History: PA Archives: Second Series, Vol. 18: PART IV - MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO THE WYOMING CONTROVERSY : DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE CONNECTICUT SETTLEMENT IN THE WYOMING VALLEY. Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson and Sally. USGENWEB ARCHIVES (tm) NOTICE All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information are included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm _____________________________________________________________________________________________ NOTE: An html version of this volume may be found at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/paarchivesseries/series2/vol18/paarch2-18toc.html <>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<>~~<> DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE CONNECTICUT SETTLEMENT IN THE WYOMING VALLEY. EDITED BY WILLIAM HENRY EGLE, M. D. HARRISBURG: E. K. MEYERS, STATE PRINTER. 1893. [Page numbers are in carats.] TABLE OF CONTENTS. _ _ _ _ _ _ Minutes of the Susquehanna Company, 1-123 An Examination of the Connecticut Claim, 125-214 Connecticut Records examined by Pennsylvania, 215-276 The Dutch Records of New Netherlands, 277-322 Letters from the Pennsylvania Claimants, 323-388 Letters from Secretary of Land Office, 389-430 Letters from the Commissioners, 431-514 Book of the Fifteen Townships, 515-572 Journal of the Commissioners, 1810, 573-609 Miscellaneous Papers relating to the Wyoming Controversy, 611-780 Index, 781 _____________________________________________________________________________________________ <733> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. THE COMMISSIONERS TO TENCH COXE. _ _ _ WILKESBARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY, PENNA, August 5, 1800. SIR: We have to acknowledge the receipt of your Letter (with its enclosures) of the 12th July. We transmit you herewith, eighteen Connecticut applications which have been handed to us for that purpose. If you will be pleased to examine the Release of James Rose, you will probably find it incomplete; perhaps it is an error in the Copy sent us, as we are unwilling to suppose an intentional deception in the Releasor. This release, agreeably to the exemplification in our possession, commences by particularly naming the several late Proprietaries with their additions, as if they had been the parties of the first part to the deed, when a sudden transition takes place to the clause of transfer to the Commonwealth in the third person singular, the habendum et tenendum clause is usually correct; and Jame's Rose's signature, the first mention of his name, except in a very brief accidental recital towards the close of the Instrument. It is generally said, and credited here, that the Act of Assembly passed the 28th day of March, 1787, commonly called "the quieting act" or "confirming law" (though repealed), is determined to be in some respects yet in force; this is the opinion, say Connecticut Claimants, of Judge Patterson. Hence, they ague that they will have a right to obtain Pennsylvania titles at the rate of 50s. per hundred for all Lands settled by them before and since the Decree at Trenton, whether within or without the 17 Townships, unless Penns'a, warrants were previously laid. They, therefore, deem it unnecessary to apply (under the present Law) for Lands not claimed by Pennsylvanians. There appears great anxiety in a few individuals to know almost every minute step of our Proceedings; they express a strong desire to have the business speedily accomplished, and at the same time intimate their opinion that the law might have been contrived better, and in such a manner as to have been more easily executed. They teaze us with so many enquires, whether certain things cannot be done under the Law, and whether we do not construe particular clauses so and so, that if their conduct is not insidious, they are themselves more ignorant than we believe them to be. <734> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. We are going on much in the same way as when we wrote you of the 22d ulto. We hope to proceed with more confidence when we shall have received answers from you and the Attorney General, which we now hourly look for. At all events, although we shall not be able to finish the business this year, we expect to put it in such train that we or successors may proceed with more ease some other years. Enclosed you have a Luzerne newspaper, in which the doings of the Commissioners are stated, by consent. Although by the general abstract of Releases A or No. 3, it appears that Thomas Hartley, Esq'r., has duly executed a deed of release to the Commonwealth for 1,288 1/2 acres, and by the index and certificate from the surveyor gen'ls office it appears there are five distinct tracts, the drafts of the surveys of three whereof have been furnished us Nos. 177, 178, 179, those of the other two (in the names of Thomas Smith and Peter Dehaven) certified by surveyor general not to be found, yet no Exemplification of his Release has been forwarded to us. We are respectfully, Sir, Your Obedient Servants WM. IRVINE, ANDREW PORTER. TENCH COXE, Esq'r., Secretary Land Office, Pennsylvania. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ THE COMMISSIONERS TO TENCH COXE. _ _ _ WILKESBARRE, August 13, 1800. SIR: We are favored with yours of the 31st ult., in which were exemplifications of Mr. Boudinot's Releases and Returns of Survey, but we have not yet received an answer from the Attorney General. We have repeated proofs of your particular attention to the business in which we are engaged, and have no doubt but you will continue to render every service in your power; and, as we hinted before, we should probably have occasion to trouble you frequenly, we again remind you that it will be necessary for you to collect all the detached patience you can. From what you say we begin to look for Mr. Coats, the Penn's agent; his coming prepared, in the way you mention, must <735> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. not only be useful, but is absolutely necessary to our accomplishing anything considerable this Year. Mr. George Gibson handed West's Papers mentioned by you. You will receive herewith three Connecticut submissions; we are told of a number more preparing, almost for one whole township; but it is said a few, considerably influential men too, yet continue obstinate; they say the Connecticut title is good enough. Mr. Shippen will hand you this; he can inform you of several matters which can be better done in Conversation than on paper. The Connecticut Act, giving up these people, has been promulgated, and in due time may have a good effect. But the quieting act (so called) of Pennsylvania, is referred to on every occasion. We are, Sir, with sentiments of respect, your obedient Servants, WM. IRVINE, ANDREW PORTER. TENCH COXE, Esq., Secretary Land Office, Pennsylvania. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ THE COMMISSIONERS TO TENCH COXE. _ _ _ WILKESBARRE, August 25, 1800. SIR: Your letter of the 12th instant, accompanied by sundry copies of Releases and applications, was duly handed to us by Mr. Ross. Among the applications herewith, you will find one from the bearer, Judge Gore, whose example in coming forward will doubtless have some weight. There is another person accompanies him; what their business is we know not, but have heard, by accident, that they have particular business at the Land office. We Judge it prudent to confine our inquiries solely to matters connected, either directly or indirectly, with the business committed to us, we cannot, however, shut our Ears to common reports, one of which is reiterated, that Connecticut people still continue to buy up half share rights without the 17 townships; it follows, of course, that these deluded people must be encouraged by some leading character here, there must be a system. A mere swindling scheme of an individual or two, it is to be presumed, would soon be detected. To oppose this, it is true that the people now coming to settle and purchase, <736> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. are extremely ignorant, as many of the old settlers, it is said, are willing to purchase Pennsylvania titles as soon as it can be ascertained who really hold them. You will receive thirty-two applications and submissions herewith. If the Pennsylvania Releases were more numerous or general, the business would go on much easier. We have heard no more of Mr. Penn's Agent than what you mentioned in your letter of the 30th July. General Boude thought, when he left this, of being only, about two weeks absent; more than four have elapsed. If sickness or other accident should prevent his return much longer, he will doubtless notify either the Government or us If no misfortune overtakes either of us, or families, we can, we hope, do everything that could be done by three, not more capable than ourselves, the remainder of this fall. We are Respectfully, Sir, Your obed't Servants, WM. IRVINE, ANDREW PORTER. TENCH COXE, Esqr., Secretary of the Land Office. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ MEMORIAL OF MATTHIAS BARTON AND ESTHER, HIS WIFE. _ _ _ LANCASTER, September 27, 1800. We, Matthias Barton, Esquire, and Mrs Hester Barton, late Coxe, for and in behalf of the Widow, heirs and devisees of Col. John Coxe, of Bloomsbury, in New Jersey, deceased, do hereby make application to the Board of Property of Pennsylvania for the benefit of the Act of Assembly of this State, bearing date on the 4th day of April, 1799, entitled "an Act for offering Compensation to the Pennsylvania claimants of Certain lands within the Seventeen Townships in the County of Luzerne, and for other purposes therein mentioned;" by the release of all lands of the said Widow, heirs and devisees, late of the said Colonel Coxe, deceased, which are held under titles prior to the 31st December, 1782, and which shall be found to lie within the said seventeen Connecticut Townships. MATTHIAS BARTON, ESTHER BARTON. Witness, PAUL ZANTZINGER. <737> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. Know all men by these presents that, whereas, John Coxe, late of the City of Philadelphia, Esquire, deceased, in and by his late will and Testament in writing, bearing date the seventh day of February, Codicil thereto annexed, bearing date the twentieth day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, did give to his wife and children sundry parts of his real and personal Estate and all the remainder thereof he did give and bequeath to six daughters therein named in Fee as tenants in common with full power and authority to his Executors the survivors or survivor of them, to sell or dispose of all or such part of his real and personal Estate as should be necessary, as well for the purpose of dividing the produce thereof among his children, as for the payment of his debts and legacies for the education and support of his children, whenever they should think a sale of any part thereof would be for the advantage of the whole, and in such case that the surplus money arising therefrom be equally divided between all his children, share and share alike, as in and by the said recited will and codicil duly proved and recorded in the Register's Office at Philadelphia, more fully appears. Now Know Ye that we , Esther Coxe, John Stephens and Matthias Barton, surviving Executors of the said John Coxe, Rachel Stephens, wife of the said John, Esther Barton, wife of the said Matthias, Catharine Stockton, widow, and John Redman Coxe and Sarah his wife, the said Rachel, Esther, Catharine and Sarah being three of the children of the said John Coxe, in consideration of the compensation offered by an act of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, entitled "an Act for offering compensation to the Pennsylvania claimants of certain Lands within the seventeen Townships in the County of Luzerne, and for other purposes therein mentioned," and also of one Dollar paid to us by the said Commonwealth, the receipt whereof we hereby acknowledge, have granted, remised, released, conveyed and forever quit-claimed, and by these presents do hereby grant, remise, release, convey and forever quit-claim to the said Commonwealth of Pennsylvania all our joint and separate Rights, Titles, Interests, Properties, claims and demands, both legal and equitable, of, in, and to all and singular the lands and tenements to us belonging, and every part thereof lying within that part of the County of Luzerne in the said Commonwealth commonly known by the name of the seventeen Townships, a part or the whole of which is mentioned or described in the schedule hereunto annexed. To have and to hold the same with all the Rights, Privileges, Hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging to the said Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in fee simple forever. In 47-VOL. XVIII. <738> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. Witness whereof we, the said Grantors, have hereunto set our hands and seals this twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred. Sealed and delivered by Esther Coxe and John Redman Coxe and Sarah his Wife in the presence of us, Abraham Shoemaker, Edward Shippen. For Catharine Stockton, Isaac Smith, Mary Sayre. For John Stephens and Rachel his wife, Dan'l Van Reipen, Mary Gilbert. For Matthias Barton and Esther his wife, Matthew Henry, Frederick Kuhn. RACHEL COXE, [Seal.] JOHN STEPHENS, [Seal.] RACHEL STEPHENS, [Seal.] CATHARINE STOCKTON, [Seal.] MATTHIAS BARTON, [Seal.] ESTHER BARTON, [Seal.] JOHN REDMAN COXE, [Seal.] SARAH COXE, [Seal.] The twenty-fourth day of September, 1800, Before me, Edward Shippen, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, came the above named Esther Coxe and John Redman Coxe and Sarah his wife, and acknowledged the above Deed Poll to be