The Boundary Disputes of Connecticut

Front matter

"john wlnthrop, governor of connecticut. born feb. 12. 1606, in groton, in county of suffolk, england. Died in Boston, Colony of Massachusetts Bay, April 5, 1676." Copied from original portrait in the possession of Mr. Robert Winthrop of New York. See page 20. HEU0Tir«>E PRINTINO CO. BOSTON. THE BOUNDARY DISPUTES OF CONNECTICUT BY CLARENCE WINTHROP BOWEN u Sunt certi denique fines, Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum" BOSTON JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY 1SS2 Copyright, 18S2, Bv James R. Osgood and Company. All rights reserved. University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. For suggestions offered and information received, the author wishes to express his warmest thanks to Charles J. Hoadley, Librarian of the State of Connecticut ; to Daniel J. Pratt, Assistant Secretary of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York ; to John R. Bartlett, Custodian of the John Carter Brown Library at Providence ; and to William Hayes Ward, D.D., of New York.

He is also under obligations to Mr. Robert Winthrop of New York, for permission to copy the original portrait of Gov ernor John Winthrop. CONTENTS PAGE

Introduction

Chapter I

Historical Statement, and the Controversy with the Dutch 13 II. The Woodward and Saffery Survey of 1642, and the Necessity for a Colonial Charter 19 III. The Duke of Hamilton's Claim 2\ IV. The Controversy with New Haven ...... 24 V. The Mohegan Claim 25 VI. The Controversy concerning Long Island . ... 27

Part II. Connecticut's Boundary Disputes With Rhode Island. Chapter I

The Claims of Connecticut and Massachusetts to the Territory of Rhode Island . . . . . . 31 II. Disturbances and Disputes up to 16S5 37 III. The Appeal of Connecticut and Rhode Island to England 43 IV. The Disputes between Connecticut and Rhode Island from 1700 to 1840 ......... CONTENTS. VI

Part III. Connecticut's Boundary Disputes With Massachusetts Chapter Page

I. The Controversy concerning Windsor, and the Survey of the Inter-Colonial Line . 53 II. The Memorials of Massachusetts and Connecticut to the Crown, and the Boundary Settlement of 171 3 . . 57 III. The Controversy concerning Woodstock, Enfield, and Suffield 60 IV. Points at Issue between Massachusetts and Connecticut from 1774 until 1826 65

Part IV. Connecticut's Boundary Disputes With New York. Chapter I

Disputes between New York and Connecticut from 1664 UNTIL I73I 69 II. The Claims of Connecticut to Western Lands and to Islands in the Sound ........ 75 III. Disputes between New York and Connecticut from 1855 until Final Settlement in 1880 78 INDEX MAPS PAGE I. Dutch Map of Connecticut in 1616 14 II. Indian Map of Connecticut in 1630 16 III. The Western Boundary Lines of Connecticut .... 17 IV. The Woodward and Saffery Survey of 1642 19 V. Map of New England by President Stiles of Yale College . 22 VI. The Mohegan Country 26 VII. Connecticut in 1720 41 VIII. Rhode Island in 1728 45 IX. Pawcatuck River and Pond 47 X. The Chandler and Thaxter Survey of 1713 57 XI Survey of 1822 of the Northern Connecticut Line from the Connecticut River, Eastward ....... 59 XII. Survey of 1759 of Woodstock 61 Survey of 1804 of Northern Connecticut Line from Connecti- XIII cut River, Westward 63 XIV.

Southwick, Granby, and Suffield 65 XV. Survey of 1826 of Northern Connecticut Line from Connecticut River, Eastward G6 XVI. Explanation of Connecticut's Western Boundary ... 74 XVII. Connecticut in 1882 THE BOUNDARY DISPUTES OF CONNECTICUT.

INTRODUCTION.

. /^\NE would hardly suppose that the boundary lines of what is now called the State of Connecticut had been a subject of dispute for nearly two hundred and fifty years. Islands on the south have been claimed and reclaimed, only to be lost again. How the boundary on the east was ever fixed seems a puzzle, in the light of the bitter quarrels extending through several generations between the people of Connecticut and Rhode Island. The northern boundary of Connecti cut was thought to be settled three or four times, but almost a hun dred years passed before the question was finally determined. The western line, which at first extended to the Pacific Ocean, and the southern boundary were established at last about a year ago by Act of Congress. The State, too, has been subdivided, each portion claiming an independent jurisdiction of its own.

