" The complete settlement of the boundary line (says the historian Smith) was not made till the 14th of May, 1731, when indentures, certifying the execution of the agreement in 1725, were mutually signed by the commissioners and surveyors of both colonies. "~ •• '. ' / ". ^

Upon the establishment of this partition, a tract of land lying on the Connecticut side, consisting of above sixty thousand acres, from its figure called the Oblong, was ceded to New York, as an equivalent for lands near the Sound, surrendered to Coimecticut> ' '^ . '^ -

The very day after the surrender made by that colony, a patent passed in London to Sir Joseph Eyles and others, intended to convey the whole Oblong. A grant posterior to the other was also regularly made here, to Hawley and Company, of the greatest part of the same tract, which the British patentees brought a bill in chancery to repeal. But the defendants jSled an answer containing so many objections against the English patent, that the suit remains still unprosecuted, and the American proprietors

» Letters on Boundaries. Hartford ; Letter 117.

b See Douglas's late Plan of the British Dominions of New England.

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266 HISTORY OF THE

have ever since held the possession. Mr. Harrison, of the council, soliciicd this controversy for Sir Joseph Eyles and his partners, which contributed, in a great degree, to the troubles so remarkable in a succeeding administration. "^

Upon the 8th of June, 1731, the following letters patent were issued, under the great seal, to Thomas Hawley and his associates : --