USA > New York > Warren County > History of Warren County [N.Y.] with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
This was the first visit of Mr. Wing to the scenes of his subsequent labors, and it is to be regretted that the journal must be abruptly concluded with the above entry. The town plot alluded to as such by him is elsewhere described as the originally proposed site of the village.
The Wings of this country, as far as known, are descended from John Wing, who settled in Sandwich, where, as appears by the records, he had three sons, Daniel, John and Stephen. These accepted the Quaker beliefs, and their de- scendants became scattered through different parts of the country. Daniel was the eldest son and had a son of the same name, who was born November 28th, 1664, and married Deborah Dillingham, of Sandwich, in 1686. His oldest son, Edward, was born July 10th, 1687. He had three wives, the first, Desire Smith, November, 1713, of Dartmouth, whither he removed; second, Sarah Tucker, June Ist, 1714; third, Patience Ellis, October, 1728. Abraham Wing, the pioneer of Warren county, was the son of Edward and Sarah (Tucker) Wing, and was born at Dartmouth, Bristol county, province of Massa- chusetts Bay, on the 4th of August, 1721. Sometime previous to 1745 he re- moved to "The Oblong," Duchess county, the precise date not being now known. He married Anstis Wood, supposed to be the daughter of William Wood, of Dartmouth. Following is the family record : -
Phebe, b. 5th of 3d month, 1742, m. Nehemiah Merritt, jr.
Sarah, b. 7th of 12th month, 1743, m. Ichabod Merritt.
Hannah, b. 28th of 12th month, 1745, m. Daniel Merritt.
brothers.
123
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
Benj., b. 18th of 9th month, 1748, m. Thankful Lockwood, d. 19th June, 1824. Deborah, b. 6th of 7th month, 1750, m. Daniel Jones.
Patience, b. 6th of 9th month, 1751, m. Phineas Babcock.
Content, b. 11th of 4th month, 1755, m. Jacob Hicks. § James Higson.
Abraham, b. 29th of 6th month, 1757, m. Mary McKie.
Mary, b. 9th of 11th month, 1760, m. Andrew Lewis.
On the 29th of May, 1762, the patent of Queensbury was granted to twenty- three petitioners, as will presently be further alluded to ; in the month of June following Abraham Wing, of the Oblong, purchased of several of the patentees for a nominal sum all their right, title and interest in this grant. In August following the official survey of the town was made by Zaccheus Towner, as mentioned in Mr. Wing's diary, divided into sections; these were distributed by lot at a meeting of the proprietors, and subsequently deeds of partition were executed, giving each one his title. In this allotment Abraham Wing came into possession of two sections, upon which the principal portion of the village of Glens FallsI is built. He was subsequently granted by the proprie- tors as a free gift, a lot of ten acres of land on the left bank of the river, em- bracing the valuable water privileges, in consideration of his erecting a saw-mill and grist-mill at that point. In 1765 he removed with his dependents and laborers and began a settlement ; three log houses were put up that fall and winter, one of which stood back of the old McDonald mansion, near the rail- road; the second at the old Buckbee place on the Sandy Hill road, and the third near Duncan McGregor's residence. In the spring of 1766 their families were removed hither and in May the first town meeting was held, at which Mr. Wing was elected supervisor, a position which he held until after the close of the Revolutionary War. During that period he was the foremost man in the little community -" the merchant, the lawyer, the minister and the inn- keeper united in one."2 He, with his sons-in-law and others, suffered heavy losses during the war, for which he was never adequately remunerated. He was, like most of the early settlers in this region, a member of the society, or sect, of Friends (Quakers) and consistently followed and adhered to this sim- ple religious faith to the end of his life. His remains repose, with those of many other early settlers, in the burial ground by the Half-way Brook, where the old Quaker church stood.
The granting of the Queensbury patent was preceded by various preliminary applications dating from January, 1760, ending with the application dated March 31st, 1762, by Daniel Prindle, Elihu Marsh, Thomas Hungerford, Samuel Hungerford, John Buck, Daniel Tryon, Amos Leach, Benjamin Seelye,
1 In this work the present customary spelling of the name of the village will be followed, unless in case of quotations from old documents. The name has passed through several phases of orthography, such as "Glenns Falls," " Glenn's Falls," "Glen's Falls," and the present better style.
