John Jay Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Jay, John"
sorted by: date (ascending)
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jay/01-01-02-0059

From John Jay to the Earl of Dartmouth, 25 March 1773

To the Earl of Dartmouth1

[New York, 25th March 1773.—]

My Lord

Tho a Stranger to your Lordship, I take the Liberty of troubling you with the inclosed Petition of the Inhabitants of New Britain, Settlement on the Frontier of this Province.2

Principles of Humanity my Lord! have led me to interest myself in Behalf of these unhappy People; and I forbear paying an ill Compliment to a generous Mind, by endeavouring to apologize for giving it an opportunity, of supporting the Cause of Equity & Benevolence. If we may rest our Judgment on the Reports of Fame, your Lordship’s Petitioners are happy in a Prospect of having the Matters of their Complaint, determined under the Directions of a Minister; who does not consider an Elevated Station as an asylum from the Plaints of Distress.

It gives me Pain my Lord! to observe that the prevailing monopoly of Lands in this Colony has become a Grievance to the lower Class of People in it; and confines the Bounty of our gracious Sovereign to mercenary Land-Jobbers, and Gentlemen who have already shared very largely in the royal Munificence.

My Lord! I have no Reason to suspect that these People have decieved me, and therefore, should further Inquiries be thought necessary to determine the merits of their Pretensions, I will readily be at the Trouble of making them—I am my Lord with the greatest Respect your Lordships most obedient & most h’ble Servt.

John Jay—

To the Right Hon’ble the Earl of Dartmouth

ALS, UkLPR (EJ: 11374). Endorsed. Enclosure: Petition of the Inhabitants of New-Britain, 25 Mar. 1773, UkLPR (EJ: 11375).

1William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth (1731–1801), served as British secretary of state for colonial affairs, 1772–75.

2The petition traced the history of New Britain, a settlement in modern Columbia County, N.Y., just east of the Kinderhook patent. Settlers had come to the area in the early 1760’s, and they were promised by Colonel John Van Rensselaer that if the Crown recognized his claim to the area, he “would sell it to them as Waste Land for a low price.” Should Van Rensselaer’s claim be disallowed, the settlers at New Britain had expected they could easily receive grants directly from the crown. However, Van Rensselaer relinquished his claim to New Britain, and the settlers were alarmed at rumors that applications had been made for grants in their neighborhood. Their petition mentioned an earlier petition of Jan. 1772 to Governor Tryon seeking grants for the lands they had cleared, but “nothing was done in Consequence thereof.” Calendar of N.Y. Colonial Manuscripts, Indorsed Land Papers . . . 1643–1803 (New York, 1864; reprint, Harrison, N.Y., 1987), 590.

Index Entries