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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01144 8716
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/pennsylvaniacolo02jenk_0
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
Sichod by Albert Rosenthal
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Columns and Federal
A HISTORY :2 0608-1903 Exitor HI & AF ENK &
Plalid, Ipli & Pennestrans
JOHN BANNISTER GIBSON
Etched for this work by Albert Rosenthal From the daguereotype by Brady
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
A HISTORY : : : 1608-1903 Editor HOWARD M. JENKINS
.
Volume Two
VIRTU
Pennsylvania Historical Publishing Association One hundred and forty North Fifteenth Street Philadelphia . Pennsylvania : : : : MCMIII
Copyright, 1903 By The Pennsylvania Historical Publishing Association
V D Manolaga- 8.50 (3vols) -
1135744
Contents
CHAPTER I
THE LAST HEREDITARY GOVERNORS I
CHAPTER II
INDEPENDENCE
I2
CHAPTER III
THE REVOLUTIONARY CAMPAIGNS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 42
CHAPTER IV
CIVIL AFFAIRS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1776.
7I
CHAPTER V
CONDITIONS OF PENNSYLVANIA IN 1790 81
CHAPTER VI
THE CONSTITUTION OF 1790.
103
CHAPTER VII
MIFFLIN'S ADMINISTRATION-1790-1799
122
V
Contents CHAPTER VIII MCKEAN'S ADMINISTRATION-1799-1808. 159
CHAPTER IX
SNYDER'S ADMINISTRATION-1808-1817. 187
CHAPTER X
FINDLAY'S AND HIESTER'S ADMINISTRATIONS-1817-1823. 216
CHAPTER XI
SHULZE'S AND WOLF'S ADMINISTRATIONS-1823-1835 . . . . 231
CHAPTER XII
RITNER'S ADMINISTRATION-1835-1839 258
CHAPTER XIII
THE CONSTITUTION OF 1838-THE BUCKSHOT WAR . 279
CHAPTER XIV
PORTER'S ADMINISTRATION-1839-1845. . 300 .
CHAPTER XV
SHUNK'S AND JOHNSTON'S ADMINISTRATIONS-1845-1852. 329
CHAPTER XVI
BIGLER'S, POLLOCK'S, AND PACKER'S ADMINISTRATION. -- 1852-1861 vi
344
Contents
CHAPTER XVII
CURTIN'S ADMINISTRATION-1861-1867 367
CHAPTER XVIII
GEARY'S ADMINISTRATION-1867-1873 . +33
CHAPTER XIX
HARTRANFT'S ADMINISTRATION-1873-1879. 449
CHAPTER XX
HOYT'S AND PATTISON'S ADMINISTRATIONS-1879-1883 . . . 467
CHAPTER XXI
BEAVER'S AND PATTISON'S ADMINISTRATIONS-1887-1895. 484
CHAPTER XXII
HASTINGS'S AND STONE'S ADMINISTRATIONS-1895-1903. . 502
CHAPTER XXIII
CIVIL LIST 523
vii
Etchings
JOHN BANNISTER GIBSON Frontispiece
BENJAMIN RUSH Opposite page 96
STEPHEN GIRARD. Opposite page 176
ALBERT GALLATIN Opposite page 304
JAMES ROSS. Opposite page 400
STEPHEN DECATUR. Opposite page 464
JAMES BUCHANAN Opposite page 528
Illustrations
JEFFREY AMHERST-Portrait 4
DESHLER'S FORT OR BLOCKHOUSE. 16
FRANCIS HOPKINSON-Portrait. 29
FERGUS MOORHEAD HOUSE, INDIANA COUNTY 37
JOSEPH PRIESTLY-Portrait. 45
CARPENTER'S HALL, PHILADELPHIA
53
BETSEY Ross HOUSE. 56
CORPSE HOUSE, LITITZ.
6
CARTOON OF REVOLUTIONARY WAR TIMES 68
REPRODUCTION OF AN OLD MAP.
73
SEAL OF COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.
84
SEAL OF ASSEMBLY, 1775-1776. .
