Don't get me started on old Mr. Wooden Teeth! He and his "Sons of Liberty" friends had the best racket going back then - claim a land stake, let some poor farmer and his family think they were settling new frontier land, and then come along two years later after all the hard work of clear-cutting, planting and building had been done, then demanded heavy rents or eviction of these people, who went further West and had this done to them again. The British were actually trying to stop this practice as unlawful (unless they got a share, which our Founding Fathers were not so keen on giving up - bitching about proper representation in Parliament instead). They found out about it during the Seven Years War. The ability to keep doing this to people was part of why the Revolution was fought. It was too lucrative of a practice to abandon without a fight.