Home / O'Callaghan, E.B., ed. The Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. IV. Albany: Weed, Parsons and Co., 1851. / Passage

Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. IV

O'Callaghan, E.B., ed. The Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. IV. Albany: Weed, Parsons and Co., 1851. 266 words

As these are the most tenacious asserters of that Doctrine and Claim, I cannot help wishing for some new declaration of his Majty's miad upon this subject, for if their title should be deemed void, and an immediate submission take place in this quarter it will doubtless prevail throughout the whole extent of the controverted Territory. And even upon the supposition that this desirable end should require compensations from equitable con- 'siderations, towards the N. Hampshire claimants yet if proper distinctions are attended to, it may be effected without any Tragical consequences to the settlers as persons at a distance and unacquainted with their real state and condition may imagine.

In prosecuting the subject I must first take notice of the disparity between the N. Hampshire patents and those under

NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS. 839

New York. The solidity of the latter being uncontroverted in this Colony, and especially those issued after the year 1764; the sales of them commanded high prices, not to mention that these patents cost very considerable sums for the Surveys and Fees; whereas the suspicious circumstances attending the N. Hampshire Grants rendered them proportionably cheap, & the purchases of them were considered rather as gaming adventures than certain and substantial acquisitions.

And among these New Hampshire Grants we carefully distinguish between such as are improved, and those which from the little value set upon them, are not only unsettled, but their very situation not accurately known, except in their relation to others upon which they are described to abutt, and as they stand ranged upon a general Plan of an unsurveyed Territory.