USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. I > Part 13
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At the outbreak of the Revolution, Connolly naturally allied himself with the British and the latter used him as a missionary, so to speak, among the Indians. He accepted this commission on several conditions, one of them being that he was given the position of major-commandant, to hold forth at the post of Detroit, where he would accomplish a conjunction of the British troops and the friendly Indians. Before he had proceeded far, though, he was captured at Frederick Town, identified, his papers discovered, and he was thrown into jail at Philadelphia. He remained in captivity until October 25, 1780, when he was exchanged for an American officer.
He immediately became active again with the English and consequently was recaptured. IIe was paroled some time later on the condition that he go to England. This was in 1782.
Connolly then put in claim for the property he owned in Fincastle County and other places, also for the loss of personal effects during the war. In the winter of 1787-8 he came to Detroit from Quebec, and then went to Louisville, ostensibly to see about his confiscated estate, but really to form Kentucky into an independent government, with the assistance of Spanish interests. In this undertaking, however, he was very unsuccessful and he returned to British territory, dying at Montreal on January 30, 1813. In religious matters Con- nolly professed the Roman Catholic faith. (The detailed story of this in- teresting character of the Revolution is given in the pamphlet "John Connolly, a Tory of the Revolution," by Clarence M. Burton, published in 1909.)
RICHARD BERINGER LERNOULT
Upon the retirement of Major Bassett in 1774, Capt. Richard Beringer Lernoult came to the post as commandant. The Revolutionary War began with the battle of Lexington in April, 1775, and early in June, Sir Guy Carleton, governor-general of Canada, issued his proclamation establishing martial law in the country around the upper lakes. In November of that year Capt. Henry Hamilton, of the Fifteenth Regiment, arrived in Detroit with a commission as lieutenant-governor and became the virtual commandant, though Captain Ler- noult retained the title. Detroit then became the active base for fitting out Indian war parties. (See chapter on the Revolutionary War.)
When Hamilton ordered the execution of Jean Baptiste Contencineau and a negro woman in 1776, Captain Lernoult refused to act as hangman. Whether this had anything to do with his removal as commandant is not positively known, but he was ordered to Niagara. Some writers have stated that he was succeeded by Major De Peyster, but if so the latter occupied the position for a very short time, as the name of Captain Lord appears as commandant in the latter part of 1776. The name of Captain Montpasant has also been mentioned as commandant for a short period about this time.
Captain Lernoult stood high in the estimation of his superiors. When Hamilton's overbearing disposition got him into a controversy with some of the officers of the garrison, Governor Carleton wrote on September 24, 1777, to Lieut .- Col. Mason Bolton, commandant at Niagara, as follows :
"I understand that a disagreement has happened at Detroit between the officer who has commanded there in the absence of Captain Lernoult and the Vol. I-9
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Lieutenant-Governor, which must be attended with bad consequences to the King's service. I am to desire you will order Captain Lernoult to return and take command of the post, on whose judgment and discretion I ean thoroughly rely to put an end to these animosities. I make no doubt he will be aiding and assisting Mr. Hamilton in all things in his department, and in forwarding everything else which may tend to the public good."
The commandant referred to in Governor Carleton's letter was the Captain Lord already mentioned. He was an officer in the Eighteenth Regiment and had been commandant at one of the posts in the Illinois eountry before coming to Detroit. According to John Dodge, the disagreement was caused by Hamil- ton's treatment of Jonas Schindler, a silversmith, who had been tried for some offense and acquitted by a jury. Notwithstanding the verdict of acquittal, Hamilton ordered Mr. Schindler to be drummed out of town. When the drums entered the citadel, in order to reach the west gate, Captain Lord ordered them to be silenced, saying: "Mr. Hamilton may exereise what aets of cruelty and oppression he pleases in the town, but I shall suffer none in the eitadel : and I shall take care to make such proceedings known to some of the first men in England."
Captain Lernoult returned to Detroit in December, 1777, and during the winter he assisted Hamilton materially in organizing an expedition to move against Fort Pitt as soon as the weather would permit in the spring of 1778. When Hamilton left for Vincennes in October, 1778, Lernoult began the con- struction of the new fort which bore his name when it was completed. As Philip Dejean accompanied Hamilton to Vincennes, Detroit was left without a justice of the peace. Captain Lernoult appointed Thomas Williams, father of John R. Williams, Detroit's first mayor in 1824. Lernoult had no authority to make such an appointment, but he promptly notified the Quebec authorities of what he had done and in 1779 Mr. Williams was regularly commissioned by Governor HIaldimand, who had succeeded Sir Guy Carleton.
