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CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS.

transmitting the Map which by Intelligence has actually been sent to his Majesty’s Ministers & whichwill now be considered as an exparte act, and not deserving of that Weight it might otherwise havehad in the Contest.

Tho’ unacquainted as yet with the Merits of the Dispute, I am no stranger to the Disturbances ithas produced since my arrival in this Government and see with the utmost Concern the consequencesstill likely to ensue, if the refractory and disorderly Behaviour of the Grantees under New Hamp-shire is not speedily check’d and punished. Regardless of Justice and in open defiance of theLaws they have lately by force dispossessed several persons setled under titles derived from thisprovince prior to the Commencement of the Controversy and seem to be greatly encouraged by theassurances they ascribe to your Excellency, that the Jurisdiction will be altered-so as to comprizewithin your Government the Lands they hold which in some places lie at no greater Distance than16 or 17 Miles from Hudson’s River. Ill grounded as these Reports I am willing to believe mustbe, yet as they are propagated with a view to exasperate a people already too much bent on Mischief,and appear to have had the intended Effect, I hope your Excellency will by some public Act, unde-ceive these deluded Persons, and by so necessary a Measure cooperate with me in preserving thepeace and Tranquility of that part of the Country until his Maj s pleasure shall be signifyed inrespect to the New Hampshire Grants within this Province.

AFFIDAVIT OF ROBERT YATES.

City of Albany ss: Robert Yates of the City of Albany Attorney at Law being duly sworndeposeth and saith that lie this Deponent was summoned some time Last June or July by Henry TenEyck Esq r High Sheriff of the City and County of Albany as part of the posse to assist him inExecuting a writt of Possession for the Lands and Tenements recovered of one Brakenridge at aplace called Benuingtown. That he this Deponent pursuant to such summons did go to the said,that the said Sheriff was attended to within about a quarter of a mile of the said possession by aboutone hundred and fifty men assembled by his command for the purpose as this Deponent understoodof Assisting him that the said Sheriff required the said Posse to proceed with him to the said Landsand Tenements ; that the greater part of the said Posse did attend him near to the said place andabout Twenty or Thirty persons to the House of Brakenridge, of which latter number this Deponentwas one-.—that when the Sheriff came to the said House; and pushed at the Door he found the samewas Locked or closed, so that entry could not be easily effected without violence and that thesaid Sheriff did request of those within that the said Door should be opened wh ch was not complyedwith, That this Deponent by the assent of the Sheriff read by the Door the writt of possessienwith an audible voice so that those within as he judged could easily hear him, and at the sametime acquainting them that the Sheriff was there for the purpose of giving possession to the Plaintiffwho had recovered the same by due course of Law, that an answer was given by those who were inthe House that they would not give up the possession, that he this Deponent represented to them theDanger which would attend their resisting the regular course of the Laws and made use of sucharguments as he conceived would induce them to an acquiesence in the Determination of the Suitwhereon the recovery of the possession had been adjudged in favour of the Plaintiff, but to nopurpose—That this Deponent saw a number of persons South east of the said House and anotherparty north of the said House armed with Guns who this Deponent judged by their appearance and