Petition of Peter Hasenclever & Company, of London, to the Earl of Shelburne, praying that they may be allowed to purchase Lands at St. Maurice, and giving their reasons therefore. [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 252 (270).] LONDON The 28 January 1767. To the Earl of Shelburne one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State. The Memorial of Peter Hasenclever' and Company of London Merchants, in behalf of themselves & others, Humbly Sheweth, That in the Year 1763. they entered into agreement to purchase in joint concern such tracts of Land in the Province of New York or in New Jersey as should be convenient for erecting Furnaces, Forges, & other Buildings, requisite for establishing a Manufactory for making Pig, & Bar Iron for supply of the Mother Country; apprehending that from such improvements as appeared to them to be practicable in the methods of carrying on that business they should "PETER HASENCLEVER, Sometimes called Baron Hasenclever, was a German, born at Remscheid, in the Rhenish provinces, in 1716, who had been a partner in a mercantile house at Cadiz, Spain. On account of the climate, which was unfavorable to his wife's health, he went to London in the year 1763, where she had been living since 1757. There he formed a partnership under the firm name of Hasenclever, Seton & Crofts, with joint capital of £21,000. He soon induced a respectable company of persons-Major-General Greeme, Commodore Forest, George Jackson, Secretary of Admiralty, and others-to agree to spend from £10,000 to £40,000 in the production of Pig Iron, Hemp, Pot and Pearl Ashes in North America. The agreement was made in January, 1764, and by June of that year he himself reached New York."-Notice of Peter Hasenclever, by Henry A. Homes, LL. D., Albany, 1875, 1. Within a month after his arrival, or on July 5, 1764, he bought out the mines, forges and other property of the old Ringwood Company, located at Wanaque, Ringwood, Long Pond (Greenwood Lake) and Charlottesburgh, in the present Pompton and West Milford Townships, Passaic County, New Jersey, for £5,000.-Early History of Morris County, by the Rev. J. F. Tuttle, D.D., New Jersey Historical Proceedings, May, 1869. He and his associates constituted the "American Company," but in this country were generally called the "London Company." The local tradition is that Queen Charlotte, wife of George III., and several of her ladies in waiting, were interested in the Company, and hence the bring American Barr-Iron to such perfection, as render it fit for all uses as well in the Royal Navy, as for private Trade; and thereby Lessen the great demands made for this Article from Sweeden, Spain, & Russia, and also to import the same at less Prices than at present paid for Iron from Sweeden, from whence the largest Quantity & best sorts are received. That previous to making these purchases your Memorialist undertook to procure, & did actually obtain a considerable Number of Germans accustomed to work in Iron Factories, whom they sent at their own charge with their Wives & Families amounting to upwards of Three Hundred. That M Hasenclever who is a German by birth, & skill'd in the process of working Iron from the Mine, name of the mining village, Charlottesburgh, which was originally called by the Germans Charlottenburg, although it may have been so called by them after the town of that name near Berlin. "Such was the energy of this sanguine man that he actually made iron at a decayed iron works by November, 1764, and had purchased in New York and New Jersey 50,000 acres of land for his Company. By this month, too, there arrived hundreds of German miners, farmers and mechanics, with their families, whom his agents had engaged in Germany. Within a year he had imported 535 such persons. In August, 1765, he bought a ship in New York, which he loaded for London with furs and timber, and with iron and potash of his own manufacture, and it was universally allowed by the trade that his iron was the best drawn which had ever made its appearance on the London market from America.' At the end of the next year, 1766, he had in operation four furnaces and seven forges in New Jersey and New York, and a pot and pearl ash manufactory on the Mohawk river, and had built stores, workshops and dwelling houses to the number of 235, besides dams for mill-ponds and ten bridges, with many miles of roads. In two years he spent £54,600 on account of the Company, being £14,000 more than they had authorized. His operations were not successful, and in October, 1766, he learned that Seton, his London partner, had bankrupted their firm, and although he struggled manfully against his ill-fortunes he was himself declared a bankrupt in 1770. Governor Franklin by official request appointed a committee including Lord Stirling, Col. John Schuyler, and others to visit his works, who testified to the perfection of his iron works, to the superior quality of his iron, and to the many improvements in the methods of manufacture which he had introduced, some of which were afterward adopted in England. His litigation in Chancery was continued as late as 1785. Returning to Germany he introduced the linen manufacture at Landshut, in Silesia, carrying it on with much better judgment than his iron works in America. He died there in 1792, much lamented."