On August 28, 1779, Captain Lernoult was promoted to major, by order of Governor HIaldimand, who in the preceding April had expressed his pleasure "to hear of the good dispositions Captain Lernoult has made at Detroit." On the day after this promotion Haldimand ordered Lernoult to deliver the post at Detroit to Col. Arent Schuyler De Peyster and proceed to Niagara.
ARENT SCHIUTYLER DE PEYSTER
This Detroit commandant was born in New York City on June 27, 1736, and was the grandson of Col. Abraham Sehuyler. When nineteen years of age he entered the army as a member of the Eighth Regiment and served in various parts of North America under his uncle, Col. Peter Schuyler. Before assuming command at Detroit in October, 1779, he had been commandant at Michilimackinac and other posts. At the time he came to Detroit he held the rank of colonel, which he had won by honorable promotions through his valor as a soldier and ability as a commander. Ile was a man of pleasant disposi- tion, fond of congenial companionship, and he and his wife took an active part in the social life of Detroit during their stay at the post. By his taet and the adoption of conciliatory measures he kept the Indians loyal to the English cause, at the same time undertaking to keep on good terms with the French inhabitants.
In the summer of 1780, in order to improve the conditions at the post.
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De Peyster resolved to encourage the cultivation of ground. On the 13th of July he wrote to Governor Haldimand, asking him to reclaim the "ground commonly known as Hog Island and appropriate it to the above mentioned purpose." This island, it will be remembered, had been sold by the Indians to Lieutenant MeDongall in 1769, and De Peyster wrote: "As I wish to make Mrs. McDougall a reasonable compensation for what houses, etc., may be found upon the island, you will please appoint proper persons to appraise them and transmit to me their report." Mrs. McDougall was the daughter of Navarre, the royal notary of Detroit.
The buildings were appraised in September by Nathan Williams and J. B. Craite and were reported to be worth £334. Immediately after the appraise- ment De Peyster wrote to HIaldimand that he proposed to settle a Mr. Riddle and his family upon the island, reserving a part of the meadow for the grazing of the King's cattle. The island was later restored to the MeDougall heirs.
De Peyster often expressed his displeasure at the cruelties practiced by the Indians, and after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis in October, 1781, he urged them to bring in more prisoners and fewer scalps. In a communication to the Delaware Indians he said : "I am pleased when I see what you call live meat, because I can speak to it and get information. Scalps serve to show that you have seen the enemy, but they are of no use to me. I cannot speak with them."
Upon coming to Detroit, De Peyster followed the example of Lieutenant- Governor Hamilton and appropriated a portion of the rents received for the use of lands belonging to the crown, though subsequently he was called upon to account for the money thus taken for his private benefit. On November 21, 1782, he wrote a letter of protest, claiming that he had saved the govern- ment at least ten thousand pounds, and if he should be required to refund the rents it would be quite a burden upon him, as he had "lived up to them in support of the dignity of a British commandant." He was not accused of dishonesty, having merely followed a precedent, but the government insisted that the rents should be refunded.
Colonel De Peyster was something of a poet and while in Detroit he wrote a number of rhymes relating to local customs, amusements, etc. His wife was a native of Dumfries, Scotland, and after the Revolutionary War they went there to live. He then collected his verses and other writings and published them under the title of "Miscellanies of an Officer." At the time of the French Revolution, he took an active part in organizing and drilling the "Gentlemen Volunteers" of Dumfries, of which organization Robert Burns was a member. Burns wrote the following stanza, which was published in the Dumfries Journal:
"Who will not sing 'God save the King' "Shall hang as high 's the steeple ; "But while we sing 'God save the King,' "We'll ne'er forget the people."
To this De Peyster replied and for some time the two carried on a poetic correspondence in the columns of the Journal. This resulted in a lasting friend- ship between them. A day or two before Burns' death, De Peyster sent a messenger to inquire after the poet's health and Burns wrote the poem be- ginning :
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"My honour'd colonel, deep I feel "Your interest in the poet's weel ; "Ah! now sma' heart hae I to speel "The steep Parnassus, "Surrounded thus by bolus pill "And potion glasses."
