Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys

History of Montgomery and Fulton Counties, NY
F. W. Beers & Co. 36 Vesey Street, 1878

THE HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY

CHAPTER XXIII.

ORIGINAL LAND GRANTS IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY-DISSENSIONS ARISING FROM THEM--THE CLARKE ESTATE.

Under the colonial government it was customary that the aboriginal, or Indian title, should be extinguished before land grants were issued to the parties making application to purchase. A deed from the Indians was usually procured by holding a council with them, and this being accomplished, the Surveyor General was directed to make the survey and in his report furnish a map and field notes of the premises. The draft of a patent was then prepared by the Attorney General, and, if approved by the Governor of the colony and his council it was granted and recorded. Under an established ordinance, only one thousand acres could be granted to one person, but this regulation was frequently evaded by associating as patentees a large number of persons, who were only nominally parties to the purchase. Land speculators were plentiful in those early times, as well as since, nor was there less corruption, perhaps, among the officials. The latter, in addition to the remunerative fees obtained by the performance of their duty, were often largely interested as participants in the purchase. In a few instances land grants were issued from the Crown of England, instead of through the colonial government. In some of the grants under the colonial government, the conditions required the payment of the annual quit-rent, which at that time constituted an important source of revenue, and which subsequently became due to the State. The paments for quit-rent were sometimes specified to be made in money, but oftener in grain or other produce.

The first two land grants on record, covering territory now embraced in Montgomery county, bear date of April 22d, 1703. They were issued on the same day, one to Geraldus Camfort, for twenty acres, located in the present town of Amsterdam, and the other to John Peterson Mabie, conveying lands on the Schoharie creek. Mabie surrendered his grant of this date, and on the 20th of July, 1705, took another for a tract in the same vicinity. The description of this piece of land will show how indefinitely the boundaries were given in some instances at that period. It was described as " a tract on Tiondowgoes creek, on both sides, commonly called Kadarode ; as you go up the Mohawk river, about twenty English miles westward of the land of Adam Vrooman, there comes the said creek into the river, and going from the mouth of said creek along the same about 4 miles up there is the said piece of land, being a flat plain on the west side of said creek, containing 80 acres lowland, surrounded by a stony hill, near a small island in said creek, the like quantity of upland, also called Kadarode, surrounded by a great hill downward of said creek, called Tiondowgoes, till you come to a great cove running to the water side, it being all on this side of the praying Indians' castle."

The most fraudulent practices were sometimes resorted to in obtaining the lands from the Indians, only the semblance of a purchase being made of them in some instances. Conspicuous among the extensive tracts located in this section of the country, and obtained in such an underhand manner was the Kayaderosseras, which, like some others, was the subject of a long controversy. In 1704, Samson Broughton, Attorney General of the province, procured of the Mohawk Indians, for himself and associates, the above named tract. The Mohawks received but a very small compensation, understanding the tract to be in quantity only sufficient for a farm. With this title, thus fraudulently obtained, a patent was procured on the 2d of November, 1708, for about seven hundred thousand acres of land, lying between the Hudson and Mohawk rivers. The watchfulness of the Indians, however, deterred the patentees from any movement for maintaining their claim to this vast territory for more than half a century, no survey even being made. Owing to the inaction of the patentees, the Indians became almost unmindful of the transaction, supposing the claim, from the socalled purchase, abandoned.

Several families, however, immediately after the conquest of Canada by the English, settled upon the tract. This awakened the slumbering jealousy of the Indians, who not only demanded that the settlers should remove, but that the claim to the Kayaderosseras tract be relinquished. The dispute was renewed and continued for several years before an adjustment of the difficulty was arrived at. Sachem Abraham in conference recalled the fact that the Mohawks had helped to conquer the French with the expectation that they could remain in peaceful possession of their territory, but they now found that some of their brethren wished to deprive them of the chief hunting ground they had left and which they never could learn had been sold by the nation.

Sir William Johnson, in behalf of the Mohawks, represented to the Colonial Government the fraudulent manner in which the patent had been procured and made strenuous exertions to have it vacated, but not meeting with success from this source in his solicitations, he endeavored to obtain redress for the Mohawks by placing the matter before the English board of trade with a view to procuring through the board an act of Parliament annulling the patent. The patentees, fearing they might lose their claim, at length offered to compromise the affair by relinquishing a portion of the tract and making some further compensation for the part retained, but the sum offered was so small that the Mohawks declined to accept it. Failing in this attempt to compromise, the claimants gave the matter into the hands of the governor of the province, with instructions to settle the affair as he should deem proper. In the summer of 1768, the governor repaired to the Mohawk country and called and held a council with the Indians preparatory to a settlement, but there having been no survey of the lands in question, it became necessary to wait until a survey could be made. This having been performed by order of the governor, an amicable settlement of difficulty was shortly after arrived at. The patentees on their part relinquished a portion of the tract, and the Mohawks, for the consideration of five thousand dollars, conveyed the remainder to them. The boundaries of this patent as established, include a portion of the towns of Broadalbin, Perth and Amsterdam.

Succeeding the grants issued to Camfort and Mabie, a small tract was patented to Wilson and Abeel, in 1706, lying in the town of Amsterdam. In 1713, Hendrick Hansen and his son Hans took a patent for two thousand acres in the present town of Mohawk, having obtained a deed of the same from the Indians, at a general meeting held at the lower castle in 1710. Two thousand acres were granted, in 1714, in three equal parts to John, Margaret, and Edward Collins at Caughnawaga, and two years later the same quantity was granted to Harman Van Slyck, as far up the river as the present town of Palatine. In the same year, 1716, a grant of seven hundred acres was issued to Johannes Harmanse Fisher, near Fort Hunter, in the town of Florida, and in the year following another small tract, in the same town, was granted to Samuel and Elizabeth Babington.

