A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. II, Part 76

Author: Harvey, Oscar Jewell, 1851- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1909
Publisher: Wilkes-Barre [Raeder press]
Number of Pages: 683


USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. II > Part 76


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).


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(ii) Stephen Bidlack was a soldier in a Connecticut regiment in the Revolutionary War; was cap- tured by the British at the battle of Long Island in August, 1776, and while a prisoner in their hands died of starvation in New York City. He was unmarried.


(iv) Benjamin Bidlack, third son of Capt. James and Mehetabel (Durkce) Bidlack, was born in Windham County, Connecticut, February 25, 1759. The inscription on his gravestone in Forty Fort Cemetery states that he was born in 1762, but this is, without doubt, an error. According to Miner's "Wyoming" he "entered into the [military] service of his country at the very commencement of the Revolutionary War. He was at Boston when Washington assembled the first American army.


He was afterwards at the lines before New York." His term of enlistment having expired, he joined his father's family at Plymouth, Wyoming Valley, in 1777. According to a written statement made by Benjamin Bidlack in 1839 (see "The Massacre of Wyoming," by the Rev. Horace Edwin Hayden), he went out with some of the scouting parties of the militia which were sent up the Susquehanna from Wyoming in 1777. On one occasion he accompanied a party of thirty, under command of Capt. Asaph Whittlesey, which marched up the river some fifty miles. In the latter part of 1777 or early in 1778


Benjamin Bidlack, Caleb Forsythe, Benjamin Tillman, Ebenezer Goss, - - St. John, and five or six other young men of Westmoreland, enlisted in Capt. Thomas Worley's Mechanics' Artillery Com- pany, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where they worked and trained for some time, making arms and prac- tising their use. In the Summer of 1778 they marched into New Jersey under Colonel DeHart. In October, 1781, Benjamin Bidlack was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. Later he was with the army on the Hudson, and was there until the close of the war. when, having been honorably discharged from the service, he returned (June 12, 1783, according to Miner's "Wyoming") to the home of his parents in Plymouth-his father having been released from his captivity among the Indians only a short time previously. In August, 1793, Benjamin Bidlack was elected and commis- sioned Ensign of the 3d (or Plymouth) Company in the 3d Regiment, Luzerne Brigade, Pennsylvania Militia.


About the beginning of the last century Benjamin Bidlack became a minister of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and for upwards of thirty years labored zealously and effectually in the many Churches throughout north-eastern Pennsylvania and southern New York to which his appointments took him. The last years of his life were spent in what is now the borough of Kingston. In 1783 he was married to Lydia (born October 31, 1758), fifth child of Capt. Prince and Mary (Fitch) Alden, mentioned on page 500, Vol. I. Mrs. Bidlack died in 1808 or '09, and the Rev. Benjamin Bidlack was married (2d) at Kingston to Mrs. Sarah (Gore) Myers. (See page 837.) There were no children by this marriage. The deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Bidlack occurred at the dates mentioned on page 837. Obituaries of Mr. Bidlack were printed in The Wilkes-Barre Advocate of December 3, 1845, and in the Republican Farmer and Democratic Journal of December 10, 1845. The Rev. Benjamin and Lydia (Alden) Bidlack were the parents of four children, the eldest of whom was Mehetabel (born in 1784), who became the wife of Jesse Prior, and died at White Springs, New York, in June, 1826. Benjamin Alden Bidlack (born September 8. 1804; died February 6, 1849) was the youngest child of the Rev. Benjamin and Lydia ( Alden) Bidlack. A sketch of his life will be found in a subsequent chapter.


(v) Shubal Bidlack, fourth son of Capt. James and Mehetabel (Durkee) Bidlack, settled in Han- over Township, Wyoming Valley, after the Revolutionary War, and November 19, 1787, was commis. sioned Lieutenant of the Ist (or Hanover) Company ( Mason F. Alden, Captain) in the "Ist Regiment of Militia in Luzerne County." May 10, 1791, he was re-elected to this office, and duly commissioned. In 1787 Shubal Bidlack was married to Mrs. Abigail (Alden) Jameson (born August 11, 1753), who was the third child of Captain Prince and Mary (Fitch) Alden, previously mentioned, an elder sister of the wife of Shubal's brother Benjamin, and the widow of Lieut. John Jameson (of whom fuller men- tion is made in a subsequent chapter). Mrs Abigail (Alden) Bidlack died in Hanover Township June 8, 1795, and was buried in the grave-yard adjoining the old Hanover church. A year or two later Shubal Bidlack removed with his children to Salem Township, Luzerne County, where he died prior to May, 1803. The children of Shubal and Abigail ( Alden) Bidlack were: (1) John Jameson Bidlack (born in 1788; died December 25, 1843); (2) Lydia Bidlack (born in 1790; died in youth) : (3) Shubal Bidlack (born in 1792: died in youth). (1) John Jameson Bidlack was married about 1816 to Martha, daughter of Samuel Hicks of Salem Township, and they became the parents of three daughters and two sons. Lvdia Bidlack (born April 13, 1817; died May 7, 1840), the eldest of these children, became the wife of Thomas D). Cortright, son of Isaac and Mary Cortright of Salem.


