LIST of Townships formerly granted by New Hampshire for which applications have been made by petitions to the Government of New York praying Confirmations of the Said Townships under the Seal of the Province of New York and which petitions were on the 15th Day of June 1772 advised to be granted whenever his Majesty's Instructions will permit Grants to be made of said Townships

ORDER RESPECTING THE SUFFERERS BY THE BENNINGTON RIOTERS.

In Council June 25th 1772.

A memorial of Benjamin Spencer, Jacob Marsh, Ebenezer Cole, Bliss Willoughby and Jacob Pringle, in behalf of themselves and other freeholders and Inhabitants of the Counties of Albany and Charlotte, was laid before the Board and Read, setting forth the distresses of the People in that part of the Country, arising from the Riotous proceedings of the Inhabitants of Bennington and of that vicinity: And praying his Excellency would take into Consideration their distressed situation, and grant them all that Relief and Countenance and Protection, which their present Circumstances require, and which as faithful and obedient Subjects they have just reason to expect from the Wisdom and Justice of Government.

Ordered that the Consideration of the said Petition be deferd until the next meeting of the Board.

REPORT OF COUNCIL ON THE DISORDERS AT BENNINGTON. In Council June 1st 1772.

Mr Smith from the Committee to whom by order of the 29th of June last, were referred the Letter of 19th of June last, from the Inhabitants of Bennington and that Vicinity, and the several

papers mentioned in the said Order relative to the Disorders and Disturbances at Bennington and the Towns adjacent thereto presented to his Excellency the Report of the said Committee thereupon, which being read was on the question being put agreed and approved of, and Stephen Fay and Jonas Fay with the other persons who attended at the Board on the 29th of June were called in and the Report Read in their presence, and they being withdrawn.

It is ordered that the said Report be entered in the Minutes, and the Council humbly advised his Excellency to deliver to the parties an extract of so much of the said Report, as relates to the Conditions to be observed by the parties on both sides: Which Report is in the words following

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY.

Among the Papers referr'd by your Excellency to this Committee for their Report, is an answer to your Excellency's Letter of the 19th May last, calling on the Inhabitants of Bennington and the Towns Adjacent, for the Reasons of their late illegal and unjustifiable conduct in dispossessing by Force and Violence the Setlers who had quietly and Peaceably seated themselves under the Grants of this Province.

In this answer which is dated the 19th of June Instant,1 it is urged in Behalf of those Towns, that they hold the Lands they possess by virtue of Grants made by the Province of New Hampshire-That they deem'd the soil to be within the Jurisdiction of that Government until the year 1764, when his Majesty was pleased to declare the Western Banks of Connecticut River to be the Boundary between his two Colonies of New York and New Hampshire. That the Property in the soil was not altered, but the Jurisdiction only established by the said Order-That since the said Order sundry Grants have been made by this Government on the Lands granted to the Claimants under New Hampshire, which they conceive to be contrary to the Prohibition contained in his Majesty's Instructions to his Governor of this Province-That the proprietors of such Grants had brought repeated ejectments to dispossess the Settlers under New Hamp1 For this letter see Slade's Vermont State papers, p. 23. where it is dated 5th June ED.

shire, whose proofs on Trials of their Titles, Tho' taken from authentic Records, were rejected, and sufficient Time refused to be allowed for collecting Evidence to support their Cause, contrary as they think to the Laws and usages of this Province, That many persons have been groundlessly accused and indicted as Rioters and thereby greatly harassed and distress'd by Imprisonment, unreasonable Costs and long and unnecessary attendance, particularly one Man, who had attended eight Courts successively without being discharged from his Bonds--And that as the Matter in Contest is now before his Majesty in his privy Council, they earnestly pray your Excellency to quiet them in their Possessions until his Majesty shall be graciously pleased to determine the Controversy.

Could we think it necessary to enter on a Refutation of Facts unsupported by Proof, and grounded merely on the suggestion of the parties accused, the committee must unavoidably suspend their Inquiry as to what relates to the Prosecutions and Ejectments in Question until the Return of the Judges, the Attorney General, the Clerk of the Crown, and the Gentlemen of the Bar, now absent on the Northern Circuit, from whom the proper Information as to these Matters can only be obtained; and we beg leave to refer your Excellency for such Information to the Judges and officers of the several Courts.

