there, nay, offer to fine M"" Punderson's own sons for going to hear their father, as I suppose
he will inform the Society when at the same time the Church at New York, (where it most
prevails) is about founding a College with free liberty to dissenting pupils to go to what
meeting they please; nay not excluding dissenters from being even tutors, and only desiring
such a preference in tiieir Charter, as that the President of the College be always a Member
of the Church, and that an abridgment of the service of the Chh be used for Morning and
evening prayer, and offers at least 7 10"" of the charge in founding endowing &c. ā And yet
such a hideous clamour is raised against her having any sort of preference or any Charter on
these terms, by a small busy faction of dissenters headed by 4 or 5 bigotted violent freethinkers,
as threatens throwing the Government into confusion and frustrating the whole design: and
this notwithstanding that they have 3 Colleges in these Northern Colonies and the Church
none. Nay they contend that no religion at all should be taught in the College rather than the
Church should have any precedence. ā So bitterly are they set against us ! and however so
much they are otherwise at variance among themselves, yet they unite with their utmost force
against us, and do all they can to disaftect the Dutch towards us, who otherwise were peacebly
disposed. ā Thus, my Lord it is here, and so I doubt it is at home, that by how much the more
mildly they are used, by so much the more assuming and active they grow in their endeavours,
(not only to hinder the promoting them here, but) even utterly to demolish the Episcopate
and the Liturgy there! ā
And as to our gaining ground of them here in N. England, it is not owing so much, my Lord,
to any endeavours of ours, as to their own wretched divisions, separations and confusions
among themselves, occasioned by their late enthusiasm, and to the growth of Latitudinarianism,
Arianism, Socinianism, Pelagianism and even Infidelity occasioned thereby; which lead many
honest people, who can find no sure footing otherwhere to retire into the Church as the only
ark of safety amid such a deluge of corrupt opinions and practices. ā So that I humbly hope
our great and good benefactors will not think their charity ill bestowed in contributing towards
the support of the church in these parts, that it may be an Asylum and refuge for those honest
wandering souls that can find no rest out of it. ā This my Lord is a true state of the case: and
what, I beg, would the patrons of the dissenters have us do in the case? must we discourage
these people from coming into the Chh? ā And yet they are in such small scattered bodies
that they cannot support Ministers, (though two or three such collections join together)
without assistance: Is it then an ill judged charity to give them a little help? ā
Vol. VI. 115
914 NEW-YORK COLONIAL AL^USCRIPTS.
I again humbly beg Your Lordship's pardon for my tediousness and this too great freedom
in writing, to which your great goodness & condescension hath too much emboldened me. I
am very glad to find the late excellent Bp Berkely has so very worthy a son. He lately did me
the honour of a most kind and elegant letter, to which I reply by this opportunity. ā There has
been no reply published to M' Beache's answer to Hobart, nor any thing else pro or con,
relating to the Chh. ā I purpose, notwithstanding the opposition soon to settle myself at
N. York in the care of their Young College; in view of which, I humbly ask Your Lordship's
prayers and blessing, and remain, with the utmost veneration, My Lord, Your Lordship's
most dutiful most obliged
& obedient humble Servant,
To Ily L"' of Oxford. (signed) Samuel Johnson ^
ā Rev. Samcel JonxsoN, D. D., the first President of King's ( now Columbia ) College, in New York, was born at Guilford,
Coun., October 14, 1696, and in 1714 graduated at Tale College, where he continued as a tutor until 1720, when he was
ordained Minister of the Congregational Church at West Haven. In 1722 he, with several other clergymen, avowed tjieir
preferences for the doctrines of the Episcopal Church, and proceeded to England, where they received Holy Orders in 1723,
and returned to America ; Mr. Johnson being put in charge of the Church at Stratford. At this time he was the only
Episcopal Minister in Connecticut. In 1743, the University of Oxford conferred the degree of Doctor of Divinity on him,
and in 1754, he was unanimously elected President of the newly instituted College at New York, to which city he accordingly
removed. He filled that ofiice until February, 1763, when he resigned and passed the remainder of his days at Stratford,
where he resumed his former charge, and died January 6, 1772, aged 75 years. His death, tlie Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel declared to be a public loss to the American Church. The following is a list, as far as we have been able to
ascertain, of Dr. Johnson's writings : ā
Plain Reasons for conforming to the Church. 1733.
