letters to be made Patent and the great Seal of our Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England to be threunto affixed witness our trusty and well beloved Thomas Hutchinson Esquire our Captain General and Govornor in Chief in and over our Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England and Vice Admiral of the same, at the Council Chamber in Boston the fifth Day of May in the year of our Lord one Thousand seven hundred seventy three and of our Reign the Thirteenth. By His Excellency's Command THOMAS FLUCKER Secr! N: 43. (Seal) Thomas Hutchinson Esquire Captain Gen! and Governor in Chief in and over his Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England and vice Admiral of the same To William Brattle, Joseph Hawley and John Hancock Esquires Greeting Whereas the great and general court or Assembly of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay above said did at their Session, begun and held at Cambridge in April last make choice of William Brattle Joseph Hawley and John Hancock Esq as commissaries on the Part of said province to act in conjunction with such persons as may be appointed by the Government of New York, for settling the Boundary Line between the two provinces, and did desire I would commissionate them for that purpose aforesaid I do therefore commissionate by these Presents and empower you the said William Brattle, Joseph Hawley, and John Hancock Esq on the part of this Government, to meet, and act in conjunction, with such persons as may be appointed by the Government of New York in settling the Boundary line as aforesaid between the Two Provinces. In. Testimony whereof I have caused the public Seal of the province of Massachusetts Bay aforesaid to be hereunto affixed. Dated at Boston the twenty ninth Day of April 1773 in the Thirteenth year of His Majesty's Reign By His Excellency's Command No 44. This Agreement indented made the eighteenth Day of May in the thirteenth year of the Reign of His Most Gracious Majesty George the Third King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith &c and in the year of our Lord one Thousand seven hundred and seventy three, Between John Watts, William Smith, Robert R Livingston and William Nicoll Esquires duly authorised to make such agreement by virtue of a Law of the Province of New York on the one Part and William Brattle, Joseph Hawley, & John Hancock Esquires thereunto also duly authorised by virtue of a Law of the Province of Massachusetts Bay on the other Part Witnesseth, that the Commissaries aforesaid being met at Hartford in the Colony of Connecticut for the settlement of a partition Line of Jurisdiction between the said provinces of New York and the Massachusetts Bay on the Easterly part of the said province of New York, and from the South to the North Boundaries of the said Massachusetts Bay, in Pursuance of the said Laws and Certain Commissions respectively Issued to the commissaries above named by the Governors of the Provinces aforesaid and in compliance of the Royal recommendation heretofore signified to Sir Henry Moore, Br and to Francis Bernard Esq the then Gove" of the Said provinces by Letters from the Right Honorable the Earl of Shelburne late one of His Majesty's Principal Secretary's of State and after having had divers conferences relative to the aforesaid Boundary of the said provinces they the said commissaries do thereupon unanimously agree that the Following Line, that is to say a line beginning at a place fixed upon by the two Governments of New York and Connecticut in or about the year or our Lord One Thousand seven Hundred and thirty one for the northwest corner of a tract of Land commonly called Oblong or Equivalent Land and running from the said corner north twenty one Degrees Ten Minutes and thirty seconds East as the Magnet needle now points to the North Line of the Massachusetts Bay shall at all times hereafter be the Line of Jurisdiction between the said province of the Massachusetts Bay and the said Province of New York in all and every part and place where the said province of New York on its Eastern Boundary shall adjoin on the said Province of the Massachusetts Bay. In Testimony whereof the commissaries aforesaid have hereunto Set their Hands and seals the Day and year first abovementioned. W BRATTLE (seal) ELIPH DYER Wm SAM JOHNSON JN WATTS (seal) We the Governors of the Provinces aforesaid having been present at the execution of the agreement aforesaid in Testimony of our consent thereto and of our approbation thereof have hereunto set our hands and seals, at Hartford aforesaid this Eighteenth Day of May in the year of our Lord one Thousand seven hundred and seventy three, and the Thirteenth year of His Majestys Reign. Sealed and Delivered in the presence of ELIPH DYER W SAM JOHNSON WM TRYON (Seal) No 45. The Report of William Nicoll, Appointed to superintend the running out and marking the Boundary Line between the Colony of New York and Massachusetts Bay, and of Gerard Bancker surveyor appointed to Run and Mark the same, in Conjunction with such persons as should be authorised for that purpose on the Part of the Massachusetts Bay. Monday the 11th of October being the Day appoint. ed by His Excellency Go! Tryon and Governor Hutchinson for meeting to Run the Line we accordingly attended at the North West Corner of the Oblong, the Massachusetts Gentlemen were not there, but that evening Major Hawley sent word, that he was to lodge about six miles north of it, and would meet us on the spot the next morning, we accordingly met the next morning at the Monument put up for the North West corner of the Oblong, which was shown by Cornelius Brower of New York Government and Jacob Spoor of Massachusetts Bay, who severally declared on Oath that they were present at the Erecting of it about the year 1731 it was a small heap of stones and a stake marked on the south and west sides & we enlarged the heap of stones, and put up a Red Cedar post with the old stake and marked it B. Major Hawley brought with him David Ingersol and Elijah Dwight Esquires two Justices who swore the surveyors, Miller and Bancker, as well as the chainbearers, to perform the service without any fraud, deceit, or sinister views whatever this being done, we produced our Commissions. Major Hawley in return shewed us a copy of a Minute of Council of the 17th June Signed by His Excellency Governor Hutchinson, in which after thanking their commissaries for settling the Line, they appoint Major Hawley to see it run and Marked and empower the Governor to appoint a surveyor and the necessary assistants, and a letter from the Governor to Major Hawley acquainting him that he had appointed M: Miller to Survey and Run the Line. Y M The surveying instruments were then produced and on comparing them it was found that the Massachusetts Instrument would Run the Line considerably more East than our instrument where upon Major Hawley proposed that the Mean difference of the two Instruments should be taken and used, which was agreed to. The Massachusetts Gentlemen chose their Instrument should be used, we consented and that afternoon went about 25 Chains the next Morning they chose to go Back to the Oblong corner and examine the course that had been Run, in doing which we discovered a defect in their Instrument for which they agreed that ours should be used in preference to it. The survey went on with our Instrument for about six miles but finding the needle frequently affected by minerals the Massachusetts gentlemen expressed a doubt whether we had continued on the true course, it was here tryed on low land, where we did not apprehend there was any attraction and after correcting a back monument or two and satisfying both sides, it was agreed to run by stakes and back sights only as we found the needle so often affected as not to be depended upon, for this purpose we used the Telescope of their Instrument, went on a far as the Kinderhook Road which is about eleven Miles from our beginning. It then occurred to them that a Line run thus by stakes would incline more Easterly than a line run by the needle, as the needle by an increase of the variation in going on would form a curve line inclining westerly, but after considering the Difference that this would make, it was agreed that a Strait line should be continued, by stakes, and that our method of running the Line should be particularly described in the Report that was Intended to be made on Finishing the Business. Upon this Major Hawley finding the survey going on to his satisfaction left and went home for six days but on the second day after his return when we had Gone about twenty Miles from the Oblong corner he Objected to the Line as it had been run, alledging the Course we had run was too much East, and the Line run by stakes, was not the Line intended by the Hartford agreement, and insisted on altering the course from the Beginning. He was put in mind that the difference between a Line run by stakes and one run by the needle had before been considered, and ought not to be raised as an objection, |