Northern Claim is a Country between Connecticut & Hudson's Rivers about Fifty Miles in length and about Forty in breadth and includes not only the greater part of the County of Cumberland, but a large District of the Counties of Albany and Charlotte.—The Lands there in question are wholly appropriated under Grants of this Province [and?] of New Hampshire, and the Families settled thereon are not less than Two Thousand, tho' they probably exceed that number.

The Massachusetts Bay long acquiesced in the Royal Decree of 1740, the Line established by that Decision hath actually been run and marked from the south West Corner of New Hampshire Westward, to within about Twenty miles East of Hudson's River, and the Inhabitants of New York and the Massachusets Bay have deemed that Line to be the utmost Extent of the Massachusetts North Boundary, whatever might have been determined as to their Western Limits. And that this was the sense of the General Court of that Province soon after the Treaty of 1767, for settling the Boundary of the Two Provinces, appears clearly by their Resolution of the 23d January 1768 in these Words "Resolved that this Court will concede to and confirm the last proposal made by their Commissioners on the part of New York at their late Conference in the Words of the Report of the Lords of Trade and "Plantations in May 1757, That a Streight Line be drawn Northerly from a point on the Southern Line of the Massachusetts Bay Twenty Miles due East from Hudson's River, to another point Twenty Miles due East from the said River, on the Line which divides the Province of the Massachusetts Bay from New Hampshire, be the Eastern Boundary of New York."

Nor can any Line more favorable to the Massachusetts Colony be hereafter established, without subverting the Principles, and calling in question the Justice of the Royal Decree pronounced in 1740 after full hearing of the merits of the Massachusetts claim on the appeal of both parties to the King in Privy Council; and -which could it now be effected, must not only prove highly injurious to the Crown in respect to the right of Soil, its Quit Rents & Escheats, but be productive of the greatest disorder & confusion in that Country.

Remarks on

the claim of

The Province of Massachusetts Bay ground their Massachusetts claim Westward to the South Sea on the Deed dated 19th Bay West

ward to the March 162718 from the Council of Plimouth to Sir

South Sea,

fect in their

poration and

Shewing a De- Henry Roswell &c. and, their Associates.-As also on Title as a Cor- the Charter or Letters Patent of Charles the First dated the propriety the 4 March 1628|9-The Lands granted are the same as an objec in both, being in breadth about Sixty Miles, and

of raising this

tion, should

they prosecute

their claim to extending as described in these Instruments "From the

a North Boun

dary beyond Atlantic and Western Sea and Ocean on the East part

the present

Line Estab to the South Sea on the West part."

lished bc

tween that

Province and

But the Crown being divested of these Lands by the New Hamp- Grant to the Council of Plimouth in 1620, could not

shire, or their

claim to the South Sea.

Western pass them by its Charter of 162819, which had no other operation than to form the Massachusetts Bay into a Province, and to invest the same with Powers as a Body Corporate.

It became necessary therefore for the Massachusets Bay after they were incorporated, to obtain a Conveyance to the Corporation of the Lands granted to Roswell &c. and Associates.-That they obtained such Conveyance has not been pretended.—If they had, the Crown either became reseized of the Lands of the Corporation by the Judgment in 1684 which Vacated the Letters Patent of 162819 or the Property reverted to the Grantees of the Council of Plymouth.

Had the Crown been reseized it might have passed the same Lands to the Massachusetts Province by the present Charter of 1691. But instead of so extensive and unreasonable a Grant of Three Thousand Miles in length they obtained, it is true, by that Charter a great addition of Territory Eastward but were confined in their Western limits which extend "towards the South Seas far as the Colonies of Rhode Island, Connecticut and the Narragansett Country." This Description in strict Construction of Law will carry the Massachusetts Bay West no further than the Eastern Bounds of Connecticut, and by the most liberal interpretation do not extend their Boundary beyond the West Line of Connecticut, then and for some years before determined by

Agreement between that Colony and New York to be upwards of Twenty Miles East of Hudson's River

On the other hand admitting the Massachusetts Bay after their charter of 162819, and before it was vacated in 1681, did not obtain a Conveyance of the Lands granted to Roswell &c. and Associates, the Judgment which vacated that charter did not affect the Lands but left the Title in Roswell &c. and Associates, and the Crown could not by the Charter of 1691, grant them to the Massachusetts Colony; So that the Title, if any exists, must at this day be vested in the heirs or assigns of Roswell &c. and Associates in their private Right, and not in the Government of the Massachusetts Bay, unless transferred to or vested in the latter by some act of their Provincial Legislature, if such an Act could possibly have any Efficacy.

It is however presumed no Law of that Tendency has been passed, and if any should hereafter be presented for His Majesty's approbation, that it will be objected to (so far as it may countenance the extension of their Northern or Western claims beyond the Limits of their present Charter) as a measure calculated to divest the Crown of the right of Soil in that very large and extensive Territory, which lies Westward of the Colony of New York to the South Sea.

