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John Greig: Land Agent and Speculator

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Neil A. McNall
Neil A. McNall
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of American History at the Pennsylvania State University
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Abstract

The process whereby enormous tracts of agricultural hinterland passed from original tract owners to individual settlers was facilitated by skilled mediators. These owner-agents incurred great risks, operated boldly on none-too-firm credit, and, sometimes, profited handsomely. Their task was to open new frontiers and sell America to Americans.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , Winter 1959 , pp. 524 - 534
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1959

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References

1 The earliest biographical sketch of Greig appears in Orsamus Turner, History of the Pioneer Settlement of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase and Morris Reserve (Rochester, 1851), pp. 280–282Google Scholar. Most of the extant Greig papers are in the possession of Mr. George Skivington, of Rochester, New York. They have been carefully arranged chronologically in numbered files. Reference to Greig Manuscripts are to this collection.

2 Turner, op. cit., p. 166.

3 The most complete account of the derivation of title to these lands is in Cowan, Helen I., Charles Williamson, Genesee Promoter — Friend of Anglo-American Rapprochement (Rochester, 1941)Google Scholar, Chap. 1. See also Evans, Paul D., “The Pulteney Purchase,” New York State Historical Association, Quarterly Journal, Vol. III (Jan., 1922), pp. 83–104Google Scholar.

4 Instructions from Sir William Pulteney to Robert Troup, August 5, 1801, Johnstone Papers, Ontario County Historical Society (Canandaigua).

5 Troup in a letter to Noah Lindley in 1818 wrote: “Sir William Pulteney and Mr. William Hornby, soon after the organization of our federal government put Sixty Thousand pounds sterling into William S. Smith's hands, to purchase lands in America and stock in our public funds.” Troup Letterbook 4, 152, Steuben County Clerks Office (Bath).

6 Liber 2 of Deeds, 365–384, Steuben County Clerks Office.

7 Turner, op. cit., pp. 181 and 277; Advertisement in the Canandaigua Western Repository, Oct. 20, 1804; Robert Troup to Sir William Pulteney, March 22, 1802, Pulteney Letterbook, 77, Collection of Regional History, Cornell University.

8 Liber D of Deeds, 205–206, Chenango County Clerks Office (Norwich).

9 The power was recorded at the Office of the Secretary of State in Albany in Book MRO, 499. Copies appear in several of the county clerks offices in regions where Hornby lands were located. See, for example, Liber A of Miscellaneous Records, 80–82, Chenango County Clerks Office.

10 Greig Manuscripts, f. 1; Liber 3 of Deeds, 417–418, Steuben County Clerks Office.

11 Greig Manuscripts, fs. 4, 9, and 33.

12 Liber 1 of Deeds, 54–56; Liber 3 of Deeds, 227–230; and Liber 1 of Miscellaneous Records, 193–194, Genesee County Clerks Office (Batavia).

13 Inferable from references and records in Greig Manuscripts, passim.

14 Troup to Dugald Cameron, Oct. 8, 1819, Troup Letterbook 7, 17, Steuben County Clerks Office.

15 Copies of contracts in the Greig Manuscripts, passim.

16 Accounts of Greig with Moses Dyer, Greig Manuscripts, fs. 39, 41, and 46.

17 Liber 3 of Deeds, 423–424, and Liber 3 of Miscellaneous Records, 99, Steuben County Clerks Office; McMaster, Guy H., History of the Settlement of Steuben County, New York (Bath, 1853), pp. 116–117Google Scholar; Bath Constitutionalist, July 4, 1841.

18 Liber A of Miscellaneous Records, 82–83, Chenango County Clerks Office; Greig Manuscripts, f. 58; Smith, James H., History of Chenango and Madison Counties, New York (Syracuse, 1880), p. 199Google Scholar footnote.

19 Greig to George N. Williams (no date), Greig Manuscripts, f. P–56.

20 Liber 8 of Deeds, 597–598, Steuben County Clerks Office; Liber A of Miscellaneous Records, 423–424, Allegany County Clerks Office (Belmont); Liber D of Miscellaneous Records, 316–318, Ontario County Clerks Office.

21 Niles Weekly Register, Vol. VI (March 7, 1814), p. 154; William W. McCay to Greig, Sept. 24, 1849, Greig Manuscripts, f. 189.

22 William W. McCay to Greig, July 21, 1850, Greig Manuscripts, f. 195; see also f. 203.

23 See, for example, letters in Greig Manuscripts, fs. 112, 133, 175 and O–l.

24 ——to Greig, April 20, 1804; Greig Manuscripts, f. TM-4-A.

25 Greig Manuscripts, passim.

26 VanDeusen, John G., “Robert Troup, Agent of the Pulteney Estate,” New York History, Vol. XXIII (April, 1942), pp. 175–176Google Scholar; Troup to Greig, Nov. 23, 1830, Greig Manuscripts, f. 58.

27 These controversies resulted in extensive correspondence between Greig and Fellows, McCay, and a bevy of local and Albany politicians, Greig Manuscripts, passim.

28 Note in a Greig obituary notice, Miscellaneous Manuscripts, Ontario County Historical Society. Liber E of Miscellaneous Records, 260–263, Ontario County Clerks Office.

29 Pulteney Estate Papers, Nos. 647 and 872, Osgood Collection, Local History Division, Rochester Public Library.

30 Greig Manuscripts, f. 239; Liber C of Miscellaneous Records, 348, Steuben County Clerks Office; Liber 216 of Deeds, 86–88, Ontarío County Clerks Office.

31 Troup to Sir William Pulteney, Feb. 12 and March 22, 1802, Pulteney Letterbook, 70 and 78–79, Regional History Collection, Cornell University; Instructions accompanying the power of attorney, Oct. 18, 1804, Greig Manuscripts, f. 1; Smith, James H., History of Livingston County, New York (Syracuse, 1881), p. 265Google Scholar.

32 See below, p. 533; Ure to Greig, Nov. 16, 1836, Johnstone Papers, Ontario County Historical Society.

33 Liber B of Deeds, 437–440, Allegany County Clerks Office.

34 Conclusion based on loose contracts in Greig Manuscripts, passim; Greig Manuscripts, f. 151.

35 Liber 7 of Deeds, 148, and Liber 12 of Deeds, 101, Genesee County Clerks Office; Greig Manuscripts, f. 33 and TM-16-A.

36 Greig Manuscripts, f. 151.

37 Liber 42 of Deeds, 559–560 and 571, Genesee County Clerks Office; Greig Manuscripts, f. 86.

38 Greig Manuscripts, fs. 103, 143, 151, and 175.

39 Greig to Thomas Morris, Jan. 8, 1844, Greig Manuscripts, f. 143.

40 Greig to John K. Kane, Nov. 27, 1845; Kane to Greig, Jan. 11, 1851; J. Williams Biddle to Greig, Oct. 14, 1852; Greig financial statement of Jan. 1, 1853, in Greig Manuscripts, fs. 159–199, 213, and 216.

41 Memorandum of Agreement, Greig Manuscripts, f. 17; Porter, Kenneth W., John Jacob Astor (Cambridge, 1931), Vol. I, p. 102Google Scholar; Masterton Ure to Le Blanc, Dec. 26, 1823, Johnstone Papers, Ontario County Historical Society.

42 Greig Manuscripts, passim.

43 Financial Statements of Greig, Jan. 1, 1845, and Jan. 1, 1853, Greig Manuscripts, fs. 151 and 216.

44 Statement of Greig, Jan. 1, 1857, Greig Manuscripts, f. 229, and passim.