58 A.GEIC1 LTU&AL Man 



r \i, 



dred." If the purchaser of a lot decided to keep the entire tract 

 he gave due notice to that effect and paid $8 for the survey. 



But little was known regarding the country in the northern 

 part of the state until after the Revolution, with the exception of 

 the land bordering Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River. 

 Small parcels of land along Lake Champlain had heen granted to 

 English officers who served during the French and Indian War. 

 Tn order to promote settlement of the state, the legislature 

 passed an act in 1780 for "the speedy sale of the unappropriated 

 lands of the state.'' Under this act the "ten towns" along the 

 St. Lawrence were surveyed and sold. The principal purchaser 

 was Alexander Macomb, a fur trader, who afterward contracted 

 for the largest grant of land ever made by the state of New York 

 to citizens. This grant included -3, 00*3, 755 acres and extended 

 over the greater part of Franklin, St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Lewis, 

 and Oswego counties, also a portion of Herkimer County. It 

 was later sold off in smaller parcels, Samuel Ogden and Grouver- 

 neur Morris hoing among the purchasers. David Parish was also 

 active in developing the resources of northern New York. The 

 remainder of the northern section was granted mostly in small 

 patents. 



During the first forty years that New York was under the con- 

 trol of the English the population increased hut slowly. Under 

 Stuyvesant the colonists had numbered about 12,000 and forty 

 years later it was estimated that the population had increased to 

 only about 20,000. After that time, with easier conditions of 

 living and added privileges of self-government, a rapid growth 

 began, and in 1773, two years before the Revolution, there was a 

 population of about 182,000. 



In 1 683 the first counties of New York were formed — twelve in 

 number, two of which were outside the present limits of the state. 

 The ten at present forming a part of the state were Kings. Queens, 

 Suffolk, Richmond, New York, and Westchester, besides four 

 " upstate " counties, the limits of which were not clearly defined. 

 Dutchess and Orange, meaning the scantily settled regions on the 

 east and west banks of the Hudson, were named as counties but, 

 having so few people, were given no representation in the assem- 

 bly. Ulster County was the thickly settled Esopus or Kingston 



