USA > New York > Columbia County > History of Columbia County, New York. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 10
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ley. They found Noble's house transformed into a sort of fortification, with loop-holes for musketry, and garrisoned with some twenty armed men, nuder command of Captain Noble, who himself carried a pike, which he presented at the breast of the sheriff, demanding of which side he was; to which Yates replied that he was high-sheriff of the city and county of Albany. With that his prisoner, Whitney, was rescued from him, and he himself seized and confined in Noble's house, where he remained under guard from eleven A.M. until ten at night, when he was conveyed to Sheffield, and there remained in custody for twenty-four hours, at the end of which time he was released on a bail of one hundred and fifty pounds to appear for trial at the May term of court ; the offense charged against him being that of having dispossessed two persons, one a tenant of Van Rensselaer and the other of Livingston, but who claimed to hold under Massachusetts authority.
The namest of the sheriff's captors were Robert Noble, Thomas Willnie, Jacob Bacon, Joseph Jellit, Benjamin Lovejoy, Elysa Stodder, Benjamin Chittenton, Richard Vane, Talvenis Stevens, Wheat Herk, William S. Hallen- beek, Myhiel Hallenbeck, Hendrick A. Brosie, William J. Rees, Francis Bovie, Andris J. Rees, William J. Hallen- beck, Nathan Lovejoy, Hyman Spenser, Andrew Lovejoy, and Daniel Lovejoy. A proclamation ordering their ap- prehension was issued on the 2d of April, and on the 13th four of them, including Josiah Loomis, were arrested and lodged in jail ; their captain, Noble, and the remainder of the company having fled from their stronghold and retired to Sheffield before the approach of the capturing party, which was led by John and Henry Van Rensselaer and numbered between thirty and forty men. On the fol- lowing morning at daylight the party appeared at the house of William Rees, a tenant of Livingston, and one of the partisans of Noble. Finding that Rees was in the house, they demanded his surrender, which was refused, and im- mediately after he was shot dead by one of the Rensselaer party named Matthew Furlong.
The exact circumstances of this killing will never be known. The statement made by the Van Rensselaer party was that Rees was desired to open the door, which he re- fnsed to do, and at the same time swore that he would take their lives ; whereupon a board was broken from the door, and through this opening Rees attempted to fire on the party, but fortunately his gun missed fire. That the assail- ants then rushed into the honse, and Rees retreated to the garret, and thence out through the roof, and was in the very act of firing upon Furlong, when the latter in self- defense shot him through the body, and then surrendered himself to Justice Ten Broeck, who was also lieutenant of the company. It was further stated as being susceptible of proof, that Rees had repeatedly declared his determination to kill one at least, and particularly on the occasion of the seizure of Sheriff Yates.
Upon the other side, it was asserted that Rees had at- tempted no resistance, but had retreated by the garret and through the roof, and was running away when he received the death-wound ; that an inquest was held upon the
* Mr. Livingston wrote the governor, in February, 1755, advising him of the raising of a company of one hundred men "to Defend Taghkaoick against the French and Indians, but it is supposed it is in order to possess themselves of my Lands."
A military company had existed on Livingston manor since the early days of the Palatines. In 1715 it mustered sixty-cight, rank and file.
t Vide Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. iii. p. 778.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
body, which was found to be pierced in seven places, appar- ently by buckshot, and that the jury returned a verdict of willful murder.
A proclamation was at once issued by Governor Phips, of Massachusetts, offering a reward of one hundred pounds for the arrest and delivery of those engaged in the homicide; and under pretext of this authority, on the 6th of May fol- lowing, the sheriff of Hampshire county, supported by a posse of over one hundred men, many of them tenants of Livingston and Van Rensselaer, made a descent on Liv- ingston's iron-works at Ancram, capturing and carrying to prison in Massachusetts eight of Mr. Livingston's de- pendents who were present at the killing of Rees. Fur- long, however, was not among the number taken, and as, upon examination of these prisoners at Springfield, it was found that no complicity in the homicide could be proved against them, they were sent under guard to Sheffield, with orders that they be held there as hostages, to be released when, and not before, the authorities of New York should liberate the Massachusetts partisans and anti-renters then confined at Albany.
