arpens square in superfices reserved by the original proprietor to himself as an Inalienable Domain, which is separated from the lands conceded to divers Censitaries (Tenants) by a marsh formed by a stream that empties there. This front extends thence four leagues* on a direct line drawn towards the North at each extremity of which ought to be run two perpendiculars of a length sufficient to give the totality of the Seigniory five leagues in depth. Moreover it must be observed that in my quality of first Grantee in that quarter, I must be satisfied according to my titles before any other presenting his claims can claim the smallest trifle.

As to the validity of my titles at the time of the Reduction of the country, let but a single glance be directed to these two Seigniories; the frequent clearances to be seen there which cannot have yet disappeared; the various settlements the wrecks of which at least cannot have been swept away by the misfortunes inseparable from a period of War; these will prove incontestably that nothing can oppose their entire effect. Nothing, then, remains but to detail my proceedings in regard to them. Shortly after my arrival in London, in June, 1763, after having presented myself to the Secretary of State for the department, to the Lords and others to whom I was recommended, I was told that the Provinces were making great exertions to deprive us, if they could, of our properties on Lake Champlain and neighborhood, and that the Ministry much importuned by them appeared to be undecided. I explained; they endeavored to reassure me but not with that positive answer I should desire. Not wishing to expose myself to any difficulty with any one, I decided to wait patiently. Meanwhile, the Earl of Shelburne, the President of the Board of Trade and Plantations, offered to present me to the King. I observed to him that in my quality as immediate Vassal of the King for all the Fiefs which I held, depending from His Majesty, it appeared to me that I ought to begin by rendering him my Fealty & Homage and I prayed him to have me received at He replied, that could not be as yet, some previous arrangement being necessary. I since offered myself; I was always put off under the same pretext.

once.

At the moment so to speak, when his Lordship was promising me entire satisfaction regarding the object of my sojourn, he suddenly resigned and was succeeded by My lord Hills-borough. I renewed all my original proceedings with the new President who appeared to listen to me with complaisance and feel perfectly the Equity of my case but would decide nothing, doubtless until he saw every thing established elsewhere in a perfect equilibrium. Being advised not to content myself with talking but to hand in a Memorial which could fix the attention of the Office on the subject of my demand, I presented, in March 1764 the one below, (Letter A.) Every day I visited all the Lords of this office who individually gave me to hope a prompt conclusion but who when assembled decided nothing. Finally, seeing each of them prepared to retire to the country, I represented with all the force I was master of to Milord the Earl of Hills-borough the injustice I had already sustained by so long a sojourn, and if he left London without my being informed of my lot, I was irremediably ruined not only by the heavy loans I was obliged to contract, but by perceiving myself arrested in all my affairs which it was moreover of the last importance to me to prosecute. He then told me, for the first time, that he had over three months ago addressed several questions to the King's Attorney General, without the decision of which nothing could be determined for me. I requested that he would allow me to use his name to urge an answer, and he permitted me. I forthwith prepared the Memorial to be seen below, (under Letter B.) which I presented next morning to the said Attorney General, and in the evening I addressed him the note copy of which is under Letter C. I was informed ten or twelve days after, that his answer had reached the Bureau. On the first day of July I was sent for to the office when Milord the Earl of Hills-borough informed me, in presence of all the Lords assembled and on their part: "That I might return home as soon as I pleased without entertaining the least uneasiness regarding my two Seigniories beyond the limits of the Government of

* Note in orig.—The league of Canada is 84 arpens: the arpent, 30 toises; the toise 6 feet royal of Paris.

Quebec. By means of the orders they should transmit to the Governour of New York to which Province His Majesty had been pleased quite recently to annex those parts not settled by His Proclamation of the 7th October last, they should instruct him not to concede any land either in my Seigniories or their vicinity, until their situation was perfectly understood; that I may be assured that in whatever part of the King's obedience any of my property may be situate, I should possess and enjoy them equally as those included within the limits of the Government of Quebec"-and terminated with the most gracious compliments for Mde. de Lotbiniere and the rest of my family. These orders have been addressed and arrived at the time in the Province: The letter which Lieutenant Governour Cadwallader Colden did me the honour to write me on the 11th of September 1765, proves it beyond dispute.

Since my arrival in this Country I have done every thing in my power, as well with the said Sieur Colden as with Sir Henry Moore, to whom I presented on Lake Champlain my original titles. I constantly endeavored to interest in my behalf all those with whom I was acquainted, residents of the said Province, who have been so good as to act, from time to time, near the said Government. I experienced the same attention here and in London, since my departure, so that it is impossible to conceive in me any, even the smallest, neglect as regards these two Seigniories, which at present are the sole certain portion of my existence, abridged in all the rest by a forced prosecution of my proceedings in their regard, and unable to enjoy them since the peace. MONTREAL, the 20th September, One thousand seven hundred and seventy one.

(A.)

MEMOIR OF TWO SEIGNIORIES AT THE HEAD OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN.

