Proprietors of Pennsylvania supporting their claim, and ascertaining their boundary in due time, was suffered to be claimed and possessed by an enemy, from whom it was conquered by his Majesty's arms, and by whom it was confirmed to his Majesty in a treaty; consequently, therefore, no legal title, as it appears to me, can be set up to any of that territory, but under a grant of the Crown, subsequent to such possession, conquest, &c.

As to your idea of the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania having been first extended and exercised in that part of the country: it was indeed the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania having been extended and exercised, not only there where you have extended your claims, but even to a hundred miles beyond any that you have yet pretended to, that has given occasion to the inhabitants over whom your jurisdiction was exercised, and who think themselves, according to the general sense of Virginia, subject to the jurisdiction only of the latter, to apply to this Government for protection and redress, which this Government, in duty, could not refuse them, as far as its legal powers extend. But I am so far from thinking, as you suggest, that the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania having been first extended and exercised in that country, is a reason that should induce the Government of Virginia to suspend its jurisdiction there, that in my opinion the latter is entitled to some apology from the former for attempting a measure without the participation that ought to have the sanction of both, as his Majesty had not given his to it.

I mention not these circumstances for the purpose of engaging in a dispute with the Proprietors of Pennsylvania, or of throwing obstacles in the way of an accommodation which I am sensible it is the interest of both Colonies, and the duty of the Governours of them, to facilitate; but with the design of making it appear that I have not, upon very slight grounds, rejected proposals for settling the disputes and differences subsisting between the two Colonies, and which require no less than that every thing which is contended for (depending on such a variety of contingencies) on the part of Pennsylvania, should be given up on the part of Virginia immediately.

I cannot but think that you entertain an erroneous opinion of the boundaries of your Province, as described in the Royal grants, but even if not, that your proposals are unreasonable, and that the sincerity of your desire to settle all disputes between Pennsylvania and Virginia would appear less doubtful, if you had observed in your proposals an equitable regard to the pretensions of this Government, especially as nothing thereby can prejudice the legal title of your Government: therefore, unless you are authorized to agree to a plan that favours as much the sentiments of this, as of your own Government, I see no accommodation that can be entered into previous to his Majesty's decision, which I shall not fail to join my application for the obtaining as soon as possible.

I am, gentlemen, your most obedient humble servant,

DUNMORE.

James Tilghman and Andrew Allen, Esquires.

JAMES TILGHMAN AND ANDREW ALLEN TO LORD DUNMORE.

No. 3.

Williamsburg, May 25, 1774.

Mr LORD: We are honoured with your Lordship's answer of yesterday, to our proposals of a boundary line or lines, to ascertain, for the present, the jurisdiction between the Colonies of Virginia and Pennsylvania, to which your Lordship will be pleased to indulge us in a reply which we are induced to make, from a persuasion that if we can be so happy as to support the principles upon which we founded our proposals, or to point out just objections to your Lordship's reasoning, we may still come to such an understanding as may answer the good purposes for which we waited on your Lordship. We thought the western boundary of Pennsylvania, when clearly understood, ought to be one of the lines of jurisdiction. Your Lordship is of the same sentiment, by offering to make what you conceive to be our western bounds, the line of jurisdiction, but you are pleased to differ with us in the construction of the grant. If we have a just apprehension of your Lordship's meaning, you suppose that a meridian line drawn from the end of five degrees of longitude from Delaware, at the beginning of the forty-third degree of latitude, ought to determine the western boundary of Pennsylvania. We are at a loss to conceive from what expression of the Charter your Lordship can collect that the western boundary of Pennsylvania should be a meridian line, or why that meridian should be drawn rather from the north than the south boundary of the Province. The Charter expresses that the Province shall extend five degrees of longitude from its eastern boundary. The eastern boundary is the Delaware in general; but if the western bounds are to be determined by a meridian line, the Province will extend in some parts more, and in others less than five degrees of longitude from its eastern boundary. This we conceive to be against the terms of the grant, which we are of opinion cannot be satisfied by any other than a line or lines corresponding with the courses of the Delaware, and this is the only construction we have ever heard made of that part of the Charter.

Your Lordship, after expressing a doubt, whether that part of the country now in dispute was within the King of England's Dominions, at the time of making the Pennsylvania grant, is pleased to contend "That, though it were possible for you to admit our construction of the Royal grant we contend for, should be within the limits of Pennsylvania, according to such construction, yet Fort Pitt, and the country thereabouts, for want of the Proprietors of Pennsylvania supporting their claim, and ascertaining their boundaries in due time, was suffered to be claimed and possessed by an enemy, from whom it was conquered by his Majesty's arms, and by whom it was confirmed to his Majesty, in a treaty, and consequently, that no legal title can be set up to any of that territory, but under the grant of the Crown, subsequent to such possession, conquest, &c."

Not to enter in a discussion of the facts of claim and possession by an enemy, and conquest by his Majesty's arms, and the enemy's confirmation, or the effect of them upon the right of his Majesty's subjects, which we think needless, we shall only observe, that your Lordship's argument militates equally against Virginia, as against Pennsylvania, since there has been no new grant that we know of subsequent to such possession, conquest, &c.; and that therefore, in our opinion, your Lordship ought not upon your own principles, to have extended the jurisdiction of Virginia to Fort Pitt, and the country thereabouts. Your Lordship seems to allow that there was a prior exercise of jurisdiction on the side of Pennsylvania, and you urge this as a reason of your interposition, and are pleased to think that Virginia is entitled to an apology from the Government of Pennsylvania, for thus exercising a jurisdiction, without the sanction of the Crown's participation. Were it undeniably true, that the Government of Pennsylvania had knowingly extended their jurisdiction beyond the limits of the Charter, we should be far from vindicating such a conduct. And we are certain, that if any of our officers have acted officially, beyond the known limits of the Province, they will be censured, rather than supported, by the Government. But, assured as we are, that Fort Pitt must be within our Charter limits, we cannot be induced to think that our Government were improper in exercising their jurisdiction there; and we are inclined to be of opinion, that if your Lordship, when an application was first made to you, to take that place under the Government of Virginia, had thought fit to have given the least intimation of your designs to the Governour of Pennsylvania, much of the disagreeable consequence which has followed, would probably have been prevented.

We are really concerned, to find that our conceptions of the extent of Pennsylvania are so very different, but we are not without hope, that your Lordship will, upon reconsidering the subject, be of opinion that your construction is liable to the objections we have made. And, although we are satisfied that we shall be supported in ours, yet we are not so tenacious of our first proposals, as to adhere strictly to them, while we have any hopes that a reasonable departure from them will produce so desirable an effect as the settlement of harmony and peace between the two Colonies. And for that valuable purpose, we shall be willing to recede so far from our Charter founds, as to make the river Monongahela, from the line of Dixon and Mason downward, the western boundary of jurisdiction, which would at once settle our present disputes, without the great trouble and expense of running lines, or the inconvenience