ne should obtain. Five men were appointed as trustees, to divide
and distribute the land as directed. The same instrument incorporated
the tract into a township, to be called Argyle, and should have a
supervisor, treasurer, collector, two assessors, two overseers of
highways, two overseers of the poor and six constables, to be elected
annually by the inhabitants on the first day of May. The patent,
similar to all others of that period, was subject to the following
conditions:

An annual quit rent of two shillings and six pence sterling on every
one hundred acres, and all mines of gold and silver, and all pine
trees suitable for masts for the royal navy, namely, all which were
twenty-four inches from the ground, reserved to the crown."[97]

The land thus granted lies in the central part of Washington county,
with a broken surface in the west and great elevations and ridges in the
east. The soil is rich and the whole well watered.

The trustees were vested with the power to execute title deeds to such
of the grantees, should they claim the lands, the first of which were
issued during the winter and spring of 1764-5 by Duncan Reid, of the
city of New York, _gentleman_; Peter Middleton, of same city,
_physician_; Archibald Campbell, of same city, _merchant_; Alexander
McNaughton,[98] of Orange county, _farmer_; and Neil Gillaspie, of
Ulster county, _farmer_, of the one part, and the grantees of the other
part.

While the application for the grant was yet pending, the petitioners
greatly exalted over their future prospects, evolved a grand scheme for
the survey of the prospective lands, which should include a stately
street from the banks of the Hudson river on the east through the tract,
upon which each family should have a town lot, where he might not only
enjoy the protection of near neighbors, but also have that companionship
of which the Highlander is so particularly fond. In the rear of these
town lots were to be the farms, which in time were to be occupied by
tenants. The surveyors, Archibald Campbell, of Raritan, New Jersey, and
Christopher Yates, of Schenectady, who began their labors June 19, 1764,
were instructed to lay off the land as planned, the street to extend
from east to west, twenty-four rods wide and extending through the width
of the grant as near the center as practicable, and to set aside a glebe
lot for the benefit of the school master and the minister. North and
s