The boundary lines have been in perpetual motion since the founding of the Colony, — a strange inconsistency for "the land of steady habits." The in definiteness of the lines during the early history of the Colony is well illustrated by the ridicule employed by Rufus Choate when he appeared before the Legislature of Massachusetts as counsel for the remonstrants against the boundary between Rhode Island and Massachusetts : —

INTRODUCTION.

. 10 " Why, gentlemen, the Commissioners might as well have decided that the line between the States was bounded on the north by a bramble-bush, on the south by a blue jay, on the west by a hive of bees in swarming-time, and on the east by five hundred foxes with fire brands tied to their tails." A detailed account of the boundary disputes would crowd many folios. References to boundaries and jurisdiction fill a good share of the history of the Colonies and States, and especially is this true of the State of Connecticut. After so much vexation it is a source of congratulation that Connecticut possesses all the territory she now has.

Part I. Claims To The Soil Of Connecticut

CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL STATEMENT, AND THE CONTROVERSY WITH THE DUTCH.

F7NGLAND and Holland at first claimed with equal urgency jurisdiction over the land now called Connecticut* England's claim rested upon the discoveries of the Cabots in 1494 and 1497, and upon the discovery of portions of the New England Coast, including Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold, an Englishman. Henry Hudson commissioned by the King of Eng land was the first to see Long Island and the Hudson River in 1609,! and the following year he revisited the same in the employ of some Dutch merchants and afterwards sold his rights to the Dutch. Upon the validity of this sale and upon the voyage which the Dutchman Adrian Block took in 1614 through Hell Gate, along the coast of Connecticut to Fisher's and Block Islands and Cape Cod, rested the claims of the Dutch to Connecticut.

For some years the Dutch merchants visited the coast of Connecticut and traded with the Indians.^ On account of the prior claim of the English, a protest was made against Hudson's sale to the Dutch. The sale conflicted, too, with the grant which James I. executed in 1606, of all the land from what is now the southernmost bounds of North Carolina to the Canada line, or from 340 to 450 north latitude, which was divided into two parts called Virginia and New England. Virginia was given to the merchants of London, and New Eng- * Trumbull's History of Connecticut ; Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts : Palfrey's History of New England; Bancroft's History of the United States; Hollister's History of Connecticut; Brodhead's History of New York; Smith's History of New York; Daniel Neal's History of New England; Caulkins's History of New London; Dwight's History of Connecticut; Douglas's History of North America ; etc. f Such is the generally accepted fact.

The claim that Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine navigator, entered New York harbor in 1524, is disputed. See "Voyage of Verrazzano, a Chapter on the Early History of Maritime Discovery in America," by Henry C. Murphy. It is also claimed that the Dutch visited the harbor in 159S, and therefore saw the Hudson River at least eleven years before Hudson. See " The Discovery of the Hudson River," by Rev. B. F. De Costa, D.D. J See Map I. of Connecticut in 1616, on next page. DUTCH MAP OF CONNECTICUT IN 1616. land, to the merchants of Plymouth. In the additional reasons of actual possession and purchase of the territory from the Indians also rested the rights of the English to the soil of Connecticut. From 1607 to 1620, several feeble attempts were made by the English to settle New England, but the first permanent one was effected by the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 1620.

The same year a patent was granted by the King for incorporating settlers in New England, under the name of the " Council of Plymouth for the affaires of New England," which conferred on the Council all land from 40° to 48°, or from the middle of the coast of New Jersey almost as far north as the mouth of the river St. Lawrence, and west to the Pacific Ocean. This grant was all important, for upon it depended the future grants in New England. In 1627 the land about Salem was sold by the Council of Plymouth to John Endicott and others, and included the land between three miles to the south of the southernmost point of the Charles River, and three miles to the north of the Merrimack River, and from sea to sea. This was the Massachu setts Patent, afterwards confirmed by Charles I ; and the difficulty in ■5 subsequently determining exactly where the southern boundary began was the cause of the long-contested dispute between Massachusetts and Connecticut.

