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Letter from Governor Franklin to the Lords of Trade,

in answer to their Lordship's Letter of the 13th of July last, relative to the Assembly, the agent, and two acts passed in that Province.

[From P. R. O. B. T. New Jersey, Vol. 9, K. 55.]

BURLINGTON, New Jersey, Oct' 4, 1764.

Right Honourable the Lords of Trade and Plantations

My Lords

It gives me the greatest Pleasure to observe by your Lordship's Letter of the 13th of July, with which I am just honoured, that my Endeavours to check the Assembly in their unconstitutional Method of providing for the publick Services, have met with your Approbation. Your Lordships may rely that I shall omit no Opportunity of bringing them to make their Proceedings correspond as nearly to the Principles of the British Constitution as the Circumstances of a Colony will admit.

I observe what your Lordships mention with regard to the Title given to the Agent, and shall try and have that Matter altered in the next Support Act.

The Act concerning Peter Gordon's Lottery, which your Lordships have proposed to be repealed, was passed before my Administration; nor have I passed any Law relative to Lotteries, my Sentiments in that respect being entirely conformable to those of your Lordships.

The Law for imposing a Duty on the Importation of Negroes, which your Lordships have thought proper

to disapprove, as being contrary to the 26th Article of my Instructions, was not passed by me, but by Gov' Hardy, as was the Lottery Act before mentioned. I have the Honour to be, with the greatest Respect, My Lords, Your Lordships most

obedient humble Servant

W FRANKLIN

P. S. I lately sent to your Lordships The State of the Paper Currency of this Province The List of Fees taken by all the Officers in the Government Remarks on the Plan for regulating the Indian Trade-And the Custom House Accounts.

Letter from Governor Franklin to the Lords of Trade, relating to a complaint made by Captain Kennedy against an act making partition of the common lands of Bergen and enclosures.

[From P. R. O. B. T. New Jersey, Vol. 9, K. 56.]

BURLINGTON Oct 10, 1764.

Right Honourable the Lords for Trade and Plantations.

My Lords

Being well assured that Capt Archibald Kennedy of New York, has exhibited a Complaint to the Right Honourable the Earl of Halifax, and others of His Majesty's Ministers, against an Act passed by the Legislature of this Province, for making a Partition of the Common Lands of Bergen, I think it my Duty to transmit to your Lordships a Copy of the Letters I have wrote to my Lord Halifax on the Occasion, together with Copies of sundry Papers referr'd to therein, that your Lordships may be the better enabled to

judge on the Merits of Capt. Kennedy's Complaint.' I some time since transmitted to your Lordships the said Act: & as Capt. Kennedy (though he was at first solicitous to obtain the Act, & acquiesc'd under it) does now, I am told, contend that it ought to have been considered as a private Act, & pass'd with a suspending Clause, I should be glad to be favoured with your Lordships Opinion on that Point. Your Lordships will see upon perusing the 5th Article of the State of Facts relative to Capt. Kennedy's Complaint against the Bergen Act, sent herewith, that such Acts have never been considered in that Light in America, & that many ill Consequences might ensue should the Practice be otherwise. But, however, should your Lordships be of Opinion that such Acts ought really to be deem'd private Acts, & the King's Instructions respecting such Acts be literally comply'd with, I shall