2 HOLDEN'S History of Queensbury.
124
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
Anthony Wanser, Jonathan Weeks, John Page, Elihu Marsh, jr., Abraham Wanz(s)er, Benjamin Elliot, John Seeley, Aaron Prindle, Thomas Northrop, Ezekiel Pain, Jedediah Graves, David Cummins, Ebenezer Preston, David Preston and Joshua Agard for twenty-three thousand acres of land.1 This application was made to the provincial council of New York, presided over by the Hon. Cadwallader Colden, lieutenant-governor of the province, for land lying on the Hudson River west of lands then recently surveyed for James Bradshaw,2 and others, called Bradshaw's Township, and named in the patent the Township of Kingsbury. These twenty-three thousand acres embraced a territory six miles square, besides allowances for numerous ponds, for high- ways to be constructed and a due regard for "the profitable and unprofitable acres," so that the actual area of the township probably reached thirty thou- sand acres or more.
The application having been favorably received, the patent was duly granted on the 20th of May, 1762, it being in the second year of the reign of George III; the name " Queensbury " was given in honor of his then lately wedded consort. The grant was then included in the county of Albany, the undefined boundaries of which embraced all the northern part of this State and nearly all the western part of the State of Vermont. This grant was made subject to all the royal quitrent provisos, as also the annual payment of two shillings and six pence sterling for every hundred acres therein. It reserved to the crown all mines of gold and silver, and also all white or other pine trees fit for masts, of the growth of twenty-four inches diameter and upwards at twelve inches from the earth. It is very doubtful whether the crown ever profited by these reservations, although the entire township was covered with a heavy growth of timber, the principal part of which was valuable yellow pine of mag- nificent dimensions. Among the conditions of the patent was the stipulation for the erection of the town into a body politic, providing for the annual elec- tion by the inhabitants of one supervisor, two assessors, one treasurer, two overseers of the highway, two overseers of the poor, one collector and four constables, the election to take place on the first Tuesday in May, at the most public place in the town, which was forever thereafter to be the place for such elections. The patent was also to be vacated in case three of every one thou- sand acres should not be planted or placed under cultivation within three years from the termination of the war then in progress between France and England.
Following is given a copy of the original patent of the town of Queensbury, which was carefully compared with the transcript on file in the office of the Secretary of State, for Dr. Holden : -
1 To prevent monopoly of the then wild land in the province, His Majesty had restricted individual grants of land to one thousand acres to each bona fide grantee.
2 James Bradshaw was a resident of New Milford, Litchfield county, Conn., which place was also the home of the greater portion of the applicants for the Queensbury patent, and contiguous to Quaker Hill, Beekman precinct, and the Oblong, whence most of the early settlers of Queensbury emigrated.
125
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
Copy of the original patent of the town of Queensbury.
Compared and corrected with the copy on file in the Secretary of State's office at Albany.
"GEORGE the Third, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland King, defender of the faith and so forth. To all to whom these presents shall come GREETING. WHEREAS our loving subjects Daniel Prindle, Elihu Marsh, Thomas Hungerford, Samuel Hungerford, John Buck, Daniel Tryon, Amos Leach, Benjamin Seeley, Anthony Wanser, Jonathan Weeks, John Page, Elihu Marsh, Junior, Abraham Wanzer, Benjamin Elliot, John Seeley, Aaron Prindle, Thomas Northorp, Ezekiel Pain, Jedediah Graves, David Preston, and Joshua Agard, did by their humble petition presented unto our trusty and well beloved Cadwallader Colden Esquire, our Lieutenant Governor and Com- mander-in-chief of our Province of New York and the territories thereon de- pending, in America in council on the thirty-first day of March now last past humbly pray our Letters Patent granting to each of the said Petitioners re- spectively and to their respective heirs, the quantity of One Thousand Acres of a certain Tract of Land in the said Province vested in the Crown that had been surveyed and laid out for the said Daniel Prindle and his associates above named of the contents of six miles square adjoining to the lands intended to be granted to James Bradshaw and others between Fort Edward and Lake George under the Quit Rent provisoes, Limitations and restrictions directed and pre- scribed by Our Royal instructions together with the like privileges of a Town- ship (as were lately granted to Isaac Sawyer and others) by the name of Queensbury Township. WHICH PETITION having been then and there read and considered of our said council did afterwards on the fifteenth day of April now last past humbly advise our said Lieutenant Governor and Com- mander-in-Chief to grant the prayer thereof. WHEREFORE in obedience to our said Royal Instructions our commissioners appointed for the setting out all lands to be granted within our said province have set out for the petitioners above named, ALL that certain Tract or Parcel of Land situate lying and be- ing in the county of Albany on the north side of Hudson's river between Ft. Edward and Lake