Evidence upholding territorial rights and jurisdiction of New York against Massachasetts, New Hampshire, and Vermonters

This series contains a brief and copies of documents supporting New York's territorial claims against those of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and the area which became Vermont. In 1779 the legislature appointed commissioners to gather such documentary evidence and authorized the U.S. Congress to decide the dispute based on evidence presented by all parties.

The series contains: 1) brief entitled "State of the Evidence and Argument in Support of the Territorial Rights and Jurisdiction of New York Against the Government of New Hampshire and Claimants Under It and Against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts." The brief cites documents supporting New York's claims and was designed to be presented to the Congress as evidence of New York's rights; and 2) copies of some of the supporting documents cited in the brief, including: minutes of the Provincial Council; correspondence of New York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts officials; colonial laws of New York; correspondence of Peter Stuyvesant and Dutch residents transferring territorial claims of New Netherland colony; and other related documents.

Microform is available at the New York State Archives through interlibrary loan.

The originals, held by the New York Historical Society, were published in Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1869 as "Collection of Evidence in Vindication of the Territorial Rights and Jurisdiction of the State of New York Against the Claims of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and New Hampshire and the People of the Grants who are commonly called Vermonters" (Volume 2). This published volume has a subject index including the New Hampshire Grants controversy.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.