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Trent, along with 22 other fur traders formed a group in 1763 that was known as the Indian Company. Because of the losses the Indian Company members experienced in the French and Indian War, they were seeking land grants.<ref name=":08">{{Cite web|title=Trent, William, 1715–1787? - Social Networks and Archival Context|url=https://snaccooperative.org/view/46643989#biography|website=snaccooperative.org|access-date=2020-03-31}}</ref> During this time, Trent's longtime friend and previous business partner, George Croghan, decided to embark on a journey to London and present the Indian Company's case. While Croghan was in England asking for reparations on behalf of the Indian Company, Trent immediately began concerning himself with new business endeavors in hopes to regain the fortune he lost during the French and Indian War. In December of 1763, Trent began a partnership with John Baynton and Samuel Wharton. Samuel, Baynton, and Wharton were all equally interested in land speculation of 1,700 acres of Cumberland County land.<ref name=":24">{{Cite book|last=Slick|first=Sewell Elias|title=William Trent and the West|publisher=Wennawoods Publishing|year=2001|location=Lewisburg, Pennsylvania|pages=128–175}}</ref>
Despite Croghan's and William Trent's multiple efforts to attain restitution for the Indian Company's members, including efforts to establish a new [[Vandalia (colony)|royal colony on their land claims]], they were unable to secure reparations. After several years of continuous efforts to regain his former fortune, in 1783 Trent's health began to fail him. That summer of 1783, Trent and fellow business partner, Samuel Wharton found that forgotten bonds and mortgages were soon to be overdue. Since the French and Indian War, Trent was never able to acquire lost lands or seem to get ahead of his debt collectors. Trent was able to survive for several more years in poor health until his final days in spring of 1787.<ref name=":24" />
Trent's death resulted in his heirs and fellow Indian Company members continuing to fight for reparations under the new [[Constitution of the United States]]. However, despite the case being brought to the Supreme Court in 1792, the "William Grayson & others ''vs.'' The Commonwealth of Virginia" case was lost.<ref name=":24" />
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