Editing Macomb's Purchase

'''Macomb's Purchase''' is a large historical area of northern [[New York (state)|New York]] in the [[United States]] purchased from the state in 1791 by [[Alexander Macomb (merchant)|Alexander Macomb]], a merchant who had become wealthy during the [[American Revolutionary War]]. He acted as a land speculator, selling off portions of this land.

==History and geography==
In 1792 in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, the state of New York was struggling financially. It opened for sale nearly five million acres of land which state officials, under pressure from land speculators and other business interests, had forced the [[Iroquois]] tribes to cede. Alexander Macomb, William Constable, and [[Daniel McCormick (banker)|Daniel McCormick]] agreed to purchase nearly {{convert|4000000|acre|ha}} from the state at the extremely low price of 8 [[Penny|pence]] (New York state money) per acre.<ref>Barlow, p. 2.</ref><ref name="Schneider90">Schneider, p. 90.</ref> This was an enormous amount of land, about one-eighth of the entire state of New York. Convinced something illegal must have occurred, the New York State Legislature held exhaustive hearings into the land purchase, but no wrongdoing was uncovered.<ref name="Schneider90" />

Macomb, however, was unable to sell his land to settlers and developers fast enough to fund his massive purchase. He went bankrupt and was sentenced to [[debtor's prison]] six months after the purchase was made.<ref name="Schneider90" /> Macomb sold {{convert|2000000|acre|ha}} to Constable for 50,000 pounds (New York money), who six months later sold {{convert|1000000|acre|ha}} to banker [[Samuel Ward (banker)|Samuel Ward]] for 100,000 pounds.<ref name="Schneider90" />  Ward, in turn, sold {{convert|210000|acre|ha}} to [[James Greenleaf]], the son of a wealthy Bostonian merchant.<ref name="barlow3">Barlow, p. 3.</ref>

Constable subdivided his land into numerous plots. He found buyers worldwide for the property as well. The [[Sheriff of London|High Sheriff of London]], [[England]] purchased {{convert|26000|acre|ha}} for a [[shilling]] an acre.<ref name="Schneider90" />

Greenleaf had purchased a cargo of [[tea]] from [[Rhode Island]] merchant [[John Brown (Rhode Island politician)|John Brown]] (whose family funded and lent its name to [[Brown University]]). Greenleaf paid for the cargo partly in cash, and partly with the land he owned in New York. This {{convert|210000|acre|ha|adj=on}} became known as Brown's Tract.<ref name="barlow3" />

==Description of the area==
Macomb's Purchase was {{convert|3670715|acre|ha}} in size. The tract included much of northern New York along the [[St. Lawrence River]] and eastern [[Lake Ontario]] (including the [[Thousand Islands]]). The purchase was eventually divided into 10 large townships. From this purchase are derived the deeds for all the lands that are now included in [[Lewis County, New York|Lewis]], [[Jefferson County, New York|Jefferson]], and [[St. Lawrence County, New York|St. Lawrence]] counties, as well as portions of [[Franklin County, New York|Franklin]], [[Herkimer County, New York|Herkimer]], and [[Oswego County, New York|Oswego]] counties.

==Bibliography==
*Barlow, Jane A. ''Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks: The Story of the Lake, the Land, and the People.'' Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2004.
*Schneider, Paul. ''The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness.'' New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1997.

==See also==
* [[Castorland Company]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

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[[Category:Geography of New York (state)]]
[[Category:Land speculation in the United States]]
[[Category:1792 in New York (state)]]


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