This claim had it been considered as well grounded would long since have been prosecuted and brought to a decision.-The Massachusetts General Court or Assembly assert it in a Resolve they passed on the 23d of January 1768, but whether with an intention to maintain it, Time must discover.-A claim so long dormant, can hardly be expected under any circumstances to be now revived with a prospect of success, & whatever Judgment the Assembly of the Massachusetts Bay may have formed certainly their present Governor had no opinion of its solidity, when at a late Meeting of the Commissaries of both Provinces at Hartford in 1773 he declared "That it was a mere Ideal, Visionary project, in which he believed Nobody to be sincere," and discovered an anxietv least it should interrupt the progress of the Treaty.

Question No. 3.

What is the size and extent of the Province, the number of

Acres supposed to be contained therein; What part thereof is cultivated and improved; and under what Title do the Inhabitants hold their possessions?

tent of the Province.

Answer.

Size and ex- The Extent of the Province from North to South is about 300 Statute miles. Nassau Island (commonly called Long Island) is situated to the South, its length from East to West, is about 150 miles, and its breadth on a medium fifteen miles; The breadth of the Province Northward of this Island is various. From the city of New York North about 20 miles up the Country, the breadth does not exceed 14 miles, and lies wholly on the East side of Hudson's River, New Jersey being bounded by the opposite shore— From the 41st Degree of Latitude the Province extends on both sides of that River; soon widens to about 60 miles; and increases in breadth up to the 42d Degree, where it is about 80 miles wide; supposing the Western Boundary to extend to the line mentioned in the Answer to the preceding Question No. 2, the extent from the 42d Degree to the North Line of Massachusets Bay (a distance of 49 miles) is about 456 miles, and from thence to the 45th Degree, it extends East & West on a Medium about 500 miles, and on the like supposition the number of square miles contained within this Province exclusive of the Lakes is 82,112 or 52,551,680 acres, which is one fourth less than the number contained in the Province of Quebec.

Parts cultivated. Nassau or Long Island which contains Kings, Queens and Suffolk Counties.-Staten Island which forms Richmond County and the Counties of New York, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange and Ulster, are all well inhabited, and not many large Tracts of improveable land are left uncultivated.-The County of Albany tho' the Inhabitants are numerous, and the Lands in general under Cultivation in the South, contains extensive and valuable Tracts unimproved in the North Part.-Tryon County tho' thinly settled, as its extent is great, has many Inhabitants.2 The culti

1 Albany County at this date included the present Counties of Greene, Columbia, Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady and Saratoga.

2 This County was taken from Albany County in 1772, and named in honour of Wm. Tryon then the Governor of the Province. In 1784 it was changed to that of Montgomery. When formed it embraced all that part of the State lying West

vated parts of Charlotte County are inconsiderable, compared with what remains to be settled and the same may be remarked with respect to the Counties of Cumberland and Gloucester.'-In the Appendix is a list of the Inhabitants White and Black in the respective Counties, according to the returns of their numbers in 1771, since which they are greatly augmented, but it is to be observed that the new counties of Charlotte and Tryon were then part of Albany.?

The proportion of the cultivated to the uncultivated parts of the Province (the Limits as stated in No. 2) is as one to four; or. one fifth only improved.

which lands

Titles under With respect to the Titles under which the Inhabitants are held. hold their possessions; Before the Province was granted on 12 March 1663|4 by King Charles the Second to his brother James Duke of York, the Dutch West India Company had seized it, made settlements and Issued many Grants of Land. In August 1664 › the Country was surrendered by the Dutch to the English, and by the 3d Article of the Terms of Capitulation it was stipulated "That all People shall continue free Denizens and shall enjoy their Lands, Houses, and goods, wheresoever they are within this Country and dispose of them as they please." Some lands of the Province are held under the old Dutch Grants without any confir mation of their Titles under the crown of England, but the ancient Records are replete with confirmatory Grants, which the Dutch, Inhabitants were probably the more solicitous to obtain from an Apprehension that the Dutch conquest of the Province in 1673, might render their Titles under the former articles of Capitulation precarious; tho' the Country was finally restored to the English by the Treaty signed at Westminster the 9th Feby 1674.

of a line running North & South nearly through the centre of the present County of Schoharie.-Campbell's Annals of Tryon County, New York 1831. p. 27.

1 Charlotte County embraced what now are Franklin, Clinton, Essex, Warren & Washington Counties in this State, and the West half of the State of Vermont; Cumberland & Gloucester lay on the West bank of the Connecticut river and extended from Canada to the Massachusetts boundary; the South line of the towns of Tunbridge, Strafford and Thetford being the division between the two. Westward they ran to the East bounds of Charlotte. Cumberland was erected in 1766; Gloucester in 1770, and Charlotte was taken from Albany in 1772, at the same time as Tryon. 2 For the Census table see ante p. 697.