[5-101] [Captain Thomas Bell's account for "Graveing the Castle Barge and Oather things found the Boat." Allowed May 26, 1768. - ED.] [5-106] [Report of Committee on Road from Durham Falls to Coës.] } Province of 1 Pursuant to an Act of the General Assembly of New Hampshir) Said Province passed in the forth year of his Majestys Reign appointing and impowering Us the Subscribers as a Committee to Lay out & make Return into the Secretarys office of a good passable high Way from Durham Falls to Cohos in Said Prov ince Agrable to Said Act we have laid out & marked Sd Way beganing at durham falls & from thence Runing to Madbury Meeting House from thence about N. W. to Barrington then thr° Barrington by Levi Daniels house - from thence over the Bridge at Bow Pond Mill from thence about N W to Barnstead and then thro' Barnstead as the High Way is Cut to Gilmantown from thence thro' Gilmantown by the South Side of the Revd Mr Wm Parsonses house thence about N W. to a Hemlock tree Marked with the Letter H then as Said way is Marked to Lemuel Rands House from thence as Said way is Marked to Joseph Badgers Jun' Land that he is now Clearing from thence to the Bridge or Wares as the Road Was Before Laid out from thence thro' New Salem about N W. to Land Call'd the Gore from thence thro' Holderness by the house of Sam" Livermore Esq from Said Livermores to Bryent Swaineys from thence West about thirty Degrees N. to Pemidgwasset Rever then across Said Rever to Plymouth about thirty Rods above David Websters house from thence by Said Websters house as the way now is to Bakers Rever at the wading Place from thence to Campton and thro' part of Campton to Rumney as the way is now Marked, then thro' Rumney as Said Road is Marked out to Wentworth then over Bakers River About one Mile below the falls from thence as Said Way is Marked to Warren and Runing thro' Said Warren about North West as Said Way is Marked to Piermont then thro' Piermont as Marked to Haverhill and to the Oliverian Mills in Haverhill and from thence Northerly to Capt John Hazzens at Said Cohos. - In Laying out Said Way we have Strickly Pursued the Prescriptions and Directions Given us in Said Act except Where Mountainous Land & other impediments Obliged us to Deviate there from July 13th 1768 Rich Jenness 3 Committee John McDuffee [5-107] [Petition from the House of Representatives to the King.] To The Kings most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of the House of Representatives of your Majesty's Province of New Hampshire Shews That your Majesty's Loyal and Dutiful Subjects the Representatives of your Province of New Hampshire, with the most profound Humility, and the deepest Sense of Duty and affection Beg leave to Supplicate your Majesty, and to present our most Gracious Sovereign a View of the Grievances & Distresses under which your Majesty's good Subjects of this Province at present Labour — We Esteem it the happy Priviledge of all your Majesty's Subjects in all the Difficulties & Distresses they feel wherein your majesty may give Relief, to have free Liberty to approach the Royal Presence with those Supplications which they hope will prove Effectual —— And we do not Entertain the least Fear or Suspicion that your remote American Subjects are or ever will be excluded from that Priviledge We most heartily and Sincerely profess our Allegiance to your Majesty of which we trust our Conduct & Behaviour has always given. the clearest Evidence, the Obedience & affection of the People of this Province to your Majesty and your Royal Predecessors, has we apprehend never been called in Question, or in any Measure doubted.— Our Ancestors from England transplanted themselves to this Country at their own Expence, they brought over with them their Natural allegiance to the Crown of England with an inseperable unalienable Right to all that Protection of their Liberty & Property to which all Liege Subjects of the British Empire are Intitled. After they had Conquered the Savages of the Wilderness at an almost incredible Expence of Blood & Treasure & Settled themselves in a Country which on their first Arrival they found a howling Wilderness—your Majesty's Royal Predecessors as a proper Reward of their Labour & Peril in extending the English Empire were pleased to grant them a Power of Legislation, limited to the approbation or Disallowance of the Crown with the Power & Priviledge Essential to British Liberty of raising internal Taxes by their own Representatives, which Priviledge & Right, they, from the first erecting a Government here, and we after them have enjoyed till the late Acts of Parliament, Enacted for the Sole & Express Purpose of raising a Revenue in America, — Which Acts we wou'd humbly Represent to your Majesty are Subversive of those Rights & Liberties which our ancestors so dearly purchased. We do by no means dispute the Authority of the British Legislature, we have ever been & Still are Obedient to all acts of Parliament regulating the affairs of your Majesty's Subjects in general & the due Administration of Justice without Complaint. But we cannot but be Sensibly Affected with the Loss of that Advantage, without which we are no longer free men, nor can have any Claim to the peculiar Glory & Boast of the Subjects of the British Empire, which is the Absolute Disposal of their Own Property, But these Acts tax us without our own Consent & Deprive us so much of Our Property as in Virtue thereof is taken from us without our Voice and Contrary to our Priviledges as Englishmen. And we humbly apprehend our Complaint in this Respect cannot justly be imputed to us as a Fault or tending to Disloyalty or Disaffection to Government for we humbly apprehend we Should be unworthy the Character of your Majesty's Subjects and Englishmen if we had not Sensibility to perceive the happy Constitution of Government we live under & to deprecate the Loss of it. The Assemblies of this Province have Always readily complied in a Constitutional way with every Requisition from your Majesty to Contribute to the utmost of their