[MANUSCRIPT DEED, SIGNED BY SIX INDIAN LEADERS, CEDING MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED SQUARE MILES OF LAND IN UPSTATE NEW YORK TO KING GEORGE II].
[Colonial Indian Land Cession]:
[Np, but likely Albany]. Dec. 28, 1738. Folio sheet, 16 x 12 1/2 inches. Containing the manuscript deed on one side, with six original wax seals, and a manuscript attestation dated 1741 on the verso. A few small holes in the document and at the edges, but with no real loss of text. In very good condition, and a very attractive document. In a double-sided glass frame. A rare manuscript deed, signed by six chiefs of the Mohawk nation, selling some 216 square miles of land in east-central New York to King George II. The text of the deed reads, in part: "We...Native Indians of the Mohawk Castle, in the province of New York, send greeting. Know ye, that for and in consideration of the sum of one hundred eighty pounds, current lawful money of New York...have bargained, sold released, and for ever quit claim unto our said most gracious sovereign Lord King George the Second, his heirs and successors all our rights, title, interest, claim, property, possession, and demand, of in and to, a certain tract of land on the north side of the Mohawk River." The Mohawk leaders who have signed the document are identified as Esras, Esras Jr., Jacob, Long Sett, Symon, and Cornelius, and the deed is countersigned by three witnesses. Chief Cornelius' name stands alone, but the other five chiefs have given their totemic marks, and each chief has a wax seal beside his name. The payment was to delivered to the tribe by Johannis Wendell and John Lindsey, acting on behalf of the British crown. The land is situated northwest of Albany, and its parameters are carefully given: "a certain tract of land on the north side of the Mohawk River, beginning at the back of a tract of land formerly granted unto Hendrick Hauser, running northwardly, about eighteen miles, then eastwardly, about twelve miles, then southwardly, about eighteen miles, towards or to the back of the lands granted to Ebinezer Wilson, then westwardly about twelve miles to the place it began." The land is further identified as running along both sides of the "Osagondago Road," and the deal includes "all manner of woods, underwoods, trees, mines, minerals, quarries, fences, improvements, herediments, and appurtenances." It appears that the validity of this deed may have been challenged just a few years after it was executed, for on the verso there is a manuscript attestation, dated Sept. 30, 1741, in the hand of Jacob Glen, a justice of the peace for the county of Albany. He writes that it has been sworn on a Bible in his presence that the Indians have been paid the full amount, according to the contract as written. A rare document, providing firsthand information on colonial British land transactions with the Mohawks, just a generation before that tribe would ally itself with the British in the French and Indian War.
(Item ID: WRCAM37397) $37,500.00