85
CHAIR OCCUPIED BY JEFFERSON WHEN HE WROTE THE DECLARATION OF IN- DEPENDENCE 89
WILLIAM VON KNYPHAUSEN-Portrait. 93
GUARD HOUSE AT INDIAN SCHOOL, CARLISLE 99
ST. JOSEPH'S SCHOOL HOUSE, CHURCH AND RESIDENCE, IN 1776. 10.1
1X
Illustrations
JOHN ARMSTRONG-Portrait. 109
FIRST BRIGADIER-GENERAL COMMISSION ISSUED BY THE CONTINENTAL CON-
GRESS 115
SCENE OF FIRST FIRING- BRANDYWINE. I20
JAMES WILSON-Portrait. 121
SCONNELTOWN 128
HOWE'S HEADQUARTERS. I33
REMAINS OF INTERIOR OF RIFLE BORING MILL OF REVOLUTIONARY TIMES I37
THOMAS WHARTON, JR .- Portrait. 141
LAMBERT CADWALADER-Portrait.
144
JOSEPH REED-Portrait. 1.48
WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS.
152
DILWORTHTOWN
156
REAR OF BIRMINGHAM MEETING HOUSE.
I60
LAFAYETTE-Portrait. . 165
WILLIAM HOWE-Portrait. 173
LAFAYETTE'S HEADQUARTERS, CHADD'S FORD. 177
FIRST ENGRAVED ARMS, 1777. 180
PENNYPACKER MILLS. 184
WASHINGTON-Portrait 189
BELL USED BY WASHINGTON AT VALLEY FORGE. 193
WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS, VALLEY FORGE. 197
BENEDICT ARNOLD HOUSE, FAIRMOUNT PARK, PHILADELPHIA 201
GEORGE III-Portrait. 205
THE WHARTON HOUSE, WALNUT GROVE. 209
MARGARET ( PEGGY ) SHIPPEN-Portrait. 213
ARMS ENGRAVED BY LOWNES, 1778. 217
FORT ROBERDEAU. 224
CHEW HOUSE, GERMANTOWN. 229
SPECIMENS OF CONTINENTAL CURRENCY, OBVERSE. 234
SPECIMENS OF CONTINENTAL CURRENCY, REVERSE. 235
CHARLES THOMPSON-Portrait. 2.10
WYOMING MASSACRE MONUMENT. 2.45
GEORGE CLYMER-Portrait. 252
LAFAYETTE'S HEADQUARTERS, VALLEY FORGE ENCAMPMENT, 1777-1778. 256
SIGNATURE OF COLONEL ZEBULON BUTLER, OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 260
COURT-HOUSE, YORK, PA. 265
JOHN PETER GABRIEL MUHLENBERG-Portrait. 269
JOHN SULLIVAN-Portrait. 273
OUTLINE OF TIOGA POINT OR INDIAN ARROW 277
Illustrations
ยท BOULDER MARKING OLD FORT SULLIVAN 28I
FORT RICE, NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY. 288
CHRIST'S CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 293
GREAT SEAL, 1780. 296
CHARLES CORNWALLIS-Portrait 30I
JOHN DICKINSON-Silhouette. 309
JESUIT MISSION RELIC.
313
FREDERICK AUGUSTUS CONRAD MUHLENBERG.
320
RICHARD BUTLER-Portrait.
325
ARTHUR ST. CLAIR-Portrait 333
ARTHUR ST. CLAIR MONUMENT, GREENSBURG.
337
OLD LOTTERY TICKET, SHOWING WASHINGTON'S SIGNATURE. 340
THE CHEVALIER DE LA LUZERNE-Portrait. 346
ANTHONY WAYNE'S HOMESTEAD.
349
ANTHONY WAYNE'S MONUMENT.
353
THE WAYNE KETTLE.
357
WAYNE BLOCK HOUSE, ERIE.
361
WILLIAM CRAWFORD'S CABIN, CONNELLSVILLE.
369
FRANKLIN LIBRARY, 1790-1887. FIRST SURGEON'S HALL, 1765-1802.
373
JOHN FRANKLIN-Portrait.
WILLIAM SMITH-Portrait.
381
JOSIAH HARMAR-Portrait.
385 389
WILLIAM JACKSON-Portrait.
393
JOHN McMILLAN-Portrait.
397
JOHN McMILLAN'S LOG BUILDING
10I
WILLIAM BRADFORD-Portrait
405
JOSEPH HORSFIELD-Portrait.
409
WILLIAM WHITE-Portrait.
