Macomb's Purchase
Macomb's Purchase was a near 4,000,000 square mile tract of northern New York State purchased from the state in 1791 by Alexander Macomb, a merchant turned land speculator who had become wealthy during the American Revolutionary War.
History
In 1792, a decade after the end of the American 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, allies of the British during the rebellion, to cede. Alexander Macomb, William Constable, and Daniel McCormick agreed to purchase nearly from the state at the extremely low price of 8 pence per acre. This was an enormous amount of land, about one-eighth of the entire state of New York, and included a large amount of land of the Oneida people, who'd sided with the rebels during the Revolution. Convinced something illegal must have occurred, the New York State Legislature held exhaustive hearings into the land purchase, but no wrongdoing was uncovered.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. Macomb sold to Constable for 50,000 pounds, who six months later sold to banker Samuel Ward for 100,000 pounds. Ward, in turn, sold to James Greenleaf, the son of a wealthy Boston merchant. Greenleaf had purchased a cargo of tea from Rhode Island merchant John Brown. Greenleaf paid for the cargo partly in cash, and partly with the land he owned in New York. This became known as Brown's Tract.
Constable further subdivided his land into numerous plots. He found buyers worldwide: the High Sheriff of London, England, purchased for a shilling an acre.