Vermont: A Study of IndependenceRobinson, Rowland Evans
History
Vermont: A Study of Independence
Robinson, Rowland Evans
Vermont -- History
This wrangling of governors and councils continued till the beginning
of the war in 1754 stopped for the time applications for grants, when
the mutterings of the inter-provincial quarrel were drowned by the
thunder of the more momentous contest of nations.
With the subjugation of Canada, the granting of lands in the debatable
ground was resumed. Governor Wentworth had a survey made sixty miles up
the Connecticut, and three lines of townships were laid out on each side
of the river. During the next year sixty townships were granted on the
west side of the river, and within two years 108 grants were made,
extending to a line twenty miles east of the Hudson, and north of that
to the eastern shore of Lake Champlain.
It was reported in New York that a party of New Hampshire surveyors, who
were laying out lands on the east side of the lake in September, 1762,
asserted that Crown Point was in the limits of their government. In
December, 1763, Lieutenant-Governor Colden issued a proclamation
reiterating the claim of New York to the Connecticut as her eastern
boundary, still basing it on the grant to the Duke of York, and also on
the description of the eastern boundary of New Hampshire as given in the
letters-patent of his Majesty dated July 3, 1741. He commands the civil
officers of his government to exercise jurisdiction as far as the banks
of the Connecticut River, and the high sheriff of the county of Albany
to return the names of all persons who, under the grants of New
Hampshire, shall hold possession of any lands westward of Connecticut
River, that they may be proceeded against according to law. This was
followed by a proclamation of Governor Wentworth on March 13, 1764, in
which he reviews and denies the claim of New York. He says: "At present
the boundaries of New York to the Northward are unknown, and as soon as
it shall be His Majesty's pleasure to determine them, New Hampshire will
pay a ready and cheerful obedience thereunto, not doubting but that all
Grants made by New Hampshire that are fulfilled by the Grantees will be
confirmed to them if it should be His Majesty's pleasure to alter the
jurisdiction." He encouraged the grantees under his government to be
industrious in clearing and cultivating their lands, and commanded all
civil officers within his province to be diligent in exercising
jurisdiction as far westward as grants had been made by his government,
and deal with all persons who "may presume to interrupt the settlers on
said lands as to law and justice doth appertain."[31]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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