The killing of Recs seems to have intensified the bitter- ness of feeling on both sides, but more particularly among the opponents of Livingston and Van Rensselaer. A sur- veying-party, acting under Massachusetts authority, and protected by a body of about one hundred armed men, set out from Sheffield, and during the months of April and May, 1755, surveyed several townships west of the Tagh- kanic mountains, and within the two manors, but chicfly in that of Rensselaer. These "townships" each embraced a territory about five miles east and west, and seven miles north and south ; and within these a traet of one hundred acres was presented as a free gift to each tenant or other person who would accept and hold it against the propri- etors ;* the remainder of the lands being sold or released by the Massachusetts government to purchasers at two shillings an acre. The result was that these " townships" became peopled by settlers who cared nothing for Massa- chusetts Bay except for the protection which that govern- ment afforded them against the rightful authority of the province of New York ; but who were moved, first by a desire and determination to possess the land without ren- dering an equivalent, and next by an intense hatred of the proprietors, especially Livingston, whose life they freely threatened and placed in such jeopardy that he dared not travel through his estate, or even remain at his manor-house, without a guard of armed men.t
# Vide Documentary Hist. N. Y., vol. iii. p. 807, report William Smith and Robert R. Livingston.
+ " Mr. Robert Livingstone's Tennants being encouraged by such Proceedings to hold their Farms independent of him, was advised by his Lawyers to serve the most riotous of them with ejectments; and having the last term obtain'd judgment against them, The Sheriff of the County of Albany was ordered to turn them out of Possession and put him in. He accordingly, on the 25th of last month, went with some men he summoned to attend him to some houses of the ejected, and after some opposition effected it. .. . On the 29, one James Connor, of Sheffield, came to Mr. Livingston and informed him that two of Van Gelden's sons had been nt Sheffield, when he heard them say they would have Timothy Connor (head collier to Mr. Livingston) dead or alive; that they would burn his (Mr. Livingston's) house over his head; that they went from thenee
A very serious riot and resistance of authority took place on the 7th of May, 1757, by thirty-one anti-rent partisans, who were partially fortified in the house of Jona- than Darby at Taghkanie. In this affair two were killed and several wounded. In consequence of this, Gov. De Lancey issued his proclamation, June 8 of that year, declaring that certain persons residing in or near the eastern borders of the province had entered into a combination to dispossess Robert Livingston of his lands comprised in the manor of Livingston, etc., and ordering the apprehension of all the persons concerned in the riot at Darby's on the 7th of May. Under this authority a number of them were arrested, and remained incarcerated in prison at Albany for about two years. This had the effect to quell the disturbances, and for a considerable time afterwards the proprietors of the manors remained undisturbed.
It having become apparent to the home government that it was useless to expect an adjustment of the boundary by agreement between the two provinces, the matter was sub- mitted for final settlement to the Lords Commissioners of Trade, who, on the 25th of May, 1757, made known to the king, George II., their decision as follows :
" Upon a full consideration of this matter, and of the little proba- bility there is that the dispute can ever be determined by any amicable agreement between the two Govern'ts, it appeared to us that the only effectual method of putting an end to it and preventing those further mischiefs which may be expected to follow so long as the canse snbsists, would be by the interposition of your Maj'tys authority to settle such a line of partition as should, upon a consid- eration of the actual and ancient possession of both provinces with- out regard to the exorbitant claims of either, appear to be just and equitable. And we conceive it the more necessary to rest the deter- mination upon these principles, because We find, upon examining the Grant from King Charles the 2nd to the Duke of York in 1663-64, and the Royal Charter granted to the Massachusetts Bay in 169], that the description of the limits of those grants is so inexplicit and defective, that no conclusive Inference can be drawn from them with respect to the extent of territory originally intended to be granted by them. We have, therefore, had recourse to such papers on Record in our Office ns might shew the Actual aod Ancient possession of the Provinces in question ; and as it appeared by several of them, of dates almost ns old as the said Grant, that the Province of the Massachusetts Bay had in those times been understood to extend to within 20 miles of Hudson's River, and that many settlements had at different times been made so far to the Wostward by the people of
to Stockbridge to invite those Indians to assist them to execute this scene of Villany, and that if they could not prevail on them, they would go to the Mohawks and require assistance from them. Mr. Livingston further informs me that one Nicholas Koens came twenty miles to advise him to keep a good watch, for that Van Gelden's suns intended to come with the Stuckbridge Indians to murder him and burn all he had. . . . And to prevent their carrying into execution their threats, I applied to Lord Londoun for a sufficient Guard to be quartored at the House and Iron-Works of Mr. Livingston for the security of his family, when his Lordship informed me he had heard the story from the Mayor of Albany, who is Coroner of the county, who ho advised to make a requisition of such a gnard in Mr. Living- ston's name, and that he had left orders with General Abercrombie to send an officer and twenty-five men to Mr. Livingston's. Sir Wil- liam Johnson was with Lord Londonn at the Storys being told, who acquainted his Lordship that he would send immediately to the Stockbridge Indians. By all these precautions I trust Mr. Living- ston will have no further disturbance for the present, for I cannot flatter myself that these violations will not be attempted again if opportunitys offer for it, and his House left unguarded."- Vide Colo- nial Hist. State of N. Y., vol. vii. p. 206. Letter of Governor Hardy to the Lords of Trade, Dee. 22, 1756.
