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Letters Patent

In the collections of the American Numismatic Society — formerly resident at Audubon Terrace but lately removed further south to Varick Street — there is a fine example of letters patent from the year 1786, signed by Governor George Clinton and validated by the Great Seal of the State of New York.

Letters patent are a form of open declaration by a sovereign or head of state, usually conferring the grant of an office, title, land, or rights. The most well-known patents are those covering the intellectual property of scientific inventions, issued by bodies like the United States Patent and Trademark Office or the UK’s Intellectual Property Office.

These particular letters patent deal with a land grant made to one Joshua Mersereau. From a family of Huguenot extraction, Mersereau studied at King’s College and ran a tavern on Staten Island. When America’s first civil war erupted in 1775, he joined the rebels and was commissioned a major in the “patriot” forces. He also represented his island’s coterminous County of Richmond in the rebel Provincial Congress that convened at Kingston.

Alongside other members of his family, Major Mersereau organised an effective spy ring that gathered useful operational intelligence on the movements of British and loyal American forces in the Hudson Valley, Staten Island, and neighbouring parts of New Jersey. It was likely for that contribution, as well as for his political influence more broadly, that this grant of land was made.

The wording of the letters patent demonstrates the reliance on monarchic precedent during the early republican period.

The old formula of “George III, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain” etc. is replaced by that of the new sovereign: “The People of the State of New-York, by the Grace of God, Free and Independent”.

Likewise, in the final dating at the end, the king’s regnal year is replaced with the year of New York’s independence.

A wax impression of the great seal of the state of New York — depicting the state’s rather handsome coat of arms — hangs from the letters patent validating its authenticity.

This first great seal was devised in 1777 and the obverse is widely deployed across New York and, in its heraldic form, on the state flag. Here, however, we can also view the rarely seen reverse of the seal: a giant promontory of solid rock arising from the ocean and lashed by waves.

The reverse’s Latin motto ‘FRUSTRA’ symbolises the uselessness and ineffectiveness of the waves’ constant battering of the rock, an allegory for New York’s young republic.

A transcription of the text of these letters patent:

The People of the STATE of NEW-YORK
By the Grace of GOD, Free and Independent:

TO ALL to whom theſe Preſents ſhall come, Greeting: KNOW YE, That WE HAVE Given, Granted and Confirmed, and by theſe Presents, Do Give, Grant and Confirm, unto

Joshua Mersereau all that certain Tract of Land situate in the county of Montgomery – being part of the Indian purchase made by Edward and Ebenezer Jessup and their associates under License granted to the Totten and Crossfield and known and distinguished in a Division of the said purchase into townships by being part of Township Number Thirty-one, Beginning at the most Westerly corner of Township number Twenty Nine, and running thence North thirty degrees West, two hundred and sixty two chains and fifty links, then North sixty degrees East two hundred chains, then South thirty degrees East eighty chains, then North sixty degrees East forty chains, then South sixty degrees West two hundred and forty chains to the place of Beginning: All which courses are rum as the needle pointed in the year one thousand and seven hundred and seventy two Containing five thousand and nine hundred and eighty acres.

TOGETHER with all and ſingular Rights, Hereditaments and Appurtenances to the ſame belonging, or in any Wiſe appertaining, EXCEPTING and RESERVING to ourſelves, all Gold and Silver Mines, and five Acres of every Hundred Acres of the ſaid Tract of Land for Highways. To Have and To Hold the above deſcribed and granted Premiſes unto the ſaid Joshua Mersereau his

Heirs and Aſſigns, as good and indefeaſible Eſtate of Inheritance, for ever. On Condition Nevertheless, That with the Term of ſeven Years to be computed from the firſt Day of January next enſuing the Date hereof, there ſhall be one actual Settlement made on the ſaid Tract of Land hereby granted – For every Six hundred and Forty acres thereof – otherwiſe theſe our Letters Patent, and the Eſtate hereby granted, ſhall ceaſe, determine and become void.

In Testimony Whereof, We have cauſed theſe our Letters to be made patent, and the Great Seal of our ſaid State to be be hereunto affixed. Witness Our truſty and well-beloved GEORGE CLINTON, Eſquire, Governor of our ſaid State, General and Commander in Chief of all the Militia, and Admiral of the Navy of the ſame, at our City of New-York, this Eighteenth Day of July in the year of our LORD One Thouſand Seven Hundred and Eighty Six, and in the Eleventh Year of our INDEPENDENCE.

Published at 1:30 pm on Wednesday 8 May 2024. Categories: Heraldry History New York Tags: , .
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