CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS.

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same Subject, But before this period M r Wentworth had in his letter to the Board of Trade of the23^ March 175011 suggested to their Lordships what he thought proper to urge on this Subject inbehalf of his own Government, without Transmitting any Copy thereof, to Governor Clinton.

Thus the Matter rested, according to my Information, until the Incursions of the Indians into thisProvince, immediately preceding the late War put an intire stop to any new Settlements, and renderedboth Governments less solicitous to bring this Controversy to an Issue: the Government of NewYork confiding that New Hampshire , after what has passed, would not venture to make any furtherGrants, until his Majesty should be pleased to Determine the Limits between his two Provinces assuch Grants, where they might interfere with those of New York , must be considered as a mereNullity.

But how great was the surprise of this Government, when they lately Discovered that NewHampshire had since the Transactions above recited, granted upwards of Thirty, some affirm onehundred and Sixty Townships, Each six miles square, Westward of Connecticut River ; a Fact whichhad probably been still concealed from the knowledge of this Government, had not the Grantees orpersons employed by them Travelled thro’ all parts of this, and in the Neighbouring Province of NewJersey , publickly offering the Lands to Sale, at such low rates, as evince the claimants had no Intentionof becoming Settlers, either from Inability, or conscious they could derive no Title to the Landsunder tlie Grants of New Hampshire .

To prevent therefore the further progress of this Mischief, by informing the People of the trueState of the claim of the two Provinces —His Majesty’s Council unanimously advised me to Issue aProclamation asserting the Antient Jurisdiction of this Province to Connecticut River , a copy whereofI have the Honour to Inclose to your Lordships.

The claim of the Government of New Hampshire to within Twenty miles East of Hudson’s River,being founded solely on the Example of Connecticut and the Massachusits Bay, it will be necessaryto Consider the Right of those two Governments to that Boundary.

The Limits of Connecticut were settled by the Agreement with this Province confirmed by theCrown and tho’ the possession and claim of the Dutch , might have been offered as an argument toconfine the Limits of that Colony to the River Connecticut , Yet as the Tract might thereby havebeen rendered too inconsiderable for the establishment of a Colony, and the People had so earlyextended their settlements Westward of the River , these considerations probably were the motiveswhich induced the Government of New York first in 1664, and afterwards in 1683, to yield toConnecticut the Lands Westward, to the distance of about 20 miles of Hudson’s River .

But no agreement or settlement of Boundaries can be alledged on the part of Massachusets BayThe Dutch at the time of the Massachusets first Grant, possessed this Province, then called NewNetherland—Extended their claim between the two Rivers, Delaware and Connecticut , and had longbefore the English approached the last mentioned River , a Fort called Fort Hope, on its WesternTanks near where the town of Hartford now stands. These tacts were well known at the time, andtherefore, in the Grant to the Council of Plymouth in 1620, of the lands within the 34 and 48 Degreesot North Latitude, on which the Claim of Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut was originally founded,fill Lands which were held or Possessed by any other Christian Prince or State are expressly savedand excepted. Hence it appears that tlie Grant to the Duke ot York in 1663-4 of the Lands westward°f Connecticut River , was certainly grounded on an opinion, that tlie Crown bad an absolute Rightto those Lands, notwithstanding tlie claim of the New England Colonies ; and that this Grant , whichimmediately preceded the Conquest of this Province from the Dutch , was intended to include all theLands which the Dutch held here.

I have not till lately seen an extract of a Report of the Commissioners appointed by the Crown in