In 1755, he was living in Derby, England, where he owned a large and valuable estate, with extensive forests in which were preserved a variety of game for the diversion of himself and numerous friends.
This circumstance, it is said, together with the onerous tax imposed by King George II on all gamesters, so incensed him that he at once resolved to emigrate to the American colonies, where he could be at liberty to enjoy the pleasures of the forest unrestrained by stringent laws or the caprice of titled nobility.
Proceeding westward from Albany, he at length reached Cherry Valley where he learned of the existence of a region of beautiful lakes and numerous mill-streams a few miles farther to the west.
He was desirous of securing a location that would resemble, so far as possible in its topography, his estate in England, and amid the unlimited diversity before him, finally selected a tract of 12,000 acres (4,900 ha), about two miles (3.2 km) southwest of Canadarago Lake, in the patent just granted the same year to David Schuyler (landowner) and others.
Other adventurers had already occupied claims in the vicinity, and it doubtless required no small degree of fortitude and courage to endure the privations and dangers incident to frontier life; and especially when we take into consideration the peculiar exigencies of the times.
At Liverpool he purchased a vessel fully manned, and with a considerable number of passengers on board (several families of which we shall have occasion to notice in this work), he sailed again for Philadelphia, where he arrived in the summer of 1758.
An estate, previously purchased, on the banks of the Schuylkill, was now occupied by the family, where they remained until the year 1764, when they removed to Dutchess County, in the colony of New York.
In 1774, John Tunnicliff purchased 600 acres (240 ha) of land in the northern portion of Schuyler's patent, commencing near the mouth of Fish Creek, and running northerly to the present line of Herkimer County, New York.