This was the last poem Burns wrote. He died shortly afterward and was buried with military honors. Colonel De Peyster died at Dumfries on Novem- ber 2, 1832, in the ninety-seventh year of his age, and was buried in the same churchyard as Robert Burns. Althongh more of De Peyster's activities is written in the chapters dealing with the military history of Detroit, the fol- lowing poem of his composition is here given to illustrate the light-hearted style of the verse which flowed from his pen :
"To a Beautiful Young Lady, who had on One of those Abominable
Straw Caps or Bonnets in the Form of a Bee-Hive.
"While you persist that cap to wear, "Miss, let a friend contrive, "So that the bees, when swarming near, "Sha'n't take it for a hive. "For, lest you some precaution take, "I'll be in constant dread "That, through a mouth so sweet, they'd make "A lodgment in your head.
"Where such lond buzzing they would keep, "And so distraet your brain, "That you'd not get one wink of sleep "Till they buzzed ont again.
"Wherefore, to disappoint the bees, "What I'd advise is this : "Close your sweet lips, when, if you please, "I'll seal them with a kiss."
JEHU HAY
Jehu Hay, the last lientenant-governor of Detroit, was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, and in 1758 he enlisted in the Sixtieth American Regiment. In 1762 he was a lieutenant at Detroit and served here during the siege of the town by Pontiac the following year. In 1774 he was selected by General Haldimand to visit the Illinois country and report upon the conditions there. Two years later he was made deputy Iudian agent and major of the Detroit militia. He accompanied Hamilton to Vincennes in 1778, was captured there and taken to Virginia as a prisoner of war. On October 10, 1780, he was paroled to go to New York, and the following year he was exchanged.
In 1782 he was appointed lieutenant-governor of Detroit, but did not as- sume the duties of the position until more than a year later on aeconnt of objections on the part of Colonel De Peyster, who wrote to Governor Haldi- mand that he "did not wish to have anything to do with Mr. Hay." Later, in October, 1783, Colonel De Peyster was ordered to Niagara, but it was so late in the season that his departure was delayed until the next spring, and
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Hay did not arrive in Detroit until July 12, 1784. When he did arrive he found the powers of the office much restricted. By Governor Haldimand's orders, Sir William Johnson, before his death in 1774, had made the distribu- tion of goods to the Indians and his methods were now followed, although Hay protested that it was a usurpation of his functions. It has been stated that Hay paid a large sum of money for the appointment and was naturally dis- appointed when some of his perquisites were taken away from him. Hay was of disagreeable disposition and had few friends, his bearing being caused in part, however, by ill health. His death occurred at Detroit on August 2, 1785. His widow, whose maiden name was Marie Reaume, and to whom he was mar- ried January 22, 1748, died at Detroit, March 23, 1795.
In the summer of 1911 workmen employed in the excavation of a sewer on Jefferson Avenue unearthed a black walnut coffin containing a human skel- eton. C. M. Burton, city historiographer, made a careful investigation of the discovery and reached the conclusion that the skeleton was that of Jehu Hay. The fact that a black walnut coffin indicated a person of importance, as the common people upon interment were seldom given the luxury of even a pine coffin, also that the body was found at the site of the "governor's gardens," wherein history records that Hay was buried, led to the almost certain identifi- cation of the remains.
MAJ. WILLIAM ANCRUM
After the departure of Colonel De Peyster in the spring of 1784, Maj. William Ancrum came to Detroit as military commandant. The Revolutionary War was over and the duties Major Ancrum was required to perform were much less onerous than those of his immediate predecessors. Soon after his arrival the Moravian Chippewa Indians removed from the Clinton (Huron) River to the Cuyahoga in Ohio. Major Ancrum and John Askin purchased their improvements for $450 and some of the cabins were occupied by tenants for several years.
The one subject in which the British were at that time deeply interested was how to retain the friendship of the Indians. Major Ancrum exerted him- self in this direction and on May 8, 1786, wrote to Lieut .- Gov. Henry Hope as follows :
"The Indians, from everything I can learn, are very much attached to our interest, and very much incensed against the Americans, particularly against Clark and the other commissioners joined with him to treat with them, and they have been for that purpose at the mouth of the Great Miamis ever since the 1st of October last until very lately. Clark himself is gone, I understand, towards Post St. Vincent to treat with the Wabache Indians, and the other commissioners are returned home.
