152 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



an added interest from having been commemorated and so well 

 utilized in fiction. 



A. H. 



The Major and the Queen, etc.^ 

 This is essentially an historical sketch of the several Dutch 

 and English claims to the ownership of Staten Island, with a 

 special presentation of the much discussed grants of crown lands 

 on the island by Queen Anne to Major Lancaster Symes; and 

 critical reading gives the impression that it is designed as a special 

 pleading for the validity of titles based upon these grants, as 

 may be inferred from the following statement: " Special repre- 

 sentatives of large and important property holders in New York 

 City were within the past few years expressly sent to London 

 and for months were in direct communication and conference 

 with the English Government, seeking a solution of the vexed 

 question of titles to lands on Staten Island, but to no avail. . . . 

 It has been the good fortune, however, of the American Title 

 and Trust Company to secure, after a lengthy, expensive and 

 skilled research, the long and expensively sought for evidence. 

 It is now in a position of exceptional knowledge as to the original 

 grant or grants underlying each and every piece of land on Staten 

 Island. . . . What is also of vast interest and great value, it 

 possesses, as previously stated herein, the copy of an early com- 

 prehensive and official survey of the said Island, the existence of 

 which is apparently unknown to the present authorities and other 

 title companies. ..." 



To one who is not personally concerned with property interests, 

 however, it is the plain historical facts that are of greatest 

 interest, and these are entertainingly presented in this volume, 



2 The Major and | the Queen I or j A Royal Grant to a Gallant Soldier | 

 by I S. L. Mershon | member of | the National Geographic Society, Washing- 

 ton, D. C, . . . ] Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences; etc., etc. [ 

 A Staten Island Record | of Historic Import | New York | R. R. Beam & 

 Company | publishers. 



Copyright, 1915, by S. L. Mershon. Distributed by the American Title 

 and Trust Co., Dupont Building, Wilmington, Del. Cloth, i2mo, 98 p. 

 23 pi. 



