John, Samuel Smith, Benjamin Benedict, Richard Olmsted, Thomas Smith, Ebenezer Smith, Daniel Sherwood, Benjamin Burtt, Thomas Hyatt, Benjamin Wilson, Joseph Lee, Joseph Keeler, James Benedict, Richard Osborn, Samuel Smith, Daniel Olmsted, Timothy Keeler, Jonah Keeler, Matthew Seymour, Joseph Northrup, James Brown, Adam Ireland, John Thomas^ and Benjamin Birdsall, inhabitants of the town of Ridgefield, as of the eastern parts of this proTince, by their humble petition, presented unto his Excellency in council, the third day of September, setting forth that they and their ancestors have for a long time been settled upon, cultivated and improved, certain lands near the eastern parts of this province, held by patent from the colony of Connecticut ; but that, contrary to their expectations, some of the lands to be sold by patent from the colony of Connecticut are supposed to be within that part of the province of New York, commonly called the Equivalent Lands, and that the petitioners, together wiih their associates, would be willing to defray the charge and expense of finding out and ascertaining the true partition lines between both the said colonies, provided that 50,000 acres of the said lands be granted to the petitioners ; and whereas, the partition lines between the said colonies tiave been accordingly run out and ascertained by commissioners for both the said colonies, being thereunto duly commissioned and appointed, and sixty- one thousand four hundred and forty acres of land of the said colony of Connecticut were lately, at the settling of the said partition lines, surrendered to the said province of New York, for the use of his Majesty ; wherefore the petitioners prayed his Excellency would be favorably pleased to grant to them, their heirs and assigns, his Majesty's letters patent for 50,000 acres of the said land under such quit rent, provisions and restrictions as is and are directed in his Excellency's commissions and instructions ; which petition being then and there read and considered of, his Majesty's council of this province, did afterwards, on the same day, humbly advise and consent that his Excellency do grant the prayer of the same, &c., given, &c. four several tracts, the first of which begins at the monument where the two lines intersect which are the eastwardly bounds of the said surrendered lands, and is one mile, three