"I have lately heard that several parties of Indians of different nations have gone out to war against the frontiers of the American States. I do not think that the Indians will ever suffer the Americans to draw their boundary lines, survey or settle any part of their country."
Several of the British commandants were in the habit of subjecting the French inhabitants to all sorts of petty tyranny. Major Ancrum was one of these and the following story, as told by the late Judge Henry H. Riley, shows how he fared on one occasion :
"About sunrise one morning Jacques Peltier was bringing a bucket of
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water from the river, when Major Ancrum, the British officer commanding at the post, met him and in mere wantonness kicked the bucket over. Peltier's French blood arose at the insult and with a 'sacrege' he told him that if it were not for his red eoat he would give him a flogging. The major was a boxer; off went the red eoat and there, all alone, at it they went. The square-built, muscular Frenchman was too much for John Bull. Anerum got a sound thrashing, but as he put his eoat on again he said good-naturedly, 'Well, damn it, don't say anything about it,' and went away."
CAPT. THOMAS BENNETT
On July 6, 1779, Colonel De Peyster, then commandant at Miehilimaekinae, wrote to Lieut .- Col. Mason Bolton :
"On the 3rd inst. I received intelligence that the rebels were forming an expedition against Detroit from the Illinois, composed of 700 men, by the Wa- bash and Miami Indians, and 200 IIorse to pass by St. Joseph. One Linetot, a Canadian trader, commands the Horse. On receiving these accounts I im- mediately dispatched Lieutenant Bennett with 1 sergeant, 2 corporals, 1 drum- mer and 14 privates, with about 60 traders and canoe men and 200 Indians to take post at St. Joseph's to watch Mr. Linetot's motions and intereept him."
This is the first mention to be found of Lieutenant Bennett, who was later to become commandant at Detroit. On August 3, 1779, he held a eouneil with the Pottawatomi Indians at St. Joseph's and on the 15th of the same month wrote to Major Lernoult that he was ordered to return to Miehilimackinac and would be unable to render any assistance at Detroit. The following December he was promoted to the rank of captain and about two years later he attended two Indian eouneils at Detroit-one on December 10, 1781, and the other on the 26th of that month.
On September 22, 1784, he wrote to Colonel De Peyster, requesting him to use his influenee to secure for him the appointment as commandant at Detroit, but he did not come to the post until 1786 and then held the position for only a few weeks.
CAPT. ROBERT MATTHEWS
Captain Matthews was an officer in the Eighth (or King's) Regiment during the greater part of the Revolutionary war. He is first mentioned in the reports from Niagara in November, 1778, as having built a log house at that post for the use of the garrison. On May 20, 1779, Lieut .- Col. Mason Bolton wrote to General IIaldimand from Niagara:
"I have received an express from Detroit with several letters and other papers, which I am forwarding by Captain Matthews, who is well acquainted with all of our transactions here, has a thorough knowledge of these posts, and is very capable of furnishing your Excellency with many partieulars necessary for your information."
It seems that Captain Matthews made such a good impression upon General HIaldimand that he became the governor's private secretary. He is mentioned in a letter written by Adam Mabane to Haldimand January 5, 1786, as "Lieu- tenant-Governor of Detroit," but he had not yet received his appointment. Early in the spring of 1787 he left Montreal to take command at Detroit and his first letter to General Haldimand after taking charge of the post was dated August 3, 1787. Captain Matthews remained at Detroit a little over a year. A
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Major Wiseman is mentioned by Silas Farmer as a commandant in 1787, but if he held the position it was but for a very short interval.
MAJ. PATRICK MURRAY
On July 24, 1788, the Canadian Council created several court and land dis- tricts, one of which was the District of Hesse, on the east side of the Detroit River. The land board for this district was composed of Maj. Patrick Murray, William Dummer Powell, Alexander McKee, William Robertson and Alexander Grant. The minutes of the first meeting of the land board are signed : "Patrick Murray, Major in the Sixtieth Regiment, commanding Detroit, and first member of the land board."
Major Murray is mentioned by Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton in a com- munication dated April 26, 1778, as then being barrack master at Quebec. A change was made in the land board in 1790, when Murray was succeeded by Major Smith.
