Page 15
History of Orange County
Town of Newburgh
Page 15
And further granted, that the said trustees and their successors forever thereafter should be one body politic and corporate in fact and name, by the name of the Trustees of the Palatine parish by Quassaick, and by that name to sue and be sued, &c., with power to the Trustees for the time being to lease the said glebe lands or any part thereof, but for no longer term than seven years at any one time, and by the same grant one pepper-corn only per annum was reserved as a quit rent for the said 500 acres of land. Which grant of the said glebe lands, the said petitioners conceive, was in order to encourage other Palatine families to settle and improve other vacant lands near to the aforesaid tract. But so far was it from having the effect intended, that some time after the passing of the said grant all the said Palatine families sold their several lots in said tract to the said petitioners and those under whom they claim, and they, with the aforesaid Trustees, removed to the County of Albany or some other parts. That the said Trustees being so removed, the male inhabitants of the said tract above the age of twenty-one years, on the 23rd day of June, in the year of our Lord 1747, met upon the said glebe land and by a majority of votes elected the said petitioners, Alexander Colden and Richard Albertson, Trustees of the said glebe land, who took the possession thereof. But as the said petitioners are all English Protestants, the grant of the said glebe, if confirmed to the use of a Lutheran minister only, would be useless; and the said petitioners are advised and conceive that if the Palatines had continued on the aforesaid tract, and they or their descendants had conformed to the Church of England, they might have called and chosen a minister of the Church of England to have the care of the souls there, who could in that case have had the benefit and use of the aforesaid glebe lands, and that if the said Palatines could have done so consequently our own natural born subjects may do the same who now by purchase succeed the said Palatines in the rights they had in the same lands. And further setting forth that the Trustees of said glebe lands having power by the said grant to lease the said lands for no longer time than seven years, prevents the same being improved or of that advantage that might be, had they power to grant 300 acres thereof forever in acre lots, reserving no less than five shillings for each acre as a rent forever, which rent would in part support a Protestant minister and schoolmaster to have the care of souls and the instruction of the children of the said petitioners and the neighboring inhabitants, and the remaining 200 acres thereof would be sufficient for settlements for such minister and schoolmaster. And had the said petitioners power to hold a fair on the said lands on the second Tuesday in April and October annually, it would not only be an advantage to said petitioners, but to all the inhabitants of that and the neighboring counties; and thereof praying to have our grant and confirmation of the aforesaid 500 acres of land to the present Trustees, and their successors, to be chosen pursuant to the directions of the aforesaid grant, with such further powers and under such regulations and restrictions as to our said Governor and Council should seem proper.