CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS.

36b

LORD SHELBURNE TO GOY. MOORE.

Sir

[ Loud Doc. xl. ]

Whitehall April ll‘h 1767.

Two Petitions having been most humbly presented to the King in council, One by the uncorporatedSociety for the propagation of the Gospel, and the other by Samuel Robinson of Bennington, in behalfof himself, and more than one thousand other grantees of Lands on the West side of ConnecticutRiver, under certain Grants issued by Benning Wentworth Esq ie Governour of New Hampshire &praying for redress in several great Grievances therein set forth, lest there should be any furtherproceedings in this matter, till such time as the council shall have Examined into the grounds of it,I am to signify to you His Majesty’s Commands that you make no new Grants of these Lands andthat you do not molest any person in the quiet possession of His Grant, who can produce good andvalid Deeds for such Grant under the Seal of the Province of New Hampshire until you receivefurther orders respecting them.

In my letter of the 11 th Dec I was very Explicit upon the point of former Grants you aretherein directed to “ take care that the Inhabitants lying Westward of the Line, reported by the“ Lords of Trade as the Boundary of the Two Provinces be not molested on account of Territorial“ differences, or disputed jurisdiction for whatever Province the Sellers may be found to belong to, it<£ should make no difference in their Property, provided that their Titles to their Lands should be“ found good in other Respects or that they have been long in the uninterrupted Possession of them.”His Majesty’s Intentions are so clearly expressed to you in the above Paragraph that I Cannot doubtof your having immediately upon receipt of it removed every cause of those complaints which thePetitioners set forth. If not it is the King’s express command that it may be done without thesmallest delay. The Power of Granting Lands was vested in the Governours of the Colony originallyfor the purpose of accommodating not distressing setters especially the poor and industrious anyperversion of that Power, therefore must be highly derogatory both from the dignity of theirStations and from that disinterested Character which a Governor ought to support, and which HisMajesty expects from every person honored by him With his Commission. The unreasonablenessof obliging a very large Tract of Country to pay a Second Time the immense sum of thirty threethousand pounds in Fees according to the allegations of this Petition for no other reason than its beingfound necessary to settle the Line of Boundary betw'een the Colonies in question is so unjustifiablethat his Majesty is not only determined to have the strictest Enquiry made into the Circumstances ofthe Charge, but expects the clearest and fullest answer to every part of it.

I am &c.

Sir Henry Moore Bar 1 Shelburne.

GOVERNOR MOORE TO LORD SHELBURNE.

[ Lond. Doc. xl. ]

Fort George New York 9 th June 1767 .

My Lord, It is impossible for me to express the concern and astonishment I was under onreceiving your Lordship’s letter of the 11 th of April inclosing the copies of two Petitions, one fromthe Society for propagating the Gospel, and the other from Samuel Robinson and his associates.Although some people have often made free with the characters of his Majesty’s Governors in