40 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YOKK. 



inclinations, and they resolved upon standing aloof, — the 

 Senecas at least. Invited to Oswego by the English refu- 

 gees from the Mohawk, they were pramised that the ' fire- 

 water' of England's king should be ' as free to them as the 

 waters of Lake Ontario.' Their intentions were changed, 

 and their tomahawks and scalping - knives were turned 

 against the border settlers. A series of events ensued, the 

 review of which creates a shudder and a wonder that the 

 offenses were no easily forgiven, — that we had not taken 

 their country, after subduing them with our arms, instead 

 of treating for it. But well and humanely did the Father 

 of his Country consider how they had been wiled to the 

 unfortunate choice of friends which they made. English 

 rum was not only freely dealt out at Oswego, but at Niagara, 

 where it paid for many a reeking scalp, and helped to arouse 

 the fiercest passions of the Indian allies and send them back 

 upon their bloody track. 



'' When peace came, and our State authorities began to 

 cultivate an acquaintance with the Indians, they found them 

 deserted by their late British employers, with nothing to 

 show for the sanguine aid they had given them but appe- 

 tites vitiated by the English rum-cask, and a moral and 

 physical degeneracy, the progress of which could not have 

 been arrested ; and lingering yet among them in all their 

 principal localities, was the English or Tory trader, pro- 

 longing his destructive trafiic. It was American New York 

 legislation that made the first statutes against the traffic in 

 spirituous liquors among the Indians." 



CHAPTEB YIII. 



THE PHELPS AND GOKHAM PUKCHASE. 



Original Grants to the Colonies of Massachusetts and New York — Mas- 

 sachusetts Pre-emption Lands — Purchase of these Lands by Phelps 

 and Gorham— Treaty with the Seneca Indians — Survey of the 

 Lands — Sale to Robert Morris. 



An inquiry into the title of lands in Steuben County 

 will carry us back to those original patents granted by the 

 Kings of England, in right of discovery, to their subjects 

 who established colonies on the Eastern shores of this Con- 

 tinent near the beginning of the seventeenth century. 



In the year 1620, the King of Great Britain granted to 

 the Plymouth Company a tract of country denominated 

 New England, extending several degrees of latitude north 

 and south, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, east 

 and west. A charter for the government of a portion of 

 this territory, granted by Charles I., in 1628, was vacated 

 in 1684, but a second charter was granted by William and 

 Mary, in 1691. The territory comprised in this second 

 charter extended on the Atlantic Ocean from north latitude 

 42° 2' to 44° 15', and from the Atlantic to the Pacific 

 Ocean. Charles L, in 1663, granted to the Duke of York 

 and Albany, the Province of New York, including the 

 present State of New Jersey. The tract thus granted ex- 

 tended from a line twenty miles east of the Hudson River 

 westward, rather indefinitely, and from the Atlantic Ocean 

 north to the south line of Canada, then a French Colony. 



By this collision of description each of these colonies laid 



claim to the jurisdiction as well as the pre-emption right of the 

 same land, being a tract sufficiently large to form several States. 

 The State of New York, however, in 1781, and Massachu- 

 setts, in 1785, ceded to the United States all their right 

 either of jurisdiction or ownership, to all the territory lying 

 west of a meridian line run south from the westerly bend 

 of Lake Ontario. Although the nominal amount in con- 

 troversy, by these acts, was much diminished, it still left 

 some nineteen thousand square miles of territory in dispute. 

 But this controversy was finally settled by a convention of 

 commissioners appointed by the parties, held at Hartford, 

 Conn., on the 16th of' December, 1786. According to the 

 stipulation entered into by the convention, Massachusetts 

 ceded to the State of New York all her claim to the govern- 

 ment, sovereignty, and jurisdiction of all the territory lying 

 west of the present east line of the State of New York ; 

 and New York ceded to Massachusetts the pre-emption 

 right or fee of the land, subject to the title of the Indians, 

 of all that part of the State of New York lying west of a 

 line, beginning at a point in the north line of Pennsylvania, 

 eighty-two miles west of the northeast corner of said State, 

 and running from thence due north through Seneca Lake 

 to Lake Ontario, excepting and reserving to the State of 

 New York a strip of land east of, and adjoining the eastern 

 bank of Niagara River, one mile wide, and extending its 

 whole length, and inclusive of the islands in the Niagara 

 River. This land, the pre-emption right of which was thus 

 ceded to Massachusetts, amounted to about six millions of 

 acres. 



Soon after Massachusetts became possessed of this pre- 

 emption right, a company was formed in that State to pur- 

 chase a large tract of the land. The company consisted of 

 Oliver Phelps, Judge Sullivan, Messrs. Skinner and Chapin, 

 William Walker and others, chiefly residents of Berkshire 

 County. Before they had matured their plans, Nathaniel 

 Gorham had made proposals to the Legislature to purchase 

 a portion of the Genesee lands. Mr. Phelps had a confer- 

 ence with Mr. Gorham, and, to secure unanimity of action, 

 they mutually agreed that Mr. Gorham should become a 

 member of the association and consider his proposition 

 made for their common benefit. Mr. Gorham had proposed 

 the purchase of one million acres, at one and sixpence cur- 

 rency per acre, payable in the public paper of the common- 

 wealth. The House of Representatives acceded to the 

 proposition, but the non-concurrence of the Senate delayed 

 the consummation of the bargain till the Legislature again 

 convened in April, 1788, when others, who in the mean 

 time had made propositions of purchase to the State, were 

 included in the company. Messrs. Phelps and Gorham 

 were constituted the representatives of the association, and 

 in that capacity made a proposal to the Legislature for the 

 purchase of all the lands embraced in the Massachusetts 

 cession. This was accepted, the stipulated consideration 

 being one hundred thousand dollars, payable in the public 

 paper of Massachusetts. 



We have already remarked, in connection with our his- 

 tory of the extinction of the Indian title, that the paper 

 of Massachusetts was at that time depreciated to about fifty 

 cents on a dollar. 



At the first meeting of the shareholders, preliminary 



