An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in AmericaMacLean, J. P. (John Patterson)
History
An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America
MacLean, J. P. (John Patterson)
Scots -- America; Scots -- United States
That there are still very many of these Families who have no land and
would willingly settle with your Memoralist. That there are numbers
of non commissioned Officers and Soldiers of the Regiments disbanded
in North America who notwithstanding His Majesty's gracious
Intentions are from many causes too long to trouble your Lordship
with at present without any settlement provided for them, and that
there are also many Families of loyal Protestants in the Islands and
other parts of North Britain which might be induced by reasonable
proposals and a certainty of their being fulfilled, to remove into
the said Province, which would add greatly to the strength, security
and opulence thereof, and be in all respects faithful and serviceable
subjects to His Majesty.
That the premisses considered, particularly the long scene of
hardships to which your Memoralist's Family has been exposed, for
Twenty Six years, in consideration of his own and his Brothers'
services, & the perils to which they have been exposed during the
long and fatiguing War, and the Prospect he still has of contributing
to the settlement of His Majesty's unimproved country, your
Memoralist humbly prays that Your Lordships would direct the
Government of New York to grant to him the said One Hundred thousand
Acres, upon his undertaking to settle One Hundred or One Hundred and
Fifty Families upon the same within the space of Three years or such
other Recompence or Relief as upon mature Deliberation on the
Hardships and Sufferings which his Father and his Family have for so
many years endured, & their merits, in respect to the Province of New
York which might be incontestably proved, if it was not universally
acknowledged, may in your great Wisdom be thought to deserve.
And your Memoralist: &c., &c., &c.[94]
May, 1764."
It was the policy of the home government to settle as rapidly as
possible the wild lands; not so much for the purpose of benefiting the
emigrant as it was to enhance the king's exchequer. The royal governors
apparently held out great inducements to the settlers, but the sequel
always showed that a species of blackmail or tribute must be paid by the
purchasers before the lands were granted. The governor was one thing to
the higher authorities, but far different to those from whom he could
reap advantage. The seeming disinterested motives may be thus
illustrated:
Under date of New York, July 26, 1736, George Clarke, lieutenant
governor of New York, writes to the duke of Newcastle, in which he says,
it was principally
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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