George BEGINNING at the north-west corner of a certain Tract of land surveyed for James Bradshaw and his associates and runs from the said north-west corner, north twenty-seven chains, then west five hundred and thirty-five chains, then south five hundred and thirty-six chains to Hud- · son's river, then down the stream of said River as it runs to the west Bounds of said Tract surveyed for James Bradshaw and his associates, then along the said West Bounds North to the place where this tract first began con- taining after deducting for sundry ponds of water lying within the above mentioned Bounds Twenty-three thousand acres of land and the usual allowances for Highways. AND in setting out the said Tract of Land the said commissioners have had regard to the profitable and unprofitable acres, and have taken care that the length thereof does not extend along the Banks
126
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
of any other River otherwise than is conformable to our said Royal Instruc- tions for that purpose as by a certificate thereof under their hand bearing Date the Twenty-first Day of April now last past and entered on Record in our Sec- retary's Office in our City of New York may more fully appear. Which said Tract of Land set out as aforesaid, according to our said Royal Instructions, We being willing to grant to the said petitioners their heirs and assigns forever, with the several privileges and powers hereinafter mentioned. Know Ye that of our especial grace certain knowledge and meer motion We have given granted ratified and confirmed and DO by these presents for us our Heirs and successors give grant retify and confirm unto them the said Daniel Prindle, Elihu Marsh, Thomas Hungerford, Samuel Hungerford, John Buck, Daniel Tryon, Amos Leach, Benjamin Seeley, Anthony Wanser, Jonathan Weeks, John Page, Elihu Marsh Junior, Abraham Wanser, Benjamin Elliot, John See- ley, Aaron Prindle, Thomas Northorp, Ezekiel Pain, Jedediah Graves, David Cummins, Ebenezer Preston, Daniel Preston and Joshua Agard their Heirs and Assignees for ever ALL THAT the aforesaid Tract or parcel of Land set out abutted bounded and described in Manner and Form as above mentioned to- gether with all and singular the Tenements, Hereditaments Emoluments and Appurtenances thereunto belonging or appertaining, and also all our Estate, Right, Title, Interest, Possession, Claim and Demand Whatsoever of in and to the same Lands and Premises and every part and parcel thereof and the Re- version and Reversions Remainder and Remainders, Rents, Issues and profits thereof and of every part and parcel thereof, EXCEPT and always reserved out of this our present GRANT unto us our Heirs and Successors for ever all mines of Gold and Silver and also all White and other sorts of Pine Trees fit for masts of the Growth of Twenty-four Inches Diameter and upwards at twelve Inches from the Earth, for Masts for the Royal Navy of us our Heirs and Suc- cessors TO HAVE AND TO HOLD one full and equal Three and Twentieth part (the whole into Twenty-three equal parts to be divided) of the said Tract or parcel of Land, Tenements, Hereditaments and Premises by these Presents granted, ratified and confirmed, and every part and parcel thereof with their and every of their appurtenances, (except as is herein before excepted) unto each of them our Grantees above mentioned their Heirs and Assignees respectively. TO their only proper and separate use and Behoof respectively for ever as Ten- ants in common and not as joint tenants. TO BE HOLDEN of us, and Heirs and Successors in fee and common socage as of our Manor of East Greenwich in our County of Kent within our Kingdom of Great Britain, YIELDING, rendering, and paying therefore yearly and every year forever unto us our Heirs and Successors at our Custom House in our City of New York, unto our or their Collector or Receiver General therefore the time being on the Feast of the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary commonly called Lady day the yearly rent of two shillings and six pence Sterling for each and
127
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
every Hundred Acres of the above granted lands and so in proportion for any less in quantity thereof saving and except for such part of the said Lands al- lowed for Highways as above mentioned in Lieu and stead of all other Rents, Services, Dues, Duties, and Demands whatsoever for the hereby granted Land and Premises, or any part thereof AND WE DO of our especial Grace cer- tain knowledge and meer motion, create, erect and constitute the said Tract or parcel of Land hereby granted and every part and parcel thereof a Township for ever hereafter to be, continue, and remain and by the name of QUEENS- BURY Township for ever hereafter to be called and known AND for the better and more easily carrying on and managing the public affairs and Business of the said Township our Royal will and pleasure is and we do hereby for us our Heirs and Successors give and grant to the inhabitants of the said Township all the Powers, Authority, Privileges and Advantages heretofore given and granted to or legally enjoyed by all, any or either our other Township within our said Province AND we also ordain and establish that there shall be forever hereafter in the said Township One Supervisor, Two Assessors, One Treasurer, Two Overseers of the Highways, Two Overseers of the Poor, One Collector and four Constables elected and chosen out of the Inhabitants of the said Town- ship yearly and every year on the first Tuesday in May at the most publick place in the said Township, by the majority of Freeholders thereof.
