Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year ...

FOURTH CLASS-FOR FOUR YEARS.

EDWARD F. DE LANCEY, WILLIAM T. BLODGETT, JOHN ADRIANCE.

ERASTUS C. BENEDICT, Chairman.
GEORGE H. MOORE, Secretary.

[The President, Recording Secretary, Treasurer, and Librarian, are members, ex officio, of the Executive Committee.]

[The President, Librarian, and Chairman of the Executive Committee, are members, er officio, of the Committee on the Fine Arts.]

INTRODUCTION.

THE undersigned, a committee charged with the preparation and publication of the Collections for the Year 1869, respectfully submit this volume to the Society and the public. Unwilling to forestall the labors of writers of history, by anticipating the use of the new materials presented in the following pages, they have not encumbered the text with notes or comments of their own; nor deemed it expedient to vary from the general principles laid down in the introduction to the preceding volume, the first of the series.

The Clarendon Papers, which occupy the first place in this volume, are copies from the original manuscripts preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, England. They were procured by Mr. GEORGE H. MOORE, in the course of researches for his collection of the Statutes at Large of New York from 1664 to 1691. In placing them at the disposal of the committee for publication, Mr. MOORE desired that due acknowledgment should be made to the Librarian, Rev. H. O. CoxE, M. A., Corp. Christ., for his courtesy in promoting the objects of the inquiry which led to this valuable result. These documents cannot fail to be regarded with peculiar interest, for the light which they throw on the origin, progress, and results of the Royal Commission of 1664 and the American Colonial policy of Clarendon's administration. Nor is their value diminished by the fact that they have so long remained untouched in the repositories of the University, and are now for the first time made available with us for the history of the important transactions in America to which they relate.

The first of the Tracts relating to New York which are here reproduced, is printed from the original in the collection of the late Reverend Dr. HAWKS, for which the Society is under lasting obligations to the judicious liberality of WILLIAM NIBLO, Esq. It contains some interesting particulars of the French expedition into New York in 1689-90, as well as the massacre at Schenectady, which are not to be found in the current history of those events.

The second is a reprint of one of the early New York tracts, printed by Bradford, which illustrates the course of legislation in the colony during the administration of the Earl of Bellomont. No portion of our history is more important than that which relates to this period, when the parties formed during the Leisler troubles were organized and consolidated. Their influence continued to be felt to the end of the colonial government.

Of the Miscellaneous Documents-the additional letter by Lieutenant-Governor Colden on Smith's History is printed from the original, recently presented to the Society by SAMUEL W. FRANCIS, M. D. Dr. FRANCIS found among the papers of his honored father, the late JOHN W. FRANCIS, M. D., the entire series, more complete than the drafts among the Colden Papers, from which the other letters were printed in the volume of Collections for the year 1868. With characteristic liberality he has added the whole to the Society's collection. The papers relating to New Albion furnish an interesting and important addition to the materials for the history of that unfortunate attempt at colonization in America. Taken in connection with the Documents printed by Hazard, in his State Papers: vol. i. 160-174, they may help to correct serious errors of historical writers on that subject.

The Notes, etc., on East Hampton and Gardiner's Island, are printed from the author's original manuscript. Prepared at the request of the late Rev. Dr. SAMUEL MILLER, in 1798, they form a part of the collections which he made with a view to writing a history of New York and gave to the Society when he abandoned that design. In Dr. Lyman Beecher's historical sermon at East Hampton in 1806, he acknowledged the great assistance he received from these notes, and they have been freely and copiously extracted by various writers since that time; but they are now for the first time printed entire.

The Documents concerning New York and the New Hampshire Grants conclude the volume. By an Act of the Legislature of New York, 21st October, 1779, "the Honorable James Duane and John Morin Scott, Esquires, and Egbert Benson, Esquire," were nominated and appointed Commissioners, to collect and procure Evidence, Vouchers, and Materials, for manifesting and maintaining the Boundaries and Jurisdiction of the State, and the Rights of the Grantees under the same, which were drawn into question in the disputes respecting a certain district of country on both sides of Connecticut River, then commonly called the New Hampshire Grants. The result of their labors is to be found in this collection. Should it be deemed proper hereafter to print the formal statement of the evidence and argument founded upon these documents by James Duane, from the original manuscript in the possession of the Society, it is believed that the vindication of New York may be rendered complete. Apart from this consideration, these papers will be found to have an interest independent of their connection with a controversy long since determined, and to embrace historical materials of much value to illustrate other topics.