Letter of Aristocles to Authades, concerning the Sovereignty and Promises of God. 12mo. Boston, 1745.
Sermon concerning the obligations we are under to Love and Delight in the Public worship of God, preached at the
opening of Christ's Church at Stratford. 4to. Boston, 1746.
A System of Morality, containing the first principles of Moral Philosophy or ethics, in a chain of necessary consequences
from certain facts. 1746.
Letter to Jonathan Dickinson in Defence of Aristocles to Authades, concerning the Sovereignty and Promises of God.
12mo. Boston, 1747.
Elementa Philosophica ; or Things relating to the Mind and to Moral Behaviour. 8vo. Philadeljihia : Franklin, 1752. (An
edition of this work appears also in the Catalogue of Harvard College under this title : ā
Noetica or the First Principles of Metaphysics and Logic, (fee. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1752.
Ethica, or the First Principles of Moral Philosophy. Svo. London, 1752.)
A Demonstration of the Reasonableness, Usefulness, and great Duty of Prayer. 1761.
A S^mon on the Beauty of Holiness in the Worship of the Church of England, being a brief Rationale of the Liturgy.
Svo. New-York. 1761.
A Letter to a Friend ; entitled, a Short Vindication of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. By
one of its members. This forms an appendix to Dr. Caner's Candid Examination, published in 1763.
A Catechism and an English Grammar. 1765.
A Hebrew Granmiar. London. Faden. 1767. The two last were also republished the same year, under the title of ā
An English and Hebrew Grammar, being tlie first short Rudiments of those two Languages, taught together.
Two Sermons on Humility and Charity, delivered at New Haven. Svo. New Haven. 1768.
The Rev. T. B. Chandler wrote the Life of Samuel Johnson, D. D., which was published in one Vol., 12mo. New York.
T. & J. Swords. 1805. ā Ed.
LONDON DOCUMENTS: XXXI. 915
Sea'etary Robinson to the Governors in North America.
[Governors and Commanders in North America, (S. P. O. ) No. 74.]
Whitehall Ocf 2G"' 1754.
Sir,
Having informed you in my letter of July 5"" that the King had under his Royal consideration
the State of affairs in North America ; I am now to acquaint you, that, amongst other measures,
that are thouglit proper for the defence of His Maj'^'" just rights and dominions, in those parts,
the King has not only been pleased to order two Regiments of Foot, consisting of 500 Men
each, besides Commissioned and non Commissioned Officers, commanded by Sir Peter Halkett,'
and Col: Dunbar,^ to repair to Virginia, and to be there augmented to the number of 700, each ;
but, likewise, to send orders to Gov'' Shirley and Sir Will"' Pepperell, to raise two Regiments,
whereof They are respectively appointed Colonels, of 1000 Men each ; and, also to sign
Commissions for a number of Officers to serve in the said two Regiments, and who will
forthwith repair to North America, for that purpose.
Whereas there will be wanting a considerable number of Men to make up the designed
complement of the said four Regiments, it is His Maj'*'* pleasure, that you should be taking
the previous steps, towards contributing, as far as you can, to have about 3000 Men in readiness
to be enlisted; and it is His Maj'-'" intention, that a General Officer, of Rank and Capacity, to
be appointed to command in Chief all the King's forces in North America, a Deputy Quarter
Master General, and a Commissary of the Musters, shall set out, as soon as conveniently may
be, in order to prepare every thing for the arrival of the Forces abovementioned from Europe,
and for the raising of the others in America.
