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CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS.

Dec 1 23 d 1766 a copy of which I have here inclosed for your Lordships Perusal as it states someFacts necessary to be known relative to the Petitioners.

The six first Paragraphs of the Petition relating to Transactions before my arrival I could nottake upon me to answer myself, but having wrote to Lieut . Gov. Colden desiring him to give methe best Informations he could on those Heads, I have herewith transmitted his letter, together withthe Copy of the Proclamation he issued, and likewise the Extract of a Letter of James Duane Esq r0a Barrister at Law here, and a man of so good a Character that his Testimony carries the greatestweight With it, who being acquainted with some of the Proceedings of Robinson, and having ren-dered him some services I thought it proper to apply to him for a further confirmation of what Ihave already advanced in this Letter in regard to a Number of Townships being granted by NewHampshire within the acknowledged Bounds of this Province.

I now come to that part of the Petition which relates to myself, and as the 7 th Article of it onlymentions the Order which was issued by me and taken notice of in the former part of this Letter,I shall proceed to the 8 th in which such a number of falsities are crowded together that they cannotbe better answered than by a bare relation of the whole matter of Fact which I shall do as conciselyas I can and leave it to your Lordship to Judge between us.

In my Letter to the Lords of Trade mention is made that Robinson and a few others who hadjoined him had made an application for Forty five Townships which Proposal for so large aquantity of Land in proportion to the number of Persons concerned in it was thought so very absurdthat it was treated as it deserved and rejected. I never had any other application from him of anykind but as an humble Suitor to desire I would assist him in the distress which lie had brought onhimself by settling on the Lands which were ordered to be granted some time before under thisGovern™* to other People; when his pretensions were examined before the Council I was his Advo-cate there, altho’ he did not stand much in need of one for the Council were always determinedfrom the Beginning to protect the Setlers and the Land claimed by him, One Cole and seven or

eight other Persons who were associated with him were ordered to be secured to them alltho’

apparently included in other Patents. For this they appeared very thankful and when I thoughtthey were retiring, Cole requested that the Council would add one good Deed to another and letthem have these Lands without paying any Fees of office I took upon me to assure them both inthe presence of the Board, that their request should be granted and their Patents made out to

them without paying any Fees; This seemed to have such an effect on them that not satisfied with

making their acknowledgments to me at that time they waited in the Hall till the Council brokeup, and afterwards came into my Parlour to thank me again for what I had done, declaring they shouldever retain the most gratefull remembrance for two such acts of favor conferred on them thatmorning.

This is a bare relation of the whole Transaction, and the grateful remembrance they retainof it has, it seems, been productive of nothing but a chain of Falsities invented to serve privatepurposes by endeavoring to blacken my Character as well as those of others; This was all thatpassed, and I am ready to attest upon Oath the truth of what I have here asserted, and hope yourLordship will give me leave to assure you that so far from ever having made a demand for feesof any kind either from Robinson or any Person living, that it has always been my Maxim notonly in this Province but whilst I had the honor of commanding in Jamaica , on any Fees being dueto me by those who I apprehended would be distressed in paying them, to enquire into theircircumstances & have thought myself happy in having an opportunity of remitting them. I havesigned but six Patent since I came into the Province for which I have received Fees and five are nowpreparing on which I have the same Rights, but have promised to give them up for the reasons I