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"Whereas, by the peace concluded at Paris, on the 10th of February, 1763, the country of the Illinois has been ceded to His Britannic Majesty, and the taking possession of the said country of the Illinois by troops of His Majesty, though delayed, has been determined upon, we have found it good to make known to the inhabitants

"That His Majesty grants to the inhabitants of the Illinois the liberty of the Catholic religion, as it has already been granted to his subjects in Canada; he has consequently given the most precise and effective orders, to the end that his new Roman Catholic subjects of the Illinois may exercise the worship of their religion according to the rights of the Roman Church, in the same manner as in Canada;

"That His Majesty, moreover, agrees that the French inhabitants, or others, who have been subjects of the Most Christian King, may retire in full safety and freedom, wherever they please, even to New Orleans, or any other part of Louisiana, although it should happen that the Spaniards take possession of it in the name of His Catholic Majesty; and they may sell their estate, provided it be to subjects of His Majesty, and transport their effects, as well as persons, without restraint upon their emigration, under any pretense whatever, except in consequence of debts or of criminal process;

"That those who choose to retain their lands and become subjects of His Majesty, shall enjoy the same rights and privileges, the same security for their persons and effects and liberty of trade, as the old subjects of the King;

"That they are commanded, by these presents, to take the oath of fidelity and obedience to His Majesty, in presence of Sieur Sterling, Captain of the Highland regiment, the bearer hereof, and furnished with our full powers for this purpose;

"That we recommend forcibly to the inhabitants, to conduct themselves like good and faithful subjects, avoiding by a wise and prudent demeanor all cause of complaint against them;

"That they act in concert with His Majesty's officers, so that his troops may take peaceable possession of all the posts, and order be kept in the country; by this means alone they will spare His Majesty the necessity of recurring to force of arms, and will find themselves saved from the scourge of a blood y war, and of all the evils which the march of an army into their country would draw after it."

"We direct that these presents be read, published, and posted up in the usual places.

"Done and given at Headquarters, New York. with our seal at arms, and countersigned by our cember, 1764.

"By His Excellency:

"G. MATURIN."

Signed with our hand, sealed
Secretary, this 30th of De-

“THOMAS GAGE, [L. S.]

With such fair and liberal concessions, so well calculated to gain the favor and affection of the French, and stay their emigration, Captain Sterling began the government of this isolated colony. But it was destined to be of short duration. He died some three months after his arrival, leaving the office of commandant vacant. Under these circumstances their former beloved commandant, M. St. Ange, returned to Fort Chartres and discharged the duties of the office until a successor to Captain Sterling should be sent out. Major Frazer was next sent out from Fort Pitt. He exercised a brief but arbitrary power over the settlements, when he was relieved by a Colonel Reed, who proved for the colonists a bad exchange. For 18 months he enacted the petty tyrant by a series of military oppressions over these feeble settlements, which were, by reason of their isolation, entirely without redress. He was, however, at last removed and succeeded by Lieutenant Colonel Wilkins, who arrived September 5, 1768. He brought orders for the establishment of a court of justice in Illinois for the administration of the laws and the adjustment and trial of all controversies

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existing between the people relating to debts or property, either real or personal.

and

On the 21st of November, 1768, Col. Wilkins issued his proclamation for a civil administration of the laws of the country. For this purpose he appointed seven magistrates or judges, from among the people, as a civil tribunal, to hold monthly terms of court. The names of these first exponents of the principles of the common law of England upon the soil of Illinois, we are unable to transmit. A term of this court was held, commencing December 6, 1768, at Fort Chartres, which was the first common law jurisdiction ever exercised within the present limits of Illinois. Although we call this a common law court, it was in point of fact a very nondescript affair. It was a court of first and last resort-no appeal lay from it. It was the highest, as well as lowest-the only court in the country. It proved anything but popular, it is just possible that the honorable judges, themselves taken from among the people, may not have been the most enlightened exponents of the law. The people were under the laws of England, but the trial by jury-that great bulwark of the subject's right, coeval with the common law and reiterated in the British Constitution-the French mind was unable to appreciate, particularly in civil trials. They thought it very inconsistent that the English should refer nice questions relating to the rights of property to a tribunal consisting of tailors, shoemakers or other artisans and tradespeople, for determination, rather than the judges learned in the law. While thus under the English administration civil jurisprudence was sought to be brought nearer to the people, where it should be, it failed, because, owing to the teachings and perhaps genius of the French mind, it could not be made of the people. For near 90 years had these settlements been ruled by the dicta and decisions of theocratic and military tribunals, absolute in both civil and criminal cases, but, as may well be imagined, in a post so remote, where there was neither wealth, culture nor fashion, all incentives to oppress the colony remained dormant, and the extraordinary powers of the priests and commandants were exercised in a patriarchal spirit which gained the love and implicit confidence of the people. Believing that their rulers were ever right, they gave themselves no trouble or pains to review their acts. Indeed, many years later, when Illinois had passed under the jurisdiction of the United States, the perplexed inhabitants, unable to comprehend the to them complicated machinery of republicanism, begged to be delivered from the intolerable burden of self-government and again subjected to the will of a military commandant.

