FROM THE ROYAL PROCLAMATION ON NORTH AMERICA,
7 OCTOBER 1763
Whereas we have taken into our royal consideration the extensive and valuable
acquisitions in America secured to our Crown by the late definitive treaty of peace concluded at Paris on
the 10th day of February last; and being desirous that all our loving subjects, as well of our kingdom as of
our colonies in America, may avail themselves, with all convenient speed, of the great benefits and
advantages which must accrue therefrom to their commerce, manufactures, and navigation; we have
thought fit, with the advice of our Privy Council, to issue this our Royal Proclamation, hereby to publish
and declare to all our loving subjects that we have, with the advice of our said Privy Council, granted our
letters patent under our Great Seal of Great Britain, to erect within the countries and islands ceded and
confirmed to us by said treaty, four distinct and separate governments, styled and called by the names of
Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Grenada, and limited and bounded as follows, viz.:
First, the Government of Quebec, bounded on the Labrador coast by the river St.
John, and from thence by a line drawn from the head of that river, through the lake St. John, to the south
end of the lake Nipissim; from whence the said line, crossing the river St. Lawrence and the lake
Champlain in 45 degrees of north latitude, passes along the high lands which divide the rivers that empty
themselves into the said river St. Lawrence from those which fall into the sea;...
Secondly, the Government of East Florida, bounded to the westward by the Gulf of
Mexico and the Apalachicola River; to the northward, by a line drawn from that part of the said river
where the Chatahoochee and Flint Rivers meet, to the source of the St. Mary's river, and by the course of
the said river to the Atlantic Ocean;...
Thirdly, the Government of West Florida, bounded to the ...westward, by the Lake
Pontchartrain, the lake Maurepas, and the river Mississippi; to the northward, by a line drawn due east
from that part of the river Mississippi which lies in 31 degrees north latitude, to the river Apalachicola or
Chatahoochee; and to the eastward, by the said river....
We have also, with the advice of our Privy Council aforesaid, annexed to our
Province of Georgia all the lands lying between the rivers Altamaha and St. Mary's.
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And whereas it is just and reasonable, and essential to our interest and the security
of our colonies, that the several nations or tribes of Indians with whom we are connected, and who live
under our protection, should not be molested or disturbed in the possession of such parts of our dominions
and territories as, not having been ceded to or purchased by us, are reserved to them, or any of them, as
their hunting-grounds; we do therefore, with the advice of our Privy Council, declare it to be our royal will
and pleasure, that no Governor or commander in chief, in any of our colonies of Quebec, East Florida, or
West Florida, do presume, upon any pretence whatever, to grant warrants
of survey, or pass any patents
for lands beyond the bounds of their respective governments, as described in their commissions; as also
that no Governor or commander in chief of our other colonies or plantations in America do presume for
the present, and until our further pleasure be known, to grant warrants
of survey or pass patents for any
lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or
northwest; or upon any lands whatever, which, not having been ceded to or purchased by us, as aforesaid,
are reserved to the said Indians, or any of them.
And we do further declare it to be our royal will and pleasure, for the present as
aforesaid, to reserve under our sovereignty, protection, and dominion, for the use of the said Indians, all
the land and territories not included within the limits of our said three new governments, or within the
limits of the territory granted to the Hudson’s Bay Company; as also all the land and territories lying to
the westward of the sources of the rivers which fall into the sea from the west and northwest as aforesaid;
and we do hereby strictly forbid, on pain of our displeasure, all our loving subjects from making any
purchases or settlements whatever, or taking possession of any of the lands above reserved, without our
special leave and license for that purpose first obtained.
And we do further strictly enjoin and require all persons whatever, who have either
willfully or inadvertently seated themselves upon any lands within the countries above described, or upon
any other lands which, not having been ceded to or purchased by us, are still reserved to the said Indians
as aforesaid, forthwith to remove themselves from such settlements.
And whereas great frauds and abuses have been committed in the purchasing lands
of the Indians, to the great prejudice of our interests, and to the great dissatisfaction of the said Indians; in
order, therefore, to prevent such irregularities for the future, and to the end that the Indians may be
convinced of our justice and determined resolution to remove all reasonable cause of discontent, we do,
with the advice of our Privy Council, strictly enjoin and require, that no private person do presume to
make any purchase from the said Indians of any lands reserved to the said Indians within those parts of
our colonies where we have thought proper to allow settlement; but that if at any time any of the said
Indians should be inclined to dispose of the said lands, the same shall be purchased only for us, in our
name, at some public meeting or assembly of the said Indians, to be held for that purpose by the Governor
or commander in chief of our colony respectively within which they shall lie: and in case they shall lie
within the limits of any proprietary government, they shall be purchased only for the use and in the name
of such proprietaries, conformable to such directions and instructions as we or they shall think proper to
give for that purpose. And we do, by the advice of our Privy Council, declare and enjoin, that the trade
with the said Indians shall be free and open to all our subjects whatever, provided that every person who
may incline to trade with the said Indians do take out a license for carrying on such trade, from the
Governor or commander in chief of any of our colonies respectively where such person shall reside, and
also give security to observe such regulations as we shall at any time think fit, by ourselves or
commissaries to be appointed for this purpose, to direct and appoint for the benefit of the said trade. And
we do hereby authorize, enjoin, and require the Governors and commanders in chief of all our colonies
respectively, as well those under our immediate government as those under the government and direction
of proprietaries, to grant such licenses without fee or reward, taking especial care to insert therein a
condition that such license shall be void, and the security forfeited, in case the person to whom the same is
granted shall refuse or neglect to observe such regulations as we shall think proper to prescribe as
aforesaid.
And we do further expressly enjoin and require all officers whatever, as well
military as those employed in the management and direction of Indian affairs within the territories
reserved as aforesaid, for the use of the said Indians, to seize and apprehend all persons whatever who,
standing charged with treasons, misprisions of treason, murders, or other felonies or misdemeanors, shall
fly from justice and take refuge in the said territory, and to send them under a proper guard to the colony
where the crime was committed of which they shall stand accused, in order to take their trial for the
same.
Given at our Court at St. James's, the 7th day of October 1763, in the third year of
our reign.
Source: Samuel Eliot Morison, ed., Sources and Documents Illustrating the
American Revolution, 1764-1788 and the Formation of the Federal Constitution 2nd ed., Oxford,
1965.