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Map of Phelps and Gorham Purchase 1802–1806. The Phelps and Gorham Purchase was the sale, in 1788, of a portion of a large tract of land in western New York State owned by the Seneca nation of the Iroquois Confederacy to a syndicate of land developers led by Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham.
1788 Apr 1 – Massachusetts agrees to sell all of its preemptive rights to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts. 1788 Jul 8 – Phelps and Gorham purchase from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) tribes land amounting to some 2,600,000 acres. 1788 Jul 25 – Colonel Hugh Maxwell begins survey of the first (false) preemption line.
In 1788, following the United States victory in the American Revolutionary War, Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham purchased all of Massachusetts's preemptive right to land in Western New York, some 6,000,000 acres (24,000 km 2; 9,400 sq mi) (the "Phelps and Gorham Purchase").
Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham then purchased the pre-emption right from Massachusetts, but failed to extinguish the Indian title to this tract and defaulted on their purchase in 1790. Robert Morris next purchased the pre-emption right from Massachusetts in 1791 for $333,333.34 (about $5.98 million today).
Iroquois lands circa 1720 A map showing the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, the Morris Reserve, and the Holland Purchase. Aboriginal title in New York refers to treaties, purchases, laws and litigation associated with land titles of aboriginal peoples of New York, in particular, to dispossession of those lands by actions of European Americans.
The town was part of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. The region was first settled around 1788. The town was formed in 1796 and was formerly known as "Sullivan." The town of Phelps is named after one of the original proprietors. The community was incorporated in 1855. [2]
The area around Pultneyville — a hamlet on the town's Lake Ontario shore – was a frequent meeting ground for Iroquois people. In 1788, the area became part of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, a 6,000,000-acre (24,000 km 2) tract of land sold to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
When the land did not sell as well as they had hoped, Phelps and Gorham were unable to come up with the funds to extinguish the Native American titles. They defaulted on their second payment in 1790. They lost the right to buy the pre-emptive rights to remaining lands of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase west of the Genesee River.