their, and each of their act and Deed, and desired the same may be recorded as such. The said Sarah being of full age and by me privately examined apart from her husband, declared that she executed the said Deed Poll voluntarily and of her own free will and accord without any coercion or compulsion of her said Husband, and full contents by me first made known to her. Witness my hand and seal, EDWARD SHIPPEN, [Seal.] STATE OF NEW JERSEY, ss: Personally appeared the 25th day of September, 1800, before Isaac Smith, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of said State, Catharine Stockton, one of the within Grantors, and did acknowledge that she signed, sealed and delivered the within Deed Poll for the uses and purposes therein mentioned. Taken before me, Isaac SMITH. STATE OF NEW JERSEY, ss: Personally appeared this 25th day of September, 1800, before me, Daniel Van Reipen, one of the judges of the court of common Pleas of this county of Bergen, in said State, John Stephens and Rachel his wife, and acknowledged the above Deed Poll to be their Act and Deed. The said Rachel being by me <739> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. privately examined apart from her said husband, declared that she executed the said Deed Poll voluntarily and of her own free will and accord without any coercion or compulsion of her said Husband. Witness my hand, DANIEL VAN REIPEN. STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, ss: Personally appeared this 30th day of September, 1800, before me, the subscriber, one of the associate judges of the county of Lancaster, Matthias Barton and Esther his wife, and acknowledged the above Deed Poll to be their act and Deed, the said Esther being of full age and by me privately examined apart from her husband, declared that she Executed the said Deed Poll voluntarily and without any coercion or compulsion of her said husband, the full contents by me first made known unto her. Witness my hand and seal, FREDERICK KUHN, [Seal.] LAND OFFICE OF PENNSYLVANIA: I certify that the foregoing is a true copy of an instrument of writing, from Esther Coxe, John Stephens and others, surviving Executors of John Coxe, deceased, to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania filed of Record in this Office. In Testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and the seal of the said office at Lancaster, the second day of October A. D. 1800. _ _ _ A Schedule of the Lands lying in the seventeen Townships of the County of Luzerne, belonging to the Estate of the late Colonel John Coxe, deceased, and referred to in the annexed release. That is to say Sundry Tracts of land taken up in partnership by the said John Coxe and William Patterson, Esquires, under an article of Agreement between the said Coxe and Patterson, bearing date the 20th day of January, 1774, in the following names, viz: John Borland, John Hyde, William Watson, Robert Lusk, Zenas Smith, William McCarroll, Elizabeth Punner, Samuel Boucher, Richard Price, Joseph Nicholson, Henry Thorn, William Smith, Thomas Smith, Augustus Rupple, Joseph Ball, Samuel Laverty, Christian Strehly and John Vansant, which said Lands so held in partnership between the said Col. John Coxe and William Patterson, Esqr., were released by the heirs to the said William Patterson, Esqr., to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by an instrument bearing date the 20th day of July, 1799. Also one <740> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. other Tract of land belonging wholly to the Estate of the said Col. John Coxe, deceased, taken up in the name of William Rush. MATTHIAS BARTON, ESTHER BARTON. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ TENCH COXE TO GOVERNOR McKEAN. _ _ _ LAND OFFICE OF PA., October 3, 1800. SIR: I received from Luzerne, by the last mail, a newspaper containing an unpleasing evidence that some of the New England leading men still keep up their exertions to prevent the restoration of that County to tranquility & prosperity. Some plain facts and remarks had been communicated to the Comm'rs tending to produce just convictions in the minds of the Settlers and inducing them to make submissions. Since that paper was written and published by the Com'rs, as an extract from a letter from Lancaster to a person in Luzerne, there have been about fifty applications to the Connecticut men presented. A reply to the paper I refer to has been published in the Wilkesbarre Gazette of the 23d instant, and I have procured from Mr. Dickson a copy of it, sent to him by Mr. Wright, the printer, which I have now the honor to enclose. In regard to the papers referred to, as intercepted on their way from England, I have not the least remembrance or knowledge of them, or of any such fact. Col. Turbut Francis was dead nineteen years when they say they were sent to him by Cornelius Coxe. The Colonel died in 1777. The slander or defamation of our public and private title will, by its continuance, most certainly produce heavy injuries to the property of the State, and to the property of the Citizens. I beg leave to submit, sir, the question whether a suit should not be commenced against the writer, or if Mr. Wright refuses to give his name, then against the printer. Such peaceable measures will have very great effects. Whether it should be brought in the State or federal courts, if the bringing it there should be found legal on learning the Names, is a matter which may require reflexion. The concluding paragraph, but one, proves the importance of our succession in getting more than 40,000 acres of the same land, both released and submitted. They were prepared for cavilling on this point, it seems. <741> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. The petition of the sixty settlers in the late County of Allegany is this moment received and will be laid before the Board at their monthly meeting on Monday the 6th instant. The population of the Country over the Allegany, in the 42d degree of North latitude, has been of the utmost importance to check the progress of the Connecticut intrusion. A just and harmonious settlement of the warrant and occupant rights is very desirable. I am not accurately informed why the question of the Mandamus was not argued at the last term of the Supreme Court, for the notice to me was accepted in writing and our notes communicated to the Attorney General, who was prepared for the argument. I have the honor to be with perfect respect, sir, y'r mo. obed't and h'ble Servant, TENCH COXE, S. L. Office. _ _ _ _ _ _ REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE LAND OFFICE OF PENNSYLVANIA TO THE GOVERNOR, IN OBEDIENCE TO HIS DIRECTION OF THE 24TH OF OCTOBER, 1800. _ _ _ LAND OFFICE OF PENNA, November 1, 1800. The Secretary of the Land Office has the honor, respectfully, to Report to the Governor that after examining the inconvenient and unsafe apartments in which the numerous and valuable Books and papers under his charge were found on his appointment in January, he deemed it highly advisable to procure offices in a firm and secure building of Brick or stone. The eastern and western ends of the former office were made of wood, there was no hearth on which to rest a very large stove, which the form and exposure of the apartment required, and the pipe itself was necessarily passed into the outer air through one of the wooden sides of the building, where its mouth was so near to that wooden side as to render the destruction of the whole office highly probable in case of fire taking place in the pipe while the persons of the office were absent. The Books and papers were, therefore, removed into convenient brick apartments with safe chimneys and fire places in the latter end of June. <742> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. The numerous and manifest evils and complaints that arose from the great extent in which the clerks in this department were agents for individuals and associated owners of Land rights, and of tracts under incomplete, disputable, and even contested titles, influenced Land Officers to take effectual measures for the discontinuance of the practice in their respective offices. There is no reason to doubt that all the persons now employed as clerks Explicitly decline those agencies, and refrain from taking those liberal and dangerous compensations which formerly taxed the citizens contrary to the true meaning of the Law and led to pretexts for the delay of business. It resulted from this practice that the agencies for defective, questionable or disputed titles was found in the hands of those real officers of Government (the Land Office clerks) who partake in the receiving, filing, recording, safe-keeping, Exhibition, copying and authenticating the official evidences of the titles which they were engaged on the one hand to validate and on the other to annul. This great and inadmissible power effected all the executive business of the several offices and the Judicial proceedings of the Board of Property, whose Jurisdiction extends to the right of soil, public and private, of the whole State. Whenever this power was exercised it was against the Spirit and sometimes against the letter of the law of 1790, and it was understood in official communications that you expected from the principle officers a complete cure of the evil. The payments of moneys arising within this office are only required by law to be made quarterly, but as the want of a Bank at the seat of Government renders it unsafe to retain any considerable sum and the public service and credit is promoted by anticipated payments, the Secretary has adopted the practice of transmitting to the Treasurer the sums of money which from time to time are paid into his hands in the course of the Quarter. No inconvenience to the current business of the office has arisen from this measure, nor does any seem likely to arise, neither does it appear to have at all incommoded the three quarterly settlements which have been made with the department of accounts. As the legislative provision for clerks in this office was evidently insufficient at the same time to bring up the arrearages which had arisen before my appointment, and to keep up the arrangement and records of the business from the commencement of your government, The Secretary proceeded upon the plan he had the honor to submit to you and which was communicated to the Legislature in your special message of the <743> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 10th day of March last. A new set of Books and files have been accordingly commenced, beginning on the first day of January, 1800, and are always kept in such a state of completion that the exertions of a few days will bring them up to the instant time. But although it was evidently impossible with the clerkship funds to bring up the great and various arrears of business, both in the times of the Province and of the Commonwealth, yet it was evident that something considerable could be done towards that desirable and necessary end. It was a question duly considered whether the provincial or the State arrears should be the first object of attention. The great value of the improvements and Lands between the banks of the Delaware and the head of the Ohio, in the southern moiety of the State, and of the easternmost part of the northern moiety of the State induced a preference to the arrangement of the papers and the completion of the Records in relation to them. These were held under rights which originated principally in the time of the Province and were included in the several Indian purchases effected before the Revolution. Considerable progress has been made in this business. The original applications or entries of Land for ten years preceeding 1777 have been endorsed and filed. The returns made by the Surveyors General into this office for the purpose of patenting during the term of twenty-seven years have been selected from the miscellaneous collection of papers formerly represented to be in bags and packages and placed upon regular file. A considerable number of counterparts of proprietary patents and private, unclaimed conveyances have been also transferred from that mixed collection to places of separate and orderly arrangement. All the ancient instruments under the signature of William Penn and his descendants, which have relation to the establishment and settlement of Pennsylvania, have been passed from the packages of old papers and collected in a single case. Some progress has been made in other parts of the business, by which the remaining unordered proprietary papers are reduced to three packages. By these means the evidences of title requiring frequent searches are more easily examined and with a less Expense of time. It is expected that some further attention can be paid to these papers without interruption to the current business before the 15th of January next, when the Legislature has directed a Report to be made concerning the subject of the arrears of business existing at the time of the Secretary's appointment. There were in the office before the rising of the Legislature about 821 signed patents, on part of which the fees were said <744> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. to have been paid, on the remainder the fees appeared to be due. To disencumber the files of these instruments and to effect the collection of the office fees, a circular letter was transmitted to every person appearing to be an owner of any part of the Lands, whose residence could not be ascertained. In consequence thereof about 680 of those patents have been delivered and the fees have been received and credited so far as they appear to have been really unpaid. There yet remain in this office about 141 of the original parcel unpaid for and unclaimed. There were also on file ready for delivery a number of completed warrants. The same endeavours to disencumber