In 1631, Robert, Earl of Warwick, granted to Lord Say and Seal, Brooks, Sir Richard Saltonstall, and others, the territory between Narragansett River and southwest towards New York for a hundred and twenty miles and west to the Pacific Ocean, or, according to the words of President Clap of Yale College, " from Point Judith to New York and from thence a west line to the South Sea, and if we take Narragansett River in its whole length the tract will extend as far north as Worcester. It comprehends the whole of the Colony of Connecticut and much more." This was called the old patent of Connecticut and had been granted the previous year, 1630, by the Council of Plymouth to the Earl of Warwick. Yet before the English had planted settlements in Connecticut the Dutch had pur chased of the Pequots land where Hartford now stands and erected a small trading fort called " The House of Good Hope."

Governor Win throp of Massachusetts protested against this settlement as conflicting with the rights of the English ; yet, if he had acted upon the advice of a Connecticut Sachem who went to Boston for settlers, the claim cf the Dutch to Hartford would have been anticipated. In 1633 Wil liam Holmes of Plymouth sailed up the Connecticut River, and, despite the protests of the Dutch at Hartford, continued eight miles farther, where he planted a building at Windsor, said to have been the first house erected in Connecticut. In 1635, under authority of those who held the Connecticut Patent, a fort was erected at Saybrook ; and about the same time settlements were made at Hartford, Windsor, Wethersfield, and Springfield by immigrants from Massachusetts Bay, to be followed in 1637 by the settlement at New Haven.

The Dutch becoming alarmed tried to prevent the settlement at Saybrook, and also prohibited the English from trading at the House of Good Hope. The Connecticut towns held courts of their own, yet were supposed to be under the authority of Massachusetts; but finding themselves outside the charter of that Colony they established a local government. In fact there were two governments, — the Colony of Connecticut and the Colony of New Haven. Springfield allied herself with Connecticut for two years, but beinoincluded within the chartered limits of Massachusetts she fell under the jurisdiction of that Colony. Her neglect to pay taxes for the support of the fort at the mouth of the Connecticut caused much hard feelins towards her among the other River towns. In her vie tory over the Pequot Indians, Connecticut gained actual possession of the territory of Eastern Connecticut* and this right by conquest was soon followed by the chartered right from the Council of Plymouth ; for in 1644 the River towns purchased for £ 1,600 the old Connecticut Patent from Colonel George Fenwick at Saybrook, and thus assumed jurisdiction over the territory included in that important grant.

If Fenwick had sold his patent to the Dutch, as he threatened to do, the whole history of Connecticut might have been changed. On account of outside dangers, an attempt was made about this time to form a union between the governments of Massachusetts and Con necticut; but the dispute over the jurisdiction of Springfield and Westfield somewhat delayed the project. At a meeting of the Com missioners of the United Colonies held at Hartford, Sept. 5, 1644, the claim of Massachusetts to the above-named towns was sustained; but by a still later decision Springfield was required to pay to Connecticut the impost tax before alluded to. In the following year, 1645, Con necticut thought of uniting with New Haven to solicit a charter from the King; but owing to the rebellion in England the question rested until after the Restoration.

The claim of the Dutch to the coast of Connecticut was raised in 1646 by Governor Kieft, who wrote to Gov ernor Eaton of New Haven threatening war if Connecticut did not re spect Dutch rights. The offer to settle the dispute by arbitration was refused by the Dutch Governor, and the territorial claims of Connecti cut and the fact that the D-utch traders at Hartford were in arrears to citizens of Connecticut were contemptuously denied. Another annoy ance to Connecticut was John Winthrop's claim to the country of the Western Nehantics.t But this claim conflicted with the Colony * See Map II., page 16. Copied, by permission, from John W. DeForest's History of the Indians of Connecticut. t See Map II., page 16. Patent and was not pressed. Winthrop was also warned against making a contemplated purchase of Long Island, as that also would inter fere with Connecticut's jurisdiction.

The troubles with the Dutch continued until a provisional treaty was made at Hartford in 1650, between the Colony and Peter Stuyvesant, Governor General of New Netherland. The Dutch Governor claimed all the lands on the Connecticut River by right of purchase from Indians, and Connecti cut appealed to her right by possession, purchase, and discover}'. The settlement, September 19, 1650, was left to Commissioners, who agreed : — " Firstly, that upon Long Island a line run from the westernmost part of Oyster Bay, so, and in a straight and direct line to the sea, shall be the bounds betwixt the English and Dutch there; the easterly part to belong to the English, the western most part to the Dutch. " Secondly, the bounds upon the main to begin at the west side of Greenwich THE DIFFERENT BOUNDARY LINES BETWEEN CONNECTICUT AND NEW YORK.