MAJ. JOHN SMITH
At a meeting of the land board of Hesse held on July 30, 1790, Maj. John Smith was chairman and his son, David William Smith, afterward Sir David Smith, was secretary. The former was a major in the Fifth Regiment and the son was an ensign in the same. Early in the year 1792 both were transferred to Niagara, leaving the post temporarily in the hands of Maj. William Claus until the arrival of the new commandant. Major Smith died at Fort Niagara in 1794.
COL. RICHARD ENGLAND
The last English commandant at Detroit was Col. Richard England, com- mander of the Twenty-fourth Regiment, who came in the early summer of 1792. Colonel England was an unusually large man and John A. MeClung, in his "Sketches of Western Adventure," says:
"After his return to England, the waggish Prince of Wales, who was him- self no pigmy, became desirous of seeing him. Colonel England was one day pointed out to him by Sheridan, as he was in the act of dismounting from his horse. The prince regarded him with marked attention for a few minutes and then, turning to Sheridan, said with a laugh, 'Colonel England! You should have said Great Britain.' "
Colonel England came to Detroit a few months after the defeat of General St. Clair, and the Indians were in a state of unrest, fearing another American invasion. For a year Detroit was visited by parties of Indians begging assist- ance from their English father. When Fort Miami was built at the foot of the Manmee Rapids in the spring of 1794, Colonel England sent nearly all his force and the greater part of his ordnance to check the advance of General . Wayne. After the battle of Fallen Timbers the troops returned to Detroit. On September 1, 1794, Colonel England made a return of all the ordnance stores at Detroit; showing the condition of the post.
On June 6, 1796, when it was understood that Detroit was soon to be turned over to the United States, the commandant wrote that certain papers had not been turned over to him by his predecessor, and asked if Major Smith had sent them to headquarters. About the same time Capt. George Salmon, of the Royal Artillery, made a requisition for 200 ammunition boxes, three laboratory chests and six packing cases, preparatory to the removal of the stores to the
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new post at Amherstburg. An estimate made by Colonel England for repairs to the fort, etc., amounted to £90, 10 s. 4d., but the repairs were not made. Just before evacuating the post, he ordered a board of survey to report on the condi- tion of the barrack furniture, which was later reported "for the most part not worth removing to the new post across the river." These reports may give the reader an inkling of the condition of the post of Detroit when British domination came to an end on July 11, 1796, the details of which are given in the next chapter.
During this period the laws of Canada governed the village. Courts were established and at least one election to parliament was held here. The first and only Canadian judge appointed by the Canadian Government for Detroit was William Dummer Powell, and, although he continued to be a Canadian justice during his life and filled that position with great honor, he was an American, having been born in Boston before the Revolution. There were three members of parliament from Detroit-D. W. Smith, who lived at Niagara, but was elected in Detroit and who was subsequently surveyor-general of Canada ; Alexander Grant, who was commonly called the commodore of the lakes, from his having charge of the British armed vessels on the upper lakes, and who lived at Grosse Pointe; and William Macomb, the ancestor of one branch of the Macomb family in Detroit and the uncle of Gen. Alexander Macomb.
CHAPTER IX UNDER THE UNITED STATES
TREATY OF 1783-HOW IT WAS NEGOTIATED-COLONIAL CLAIMS TO TERRITORY WEST OF THE OHIO RIVER-BOUNDARIES-PLANS PROPOSED-THE OHIO COMPANY -ORDINANCE OF 1787-THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY-BRITISH INTRIGUE-AMER- ICAN OCCUPATION-TERRITORY OF INDIANA-TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN-SECOND GRADE OF GOVERNMENT-CHANGES IN BOUNDARIES-TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS- STATE OF MICHIGAN-CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION-ADMISSION INTO THE UNION.
At the close of the French and Indian war, Great Britain came into posses- sion of all that part of the present United States east of the Mississippi River, except Florida and a small part of Louisiana. She was still in possession of all this territory at the beginning of the Revolution, but the capture of the British posts in the Illinois country by Gen. George Rogers Clark gave the American colonists a basis for claiming all the country tributary to the captured posts. Accounts of these events are given in other chapters of this history.
TREATY OF 1783
In all of the history of the United States there is no subject more interesting than that of the treaty which concluded the Revolutionary war and the manner in which it was negotiated. By this treaty Great Britain acknowledged the inde- pendence of her American colonies and the western boundary of the new republic was fixed at the Mississippi River. Channing's History of the United States says :
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