Dunmore, Governor and Commander-in-chief, &c, of his Majesty's Colony or Dominion of Virginia, and the Honorable the Proprietaries of the Province of Pennsylvania, their respective grantees, tenants, and officers, respecting the western bounds and limits of the said Province, and the jurisdiction of the said Colony or Dominion and Province, which have been productive of great troubles and disquiets to the settlers and inhabitants there, and endanger the King's peace and the public tranquillity: To the end, therefore, that the evils which have already arisen, and which are likely to arise in the premises, may be remedied and prevented, I have nominated and appointed, and do by these presents nominate and appoint you, the said James Tilghman and Andrew Allen, Esquires, to be Commissioners on the part of the Proprietaries of this Province, to confer and treat with his Excellency the Right Honorable the Earl of Dunmore, of and concerning the premises, and to agree upon such measures as you shall judge most expedient for settling and composing the said differences, troubles and disquiets, either by a temporary line or boundary of jurisdiction, or otherwise, as may best answer the good purposes of preserving his Majesty's peace, and quieting the minds of the inhabitants on or near the borders of the two Colonies or Provinces, until the final settlement of the said boundaries shall be effected, hereby ratifying and confirming whatever you shall do in the premises.

In testimony whereof, I have set my hand, and caused the great seal of the said Province to be hereunto affixed at Philadelphia, the seventh day of May, 1774.

JOHN PENN.

Instructions to JAMES TILGHMAN and ANDREW ALLEN, Esquires, Commissioners appointed to treat and agree with the Right Honorable JOHN Earl of DUNMORE, Governor of VIRGINIA, concerning the settlement of the Western bounds and limits of the Province of PENNSYLVANIA, and preserving the public peace and tranquillity on the Borders, till a final settlement of the said lines.

1st. You are to proceed, without loss of time, to Williamsburg, the place of his Lordship's residence in Virginia, and enter upon the execution of your commission as soon as possible after your arrival. Should his Lordship be from home, and not gone to too great a distance, you will wait his return, or send an express, (as you judge most proper,) to acquaint him with your being sent from this Government to treat with him on public business, and request his return.

2d. Your first point should be to prevail with him to join with the Proprietaries of this Province in a Petition to his Majesty in Council, to appoint Commissioners to run and mark out the boundary or division line—such as his Majesty shall please to order and direct, between this Province and Virginia; the expense of which to be equally borne by the two Colonies.

3d. Whether his Lordship should accede to the above proposal or not, you should urge every argument in your power to induce him to agree to the settling a temporary line of jurisdiction between the two Colonies, till the said boundary line shall be settled, or his Majesty's orders and directions can be obtained respecting the same.

4th. Should his Lordship come into the last mentioned measure, you will no doubt endeavour to fix the temporary line of jurisdiction as favourably as possible for this Province, and as near to the Charter bounds as you can; and in order thereto you will refer yourselves to the map or plan heretofore transmitted by me to him, which shows to demonstration that Fort Pitt is near six miles to the eastward of our five degrees of longitude. At any rate, however, you are not to accede to any proposed temporary line which shall give jurisdiction to Virginia over any lands lying to the eastward of the river Monongahela.

5th. Whatever may be the temporary line agreed on, you should take care to insert a clause in the articles to be drawn up, containing a saving of the rights on both sides, to the lands up to the true lines or boundaries where they shall be finally settled.

6th. If the business is not carried on by the interchange of letters, or written proposals between you, you should take private notes, or minutes, by way of diary, of every thing material that passes, not only to enable you to make an exact report of the whole transaction, but to found affidavits on to be sent to England, if necessary. As great reliance is had on your knowledge and abilities, any further instructions are unnecessary.

JOHN PENN.

Philadelphia, 7th May, 1774.

Here follows the Governor's letter to the Earl of Dimmore, Governor of Virginia, viz:

Philadelphia, 7th May, 1774.

MY LORD: By accounts received from the westward, since my last letter to your Lordship, I find that the disorders in that quarter are greatly increased by your Lordship's extending the jurisdiction of Virginia to Pittsburgh and the country thereabouts; and that Dr. Conolly's proceedings have been such as are very alarming, and have a tendency to put the whole country beyond the Alleghany mountains into a state of confusion. The consideration of these unhappy circumstances have induced me to send two gentlemen of my Council, Mr. Tilghman and Mr. Allen, to wait on your Lordship, in order to confer with you on this important subject, and, if possible, to conclude with you upon such measures as may restore and establish the public tranquillity until the lines and boundaries of this Province can be finally settled by his Majesty's authority; for which good purpose I flatter myself your Lordship will not hesitate to join with us in representing to his Majesty the necessity of such a settlement. In the mean time, I am in hopes such temporary expedients may be fallen upon as may put an end to the present disturbances, secure the public peace, and quiet the minds of the people concerned in the unhappy differences which at present subsist between the Governments of Virginia and this Province.

I am, with great respect, your Lordship's most obedient humble servant, JOHN PENN.

To the Right Honorable the Earl of Dunmore, Governor and Commander-in-chief of his Majesty's Provinces of Virginia, Williamsburg.

Memorandum, 1st June, 1774.

The Reverend Dr. Peters having, at the instance of the Governor, wrote a letter to Henry Wilmot, Esquire, the same was ordered to be entered on the Minutes of Council, and follows in these words, viz:

Philadelphia, 18th May, 1774.

SIR: I am desired by the Governor to give you an account of what I know with respect to an Indian deed, under which some private people, calling themselves the Susquehanna Company, inhabitants of the Colony of Connecticut, claim all the lands in Pennsylvania between the forty-first and forty-second degrees of latitude. This, then, follows will give a true notion of the whole transaction, as far as my remembrance will enable me to recollect the matter.

In the year 1741, the proprietor, Thomas Penn, went from here for England, and from that time to this I have been well acquainted with all sorts of Indian negotiations, and have had a great share in the management of them, either as Proprietary Secretary, or as member of Council, or as Provincial Secretary, so that I can speak from the best grounds of every matter relating to Indians for above thirty years; and I can with truth declare, that before the year 1753,1 never, that I can remember, heard of any claim set up by the Government, or any of the inhabitants of the Colony of Connecticut, to any lands within this Province. In the year 1753, I received information of a claim set up by some Connecticut people to a degree of longitude within this Province in virtue of the Connecticut Charter, and that there was a party gone into the Indian country to make a purchase of lands between Susquehanna and Delaware, to begin at or near Wyomink, Mr. Hamilton, and several others, were alarmed at this wicked attempt, and Conrad Weiser, the Indian Interpreter, was ordered to give the Six Nation Indians an account of this intelligence, and to put them upon their guard. Colonel Johnson, the Indian Agent for his Majesty in the New York Government, was likewise made acquainted with this new project, and desired likewise to apprise the Indians of it. The intelligence was likewise communicated to the Governor and Deputy Governor of Connecticut, who both disavowed the thing, and declared that the Government had no concern in it;