Bay, being about four miles from Stamford, and so to run a northerly line* twenty miles up into the country, and after as it shall be agreed by the two governments of the Dutch and of New Haven, provided the said line come not within ten miles of Hudson River, and it is * See Map III., "Line of 1650," on this page. This map is copied, by permission, from Rev. Charles W. Baird's History of Rye, p. 105. agreed that the Dutch shall not at any time hereafter build any house or habitation within six miles of the said line. The inhabitants of Greenwich to remain, till further consideration thereof be had, under the government of the Dutch. " Thirdly, that the Dutch shall hold and enjoy all the lands in Hart ford that they are actually possessed of, known or set out by certain marks and bounds, and all the remainder of the said land on both sides of Connecticut River to be and remain to the English there."

Before the treaty was ratified between the parent States in Europe, a war broke out between England and Holland, and the treaty never went into effect. A description of rhe extent of the bounds c 41 cleg. 5b pninufs Lath; crossing- Conecticolt riv -sell being" on the west side and the Widow Gibbs Also a description of the most remarkable ri of Indians discoverd bq rhe wai|e wish Larr of house of Oronoco. The 14™ of qe 4th mo- 16' The miles are, as 60 is so 69k in proporVi rods or 8 furlong's M&ss&chuseffs Baa- P&l-enr sourhw&rd lijing in • as Windsor feri| place, The house of John Bis hir house on the e^stside of I" he. river. rs, brooks, ponds, hills, plains, swamps, sirualion pring'held, 42 deer 6minut|-s s,nd the trading* to rhe ordenarLj enaune miles containing 320 Math Woodward Solomon S&Ffcrij

Chapter II. The Woodward And Saffery Survey Of

1642, AND THE NECESSITY FOR A COLONIAL CHARTER. "\^7"HILE Connecticut's quarrels with the Dutch were progressing, a controversy equally bitter had arisen with the Massachusetts people on the north. Beginning with the impost which the towns down the river demanded of Springfield for the support of the fort at Saybrook, the question soon covered the jurisdiction of some disputed territory. Massachusetts had caused in 1642 the Colony line to be surveyed by Nathaniel Woodward and Solomon Saffery, said to have been " obscure sailors," and sarcastically called " the mathemati cians." They started the line * from the point they thought was three miles to the south of the southernmost point on the Charles River; and instead of extending the survey across the country they sailed round Cape Cod and up the Connecticut to the place they supposed was in the same degree of latitude with the starting-point, but which was in fact seven or eight miles to the south of it.

What therefore Massachusetts meant by calling these surveyors " skillful artists " seems a matter of conjecture. Connecticut protested against the line as run, and at the meeting of the Commissioners, 1649, of the United Colonies refused to consider the boundary as settled. She thought that according to the limits of the old patent Springfield should be subject to her authority. As the boundary disputes began to thicken, Connecticut wished to secure a charter with clearly defined bounda- * See Map IV., page 19. This Map is copied without reduction from an old parchment copy in the Massachusetts Archives, vol. iii. p. 1. The only other copy of the survey is a small photolithographic impression in the "Historical Collections" of Holmes Ammidown : vol. i. p. 294. ries, but the time did not arrive until Charles II. became King.

In 1 66 1, Connecticut declared her allegiance to the King, voted for securing a Charter, and appointed John Winthrop to go to London as agent to secure the same. Winthrop was favorably received in Eng land; and on April 23, 1662, was granted to the colony of Connecti cut her royal charter, which included the land " bounded on the east by the Narragansett River commonly called Narragansett Bay and on the north by the line of the Massachusetts plantation and on the south by the sea," and so west to the South Sea or Pacific Ocean with the adjoining islands. Full power of government was likewise granted, and thus Connecticut secured the document she had so long coveted and now so highly prized. To Winthrop more than to any one else was Connecticut under obligations. Had it not been for the marked favor* with which he was regarded in England it is doubtful if the colony could have ob tained a charter with such liberal provisions.

As the first Governor under the new charter he proved an invaluable friend to the colony. His services will never be forgotten.f Explicit as were the terms of the Charter and supreme as was the authority that conferred it, it was nevertheless claimed that it con flicted with several previous grants. Regarding these intra-territorial controversies a few words should be said. * The story is told that when Winthrop returned to Charles II. the ring given by Charles I. to Winthrop's grandfather the heart of the Sovereign was touched and the charter at once granted. f See frontispiece.

