British Policy in the Illinois Country, 1763-1768

by Clarence Edwin Carter

[177] Tennessee River.

[178] Memorial to the crown, Sept. 9, 1763. Four years later this suggestion was withdrawn at the suggestion of their London agent, Thomas Cumming. Letter to Cumming, March 1, 1767. Catham Papers, Vol. 97. Some of the members declared their determination to become early settlers in the new colony. Memorial to the crown, Sept. 9, 1763. Petition to the crown, Dec. 16th, 1768, Butler, Hist. of Ky., 381-383.

[179] Memorial to the crown, Sept. 9th, 1763, Chatham Papers, Vol. 97.

[180] Ibid.

[181] Letter of the company to Thomas Cumming, Sept. 26th, 1763.

[182] Can. Arch., Report for 1906, p 122. See ch. III.

[183] Ibid.

[184] "I can never look upon that proclamation in any other light (but this I say between ourselves), than as a temporary expedient to quiet the minde of the Indians, and must fall, of course, in a few years, especially when those Indians are consenting to our occupying the lands." Washington to Crawford, Sept. 21, 1767. Writings of Washington, II, 220-221. (Ford ed.)

[185] Letter of William Lee, London, May 30, 1769, Chatham Papers, Vol. 97.

[186] I have found no account of any further activity on the part of the company. In 1774 a copy of the correspondence was sent to the Earl of Chatham, which may have been done in the hope that his interest might be aroused in the undertaking. The bundle of papers contains the following indorsement: "Mississippi Cos. papers, sent to the Right Honble William Earl of Chatham, on Saturday the 20th of April 1774. Charles Lee, in speaking of this undertaking, said: "Another society solicited for lands on the lower part of the Illinois, Ohio or on the Mississippi: this was likewise rejected; but from what motives it is impossible to define, unless they suppose that soldiers invested with a little landed property, would not be so readily induced to act as the instruments of the oppression of their fellow subjects, as those whose views are solely turned, if not reduced, to farther promotion; and if reduced, to full pay." The Lee Papers, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Colls., VII, 98.