the office and obtain the public fees has been made in regard to these instruments, as have been stated in respect to the patents. Little success, however, has yet attended those attempts. Besides the interior order of the office and the collection of revenue, there were other strong reasons for desiring that the completed warrants might be taken away by the owners, in order to be regularly located. Many persons under the existing settlement right may unwarily set down upon the Lands described in them, a foundation for numerous disputes may be laid, accompanied by embarrassing questions of alleged looseness of description and imputed latches; settlement of the property under the warrants is suspended, and that fair universability of public contribution is avoided, which is the best calculated to render taxation just, moderate and satisfactory in regard to individuals and duly productive to the Government. The want of an accurate knowledge of the Laws and of the official proceedings in regard to the ordinary settlement right has produced, in some instances, inconveniences and needless expense to the actual settlers, and in others pecuniary injuries to the Commonwealth. To obviate these disadvantages a mode of proceeding has been carefully digested, circulated, as occasion offered through the State, and introduced into many of the public newspapers. The paper A, a copy thereof is respectfully transmitted. It was not deemed expedient to give this paper a Directory form, nor to issue it under any express official authority. It was rather preferred to send it forth under the appearance of an advice grounded on correct information. It has been well understood, and pursued to the mutual benefit and convenience of the Commonwealth and the citizens concerned. It is necessary to observe that it was not meant for the settlers in the country North and West of Ohio, Allegheny and Conewango, where the improvements and residence are precisely defined and must be accordingly effected and evidenced. But as many of the settlements in that part of the <745> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. late county of Allegheny, both under regular warrant and mere settlement rights, are now maturing to the legal extent of five years, this paper may afford some useful direction. Other proceedings have also been adopted and will be pursued to indicate without prescribing a convenient mode by which both warrantee settlers and mere settlers may obtain confirmation of their titles by patents. It has been recently in the power of the Board of Property to exhibit in the course of a regular proceeding in an existing case, some of the steps which an actual settler and improver in the settlement country in the late county of Allegheny without purchased warrant, may pursue to mature his title to final confirmation by patent. It has been deemed expedient by all the members of the Board to suffer this case to be published for the information of persons in anyway concerned. It is probable that other matters of the like useful nature may occur, the publication of which may contribute to simplify and harmonize a business which might without due attention become complicated and discordant. In conformity with the spirit of the proceedings of the Board in some cases of original warrantees, and with his own conviction, the Secretary of the Land Office gave in the month of August an official refusal to issue patents to the owners of certain warrants for Lands in the settlement country of the late county of Allegheny upon the ground of a deficiency of proof of settlement, improvement, cultivation and continued residence. This act was intended by the Land Office and the party concerned, to lay the foundation for an amicable petition of the assigns of the warrantees to the Supreme Court for a mandamus to the Secretary. Notice of the assigned day was served and accepted in writing. Notes exhibiting in detail all the grounds of the Judgments of the Board and of the act of the Secretary were transmitted in season to the Attorney General and the Secretary, with an understanding of the counsel on both sides, left the matter upon the Exhibition in those notes to the learning of the Attorney General and the wisdom of the court. It is, however, understood that the argument on the petition for a mandamus was postponed till the December Term. As a favorable issue to the warrantees application appears to be uncertain, as they sustain inconveniences from the want of Patents, as the western frontier from the northern to the southern boundary is very strong, as there is no Indian war and as the completion of the titles may be judged on consideration more conducive to further and complete settlement than the present state of things the idea of Legislative relief under <746> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. a prudent and constitutional modification is respectfully suggested. This office has been more productive of revenue in the lapsed part of the current year than it was in the year 1798. For while the fees received during that year amounted only to 4205 dollars and 3 cents, the actual receipts from the first of January, 1800, have already been 5387 dollars and 11 cents, and there is due for new patents ready to be delivered about 184 dollars more, making the gross revenue of the office about 5571 dollars for ten months. In a comparison with the receipts of 1799, excluding Patents issued upon principles which are not now deemed legal by the Board the revenue of 1800, is also much superior. The whole business of the Connecticut submissions, of which authenticated copies have been furnished to the Commissioners, for 300 Lots and tracts out of a large part of the Pennsylvania releases of Luzerne Lands, of which authenticated copies have also been furnished, a great number of useful and necessary documents for that service, a letter book never before kept in this offie, containing two hundred and ten folio pages of correspondence on the Luzerne and general business, the preparation of about 1070 new patents and the recording and other business of the Board of Property, which is actually trebled, have been accomplished. The fund for clerkships in this office is now at the rate of eight hundred dollars per annum less than it was in the preceeding years; the great emoluments of the clerks authorized by law which were then received, have been abolished. The proceedings under the laws of April 4, 1799, and March 15, 1800, in relation to the seventeen Townships of Luzerne, cannot be included with advantage in this Report, because the season is unfinished; The recent and most important leases of the Pennsylvanians are not reduced to order, and the spirit of submission on the part of the Connecticut men, ensures the reception of numerous instruments of submission, some of which though actually made have not yet reached this Office, and others of which are executed before 1801, upon the most certain information. It may be satisfactory in the mean time to state summarily, that from the wisdom, beneficence and energy of the Government, no interruption or impediment to the proceedings in Luzerne have taken place, and that the sanction of the Territorial and jurisdictional rights of Pennsylvania, by the unanimous concurrence of all the powers and interests in the general Government, the consequent abandonment of all claim upon Pennsylvania and New York by the Legislature and Executive of Connecticut, the lapse of the limitation for <747> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. proceedings in error in the case of Vanhorne against Dorrance, the open acceptance by Connecticut of a grant of soil from Congress within the known limits of their abandoned South Sea pretension, the liberal release of many of the best Lands by the Pennsylvanians to accommodate the actual settlers before the Trenton decree of 1782, the names, characters and stations of the Connecticut submitters of their pretension, the purchases and applications for Lands by the same submitters under the title and jurisdiction of Pennsylvania, the great increase of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and New England farmers upon Pennsylvania titles within the limits of the exploded Connecticut grants, and various other circumstances which a special Report will shortly exhibit, afford the most certain ground of confidence that the injuries and indignities sustained by Pennsylvania from the Connecticut intrusion, will, by the energy of our Government and by its kindness, be made to surcease. It has been the sincere desire and unremitted endeavor of all the members of the board of Property to accomplish the most liberal and effectual execution of the beneficent plan of the Legislature in favor of the Connecticut claimants of which the laws admit. The result promises by every past fact and present appearance to issue in a manner highly profitable to the submitters, honorable and beneficial to the Government and citizens of Pennsylvania and favorable to public harmony, order and Government. The business of the Board of Property has appeared to all the members of the greatest consequence to the tranquility, reputation and landed property of the State. It has, therefore, been their united and steady endeavour to infuse into its proceedings, new energy, regularity and correctness. The adoption of a book of rough minutes, to be afterward recorded therefrom, has appeared preferable to the former mode, a hearing docket has been judged necessary. The collection and deliberate establishment of well grounded precedents, so important in all tribunals, has been held in view, the transfer of their sittings from an apartment separated from all the four several offices into one under the same roof, with the most central office, the presence of the whole board as far as possible at all hearings, a recognition of the organization of the board itself in conformity with the order of appointment in the constitutional law of the 8th of January, 1791, more uninterrupted sittings in the monthly terms, and a great consequent success in the dispatch of a threefold quantity of business, are the principal alterations and improvements which <748> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. have taken place within the judicial sphere of the board of property, or in the executive business of the Secretary connected with his membership in and relations to that board. The Secretary takes the liberty to observe that some ideas have occurred to him which promise to be conducive to the public convenience and interests in relation to the Land Offices themselves, the freehold property of this State, the public Lands remaining unsold, and the unsatisfied rights of individuals; but as those subjects do not appear to have been included in the instructions for this report, he omits to enlarge upon them, and has the honor, respectfully, to submit this communication concerning those subjects alone, which appear to have been in the contemplation of the Governor. TENCH COXE, Secretary of the Land Office. _ _ _ _ _ _ REPORT OF THE SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNOR. _ _ _ LAND OFFICE OF PENNSYLVANIA, December the 8th, 1800. Report of the Secretary of the Land Office to the Governor, concerning the progress made in the execution of the acts of the General Assembly of the fourth day of April, 1799, and of the 15th day of March, 1800, offering compensation to the Pennsylvania claimants of Lands within the seventeen Townships of Luzerne County, and for other purposes. The Secretary of the Land Office, in obedience to the instruction of the Governor, of the 24th of October last, has the honor to Report, that notice of the release of 40,000 acres of Land by the Pennsylvania Owners, and of the submissions of 40,000 acres by the Connecticut Claimants, was transmitted to Isaac Whelen, Thomas Boude and William Irvine, Esquires, on the 8th day of February; there were prepared in this office and ready for the Commissioners, Copies, certified under hand and seal, of all the instruments of application and submission of the Connecticut settlers, which were received before the departure of the Commissioners for Wilkesbarre, amounting to about 151, and being for about 236 separate lots and tracts. There were also prepared or procured for the use of the Commissioners, Copies of the two Acts of Assembly of the decree of the Federal Court at Trenton, of the 30th day of December, <749> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 1782, a draft, though not authentic, of the seventeen Townships, the report to the House of Representatives, with the schedules, essays of forms of oaths of single title and of acts of acknowledgement for the Connecticut settlers. There were also prepared, principally by the present Surveyor General, certified copies of the returns of Surveys of all the tracts whereof the originals could be found on the files of that office. Exemplifications of all the Pennsylvania releases, which had then been executed, were prepared by the master of the Rolls. The commissioners departed for Wilkesbarre with all the papers which seemed to them or to the Land officers useful or necessary. A public notification was issued by the Secretary of the Land Office, at the request of the Commissioners, informing all persons concerned that the business would be commenced at Wilkesbarre between the 25th and 30th of June. In the course of the summer additional submissions of Connecticut settlers and releases of the Pennsylvanians were received at the Land Office, and copies of them were transmitted to the Commissioners at Luzerne, in the same or an equally authentic manner. A correspondence took place calculated to quicken the proceedings of the Pennsylvanians and Connecticut men to remove difficulties and to facilitate the operations of the Commissioners. The number of Pennsylvania