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To the End therefore, that the Grantees now Settled, & Settling on those Lands under His Late &present Majesty’s Charters, may not be intimidated, or any way hindred or ohstrncled in theImprovement of the Laud so granted as well as to ascertain the Right & maintain the Jurisdictionof His Majesty’s Government of New Hampshire as far westward as to include the Grants made, Ihave thought fit, by and with the advice of his Majesty’s Council, to Issue this Proclamation herebyencouraging the Several Grantees claiming under this Government, to <be industrious in clearing andcultivating their Lands agreeable to their respective grants.
And I do hereby require and command all Civil Officers within this province, of what Qualitysoever, as well those that are not, as those that are Inhabitants on the said Lands to continue & bediligent in exercising Jurisdiction in their respective Offices, as far Westward as Grants of Land havebeen made by this Government, and to deal with any person, or persons, that may presume to interuptthe Inhabitants or settlers on said Lands as to Law and Justice doth appertain. The pretended rightof Jurisdiction mention’d in the aforesaid Proclamation notwithstanding
Given at the Council Chamber in Portsmouth the 13 th day of March 1764 in the fourth yearof His Majesty’s Reign.
B. Wentworth.
IT. GOV. COLDEN TO THE BOARD OF TRADE.
[ Lond. Doo. xxxvii. ]
My Lords, Having lately seen a Proclamation of the Govern 1 of New Hampshire in a printedpaper, I now inclose it to your Lordpp 9 as it shews the necessity of your Lordpp 9 coming to somespeedy resolution on this point.
From the recitals in my Letter of the 20 th of January last, on this subject, it will appear withwhat candour this Proclamation is framed ; and your LordPP 9 may in some measure judge whetherthe truth of the artifices with which that Govern 1 is charged, be not thereby confirmed ; viz 1 . Thenumerous Grants of Townships by New Hampshire on the West side ol Connecticut River , in soshort a time as since the last Peace, cannot be with any view, in the persons who have rec J thosegrants, to settle and improve those lands, but with a sinistrous view in a few persons to put largesums of money in their pockets, by jobbing and selling of Rights thro’ all the neighbouring colonies,as appeared to the Council of this Province, by several persons going ab l this Province, New Jersey and Connecticut , hawking and selling their pretended rights, to great numbers of ignorant people,at low rates and defrauding them of large sums of money. That the grantees had no view ol settlingand improving the land by themselves, appears likewise by several advertizements in the Newspaper in which Gov Wentworth’s Proclamation is published and inclosed with this.
How low it is to give New Jersey as an instance that the Patent to the Duke of York isobsolete ! This can only be designed for ignorant People, w'ho know not that the proprieters ofNew Jersey hold under the patent to the Duke of York. It the Patent to the Duke of York beobsolete, and the lands granted by that Patent not now vested in the Crown, as part of its Demesnes,New York has no bounds.
I am perswaded that upon your Lordpp 9 mature consideration of this matter, it will evidentlyappear on the principles of Justice, policy and public utility, that the Jurisdiction of New York ought to extend to Connecticut River , as the Duke of York’s Patent does. The Commerce of the