- I 



No. 112.] 707 



The lumber required for their buildings was procured at Ver- 

 geiines. The saw mills at the Boquet, destroyed in the course of 

 the war, had not, at that time, been rebuilt. 



Meanwhile, other embarrassments gathered around to daiken 

 and accelerate the decaying fortunes of Mr. GiJliland. In sev- 

 eral of the claims purchased by him in good faith, and for valu- 

 able considerations, and regularly located, he had filed the 

 requisite applications in the appropriate colonial offices. The 

 confusion incident to the convulsed period which ensued, imj-eded, 

 and finally prevented the consummation of these grants by 

 patents. 



An act was passed by the Legislature of New- York, in effect 

 abrogating all such grants, in which the royal functionaries had not 

 formally issued the patent. Havino; studiously performed all the 

 preliminaries exacted by the provincial statutes, Mr. Gilliland 

 had reposed in undoubting reliance on the validity of his titles. 



Others appropriating, as he alleged, a transcript of the boun- 

 daries of the premises, contained in his documents, had a})plied 

 to the new government, and obtained patents of the teiritory 

 embraced in his previous locations. Litigation ensued. The 

 antagonist titles were sustaiq^d. Costs and expenses followed, 

 which absorbed the remnnnt of his property, and led to his im- 

 prisonment upon the goal limits of New- York. 



He returned at length to his fi>rmer residence, despondent, and 

 cherishing a disgust at the benrtlessness and ingratitude of muny, 

 whom, in bri:,diter days, he had fostered and protected ; and par- 

 tially ;ilienated in mind, he wandered into the wilderness and 

 ditd. Thus the pioneer of K-sex county, tlie former possessor of 

 baronial domains, p»ri>]ied from hunger and exposure — 



*' Without a friend to close his cycB." 



The large estates of Mr. (JiiliJHnd ])ass(d into other Jiaiida. 

 His descendants remain in KN<t x and Clinton counties, i*m<»ng the 

 most jiroriiinrnt and r< speeted (»f iheir eitizens. " Willslx-ro " 

 co;nni. mor.ites the hame of William Gilliland. '^ Klizabelhti»wu" 

 was calleti afttr his wife. 