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HISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
that province; and as that evidence coincides with the general prin- ciple of the agreement between the province of New York and the Colony of Connecticut in 1683, which has received the Royal confir- mation : We are of opinion that a line to be drawn Nurtherly from a poiut on the South boundary line of the Massachusetts Bay twenty niles distant du9 East from Hudson's River to another point 20 miles distant due East from the said river on that line which divides the Provinces of New Hampshire and the Massachusetts Bay would be a just and equitable line of division between Your Maj'tys prov- inces of New York and the Massachusetts Bay.
" But as a doubt might arise whether such boundary could he es- tablished without the concurrence of the Massachusetts Bay, the soil aud Jurisdiction of it being granted by Royal Charter, We thought proper to eall before Us the Agents for the two provinces in question, and to communicate to them such our opinion and the authorities whereon it is founded. And the Agent for New York having signi- fied to us that he subunits the settlement of the said boundary as a matter entirely in your Mij'tys determination, and the Agent for the Massachusetts Bay having acquainted us that he, on behalf of his constituents, acquiesces in the above-describe.l line, We there- fore heg leave humbly to propose to your Majesty that you would be graciously pleased, by your order in Council, to establish the line herein before described as a final boundary of property and Jurisdic- tion between the provinces of N. York and the Massachusetts Bay."
This decision, however, did not meet the approval of the governor and council of New York, who expressed their dissatisfaction, and asked for certain alterations. Their request was duly considered, but being objected to by the agent of the Massachusetts government, was definitely and finally denied in a communication by the Lords of Trade to Governor De Lancey, dated Dee. 9, 1757 ; and a royal order in council afterwards established the line as deter- mined on by the Lords, and nearly the same as at present existing.
But even the king's decision and the order in council did not prove to be a final settlement of the boundary, though it was tacitly accepted by the two provinces as to jurisdic- tional conflicts between them. It was not until many years after that the line was established. In the spring of 1773, John Watts, William Smith, and Robert R. Livingston, commissioners on the part of New York, and John Han- cock, Joseph Hawley, and William Brattle, commissioners for Massachusetts, met at Hartford, where, on the 18th of May, they easily and amicably agreed on a partition line of jurisdiction, and this agreement received the approval of the governors of the two States. The line as agreed on was to commence at the northwest corner of " the oblong," and to run thence north 21° 10' 30" east to the north line of Massachusetts ; this eastern deflection being given to conform to the course of the Hudson river, from which it was intended to make the line distant, as nearly as might be, a distance of twenty miles at all points.
But the line, though agreed on, was not then run. Great trouble appears to have arisen in the execution of the work, on account of the baffling variation of the needle among the ore-beds of the Taghkanics,-and perhaps from other eauses,-and it was not until 1787 that the work was ac- complished. In that year Thomas Hutchins, the national geographer-general, David Rittenhouse, and the Rev. Dr. John Ewing, of Philadelphia, three gentlemen whom Congress had, at the request of the two States, appointed as commissioners for the purpose, succeeded, after great difficulty experienced from the capricious variation of the needle, in running and establishing the boundary between 6
New York and Massachusetts ; the line being substantially the same as that ordered by George the Second, thirty years before, and identical with the present boundary, ex- eepting the slight difference caused by the cession of Boston Corner to New York in 1855.
