The Memorial of Job Bates and Isaac Waterman
To the Honorable General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut to be Held at New Haven in Said Colony on the Second Thursday of October 1760
The memorial of Job Bates and Isaac Waterman, both of Middletown in the County of Hartford, to this Assembly humbly showeth that in Middletown aforesaid on the east side of Connecticut River there is about two hundred and fifty acres of land that the proprietors of Middletown formerly granted or sequestered for the use and improvement of the Indians when there was no inhabitants or very few English people lived on that side of the river in said town, which said land is situate near the meeting house in the Third Society in Middletown and the ship yard and landing place which said land very much incommodes that society and obstructs the settling of the people of the English and whereas that part of said land called Indian Hill is about fifty acres that lays north of the main street, etc. [ illegible ] said river near the building yard and has been used, worn out, and left useless almost by the Indians and is of but little service to them and the other parts, though good land is but little improvement made thereon and the owners are but few now, not one quarter part so many as when first granted, and your memorialist, Bates, is settled near said land and through mistake has set his house on the same and said Waterman land adjoins to said Indian land but can have no water to his land. Whereupon your memorialist with the consents of many of said Indian owners of said land do humbly pray that this Assembly would allow and grant their approbation that your memorialist may purchase by way of exchange for other lands about twenty acres of said land to accommodate their settlements, or otherwise and that a committee be appointed to assist said Indians in the sale, etc., or that a committee be appointed to treat with the Indians for the whole or a greater part of said land then prayed for and sell and purchase them some out lands that may better serve the Indians and be of great advantage to said society.
And your memorialist, as in duty bound, shall ever pray,
Job Bates
Isaac Waterman
Dated in Middletown, this October 6, 1760
Notation: We the underwritten, subscribing our marks, have heard the above writing read and do approve thereof, and as far as we can judge, will be agreeable to most, if not all, the owners of said land. In witness whereof we set our mark, Samuel Robin, his mark; Moll, wife of Samuel Robin, her mark; Susannah Pochamoges, her mark; Hannah Mamanash, her mark; Thankful Cushoy, her mark.
Samuel Robin and Moll, his wife, signed this paper by setting their marks on the opposite side hereof in presence of us, John Kimberly, Ebenezer Plummer, Mary Eaton witness to Susannah Pochamoges setting her mark the other side. / Hannah Mamanash and Thankful Cushoy heard the within writing read and approved of the same and set their names on the opposite side in presence of us, Francis Hollister, Prudence Hubbard.
Legislative Action: In the Lower House, on this memorial a committee is granted as prayed for and liberty to bring in a bill in form accordingly. Test, Abraham Davenport, Clerk. Non-concurred with in the Upper House. Test, George Wyllys, Secretary. In the Lower House, Messrs. William Wolcott, Seth Wetmore, and Jonathan Welles are appointed a committee to confer, etc., upon the differing votes of the Houses in this memorial. Test, Abraham Davenport, Clerk. In the Upper House, Shubael Conant, Esq., is appointed to confer with the committee of the Lower House on the differing votes of the Houses on this memorial. Test, George Wyllys, Secretary
Cataloguing: 141a, 141b