II. Pequot land, 1652-1674

The records in this series are related to land which formerly belonged to the Pequot tribe of Native Americans (located in what is now Connecticut and Rhode Island) which was granted to Harvard College by the General Court in the 1650s. A first tract of land, allocated on October 19, 1652, comprised 200 acres and a second, allocated on May 18, 1653, comprised 800 acres. These two grants were rendered null by a third allocation, made on May 19, 1658, which comprised “2,100 acres in Pequot Country.” Thomas Danforth, the Harvard Treasurer who was apparently responsible for negotiating these grants of land, was also awarded 300 acres of Pequot lands for his efforts.

This series contains manuscript copies of court decisions related to the land grants, including records related to disputes over whether or not the land in question was in the Massachusetts Bay Colony or the Connecticut Colony, and which colony had the right to allocate the land. Also included is a copy of the General Court's allocation of Pequot land to George Dennison and a copy of the court's decision to fine two men for trespassing on the College's Pequot lands. These records do not reveal the ultimate disposition of the Pequot lands belonging to Harvard, although Josiah Quincy wrote in The History of Harvard University that "the College obtained nothing by this gift."