As has been before mentioned, the royal order in council of 1757, although it did not then close the question of boundary, yet virtually put an end to conflicts of jurisdic- tion between the provinces. And for a period of five years from the riots and arrests of 1757 there seems also to have been a season of quiet and freedom from outrage and law- lessness upon the manors. But in 1762 the clouds again gathered, and the malcontents, under lead of Josiah Loomis and others, again took the war-path. During this state of affairs Mr. Livingston wrote (March 22, 1762) to Gov- ernor Colden, " These Rioters have given me no trouble since the Proclamation issned in 1757, but now they intend to make their last bold push, which I think will be pre- vented by another proclamation coming out in time." The governor acted on the suggestion, and nine days later issued his proclamation, directed particularly against Josiah Loo- mis and Robert Miller, " who, in contempt of said Procla- mation [that of 1757], have lately riotonsly assembled within the said Manor, and do now threaten to dispossess the Tenants of the said Robert Livingston, and to seat and maintain themselves therein by Force and Violence ;" and he ordered and directed the sheriff to suppress all unlawful and riotous gatherings at all hazards, and with the whole force of the county. This prompt action seems to have had the desired effect, and four years more of comparative quiet succeeded.
But again, in 1766, the disturbances broke out with more violence than ever, this time under the leadership of Robert Noble, who assembled his band in such numbers that they were able to and did attack and defeat a strong posse under command of the sheriff of Albany while in performance of his duty. This outbreak caused the loss of several lives, and was immediately followed by a proclamation ordering the most stringent measures, and the apprehension of Robert Noble. In an attempt to effect the arrest of Noble the sheriff and his posse attacked the fortified house of Noble (in the present town of IHillsdale), but without being able to effect their object, and Noble escaped to Massachu- setts. He and Josiah Loomis had been principal ring- leaders in the anti-rent insurrection from the time of its first outbreak, but after this time Noble was no more heard of as an insurgent leader on the New York side of the line. His absence, however, had not the effect to intimidate or discourage the rioters. On the contrary, their demonstra- tions of violence increased to such a degree that the sheriff and magistrates, realizing that the civil power of the county was entirely unequal to the exigeney, notified Governor Moore of the fact, and invoked the assistance of the military arm. The governor responded by ordering detachments of the Forty-sixth Royal Infantry to proceed to the neighbor- hood of the disorders to support the sheriff and enforce the law.
The following, a copy of a letter written by Mr. Living- ston at that time, has reference to the state of affairs then existing on the two manors :
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IIISTORY OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
" MANOR LIVINGSTON, 9th July, 1766.
" SIR,-This minute arrived here Capt. Clarke of the 46th, with 120 of His Majesty's Troops, in order to assist the magistrstes and sheriff of the county to apprehend the Rioters in this County. And as it will he necessary yourself, the Sheriff, and Coll. Van Renslaer should be bere, I desire yon immediately to send an Express for them, that we may go on the service to-morrow. It would be agreeable to me if Capt. Schuyler* could come along. As it will be in our power to quell this dangerous Riot and Establish our authority in our respective manors, no time must be lost, nor no expense thought too much. In hopes of your speedy Complyance, I remain,
" Sir, your most llumble Servant, " ROBERT LIVINGSTON, JUN.
" To HENRY VAN RENSLAER, ESQ.,
" Claverack."
The presence of the military had the desired effect. The rioters seem to have had as wholesome a dread of bayonets as was displayed by their descendants on the same ground seventy-eight years later. The spirit of insurrection was immediately and (for the time) completely quelled.