113
THAYENDANEGEA-JOHN BRANT. Portrait . 416
WILLIAM MACLAY-Portrait. 421
NEW CASTLE LOTTERY TICKET-OBVERSE AND REVERSE. 425
FORT LE BOEUF, ERIE COUNTY, BUILT 1796. 429
HOMESTEAD OF GENERAL DAVID MEAD 436
THOMAS MIFFLIN-Portrait. 441
OLD MIFFLIN MANSION. 445
OLD COURT HOUSE, LANCASTER. 452
BANK OF THE UNITED STATES, 1799. 457
HENRY MILLER-Portrait 469
xi
DIAL ROCK.
ARMS, 1790. 375 377
Illustrations
OLD LANTERN USED ON PORTAGE ROAD. 473
HOUSE BUILT IN PHILADELPHIA FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 477
PENNSYLVANIA HOSPITAL AS IT APPEARED IN 1799. 481
ARMS, 1805. 485
CHARLES WILLSON PEALE-Portrait.
489
RICHARD PETERS-Portrait. 493
WILLIAM FINDLAY-Portrait. 497
WILLIAM TILGHMAN-Portrait. 505
THOMAS JEFFERSON-Portrait. 509 ROBERT FULTON-Portrait. 517
FIRST POST OFFICE AT PITTSBURGH 525
HUGH HENRY BRACKENRIDGE-Portrait. 533 WILLIAM WILKINS-Portrait. 537
FIRST ALLEGHENY COUNTY COURT HOUSE AND OLD PITTSBURGH MARKET 541
OLD CANAL BASIN AS IT APPEARED IN 1848. 549
xii
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
CHAPTER I.
THE LAST HEREDITARY GOVERNORS
B Y the death of Richard Penn, one of the Proprietaries, Feb. 4, 1771, his son, Lieutenant-Governor John Penn, under the terms of the family settlement and of Richard Penn's will in accordance therewith, succeeded to Richard Penn's one- fourth interest in Pennsylvania and thus to the legal title of Gov- ernor.
Bedford county, extending from the Blue mountain to the western boundary of the province, was set off from Cumberland county in March, 1771. There were at this time upwards of 2,000 families west of the Alleghanies.
On May 4, John Penn embarked for England, leaving the ex- ecutive powers of government in the hands of the Governor's Council, of which ex-Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton was senior member and accordingly President.
In July, Lazarus Stewart appeared again at Wyoming with some of his former followers, and joined about seventy armed men from Connecticut, driving into the blockhouse for refuge such of the Proprietaries' tenants as had not taken alarm and left upon reports of the coming of five hundred. Captain Joseph Morris and John Dick with about thirty men were sent by the Provincial authorities with provisions to relieve this straitened garrison, but on the 30th were fired upon as they were within two hundred yards of it. They lost two loads of flour and nine men wounded and missing, but reached the blockhouse. The besieg-
2-I
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
ers had several killed and wounded. On August 14 the block house was surrendered because short of provisions, having lost one man killed.
Richard Penn, second son of the deceased Proprietary, and previously a member of the Governor's Council, was appointed by his uncle and brother as Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties, and arrived the second time in Pennsyl- vania on Oct. 16, 1771. In the following May he married Miss Mary Masters, a Philadelphia lady of sufficient property to make him somewhat independent. With pleasing manners, and en- deavoring to keep on good terms with the people, he succeeded in making himself the most popular of his family. All his dealings with the Assembly were very friendly. He had a dispute with his brother concerning his father's will, claiming that the manors were not appurtenant to the Proprietaryship, but were included in the private real estate directed to be sold for the benefit of the residuary legatees. Thomas Penn took the side of John, and the two found fault with Richard's conduct in the government, but the latter defended himself, and spoke of his father's promise to try to have the family agreement of 1732 dissolved as unfair to his younger children in its stipulation that the Proprietaryship should go to the eldest sons, charged only with payments to the widows and younger children of certain sums which had since become entirely disproportionate to the estates.
During Richard Penn's administration the county of North- umberland was erected out of portions of Lancaster, Cumberland, Berks, Northampton, and Bedford, and the western part of what remained of Bedford was set off as the county of Westmoreland, and the Connecticut claimants extended their settlements, build- ing forts and houses at Shoholy and Lackawaxen on the Delaware, where the Proprietaries had manors, and establishing themselves on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and with difficulty being prevented from ejecting the Pennsylvania settlers there. Penn's Council showed clemency to John Durkee in August, 1772, by
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The Last Hereditary Governors
ordering his discharge from jail and a nolle pros. to be entered on the indictment.