releases, their names and the quantity of land released, will appear as particularly and fully as circumstances will admit from the abstract (Z.) accompanying this report. To give the whole result in one view, the quantity which the Secretary had the honor to report to the House of Representatives on the 13th of February last, is introduced into the abstract. Some of the Pennsylvania instruments being general so as to comprehend all the releasers lands in the seventeen Townships. The quantity cannot be at this time more precisely stated, But from the great success which has attended the exertions made under the last act (of 1800), there appears no reason to doubt that the Lands within the 17 Townships, settled under the Connecticut pretensions before the decree of Trenton, are placed within the reach of those who are disposed to submit dutifully to the Government of Pennsylvania. It is a fact, honorable to the moderation of the Pennsylvanians, that with a few exceptions (some of which are particularly circumstanced), they have conveyed their Lands to the State, so far as it has been in their power. Minorities and other disabilities will be surmounted under the 4th section of the Act of the 4th of April, 1799. Some of them perhaps may <750> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. be deemed to require further Legislative indulgence in point of time. Equal success has attended the efforts of the Officers to convince the Connecticut settlers of the danger and inexpediency of persevering in non-submission. They have no doubt also received the proper impressions from the implied abandonment of the claim to the soil which palpably follows the acceptance of the Congressional grant of soil by Connecticut. The formal recognition of the decree of Trenton, as final and conclusive, by the Connecticut and other members of the Federal Legislature, in that of Congress of the 4th of April last, has had no doubt a decided influence upon their minds, and they have probably discovered the fallacy of relying upon a private right of soil granted by Connecticut, when a decree, now admitted to be final and conclusive, establishes unalterably the fact that Connecticut had no right of soil to grant to their Susquehanna and Delaware Land Companies. If the paramount claim totally fails, all claims under it must also fail. These and other considerations appear to have operated upon the great body of the Connecticut claimants within the seventeen Townships, under their grants prior to the Decree of Trenton. But one submission was made in 1799, a number were made between the last of the year and that passing of the Act of Congress. But the submissions received since that law greatly exceed those made before. As they have been continued into the present month, additional instruments may be received before 1801, when the opportunity will cease. At present there appears to have been submissions for 526 lots and tracts 151, 3 and 1/3 acres of Land. As there has appeared but one rash opponent to the law who discovered no symptoms of combination and who was arrested and committed. As the names of nearly all the considerable settlers whose lands are in the Townships are found upon the list of subscribers; as the quantity submitted is so considerable and more expected, there is reason to believe that very few who have those ancient claims will be found in January to have omitted a prudent and dutiful submission. In addition to the information contained in the report of the commissioners, it has been understood in conferences with some of them, that the lines of ten Townships have been run and part of the lines of an eleventh; that about seventy Pennsylvania tracts have been resurveyed under their orders, and that thirty or forty have been examined and valued. The procuring of Explanations, information and Acts preparatory to settlements, are objects of daily attention with the Pennsylvanians, and every Act conducive to the same ends has <751> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. been and will be the subject of attention with the Connecticut settlers through the Commissioners or otherwise authenticated copies. Additional submissions received the present month, are in preparation and will be finished in a few days; new submissions will receive similar attention. The secretary has the honor to assure the Governor that every other step which can enable the Commissioners to resume the business with convenience, effect and in the earliest part of the season, will be pursued in the Land Office department. From the facts stated in this Report, it will be perceived that the Government of Pennsylvania will effect a general and satisfactory adjustment with the actual settlers before the Decree of Trenton. This procedure is eminently entitled to the character of liberality on the part of Pennsylvania, because those persons went on the Lands contrary to notice, because the paramount claim of Connecticut has been unalterably adjudged not to be founded on any right, because the Federal judiciary has given a decision against the private right of soil after considering the inter alia, the plea under the Pennsylvania confirming law, because no subordinate and derivative claim to a private right of soil as in the Susquehanna or Delaware Company, or their members, grantees or settlers, can ever be established in the Courts of law against the absolute final and unalterable decision that their paramount and grantor had no right of soil or jurisdiction. Under circumstances so plain and so strong, it is with equal regret and surprize that the secretary finds the doctrine to be openly and explicitly maintained, that the Connecticut claim and title to all the Lands submitted are just, real and of full force. It has appeared to be an indispensable duty, respectfully to represent that this unlawful and pernicious doctrine is countenanced and maintained in a quarter, where, judging from past events, it appears to threaten the most injurious consequences to the Treasury, the population and the general prosperity of the State. Note of Contents of abstract Z.: 33 Pennsylvania releases and applications for 129,524 acres and 89 perches, besides the Lands contained in sundry general releases. (Signed) T. C. Sec. Land Office. <752> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. TENCH COXE TO GOVERNOR McKEAN. _ _ _ LAND OFFICE OF PENNSYLVANIA, December 10, 1800. SIR: While the Commissioners were in Luzerne an extract from a letter of mine to them was published, which was calculated to induce the Connecticut people to make and expedite their submissions. It was written in August, since which numerous submissions have been made. I am therefore satisfied that the publication has done no harm, but may have done good. It was hoped and expected that it would operate in Luzerne and New England to prevent persons of property, character and information from engaging in the Connecticut intrusion in future. I left the Commissioners at liberty to publish or not, as they might think proper, and it was also committed to their discretion to give the letter as a private or public communication to a friend or to themselves. They published it as a private letter. John Franklin, Esquire, the late and present representative of Luzerne, soon after published a reply, which I have the honor to send you. I have been assured that he was the writer and he has avowed it to me here. I have the honor to enclose the paper to you. In regard to the personalities I am not disposed to take any further notice of them than to observe that the Attornies and agents for this State and for the Pennsylvanians, are at liberty to show any papers I have ever delivered to any of them, and that I never have known of any paper favorable to the Connecticut title but what has been produced, so far as I can remember or believe I have never suppressed any. I have told Mr. Franklin that I wish for an inquiry, that I do not admit or remember any such papers, and that I entirely disbelieve what he has stated in regard to an original Indian Deed. I do not find receipt of Mr. Wilson's. The view with which I do myself the honor to transmit this paper is as follows: The laws of Pennsylvania and of the United States contemplate the people of this Commonwealth as the true and absolute proprietaries of the Lands within the charter bounds and the subsequent acts and grants of Virginia, Congress, etc. They hold every private citizen and every public functionary of the State bound to refrain from violating and defaming, and to support and maintain the territorial rights of the State. <753> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. Public functionaries are bound by double obligations and by an higher duty than private citizens. This paper appears to me a violation of Mr. Franklin's several obligations as a citizen and a member of the legislature. He openly maintains the validity of the Connecticut title to the soil of Luzerne and Wayne Counties, etc. Investigation probably would prove him to be an agent. He admits that he has been an agent and it is otherwise known. Viewing him as a legislator his conduct is extremely dangerous and deeply pernicious. The State is about to pay the difference of 3 Dls., etc., p. acre upon a large quantity of Land, which expensive measure and all the acts of the legislatures and Courts of the Union and the States, Mr. Franklin asserts, do and will avail nothing as to the lands which the Connecticut men shall not submit. He dwells upon the legal distinction concerning the private right of soil, when every political and civil disquisition of his conduct will contemplate that Idea in relation to him personally, as mere ingenuity and finesse. The private owners of the soil are left to their mere opportunity of a legal trial, which must, however, eventuate against them, because the paramount claim of Connecticut is conclusively established to be utterly invalid. The secondary derivative titles of the Susquehannah and Delaware Companies and of their grantees must fail, since the body politic, claiming to have been their paramount lords of the Fee (their State) are finally and conclusively adjudged to have "no right." Our laws certainly will not so respect their pretension as to suffer our citizens and legislators to defame and promote opposition to the territorial rights of the State and of those holding under it, which they consider as absolute. The members of the Legislature hold an important and solemn trust, including the object in question. Submitting to your consideration, Sir, whether any and what measures should be taken in this case, I have the honor to be, with perfect respect, sir, your most obed't and most humble Servant, TENCH COXE. The Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 48-VOL. XVIII. <754> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. MESSRS. COOPER AND TAYLOR TO ANDREW ELLICOTT. _ _ _ To ANDREW ELLICOTT, Esquire, Secretary of the Land Office: SIR: A difficulty has occurred to us relative to the Pennsylvania titles in Huntingdon, which, on consideration, appears to us more proper to be decided by the Board of Property in the first instance than by us. Under the existing Laws it is impossible for us to ascertain the line of division between the Counties of Northumberland and Luzerne. Two acts of the legislature were passed to fix the course of the dividing line from the mouth of Nescopeck; and under one of the Acts the former Commissioners (Messrs. Montgomery, Pickering and Balliot) ran a part of the line, but not the whole, and altho' they were authorized to give Certificates to the Settlers unto the County line, it does not appear that they were sufficiently authorized to run it. For the purpose of ascertaining, if possible, the line to which we should think ourselves authorized to grant similar Certificates, we cause a line to be run from Nescopeck Creek in the course directed by the Act, and another from the same place to a Tree, which under a late Act for ascertaining the boundary line between Lycoming and Northumberland, Mr. McClay and his associates had fixed as a corner of the three Counties. This latter line, from Nescopeck to the Tree just mentioned, deviates about nine degrees West from the course prescribed by the Act. Thus circumstanced, and finding no line whatever settled by any competent authority, between Luzerne and Northumberland, and finding also that the Inhabitants of Huntingdon Township have uniformly been claimed and taxed, and voted as belonging to Luzerne County, and being also of opinion that the spirit and intent of the Laws under which we act, required that township, as one of the 17, to be included in the Compromise, we have thought fit to give Certificates to the Connecticut Settlers throughout the Township, and to consider it as included in the meaning of the Act of Apl. 4, 1799. THOMAS COOPER, JNO. M. TAYLOR. <755> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. SAMUEL BAIRD TO MR. MUHLENBERG. _ _ _ STOWE, December 28, 1800. SIR: I had intended to have given to the Commissioners a draft of the Connecticut surveys of a part of Wilkesbarre township, and made some remarks thereon, but I learn that they have separated without fixing upon any time for meeting again. The business, therefore, if it comes before the Legislature this session, may be taken up at a time when they are not at Lancaster; and as I have had the pleasure of an acquaintance with you for some years past and experienced your friendship, and as it will be a part of your official duty as a member of the Board of Property to assist in executing the law of Apl. 4, 1799, I have taken the liberty of forwarding the draft and a few remarks to you. I must repeat it here that the politeness and attention shewn me by the Commissioners has been such that it would give me the greatest uneasiness if I thought this would give them the