CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS.

410

Wentworth and to have been drawn at Portsmouth and approved of by him before it circulated forsubscription as aforesaid of which besides the common Report abovemeniioned this Deponent liasbeen informed by Samuel Robinson who was with Governor Wentworth at Portsmouth on thatoccasion, as lie informed this Deponent, and which the Deponent believes to be true.

Q. That this last Fall another Petition addressed to his majesty lias been c-arryed about in theDeponents neighbourhood as he understands and believes, which is generally reported there to havebeen done by the advice of Governor Wentworth.

R. And this Deponent further saith that at the time of the notification as abovementioned of hisMajestys Determination of the said Boundary, the two Southermost Townships were more cultivatedthan any other of the New Hampshire Grants to the Westward of the Green Mountains, and evenwith respect to those the Cultivation was exceeding small, that the lour Townships to the Northwardof those last mentioned, had hardly any Inhabitants and the clearing any Part of them for Culti-vation was but scarcely begun, that the Towns still to the Northward had no Inhabitants, and thatat t!iat Time the Lands aforesaid to the Westward of the Green Mountains not one part in TurnThousand had had any Labor bestowed on them and that at this Day the Improvement & Culti-vation on the whole of the said Tract, is in comparison with its magnitude very inconsiderable.

Ebenezer Cole.

Sworn this 27 th Day of February )

1771 Before me. \

Dan: Horsmanden.

Jl. City of New York ss. John Munroe of Fowlis in the County of Albany , Esquire, one ofhis Majestys Justices of the peace for the said County being duly sworn maketh Oath , that he liveson the East side of Hudsons River about seventeen miles Distant from the said River , as the Surveyoremployed by him lately, to measure the Distance to that River informed him that he began to buildthere near four years ago, and has resided there near three years. That the Deponents House standswithin the Bounds of a Tract of Land called Shaftsbury said to have been granted by the late Gov-ernor of New Hampshire .

B. That this Deponent is well acquainted with the Country thereabouts, and verily believes thatsince he has lived there, the number of Settlers under the New Hampshire Grants to the Northwardof this Deponents Habitation have increased at least three fold—And from the General Accounts hehas received in that neighbourhood he is well satisfied that since the Notification of his Majesty’sorder in Council of 20 July 1764 those settlers have increased at least five Fold, and that they arefrom all the Information he has received Purchasers for very small Considerations and not patenteesand that many of them have purchased the New Hampshire Titles to Lands which at the Time ofthe Purchases they knew had been granted by the Government of New York , and particularly thatsuch Purchases have been made- by about Ten Persons in a Grant made by the said Government ofNew York to Duncan M°Vicar a reduced officer by virtue of his Majestys Proclamation of the 7 thOctober 1763, who have seated themselves in the said Lands and still hold Possession under theNew Hampshire Grant.

C. That ever since this Deponent has lived in that Country many of the Inhabitants have showeda Disposition of not obeying the Laws of New York or submitting to its Jurisdiction and that ingeneral they have regulated themselves by the Laws of New Hampshire , and the Charters grantedby the late Governor Wentworth, in order as this Deponent hath always understood, the more easy