In 1774 the English Parliament restored to the people their ancient laws in civil cases, without the trial by jury; guaranteed the free exercise of their religion, and rehabilitated the Roman Catholic clergy with the privileges stipulated in the articles of capitulation of Montreal in 1760. The act was known as the "Quebec bill," which extended the boundaries of the province of Quebec to the Mississippi, including all the French inhabitants at Detroit, Mackinaw, on the Wabash, and in the Illinois country. Its object was to firmly attach these remote French colonies, as well as all Canada, to the English government, and to thwart the rising opposition of the colonies on the Atlantic seaboard to its

policy. The latter strongly disapprobated it, viewing it as but another stroke of ministerial policy to secure the aid of the French toward their subjugation. The colonists were then openly arrayed against the arbitrary acts of the home government. At a convention held at Falmouth, Mass., September 22, 1774, it was resolved that "As the very extraordinary and alarming act for establishing the Roman Catholic religion and French laws in Canada may introduce the French or Indians into our frontier towns, we recommend that every town and individual in this country should be provided with a proper stock of military stores," etc. The French colonists, apprised of the bitter opposition of the English colonists to the Quebec bill, and believing that Puritanism was inclined to deprive them of the religious privileges granted by it, were bound the closer to the support of the government during the first years of the revolutionary war. It is asserted that the French supplied Indian war parties with arms and ammunition to commit depredations upon the western frontiers of the English settlements.*

After the acquisition of New France by Great Britain, the king, by his proclamation of October 7th, 1763, forbade his subjects "making any purchases or settlements whatever, or taking possession of any of the lands beyond the sources of any of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic ocean from the west or northwest.” The policy was to reserve this vast and fertile region as a hunting ground for the Indians, and by means of the lakes place within British control their enormous fur and peltry trade; to confine the English colonies to the seaboard within the reach of British shipping, which would be more promotive of trade and commerce, while the granting of large bodies of land in the remote interior, it was apprehended, would tend to separate and render independent the people, who would want to set up for themselves.f

Notwithstanding this policy of the home government, the most noticeable feature of Colonel Wilkins' administration was the wonderful liberality with which he parceled out the rich domain over which he ruled in large tracts to his favorites in Illinois, Philadelphia and elsewhere, without other consideration than the requiring of them to re-convey to him an interest. Under the proclamation of the king, dated October 7, 1763, the taking or purchasing of lands from the Indians in any of the American colonies was strictly forbidden, without special leave or license being first obtained. In view of this prohibition, Colonel Wilkins and some others of the commanders during the British occupation of Illinois, from 1765 to 1775, seem to have considered the property of the French absentees as actually forfeited, and granted it away. But this transaction never received the sanction of the king; by no official act was this property in any manner annexed to the British crown. True, under the laws of England, an alien could not hold land, yet to divest his title, and cause it to become escheated, a process in the nature of an inquisition was necessary. Did not the same rule apply in the case of a conquered country before the forfeiture of the lands of an absentee became complete?

Colonel Wilkins' grants amounted to many thousands of acres. One became afterwards somewhat notorious. It was made to

*Dillon's Ind. 90,

+See letter of the Royal Governor of Georgia to the British Lords of Trade, 1769

John Baynton, Samuel Wharton and George Morgan, merchants of Philadelphia-who, "trading in this country, have greatly contributed to his majesty's service"-" for range of cattle and for tilling grain," said to contain 13,986 acres, but the metes and bounds disclosed it to cover some 30,000 acres.* It was a magnificent domain, lying between the villages of Kaskaskia and Prairie du Rocher, in the present county of Randolph. The conveyance opens and closes with the flourishes of the period: "John Wilkins, Esq., lieutenant colonel of his majesty's 18th, or royal regiment of Ireland, governor and commandant throughout the Illinois country, sends greeting," etc., etc., whereunto he "set his hand and seal-at-arms at Fort Chartres, this 12th day of April, in the ninth year of the reign of our sovereign, Lord George the Third, king of Great Britain, France and Ireland," etc., etc., 1769. condition is annexed that "The foregoing be void if disapproved of by his majesty or the commander-in-chief."

