Whereas it is the ancient and incontestible Right of this Colony to extend to Connecticut River as its Eastern Boundary; and sundry loose and disorderly Persons pretending a Claim under New Hampshire to Lands far Westward of the said River, and even within seventeen miles of Hudsons River daily commit Acts of Violence; openly bid Defiance to the Authority of this Government by opposing the Execution of every legal Process; and have lately burnt several Dwelling Houses, and by Force dispossessed divers Person seated under Titles derived from this Colony; which riotous spirit is stimulated and upheld by artful and wicked Men, who endeavor to delude the Ignorant and unwary into a Belief that a twenty mile Line from Hudsons River, is the Boundary between this Province and New Hampshire, and that its Jurisdiction will be fix'd and ascertained accordingly by his Majesty's Authority, agreable to the assurances they pretend to have received from the Governor of New Hampshire; altho' by a Letter to me of the 19th day of October last his Excellency the Governor of that Province utterly disclaims any such or the like Assurances,

NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS. 751

and declares "that he had invariably recommended implicit Obedience to the Laws, and upon all occasions positively disavowed any Connection with those People. And Whereas it is become highly necessary that this Government should pursue the most vigorous Measures to suppress that daring and licentious Spirit, which has given so much Disturbance to the public Peace, and Interruption to the Course of Justice: In order therefore to undeceive such deluded Persons, and to bring them to a sense of the Duty and Submission they owe to this Government; and that none may pretend Ignorance of the just Title of this Province to the Lands in Question; I have thought fit with the Advice of his Majesty's Council to issue this Proclamation, hereby publickly notifying, That King Charles the Second by his several Letters Patent bearing Date the 12% day of March 1663|4 and the 29!" day of June 1674, did Give and Grant in Fee unto his Brother James Duke of York the River called Hudson's River, and "All the Land from the West Stde of Connecticut River to the East Side of Delaware Bay" --That until the year 1741, the Limits of the Province of New Hampshire were confined to the Territory granted to Mason and Gorges, which extending only Sixty Miles from the Sea Coast, did not approach Connecticut River within a considerable Distance--That in the year 1741 the Crown by the Royal Commission to the late Governor of that Province, first extended its Limits but without contracting the Bounds of the other Colonies, it being expressly declared in the said Commission, that New Hampshire shall extend Westward and Northward until it meets with his Majesty's other Governments--That the Controversy between the two Provinces touching their respective Limits, first commenced in the year 1749, when the late Governor of New Hampshire by Letter of the 17'h day of November, signified to the then Governour of © this Province, that he had it in command from his Majesty to make Grants of the unimproved Lands in New Hampshire; and desired Information how far North of Albany this Province extended, and how manny Miles to the Eastward of Hudson's River, Northward of the Massachusetts Line; that he might govern himself accordingly--In answer to which Request, this Government by Letter of the 9th day of Aprill 1750, asserted that