PBA Galleries

One page., with integral blank leaf which is docketed in manuscript on verso. (Folio) 31.319.5 cm (12½7¾”).

A contemporary copy of an autograph letter, signed, one page in length, with no place, dated April 25, 1733, to Archibald Kennedy, Receiver-General of New York.  This is an important letter, discussing boundaries of the Wawayanda and Minisink patents in Orange and Sullivan counties in New York.  Colden, writing in his capacity as Surveyor-General of New York, gives his detailed opinions about the boundaries in question.  

In 1761, Colden became Lieutenant-Governor of New York.  A scientist and philosopher, he was one of the most brilliant leaders of colonial New York.  His book, History of The Five Nations (1727), is a classic account of American Indians during the colonial period.