or less Opulent and Potent in all Countries; and that the Enlargement of Trade will vastly increase the Value of Real Estates, as well as the general Opulence of our said Colony) have associated together for some time past, in order to carry into Execution among themselves, and by their Example to promote in others, such Measures as were beneficial to those salutary Purposes; AND that the said Society having, with great Pleasure and Satisfaction, Experienced the good Effects which the few Regulations already adopted, had produced, were very desirous of rendering them more extensively useful and permanent, and more adequate to the Purposes of so benevolent an Institution; AND therefore the Petitioner, in behalf of the said Society, most humbly prayed our said. Lieutenant Governor to Incorporate them a Body Politick, and to Invest them with such Powers and Authorities as might be thought most conducive to answer and promote the Commercial and conse

quently the Landed Interest of our said growing Colony; WHICH PETITION being read as aforesaid, was then and there referred to a Committee of our said Council, and afterwards on the same Day, our said Council, in pursuance of the Report of the said Committee, did humbly advise and consent, that our said Lieutenant Governor, by our Letters Patent, should constitute and appoint the Petitioner, and the Present Members of the said Society, a Body Corporate and Politick, by the Name of "THE CORPORATION OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, IN AMERICA," agreeable to the Prayer of the said Petition: Therefore, We being willing to further the said laudable Designs of our said loving Subjects, and to give Stability to an Institution from whence great advantages may arise, as well to our Kingdom of Great Britain as to our said Province,

KNOW YE, That of our Especial Grace, certain Knowledge and mere Motion, We have Willed, Ordained, Given, Granted, Constituted, and Appointed, And by these Presents for Us, our Heirs and Successors, DO Will, Ordain, Give, Grant, Constitute, and Appoint, that the present Members of the said Society, Associated for the Purposes aforesaid, That is to say, John Cruger, Elias Desbrosses, James Jauncey, Jacob Walton, Robert Murray, Hugh Wallace, George Folliot, Wm. Walton, John Alsop, Henry White, Philip Livingston, Samuel Verplank, Theophylact Bache, Thomas White, Miles Sherbrooke, Walter Franklin, Robert Ross Waddell, Acheson Thompson, Lawrence Kortwright, Thomas Randal, William McAdam, Isaac Low, Anthony Van Dam, Robert Watts, John Harris Cruger, Gerard Walton, Isaac Sears, Jacobus Van Zandt, Charles M'Evers, John Moore, Lewis Pintard, Levinus Clarkson, Nicholas Gouverneur, Richard Yates, Thomas Marston, Peter Hassencliver, Alexander Wallace, Gabriel H. Ludlow, Thomas Buchannan, Wm. Neilson, Sampson Simson, Peter Ketletas, Gerard W. Beekman, Jacob Watson, Richard Sharpe, Peter Remsen, Henry Remsen, junior, William Seton, Edw. Laight, John Reade, Robert Alexander, Thomas W. Moore, Abraham Lynsen, Isaac Roosevelt, Nicholas Hoffman, Hamilton Young, Thomas Walton, John Thurman, John Weatherhead, Garret Rapelje, Gerrard Duyckink, William Stepple, William Imlay, Augustus Van Horne, Henry C. Bogart, George W. Ludlow, Joseph Bull, Leonard Lispenard, Thomas Miller, James Beekman, Samuel Kemble, Alexander McDonald, and Samuel Bayard, junior, all of our City of New York, in our said Province of New York, Merchants, and their Suc

cessors to be Elected by Virtue of this our present Charter, shall for ever hereafter be one Body Corporate and Politick in Deed, Fact, and Name, by the Name, Style, and Title of "THE CORPORATION OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK, IN AMERICA," and them and their Successors by the same Name, We do by these Presents really and fully Make, Erect, Create, Constitute and Declare One Body Politick and Corporate in Deed, Fact, and Name for ever; And Will, Give, Grant, and Ordain, that they and their Successors, The Corporation of the Chamber of Commerce in the City of New York, in America, by the same Name, shall and may have perpetual Succession, and shall and may by the same Name, be Persons capable in the Law to Sue and be Sued, Implead and be Impleaded, Answer and be Answered, Defend and be Defended, in all Courts and elsewhere, in all Manner of Actions, Suits, Complaints, Pleas, Causes, Matters, and Demands whatsoever, as fully and amply as any other our Liege Subjects of our said Province of New York may or can sue or be sued, implead or be impleaded, defend or be defended, by any lawful Ways or Means whatsoever; And that they and their Successors by the same Name, shall be for ever hereafter Persons Capable and Able in the Law to purchase, take, receive, hold, and enjoy, to them and their Successors, any Messuages, Tenements, Houses, and Real Estates whatsoever, and all other Hereditaments of whatsoever Nature, Kind and Quality they be, in Fee simple, for Term of Life or Lives, or in any other manner howsoever, and also any Goods, Chattels, or Personal Estate whatsoever, as well for enabling them the better to carry into Execution, encourage and promote by just and lawful Ways and Means, such Measures as will tend to promote and extend just and lawful Commerce, as to provide for, aid, and Assist, at their Discretion, such Members of our said Corporation as may be hereafter reduced to Poverty, and their Widows and Children: PROVIDED ALWAYS, the clear Yearly Value of the said Real Estate doth not at any Time exceed the Sum of Three Thousand Pounds Sterling, lawful Money of our Kingdom of Great Britain. And that our said Corporation. of the Chamber of Commerce in the City of New York, in America, and their Successors for ever, by the same Name, shall and may have full Power and Authority to Give, Grant, Sell, Lease, Demise and Dispose of the same Real Estate and Hereditaments whatsoever, for Life or Lives, or Years, or for ever; and all Goods, Chattels, and personal Estates whatsoever, at their Will and Pleasure, according as