230 | To Richard Jackson

    Boston Augst 6 1763

    Dear Sir

    I sent you 4 letters 3 in one Cover & 1 in another, all in the cover of the board of Trade,857 also some New England Pamp[h]letts in a sealed cover: they all went in a Box directed to Mr Mauduit by the Brigg Hannah Capt. Jarvis who sailed for London two days ago__

    Since I have sent away these, I have seen Col. Dyer, who is going home from Connecticut to Sollicit leave to proceed in the Connecticut Settlement on the Susquehannah under a purchase from the Six Nations.858 I have always considered this Settlement as a most vain attempt: but a Conversation I have had with Col. Dyer has set it in a new Light to me: and as he desires to carry a letter from me to you, I will give you Some of my thoughts upon this Subject.

    You know my Opinion concerning the distinction between grants of Jurisdiction & grants of property: that the former are only trusts and not rights; but that the latter are mere rights & ought not to be taken away unless they have been forfeited by non performance of the conditions &c; as in the Cause of Lord Sterling’s of Nova Scotia & many others all along this Coast.

    To apply this distinction to the present case, If the colony of Connecticut should Offer to extend their Government (leaping over the Province’s of New York & New Jersey) by a narrow latitudinal strip to the South Seas, it is inconceivable that the British Government would suffer it: the inconveniences which would arise from thence would be so obvious, that the positive terms of the Charter must be rejected upon Account of the absurdity of their Consequences. And therefore the Government of Connecticut who either do not or will not see the distinction between grants of jurisdiction & grants of property, affraid to appear in support of their property, least they should seem to Claim an improper extension of jurisdiction at the same time, but had they thought proper to claim these lands as property only, they might have been more open & active in the Vindication of this right than they now dare to be__

    But if this Matter is made a question of a mere right to lands, Submitting to the King, (as I understand, the grantees under Connecticut are willing to do) the Settling the Government in Such manner as he shall please, The King is no otherwise intrested in this question than 1. Whether Messrs. Penn859 or Messrs. the grantees of Connecticut have a right to purchase of the Indians & Settle the Country, & 2. which are most likely to do it with effect & to the best advantage to the British Empire. As to the first this Land was certainly granted to the Corporation of Connecticut before it was to Mr Penn, & therefore the second grant is Void: for the Second, the Connecticut Grantees have allready purchased the right of the Indians & are ready to Settle the lands; Messrs. Penn have neither done one, nor are ready to do the other: indeed they have employment enought elsewhere

    If this claim of lands by continuing the latitude of Connecticut should be Valid, I dont see but that the same claim would be good in regard to the latitude of the Massachusets (see Evan’s map).860 And if they should both be willing to quit claim to the jurisdiction & only desire to be allowed to settle the lands with emigrants of their own, under such Government as the King shall please to appoint; I am not sure that the Ministry will not listen to it: It seems to deserve consideration; for which purpose I submit it to yours: It is quite new to me __ I am Dr Sir &c

    R Jackson Esq

    L, LbC BP, 3: 94-96.

    Col. Dyer was unsuccessful in obtaining Crown approval for the Susquehanna Company’s attempted occupation of the Wyoming Valley. However, the company purchased the valley from the Iroquois in 1763, forcing the tribes westward to the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, where some participated in Pontiac’s Rebellion. Teedyescung, the sachem of the Delawares and other tribes residing in Wyoming, was murdered, probably by company men, in Apr. 1763.