To the Right Honble the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, the following Memorial of Michael Chartier de Lotbiniere &c.

Sheweth, That he is proprietor of two Fiefs and Seigniories which are held from the King; the one under the name of Alainville four leagues and over in front, partly on Lake St Sacrement, (now lake George) and partly on the River St Frederic (Crown point River) with a depth of five leagues towards the West which was granted to him the 15th November 1758 by the Marquis of Vaudreuil the then Governor General in Canada, (copy of said Concession annexed) on which he had made divers establishments that have been successively ruined by the English armies.

The other of a nearly equal front opposite St Frederic (Crown point) extending northwardly along the River and Lake by a depth five leagues East, which he acquired 7 April last from Sieur Hocquart Councillor of State and Intendant of the Naval forces at Brest to whom the aforesaid was granted by two Patents of Concession the 20 April 1743, and 1 April 1745, of which the major part of the settlements have been, in like manner, destroyed in the last war.1

The Memorialist being assured that the said two Fiefs are not included within the new Government of Quebec formed from a part of Canada, and not being unable to discover from the Kings Proclamation of the 7th October last, which establishes the boundaries of said New Government,

1 The first of these Seigniories was in the present County of Essex, N. Y.; the other, on the opposite side of Lake Champlain, embraced the present towns of Panton, Addison and Bridport, in Addison Co., Vt., and will be found laid down in the English Map of Lake Champlain annexed.

nor elsewhere, to what other part the two Seigniories in question, at present belong, he prays your Lordships to instruct the government to which they are at present annexed, to have him acknowledged there as Proprietor of said Estates; to cause him to enjoy the same without delay, in the same manner that he or his predecessors have or ought to enjoy them, in order that he may be in a position to replace the inhabitants there who were already located there; that he may as soon as possible make there the settlements he proposes and improve said Seigniories in the most useful manner, and according as he may judge most proper. LONDON, 6 May, 1764.

(B.)

To Sir Fletcher Norton, King's Attorney General.

The affair in question at present which alone detains me here over a year in consequence of difficulties which I perceived to arise on my arrival in this country that I could not even suspect before; by which the Attorney General is at this moment interrupted, is already decided in a very clear manner both by the general Capitulation granted to Canada on the 8th September, 1760, and by the Treaty of Peace which followed it.

The first formally states that all those who have property in that Country shall be maintained as heretofore in the possession of such property as well as of their rights, privileges and prerogatives. The Treaty of Peace since concluded confirms in regard to the King's New Subjects in that quarter what had been granted by the Capitulation, and permits all others, within the space of eighteen months from the day of the Ratification of the Treaty, freely to sell what they possess in the said Country. The question then resolves itself, as far as I am concerned, to enquiring, If I am to be considered a subject of the King and if in that capacity, I am to possess what already belonged to me and what I have since acquired.

Without requiring to enumerate the proofs I have given of a special attachment to my new Country, the sole fact of having acquired new possessions in that Country ceded to the Crown of Great Britain, instead of endeavoring to sell those I already had there, manifests the dispositions I entertained to attach myself and mine forever to it, and consequently I cannot but be comprehended under the denomination of Kings Subjects granted to those of Canada by the Treaty.

After having spent eleven consecutive months in fruitless expenses and proceedings I finally succeeded in appearing four weeks ago before a meeting of the Lords Commissioners of Plantations, when Milord Hillsborough, President of that department, put divers questions and objections to me. That on which he appeared to me most to dwell was that the two Seigniories in question being situated on Lake Champlain, to which His Britannic Majesty had formed pretensions, he did not consider that the Title I derived from His Most Christian Majesty ought to insure me their property. My answer was, that without seeking to discover whether these pretensions were founded or not (a question which it did not become me to agitate,) I presumed to assure him, at least, that they were recent, much more so than the titles which Insured me the property of these estates; that, moreover, I did not imagine that His Most Christian Majesty, who has had uninterrupted possession of the Country up to the moment of the conquest in 1759, ought at any time allow himself to be stopped by a single pretension, in the desire he had to grant a part of it, as long as it was in his power, to those of his subjects whom he desired to reward. In fine, supposing everything in the position pre

dicated, 'twas certain that I was possessor of these Estates in good faith; that they cost me much money and trouble; that no individual could come forward of right, to question my property in them; that the King alone opposes to me pretensions which can tend only to establish his right of Sovereignty over that portion before the entire cession of the Country, and not to despoil one of His subjects in whose favour every thing speaks at this moment, and to whom justice cannot be refused. If this chapter of pretensions is examined in its entire breadth where will it not lead to? And if the argument that is derived from it be considered invincible, who can assure himself of an inch of land in any country whatsoever as soon as it is conquered? And if treaties which assure the subject the property of his Estates, cannot serve as a barrier, on what is he to stand, and what hereafter is to be done to preserve them.