[End of contents of first piece of parchment.]
"THEN and there met and assembled for that purpose, hereby declaring that wheresoever the first Election in the said Township shall be held the future Elections shall forever thereafter be held in the same place as near as may be, and giving and Granting unto the said officers so chosen, power and authority to exercise their said several and respective offices, during one whole year from such election, and until others are legally chosen and elected in their room and stead, as fully and amply as any the like officers have or legally may use or exercise their offices in our said Province. AND in case any or either of the said officers of the said Township should die or remove from the said Township before the Time of their Annual service shall be expired or refuse to act in the Offices for which they shall respectively be chosen, then our Royal Will and pleasure further is and we do hereby direct ordain and require the Freeholders of the said Township to meet at the place where the annual election shall be held for the said Township and chuse other or others of the said Inhabitants of the said Township in the place or stead of him or them so dying remov- ing or refusing to act within Forty days next after such contingency. AND to prevent any undue election in this case, We do hereby ordain and require, That upon every vacancy in the office of Supervisor, the Assessors, and in either of the other offices, the Supervisor of the said Township shall within ten days next after any such vacancy first happens appoint the Day for such Election and give public Notice thereof in Writing under his or their
128
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
Hands by affixing such Notice on the Church Door, or other most public place in the said Township, at the least Ten days before the Day appointed for such Election, and in Default thereof we do hereby require the Officer or Officers of the said Township or the Survivor of them, who in the order they are herein- before mentioned shall next succeed him or them so making Default, within ten days next after such default to appoint the day for such election, and give notice thereof as aforesaid, HEREBY Giving and Granting that such person or persons as shall be so chosen by the majority of such of the Freeholders of the said township as shall meet in manner hereby directed, shall have, hold, exer- cise and enjoy the Office or Offices, to which he or they shall be so elected and chosen from the Time of such Election until the first Tuesday in May then next following, and until other or others be legally chosen in his or their place and stead as fully as the person or persons in whose place he or they shall be chosen might or could have done by virtue of these presents. AND WE do hereby will and direct that this method shall for ever hereafter, be used for the filling up all vacancies that shall happen in any or either of the said Offices between the annual Elections above directed, PROVIDED always and upon condition nevertheless that if our said Grantees, their heirs or assigns or some or one of them shall not within three years next after the conclusion of our present war with France settle on the said Tract of Land hereby granted so many families as shall amount to one Family for every thousand acres thereof OR if they our said Grantees, or one of them, their or one of their heirs, or assigns shall not also within three years to be computed as aforesaid plant and effectually cultivate at the least three acres for every fifty acres of such of the hereby granted Lands as are capable of cultivation, OR if they our said Grantees or any of them or any of their heirs or assigns, or any other person or persons by their or any of their previty consent or procurement, shall fell, cut down or otherwise destroy any of the Pine Trees by these Presents reserved to us our heirs and successors or hereby intended so to be, without the Royal license of us, our heirs or successors for so doing first had and obtained, that then and in any of these cases this our present Grant and every Thing therein contained shall cease and be absolutely void, and the Lands and Premises hereby granted shall revert to and vest in us, our heirs and successors, as if this our pres- ent Grant had not been made, anything hereinbefore contained to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding PROVIDED further and upon condition also nevertheless, and we do hereby for us, our heirs and successors direct and appoint that this our present Grant shall be registered and entered on Record within six months from the' date thereof in our Secretary's Office in our City of New York in our said Province in one of the Books of Patents there remaining and that a Docquet thereof shall be also entered in our Auditor's Office there for our said Province and that in default thereof this our present Grant shall be void, and of none effect any Thing before in these Presents contained to the
129
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding. AND WE DO moreover of our Grace certain knowledge and meer motion consent and agree that this our present Grant being registered, recorded and a Docquet thereof made as before directed and appointed shall be good and effectual in the Law to all Intents, Constructions and Purposes whatsoever against us, our heirs and Successors notwithstanding any Misreciting, Misbounding, Misnaming or other Imperfec- tion or Omission of, in, or in any wise concerning the above granted or hereby mentioned or intended to be granted Lands, Tenements, hereditaments and premises or any part thereof. IN TESTIMONY whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made patent and the Great Seal of our said Province to be hereunto affixed. WITNESS our said trusty and well beloved Cadwallader Colden, Esquire, our Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of our Province of New-York and the Territories depending thereon in America. At our Fort in our City of New-York the Twentieth day of May in the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven hundred and Sixty-two and of our Reign the second. (First Skin Line 31 the word of interlined line 47 the words any or wrote on an erazure and Line 49 the word the interlined.
