In consequence of these Entries & orders of Council, some hundred thousands acres of Land were surveyed, Rights paid to the King's Receiver & Patents issued, & a great Number of Familys actually setled upon the western-waters before the present King's Reign, &
when the Land-office was shut up by the illegal proclamation of 1763. There were many hundred Surveys upon the western-Waters lying in the Office, upon which the Rights had been made good, & the Fees of Office paid; which have been confirm'd, & Grants issued for them, since the Revolution.
5 In the Year 1754, a Proclamation was issued by the Governor of Virginia, promising a Bounty of 200,000 Acres of Land upon the Ohio to the Officers & Soldiers of the first Virginia Regiment; which was afterwards carried into Execution, & Patents granted by Lord Bottetourt & Lord Dunmore. Before the Revolution two or three Countys had been established upon the western waters, Civil & military Jurisdiction exercised there, & the Inhabitants legally represented in the Virginia Assembly. About the Year 1753 or 54,
Mr. Trent was empowered by a Commission as a Captain of Rangers, from the Governor of Virginia, to raise a Company in the out skirts of Augusta County, in virtue of which Commission, he raised a Company at, & about the Place where Fort Pit was afterwards built. There are patents upon Record in the Secretary's office of Virginia upon the Ohio River, as low as the Great Falls, under the former Government: many disputed Titles of Lands upon the western waters, upon caveats against Patents &c. had been regularly tried & determined in our Courts of Justice, under the former Government. In short, Virginia can shew as clear & positive Evidence & Marks of Right & Jurisdiction for the Lands to the westward of the Alleghany Mountains as to the Eastward; but she will hardly submit her Title to a power arrogated by Congress, in direct violation of the Articles of Confederation, and after such strong Grounds of Suspicion of Partiality, & private Interest in many of the Members of that once respectable Body.