306 | To the Earl of Halifax

    Boston Octo 15, 1764.

    My Lord

    I beg your lordships favour that I may be permitted to lay before you the enclosed Memorial, which is allmost the Copy of one I have prepared for the Lords of Trade. I am not well enough acquainted with the forms of the Offices to know certainly from whom I may expect to have my humble request laid before his Majesty; but I presume it must be from your Lordship; & in that hope, I flatter myself that to the same patron, from whom I received the honor of being employed in the King’s Service, shall I owe a distinguishing reward of that Service. For hitherto, My Lord, I have gained scarce more than a Subsistance, & after above 6 years Service, I find myself little richer than I was in my first setting out, unless I reckon my intrest in Mount desert.

    To account for this, I beg leave to assure yr. Lordship, that my former Government was not worth more than £900 stg. & this cannot be reckoned above 1000 Guineas; as the Governors fees in this Province by the good care of the Assemblys, are so lowered as to be not worth Summing up. There is indeed some Profit arising from the third of Seizures: but the whole of this, excepting a prosecution now depending, falls short of the whole of the Charges in issuing out my Commissions. It has been usual for the Assembly’s, in the time of former Governors (being sensible of the smallness of the Governor’s income compared with the trouble & importance of the Government) to take frequent opportunitys to make additional grants to the Governor, by way of compensation for extraordinary Services. But I have considered myself so precluded from further expectations by this grant, that I have taken to myself many extraordinary expences incurred since the making this grant, without expecting any other compensation; as I have thought it not Suitable to my dignity to sollicit for pecuniary grants; & have been contented that even Subsequent Services & actual expences should be included in this Compensation.

    In regard to the thing itself; the Island at the time it was granted to me, was reckoned as equal to a Township, that is 23,000 acres: and most probably it would have been granted as such, if it had not been assigned to me. Whether the profitable lands of it, will amount to so much or no, is a question, & will continue to be so, after the Island is measured, which is now doing. For the Vast Mountains, which it is covered with, take up so much of it’s area, that it is much to be doubted, whether, after those deductions, there will remain so much practicable lands as before mentioned. But if there should be more I trust I shall earn it: I am now a Creditor upon the Island for 1,000 £’s stg. including the Sum for which it was originally designed as a compensation. I propose before next Summer to have above 100 families settled upon the Island in one compact Town; all the Lands, by which they are engaged to settle there, are given gratis; & I expect to be at very considerable expences to compleat this undertaking, besides what I have incurred allready. Surely then, I shall, when this is finished, be intitled to transmit the remaining lands together with the Credit of having erected the first Town, in a great lenght of wilderness, unto  my Children: for profit from hence to myself I cannot expect. To bring the matter home to me, I have 10 Children, 6 of which are Sons: and the Remains of this Island, is all the Inheritance acquired in this Country which I can expect to leave them, unless things are greatly altered. And if I should be defeated in it, It must be a most sensible & dispiriting disappointment.

    I am got to such a lenght that I must again ask your Lordship’s indulgence, & beg leave to assure you of the unfeigned respect, with which I am,

    My Lord &ca

    Earl of Halifax

    AL, LbC BP, 3: 176-178.