Richard Penn was superseded in office by his brother John, who arrived in August, 1773. For a long time Richard did not go near him, and maintained that he had been greatly injured. John indeed offered, as long as he should be Governor, to allow him 500l. a year, but Richard declared that he would not be his brother's pensioner. There is a story that at a banquet, they sat opposite to each other, on the right and left hand of the head of the feast, and did not speak to each other during the whole enter- tainment. However, Richard was induced to execute, in May, 1774, a release of his claim, and a reconciliation took place when John appointed him naval officer, and Richard, accepting the posi- tion, called to thank him.
The Colony of Connecticut having referred to legal counsel the question of any right to land west of New York, and received an opinion in favor of such right, decided by resolution of Octo- ber 2, 1773, to assert the claim, also to send commissioners to treat with Governor Penn for a settlement of the boundary, which those appointed explained to depend upon whether the south line of Connecticut should cross W. S. W. or parallel with the south- ern line of Massachusetts. John Penn replied to the commis- sioners that he could not admit a claim which gave the charter to Connecticut a different construction from what had been deter- mined to be the sense of other charters of the kind, and extended the limits beyond those fixed as a western boundary by royal au- thority in 1664 : if Connecticut would bring the matter to an issue before the King in Council, the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania would appear there, and use all dispatch towards a final decision. The commissioners thereupon proposed that a temporary line to separate the regions in which the parties respectively should administer justice be adopted without prejudice to either side. Governor Penn replied that, the legislature of Pennsylvania hav- ing erected the part where the Connecticut people had settled into
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
a county, there existed a legal jurisdiction which he could neither restrain nor transfer to another government; and that before the Connecticut government had taken up the matter, land had been
Jeffrey Amherst
Major-general in movements against French, 1758; governor-general British possessions in America, 1760; governor of Virginia, 1763. Reproduced especially for this work from an engraving in possession of Mrs. William M. Darlington
granted, of which he could not forbid the settlement ; he could see no means to effectuate peace and order but the entire withdrawal of the Connecticut people until a legal decision be rendered. The commissioners went back, and in January, 1774, the Assembly of Connecticut enacted that the inhabitants on the west side of
4
The Last Hereditary Governors
the Delaware between the north and south lines "of this colony," and bounded west by a line fifteen miles from Wyoming, be a distinct town called Westmoreland, and a part of the county of Litchfield, that Zebulon Butler and Nathan Denison be justices of the peace, and that no person be allowed to settle on any land included in the charter to Connecticut without permission. In the correspondence with Penn resulting from this, Governor Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut claimed credit for his colony's forbearance in not including in the town's limits other parts of the soil of Connecticut upon which great numbers had settled under grants from Pennsylvania.
Now arose a question of measurement as against Virginia. It was not only doubtful where did the five degrees of longitude which were to be the extent westward of Pennsylvania start from ?- indeed it might be the westernmost point of the circle around New Castle-or was the western boundary a straight north and south line, or did it run like the course of the river. from which it was to be a distance equal to five degrees? It was not mere ignorance of distances or inaccuracy of instruments which made the settlers down the Monongahela believe they were beyond the limits of Pennsylvania, and in 1771 to resist process from this colony's court for Bedford county. Croghan main- tained that the limits were at the Alleghanies or Laurel Hill Range, having heard among other things that a degree of longi- tude at the time of the charter to William Penn meant 48 miles.
