A Royal Mess Of Competing Colonial Charters

By the eve of the Revolutionary War, with the French out of the way, Great Britain held dominant power in eastern North America—especially our region.

Or so it would appear.

Greater Western New York had been claimed many times before it was ever governed. European powers declared it theirs, and when Britain removed its rivals, the claims didn’t disappear—they multiplied. Now they came from within, as competing colonial charters layered atop one another. At one point, no fewer than five colonies claimed the region.

Yet, not one ever truly governed it.

Authority did not collapse at the forest’s edge. It contradicted itself at the source.

Long before a single settler felled a tree in Western New York, the kings of England were granting it by charter with ink. The written record suggests succeeding rulers either disregarded their predecessors, ignored them, or simply didn’t care.

Their land claims were made without presence, without precision, and without agreement. Their authority stemmed not from the land, but from parchment.

And that left a royal mess.

While the Crown focused on European rivals, it continued to create geographical problems in America—even after the Treaty of Paris. Some overlapping claims resolved themselves. Others remained dormant. Still others festered until they erupted into conflict.

Kings granted land they did not control. Worse, the interior of the continent was largely unknown, and the resulting boundaries were vaguely imagined. Many charters used “sea to sea” language. These competing colonial charters often ignored one another entirely. A royal charter did not describe reality—it attempted to create it. The problem didn’t emerge all at once. It was built, one royal signature at a time.

In 1609, King James I granted the Virginia Company of London:

“…all those Lands, Countries, and Territories, situate, lying, and being in that Part of America, called Virginia, from the Point of Land, called Cape or Point Comfort, all along the Sea Coast to the Northward, two hundred miles, and from the said Point of Cape Comfort, all along the Sea Coast to the Southward, two hundred Miles, and all that Space and Circuit of Land, lying from the Sea Coast of the Precinct aforesaid, up into the Land throughout from Sea to Sea, West and Northwest; And also all the Islands lying within one hundred Miles along the Coast of both Seas of the Precinct aforesaid…”¹

It’s the reference to “from Sea to Sea, West and Northwest” that’s of particular interest. Virginia interpreted “West” broadly—extending its claim across the continent toward the Pacific. It’s that northern boundary that matters here. It angles up “northwest” through Niagara Falls, slicing Greater Western New York in a diagonal, and all the way up past Alaska.

While the claim was audacious—and largely theoretical—it set the precedent for overreach. Though impractical and unenforceable, the claim lingered until well after the Revolutionary War.

That was all fine and good, but then in 1629 King Charles I granted Massachusetts Bay Colony:

“…all that Parte of America, lyeing and being in Bredth, from Forty Degrees of Northerly Latitude from the Equinoctiall Lyne, to forty eight Degrees Of the saide Northerly Latitude inclusively, and in Length, of and within all the Breadth aforesaid, throughout the Maine Landes from Sea to Sea…”²

This “sea to sea” claim overlapped territory already granted to Virginia. But that’s far out in the hinterlands of North America’s interior. A more pressing matter is New Hampshire. That dispute was addressed in 1740:

“pursuing the Course of Merrimack River, at three Miles Distance on the North side thereof beginning at the Atlantick Ocean, and ending at a Point due North of a Place in the Plan returned by the said Commissioners called Pantucket Falls, and a Strait Line, Drawn from thence, due West, cross the said River, till it meets with your Majesty’s other Governments.”³

This brought the northern limit of Massachusetts tenuous “Sea to Sea” claim down to 42° 44’ north latitude. This line runs just south of the cities of Canandaigua, Batavia, and Buffalo. Of course, the 1740 decree ended the boundary at “your Majesty’s other Governments,” which, in this case, refers to the Province of New York. The vague terms didn’t stop Massachusetts from claiming territory well past New York’s western boundary.

And who could blame Massachusetts? It simply followed Connecticut’s precedent. But that story comes later.

In 1662, Charles II was up to bat. He decreed, in the Connecticut Charter:

“…all that Part of Our Dominions in New-England in America, bounded on the East by Narraganset-River, commonly called Narraganset-Bay, where the said River falleth into the Sea; and on the North by the Line of the If Massachusetts-Plantation; and on the South by the Sea; and in Longitude as the Line of the Massachusetts-Colony, running from East to West, That is to say, From the said Narraganset-Bay on the East, to the South Sea on the West Part…”⁴

This same “to the South Sea” (i.e., the Pacific Ocean) included land that New York and Pennsylvania occupied. At the time, Connecticut’s claim cut through Dutch-controlled territory in what would soon become New York. While Connecticut would dispute portions of the Duke of York’s province, it would ultimately challenge William Penn’s namesake colony in more violent terms.

