The British victory at the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City in 1759 turned the tide of the war. Four years later, the Treaty of Paris turned France's North American colonies over to the British. With no military threat remaining, the city's stockades were dismantled and it began to grow. St. Peter's applied for a charter from King George III; it was granted by Governor Henry Moore later that year and signed by the church leadership in 1769. After the Revolutionary War of the next decade led to American independence, the church was rechartered by the New York State Legislature.