Important manuscript DS, signed “George R” at the top of the first page and “G.R.” at the conclusion of the second page, one page both sides, 7.5 x 12.25, June 15, 1763. A set of instructions to “James Hamilton Esquire, Deputy Governor of our Province of Pennsylvania in America; or to the Commander in Chief of our Said Province for the time being.” In part: “Whereas it has been represented to us that a number of Persons, Inhabitants of our Colony of Connecticut, have presumed without license from you, or any acting under our Authority, to begin a Settlement on certain Lands, at Wyoming [Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania] on the River Susquehanna, belonging to our good Subjects the Six nations of Indians and their allies the Delawares, whereby the said Indians, are greatly disquieted and aggrieved; and whereas we have thought it necessary as well for the support of our royal Authority as in Justice to the said Indian Nations whom we are determined at all times to protect in the peaceable enjoyment of all their just Rights and Possessions that an effectual stop should be put to the Settlement which the said People of Connecticut have thus unwarrantably attempted to make; our Will and pleasure therefore is that you do forthwith ... constitute and appoint a proper person to be Commissioner on the part of the Province of Pennsylvania.... And you are hereby further required to instruct the said Commissioner with all convenient speed to proceed ... to the said Settlement at Wyoming, and then to cause his Commission to be read and published with all due Solemnity, and immediately after Publication thereof to require and command the Inhabitants in our name, forthwith to desist from their said undertaking, and to depart and remove from thence within such limited time, as you in your discretion shall think necessary and reasonable....” The long-simmering conflict between Pennsylvania and Connecticut over claims to the Wyoming Valley, situated in northeastern Pennsylvania, arose from a royal error. Charles II granted the land to Connecticut in 1662 but then granted the same to William Penn nearly twenty years later. The arrival of Connecticut “Yankees” to found the town of Wilkes-Barre in 1769 touched off a decades-long series of conflicts. Tensions increased in 1771, when George III confirmed Connecticut’s claim. Even as the Revolutionary War got underway, the Pennamite-Yankee War continued to escalate and came to a head on July 3, 1778, when American patriots and Loyalists, the latter backed by Iroquois allies, came to blows in what came to be known as the Wyoming Massacre. After 45 minutes of fighting, an estimated 340 of the patriots were killed by the superior and better-organized British/Iroquois forces, among whom there were only three fatalities. The British reportedly killed and tortured a number of patriot prisoners, while the British commander, Colonel John Butler, claimed that the Iroquois took 227 American scalps. As retaliation for the Iroquois’ allegiance to the British, George Washington ordered the “total destruction and devastation” of dozens of Iroquois settlements during the 1779 Sullivan Expedition in upstate New York. The Pennamites and Yankees continued to skirmish even after the end of the war, spurred by the Continental Congress’s decision to overturn George III’s decree and to uphold Pennsylvania’s claim. In 1799, the region officially became part of Pennsylvania, and the Connecticut settlers were allowed to keep their land—as Pennsylvanians. The document bears a hand-drawn seal on the first page. A touch of mild soiling and toning (a few faint spots), faint intersecting folds (small edge separation at one fold with a piece of tape to blank margin of second page), and subtle show-through of ink, otherwise fine, clean condition. George III documents related to the American colonies are quite uncommon; those with a historical association of such importance—demonstrating his direct intervention in quelling rebellion, bearing directly on events within the Revolutionary War, and influencing the eventual borders of two states—are of the greatest scarcity and interest. R&R COA.
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