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had made, but gave them other Lands above the Quantity they Claimed, in the adjoining Town- ships, in which I had for that purpose purchased several undivided rights from Theodore Atkinson, esquire, Secretary to the Province and other Gentlemen in Portsmouth who were so kind as to adjust in procuring me a Quiet Possession. And in order to forward the Improvements with Vigour I disposed of my Company in the 60th Regiment at the stated price of £1500 which sum I have either laid out on this Estate, or lent, on interest & landed security to the new settlers in the neighbouring Townships which enabled them to improve and stock their lands, and make the roads to my Estate and from Thence to Haverhill on the Lower Cohass where a County Court House and Gaol was built, for which purpose I lent £50 Sterling to one John Herd Clark and register of the County. Of the remains unreimbursed (as you will perceive by the Join’d acct.) £492. As this Wm. Hurd had been Secretary to Governor Wentworth and bore then a good Character I entrusted him, when I left the Country, in 1774, \xith my power of Attorney angd DeliV ered him all my notes, Bonds and Mortgages to Register them, but he soon became a GrieVous Rebel, A Traitor to Ilis King, and an ungrateful] Villain to his Benifacter GOVernor Wentworth. And has during the rebellion taken up the several sums due me in that Province where His Majesty’s Governor, Your Humble Servant (Then Surveyor General of the Northern District) with several others declared outlaws and their properties confiscated for their Loyalty to their King.

As to the Value of this Estate, I must beg of Governor \Vcntworth to apprise it, and have onl\ to remark that the Three Hundred and Nineteen Acres Interest lands cost me Eight Dollars per Acre Clearing and Four Dollars for the first Plou ghing. The Land proved so fertile that the first No years produce repaid me above half the sum expended thereon, for which the estate has been credited in the account. The 16,000 acres I possessed in the Township of Topsham, with the 8,358 acres in the Township of Corinth, I must request Lieut. Governor Fanning to Value.

As these lands are situated near the Connecticut River in the New Fangled State of Vermont they acquainted me that I might repossess them as I had first purchased them Under the New Hampshire Grants, on paying the Taxes which were found necessary for carrying on the “far during the late Rebellion. I then sold part of them for £500 Hallifax Currency to one Mr. Porter of the Lower Cohass (who had been for a long while imprisoned during the War on account of his Loyalty) but he last year finding those lands mostly possessed by the new settlers that had flocked into that District from Conecticut & Massachusetts Bay, and found besides the Acct. of Taxes so Enormous that he has been obliged to relinquish his claim by that purchase and the whole; Except what His Majesty's Bounty by Concurrence of the Lords Commissioners, will allow me, for what I once thought to make a Numerous family happy with after my Exit—

The two sums due me by Elias Bland as settled in my account amounting to £244.11.11 was on a mortgage on the house I left my family in, at Perth Amboy in New Jersey, in 1775, when I was obliged to make the best of my way to England I am informed was burnt while our Troops were in possession of that Place.

Since the Peace I have made frequent application for Payment of Interest of the sums due me on mortgage and Bonds in the Province of New York, but to no purpose, they even Deny the Debts, though I am still in possession of the Bonds and Mortgages.

I hope you will excuse me troubling you with this long Explanatory Letter and beg you will be pleased to lay it before the Lords Commissioners. I have the Honour to remain, with the Greatest respect,

Sir, Your most obedient and most humble servant,

In 1785 and 1786 Major Holland entered into correspondence with Asa Porter of Haverhill, N.H., in respect to his lands. Two letters of Porter’s now in the possession of Miss Marion I. Holland of Melbourne, P.Q., are of such unusual interest that they are here given in full:

Haverhill, New Hampshire,1

10th Sept., 1785. Dear Sir:—

I rec’d your favour by Mr. Greene am happy _to find that you and your Family are well. Am under the greatest obligations for your kind attent1on to my interest in promoting a Correspondence and Connection in Trade with Mr. Antrobush but as the Season was too far

1Probably should be Massachusetts. Haverhill is only a short distance from the present boundary between the two States, on the north side of the Merrimac River.