least offense, but I cannot believe it will. With respect to the proper mode of making out the separate drafts for the returns, I must request the favour of you to write me a few lines advising me of the manner under all the circumstances of part released and part not released. That part out of the old Pennsylvania surveys I presume I have nothing to do with at present. A few of the triangles formed by the lines of the Connecticut surveys and the lines of the tracts that are not released, are calculated and the quantity put into them. Can it be supposed that patents will be applied for for these small spots? Is separate patents to issue for every lot or part of a lot? If so, the patenting fees and surveying fees will be in some cases treble the cost of the land. Take for instance the town lots, many of which do not contain more than one-third of an acre, and some not so much, the valuation cannot exceed two dollars p. acre. The lots in the Shawany flats were, I believe, originally but 20a. and are many of them since subdivided. Some of the triangles above mentioned, as you may see by the draft, do not contain two acres. Mr. Crothers has a general draft of the North East branch of Susquehannah, with all the surveys made as well as those before as those since the Revolution on the east side from Lackawanack to the State line, as he is at present a little out of humor from his loosing his appointment as Deputy Surveyor, <756> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. he will not give it up. But I have no doubt, from the friendship that has ever subsisted, as you will know between him and myself, that I could get his permission to copy so much of it as would be necessary for the commissioners. It was from him that I got the drafts of the old surveys on the River, from Buttermilk falls Creek to the line which I have given to the Commissioners. If I had a copy of this draft I could add to it some that I have below Lackawanack, and some on the west side of the river, that I procured from other sources; and with a permission to obtain such copies from the surveyor General's office as I would want, I could, I believe, prepare such a general draft as would completely answer the purpose. A very general knowledge of the river from the State line down, from my having surveyed on different parts of it and through that county in 1792, '93 and '94, would assist me much in the business. I am of opinion it would be a very desirable thing for the Board of Property to have a compleat draft of each township with all the Pennsylvania surveys laid down and destinguished, those made before the Revolution, those made under the Act of 1784 and those since 1792, the Board would certainly then have the subject before them more fully. You will conclude, from all this, that I want employ. It is true I would rather be employed than idle. But I have myself unavoidably spent so much time last season and knew so much spent by the other surveyors, whilst we were accompanied by chain bearers and axmen in searching for surveys, that I well know the expence was considerable and must continue to be so unless something of this kind can be procured, besides there is nothing more disagreeable to a surveyor, or at least to me, than to be two or three days in the woods searching for lines or corners, and then to return and report that they cannot be found. I wish to see a remedy to this and have proposed that plan if it should be thought proper to employ me in it. I consider myself as writing to you merely as an acquaintance and as such requesting your advice respecting the separate drafts. Nothing, therefore, can be considered as official or out of the regular channels, and you will please to give it only that construction. I have added the manner in which the Connecticut titles were acquired, as this also becomes a consideration, as they are to be decided on under the act. If in doing this I have been too prolix and gone too far back it was merely with a wish of being perfectly understood. I am, sir, with sentiments of respect, your obed't Serv., SAM. BAIRD. FREDERICK A. MUHLENBERG, Esq. <757> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. MEETING OF PENNSYLVANIA CLAIMANTS OR OWNERS OF LANDS, HELD AT DUNWOODY'S IN 1801. _ _ _ MEETING AT DUNWOODY'S, January 10, 1801. At a meeting of owners of land in the counties of Luzerne, Wayne, Lycoming, Northumberland and Northampton, a memorial to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, on the subject of lawless intrusions on lands in those counties, was read, discussed, etc.: MEETING, April 9, 1801. 1. Resolved, That in order to obtain the beneficial effects which may be expected to result from the acts of Assembly passed for the purpose of preventing and removing certain unlawful intrusions on lands in the counties of Wayne, Northampton, Luzerne, Northumberland and Lycoming, it is necessary that the land-holders form themselves into an association. 2. Resolved, That the subscribers will pay in proportion to the amount of land held in those parts of the counties aforesaid, subject to the former claim of the State of Connecticut, or certain companies or persons claiming under that State. Subscribers to the Association. Acres. Allibone, Thomas, 1,200 Burd, Edward, 8,800 Bingham, William, 300,000 Bell, William, 1,800 Bond, Williamina, 30,000 Bond, Phineas, 20,000 Bartholomew, Edward, and J. Patton, 3,600 Buckley, William, 9,500 Buckley, William, and William Parkinson, 3,000 Busti, Paul, for Holland Land Company, 20,000 Binney, Horace, for self and heirs of Dr. Binney, 6,000 Clifford, Thomas, and John, 5,000 Clymer, George, 8,000 Chancellor, William, & Co., 5,000 Dunwoody, John, 6,000 Drinker, Henry, for self and others, 150,000 Davis, John, 3,300 Field, John, 12,000 <758> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. Acres. Self and estate of Daniel Williamson, 3,000 Francis, Thomas W., for Francis, Ann, and family, 100,000 Fox, Samuel M., for self and others, 36,000 Fox, George and Samuel M., 4,000 Hollingworth, Levi, 2,400 Howell, Samuel, 7,000 Hodgdon, Samuel, 5,000 Harrison, Thomas, 5,000 Kuhn, Adam, 7,000 Lewis, Josiah, 6,000 Latimer, George, 15,000 Latimer, William, 1,300 McPherson, William, 5,000 McEwen, Thomas, & Co., 25,000 Meredith, Samuel, 80,000 Meeker, Samuel, 6,000 Marshall, Christopher, Ex'r to Thomas Paschal, 16,000 For self and William Crammond, Adam Kuhn, and assignees of Joseph Thomas, 45,000 Peters, Richard, 20,000 Pickering, Timothy, 10,000 Pleasants, Samuel, 7,000 Rhoads, Samuel, 10,000 Rush, Benjamin, 2,400 Sharpless, Jesse, 10,000 Sergeant, William, for estate of Sergeant, J. D. 6,500 Sergeant, William, 1,000 Strawbridge, James, 30,000 Smith, Robert, 4,000 Singer, Abram, for Richard Rundle, 2,200 Tilghman, Edward, 75,000 Turnbull, William, 4,000 Travis, John, 5,000 Tilghman, William, 2,800 Warder, Jeremiah, Parker & Co., 20,000 White, William, 12,000 Wells, Gideon H., 10,000 Waln, Robert, for self and others, 50,000 Wharton, Isaac, 36,000 Wharton & Lewis, 24,000 Wharton, Joseph, 7,000 ________ Total acres, 1,310,800 ======== <759> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. The association organized by the election of the following officers: Samuel Hodgdon, President; Samuel M. Fox, Treasurer; John Ewing, junior, Secretary. At a meeting of the association held April 13, 1801, Resolved, That Edward Tilghman retain Daniel Smith, Charles Hall, Ebenezer Bowman, Putnam Catlin and Rosewell Welles, as counsel for the landholders in all civil and criminal proceedings in reference to their lands. _ _ _ At a meeting held at Lancaster, February 17, 1802, an estimate was made of the probable amount necessary to be expended by the association to carry the intrusion law into effect, which is as follows: Agents' salaries, $1,200 00 Deputy for Luzerne and Wayne, 900 00 Deputy for Lycoming, 450 00 Expenses in binding over witnesses and extra pay for subpoeaning them, 500 00 Stationery and other necessary expenses, 150 00 ________ $3,200 00 ========= _ _ _ _ _ _ _ MEMORIAL OF CONSTANT SEARLS AND OTHERS. _ _ _ [Read January 12, 1801.] To the Honorable the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Petition of the Subscribers, Inhabitants of the County of Luzerne, most respectfully showeth: That they live on portions of Land in the County aforesaid taken up under the Claim of Connecticut, before the Decree of Trenton, commonly called and denominated Pitches. Those Pitches are situate between and adjacent to what are called the seventeen Townships, included in the provisions of the Act of Assembly passed the 4th of April, 1799, and contain from one to six hundred acres each. On this description of Land your Petitioners were seated in the early settlement of this Country and stand in Common with their fellow Adventurers settled in the seventeen Townships all the calamities that this quarter, <760> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. from a savage foe, experienced thro' the late Revolutionary war. Their history and sufferings had reached the ear of a former Legislature and hence their Act of March 17, '87, confirming their several farms and the farms of others upon certain Conditions therein mentioned to them and their Heirs, &c., forever. With these conditions, as far as was practicable, your Petitioners promptly complied. But to their great disappointment the Powers of the Commissioners carrying the said Act into Execution were suddenly suspended, the Act itself repeal'd and everything done under it declared to be null and void. One of the principles, and in fact the true Reason assigned for its repeal, was that the Act itself was unconstitutional, inasmuch as that without their consent the property of one class of Citizens was taken and given to another. If this was a reason sufficient for withholding a further sanction to the claims of your Petitioners, they are happy in believing that no such obstacle at this time exists. From a belief that your Petitioners land lay within the seventeen Townships, their adversaries willing to receive the compensation offered by the Commonwealth for lands in the said Township, have released their titles and their right is now vested in the State or maybe if it should meet the pleasure of the Legislature. Your Petitioners, therefore, as an opportunity now presents in which the Commonwealth may do that justice in the Act of March, '87, so solemnly pledged, we pray your honorable Body to make a law whose provisions may insure to your Petitioners a title to their lands upon the terms in the said Act of March, '87 specifyed, and they as in duty bound will ever pray, CONSTANT SEARLS, ELEAZER ATHERTON, JAMES ABBOTT, DANIEL SCOTT, PHEBEE ABBOTT, CORNELIUS ATHERTON, Natural Gardean to the JOHN ATHERTON, Heirs of I. Corey. NATHAN HALL, BENJAMIN PEDRICK, JOHN CHAMBERLAIN, DANIEL PEDRICK, AUTHUR ECKE, JOSHUA PEDRICK, JOSHUA BEDNET, ROSEWELL WELLES, Execut'r to Elipha. Harvey, Deceased, and Guardean to his Heirs. <761> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. INSTRUCTIONS TO THE SURVEYORS. _ _ _ July 4, 1801. General instruction to the Surveyors acting under the Commissioners appointed under an "act for offering compensation to Pennsylvania claimants." You will attend particularly to the accurate chaining of all the lines you run. You will have every line well blazed and opened, and mark a tree or set a post at every 40 perches, so that the Commissioners may have less trouble in valuing the Lands, pursuant to the act. You will particularly note the crossing of fences and streams, with their bearings as near as you can ascertain, and when any of the Connecticut lots are crossed by the lines of the Pennsylvania surveys, you will mark the intersection by a corner well ascertained. You will make particular remarks on every change of soil and timber as you go along, as also the rise and fall of the Hills, Rocky ground, &c. You will report every week, or as often as convenient, the work done, with a true copy of your field notes that they may be regularly planned. _ _ _ _ _ _ DEPOSITION OF ANDERSON DANA. _ _ _ WILKESBARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY, July 24, 1801. Before me, Jesse Fell, Esquire, one of the Associate Judges of the County of Luzerne, personally appeared Anderson Dana, of Wilkesbarre, aforesaid, who being duly sworn upon the holy gospels, deposeth and saith that he well knew Asa Stephens, who originally drew the Town lot number 7 in the Lottery made for the disposal of lots in the s'd Town of Wilkesbarre, and that he hath been married to Sarah, a Daughter of the said Asa Stephens, during eleven Years or there about. That by an order of the orphans' court sometime in the fall of the Year 1791, in consequence of the death of the said Asa Stephens, <762> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. Partition was made of his property among his children, and a certain part of lot No. 7, aforesaid, was allotted to his widow, Sarah Stephens; That after the death of Sarah Stephens the children of Asa Stephens, the elder deceased, met together and agreed to divide the lot assigned by the Jury of Partition aforesaid, unto Sarah Stephens as her dower, among them by mutual and verbal agreement; that this Deponent was present at the said meeting in consequence of having inter-married with Sarah Stephens aforesaid; that at this meeting the whole of the lot, a share which by the Jury of Partition was assigned as dower to Sarah Stephens, the widow, was by mutual consent divided and the one-half thereof divided lengthways was assigned to this Deponent, of which he hath ever since been in Possession, and the other half thereof was assigned to Polly Stephens, who exchanged the same with her Brother, Asa Stephens, but no writing passed: that the said Asa Stephens continued in possession of the half of the dower lot of Sarah Stephens, deceased, being that half immediately adjoining on the portion of the original lot, which contains 72 36/100 perches each, until he sold a quarter of an acre of the same unto one, Daniel Stiles, and the remainder thereof unto Thomas Wright, as this deponent hath long understood and believes; That the portion thereof thus sold to Thomas Wright containing, as this Deponent hath understood and believes, about one-sixth part of the original lot of 3 1/2 acres, deducting therefrom the quarter of an acre before sold by Asa Stephens, the son, to Daniel Stiles. That at this meeting of the children and heirs of Asa Stephens, deceased, when the dower lot of Asa Stephens was, as aforesaid, verbally agreed to be divided among them, and when the share now occupied by Daniel Stiles and Thomas Wright was by such agreement allotted to Polly Stephens, Abigail, one of the Daughters (now Abigail Fawcett), was not present, but this Deponent hath understood and believes that she and her husband have both since acceded to such verbal Partition and that possession hath been thereof accordingly had, as aforesaid, and farther this deponent saith not. ANDERSON DANA. Sworn and Subscribed before me. JESSE FELL. October 3, 1801. Anderson Dana, in further explanations of the above Deposition as relating to a claim of Arnold Colt to part of back lot No. 47, being present before me, Thos. Cooper, one of the Commissioners, &c., declares that the verbal Partition above recited of the Dower Share of Sarah Stevens after her decease extended <763> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. also to her Dower Share in back lot No. 47, whereof one-half was allotted at such division to Jonathan Stevens, the other half of the back lot was allotted to Abigail Fawcett. THOMAS COOPER. