CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS,
375
of these names on the back of the Charters were but too well founded and it has since appearedthat some of the Charters which have made their appearance in great Form and under the claims ofsixty or seventy proprietors have been found in reality to belong to no more than six or sevenPersons, which will be a great Detriment to the settling of that part of the Province, and is entirelycontradictory to His Majesty’s Orders w T hich are that no more than one thousand acres should begiven to each Person.
I hope by what I have here offered in answ T er to the Society’s Petition, that it will sufficientlyappear to your Ldp how they have been imposed on in the accounts they have received of our Pro-ceedings here, and to which they have so readily given credit. Had the true state of the casebeen laid before His Majesty it would have appeared that in order to make up for a Loss sustainedby 350 acres in one of the Townships which happened before my arrival, by a mere omission of theCouncil in their first entering on a new scene of Business, I had taken care to secure to the Churchas soon as I had it in my power, a large District comprehending no less than 23,200 acres.
I have enquired of D r Auchmuty the Rector of Trinity Church here (who is I am informed theprincipal correspondent of the Society in this Province) from whence this extraordinary informationcould be sent, but he tells me that he is entirely ignorant of it, and as I have the greatest reason toimagine that the Society have not founded their petition on better authority than what they havereceived from Robinson and his associates, I hope they will act with so much candour when theyare informed of the particulars of my answer as to lay before your Lordship the authorities uponwhich they have been induced to present a Petition to His Majesty which tends so manifestly toCalumniate me. Common Justice requires this at their Hands and the Principles upon which thatSociety is supposed to act in other matters, will I hope suggest to them that such a behaviour will benecessary on this occasion not only in support of my Character, but of their own.
I have the honor to be with the greatest respect, My Lord, Your Lordships most obedient andhumble servant,
Rt Hon ble Earl of Shelburne H. Moore.
*.* In Counc. Min. xxv. There is an entry substantially of the same purport as the above, dated 10 June 1767; and vol.xxix, 250 will be found a Royal order dated 26 June 1767, disallowing an act passed by the New York Legislature in 1766erecting the lands on the west of Connecticut River into the County of Cumberland.
ORDER OF THE KING IN COUNCIL
forbidding the governor of new york to make grants of any lands already patented by
[ Council Minutes Yol. XXYI. ]
At the Court at S‘ Jame’s the 24 th day of July 1767.Present.
The King’sArchbishop of CanterburyLord Chancellor.
Duke of QueensburyDuke of Ancaster.
Lord Chamberlain.
Earl of Litchfield.
Earl of Bristol
most Excellent Majesty.
Earl of Shelburne .Viscount Falmouth.Viscount Barrington.Viscount ClareBishop of London M r Secretary Conway.Hans Stanley Esquire
Whereas there was this day read at the Board, a Report from the Right Hono ble the Lords of theCommittee of Council for Plantation affairs, dated the 30 th of last month in the words following viz 1