535
IT. GOY . COLDEN TO LORD DARTMOUTH.
[Lond. Doc. XLIV.]
My Lord, The inclosed Copy of a Petition, and affadevits laid before me and the Council, willinform your Lordship, how much His Majesty’s peaceable subjects in a part of the Province mentionedin the Petition are mollested and insulted by a lawless sett of Men who at first settled thereunder a claim made by the Government of New Hampshire ; but since they have been disown’dGy that Government, they will pay obedience to none—assume all power to themselves, chuseMagistrates, erect Courts and inflict punishments &c. Fugitives from all the neighboring Govern-ments resort thither, so that they are now become a numerous and dangerous Body of Banditti,which is every Day encreasing. The Council advised me to apply to General Gage for MilitaryAssistance to preserve the Peace only: His answer is that, General Haldimand, had, on a similarRequisition declined giving any Military Assistance, and his refusal had been approved of by hisMajesty’s Ministers, and for that reason he declined giving any Assistance.
My Lord, this Body of Lawless men, fugitives from all parts ; daily encreasing, may soon becomevery dangerous, by encouraging the worst of men to resort thither, and to stand in defiance of Lawand Government; I therefore humbly conceive it deserves your Lordships immediate attention. Thefirst settlers from New Hampshire , and the leading men among them, pretend that they have Encour-agement from their Agent in England, that your Lordship entertains a favourable Opinion oftheir claim and pretentions, but I am persuaded they can have no foundation for such hopes.
The greatest part of the lands those troublesome people are settled on, my Lord, have beengranted by this Government, to reduced officers and disbanded soldiers of His Majesty’s Army who served in the last War in America , in obedience to the Royal Proclamation of the 7<i> October1763. I hardly need to mention to your Lordship that where the Lands are private Property, adispute of title can only be determined in the Courts of Justice. The Pattentees under New York ,those who hold by Military Grants, as well as others who have Pattents in the common Way, thinktheir title is indubitably good. The Governors of this Colony have had full authority to grant thelands quite to the West Bank of Connecticut River, ever since the Duke of York received his grantof the Colony. A dread of the French and Indians from Canada , prevented for many years anygrants or settlements being made in that part of this Province where these people are now settled.The Governor of New Hampshire who never had authority to grant one Foot of Land West ofConnecticut River , his Government being bounded to the Westward by his Majesty’s other Govern-ments, finding this country an uninhabited Desert, upon the peace after the War before tire last, laidhold of the opportunity, and in a very short time granted away this extensive tract of country,down to the waters of Wood Creek and Lake Champlain . A full information, has been at differentTimes, transmitted to your Lordship and your Predecessors in office, of the very unjustifiable mannerin which those grants were made, in defiance of the earliest notice from this Government that Con-necticut River was our Boundary . Your Lordship is possessed of such ample Information on thissubject, that I will not presume to trouble you with any thing more upon it now, but to repeat myhumble opinion of the necessity there is that these lawless People should be discouraged fromentertaining any Hopes, but in the Judgements of the Courts of Justice ; where only the Propertyof the Subjects can be determined.
I am with most entire submission My Lord, Your Lordship’s most faithfull & obedient servantRt Hon blc Earl of Dartmouth. Cabwallader Colden.