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ JURISDICTION AND STATE'S RIGHT OF SOIL. _ _ _ [The following article from a newspaper at Lancaster, was printed in Broadside for distribution among the settlers in Wyoming. It is probable Part II was never printed. The date is about 1802.] Connecticut Claim. Part 1. Jurisdiction and State's Right of Soil. The Decree of Trenton establishes from the beginning the right of jurisdiction or government, and the right of pre-emption or soil in the state of Pennsylvania, as to all the lands within our charter bounds. It may be justly and legally considered to extend further than the pre-emption; for Connecticut was adjudged to have no right to the lands in controversy, and those lands expressly included their "possessions," as well as claims. Their legislature had attempted to establish a county in Pennsylvania about the year 1775, above one hundred and ten years after the date of their charter, but has never since the decree of Trenton in 1782, pretended to maintain that old county or to erect any new county. That state has never made application to Pennsylvania or congress, or to the federal courts for any new trial of the question of soil or government, nor has Connecticut sinc emade or attempted any purchase of the native Indians within Pennsylvania, nor to sell any pre-emption right or rights of soil within our limits. On the contrary, the government of Connecticut, yielding to the trials of all the possible principles before the federal courts in 1782 and 1795, and the confirmations of both decisions, has formally declared the decree of Trenton to be a final and conclusive settlement, and abandoned all claim, both to soil and jurisdiction, by a regular sealed instrument, signed by their governor, under the authority of a special act of their legislature and filed among the records of the United States, in the department of state, in the year 1800, by order of the president and congress. Thus all the pretended right of the state of Connecticut is established to have been a nullity in law and fact, from the begin- <764> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. ning. It is indeed wonderful how the province and state of Connecticut could ever expose themselves to the dishonor of setting up this claim on Pennsylvania after such neglect or laches, after derelictions. Altho' the first title they pretended to have was in 1632, and the last in 1662, which is the present charter, yet they never set up a pretence to any part of Pennsylvania till 1773, which was 140 years after the first title to their present state, and 111 years after their existing charter. Besides, in a dispute in the year 1664 with New York (which was conquered after their charter by Great Britain, from the Dutch, who had settled in the country from Long-island to Albany), they agreed by commissioners, one of whom was their governor, that the creek or river Mamoronick and northwest, to the line of Massachusetts, should be the western bounds of the colony of Connecticut. This agremeent was formally confirmed by their legislature. It was only two years after the date of their charter, and was signed by Mr. Winthrop, who obtained that charter. That agreement shews they then considered their western boundary to be near and about the west lines of their present counties of Litchfield and Fairfield. In the year 1751, which was 87 years after their formal admission of their western bound in the compact with New York, they erected the present county of Litchfield, which actually lies in the northwestern corner of their state, and is described in the law as being in "the northwestern part of their colony." This was just before the Susquehanna association and attempt to purchase of the Indians. These were in 1753 and 1754. A few days before the Susquehanna company made their pretended purchase in 1754, the Indians had recognized and confirmed their agreement of A. D. 1736, not to sell but to Pennsylvania. The congress of 1754 at Albany had resolved that purchases should not be made by the Indians. This was two days before, and Connecticut was represented in that congress. The deed produced by the Connecticut company from the Indians, was written on a rasure in the descriptive part, and was written with various inks and very disorderly in its dates. It was made without any authority whatever, either from the crown, from Connecticut or from Pennsylvania. Connecticut gave that deed not even a pretended sanction until October, 1782, after the dispute arose, and was submitted in writing in August, 1782, and then had no power, for she had no right of pre-emption or jurisdiction, or if she had possessed the power it could not be exercised retrospectively against Pennsylvania, a fair purchaser, nor after she had submitted all her claims and possessions. When the Susquehanna company first pretended <765> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. to have bought from the Indians, they appointed a committee in the same year, 1754, to draft an application to the king for a confirmation of their unlawful purchase and for a charter, making no pretence of any right in Connecticut. Afterwards they applied to Connecticut, which did not attempt to grant, but merely recommended them to the king. A Mr. Hazard had first applied to Connecticut in a similar way. They would not intermeddle, but referred him to the king. Mr. Hazard described this land as 100 miles west of Pennsylvania, recognizing our charter in 1753 or 4. It was very reasonable, and all that could decently and lawfully be done for Connecticut. They had admitted their western bounds to be at Mamoronick, and described Litchfield as their northwestern county in 1664 and 1751. The laches or total neglect of Connecticut and of all persons claiming under her, to do anything whatever concerning her modern pretensions on the west side of Delaware from 1632 and 1662, to the date of the pretended Indian deed in 1754, is a length of neglect or laches, which in law, destroys the strongest title. Sixty years is fatal to any title. Her neglect was 110 years from the date of her present charter in 1662, to their application to Pennsylvania in 1772. That was the first step. Neither she nor her citizens have ever commenced suit. Both the great suits, as to the public and private right, were brought forward on the part of Pennsylvania. Connecticut tried to avoid the Trenton trial in 1782, but congress enforced it. These are important facts, for sixty years quiet possession gave title throughout the British dominions and territories, in Europe and in America. This point is clear and decisive in favor of the Pennsylvania title, and conclusive against the claim of Connecticut, independent of all others. If the title of Connecticut had been good and valid at the date of their charter of 1662, that part of the country which is included in the Pennsylvania charter would have been a derelict property in consequence of her treatment of it. 1st. Because there was a non-claimer on the part of Connecticut for more than sixty years, which is sufficient to pass even a once clear and lawful right of the soil. 2d. Because there was a non-claimer on the part of Connecticut for more than a century (for 110 years indeed) which is sufficient in reason to vacate the less confirmed public right of soil, or pre-emption. 3d. The property was a derelict, because Connecticut made and confirmed by special commissioners, by her governor, by the procurer of her charter, and by her legislature, agreements with the Dutch and with the English (who succeded by conquest to the Dutch), declaring her western boundary to be between <766> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. Hudson and Connecticut rivers. This was a clear and effectual virtual dereliction of the country west of the Delaware. 4th. When William Penn received his charter, Connecticut made no objection, tho' Maryland did, and the Maryland proprietor continued to keep alive a counter claim, till it was settled between the two governments. All this time Connecticut refrained from making any claim, leaving Mr. Penn's course free, which is the nature of dereliction. 5th. Connecticut by her laws, erecting Litchfield county in 1751, made before all America a virtual dereliction of the country westward of the present east side of New York, for the legislative body declared Litchfield county to be in the northwestern parts of the state; thus actually excluding all beyond the bounds of the colony, that is all Pennsylvania. This was an overt and conclusive act of dereliction and some of the members of the Susquehanna and Delaware companies and the ancestors of others partook in the formation and enacting of that law. 6th. When the Connecticut Susquehanna Company attempted to purchase of the Indians, against the Connecticut laws, that company treated it as a country derelicted, if it ever belonged to Connecticut; so also when the company determined to apply to the crown in 1754, and not to the legislature of Connecticut for their confirmation of their pretended purchase and incorporation; they treated the lands as derelicted. 7th. In 1755 Connecticut, upon a petition of the company, referred them for soil and jurisdiction to the king of Great Britain, which was a clear, open, undeniable and effectual dereliction. 8th. Connecticut never made, caused or permitted to be made, for public or private benefit any purchase of the Indians, in the country west of her present county of Litchfield, from the date of the charter to the year 1772 (110 years), nor has that colony or state ever made such a purchase, tho' the Pennsylvania purchases were continued, frequent and notorious. In short, Connecticut never used nor caused to be used the pre-emption right. This is a total dereliction of the pre-emption right. If 60 years dereliction is fatal to the best possible private right of soil, which includes pre-emption, 62 years dereliction must be fatal to a mere pre-emption right alone. Had all the American governments acted in this manner, our beautiful and prosperous national dominions would have continued a howling wilderness, instead if exhibiting an export of 78 millions of dollars. 9th. Connecticut never sold for a valuable consideration one acre of Pennsylvania, westward of the county of Litchfield. This in the case of so frugal a state, is a very striking and long course of derelicting conduct. 10th. Connecticut and all persons pretending to claim or hold under her, have omitted to <767> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. commence any one suit against Pennsylvania, or those holding under her. They pretended to bring on a private trial before federal commissioners, but would not name their lands nor shew any grant. Connecticut then, having been conclusively adjudged to have no right of jurisdiction or government, or of pre-emption or soil, or of possessions, having derelicted both jurisdiction and soil, if they had ever been entitled to either; having knowingly and deliberately accepted a grant and title to the western reserve from Congress, tho' within their pretended charter limits, which must be deemed fatal, aborigine, to her pretension to the Pennsylvania land; and having admitted the final settlement by the federal judgment against her claim to lands and possessions within the state; it must appear self-evident that Connecticut never could make even a colourable title to the Susquehanna and Delaware Companies. That colony or state could not convey several millions of acres to which it had no right. Connecticut never did convey to any of the settlers, or Susquehanna or Delaware Company, nor vest them with any title. She was willing to receive and consider their claims if offered; but this, after all her disclaimers, derelictions and laches. