There is a tradition in this town that James Brown, Esq., of Nonvalk, finding certain lands in the Oblong to be unclaimed, obtained a grant for them of the crown. The truth is, James Brown of Salem, and Wm. Smith of New York, had been at considerable expense in purchasing from the native Indian proprietors, about eleven thousand acres of land not included in llandefs or the East Patent; this land being mostly in the lower section of the Oblong. It appears that these very lands called as we have seen " New Fairfield," were claimed by Hawley and Company, as having been patented by Connecticut in 1707, notwithstanding they had been surrendered subsequently by that colony to New York, the Patentees pretending that New York could not take away their right of freehold before vested in those lands." To quiet these claims therefore, James Brown purchased for the sum of ^1,000 pounds their " New Fairfield Right" within the Equivalent Lands "which sale comprehended nearly two thousand acres of the lands purchased of the Indians and not included in the said Patent from this government." As appears from the following Petition of William Smith and James Brown for 4,000 acres of land in the Oblong :

To his Excellency the Honorable George Clinton, Captain General and Governor-in-chief in and over the Province of New York and the territories thereon depending in America, vice-Admiral of the same and Admiral of the White Squadron of his Majesty's Fleet. The Petition of William Smith of the City of New York, attorney-at-law, and James Brown of Salem in the County of Westchester, attorney-at-law. Humbly showeth :