Scope and Content Note
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.
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