New York Colony Secretary Letters Patent Issued to Philip Embury and Others

Philip Embury and others petitioned the governor and council on September 5, 1764, for a grant of 1000 acres of land in Albany County, adjacent to lands previously granted to Ryer Schermerhorn. A certified survey was returned on October 8, 1765 and letters patent were issued to Philip Embury and others on October 31, 1765. The quantity of lands actually granted was not 1000 acres, but 8000 acres.

The lands granted were located in what was formerly Albany County, now Washington County, New York and Bennington County, Vermont, straddling the present state boundary line. The land patent is sometimes called the "Embury-Wilson Patent" because four of the additional grantees were James Wilson, John Wilson, George Wilson, and Samuel Wilson. The other grantees were Moses Cowen and Thomas Proctor.

Original letters patent documenting the grant of 8000 acres of land in Albany County to Philip Embury and others. The grant was made in the name of George III. It recites the boundaries of the lands granted, reserves to the crown all gold and silver mines and pine timber suitable for masts, requires payment of a yearly quit rent of two shillings six pence sterling per hundred acres, and requires settlement of at least one family per 1000 acres within three years or the grant would be voided.

The document is endorsed with a statement that the patent was duly recorded on October 31, 1765. The letters patent are engrossed on parchment, but some of the text is obscured because of fading and staining. An intact impression of the great seal of the Province of New York is appended.

12943Series 12943, Letters Patent, Book 14, Pages 164-169, contains the Colonial Secretary's record of the grant to Philip Embury and others.

Gift of the Cambridge Historical Society and Museum and the Ondawa-Cambridge Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, 2014.

Restricted due to fragile condition of the material.