The Attorney General, who perceives all the consequences of such a principle; who feels how essential and just it is to preserve to every one his right, is requested to give the Lords Commissioners of Plantations to understand that however laudable may be their zeal for the maintainance of the rights of the Crown, it is carried too far when it unnecessarily tends to the ruin of a private Individual. However, if they consider for reasons they doubtless foresee, that His Majesty cannot depart from the original pretensions He has formed to the country, and that my Titles received may affect them, I am too much attached to His Majesty's Interests to object to any new Titles He shall please to grant me Gratis for the whole of the same objects, and which reintegrate me in all my rights. I would supplicate him merely to observe my present situation which does not admit of my remaining any longer in London, and to order that I be despatched with the greatest possible promptness. This 15th June 1764.

GRANT IN FAVOUR OF M. HOCQUART OF A TRACT OF LAND ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN, 1743.

THIS DAY, twentieth of April One thousand seven hundred and forty three, the King being at Versailles, desirous to treat Sieur Hocquart Intendant of New France graciously and to bestow on him a mark of the satisfaction he entertains of his services, His Majesty has granted to him by tenure of Fief and Seigniory, a tract about one league in front by five leagues in depth, situate in the said Colony on Lake Champlain opposite Fort St. Frederic, bounded on the West by said Lake, east by unconceded lands, North by a line drawn East and West, and South by a line parallel to this, which two lines form the division of lands to be conceded at a quit rent (en censives) in His Majesty's name & for His profit, for the perpetual enjoyment by the said Sieur Hocquart his heirs & assigns of said Tract by tenure of fief and Siegniory, with High, Middle and Low Justice, and Right of Hunting, Fishing and Trading with Indians throughout the extent of said Seigniory without being obliged by reason of this, to pay to His Majesty nor to his Successors, Kings, any duty money as an indemnity whereof, whatever sum it may amount to, His Majesty hath made him a grant and release; On condition to render Fealty and Homage at the Castle of St. Louis Quebec from which the said Fief will be holden and the other customary services, according to the custom of Paris observed in the said country, and that the appeals from the Court which will be established there shall be to the Royal Court (Justice Royale) of Montreal; on condition also of preserving and causing to be preserved by the Tenants the Timber of all descriptions adapted for the construction of His Majesty's ships; of informing His Majesty of all Mines or Minerals, if any be found in said Concession; to improve it and to hold & cause to be held fire & light there by the Tenants, in default whereof it shall be re

united to His Majesty's Domain; of allowing roads necessary for public convenience and allowing also the beaches free to all Fishermen, except those they may require for their fishing; and in case His Majesty may have use, hereafter, of any portions of said Tract, to erect thereupon Forts, Batteries, Arsenals, Magazines & other public Works, He can take them as well as the trees necessary for said public Works, and the fire wood necessary for the Garrisons of said Forts, without being holden to any compensation: His Majesty willing that the said Concession be subject to the conditions above enumerated without any exception; and In testimony of His Will, He has ordered me to issue the present Brevet which shall be enregistered at the Office of the Superior Council of Quebec, to have such application there as shall appertain, and which he has willed to sign with his hand to be countersigned by me His councillor Secretary of State and of His Commands and Finances. Signed, Louis. and lower down, Phelippeaux. Below, the present Brevet has been enregistered in the Registers of the Superior Council of New France, By the King's Attorney General according to the Arret of the day, by us, Councillor Secretary of the King, Chief Greffier of said Council, undersigned. At Quebec the 7th October 1743 Signed, DAINE.

[Here follows another Deed, dated 1st April 1745, to the same person of an additional Tract in Seigniory, three leagues in front on Lake Champlain, by five in depth, extending from the North bounds of the former grant, subject to the same burthens and conditions; and a Deed of Sale of the entire “Seigniory Hocquart" to M. Michel Chartier, Seigneur of Lotbiniere &c for the sum of Nine Thousand livres-bearing date Paris 7th April. 1763.]

SITUATION OF THE SEIGNIORY OF ALAINVILLE;

ACCORDING TO M. DE LOTBINIERE'S AFFIDAVIT.

I, undersigned, affirm and declare on oath that the Seigniory of Alainville, four leagues and more in front by five leagues in depth to the West, commences at La Pointe des habitans (one league and a half or thereabouts, above the Fort at Pointe a la Chevelure, and on the same side of the River) and that it terminates at Pointe du Bivac [Bivouac point] of M. de Contrecour's Camp, the lower point above l'Isle au Mouton near the entrance of the Lake St. Sacrement; that the said Seigniory belongs to me in virtue of the Grant which the Marquis de Vaudreuil made to me dated 15th November of the year One thousand seven hundred & fifty Eight; that this deed of Concession was left, in the original by me in July 1764 with Mr Pownall Secretary of the Board of Trade and the Colonies to be registered in said Office; that Sr Henry Guinaud, my agent in London informed me by letter that the Title deeds deposited by the Honble Mr. Cholmondely on my behalf & by me at the said office had been returned to him all registered.