Enclosed extracts from the Minutes and Proceedings

v2:136

At a Meeting of His Majesty' s Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, Monday, February 29th, 1775. Present: Mr˙ Jenyns, Mr˙ Jolliffe, Mr˙ Gascoyne, Mr˙ Keene.

The Earl of Dartmouth took into further consideration the business of New-York, mentioned in the two preceding days Minutes, and the parties interested in the Lands in question attending again; Mr˙ Dagge, solicitor for the reduced Officers, submitted to the Board the following proposal for adjusting the matter in controversy, so far as it regarded the claims of said Officers, and those of the present possessors and occupants, viz:

"That the Petitioners be allowed to locate their Lands, claimed under the Proclamation, upon that tract within the Province of New-York, which lies, between the North and South Manors of Rensselaer, bounded on the West by the Kinderhook Patent, and on the East by the jurisdiction line between the Provinces of New-York and Massachusetts, as far as such locations can be made without prejudice to the present occupancies, (now under actual improvement,) allowing to each occupant at the rate of fifty acres of woodland for every two hundred acres of Land under actual improvement, and so in proportion for a greater or lesser number of acres; such parcels of wood and to be as contiguous as possible to each occupancy, to which the same shall be respectively allotted. And if any quantity of woodland shall have, been already inclosed by any of the occupants, such woodland, if less than the proportion above-mentioned shall be reckoned as part of the woodland so directed to be allotted to each occupancy as aforesaid; and if it exceeds the number of fifty acres, in that case no woodland shall be allotted; and that, in so far as the vacant Lands shall fall short of the quantity claimed by the Petitioners, they be allowed to locate double the quantity of such residue in some other part of the Province of New-York, or elsewhere in North America, not already granted."

Mr˙ Savage having desired, by his solicitor, some time to consider the said proposal, the parties withdrew; and, after a short time, they desired to be called in, when Mr˙ Savage signified his consent to and approbation of the said proposal, in which the Board acquiesced, not thinking that any thing had been stated or proved on the part of the Westenhook proprietors, that made them, in this case, objects of the attention of Government; and, therefore, that they should be left to prosecute their claims, if they had any, in such other manner as they should be advised.