You will receive from that General, and the other Officers just mentioned, a full and e.xact
account of the Arms, Cloathing, and other necessaries, to be sent, upon this important occasion,
as likewise of the Ordnance Stores, and of the Officers, and attendants, belonging thereto. All
which being ordered for this service, are such proofs of His Maj"''* regard for the security and
welfare of his subjects in those parts, as cannot fail to excite you to e.xert yourself, and those
under your care, to take the most vigorous steps to repel your common danger, and to shew,
that the Kings orders, which were sent you last year, by the Earle of Holdernesse, and were
renewed to you in my letter of the 5"" July, have, at last, rouzed that emulation, and spirit,
which every Man owes at this time, to His Maj'^, tiie publick and himself. The King will not
'Sir Petee Halkett, of ritferran, Fifesliire, a baronet of Nova Scotia, was the son of Sir Peter WeJdeiburno, of
Goaford, who assuuied his wife's name. In 173-1, he sat in the llouse of Commons, for Diinferline; and was Lieulenajit
Colonel of the 44th at Sir John Copes' defeat, in 1745. Being released on his parole, by Clmrles Edward, he was ordered by
Cumberland to rejoin his regiment and serve again against the Jacobites. With great propriety, he refused such a
dishonorable duty, saying that "his Royal Highness was master of his eoranilssion, but not of his honor." The King
approved of Sir Peter's course, and he retained his rank. On the 2Gth of February, 1751, he succeeded to the Colonelcy cf
his regiment He was killed, at the head of his regiment, in the battle of Monongahela, on the 9th July, 1755 ; and his bones
lay uuburied until 1759, when they were discovered by his son and deceutly interred. Sargeul's Expedition agnimt Furt
JJuquemc, 274, 294.
'Colonel T110MA.S Du.vBAK, had been Lieutenant Colonel of the 1 8th of Royal Irish; and on the 29th April, 1762, was
promoted to the Colonelcy of the 48lh regiment of Foot. In November, 1755, he was superceded in the command of this
regiment, and sent into honorable retirement as Lieutenant-Governor of Gibriiltnr, in consequence of his injudicious retreat,
after General Uraddock's defeat lie became Major General on the IStli of January. 1758, and a Lieutenant General on
December 18lh, 17GU, but was never again employed in active service, lie died previous to 1778. Ibid, 267. ā En.
916 NEW- YORK COLONIAL MANUSCRIPTS.
therefore imagine, that either you, or the rest of his Gov", will suffer the least neglect or delay,
in the performance of the present service, now strongly recommended to you; particularly
with regard to the following points: viz': That you should carefully provide a sufficient
quantity of fresh victuals, at the expence of your Govern', to be ready for the use of the Troops
at their arrival. ā That you sh** likewise, furnish the Officers, who may have occasion to go
from place to place, with all necessaries for travelling by Land, in case there are no means of
going by sea. And : That you should use your utmost diligence, and authority, in procuring
an exact observance of such orders, as shall be issued from time to time by the Commander in
chief, for quartering the Troops, impressing carriages, and providing all necessaries for such
forces, as shall arrive, or be raised within your Govern'.
As the Articles above-mentioned are of a local and peculiar nature, and arising entirely
within your Govern', it almost needless for me to acquaint you, that His Maj'^ will expect,
that the charge thereof be defrayed by His subjects belonging to the same. But, with regard
to such other articles, w'^'' are of a more general concern, it is the King's pleasure, that the
same should be supplied by a common fund, to be established for the benefit of all the Colonies
collectively in North America; for which purpose, you will use your utmost endeavours to
induce the assembly of your province, to raise forthwith as large a sum as can be afforded, as
their contribution to this common fund, to be employed, provisionally, for the General service
of North America, (particularly for paying the charge of levying the Troops, to make up the
complements of the Regiments abovementioned ) until such time, as a plan of general union
of His Maj'>''' Northern Colonies, for their common defence, can be perfected.
You will carefully conferr, or correspond as you shall have opportunities upon every thing
relative to the present service, with the said General ; Sir Will" Pepperell and Gov' Shirley,
or either of them ; and as it is the King's intention to give all proper encouragement to such
persons, who shall engage to serve upon this occasion, you will acquaint all such persons, in
the King's name that they will receive arms and cloathing from hence, and that they shall be
sent back if desired to their respective habitations, when the service in America shall be over.
As the several Governors, in all the King's provinces and Colonies in North America, will
receive by this conveyance a letter to the same effect with this, which I now send you, they
will be prepared at the same time, to obey His Maj''''' commands ; and I am to direct you to
correspond with all, or either of them, occasionally, as you shall find it expedient for the
General service.
I am ettc.
