I. Charles Phelps’ State of His Case, March – May 1774

by

“For the Discussion whereof it may not be amiss to premiss the following Facts.

Cabot. H. 7 1st. The Continent of N. America was discovered by one Sebastian Cabot1 in Behalf of the English Crown in the Reign of H. 7. under Commission from him from the 40th to 67th deg. N. Lat. within which Limits, the Land under Consideration and the whole Government of Mass. Bay lieth. The Truth whereof it is supposed None will contradict.

1606. J. 1st. 2. In 1606. K. James the first, of England, granted all the Continent from 34 to 45 Deg. of Northerly Lat. which he divided into two Colonies, the Southern Virginia to certain Merchants of London, the Northern, N. England to Merchants of Plymouth in the County of Devon in England.

1607 3. In 1607. Some of the Patentees of the Northern Colony, began a Settlement at Sagadahoc, George Popham President. He died soon. Seven other eminent officers came over with him and about 100 People more, to settle the Country. The Winter being hard and 1608 severe, what survived returned to England in 1608 and so the design of settling the Country by them was at an End, and it seems none did much in reviving the design of settling for 9 or 10 years after. But

1620 4. In 1620 Novr. 3d. King James made a new Patent incorporating the Adventurers to the Northern Colony, by the Name of the Council of Plymouth for the settling, or Planting, Ruling, ordering and governing New England in America, and to their Successors and Assigns all that Part of America lying and being in Breadth from 40 deg. of Northerly Lat. from the Equinoctial Line to the 48 deg. of N. Lat. inclusively and in Length of and within all the Breadth aforesaid throughout, all the main Land from Sea to Sea, together with all the firm Lands &c. which includes the whole of the above first described Lands, and all other the Lands, within the Limits of the Bay Province in its first utmost Dimensions, equally.

1628 5. The Council of Plymouth, A.D. 1628 made a Grant of the same Lands above at first described with all the other Lands, in the last mentioned Province (i.e.) the Bay Province), of which them Lands are Part, Roswell & Young unto Sir Henry Roswell and Sir John Young Knights and four others, named in the Grant, and to their Heirs and Assigns and to their Associate forever by their Deed indented of Bargain and Sale for valuable Consideration under their common Seal as a Corporate Body Politick, who undertook to see to the Settlement of New England in America, the Patentees having engaged to accomplish it, as the meritorious Consideration of the Deed, at the Expence of the Adventurers without any Cost and Charge of the English Crown to enlarge the British Empire, populate so great a Territory in such a distant and remote Part of the Kings Dominions, the Atlantic 1000 Leagues lying between, a vast Number of Savage Barbarous Indians to encounter and Subdue all at their own Expence, to do and perform all which seems to have been the great Object in View both by the Royal Granter of the Premisses to said Council and the said Council’s in their Grant by their said Indenture to said Roswell and his associates above mentioned being six Grantees in the whole.

1629. March 4. Car. 1. 6. Who having joined 20 more Associates with the Six Grantees mentioned in the Deed indented as aforesaid, the Year following viz. 4 March 1629, they obtained a confirmatory Corporation Grant of the same Land, to themselves and their Heirs and assigns, included in the said Deed indented, the Northern Boundary whereof is expressed, “Three Miles northward of Merrimack River, or to the Northward of any and every Part thereof, and East and West bounded from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, within which Limits the Lands first mentioned are all included.

1684. Q. whether this Decree affected Roswells Indenture. 7. That Patent of King Charles the first was vacated in 1684.

8. The Inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay Province was Re-incorporated by a Charter of King William and Queen Mary A.D. 1691. with new Plymouth and other Colonies, by which all the Lands at first described, were granted and confirmed to the said Inhabitants and their Successors, and infranchised with the Powers of Government and impowered to make Grants of the Lands, within the Same, not before by them granted, in Consequence whereof.”

“About the Year 1718 Captn. Coram formed a Scheme for obtaining a Grant from the Crown of the Appendix to the Votes of the House 1762 Page 9. Lands bet. Nova Scotia and the Province of Main and a Petition was signed by Wm. Armstrong and divers others praying such Grant might be made to them. The Petition being referred to the then Solicitor General, part of his Report thereon was a[s] follows “The King cannot make a Grant of these Lands, the Crown having already devested itself of its Rights.””

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-02-02-0007-0002

Related posts:

  1. Adams’ Minutes of the Argument: Court of Vice Admiralty, Boston, 8 March 1773 “The last phrase is apparently JA’s note of his own position made during Fitch’s argument. The charter clause is presumably the provision of the Province Charter of 1691, by which the Crown, after granting all the lands formerly part of...
  2. Relations between England and the American colonies,1607-1625 “King James retained considerable control over the first permanent English colony in America. With the grant to the Plymouth and London Companies of 1606, the first attempt was made by the Crown to regulate somewhat the anticipated settlement and government...
  3. Notes on the State of Virginia Many of the elementary documents relating to Nova Scotia’s constitutional history can be found within Jefferson’s carefully constructed constitutional history of Virginia, extracted here. Those documents which purported to make claims on behalf of originating (and respective) crowns are included...
  4. Albany Congress: Representation of the Present State of the Colonies, 9 July 1754 “That the Province of Nova Scotia or Accadie hath known and Determinate Bounds by the Original Grant from King James the 1st. and that there is Abundant Evidence of the Sense which the French had of these Bounds while they...
  5. On the Nature of a Colonial Constitution What was Nova Scotia’s colonial constitution? According to Hon. Martin I. Wilkins, attorney general at the time of the imposition of the BNA, Nova Scotia possessed a chartered constitution, irrevocable except through force. Nova Scotia, once known as Acadia, was...
  6. “The pretensions of such persons as claim interest in Nova Scotia” 111. Statement of the case of Thomas Temple and William Crowne, and how they became proprietors of Nova Scotia. In 1656, when the Lord de La Tour was compounding with Cromwell to get his country of Nova Scotia again, but...
  7. State of the case of Col. Temple as to his interest in Nova Scotia 58. Col. Thos. Temple to [Lord Fienes and Company]. Has received their letter and cargo by Capt. Middleton. Acknowledges their goodness in taking him and his affairs into their protection. The produce of the cargo, with a suitable profit, shall...
  8. Letters from Sir Thomas Temple to Secretary Lord Arlington, Charles II “Sir Thomas Temple, in letters to Secretary Lord Arlington describes in detail his purchase of Nova Scotia for the sum of 16,260 l., of which he was for some years the resident Governor, but was, in August 1669, commanded by...
  9. An historical geography of the United States 1606: “King James’ Patent of 1606, Dividing Virginia into two parts. The patents of the Plymouth and London companies in 1606 extended 100 miles from the coast and overlapped each other three degrees of latitude (from 38° to 41°.) Neither...
  10. The Charter of New England: 1620 “…And for asmuch as We have been certainly given to understand by divers of our good Subjects, that have for these many Years past frequented those Coasts and Territoryes, between the Degrees of Fourty and Fourty-Eight, that there is noe...