Chapter III. The Duke Of Hamilton's Claim

HPHE terms of the old Patents of Massachusetts and Connecticut as granted by the Council of Plymouth were sufficiently distinct, yet the Council made other confusing grants. In fact some of the territory was granted twice and thrice over. Before surrendering their patent to the Crown, the Lords composing the Council of Plymouth determined to divide the sea-coast of New England* among them selves. There were eight grants,! and the partition was made on the third of February, 1635, so as to absorb nearly all the previous grants, including the old Patent of Connecticut. But the first settlers of Connecticut were never troubled by any claims which the Duke of Lennox, or the Earl of Carlisle, or Edward Lord Gorges made to their lands. The grant to the Marquis of Hamilton,:], however, after wards occasioned much solicitude to the Colony.

On the twenty second of April, 1635, the deed from the Council of Plymouth to the Marquis of Hamilton was dated, and included that portion of terri tory beginning at the "entrance of the River of Connecticut and from thence to proceed along the sea-coast to the Narragansett River or Harbours, to be accounted about sixty miles, and so up to the western arm of that River to the head thereof, and into the land * See Map V., page 22. Fac-simile of pen and ink sketch by President Ezra Stiles pre served among his manuscripts in library of Yale College. f President Stiles's MSS. in Yale College Library, entitled: "The right of the Crown of Great Britain to lands in America and the assignments therefore," March 31, 1762 ; and " History of Grants under the Great Council for New England," by Samuel F. Haven, A.M. : Lowell Institute Lectures, January 15, 1S69: and Bancroft's History of the U. S., i. 408.

X This was the Marquis of Hamilton, who was sent with troops by Charles I. to Germany in 163 1 to help Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years' War. Ranke's History of England, vol. ii. 15. nothwestwards till sixty miles be finished, and so to cross our land southwestwards to meet with the end of sixty miles to be accounted from the mouth of Connecticut up northwest, ... to be called by the name of the County of New Cambridge."* This claim, as the Commissioners of the United Colonies say in a letter to Con necticut,! was a " grant of sixty miles square on the eastern side of Connecticut River." Seven weeks after the above deed was signed, the Council of Plymouth went out of existence. In the following year (1636) the Marquis sent over an agent to survey the country; but the civil war in England and the death of Hamilton prevented a settlement.

The claim was revived, however, when the Royal Charter was given to Connecticut. In 1664 his wife, now made the Duchess of Hamilton, petitioned the King, asserting that the Charter of 1662 conflicted with the Hamilton grant of 1635. The petition was referred to the Commissioners for settling the affairs of New England, and in 1665 the claim was denied. Again, in 1683, the Hamilton title to Eastern Connecticut was considered by the Royal Commissioners who met at Boston. Edward Randolph, having received power of attorney from the heirs of the Marquis of Hamilton, claimed the title to the Narragansett country on account of the deed of 1635. But the Colony of Connecticut replied, doubting if the deed were ever ratified or sealed by the Council of Plymouth, but even if it were the deed was of little value, as it was dated just before the dissolution of the Council.

Moreover the Duke had neglected to propagate the gospel, plant colonies and take possession of the territory granted him according to the terms of the King's Charter to the Council of Plymouth, and there fore the deed was void. Connecticut had engaged in the Pequot war without help from the Duke; and, if the title were good in 1635, it failed by the Statute of Limitations, as for twenty years the title was not claimed. Such was the reply made by Connecticut. The pro prietors of the Narragansett country likewise sent in a claim, and all * Copied from MSS. in the John Carter Brown Library at Providence. Original deed in State Paper Office, London. t Dated March 25, 1665. THE BOUNDARY DISPUTES OF CONNECTICUT. 23 the papers pertaining to the controversy were sent by the Royal Com missioners to London for the decision of the King.

Though the claim was again renewed, it was never prosecuted. It was referred in 1696 by the Privy Council to the law officers of the Crown, and Sir Francis Pemberton and others were of the opinion that the title was not good. Yet the Duchess of Hamilton again asked the King that she might have jurisdiction over her territory, and that the inhabitants might pay her such quit-rents for her lands as might be thought fit. This last petition was referred to the Council of Trade, April 22, 1697 ; and much to the relief of the Colony of Connecticut the case was definitely decided against the claimants, and the title became obsolete.

