Description
With financial support from William Gregg Jr (in return for a large plot of land), the largely Christian Stockbridge community of Wappinger and Mahican decided to send a delegation to London to defend their land rights. Subject to incursion from New York landlords and tenants, they reasonably decided that the colonial authorities did not have a vested interest in protecting them and sought instead the help of the Crown. Vaughan suggests that this was the “largest delegation of the colonial era in proportion to the population it represented.” Several of them were English speakers already and they presented a somewhat different sight to predecessors, entertaining attendants at balls (such as one in Watford, Hertfordshire, the general location on the map here) with both traditional dances and English jigs. Again, though, their being made a spectacle of was deeply disliked by the authorities.
Bibliographic sources
Vaughan, Alden T. Transatlantic Encounters. 177-179.