THE KAY-AD-ROS-SE-RA PATENT

By far the largest and most important land-grant made in colonial times, any part of which lay within the bounds of Saratoga County, was the patent founded on the old Indian hunting-ground of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra. This large tract includes the greater part of Saratoga County, and runs also on the north into Warren county, and on the west into Montgomery and Fulton.

Kay-ad-ros-se-ra, "the country of the lake of the crooked stream," as has already been seen in these pages, was the favorite hunting-ground of the Mohawk branch of the Iroquois or Five Nations of central New York. The Indian deed was obtained of the Mohawk chief in the year 1703, but the patent was not granted till the year 1708, and the Indians did not ratify the purchase till the year 1768. This patent was, therefore, disputed ground for more than sixty years.

The first attempt made to obtain a grant of any part of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra was made in the year 1693. On the 1st day of April, 1693, Robert Livingston, Jr., and David Schuyler petitioned for a part of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra lying north of the Saratoga patent up as far as the Little Carrying-Place, and running as far back into the wood as the Indian property goes.

In the year 1702, on the 26th of August, the Indians granted this tract to Livingston and Schuyler, described as aforesaid. This was the first Indian deed of any part of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra. When the proprietors of the whole patent acquired their title, they obtained a release from Livingston and Schuyler of their interest.

At length, in 1763, the French and Indian war being over, the patentees of Kayadrossera began to look, with longing eyes, after their lands.

In the year 1764, some one of them began to issue permits to settlers to enter upon and occupy portions of the patent. In pursuance of these permits, several families moved upon the patent in the vicinity of Saratoga lake, at the mouth of the Kayadrossera river.
In the fall of that year the Mohawks, upon their hunting excursion, fell upon these settlers and drove them away.
Learning from the settlers that they claimed it by purchase, the Mohawks became alarmed, as they said they had never heard of such purchase.

The Mohawks at once appealed to Sir William Johnson, and were surprised to learn that the whole of their favorite hunting-ground had been deeded away by their fathers more than two generations before.

"Abraham," the brother of King Hendrik, in an eloquent harangue, presented the case to Sir William, claiming that, after the most diligent inquiry among the oldest people of his tribe, it could not be ascertained that any such grant had ever been made. In conclusion, "Abraham" demanded in the name of the tribe that the patent be relinquished.

Sir William took up the matter warmly in favor of the Mohawks, and made every effort in his power to have the patent set aside. In the first place, Sir William wrote to Lieutenant-Governor Colden, stating the case as he understood it, and urging relief. That very autumn, Sir William introduced a bill into the Colonial Assembly to vacate the patent on the ground of fraud.

These measures failing, in the year 1765 Sir William appealed to the council in person in behalf of his dusky brethren, but the members of the council put him off with, among other things, the plea that to vacate the patent in council would be disrespectful to the council who granted it. By this time the controversy had been taken up warmly by all the tribes of the confederacy of the Six Nations, and Sir William in their behalf petitioned to have the patent vacated on the ground of fraud by act of Parliament.

After the patent of Kayadrossera was granted, in the year 1708, the patentees slumbered on their rights. It was a condition of the grant that a settlement should be made within seven years after its date and discovery. It does not appear that any attempt at settlement was made, but one petition after another was filed by the patentees, praying an extension of the time for settlement.

In 1732 the patentees filed a petition, asking that the patent might be surveyed and its boundaries determined, on account of various depredations that were being committed on it by adjoining owners who disputed the line.

But nothing was done towards a survey; and again, for more than thirty years, the owners of this magnificent domain slumbered upon their rights.

At length the proprietors themselves became alarmed for the safety of their patent, and offered to compromise with the Indians by paying them a certain sum of money to satisfy their claim. The Mohawks thought the sum offered too small, and the effort failed.

Thus the matter went on till the year 1768, when the proprietors of Kayadrossera gave to the governor, Sir Henry Moore, full power to settle with the Indians. In pursuance of this authority, Sir Henry proceeded to the Mohawk country in the early summer of 1768, and called a council of the Indians to deliberate upon the matter. But it was found that the proprietors had no copy of the Indian deed to produce in evidence on the occasion, and that, as no survey had ever been made, no proper understanding of the subject could be arrived at, and the council was dissolved.

Upon his return to New York, the governor ordered a survey of the patent to be made. The outlines of this great patent were accordingly given by the surveyor-general, and, the boundaries being ascertained, a compromise was arrived at. The proprietors relinquished a large tract on the northwestern quarter of what they had claimed to be their land, and fixed the northern and western boundaries as they now run.

They likewise paid the Indians the sum of five thousand dollars in full of all their claims and the Mohawks thereupon ratified the patent and forever relinquished their claims to their old favorite hunting-ground. {See Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, by Colonel Wm. L. Stone, vol. ii.}

The Indian title being thus quieted, the proprietors proceeded at once to survey their lands.

Such proceedings were had that commissioners were appointed to partition the patent among its owners. The commissioners completed their survey in the year 1771. They divided the patent into twenty-five allotments, and each allotment into thirteen equal lots, that being the number of the original proprietors.

At the mention of those early settlements there rises at once in our mind's eye the log hut in the centre of the little clearing, the scanty crop of corn among the charred logs and blackened stumps of the felled trees. Around all stands the shadowy forest, which the fears of the anxious housewife and the little children people with lurking Indians and wild beasts of prey; while the father guides the plow, with his trusty rifle hidden in a corner of the field. The whole is a scene of faith, courage, and endurrance, which will never be equaled again.

The first settlers confined themselves to the banks of the Mohawk, and to the protection of the forts and military works erected during the long and bloody French and Indian wars. It was not till after the war of the Revolution was over that the full tide of immigration set in for Saratoga County.

At the time of its separate county organization, in 1791, Saratoga had within its borders more than seventeen thousand inhabitants.

On the 17th day of February, in the year 1791, an act was passed by the Legislature of the State of New York, entitled, "An act for apportioning the representation in the Legislature, according to the rules prescribed in the Constitution, and for other purposes." By section one of that act the towns of Easton and Cambridge were annexed to Washington county, the county of Rensselaer created, and it was further provided, "That all that part of the county of Albany, which is bounded easterly by the Hudson river and counties of Washington and Rensselaer, southerly by the most northerly sprout of said river and the town of Schenectady, westerly by the county of Montgomery, and northerly by the county of Washington, shall be one separate and distinct county, and be called and known by the name of Saratoga."

By other sections of the same statute, provision was made for holding the several courts of the State therein, and local courts were provided for as well as representation in both Houses of the Legislature, and it was directed that all prisoners should be kept in the Albany county jail until a new jail should be built in the county of Saratoga.

Governor Clinton appointed John Thompson, of Stillwater, first judge; James Gordon and Beriah Palmer, of Ballston, Jacobus Van Schoonhoven, of Half-Moon, and Sidney Berry, of Saratoga, as judges. Sidney Berry was appointed surrogate, Jacob Fort, Jr., of Half-Moon, sheriff, and Dirck Swart, of Stillwater, county clerk.

The first session of the common pleas met at the residence of Samuel Clark, in what is now the town of Malta, then Stillwater, on the 10th day of May, 1791. It was held by Judge Thompson and the four judges above named, with John Varnan, Eliphalet Kellogg, and Epenetus White, associate justices of sessions.