"CLARKE."1
Endorsements on the back of the parchment skin No. I :
" Secretary's Office 25th May, 1762, The Within Letters Patent are Re- corded in Lib Patents No. 13, Pages 478 to 483."
"Geo. Banyar D Sec'y"
"New York Auditor Generals Office Ist June, 1762. The within Letters Patent to Daniel Prindle and others are Docqueted in this office."
"Geo Banyar Dept Auditor"
Endorsement on the back of parchment skin No. 2.
20th May, 1762. " Letters Patent.
"To Daniel Prindle, and others for 23000 acres of land in the county of Albany."
Attached to these parchments, was the great seal of the province, a fac-simile of which may be found in the fourth vol. of the Dod'y Hist. of N. Y.
The fact that this patent was granted on the 20th of May and that at a proprietors' meeting held on the 18th of June following the ownership of the patent had nearly all changed hands, would indicate that such a transfer had been contemplated by the original applicants, who, being men of influence, lent their names to secure the grant for the benefit of those whose purpose it was to become actual settlers. At this last mentioned meeting a vote was passed authorizing Abraham Wing to keep and preserve the certificate and patent of the township for the benefit of the proprietors; these are still in the possession of his descendants.
1 One of the members of the council.
9
130
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
The following names are recorded as proprietors at this meeting: John Dobson, Nehemiah Merritt, Abraham Wing, Daniel Merritt, John Lawrence, Henry Haydock, Wm. Smith, Benjamin Ferriss, John Burling, John Akin, Thomas Dobson, Reed Ferriss, George Bowne, Ichabod Merritt, Elihu Marsh, jr., John Farrington, Haydock Bowne, Nathaniel Hazard, John Rapelje, Sam- uel Bowne, Benj'n Seeley, John Carmon, Jacob Haviland, Samuel Hungerford, Joseph Pursell, John Hadok, Edward Burling, Elihu Marsh, Wm. Haviland, Nathaniel Stevenson, Isaac Mann.
Thirty-one names in all, and of the entire number not over half a dozen of them who ever became actual residents, although from time to time their de- scendants appear among the records of the township.
Another meeting of proprietors was held on the 10th of July following at the shop of Nehemiah and Daniel Merritt (sons-in-law of Mr. Wing) on the Oblong, at which a vote was passed that the town lots in said township be drawn by lot on the 24th inst., at the same place; that Daniel Case and Thom- as Aiken should perform the drawing and that John Gurney should make the proper record of such distribution. The survey by Zaccheus Towner, "of New Fairfield, Connecticut, surveyor for the proprietors," was begun on the 29th of August, 1762, and finished before the following November. In this survey the village was located at the Half-way Brook, at the crossing of the military road, where there were a few buildings and a clearing. The town plot at this point was run out into forty-eight ten acre lots, six lots deep from north to south and eight lots deep from east to west, forming an oblong tract which was intersected through the center in each direction by a highway eight rods wide, and two four-rod roads between the tiers of lots to the east and west of the main road, the whole plot to be surrounded by a four rod road. The center lots were reserved for public buildings. The remainder of the township was run out into one hundred and one two-hundred-and-fifty-acre lots, as nearly as possible. At the drawing Abraham Wing was so fortunate as to secure lots numbers 29, 36 and 37, which, as before intiniated, became among the most valuable in the town, embracing the greater part of the site of Glens Falls village.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.