1 ARCHIBALD KENNEDY was the son of a prominent citizen of New York-Archibald Kennedy, a lawyer, Receiver-General of the Province, 1722-54; member of the Council, 1739; President of that body in 1757; Collector of New York in 1758, etc.-N. Y. Hist. MSS., II., 475, 539, 616, 678, etc. In 1724 he acquired three hundred and eighty-three acres of land at Bergen, being part of what was formerly called the West India Company's farm. Dying June 14, 1763, he left two-thirds of the farm to his son, Archibald, and one-third to his daughter, Catharine, who, in 1765, sold her interest to her brother. The property was in litigation until 1804, when a compromise was effected.-Winfield's Land Titles of Hudson County, 134; Winfield's Hist. Hudson County, 303-14. The younger Archibald Kennedy married Catharine, only daughter of Col. Peter Schuyler, of Petersborough, opposite Newark, on the banks of the Passaic, and lived there for some years. By her he acquired large estates in New Jersey and New York. In 1769 he married Anne, daughter of John Watts, of New York, who was also very wealthy. He became a Captain in the royal navy in 1757, and won much distinction in the service by his gallantry. In 1765 he refused to take on board his frigate, then at New York, a quantity of stamped paper, as the mob threatened to destroy his many houses in the city. For this he was superceded.-N. Y. Col. Docts., VII., 792, 821. Being suspected of sympathy with the British cause he was arrested on the order of the Council of Safety in 1778, and ordered to remove to Sussex, but was subsequently permitted to resume his residence at Petersborough. In 1792 he succeeded his great-grandfather as eleventh Earl of Cassillis, Scotland, and his oldest son became twelfth earl, and Marquis of Ailsa. He died December 29, 1794. His New York residence, No. 1 Broadway, was one of the most noted in that city for its historic associations. Winfield's Hudson County, 312-13; Mrs. Lamb's Hist. N. Y., 655, 671; Old New York, by Dr. J. W. Francis, 1858, 15: N. Y. Col. Docts., VII., 822. The Bergen common lands was divided by commissioners appointed by the Legislature in 1765. Their field-book forms the basis of Mr. Winfield's admirable "Land Titles of Hudson county."—[W. N.]

not fail doing it for the future. The Act for setting aside a Partition of Lands made between the sons of George Leslie deceased, I looked upon as truely a private Act & therefore insisted upon having a Suspending Clause added to it, & should have done the same by the Bergen Act, if it had not been represented to me as totally different. I have the Honour to be, with great Respect,

My Lords Your Lordships

most obedient & most humble Servant WM FRANKLIN

Letter to the Right Honble the Earl of Halifax, from Governor Franklin-relative to Capt. Kennedy's Complaint against the Bergen Act.

My Lord,

BURLINGTON Octob! 10, 1764

As Captain Archibald Kennedy of New York has lately transmitted to your Lordship, a Complaint against an Act of this Province, intituled "An Act for appointing Commissioners for finally settling and determining the several Rights, Titles & Claims to the Common Lands of the Township of Bergen ; and for making a partition thereof in just and equitable Proportions, among those who shall be adjudged by the said Commissioners to be intitled to the same," it is become necessary that I should in Vindication of myself and the other Branches of the Legislature of this Province, as well as of the Commissioners who have acted under the said Act, acquaint your Lordship with the true Circumstances of that matter.

I am not inform'd of all the Particulars of that Gentleman's Complaint against the said Act, but only know in general that he says it is unjust, unprecedented, and Contrary to one of my Instructions. The enclosed Letters and Papers, as well as the very Act itself, will I imagine convince your Lordships to the

contrary. But should he have alleg'd anything that your Lordships should not find sufficiently obviated by the Papers enclosed, I hope your Lordships will be so condescending as to let me be acquainted with the Particulars; when I make no doubt I shall be able fully to prove to your Lordship that Cap Kennedy's Attempt to set aside the Act, merely because the Commissioners have not decided in his Favour, is not only unjustifiable, but must, should he succeed, be attended with very pernicious Consequences to a Considerable Body of his Majesty's Subjects, and hurtfull to the Publick.

Having long had an Acquaintance with, and Esteem for Cap' Kennedy, I could not at first believe that he would, without having given me some intimation of his purpose, have represented anything to his Majesty's Ministers that might ultimately affect my Character or Interest. Though I had heard he had threaten'd so to do, when he found the Bergen Commissioners had not admitted his Claim to a share of the Common, yet I attributed it to the mere Effect of a sudden passion on his Disappointment, and for his sake, would not acquaint your Lordship with the true State of the Affair till I knew positively that he had carried his Threats into Execution.

It is however, no small Satisfaction to me, that when my Conduct in the publick Station I am honoured with is in any respect called into question that I have for my Judge a Nobleman of your Lordships Character.

I have the Honour to be, with the utmost Respect
My Lord, Your Lordships

most obedient & most humble Servant
W FRANKLIN

P. S. The Papers sent herewith to your Lordship are as follow, viz

No 1. A State of Facts relative to Cap' Kennedy's Complaint against the Bergen Act.

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