These grants were followed by others, some of which were for large tracts. In 1722, Lewis Morris, in company with five others, took a patent for six thousand acres, and the ensuing year the same party took another for the same quantity adjoining it, all on the south side of the Mohawk, in the present towns of Canajoharie and Root. The Stone Arabia patent, for the benefit of the Palatines, containing nearly thirteen thousand acres, was granted in 1723. These industrious people immediately settled upon and improved their lands. From this period many other grants speedily followed, conveying tracts in various localities, some of which embraced a large extent of country.

In regard to some of these patents, serious controversies have arisen. The Canajoharie patent, in which Philip Livingston was most largely interested, is noticeable in that respect. The Indian deed fora tract of land in which this patent was located, was procured from them in such a manner as to make its validity doubtful. Only a few of the Indians had signed the document, and they were not influential ; whereas, it was customary for all the sachems of the tribe to sign a deed. Not only was the title thus questionable, but the surveyor in the interest of the patentees fraudulently managed to include, in the lines which he ran, considerably more than the deed called for. The line, by which the tract was thus enlarged, was surreptitiously run by the light of the moon. When the Mohawks discovered the fraud practised upon them, they complained so loudly, that further proceedings were for many years abandoned by the patentees.

In the meantime the neighboring Germans rented of the Indians the disputed territory, settling upon and improving it. In this situation the matter remained until 1762, when the settlers were served with writs of ejectment by order of Wm. Livingston, son of Philip, the original patentee. This at once revived the contention which had begun by fraud, and which was continued by the same means, receiving a new impetus and becoming more complicated by the rascality of George Klock, He resided at Canajoharie, and possessed a share in the disputed territory, acting also as agent for the other claimants. Having invited the Indian proprietors to the house he filled them with rum, and when they had become intoxicated he obtained their signatures to a paper declaring the legality of the original purchase and their relinquishment of further claim to the premises. This paper, together with two new deeds procured in like manner, was forwarded to the governor. The matter was brought to the notice of Sir William Johnson, the Indian agent, who, at the recommendation of the governor, held a council with the Mohawks, to ascertain their true feelings in regard to the transaction. The council was well attended, not only by the Indians, but by others, among whom were several justices, especially invited to be present at the occasion. The fraudulent character of the proceedings was clearly brought to light; the claimants desisted from further efforts to possess the land, and all except Klock shortly after executed a release to the Indians.

After the State Government was firmly established in place of the Colonial, the lands remaining in its possession, as well as those derived from forfeitures and other sources, were usually sold in small parcels as portions of some large tract. Corry's patent, granted the 19th of November, 1737, has since the establishment of the State Government been a matter for litigation, and dissensions in regard to it continue at the present time. This grant was obtained from the Crown, and covered upward of twenty-five thousand acres, lying in what are now the towns of Charleston, Root and Glen. It was granted to William Corry and twelve others. George Clarke was at that time Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony, and was secretly interested in the purchase, but was precluded from taking his share openly for the reason that an English law forbade a Colonial Governor being an interested party in grants of land made by the Government. Clarke was superseded in the office of governor in 1743, and shortly afterward the lands, having been surveyed and laid out into lots and farms, were divided between Corry and Clarke, the latter of whom returned to England in 1745. He died in 1763, and his possessions were bequeathed to his two sons, George and Edward, then living in New York. George went to England in 1772, and four years later died there, childless. Edward, who also went to England, died there in 1744,-leaving an only son named George Hyde Clarke, to whom the property was devised. Corry sold his share, which was confiscated by the State, in consequence of the toryism of its owners, during the war of the Revolution.

George Hyde Clarke remained in New York during the war, and taking the part of the Colonists against the British Government, was confirmed in the large landed possessions of his father. Immediately after the war, he succeeded in leasing this land to settlers, to whom he granted "three-life" leases. The lessees cleared the lands, built upon them, and exercised all the rights of ownership. The farms were bought and sold, the occupants paying to the landlord the moderate rent of one shilling per acre. In this condition the property has descended from father to son. until the present time, each owner bearing the name of George Clarke. There was no serious difficulty until after the present proprietor came into possession. He was a minor when his father died. When he arrived at his majority the agitations concerning leasehold estates, popularly known as " Anti-Rentism" which commenced in 1844, had extended to this county.

At the instance of prominent gentlemen, John Van Buren, who was Attorney General, began an action in behalf of the State against Clarke, to set aside his title to the land, on the ground of its having been fraudulently procured from the British Government. It was first tried before the eminent and learned Judge, Daniel Cady. His decision was, that possessions of the tenants were the possession of the landlord, and that he having held the property as against the State for more than twenty years, was the absolute owner. This decision was sustained by the General Term, and by the Court of Appeals, to which it was carried. Since then the leases have expired in accordance with their conditions. In some few instances, the present owner, George Clarke, extinguished the leases by negotiation or purchase. On the expiration of the others, the rent was raised from the former price of one shilling an acre until the proprietor now demands, and in some instances receives, from two to three dollars an acre. This, however, has brought about a most lamentable condition of things. On more than one quarter of the Clarke farms, the tenants have refused to pay the rents demanded, and on their ejectment, the buildings have been fired. Many of the farms are thus unoccupied, and those occupied are worked by dissatisfied and angry tenants, who make no improvements and pay the rents demanded only on compulsion, and until such times as they can procure other places. This condition of things operates prejudicially to the interests of the towns as well as to the county.

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