His Majesty's Order declaring the Limits of the two Provinces, is dated the 20th July 1764, and on its arrival which was not until about the 10th April 1765, was communicated by the Governor to the Council, and a Proclamation issued on that Day notifying the same throughout the Province-In Consequence whereof numerous applications were made principally by reduced officers, and some by his Majesty's subjects of this Province for Lands on the East side of IIudson's River; and that no Setler under New Hampshire might be dispossessed by Grants in that Quarter, this Government thought fit by Order so early as the 224 of May 1760, to direct that the Surveyor General should make no Return on any Warrant of Survey then, or which might thereafter come to his Hands, of any Lands possessed under the Grant of New Hampshire, unless for the persons in actual Possession thereof.

Several of the New Hampshire Grantees availing themselves of this Order, applied for and obtained Grants of the Farms they had setled and improved, while others confiding in the Validity of their New Hampshire Titles, rejected the Offer with Contempt, as appears by one of the Depositions referred to us, wherein it was declared that Samuel Robinson in the Fall of the Year 1765, made application in Behalf of himself and the other Inhabitants of Bennington for a confirmation of that Township, but this part of the said Township being included within the Patent of Wallumschack, prior in Date to any Grant of New Hampshire Westward of Connecticut River, Lieutenant Governor Colden told Robinson other Lands should be granted as a Compensation for what they might loose by that Patent, which he declined; and that the Inhabitants of Bennington soon after came to a resolution to prevent any survey of their Township, and to support their Possessions by Force even against any Judgment at Law.

As a farther Manifestation of the favourable Intentions of this Government towards the Grantees of New Hampshire, an Order was made by the Governor in Council the 6th June 1766, reciting that the Board having under Consideration sundry petitions for Lands lying on the West side of Connecticut River, which were formerly granted by Letters Patent under the Seal of the Province of New Hampshire, but which were then actually, and did by his Majesty's said Order of the 20th July 1764 appear to lie within the Limits of this Province, calling upon all Persons holding or claiming Lands under such Grants, to appear by themselves or their Attornies and produce the same, together with all Deeds Conveyances or other Instruments by which they derived any Claim to the said Lands, and declaring that the Claims of such as should not appear and support the same within the space of three Months, should be rejected: which order was notified by its Insertion three weeks successively, in one of the public News Papers printed in this Colony. The Grants of New York which comprehend any part of the Lands of Bennington, are the Wallumschack Patent dated in 1739, the patent of Schneyder dated the 24th March 1762, and the patent of Michael Schallata a reduced Staff Officer dated

the 30th May 1765, all prior to the application made in behalf of the Bennington proprietors. The last of these is subsequent but a few Days to the order of the 22 May 1765, in favor of the New Hampshire settlers, but the survey of that Tract must have been prior to that order, and if it is true as now alledged, that there were several settlers within the Limits of that Grant at the Time issued we doubt not this Fact was then unknown to Government; For whenever such settlements were discovered it has been usual to reserve the Land to be granted to the Possessors, who in many Instances refused to permit their Farms to be surveyed, and have hitherto declined taking their Grants, which nevertheless remain to be issued when applied for, of which there is a notorious Instance in the case of Remember Baker, who has nevertheless distinguished himself as a Leader in the late violent opposition to the government of this Colony.

The Earliest Instruction restraining the Governor of this province from making Grants of Lands patented by New Hamp shire, bears date the 24th July 1767, and the Grants which principally affect the Claimants whose Case is now under our Consideration, were made prior to the date of that Instruction, and except the abovementioned Patent to Schneyder, and the Grant of Prince Town, which is dated the 21st of May 1765 (antecedent to the order in Favour of the actual occupants under New Hampshire) are almost wholly confined to Officers and Soldiers intituled to his Majesty's Bounty, by virtue of the Royal Proclamation of the 7th of October 1763.

To prevent the people of New Hampshire from extending their Settlements Westward of Connecticut River, a Proclamamation was issued the 28th of July 1753, when few if any had seated themselves there under that Government. In 1763 when the first Information was received of the numerous Grants made by New Hampshire and that no one might plead Ignorance of the Claim of this Province, a like Cautionary Proclamation was published on the 28th of December that year, at which Time the Number of Settlers on the contested Lands was inconsiderable.

His Majesty's Order being declarative of the ancient Boundary of this Province, the Courts of Justice can as we conceive shew