On the 24th of February, 1767, Gov. Moore wrote to the Earl of Shelburne in reference to this auti-rent outbreak and its suppression as follows :
" There has been no dispute in the present ease between the Prov- inces in regard to any Territorial Jurisdiction, but the whole has taken its rise from a Scene of Litigation among private Persons. Sev- eral Inhabitants of the Massachusetts, encouraged by their country- men (as they acknowledge in some of their affidavits), passed over the line of Division, and seating themselves to the Westward of it, on the Lands belonging to Mr. Renslaer, aud acknowledged on all hands to be within this Province, began Settlements there without invitation from him, or even permission first obtained. Mr. Renslaer, unwil- ling to dispossess them, offered them Leases on the same Terms which he had granted to his Tenants, their near neighbors, which were re- fused; and notwithstanding they could not shew any Right in them- selves to the Lands, refused to acknowledge any in Mr. Renslaer, who upon such behavior endeavored to remove them by a due Course of Law. But as it never was the intention of these People to submitt their Title to a legal examination, every opposition was made to the sheriff when he attempted to do his duty, and matters were carried to such a length that they assembled armed in a great body and attacked and defeated him in the Execution of his office, altho' supported by the Posse of the County, and some lives were lost on both sides. After an action in justification of which so little could be said, many of the Delinquents thought proper to quitt this Province immediately, and sheltered themselves under the Protection of the Neighboring Govern- ments of Massachusetts and Connecticut ; ... but none of them were ever secured, although they appeared publiekly in the Provinces of the Massachusetts and Connecticut, neither have any of those com- plainants thought proper to return to their Homes and submit their Cause to be decided by the Laws of their Country. . . . It was with great concern I saw the progress of these disturbances, but was still in hopes that the civil Power alone would he able to prevail, and it was at the earnest request of the Magistrates of both those countiest that the Troops were sent to their assistance. . . . I should have been guilty of a neglect of my Duty bad I refused the aid required, es- pecially in the County of Albany, where the rebels had set the civil Power at Defiance, and had defeated the Sheriff at the head of the Posse of the County."
After their suppression, in 1766, the anti-rent partisans did not again rally (as such) for a period of twenty-five years. During the Revolution many scenes of violence were enacted within the limits of the county, but these had (or were supposed to have) their origin in party feel-
ing and in the hatred that existed between patriots and Tories, though doubtless the state of affairs then existing was, in many cases, made an excuse for the wreaking of private revenge. After the war, although robbery and other lawless actst were frequent enough, the old anti-rent spirit does not seem to have been actively manifested until about 1790, when combinations were again formed to wrest from the Livingston and Van Rensselaer proprietors portions of their lands. In 179I these combinations took the form of armed resistance to the execution of the laws, and resulted in the shooting of the sheriff of the county, Cornelius Hogeboom, Esq., while engaged in the perform- ance of his duty.
Few occurrences in the history of Columbia county have ever moved the feelings and sympathies of its inhabitants more deeply than this atrocious murder of Sheriff Iloge- boom The following account of the deplorable event ap- peared in the Albany Gazette of Oet. 31, 1791, being communicated to that journal by a gentleman of Kinder- hook :
" Cornelius Hogeboom, Esq., sheriff of the county of Columbia, was shot on his horse on Saturday, the 22d inst., at a place called Nobletown, in the town of Hillsdale, and on Monday his remains, attended by an uncommon number of respectable inhabitants from different parts of the county, were deposited in the family burial-place at Squampommock, where they testified an unfeigned sorrow for the loss of so valuable a citizen.
" Mr. Hogeboom had filled the office of sheriff for up- wards of two years ; and it was at a very distressing period that he entered on the duties of this office, whereby his unexampled benevolence to the distressed was fully evineed, at the same time that a just degree of promptitude was paid to the interests of his employers. Few men were capable of giving so universal satisfaction. He was a real patriot and a true friend.
" The murder of Sheriff Hogeboom is of such a barba- rous and inhuman nature, while at the same time it is so interesting, that we shall give to the public a short and circumstantial account of the horrid deed. A few days previous to the murder one of the sheriff's deputies was to have held a vendue at Nobletown by virtue of an execntion against one Arnold, but on the day of the intended sale the Nobletown people assembled, and with threats deterred the deputy from proceeding in the vendue, who thereupon adjourned it to the Saturday following, informing the peo- ple that he should acquaint the high sheriff with what had happened, which he accordingly did. The sheriff attended on Saturday, and after waiting till near four o'clock for his deputy, who had the execution, and he not arriving, and a number of people having assembled in a riotous manner, he coneluded to leave, and told the people that since his deputy had not come he would leave it to him to make such return as he thought best. He then, with his brother and
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