568 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.

Letter Bk. V

one or more Manors laid out within such large reserved
Tract. There was also at the same time a Tract of 2524
Acres surveyed & reserved for your Ldp farther to the West-
ward on the Branches of Yoghiogany River. In the Spring
of 1768 Three other Tracts lying among the Branches of the
Yoghyogany were surveyed as Manours for your Ldp & Plats
thereof returned to the Land or Revenue Office viz One Tract
containing 17750 Acres, Another 6030 Acres & the Third
4740 Acres. When I was given to understand by M^r
Hamersley's Letter dated in July 1768 that your Ldp did not
desire to hold so much Land in the Nature of Manors but
were rather inclined to patent most of it reserving a Quit-
Rent I in a Letter to your Ldp bearing Date the 28^th Nov^r
1768 wrote as follows. " If that is the Case (viz that your
Ldp chooses to part with those Lands) I will if your Ldp
pleases deposit the usual Caution Money for Either of the
small Tracts & very probably other Persons may be found to
take up the Rest if your Ldp is willing to part with it on the
same Terms." This Letter of mine might not perhaps have
reached your Ldp before you left England but in that Case I
presume M^r Hamersley forwarded it to you ; What I mean't
& ask't by the part of it which I have quoted was that if your
Ldp should choose to sell those Tracts of uncultivated Land
on the usual Terms of Vacant unimproved Land viz £5 p^r 100
Acres Caution Money & four shillings p^r 100 Acres Quit Rent
I would be glad to have the preemption of One or two of the
small Tracts, to be granted to Me by one Patent, & if your
Ldp pleases to accept my Offer & to give a special Order or
Instruction for the Patents being issued I am still willing to
purchase on those Terms for I believe none of those Lands
are as yet disposed of. In my above quoted Letter of the
28^th Nov^r 1768 was also the following Paragraph "I have also
sent inclosed to M^r Hamersley an Account that has been put
into my hands by M^r Leeds for his Attendance as a Commis-
sioner & Mathematician on the Business of the Lines amount-
ing to One hundred & seventy seven Guineas at the Rate of
a Guinea a Day which is what the Proprietors of Pennsylva-
nia allow to each of their Commissioners, & as M^r Malcolm
the only Mathematician nominated in your Ldps Commission
was unable to attend at the time it arrived & died soon after-
wards I thought there was a necessity for having some other
in his stead & M^r Leeds was acknowledged to be by far the
best in the Province, your Ldp's Agent here will therefore I
hope be authorized to pay him. None of the other Commis-
sioners who acted on behalf of your Ldp have exhibited my
Account nor do I suppose they intend to make any Claim for
their Attendance." To this Part of my Letter I likewise wisht