Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. III
I understand that the Township was granted in Joint-Tenancy, and that all the Right the Inhabitants have to hold in severalty, is the Orders made at their Town Meetings and entered in their minutes, and that tho this could convey no legal Title to hold in severalty, yet the Courts of Justice considering tlie Ignorance of those Times, and the Confusion the Contrary would introduce, have admitted them as valid for that Purpose.
The Indians therefore if the Order respecting them is similar to those respecting the other Inhabitants, upon the same Principles will have as good a Title as the other Inhabitants have there, if their Right is not barred by any Thmg subsequent to that Order.
But it does not appear this Town Order respecting the Indians is similar to those respecting the other Inhabitants -- I observe they are prohibited from cutting Wood on the Common Lands and tho for want of seeing any of these ,Town Orders respecting the other Inhabitants, I don't know whether there are any Words in any of them aUoting the Lands to the persons for ever &c, yet I observe there is nothing in the Entry relating to the Indians, from whence it can be inferred (unless the Form of the Orders respecting the Inhabitants are in this Respects also deficient) any Thing more was intended than a Licence to settle and inhabit this peice of Land as Tenants at Will to the Inhabitants.
If this Order should invest the Indians with a Fee simple in these Lands in severalty, as fully as tlie other Inhabitants are by similar Orders, yet I am informed, that in Consequence of the verbal Exchange made in the year 1691 the Indians settled on Indian Neck, and that they never settled at South Harbour if so, the Statute of Limitations, I fear wiU bar their Right to the Lands at South Harbour, And I doubt whether it will be thought by the Judges, (allowing the utmost for the Ignorance of those Times) that a bare parole agreement can so operate as to give them a Right to the Lands at Indian Neck, if it has been possessed -against the Indians within Sixty Years.