No. 113] 685 



unappropriated lands. This revolution in the attitude of the 

 country, communicated a new impulse to its affairs, and opened 

 its portals widely to emigration. The decade, succeeding the year 

 1765, exhibited vast progress in its improvement and cultivation. 

 Numerous patents were granted, and locations under them, came 

 frequently into collision with grants issued during the French 

 intrusion. Stimulated by the value of the lands, immensely en- 

 hanced by these evcDts, many grants, utterly fictitious, were as- 

 serted, and others revived that had been abrogated by the French 

 government, or forfeited by a failure in the performance of their 

 conditions. Others derived from France, were preserved by ac- 

 tual tenure, and had been recognized by the government of Great 

 Britain. Many of these classes, were also violated by location of 

 grants, issued in pursuance of iiie ordinance of 1763. No grants, 

 in addition to those already mentioned, appear to have been issued 

 by the French authorities, to any portion of Essex county, except 

 one of Nov. 15, 1758, which compreheDded a large part of the 

 territory, which now constitutes the towns of Crown Point and 

 Ticonderoga. The adjustment of the conflicting rights of the 

 patentees, under these adverse grants of the French and English 

 authorities, was extremely difficult and embarrassing. A proper 

 sense of justice, induced a suspension by the government in 1768, 

 in the issuing of all patents of lands northward of Crown Point, 

 which were claimed under any French grants. 



These colisions again threw a cloud over the progress and pros- 

 perity of the country. Many of the French claims were ultimate- 

 ly repudiated by England, on account of forfeitures through the 

 neglect of the conditions upon which they were depenchmt ; others 

 were com]>romised by grants, to the claimants of land in Canada 

 of an equivalent value. England exhibited towards the claim- 

 ants of tliese seigniories, great tenderness and liberality, in not 

 assuming tlie ubviuus posilioA,ihat the French held the shores of 

 Lake Champlain alone by an u>urped occupation, whieli could 

 neither create nor convey any rights. These questions agitated 

 and disturbed the colonies f^r several }eurs, and led in the home 

 government to anxious and protracted discussions 



The multiplicity and extent of the grants, issued under the or- 

 dinance of 17G3, the existence of these conflicting claims, and 



