About one month after the date of the petition of Brown and Smith occurred a release and quit-claim deed from Joseph Keeler and nineteen others, (thirteen of whom were grantees under the East Patent in 1731,) to the first Presbyterian or Independent minister, "that should be settled and ordained" in the town of Salem, consisting of two tracts of tand lying on the Lorver released ten miles of the Oblong or Equivalent Lands, which is yet undivided, drc. 6

The signatures of William Smith and James Brown, the Petitioners for the Patent, are wanting to this document and only one of the names among the four surrounding proprietors, mentioned in the deed, is attached.

It appears as if these claimants of the Lower portion of the Oblong were fearing the result of Smith and Brown's second Petition to the crown on the r 9th of November, 1 75 1. Surely there can be no question whether the above conveyance would be good for any fractional portion, if an undivided moiety of an undivided territory. But as we shall have more to say- about this remarkable transaction in its proper place, we pass on to the granting of the Royal Letters Patent to William Smith of New York and James Brown of the County of Westchesa N. Y. Col. MSS., vol. XlX, p. 121, 1744-1752.

t The original document is Indorsed on the bade " Proprietor's Deed," was witnessed to, twenty-three years after the signing but never recorded.

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.