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On the 25th of June following, at Fort Chartres, George Morgan and J. Ramsey executed an instrument of writing, reciting a number of grants besides the foregoing, together with the names of the grantees, wherein in consideration of Colonel John Wilkins, "the better to promote the said service, has agreed to be interested one sixth part therein," they "engage that each of the before mentioned persons shall assign over to the whole, and to Colonel Wilkins, five-sixth parts thereof," etc. For the better carrying out of their plans, the British officers, and their grantees perhaps, committed a wanton outrage on the records of the ancient French grants at Kaskaskia, destroying to a great extent their regular chain of title and conveyances.t

By act of congress of 1788, the Governor of the Northwestern territory was authorized to confirm the possessions and titles of the French and Canadian inhabitants and other settlers on the public lands, who, on or before 1788, had professed themselves citizens of the United States, or any one of them. Governor St. Clair confirmed many of these grants in a very loose manner, sometimes by the bundle. But this British grant of 30,000 acres, which had been assigned to John Edgar, was patented by the Governor to Edgar and his (the Governor's) son, John Murray St. Clair, to whom Edgar, previous to the confirmation, had conveyed a moiety by deed. Much fault was found with this and many other transactions, and some grave charges were made by Michael Jones and E. Backus, U. S. land commissioners for the district of Kaskaskia, as to the manner of obtaining confirmation of innumerable old land grants. But the title to the claim in question was afterward confirmed by the U. S. Government to Edgar and St. Clair, notwithstanding the adverse report of the commissioners. Edgar was for many years the largest land holder and richest man in Illinois. He had deserted the British naval service, and in 1784 came to Kaskaskia with a stock of goods.

At an Indian council held at Kaskaskia, in 1773, an association of English traders and merchants, styling themselves "Illinois Land Company," obtained, July 5th, from ten chiefs and head men of the Kaskaskias, Cahokias, and Peorias, by a curiously signed deed, two immense tracts of land, the first

'American State Papers, vol. 11, Public Lands. +Am. State papers.

'Beginning at the mouth of the Huron creek, called by the French the river of Mary, being about a league below the mouth of the Kaskaskia river; thence a northward of east course, in a direct line to the Hilly Plains, eight leagues or thereabouts, be the same more or less; thence the same course, in a direct line to the Crabtree Plains, seventeen leagues, or thereabouts, be the same more or less; thence the same course, in a direct line to a remarkable place known by the name of the Big Buffalo Hoofs, seventeen leagues, or thereabouts, be the same more or less; thence the same course, in a direct line to the Salt Lick creek, about seven leagues, be the same more or less; thence crossing the said creek, about one league below the ancient Shawneestown, in an easterly or a to the north of east course, in a direct line to the river Ohio, about four leagues, be the same more or less; thence down the Ohio, by the several courses thereof, until it empties itself into the Mississippi, about thirty-five leagues, be the same more or less; and then up the Mississippi, by the several courses thereof, to the place of beginning, thirty-three leagues, or thereabouts, be the same more or less."

This, it will be perceived by tracing the line, included ten or twelve of the most southerly counties in the State.

The other tract was bounded as follows:

"Beginning at a place or point in a direct line opposite to the mouth of the Missouri river; thence up the Mississippi, by the several courses thereof, to the mouth of the Illinois river, about six leagues, be the same more or less; and then up the Illinois river, by the several courses thereof, to Chicagou or Garlick creek, about ninety leagues or thereabouts, be the same more or less; then nearly a northerly course, in a direct line, to a certain place remarkable, being the ground on which an engagement or battle was fought, about forty or fifty years ago, between the Pewaria and Rinard Indians, about 50 leagues, be the same more or less; thence by the same course, in a direct line, to two remarkable hills, close together, in the middle of a large prairie or plain, about forty leagues, be the same more or less; thence a north-east course, in a direct line, to a remarkable spring, known by the Indians by the name of Foggy Spring, about fourteen leagues, be the same more or less; thence in the same course, in a direct line, to a great mountain to the northward of White Buffalo Plain, about fifteen leagues, be the same more or less; thence nearly a southwest course, in a direct line, to the place of beginning, about forty leagues, be the same more or less."

The consideration recited in the deed of conveyance was: 250 blankets, 260 stroudes, 350 shirts, 150 pairs of stroud and half thick stockings, 150 stroud breechcloths, 500 lbs. of gunpowder, 4,000 lbs. of lead, 1 gross of knives, 30 lbs. of vermilion, 2,000 gunflints, 200 lbs. of brass kettles, 200 lbs. of tobacco, 3 doz. gilt looking-glasses, 1 gross gun worms, 2 gross awls, í gross fire steels, 16 doz. of gartering, 10,000 lbs. of flour, 500 bus. of Indian corn, 12 horses, 12 horned cattle, 20 bus. of salt, 20 guns, and 5 shillings in money. This deed was duly signed by the Indian chiefs and attested by the names of ten persons, and was recorded in the office of a notary public at Kaskaskia, September 2d, 1773. The transaction was effected for the Illinois Land Company by a member named William Murray, then a trader in the Illinois country. There belonged to it two members in London, ten in Philadelphia, two in Lancaster, three in various counties of Pennsylvania, one in Pittsburg, and George Castler and James Rumsey, merchants of the Illinois country. The names indicate the members to have been mostly Jews.

In 1775, Louis Viviat, a merchant of the Illinois country, acting as the agent of an association denominated the Wabash Land Company, obtained by a deed dated October 18th, from eleven Piankeshaw chiefs, immense tracts of land lying on both sides of

*We recognize in this company some of the same names as in the Illinois Company.

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