T Robinson
Representation to the King on the Proceedings of the Congress at Albany.
[ Plantations General, ( B. T. ) XLIIL, 402. ]
To the King's Most Excellent Majesty.
INIay it please Your Majesty.
We have lately received a letter from James Delancey Esq"" Lieutenant Governor of Your
Majesty's Province of New York, transmitting to us the proceedings of the Commissioners of
LONDON DOCUMENTS: XXXI. 917
the Colonies of New York, New Hampshire, Massachusets Bay, Connecticut, Rhode Island,
Maryland, & Pennsylvania, assembled at Albany in June last, pursuant to Your Majesty's
orders, to renew and confirm the ancient Covenant Chain or Treaties of Friendship & Alliance
between Your Majesty's subjects and the Six Nations or Tribes of Indians; and the said
Commissioners having taken into their consideration several other matters of the greatest
consequence to the Security and welfare of all Your Majesty's Colonies in North America, we
think it our duty humbly to lay the whole of their transactions before Your Mfijesty.
The chief points (besides that of the Treaty with the Indians) which the Commissioners
had under their consideration at this meeting, were, ā
1. The management and direction of Indian Affiiirs.
2. The strengthening the Frontiers : and
3 The providing for these services by a general plan of Union of the Colonies for their
mutual defence and security.
With respect to the last of these points, the Commissioners having agreed upon a plan of
Union, which, as far as their sense and opinion of it goes, is complete in itself, we shall not
presume to make any observations upon it, but transmit it simply for Your Majesty's
consideration ; but as they have delayed making any provisions for, or pointing out any
measures of carrying the two first of these points into execution, till the Plan of Union agreed
upon by them shall have been considered by their respective Assemblies and afterwards oflered
to the consideration of Parliament, and as such delay may prove not only prejudicial but fatal to
Your Majesty's interest and the security of the Colonies, if Indian Affairs should continue
in the mean time to be mismanaged, as the Commissioners declare they now are, and if it
should be neglected to build some forts upon the frontiers within the territory of the Six
Nations, which the Commissioners are of opinion is, in the present situation of affairs, of
indispensable necessity: we cannot but esteem it our duty to lay our thoughts upon these two
points more fully before Your Majesty, and to submit whether some provisional measure for
their execution should not be directed as to Your Majesty shall seem most expedient for
preventing the fatal effects of such delay, in the present critical situation of affairs.
The management of Indian Affairs and strengthening the Frontiers are, in general points,
of the utmost consequence to the very being and preservation of Your Majesties Colonies. In
this light they are considered by the Commissioners met at Albany, and are the chief objects
of the Union they propose. It is their unanimous opinion that the administration of these
services should not for the future be intrusted to the Commissioners, nor even to the
Assemblies of any one Province, whereby they may be directed to their own particular local
purposes, but that they should be under one general Administration directed to the general
interest and supported at the general expence of the whole ; and this being their sense of the
utility and importance of these two points, the danger of any neglect or delay in their execution
is obvious and apparent. For it is hardly to be supposed that any one Province will, after
such a Declaration, efl^ectually undertake at its own particular charge the execution of these
measures, however fatal a neglect of them may prove to the general interest of the whole or
even it's own particular security.
The management of Indian Affairs, at least those of the Six Nations, who are the best allies
and form the strongest barrier to the British Settlements, has been hitherto cineffy intrusted
to the Province of New York, the Assemblies of which have takfii upon themselves, by Acts
of their own, the sole direction of this service, and have established such regulations with
918 NEW- YORK COLONIAL MANUSCRIPTS.
respect to the trade as they have thought proper; the execution of which and the distribution
and application of the Presents voted by them, have been intrusted to Commissioners
appointed by such Acts. How well soever these regulations may have been intended, we
cannot take upon us to say that they have been either properly adapted to the general interest
and convenience of the Indians, or to the preservation of our friendship with them ; and we
have reason to fear that the intrusting the sole execution of them to Commissioners without
restraining them from being traders, or establishing a proper mode of enquiry into their
conduct, has been attended with great prejudice to Your Majesty's service. We find frequent
complaints of the Indians that they have been dispossessed of their lands by fraudulent
conveyances, and without a valuable consideration; that they have been cheated of their
presents by the knavery of the traders before they could leave Albany, which had usually
been the place for all Indian Conferences ; that their people have been debauched and destroyed
by the infamous practice of supplying them with rum, of their fondness for which the traders
do usually avail themselves to carry their fraudulent views into execution.