In hopes to quickly formalize his acquisition of the Dutch territory along the Hudson River, Charles II established a patent on behalf of his brother James, the Duke of York. If the other overlapping claims seem minor or incidental, this one threw a match on dry kindling. Charles II granted James:

“…all that part of the main land of New England, beginning at a certain place called or known by the name of St. Croix next adjoining to New Scotland in America; and from thence extending along the sea coast unto a certain place called Pemaquie or Pemaquid, and so by the river thereof to the furthest head of the same as it tendeth northward; and extending from thence to the river of Kenebeque, and so upwards by the shortest course to the river Canady northwards; and also all that island or islands commonly called by the several name or names of Matowacks or Long Island, situate and being towards the west of Cape Codd and the Narrow Higansetts, abutting upon the main land between the two rivers there, called or known by the several names of Connecticut, and Hudson’s river; together also with the said river called Hudson’s river, and all the land from the west side of the Connecticut river to the east side of the Delaware Bay: and also several other islands and lands in said Letters Patents mentioned…”⁵

Clearly, Charles II was not working from an accurate map. By granting his brother all land west of the Connecticut River, he effectively split the Province of Connecticut in half. The Crown simply ignored the fact some of the land it gave to James was already claimed. More revealing is what the patent did not contain. It did not define the western (and to some extent the northern) boundaries of the Province.

With today’s Greater Western New York Region in limbo, it left one more opportunity to add yet another provincial claim. Charles II wasn’t done. In 1681, he presented William Penn with the following:

“…all that Tract or Parte of Land in America, with all the Islands therein conteyned, as the same is bounded on the East by Delaware River, from twelve miles distance Northwards of New Castle Towne unto the three and fortieth degree of Northerne Latitude, if the said River doeth extende so farre Northwards; But if the said River shall not extend soe farre Northward, then by the said River soe farr as it doth extend; and from the head of the said River, the Easterne Bounds are to bee determined by a Meridian Line, to bee drawne from the head of the said River, unto the said three and fortieth Degree. The said Lands to extend westwards five degrees in longitude, to bee computed from the said Easterne Bounds; and the said I,ands to bee bounded on the North by the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of Northern Latitude, and on the South by a Circle drawne at twelve miles distance from New Castle Northward and Westward unto the beginning of the fortieth degree of Northern Latitude, and then by a streight Line Westward to the Limitt of Longitude above-mentioned…”⁶

This charter extended Pennsylvania to the 43^rd parallel, slightly north of the Massachusetts line—covering present-day Buffalo, Batavia, and Canandaigua, but not Rochester. This conflict would have to wait until after the Revolutionary War to be resolved.

By the late seventeenth century, competing colonial charters had created a system no one could fully enforce—and no one could fully abandon.

Similar charter conflicts unfolded elsewhere in British America. One involved New York and New Hampshire. The New York Patent gave the Province land up to the western bank of the Connecticut River. This proved problematic for Connecticut. While New York retreated regarding Connecticut, it retained its claim to that land north of Connecticut with the Crown declaring the Connecticut River the boundary between New York and New Hampshire.

But, as before, the parchment isn’t worth as much as boots on the ground. The land between the Green Mountains and the western bank of the Connecticut River seemed as far away from Albany as Western New York. A growing New Hampshire was more than willing to fill that void.

The events that followed would give the American colonies their first real taste of independence—not in Philadelphia, but in the contested lands between the Green Mountains and the Connecticut River.

¹ The Second Charter of Virginia; May 23, 1609, Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library, The Avalon Project,  https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/va02.asp, retrieved April 4, 2026.
² The Charter of Massachusetts Bay (1629); Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library, The Avalon Project,  https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/mass03.asp, retrieved April 4, 2026.
³ Grant, W.L. and Munro, James, eds., Acts of the Privy Council of England, Colonial Series. Vol. III. A.D. 1720-1745, March 10, 1740, His Majesty’s Stantionery Office, London, 1910, p. 599.
⁴ Charter of Connecticut (1662), Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library, The Avalon Project, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/ct03.asp, retrieved April 4, 2026.
⁵ The Duke of York’s Release to John Lord Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret, 24th of June, 1664, Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library, The Avalon Project, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/nj01.asp, retrieved April 4, 2026.
⁶ Charter for the Province of Pennsylvania (1681), Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library, The Avalon Project,  https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/pa01.asp, retrieved April 4, 2026.