(N.)

Extracts from a "Letter from Gov of Connecticut to Inhabitants of Rye with account of the Connecticut west bounds as settled by Comm'.

Loveing friends

Fayrefield December 3 1683.

We had purposed in our passage to Yorke to have called upon you but the badness of the weather and taking our passage by water we mist the opportunity of seeing you in our going theither and in our return. and therefore we take this first opportunity to acquaint you that altho' we were loath to have parted with you and would have been glad to have continued you in this Goverment yet the providence of God hath so disposed That by our agreement with Govern' Dongan we were forced to part with you and could not help it * * by the agreement with the Governor Dongan the west bounds of our Colony is now Byram River and it runns as the river till it comes to the road and from thence it runns North North west till it hath run eight miles from the East point of said Byrams River Gentlemen we do request you to be satisfied and content with this change and to carry it suitably to the Government under which you are now stated and apply yourselves to the Honorable Governor who is a noble Gent" and will do what you shall desire in a regular Manner to promote your welfare which with best respects is all the needful from yo' assured friends,

(0.)

REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS AND SURVEYORS 1684.

By virtue and in pursuance of a commission bearing date the Twenty sixth day of September 1684 from the Right Honorable Coll Thomas Dongan Governour General of all his Royal Highresse's territories in America &c.

We underwritten did upon the first Wednesday of this instant October meet at Stanford Major Nathaniel Gold Capt Jonathan Selleck, Ensign Daniel Sheerman and Mr. John Herriman Surv Commissionated by a General Court held at Hartford as by the commissions produced bearing date May the 8th 1684 doth more fully appear, we went to Lyon's point on the east side of Byram river and from the mouth of the said river where it falls into the sea we measured up the said river and found it to be one mile and a halfe and twenty rods bearing north halfe Easterly and so came to a great stone at the wading place where the road cuts the said river thence directed our course north north west six C. R. miles and an halfe and there marked three white oak trees as in the margint then directed our course west and by north seven miles and one hundred and twenty rods which brought us to the northernmost end of a reach of Hudsons river which bears we judge south and by west one quarter westerly and north and by east one quarter easterly which above said line falls upon the said Reach about three miles above Frederick Philipse's upper mills over against Tapan and the said river bearing north as to its general course upwards we concluded the above mentioned west and by north line to be the shortest from said three marked trees to Hudsons river and having unanimously concluded that part of the Sound from Lyon's point easterly to bear East north East we did from said trees at eight miles distance run a parallel to the sound viz east north east twelve miles and still continued said twelve mile line east north east one mile and sixty four rod which then gave us twenty miles from Hudsons river and is eight miles north north west from the sound.

Then finding the oblong of twelve miles east north east and eight miles north north west did diminish sixty one thousand four hundred and forty acres from the twenty miles of Hudsons river we added to the above said twenty miles on the east north east line three hundred and five rods more to run at the additional breadth parallel to Hudsons river till it meet with the Massachusetts line which we deemed one hundred miles distant from our eight mile line, which several courses with their distances together with three hundred and five rods added do clearly appear in the plots by the Surveyors drawn and hereto annexed which addition of three hundred and five rods we refer for its confirmation and ratification to the two Governments from whom we are employed, and that the above written is a true report of our proceedings We have this tenth day of October in the year above written subscribed our names.

JOHN YOUNGS
JOHN BELL
PHILLIP WELLS

ROBERT VERKLAIN

NATHAN GOLD

Commissioners for New York.

JOHATHAN SELLICK

DANIEL SHEERMAN

JOHN HERRIMAN

Comr's for Connecticut.

(P.)

Report of a joint committee of the council and assembly of New York upon the act of Conn. passed May 9, 1723.

At a Council held at Fort George in New York August 15th 1723. Present

His Excellency William Burnet Esq' &c.

Cap'. Walter

Colo' Beekman

Mr Van Dam

Mr Barberie

Doctor Colden

M' Alexander

M' Abraham Vanhorn
Mr Wm Provoost

His Excellency laid before this Board the Report of yo Committe of Council and the Committe of the General Assembly directed to make their Observations upon An Act of the Colony of Connecticutt past in their Assembly the Ninth day of May last for Compleating and perfecting the Line of Division between that Colony and the province of New York which being read was approved of by this Board and follows in these words.

THE Committe of the Council and the Committe of the General Assembly (appointed to joyne the said Committe of the Council during the Adjournment of that House) being severally directed to make their Observations upon An Act of the Colony of Connecicutt past in their Assembly the Ninth day of May in this present year, One Thousand Seven hundred and Twenty three Entituled An Act for Compleating and perfecting of the Line of Division between this his Majestys Colony of Connecticutt and the Province of New York which was begun and in part fixed and Established in the year 1683, and 1684, the Remaining part of which Line (Notwithstanding many Endeavours to have it Run and Monements therein Erected in Conjunction with the said Province have been since used and Acts passed by the Assembly of this Colony, and by Vertue thereof Commissioners sent to Attend that Service with such Commissioners as should be appointed by the Government of that Province for the same service) Continuing yet to be surveyed and fixed by Monuments to be Erected therein Doe humbly Report that they have duly and

Impartially Examined and Considered the same and that for their better Judjment therein they have also Examined and Considered not only the Agreement mentioned in the same Act but likewise the proceedings and Transactions which have happened upon that head ever since as well on the part of that Colony as on the part of this Province.

The Committe being unwilling to swell their Report to a greater Length than is Necessecary to put the state of that Case in a true light will wave observing upon the Title of the said Act as well as any other matters that are not Essentiall to the point in Question.

We shall therefore proceed to Observe upon the act itself in the same order it appears before us under the Seal of that Colony beginning with the preamble wherein it is said "that the Line of Division between this his Majestys Colony of Connecticutt and the province of New York was in the year Sixteen hundred Eighty three by Agreement between the, Governments of this Colony and the said province of New York removed from the place where it was Antiently Esteemed and known to be, and Determined to be and for ever to Remain in another certain place Beginning at the Mouth of a River famously known by the name of Byram River by which Alteration Several Towns Erected by and belonging to the said Colony were added to and became part of the said province of New York."

By which (as we suppose) they would have the World believe, that they had for peace and Quiet or affection given up to the province of New York part of their Antient and well known right of Connecticutt, and that they were sufferers in their right and property by the said agreement, but how properly can the Bounds of the Colony be said to be Antiently Esteemed and known to be at any place, when all the Right or property which that Colony had within Sixteen Miles of that place was only by Encroachments and Encroachments with a Witness.

This province Extends only Twenty Miles in Breadth Eastward from Hudsons River and they would take only Sixteen of them from us, which Encroachments were far from Antient when the Agreement in Sixteen hundred Eighty three was made, for the first setling of that part of the Country was within the Memory of the Inhabitants then Living and these Encroachments were Acknowledged by the Commissioners of that Colony as appears by the following clause in the said Agreement-" only it is Pro