—Homes, ut supra. The descendants of his German workmen still form a large element in the population of Pompton and West Milford Townships, and preserve many traditions of Hasenclever and his gigantic operations. It is said that not an important mine has been opened on the Ringwood tract within a hundred years but shows traces of having been previously thoroughly explored by Hasenclever.-[W. N.] went over to America, & by the time of Arrival of y said number of Germans which was in July 1764. had purchas'd several Parcels of Lands, whereon Furnaces, Forges, & other necessary Buildings have been since erected at an expense of not less than Sixty Thousand Pounds Sterling, & from which Works having satisfactorily evinc'd the improvements they set out upon in respect of quality the Memorialists doubt not of being able in a Year or two at most to import Iron in great Quantities of as good quality, as the best sorts brought from Sweeden: and as fit for the pur poses of making Steel. But your Lordships Memorialists find that notwithstanding their endeavours to purchase Lands adapted to these designs they cannot procure sufficient extent in convenient Situations to afford constant Employ for the Number of People depending on them: therefore under this circumstance have caused enquiry to be made for Lands in some other of His Majesties American Colonies, whereon to make an additional Settlement, & are advised that the place most likely to answer the intention is S Maurice, about three Leagues from the town of Trois Rivieres bordering upon the river of that name which river discharges itself into the river St Lawrence. Your Lordship's Memorialists have been inform'd that an Iron Work was formerly attempted to be carried on at the place for the French King's account; and that upon ye reduction of Montreal, the Establishment consisting of one Furnace Two Forges Workmens Houses, a Stable, Sheds for Wood & the Like (being then in a State of decay) were deliver❜d unto the charge of Lieu General Amherst for His Majesty's Use. Your Memorialists conceiving that this Situation is suited for an extension of their Plan, now become unavoidable as well that the People they have sent out may be rendred more usefull Subjects, also that y® Proprietors may have a more probable expectation of reaping the Benefits expected from their Services and conceiving likewise that His Majesty out of His great desire of giving Protection to all his Subjects in their Endeavours to advance the Trade of these Nations will be pleased to see your Memorialists in particular, deserving of that protection, on account of the great Sums they have already disbursd: the increase of Subjects procured through their means and expence: and the advantages that must derive from a pursuit of their project to these Kingdoms: From these several reasons. Your Memorialists Pray that Your Lordship will be pleased to recommend them to His Majesty for a Grant of the aforesaid Establishment of Trois Rivieres for y purpose of Founding an Iron Factory; together with the Buildings that may be remaining on the premises, & the right of the rivulet whereon the same are said to be Built, from its Sourse being about Two miles above the said Buildings. And your Memorialists will ever pray & Letter from Governor Franklin to Secretary Lord Shelburne in relation to the Annual Charges in the Province of New Jersey, as well as to the quitrents. [From P. R. O. America and West Indies, Vol. 270 (291).] BURLINGTON, Feb 21, 1767 To the Right Honble the Earl of Shelburne My Lord, Secry of State I am just honoured with your Lordships Letter of the 11th of December, requiring an Estimate of the annual Charges, and an Account of the Quit Rents, &c. in this Colony. On the first Head I had before receiv'd a Letter from the Secretary to the Treasury, which I answered on the 28th of December. I enclose your Lordship a Copy of what I then Sent to him, as it is the best Account I can give of that Matter. As to the Quit-Rents, the whole Province of NewJersey was granted by King Charles the Second to his Brother James Duke of York, in the Year 1664, under a Quit-Rent of Forty Beaver Skins yearly. The Dutch afterwards possessed themselves of this Province, but restor❜d it at the End of the War by Treaty; and King Charles the Second did again grant it to the Duke of York, by Letters Patent dated the 29th Day of June 1674. In August 1680, The Duke convey'd one Half of the Province by the Name of West New Jersey to Edward Byllinge and others, and in March 1682 he conveyed the other Half, or East New Jersey, to James Earl of Perth William Penn, and others. The Present Proprietors of the Soil of New Jersey hold their respective shares under some of the Grantees of the Duke of York, clear of Quit Rent, except the Forty Beaver Skins reserved as above in the Royal Letters Patent, and Twenty Nobles reserved by the Duke of York. Whether they have ever paid the Crown any part of this Rent, is what I cannot learn, but I am Inclin❜d to think that the whole is in arrears. The Proprietors of each Division manage their Affairs by a Council chosen among themselves, and the Government has no more Knowledge of their Transactions than it has of those of any other private Persons in the Province. I am, very respectfully, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient W FRANKLIN |