Chapter IV. The Controversy With New Haven

A NOTHER dispute that Connecticut had on the receipt of the "^ Charter was with the Colony of New Haven.* The New Haven people had a government of their own, and did not wish Connecticut to have jurisdiction over them, as was now her legal right according to the terms of her new Charter. From 1662 to 1665 letters passed back and forth, and there seemed no way out of the dead-lock, so determined was New Haven to keep its government. Southold on Long Island, and Guilford, Stamford, and Greenwich, which had been under the New Haven jurisdiction, yielded to Con necticut, and on the arrival of the English, who came to claim the vast possessions of the Duke of York, including all of the so-called New Haven territory, New Haven quickly joined the Connecticut Colony ; and thus was happily ended a controversy that seemed most seriously to threaten the chartered boundaries of Connecticut. * Atvvater's History of the Colony of New Haven and New Haven Records.

Chapter V. The Mohegan Claim

A THIRD intra-territorial dispute that years after threatened the chartered rights of the Colony was the claim of the Mohegan Indians * to the jurisdiction of a portion of Connecticut. It seems that as far back as 1640 John Mason, the Deputy-Governor, was com missioned by the Colony to purchase the Mohegan lands,! which included the old Pequot country and (dependent upon which by right of conquest) the Wabbaquassett or Nipmunk country on the north. The jurisdictive power which Uncas, Sachem of the Mohegans, granted to Mason, in 1659, was by Mason surrendered to the Colony in 1660. Yet from an informality in the deed and the illegality of the surrender to the Colony the celebrated Mason or Mohegan case arose. The heirs of Mason admitted that the right of jurisdiction, but not the right to property, was surrendered.

In consideration of ser vices rendered the Indians by Mason, his heirs now claimed this Indian territory. The case was tried before Governor Dudley in 1705, but as the rights conferred by the Royal Charter were indirectly questioned, the colony protested. The court, however, proceeded ex parse, and decided against Connecticut. A map of the Mohegan country % produced at this court shows that the boundary began at a rock in the Connecticut River in Lyme, thence to a pond in the * DeForesfs "History of the Indians in Connecticut," "Connecticut and the Mohegan Indians," London, 1769; Beardsley's Life of William Samuel Johnson; Trumbull's History of Connecticut. f See Map II., p. 16. % See Map VI., p 26. Fac-simile of original map published in London in 1709, and copied from book entitled " Connecticut and Mohegan Indians " in State Library of Connecticut.

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTES OF CONNECTICUT. 26 northeastern part of Stonington, thence northeast to Mahmunsqueeg in the Whetstone country near the centre of the present town of Killingly, thence southwest a few miles to the falls of the Quinebaug River at what is now known as the borough of Danielsonville, thence a little north of west through Pomfret, Ashford, Willington, Tolland to Bolton Notch, and thence southerly through Bolton, Hebron, East Haddam to the Connecticut River; or, more concisely, the Mohegan country included the northern two-thirds of New London and the southern two-thirds of Windham Counties. After this adverse decision, Connecticut forwarded the true circumstances of the case to her agent in London, the honored Sir Henry Ashurst, who petitioned her Majesty Queen Anne. A commission of review was appointed, and the affair was kept in agitation down to the clays of the Revolution, and had that war never occurred the celebrated Mohegan case micrht have appeared in some form in our own century.

That the Indians had a good right to their own territory cannot be denied; but it must be said that the heirs of Mason in contesting the rights of the colony were acting from selfish and not, as they claimed, philanthropic motives. The case was several times decided in favor of the colony, but was appealed to the Crown by the Mason 'heirs. In 1767 William Samuel Johnson went to London as agent of the colony, and the final hearing of the case was on the eleventh of June, 1771.

Chapter VI. The Controversy Concerning Long Island

IN returning to the year 1662, it should be noticed that the boundary quarrels broke out afresh when the Charter was granted.* Long Island was now the southern boundary of Connecticut. In 1635 Charles I. granted a patent to the Earl of Stirling for Long Island, and for some years the island was named after Lord Stirling. The towns on the western end were Dutch, while the towns in the centre and eastern part of the island were settled by the English. Southampton in 1644, Easthampton in 1657, Brookhaven in 1659, Huntington in 1660, and Oyster Bay in 1662, were settled under the patent of the Earl of Stirling. Being troubled by the Dutch and Indians, these towns sought the jurisdiction of Connecticut. By the Dutch treaty of 1650, it was seen that the old Connecticut line on Long Island was the present boundary between Queens and Suffolk Counties.