At the close of 1773, the Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, appointed Dr. John Connolly as Commandant of the Militia of Pittsburgh and its dependencies with instructions to assure the inhabitants that he intended proposing to the House of Burgesses of Virginia the erection of a new county of that dominion to include Pittsburg. Connolly issued an advertise- ment commanding all the inhabitants to appear as a militia on January 25. Arthur St. Clair, who was prothonotary, clerk, and recorder of Westmoreland county, at once reported
5
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
this to John Penn, who caused Connolly to be arrested, and sent to Lord Dunmore a draught of the lines of Pennsylvania as plotted by Provost Smith. David Rittenhouse, and the Surveyor- General showing that Pittsburgh was six miles, so they said, east- ward of the westernmost limit of the grant to the Proprietaries. Dunmore replied that he must have more authorative evi- dence than this, and that St. Clair must be dismissed from office for committing Connolly to jail. Connolly had refused to find sureties for good behavior. About eighty persons in arms assembled on the appointed day, paraded through Pittsburgh, proceeded to the fort, and opened a cask of rum. The magis- trates read them a paper prepared by St. Clair, explaining that it was an unlawful gathering, and requiring them to disperse. To which they replied that they would do so, but by night they were not so peaceably inclined. In a few days, the Sheriff allowed Connolly to go to Pittsburgh under promise to return. He trav- elled about the country collecting adherents, and on April 6, to keep his promise, appeared at Westmoreland Court House, about thirty miles from Pittsburgh, at the head of about two hundred men, most of them with firearms and some with drawn swords, and gave a written address to the three magistrates holding court, declaring himself not amenable to their authority, but his willing- ness, although they had no right to act, for them to decide any matters which people might bring before them until further orders from Virginia. On his demanding an answer in writing, the magistrates gave him one declaring that they would continue to exercise jurisdiction under the legislative authority of Pennsyl- vania. For this answer, he had them arrested a few days after- wards, and brought before him in Pittsburgh, and on their refus- ing to give bail to appear at the Court held for Augusta county, Virginia, at Staunton, he started them on the long journey thither. Penn gave these magistrates permission to get bail, advised the others not to come into conflict with Dunmore's officers, and sent Tilghman and the Attorney-General as commissioners to Wil-
6
The Last Hereditary Governors
liamsburg, to induce Lord Dunmore to join with the Proprietaries in a petition to the King to have the boundary line run and marked, and meanwhile to agree, without prejudice to either party's right, to a temporary line of jurisdiction. The application to the King was readily consented to, but the commissioners from Pennsyl- vania offering for a temporary line one following the courses of the Delaware at five degrees of longitude from it in every part, and then suggesting that the Monongahela river itself would an- swer for a line, the conference ended. One of the magistrates sent by Connolly to Staunton, went to Williamsburg, and com- plained to Dunmore of Connolly's act, but the only satisfaction he could obtain was an order to allow him and those who reached Staunton to return home. The adherents of Virginia increased in strength at Pittsburgh ; officers commissioned by Pennsylvania accepted commissions from Virginia ; a land office was opened un- der authority of Dunmore, and it became impossible to collect taxes imposed by Pennsylvania or rents due to the Penns. On April 21, Connolly wrote to the people of Wheeling that he had been informed that the Shawanees were ill disposed to the whites, and therefore he commanded them to hold themselves in readiness to repel any insults. Thereupon Michael Cresap with a party killed and scalped two Shawanees who were in company with two white men on the Ohio ninety miles below Pittsburgh, taking a canoe with some goods for a trader, and afterwards attacked some Shawanee chiefs who had been at Pittsburgh at Croghan's re- quest. A party headed by one Gratehouse murdered and scalped nine Indians near Yellow Creek on the Ohio. On hearing this the settlers at Raccoon and Wheeling took fright ; and as warlike messages came from the Shawanees, and certain Mingoes went out to retaliate upon the Virginia settlers, and here and there a white man was killed, panic spread to the Alleghanies. A com- pany of rangers formed by St. Clair and others enabled some stand to be made in the region east of Pittsburgh, while Connolly in Fort Pitt, which he called Fort Dunmore, was sending out mil-
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
itary expeditions and taking other steps likely to precipitate a general Indian war. It was this state of affairs which forced John Penn to call together the Assembly and a Continental Congress in which Pennsylvania was represented was the result. As the Indian trade could no longer be carried on at Pittsburgh, a town was laid out in the Proprietaries' manor at Kittanning in August, 1774. Although Lord Dunmore led an expedition to the Ohio, the Delawares remained faithful friends of Pennsylvania, and the Shawanees adhered to their word that their quarrel was with Virginia.
Penn succeeded this year in having the starting-point on the Delaware of the boundary with New York fixed and a stone set by David Rittenhouse and Samuel Holland.