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ TENCH COXE TO ANDREW ELLICOTT. _ _ _ PHILADELPHIA, August 31, 1802. SIR: I take the liberty to trouble you on a piece of Business which occurred during my tenure of the Secretaryship of the Land office of Penns'a. Some Lands were released to the State in which Mr. Jno. Nixon had an interest or an agency. I presume they will be found among those in the schedules of releases of Penns'ns, made out for the Legislature, the Governor and the Comm'rs. I also presume the returns will be found in the lists of those made out for the Comm'rs by the Surveyor General and sent to the Comm'rs. I expect they will also be found on the list of exemplifications made out by the Master of the Rolls for the use of the Comm'rs. Mr. Nixon very politely mentioned to me this morning that they had not been sent to the Comm'rs, and that he was recently obliged to have an application made to the officers upon the subject. He conceives that the Lands have not been received and valued in Luzerne from the non-transmission of the papers to the Comm'rs. <768> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. I cannot charge my memory with particulars at this time, but it seems to me impossible that the Gentlemen in the office and I, and the Comm'rs with the records and notices of the existence of such lands before us all, should have overlooked the transmission or call for the papers; and that if they have failed to go there must be some reason which has escaped memory. There are, I think, letters on file from Mr. Nixon to the office from me and to Mr. Nixon, which may throw some light upon the matter. You will relieve my feelings if you will inform whether it appears on examination that any of the papers above mentioned, or necessary, were omitted to be sent forward in my time, and what were omitted, with the apparent cause or reason of such omission. You will also oblige me by information whether all that are necessary are now gone, or whether any remain which Mr. Nixon should yet send to you that I may assist him in getting them forward before the Season shall be lost. I am, Sir, Your respectful hum. Servant, TENCH COXE. AND'W ELLICOTT, Esquire, Sec'y of the Land Office, Lancaster, Pa. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ANDREW ELLICOTT TO TENCH COXE. _ _ _ LAND OFFICE, August 3, 1802. SIR: In order to answer your letter of the 31st ultimo, an examination has been made of the Schedules of Pennsylvania releases, Letters and other papers in the Office. The release itself is found duly enrolled and entered in the general abstracts furnished the Governor, the Legislature and the Commissioners. The release is perfectly regular, and from the date it was received into the Office, viz: the "16 April, 1800," there can be little doubt but that a Copy thereof has been furnished. The Commissioners nor no other persons have intimated to me that a Copy of the release was not sent on by you; but Mr. West a few weeks since called at the Office of the General Surveyor for copies of the returns of survey of the several tracts contained in the Release, which have since been forwarded. From the system adopted by you for the transmission of <769> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. Copies to the Officers at Luzerne appointed to execute the act of April 4, 1799, and pursued by me, I think there cannot exist a single case of omission. Should Mr. Nixon, however, desire a copy of the release forwarded, it shall with pleasure be done, which you will please to communicate to him. I am, Sir, Your respectful, humble serv't, A. E., S. L. Off. T. COXE, Esqr. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ HISTORY OF THE TOWNSHIP OF ULSTER. _ _ _ September 22, 1802. Before me, Thomas Cooper, Esqr., Commissioners under the act of April 4, 1799, "for offering compensation to the Pennsylvania claimants of Lands within the seventeen Townships in the County of Luzerne, and for other purposes therein mentioned," personally appeared Obediah Gore, Esq., associate Judge of the Court of Common pleas of the said County, and Elijah Buck, Esquire, of Tioga County, in the State of New York, upon their oaths do severally depose and say, that on the 28th of August, 1775, on the applications of persons (proprietors in what was called the Susquehanna Company) whose names are mentioned in the Document A and B hereto annexed, a grant was regularly made according to the rules and regulations of the said Company for a Township containing 25 Square miles, called "Ulster," located on the west side of the north east branch of the River Susquehanna, a true Copy whereof is hereunto annexed in the document C. That the war breaking out soon after with the British and the Indians, no effectual settlement was made in the said Township under the said grant of 1775, the generality of the proprietors and settlers, claimants under the said Grant of 1775, being called to the common defence of Wyoming and the Neighborhood, or having joined the army of the United States. That on the close of the war, and during the Fall of 1784, and the Spring of 1785, these deponents, together with upwards of thirty other persons, settled and resident within the Township of "Ulster", as located in the said Grant of 1775, and being weary of the contest with Pennsylvania respecting the Susquehanna Company's Claim, and desirous of living at peace and 49-VOL. XVIII. <770> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. conformably to the Laws of the State, in which they were placed by the decision at Trenton, they, with the generality of the proprietors and settlers aforesaid, were and have continued supporters of the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania. That the sentiments of the undersigned Deponents and others, settlers in the old town of "Ulster," being commonly known, they were violently opposed on many occasions, and their Interests thwarted by many leading proprietors in the Susquehanna Company then and now resident in Luzerne County, and who were and have continued, universally hostile to the pretensions of Pennsylvania, in respect of the Susquehanna purchase, and opposers of every plan to compromise, hitherto held out under the authority of the state. That being overpowered by the numbers of their opponents in the Susquehanna purchase, and unwilling to embark in any further contention and dispute, the undersigned, with other settlers of the old town of "Ulster," acquiesced in the claims of an interfering Township, laid out by and under the patronage of their opponents of the description aforesaid, under the name of Athens, still existing and settled as a half share Township, and not recognized as one of the 17 Townships in the County of Luzerne under the Act of April 4, 1799, or the supplement thereto. In lieu, therefore, of the old town of "Ulster," which was entirely on the west side of the River (North East Branch of the Susquehanna), these deponents and other claimants in said town acquiesced and accepted a new Grant of a Township of "Ulster," the Northern bounds whereof commenced at the South part of Tioga Point, and extended on both sides of the River Susquehanna; a copy of this second Grant, so far as it remains perfect, is contained in the annexed document D. Document E is a list of the proprietors applying for the said Grant in conformity to the rules and regulations of the Susquehanna Company. The boundaries of the town of "Ulster," according to the location of the 2d Grant, were not yet agreeable to the claimants and settlers of the town of Athens, who, having the guidance of the affairs of the Susquehanna Company entirely among themselves and their adherents, insisted that the town of "Ulster" should be placed still lower down the River, and this was again consented to by the undersigned deponents and other settlers in "Ulster," and a 3d Grant was accepted in the year 1786, a copy whereof is contained in document F. Of the old town of "Ulster" no regular survey was ever made, owing to the circumstances of the War immediately succeedding the original Grant, nor was any survey completed under <771> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. the second location, as the third was granted about 9 months only after the second. A copy of the survey under the 3d Grant is herewith presented, being document G. If the old location of "Ulster," under the grant of 1775 be established, it will include but few comparatively of the applicants under the Law of April 4, 1799. The second will include all those who have applied under the said Law. OBEDIAH GORE, ELIJAH BUCK. _ _ _ Document A. [This appears to be the only document found.] A list of the Proprietors of the Township of, Mr. Asael Buck, Agent, August 28, 1775. Catharine Draper 1/2 share, 1 right certified by receipts. Elijah Phelps, 1/2 do. 2 do. Jonathan Buck, 1/2 do. 1 do. by certificate. Lockwood Smith, 1/2 do. 1 do. Thomas Millard, 1/2 do. 1 do. by receipt. Aholiab Buck, 1/2 do. 1 do. by certificate. Ct. Jos. Eaton, 1/2 do. 1 do. Elijah Buck, 1/2 do. 1 do. Daniel Kellogg, 1 do. 2 do. Abraham Brockaw, 1/2 do. 1 do. by receipt. N. B.--On another List Exhibited, the following names appear to have been added: Stephen Sheppard, 1/2 share 1 Joseph Spalding, 1/2 do. 1 William Buck, 2 1/2 do. 5 Obadiah Gore, 1/2 do. 1 M. Hollenback, 1/2 do. 1 J. Jenkins requests the favour of being admitted. Asael Buck, 1 do. 2 Thomas McClure, 1 do. 2 <772> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. THE TOWNSHIP OF PROVIDENCE. _ _ _ List of original Proprietors of the Township of Providence. March 22, 1773. Lot. No. Ebenezer Searles, 1 John Young, 2 Richard Gamsoy, by C. Worden, by Thos. Picket, Nov. 1, 1773, 3 Christian Avory, 4 Timothy Keys, 5 Ludwig Updike, by Jos. Slocum, 6 Capt. John Haward, by Jas. Hotchkiss, 7 John Murfee, 8 Public Lots, 9-10 Matthew Taylor, by G. Baldwin, 11 Capt. Silas Parke, by S. Fulton, Junr., Nov. 1, 1773, 12 Isaac Tripp, Esqr., 13 Samuel Slater, 14 Henery Dows Tripp, 15 Gideon Roberts, 16 Ezra Dean, by Asa Upson, 17 Philip Winter, Mute, 18 Solomon Johnson, 19 John Staples, on A. Stanton's Rite, 20 Capt. Silas Park, 21 Samuel Felton, by John Templ, 22 Levan Ross, 23 Preserved Cool, by John Cory, Nov. 29, 1773, 24 Jacob Anguist, 25 Allen Whitman, by James Burk, 26 Solomon Avory, by Thomas Parker, entered by Tim. Keys., November 1, 1773, 27 Moses Hibbard, by Marvon, 28 Capt. Jos. Hurbert, by N. Pittebon, Jr., 29 John McDole, 30 Zebulon Butler, by Moses Roberts, 31 Samuel Staples, 32 Timothy Gaylor, by Ambrose Gaylor, 33 Capt. David Bidwill, by Root Dengd, 34 [Ed. -No. 35 not listed] Publick Rite, 36 <773> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. Lot No. Phineas Nash, on Sam'l Massenger's Rite, 37 Ichabod Hopkins, by James Hopkins, 38 Isaac Tripp, on M. Clark's Rite, by Ed. Glook, 39 Stephen Jinkins, by Robert Comstock, 40 Paul Felton and Hindale, by Jas. Hindale, 41 Jabez Sill, on Wm. Leonard's Rite, 42 Ebenezer Hibbard, by Wm. Hawkins, 43 The above list is in the handwriting of my Father, Zebulon Butler, and I apprehend it to be a true list of the old Proprietors of Providence Township, June 7, 1802. LORD BUTLER. The above list corresponds with a copy taken by me from an old list of my Father. June 7, 1802. ISAAC TRIPP. _ _ _ MEETING OF THE PROPRIETORS. _ _ _ PROVIDENCE, June 1, 1802. At a meeting of the Proprietors of the Township of Providence, duly warned and held at the school house in said Town this first day of June, A. D., 1802. Firstly, Voted, Mr. Isaac Tripp, Sen'r, Moderator of this meeting. 2d. Voted, that Constant Searle, Esqr., Isaac Tripp, Sen'r, and the Proprietors' Clerk of this Town be and are hereby appointed a Committee to procure all necessary proff to establish the title of said Town, agreeable to an act of April 4, A. D., 1799, intitled an "act offering Compensation to Pennsylvania Claimants, &c.," wait on and Exhibit the same to the Commissioners appointed to carry into Execution said act, and we hereby authorize the said Committee to ask for and receive all necessary papers for the purpose above mentioned from all persons holding the same. 3d. Voted, That James Abbott and John Taylor be and are hereby appointed a Committee to apply to the Land Office of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for certain tracts of Land belonging to the Proprietors of the Township of Providence, called and known by the name of Publick Lands in said Township and take deeds of the same for and in behalf of the said Proprietors, and do hereby invest the aforesaid Committee with full power in every respect relative to obtaining a Title of the aforesaid land, agreeable to the act of April 4, A. D., 1799, Intitled an "Act offering Compensation to Pennsylvania claiments, &c.," as we were personally present <774> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. This Certify that the foregoing vote is taken from Providence Township Records. REUBEN TAYLOR, Proprietors' Clerk. _ _ _ PROVIDENCE, June 28, A. D., 1802. We, the undersigned Isaac Tripp and Reuben Taylor, of Providence Township, do declare upon oath that we do not possess nor do we know of any Draughts, papers or Documents belonging to the Township of Providence and necessary to the Investigation of Titles therein, other than the list of original Proprietors now presented to the Commissioners and authenticated by Lord Butler and Isaac Tripp above named, excepting certain entries made by the above named Reuben Taylor as town Clerk as to the Conveyance of the public Lots, and we have always understood and have no doubt but that all the material, public papers belonging to the said Township were lost, burnt or destroyed soon after the Indian Battle. June 7, 1802. REUBEN TAYLOR, ISAAC TRIPP. _ _ PROVIDENCE LIST OF APPLICATIONS. CLAIMANT'S NAME. NO. BY WHOM APPLIED FOR. James Abbott, 587 James Abbott. Lord Butler, Zeb. Butler, [all] Lord Butler. Stuben Butler, Hannah, 561 Lydia Butler. the wife of Roswell Wells; Rosewell Wells. Lydia, the wife of Geo. Stuben Butler. Griffin, and Nancy Butler, Zebulon Butler. Nancy Butler. John Alsworth, 804 John Alsworth. David Bidwell, 853 Rosewell Wells. Rev. William Bishop, 349 William Bishop. Matthew Covell, 768 Matthew Covel. John