309 | To Richard Jackson

    Castle William. Octo 20. 1764

    Dear Sr.

    I have recd. your letter by Col. Dyar not dated;1 Col. Dyar2 found me absent from Boston & went away before I returned, which I am sorry for, as I should have been very glad to have seen him: your letter contains so much matter, that I must answer it by parts: & I am obliged to begin first on the Subject of Mount desert.

    The Disappointment in not receiving the confirmation of the grant before this time, occasions great Embarrassment. I have entered into a Contract for transporting to mount desert 80 German families; & the Agent with whom I have agreed is returning home to conduct the people Hither.3 He now hears from the talk of the Town, that my grant as well as the rest is disallowed; but he is willing to believe me, when I tell them it will be confirmed to me. This will do for the present, but when he gets to London, he will expect some certain assurances that these people will go to Mount Desert under my appointment. Without something of this kind, the whole Scheme will be defeated: I have taken great means ^pains^ to bring it to bear, have been at considerable expences allready, & am engaged in much greater, in preparatory steps to receive this Colony, & it will be very hard upon me, If I should be disappointed after such encouragement, & instead of finding the Island my own, see abundance of Labour & Expence in endeavouring to people it flung away.

    For the purpose of preventing this disappointment, I send you a whole packet of papers containing a Memorial to the Secretary of State, another to the Lords of Trade, both the same excepting in the address, letters to Lord Hillsborough, Lord Halifax, Lord Barrington, & J. Pownall, duplicates of the Memorials, & the letters to the two Earls. In regard to the Memorials, I would desire you to consult J Pownall, both as to the necessity & propriety of them. For I had rather the Business should be done without them if it may; & if there is anything improper in the Memorials, I must beg of you to prepare others. I must also desire you to communicate the Memorials to Lord Barrington & leave one of the duplicates with him, & also the duplicates of the letters to either or both the Earl’s, if Lord Barrington would choose to take to himself the delivery as an introduction.

    After I’d prepared these papers, I recd a letter from Secy. Pownall, dat. July 12, wherein he sayes “The Grant of Mount desert will I hope be confirmed next Week, I shall be happy to be the first to acquaint you of it &ca4 I suppose this letter was wrote long before yours, which has no date; and that the expectation he then had, was over, before you wrote your letter. But really I dont see but that a grant or confirmation might be made to me in such a form, as might not prejudge the Question concerning the Province’s right.5 I have urged this before, & now to explain myself will enclose a form of my own,6 which might pass as a sign Manual, & operate either as a Confirmation under the Massachusets Title or as a Warrant to the Governor of the new Province, if there is to be one. I wish you would consider it, & Advise with Pownall about it.

    I shall give a letter to the German, Mr. John Mest7 of Hesse Castle, a Schoolmaster there, to introduce him to you. He is a plain man & speaks no English. I beg you will procure for him the best assurances you can, that he may go to Hesse Cassell resolved to bring his people to mount desert. I keep the German Minister8 here, with an intent, that as soon as your Grant in Nova Scotia is passed & a Survey of it can be made, So as to lay out Towns thereupon, to send him to England that you may forward him to Germany to get Settlers, which he sayes he shall easily procure out of Saxony, his native Country, but on this Subject I shall write a seperate letter more fully.

    I am Dr Sr. &c

    R Jackson, Esqr.

    P.S. I hope to get on board the Ship that carries this, a letter on the new division of the Country. The Assembly is sitting, warm work expected. I keep out of their way.

    AL, LbC BP, 3: 252-254.