General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great BritainPeters, Samuel
History
General History of Connecticut, from Its First Settlement Under George Fenwick to its Latest Period of Amity with Great Britain
Peters, Samuel
Connecticut -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Connecticut -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
New-York the said 360 townships; but was quietly submitted to by the
proprietors, since it was his Majesty’s will to put them under the
jurisdiction of New-York, tho’ they found themselves 150 miles farther
from their new capital New-York, than they were from Portsmouth, their
old one. Had the New-Yorkers rested satisfied with the jurisdiction,
which alone the King had given them, they might have enjoyed their
acquisition in peace; and New-England would have thought they had
possessed some justice, though destitute of religious zeal. But the
Governor and General Assembly of New-York, finding their interest in
Old-England stronger than the interest of the New-Englanders,
determined at once, that, as the King had given them jurisdiction over
those 360 townships, he had also given them the lands in fee simple.
Sir Henry More, the Governor, therefore, in 1767, began the laudable
work of regranting those townships to such people as lived in
New-York, and were willing to pay him 600_l._ York currency for his
valuable name to each patent. It is remarkable that Sir Harry made
every _lawyer_ in the whole province a patentee; but totally _forgot_
the four public lots, viz. that for the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel, those for the church, the first clergyman, and school in
each township, which had been reserved in Governor Wentworth’s grants.
Death stopped his career; but Colden, the Lieutenant-Governor, filled
up the measure of his iniquity, by granting all the rest on the same
conditions. Sir Henry More had taken care to grant to his dear self
one township, settled with above 80 families, before he died. Colden
did the same for himself. The virtuous William Smith, Esq. of New
York, had a township also; and Sir Henry More left him his executor to
drive off the New-England settlers. This, however, he attempted in
vain. The polite New-Yorkers, having the jurisdiction, betook
themselves to law, to get possession of the lands in question, which
they called their own; and sent the posse of Albany to eject the
possessors; but this mighty power was answered by Ethan Allen, and the
old proprietors under Governor Wentworth, who was a King’s Governor as
well as Sir Henry More:--the Mynheers of Albany were glad to have
liberty to return home alive.--See here the origin of Ethan Allen!--of
the Verdmonts, and the Robbers of the Green Mountains; a compliment
paid by the New-Yorkers to the settlers under Governor Wentworth;--who,
on that amiable gentleman’s death, had no friend of note left in
England, and were therefore under the necessity of defending
themselves, or becoming tenants to a set of people who neither _feared
God_ nor _honoured the King_, but when they got something by it.--The
New-Yorkers had the grace, after this, to outlaw Ethan Allen, which
rendered him of consequence in New-England; and it would not surprise
me to hear that New-York, Albany, and all that the Dutchmen possess in
houses east of Hudson’s River, were consumed by fire, and the
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