Hi Charlie, First, the Saratoga District did not include all of Saratoga County, but it also included part of present day Washington and Warren Counties. However, it included land in the Hudson River corridor from the Anthony Kill to Ft. Edward on both sides of the river. Settlement of the Hudson River corridor began in the 1680s and continued in fits and starts. The proprietors of the Saratoga Patent really kicked settlement into high gear following the French and Indian War, when they started recruiting settlers from Ireland and New England in 1763. In 1779 there were 567 taxpayers in the Saratoga District, plus 125 Loyalists pulled up stakes and had left to Canada. Back then they had more than 2.3 children per household. There were some 15 mills and other tradesmen living in the villages of Stillwater and Saratoga. When I did the math last year before presenting a paper to the 2006 Conference New York State History, I estimated that the population of the area was roughly equal to the population of Boston in 1777, i.e. roughly 8,000 people. It was not a wilderness. Stillwater was populated at a density equal to Brimingham Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania where the Battle of Brandywine was fought. The only difference is that Howe won and Burgoyne lost. Leslie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Tieman" <curious8@pacbell.net> To: <nysarato@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2007 2:34 PM Subject: Re: [NYSARATO] Will and Deed resources for Saratoga Co. > >> >>John Burgoyne claimed that he one of the reasons that he had lost the >>Battles of Saratoga because he had to fight in a forest wilderness. I am >>compiling the data to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Burgoyne's >>"forest wilderness" was a figment of his imagination. The Saratoga >>District >>was populated at a density, which was typical of rural America in the late >>18th Century, i.e. one farmstead per every 150 to 200 acres. >> > > Wow, that is a lot of land to be cleared and farmed by hand labor, > speaking as an ex-farmer. In Somerset Co, PA, 1790s tax lists show > total land and cleared land. The cleared acres are rarely even 10% of > the total. However, the area hadn't been settled for as long as had > Saratoga Co, NY. > > charlie > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NYSARATO-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message