454 APPENDIX. 



Thofe violent proceeding's, (with the folemn declaration of ihe fupreme 

 court ot New York, that thr charters, conveyances &c, of your petitioners' 

 lands, were utcerly null and void) on which they were founded, reduced 

 your petitioners to the difagreeable necefTit v of taking up arms, at the only 

 means left for the fccurity of their poirffiTious. The coufequcnce of this 

 Itcp was the pafling twelve a£ls of outlawry, by the legifidiure of New 

 "York, on the ninth day of March, 1774; which were not intended fortne 

 ffate in general, but only for part of the counties of Albany and Charlotte, 

 viz. fuch parts thereof as arc covered by the New Hamplhire charters. 



Your petitioners having had no reprcfentative in that affembly, when 

 thefe afts were paded, they firfl came to the knowledge of them by public 

 papers, in which they were inferted. By thefe, they were informed, that 

 it three or snore of ihem affembled together to oppofe what faid afTembly 

 called legal authority, that fuch as fhoulrt be found affembled to the number 

 of three or more, fhould be adjiidji;ed felons : And that in cafe they or any 

 fef them, fhould not furrender himieif or themlelves to certain officers ap- 

 pointed for the purpofe of fc-cunng them after a warning of leventy day;., 

 that then it fhould be lawful for the refpecfive judges of the fupreme court 

 of the province of New York, to award execution of Death, the fame as 

 though he or they had been attainted before a proper court of judicatory. 

 Theie laws were evidently calculaied to intimidate your petitioners into a 

 tame furrender of their rights, and iuch a ttate of vafTdlage, as would entail 

 ruifery on their fatell pollentv. 



It appears to your petitioners. th3t an infringement on their rights is full 

 meditated by the flateof New Yoik ; as we find that in their general con- 

 vention at Harlem, the fecond day of Augutf iali, it wa- unaniraoufl/ vot- 

 ed, '• That all quitrents formerly cue and owing to the crown of Gieac 

 Britain within this flate, aie now due and owing to this convention, or 

 iuch future government as m^y hereafter be edabiifhed in this ftate," 



By a fubmilTion to the claims of New York, your petitioners would be 

 fjbjfftcd to the payment of two fhiliings and fix pence fterling on every 

 hundred acres annually ; which, c.,'mpared with the quitrents of Levmg- 

 flon's, Phillips's, and Ranfirar's ma'iois, and many ot.'ier enormous tradts 

 in the beft fuuations in theUaie, would lay the molt diiproporiionate fhare 

 of the public cxpcnlc on your peuiicners, in ail refpeCts the lead able to 

 bear it. 



The convention of New Yoik havr now nearly completed a code t.f 

 laws, for the future government ot tliat {fate ; which, fhould they be at- 

 tempted to be put ill execution, wili fubjcft your peiitioncrs to the fataV 

 necffnty of oppohng them by every means in their power. 



When the deciaraiion of the honorable the Continental Coogrefs of the 

 fourth of July lait patt, reached your petitioners, they communicated it 

 lhrough(.iit the vvhole of their didndt ; and being properly apprized of the 

 propoled meeting, delegates from the fcveial counties and towns in the dif- 

 triit, dekiibed in the preamble to this petition, did raeet at Wcffminller 

 in faid dillr:£f , and afier leveial adjournments for ihe purpofe of loimin^ 

 themfelves into a diliiiifl and feriaiate fiate, did make and publllh a dec- 

 laration, " that they would at ail times thereaiier confider thi;ni(elvej as a 

 free and independent Hate, tapable ot legulaiirjg their owii itiiernal police, 

 in all and eveiy rcfptft ' batlocver ; and that ihe people m the fai.l dcfc 

 cribcd dillriff, have the lole exclufive /ijhtcf governing themfelves in lur'j 

 a manner and form, as they in their wifdoju fhouldchoole; not repugnant 

 to any relolves of the honorable ihf Continental Cungrcfs :" And for the 

 niutudl fupport of each other in the reaintenance of the freedom and inde- 

 p^eiidcnce of faid dilliiit or fcparate ilaie, the laid delegates did jointly aad 



