A Proclamation

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VIRGINIA to wit:

Whereas His Majesty did, at the request of the Assembly of this Colony permit the Western Boundary thereof to be extended as the same has been run and ascertained by Colonel Donelson, and other surveyors deputed for the purpose; and whereas, His Majesty hath for the greater convenience of, and the preventing of litigation and disputes among such persons as shall be inclined to settle upon any of his vacant Lands, ordered that, all that tract of Land included within the aforesaid boundary, and all other vacant Lands within this Colony be surveyed in districts, and laid out in lots of from one hundred to one thousand acres, and as fast as the said surveys shall be completed by the surveyors duly authorized, and the surveys thereof returned, that the Lands so surveyed and allotted be put up to publick sale, at such time and place as shall be appointed by publick notice; and that the highest bidder for such lots and parcels of Land at such sales, be the purchaser thereof, and be entitled to a grant in fee simple of the Land so purchased as aforesaid, by letters patent under the great seal of the Colony, subject to no conditions or reservations whatever, other than the payment of the annual quitrent of one half-penny sterling per acre; and also of all mines of gold, silver, and precious stones. And whereas advice has been received, that one Richard Henderson, and other disorderly persons, his associates, under pretence of a purchase made from the Indians, contrary to the aforesaid orders and regulations of His Majesty, do set up a claim to the Lands of the Crown within the limits of this Colony; I have thought fit, therefore, to issue this my Proclamation, strictly charging all Justices of the Peace, Sheriffs, and other officers, civil and military, to use their utmost endeavours to prevent the unwarrantable and illegal designs of the said Henderson, and his abetters; and if the said Henderson, or others concerned with him, shall take possession of, or occupy any Lands within the limits of His Majesty' s Government of Virginia, merely under any purchase, or pretended purchase made from Indians, without any other title; that he or they be required in His Majesty' s name forthwith to depart, and relinquish the possession so unjustly obtained; and in case of refusal, and of violent detaining such possession, that he or they be immediately fined and imprisoned in the manner the laws in such cases direct

Given under my hand, and the seal of the Colony, this 21st day of March, in the fifteenth year of His Majesty' s reign.

DUNMORE.