The Minisink Angle was an angle created in a patent boundary during the 18th century, mostly within the present borders of
Orange
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and
Ulster
Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label=Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...
counties in southeastern
New York State
New York, officially the State of New York, is a U.S. state, state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the List of U.S. ...
. In creating this boundary adjustment, the proprietors of the 1704 Minisink Patent attempted to expand their patent boundary northeastward, at the expense of those with an interest in the adjacent 1694 Evans Patent, which had been resumed (reclaimed) by the
English
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* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national id ...
crown
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and was being subdivided by the colonial governors into grants to prospective settlers and investors. The lands of the Evans Patent had in turn originated as two large, contiguous tracts purchased by
Governor Thomas Dongan in 1684-85 from the Esopus
Indians
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
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* South Asia ...
and the Murderer's Creek tribe.
Litigation
The boundary disputes resulting from the Minisink proprietors' actions resulted in extensive
litigation
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
during the 18th century. These disputes were important in the context of colonial landholdings and were argued at the highest levels of colonial government. They also resulted in the amassing of a sizeable documentary record useful to later historians in exploring questions concerning the true boundaries of the Evans Patent (Dongan purchases) and in shedding light on various other historical matters.
There were actually two Minisink Angles: the first in 1711 and the second, bolder expansion in 1765, which included and enlarged upon the earlier one. The painfully contrived geographical logic used to justify these attempted land grabs led to the eventual demise of the Minisink proprietors' grander ambitions.
Documentation
The story of these machinations, set in the larger context of solving the mystery of the Evans Patent's original southwest bounds, is presented by Marc B. Fried,
[Fried, Marc B., ''Shawangunk Place-names: Indian, Dutch and English Geographical Names of the Shawangunk Mountain Region: Their Origin, Interpretation and Historical Evolution'', pp. 118-122] who provides extensive documentation from items in the NYS Archives and the archives of the
New-York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...
as well as from other sources, both published and archival.
See also
*
Minisink, New York
Minisink is a town located in southwestern Orange County, New York, United States, northeast of the New Jersey border between the Town of Greenville and the Town of Warwick. The population was 4,621 at the 2020 census. The town is located ne ...
*
Minisink Ford, New York
Minisink Ford is a hamlet on the Delaware River, fifteen miles northwest of Port Jervis. It is in the town of Highland, Sullivan County, New York, United States.
History
"Minisink" once referred to a vast area stretching all the way from Minisi ...
References
History of Orange County, New York
History of Ulster County, New York
A slightly revised and more focused discussion of the Minisink Angle and original 1684 purchase of the tract that became the Evans Patent is found in an article by Marc B. Fried on pages 77-82 of the winter 2015 edition of de Halve Maen (the quarterly Journal of the Holland Society of New York).