ability for the Defence of any of your Majesty's Dominions, and we beg leave to represent to your Majesty the Hardships and Impropriety that our Property Shou'd be granted by the House of Commons of Great Britain in which we are not nor can be represented who bear no part of the Burden of the Taxes they are pleased to grant to be levied on us & who by their local Situation, & want of a Seasonable intimate knowledge of the Circumstances of this Country are unlikely to fix upon the most Expedient & equitable Method of levying Taxes here. — We humbly Apprehend that Taxes being imposed on us by way of Duties on any of the necessaries of life or in any other Manner whatsoever without our Consent must necessarily Terminate in the total Loss of our Liberty and Distruction of our Property - And most Humbly beg leave to Suggest that in ev'ry Instance, wherein your Majesty's Subjects are unconstitutionally deprived of their just Rights your Majesty's Government is weakned. Wherefore in full & humble Confidence of your Majesty's paternal & impartial Regard to the Happiness and Tranquility of all your Subjects, We are Encouraged to make this humble Application, and to intreat your Majesty would be graciously pleased to take our Petition. into your wise Consideration, & grant us Such Relief therein as to your Royal Wisdom, Shall Seem Meet, And we Beg leave to add that it is our earnest Prayer to the Supreme Governour of the Universe that all kinds of Blessings may be granted to your Majesty and your Royal Offspring And that all your Subjects may be long happy under P Gilman Speaker N. B The Original went Capt Scot Via Boston [5-108] [Petition of John Wendell, of Portsmouth, in Behalf of the Inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants.] To his Excellency John Wentworth Esqr Captain New Hamps General, Governor & Commander in Chief, in, and over his Majesty's Province aforesaid, & Vice Admiral of the same in Council The Petition of John Wendell of Portsmouth in the Province aforesaid Esq' as Agent to the Committee, appointed by the Voices of more than One thousand Grantees, claiming Lands under New Hampshire Grants on the Western Side of Connecticutt River which by a late Order of his Majesty in Council were annexed to the Government of New York, Unto Your Excellency and the Honourable Council humbly shews; That your Petitioner's Constituents and their Principals, have preferred their Petition to his Majesty in Council, by their other Agents William Sam' Johnston & Samuel Robinson Esquires, setting forth the many hardships they labour under, and the Interruption they have met with in the Settlement of their said Grants and as Your Petitioner has since heard of the Death of Samuel Robinson one of their said Agents, he greatly fears the Cause of his Constituents and their Principals will suffer, as his personal Evidence was necessary, as well to support their Allegations, as to vindicate his own Reputation, which had been injuriously attacked, and to remove any Prejudices that any such Imputations may have made in the Minds of ye Ministry, purposely thrown out to discredit him and his Cause. Your Petitioner in his said Capacity begs Leave to represent unto Your Excellency and the Honble Council, that his Constituents and their Principals consist of more than one Thousand Families, who have removed themselves from ye full setled Towns in his Majesty's other Governments to seek their Support by Cultivating of the unimproved Lands in the inhospitable and savage Wilderness: they had not the Presumption to doubt the Right of the late Governor of New Hampshire to grant them these Lands, as they always understood them to be within the Jurisdiction of this Province, and they cannot but express their Grief and Concern, that his Majesty has been pleased to annex their Grants to the Government of New York, as their local Situation from the Metropolis of y' Province, is too distant for the due Administration of Justice and the other Purposes of Government; besides the Monopolies of such large uncultivated Tracts of Lands granted to a few Men reduces the Settlers to a State of Vassalage and Dependancy: Your Petition' in his said Capacity is authorized to assure your Excellency & Honours: that they and their families had rather remove themselves than remain under the jurisdiction of a Government, the Constitutional Form of which, is greatly different from that which they have been accustomed to, But if it should be the Will & Pleasure of their gracious Sovereign to reannex them to his Government of New Hampshire, they beg leave to assure your Excellency & Honrs they will diligently apply themselves to a Settlement of their Grants and very soon make a respectable Appearance, to the Advancement of his Majesty's Revenues and the Enrichment of their present poor families Your Petitioner prays Your Excellency and Honours to lay the state of their Grieviances before his Majesty and his Council, & to interceed in their Behalf, that if his Majesty should be pleased to determine their said Grants shall continue within the Province of New York: That in that Case the Governor of that Province should be directed to regrant the same to the Original Grantees, without any further Expence which if he should be allowed to create by heavy Fees, will have a Manifest Tendency to compleat the Ruin of many poor, indigent & distressed families now labouring under the most afflicting Discouragements: through from the known Clemency of their august Soveriegn, they will presume to hope a Redress of all their Grieviances, especially if countenanced by your Excellency and honours just and kind Representation of their righteous Cause, Your Petitioners begs leave to assure y' Excellency that it is the present Ambition of his Constituents and they wish for nothing more ardently than that his Majesty would be graciously pleased to suffer them to reap the Benefit of yr Excelleys mild Administration of Government for which happy Event, he and they as in duty bound shall ever pray John Wendell Portsm° Nov 30th 1768. |