THE TOWN OF LEWISBORO. 399 



assigns, &c, all ye right an interest they have into an one hundred acres of 

 land lying in the Oblong, so-called, adjoining to or near by the twenty mile 

 line, which is in ye grants of Connecticut and New York, as it is laid out unto 

 him by ye committee which laid out our divisions in said land." a 



The very day after the establishment of the partition between the 

 colonies of New York and Connecticut (May 14th, 1731) and the con- 

 sequent ceding of the " Oblong " to the former, a patent passed in Lon- 

 don, under the great seal of Great Britian 6 to Sir Joseph Eyles Knight," 

 Jonathan Perry, John Drummond and Thomas Watts, Esq., in behalf 

 of themselves and several other merchants of the city of London con- 

 taining 62,000 acres "commonly called or known by the name of the 

 Equivalent land, because the same was formerly taken by the Province 

 of Connecticut in lieu of the like quantity yielded to that colony by the 

 Province of New York upon the settlement of their respective bound- 

 aries. 



THE ROYAL LETTERS PATENT FOR THE OBLONG OR EQUIVALENT LANDS. 



A grant posterior to this however is claimed as having been regularly 

 made here to Hawley & Co., of the greatest part of the same tract 

 which the British Patentees brought a bill in Chancery to repeal; 

 but the defendants filed an answer containing so many objections against 

 the English patent, that the suit remains still unprosecuted, and the 

 American proprietors have ever since held the possession. 



Mr. Harrison of the Council, solicited this controversy for Sir Joseph 

 Eyles and his partners,which contributed in a great degree to the troubles 

 so remarkable in a succeeding administration. d 



June 8th, 1731. A warrant for survey was issued for fifty thousand 

 acres of the Equivalent Lands for Thomas Hawley and other inhabi- 

 tants of the town of Ridgefield. 6 In answer to the following petition by 

 his excellency John Montgomerie, Esq., Captain-General and Governor- 

 in-Chief of the Province of New York, etc. Archibald Kennedy, Esq., 

 Collector and Receiver- General; George Clarke, Esq., Secretary, and 



a Ridgefield Rec. vol. II., p. 82., Conn, and N. Y. Boundaries, 1729-1731, vol. I., xix, p. 80 

 to 84. Patent passed 15th May, 1731. Registered 1st June, 1731. 



b " Two instances only occur of grants or letters patent for lands under tlie great seal of 

 Great Britain— one to Sir Joseph Eyles and others on the 15th May in the fourth year of his 

 late Majesty King George the Second for the above tract of 62,000 acres called the Oblong. 

 " The other to Sir William Johnson Baronet." See Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. I. p. 750. 



c " Sir Joseph Eyles Knight was the fourth son of Francis Eyles, Es q., an eminent merchant 

 and Alderman of London, and many years one of the directors of the East India Company, 

 created a Baronet by King George I., 1st Dec, 1714, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. 

 Ayley of London, merchant. His brother, Sir John Eyles was of an ancient Wiltshire family, 

 and received the honor of Knighthood from King James the Second and became Lord Mayor 

 of London. Sir Joseph Eyles was sheriff of London in 1726, Alderman in 1738, M. P. for 

 Southward and afterwards for Devizes. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Alderman Sir 

 Jaffrey Jeffreys, Knt., and died 8th of Feb., 1739-40, leaving one son and two daughters." 

 Jturke's Ext. and Dormant Baronetcies. 



d Smith's History of New York, 177. 



s Land papers, Albany, vol. 10, 1731, p. 156. 