Lord Dunmore, having made peace with the Indians, on his way back stopped for a short time at Fort Burd, as the Red Stone Fort was now called, and had Thomas Scott, a Pennsylvania mag- istrate, bound over to appear at a court to be held for Augusta county at Pittsburgh to answer for contravening the Governor of Virginia's proclamation of April 25 against obstructing his gov- ernment. On February 7, by order of a Virginia magistrate, a man named Benjamin Harrison with an armed party broke open the jail at Hanna's Town and set free the prisoners. Robert Hanna, who was a magistrate, said : "Boys, you are early up to buy a rope to hang yourselves." He then read the riot act to them. Harrison said he did not regard that act or them who read it, or them who made it, and, on the demand of the Sheriff, he ex- hibited the warrant. On February 22, Hanna and a brother mag- istrate, James Cavett, were arrested and confined in Fort Dun- more, where they remained for months, being joined by Scott on May 16, on his refusing to give bail to keep the peace.
On March 21, 1775, Thomas Penn died in Spring Gardens, London, leaving his eldest surviving son, John, afterwards called "the Poet," then just fifteen years old, as hereditary Governor with his first cousin, and with a share in the Proprietaryship four
8
The Last Hereditary Governors
times that of the latter. The younger John visited Pennsylvania after the Revolutionary war.
The earliest events of the Revolutionary struggle brought about the recovery by the Penns of the region in dispute with Vir- ginia. Dunmore's proroguing the House of Burgesses of Vir- ginia allowed its Invasion law, under which the garrison at Fort Dunmore was maintained, to expire. The Associators of West- moreland county were organized by those whom Connolly had been punishing. Connolly was secured and made to find bail. St. Clair, showing him civility, "with the help of a cheerful glass," elicited from him his plans now that Dunmore had abandoned the government of Virginia, viz. : to go immediately to England with some Delaware chiefs and, assisted by Dunmore's influence, ask the King for a confirmation to them of the land they were inhab- iting, inasmuch as they had embraced Christianity, and changed their mode of life, and could not be always migrating. This scheme might have prevented the acquisition by Pennsylvania of certain territory not yet ceded by the Indians. Dunmore, it ap- peared, had designs on the islands in the Delaware. In the latter part of July, Connolly went to see Dunmore at Norfolk, Virginia, and proposed gathering an army of frontiersmen, Canadians, French traders, regular soldiers from the western garrisons, Vir- ginia militia, and Indian chiefs to effect a junction with Dun- more's forces at Alexandria, and obstruct the communication be- tween the Northern and Southern colonies. Upon this subject he was sent to General Gage, and after his return to Dunmore, who gave him a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant, he, on his way to Detroit, was arrested at Frederick, Maryland, by the Committee of Safety of that colony, on November 23.
It being represented to the Continental Congress that there might be bloodshed between the citizens of Pennsylvania and those of Connecticut when it was important that America should stand united, that body in the summer of 1775 requested the members from those colonies to write and urge the necessity of peace and
9
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
especially the non-molestation of the families or possessions of those who had gone to the army before Boston. But there fol- lowed attempts to be the first occupants of various localities cov- ered by the dispute, and the Assembly of Pennsylvania appealed to Congress, which appointed a committee of five to hear both sides. Provost Rev. Dr. William Smith and others named by freeholders of Northumberland and Northampton counties stated the case for Pennsylvania, and suggested the Connecticut people withdrawing to their old bounds east of New York until the de- cision of the controversy by the King in Council. The Connecti- cut delegates opposed this with a suggestion that a temporary line be fixed pending "a legal settlement of the controversy," and that Connecticut's jurisdiction be that part of the township called Westmoreland which lay east of a line fifteen miles west of the East Branch of the Susquehanna, but Pennsylvania might exer- cise jurisdiction over those actually settled within said township under claim through the Penns. The Pennsylvania committee declined this, and reported to the Assembly, which on October 27 endorsed their action, but declared it would acquiesce in any plan of Congress whereby the intruders should enjoy their present set- tlement, if they would give assurance to abide by the decision of the King in Council and meanwhile to introduce no more settlers and abide by the laws of this Province; otherwise it would sup- port the Governor in defending the rights and property of the people of Northampton and Northumberland. Sheriffs' posses accordingly seized Connecticut settlers. Such as they captured at Fort Parks or Wallinpapeck on the Lackawaxen agreed to de- molish the fort, and take leases or purchase from the Proprie- taries, and muster in Captain Van Etten's company for the de- fence of American liberty.
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