S. Hopkins, 224 John S. Hopkins. Abraham Brown, 647 Isaac Tripp. James Bagley, 217 James Bagley. John Cary, 330 John Cary. William Case, 727 William Case, by his Attorney, Benjamin Attwater. Daniel David, 267 Daniel David. Charles Dolph, 666 Charles Dolph. <775> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. CLAIMANT'S NAME. NO. BY WHOM APPLIED FOR. Enoch Holmes, 572 Enoch Holmes. John Hollenback, 223 John Hollenback, for part of Lots Nos. 15 and 16. John Hollenback, 810 John Hollenback, for part of Lot 24. Joseph Horsefield, 100 Joseph Horsefield. Matthias Hollenback, 640 Obediah Gore, Adm'r of John Murphy. Lewis Jones, 579 Lewis Jones. Reuben Ireland, 237 Reuben Ireland. James Lewis, 635 James Lewis. Conrad Lutz, 183 Conrad Lutz. William Miller, 729 William Miller. Nathan Roberts, 876 Nathan Roberts. Samuel Roberts, 336 Samuel Roberts. William Stanton, 331 William Stanton. Robert Secor, 350 Ebenezer Parke. Ebenezer and Benjamin Slocum, 626 Ebenezer and Benjamin Slocum. James Abbott and John Taylor, Committee Public Land, 791 John Taylor and James Abbott, Committee of Public Land. Amasa Tripp, 656 Amasa Tripp. John Taylor, 330 John Taylor. Preserved Taylor, 665 Preserved Taylor. Isaac Tripp, 647 Isaac Tripp. Isaac Tripp, Junr., 683 Isaac Tripp, Junr. Stephen Tripp, 672 Stephen Tripp. Daniel Taylor, 606 Daniel Taylor. James Wygan, 179 Benjamin Attwater. Isaac Wilson, 546 Isaac Wilson. William Wright, 351 William Wright. Waller Washbourne, 345 Waller Washbourne. Willis Brees, 347 Rebecca Goodrich. Joseph Fellows, 157 Joseph Fellows. Zephaniah Knapp, 484 Zephaniah Knapp. Reuben Taylor, 360 Reuben Taylor. Elijah Hunter, 548 Elijah Hunter. Levi Depew, 657 Levi Depew. David Barnum, 763 Stephen Gardner. Thomas Sambourne, 752 Jonathan Dolph. Benjamin Brown, 221 Benjamin Brown. Moses Clerk, 359 Daniel Kniffer. <776> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. CLAIMS OF CHARLOTT AND OTHERS. _ _ _ The Claims of Stephen Charlott, Harry Morgan, Benjamin Stalford and Brothers and Ephraim Marsh. Mr. Wm. Shoch will request the attention of the Board of Property to the following claims to Lands in the Seventeen Townships in the County of Luzerne: 1st. The claim of Stephen Charlott to lot number seven in the Township of Springfield. His claim has been laid before the Commissioner by application, but no certificate has issued. He claims all the remainder of lot No. 7, except two hundred acres, together with one-fiftieth part of the undivided land in the said Township, which from the Commissioners return appear to be in the whole upwards of 5,100 acres: of course 100 acres to a share. The claim of Stephen Charlott will be supported by a regular chain of conveyances from ¾ ¾ ¾ Churchill, through several persons to Stephen Charlott. The lot will appear on the draught of the Township, but as no particular person attended to the Commissioners survey, it has been cut short of its original boundaries and what is left out falls to the undivided land of the Township of course, as no injury could be sustained by any individual, it is hoped that the Board of Property will order the tract resurveyed as it was originally bounded. It ought further to be understood that as this lot is a mountain lot a much larger quantity of land ought to be, and was by the proprietor allowed to it to make it equal in value to other Lots of the Township. It must also be understood that Mr. Charlott is now, and has been many years, in the full and peaceable possession of the lot by an actual personal residence and has made thereon valuable improvements. 2d. Harry Morgan in behalf of himself and others, heirs of James Morgan, deceased, claims lot No. , in division, in the Township of Salem. His claim is derived from ¾ ¾ ¾ Heath, the original proprietor by a regular conveyance. Reference may be had to the deed and to the Commissioners draught of the Township, and that it has been surveyed and valued, and that the above named applicant is the son and heir of James Morgan will appear from the certificate of George Hain, Jesse Fell and Matthias Hollenbach, now in the Land Office. James Morgan went into the State of New Jersey and died about the time of the compromising law in 1797 and his wife being also dead and the present applicants minors, and very young, no benefit has been realized by them from the provisions of the <777> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. said act, they, therefore have now made application and pray that a patent may issue to them. Benjamin Stalford, Joseph Stalford and John Stalford. 3d. The claims of Benjamin Stalford and Brothers is derived through Miner York, from William Smith and Esther Smith, his wife, and John Terrell and Keziah Terrill his wife, sons-in-law and daughters of Lucretia York, and is included in the application of said Lucretia York, and is composed of all that part contained in the said application for Land in the Township of Springfield not certificated to M. Miner York, which was allotted to the said Esther Smith and Keziah Terrell. The power from Esther Smith to order the conveyance by which the said M. Miner York sold her share, is made known by a kind of Certificate from William Smith, her husband, and the power from Keziah Terrell is manifested in several letters from John Terrell, her husband to the same M. M. York, but particularly by one accompanying the Dockuments authorizing a sale to a Mr. Buck, but as Mr. Buck did not choose to purchase it was sold to Benjamin Arkley, and from Arkley to the said Stalford. It ought to be recollected that deeds for Lands in the county of Luzerne, unless they had a certificate or could trace the line of Pennsylvania title to its origin since 1799, have been deemed illegal and of course invalid and unnecessary; this is a reason why deeds were not always given when right of preemption was transferred, deeming possession alone sufficient. And Mr. Stalford is in possession, having a family on the premises and has built a sawmill on the same. It is wished a patent might issue to Benjamin, Joseph and John Stallford. If that cannot be done, it is requested that time may be allowed them to send into the State of Connecticut, where the said Esther Smith and Keziah Terrell reside. 4th. Lucretia Gaylord's Title was originally from Lavinia York, her Mother; her land is included in the application of the said Lucretia York, as will appear from the commissioners draught in the Surveyor General's Office. She requests that a patent may issue to her. 5th. Sidney Marsh is the eldest of two sons of Ephraim Marsh, late of Springfield Township, deceased. It is understood that Ephraim, who died very suddenly of only 24 hours sickness, on his death bed, and but few minutes previous to his decease, verbally willed or gave the possession in the said Township, now under consideration to his two sons, they supporting, as well as they could, their mother and the other children, which were eight daughters. This requisition the said Sidney has complied with and still continues to comply with. The other <778> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. son, whose first name is not recollected, having long since absconded and left the family. The title of the said Ephraim Marsh is derived from Parshall Terry, an original Proprietor in said Township, which the said Parshall took up and sold to the of the said Marsh as his share of the undivided land in the said Township. In the life time of Ephraim Marsh he made application to the commissioners. The certificate or letter of Jesse Fell, which accompanys these documents, will give information on the subject. Also the certificate of John Taylor, clerk to the proprietors, will show that by agreement of the proprietors, that every person settling on land in the said Township having a right to land in it, should hold the land on which he was settled. The documents which accompany the application of Sidney Marsh will show the claim of title from Parshall Terry to Ephraim Marsh. If the Board should be of the opinion that it would not be right to patent the land to Sidney Marsh for his sole use, It is hoped that it will be patented to him for the use of the heirs of the said Ephraim. 6th. The last thing to be submitted to the board is (as the land is to be sold to the settlers at the same price as other land in the seventeen Townships was sold, that is, at what it was valued by the commissioners), whether the Board will give the applicants under the present law the same chance of making payments by installments that was given to former claimants in the seventeen Townships. When the board have the subject under consideration, it is hoped that their decision will be as favorable to the applicants as the law and nature of the cause will admit of, as it is to be expected that the present decision will be adapted in future as a rule in like cases. JONATHAN STEPHENS. - - - - - - - - - ACT TO MAINTAIN TERRITORIAL RIGHTS, 1802. _ _ _ An act to maintain the territorial rights of this State, and protect the property of persons holding lands under the same. WHEREAS, Certain persons under the pretence of title, derived either from the State of Connecticut or from certain <779> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. companies known by the names of the Connecticut Susquehanna Company and the Connecticut Delaware Company, to a considerable extent of territory within this State, have, by various improper practices, long endeavored to defeat the execution of the laws of this State, and to defame the titles of persons holding lands by grants from this State or the late proprietaries before the revolution. In order, therefore, to counteract such practices and to preserve the just rights of this State: SECTION 1. Be it enacted, That from and after the first day of May next, no conveyance to be made of any land within the counties of Luzerne, Lycoming and Wayne, shall be good or effectual to pass any rights, title or interest to the land in such conveyance mentioned, unless derived from this State or the late proprietaries thereof, before the fourth of July, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, and unless the said conveyance shall expressly refer to and recite the substance of the warrant, survey, patent or title under which the same is so derived from this State or the late proprietaries thereof, before the said fourth of July, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six; and if any judge or justice shall take an acknowledgment or proof, or any recorder of deeds, or any other person shall record any deed which shall not have been derived as aforesaid, he shall, for every offense, forfeit the sum of two hundred dollars, which forfeiture shall be recoverable by action of debt in any court of record in this State, the one-half thereof to the use of the Commonwealth, and the other half thereof to the person who shall sue for the same; and such acknowledgment and recording shall be void and of no effect; and every such recorder of deeds so offending, shall forfeit his office: Provided always, That nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to make valid any conveyance heretofore made, of any pretended title or claim to land under the colony or State of Connecticut or either of the companies known by the name of the Connecticut Susquehanna or the Connecticut Delaware Company. <780> MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. FORM OF CERTIFICATE. _ _ _ [A map of the land described in this certificate is shown to the left of the DFART and the CERTIFCATE.] DRAFT of a Tract of Land situate in Kingston one of the Seventeen Townships in the County of Luzerne; being Number Fifteen in the Third Division of the said Township and containing Eighty Seven Acres and Sixty Four perches and the usual allowance of Six per centum for Roads: Re-surveyed the Tenth day of September One Thousand Eight Hundred and Two for Daniel Hoyt by order of the Commissioners duly appointed for putting in execution an Act of the General Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania, passed the Fourth day of April, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Nine, entitled "An Act offering Compensation to Pennsylvania Claimants of certain Lands within the Seventeen Townships of the County of Luzerne, and for other purposes therein mentioned," and the Supplement thereto. To SAMUEL COCHRAN Esq. Surveyor General. THOS. SAMBOURNE. Surveyor to the Said Commissioners December 1st 1802. CERTIFICATE. WE the undersigned Commissioners, duly appointed for putting in execution an Act of the General Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania, entitled "An Act for offering compensation to the Pennsylvania Claimants of certain Lands within the seventeen Townships in the County of Luzerne and for other purposes therein mentioned," passed the 4th day of April 1799, and the Supplement thereto passed the 15th day of March, 1800, and the further Supplement thereto passed the 6th day of April, 1802, DO CERTIFY, That Daniel Hoyt is the Owner as a Connecticut Claimant of Eighty-seven Acres and Sixty-four perches of Land in the Township of KINGSTON, one of the before mentioned seventeen Townships; being Lot Number Fifteen, in the Third Division in the said Township; WHICH Lot Number Fifteen was occupied and acquired by a Connecticut Claimant, an actual Settler there before the time of the Decree of Trenton, and was particularly assigned to such actual Settler, prior to the said Decree, agreeably to the regulations then in force among such Settlers. The said Land (a Draught of Survey whereof is hereto annexed) is included in the application of Daniel Hoyt, under the provisions of the acts aforesaid; of which application an official transcript has been transmitted to us from the Land Office of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. THOMAS COOPER, JNO. STEELE, November 10th, 1803.