That all conferences with them have been held at Albany, more for the sake of the private
interest and convenience of the traders than theirs.
That occasional or particular conferences or interviews are seldom or ever held with them,
however the exigency of affairs may require it ; that little or no provision is made for the
residence of Smiths or other artificers amongst them at their own Castles, or for smaller
occasional presents as their circumstances may require at the trading-house at Oswego ā
reproaching the Managers with the opposite conduct of the French in these particulars,
and complaining of the dangerous influence they have thereby gained over their young and
unexperienced people. All which we believe to be true, being informed that such occasional
presents interviews and residence of artificers, produce much greater effects, than presents of
almost any extent made at general conferences.
The constant repetition of these complaints at almost every conference, and particularly at
the last, at which those relative to their lands and the neglect of particular interviews, were
urged with uncommon warmth, as well as the explicit declaration of the Commissioners in
their representation of their sense of the mismanagement which has subsisted in most of the
above particulars, seem to us equally to prove the necessity of an alteration in this management,
as the dangerous consequences which may ensue, if such alteration is not more speedily made
than the proposed delay, till a plan of Union is settled, admits of.
With respect to strengthening the Frontiers, it appears from the proceedings of the
Commissioners that a proposition was made on the part of New York for two Forts to be built,
one at Onondage, the other at Tierondequat on the Lake Ontario, and three Forts upon the
other frontiers towards Lake Champlain & Lake S' Sacrament ; that this general measure was
approved of by the Commissioners with the addition of a Naval establishment upon the Lake
to secure the navigation. That the expediency of this measure was further confirmed by the
complaints made by the Six Nations of the nakedness of our frontiers, together with the reverse
picture which they drew of the French strength and the effects of that strength upon them.
The utility and necessity of this measure being thus established by the concurrent sense of
all parties concerned, the danger which may attend a delay in the execution of it, until a Plan
of Union can be settled and approved of, seems equally obvious upon this general view, with
that which we have already stated as likely to attend a delay in the execution of proper
measures for the management of Indian Affairs; and we humbly beg leave to submit to iour
LONDON DOCUMENTS : XXXI. 919
Majesty some considerations, wliich may serve to set the expediency of this measure in a
clear light.
While the Six Nq^ions were possessed of all that territory which surrounds the two great
Lakes of Erie and Ontario, which they used as their hunting grounds, and before the French
had erected Forts which intercept their passage to part of those lands and cut off their
communication with the far Western Indians, their alliance alone & submission to the British
Government formed a sufficient barrier to Your Majesty's Colonies in the northern part of
America; and for that reason forts were not then judged necessary, or at least only for the
purposes of carrying on trade ; but since the French have erected their forts at Niagara, by
which they have not only cut off the passage of the Six Nations to their hunting grounds, but
have acquired the greatest influence over the Senecas, one of the most powerful of those
nations within whose territory those forts are built, unless measures of the same nature are
pursued on the part of Great Britain, those Nations must in a very short time become dependent
upon the P>ench, and instead of a barrier, be made subservient to their encroachments upon
the British Colonies.
The Colony of New York has long foreseen these consequences, and has from time to time
projected the building forts, both at Niagara and Tierondequat ; which last place, extremely
well situated for a port and proper for commanding the navigation of the Lake, was purchased
long since by that Province with this view.
They have always however been averse to taking upon themselves the expence which would
have attended an effectual execution of these measures, & there is the less reason to believe
they will do it now, as it has been the declared sense of the Commissioners that this is a
measure of general utility, & that the expence of it ought to be borne at the general charge.
Upon the whole therefore, if Your Majesty should be of opinion that effectual measures
should be immediately entered into for putting Indian Affairs under a provisional direction and
securing the Frontiers by erecting forts and building vessels upon the Lakes without waiting
until a plan of Union can be settled, by which a proper provision may be made for these
services at the general expence of the Colonies ; we would humbly submit whether it might