(vi) Philemon Bidlack, youngest child of Capt. James and Mehetabel (Durkee) Bidlack, married and had five sons James, Samuel, William, John, and another whose name is not now recalled. In 1822 they all emigrated to Ohio, but in 1824 William returned to Pennsylvania, married Amy, daughter


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of Thomas Tubbs of Huntington Township, Luzerne County, and settled in that township. William and Amy (Tubbs) Bidlack were the parents of three daughters and one son.


I LEBBEUS TUBBS was born in Lyme, New London County, Connecticut, about 1730, the son of Samuel and Mercy Tubbs. Samuel Tubbs was born September 15, 1699, in Lyme, and continued to live there until 1759, when he removed with his family to the adjoining town of East Haddam. There they lived about a year and then emigrated to Nova Scotia, where Samuel and Lebbeus each took up land-at Horton, in the seats of the expatriated Acadians. (In 1760 a large number of Connecticut peo- ple settled in the townships of Horton and Cornwallis, Kings County, Nova Scotia, and in 1771 they applied to the people of Lyme, New London and other Connecticut towns for charitable contributions for the support of their Church.) In September, 1762, Samuel and Lebbeus Tubbs sold their Horton lands, and returning to Connecticut purchased a farm on the boundaries of the towns of New London and Norwich-the land lying partly in each town. They established their home on the New London portion. In January, 1773, this property was sold, and the next month Lebbeus Tubbs bought from Abel Peirce, of Kingston Township, Wyoming Valley, House Lots Nos. 23 and 24, Meadow Lot No. 2 and Great Lot No. 29 "on ye upper end of Abraham's Plains" in Kingston. Soon thereafter Samuel Tubbs and his wife and Lebbeus Tubbs and his family located in Kingston. About that time the death of Samuel Tubbs occurred. In 1787 his widow Mercy removed to Newtown (now Elmira), New York, where she died of small-pox about the year 1800, aged nearly 100 years. Samuel and Mercy Tubbs were the parents of six children, as follows: (i) Samuel (who was married to Ann Chapman), (ii) Lebbeus (mentioned previously, as well as hereinafter), (iii) John (married to Sarah Sims), (iv) Han- wah (born in 1749; married, Ist, to John Hammond, and 2d, to Daniel Anger; died August 27, 1816), (v) Olive (married to Stephen Gardner), (vi) Phebe (married to Hathaway).


(iii) John Tubbs was a private in Captain Durkee's Westmoreland Independent Company in the Continental service (see page 894), and died in the Summer of 1777 while at home on a furlough from the camp at Morristown, New Jersey.


(ii) Lebbews Tubbs lived in Lyme for the first twenty-four or -five years of his life, and then, hav- ing been married to Bathsheba Hamilton, he and his wife removed to East Haddam. Bathsheba Ham- ilton, born at New London December 1, 1732, was the daughter of Jonathan Hamilton (born in New London June 17, 1709) and his wife Ann, daughter of William and Elizabeth (Smith) Camp.


During the French and Indian War Lebbeus Tubbs served as a private from April 14 till October 16, 1755 (in the campaign for the reduction of Crown Point-as narrated on page 297, Vol. I), in the 2d Company (commanded by Lieut. Col. John Pitkin of Hartford) of the 1st Connecticut Regiment, commanded by Col. Phineas Lyman. In the campaign of 1759 (see page 482, Vol. I) Lebbeus Tubbs served as a private from May 23 to December 12 in the 12th Company (Nicholas Bishop of New Lon- don, Captain) of the 4th Connecticut Regiment. commanded by Col. Eleazar Fitch. (See "Connecticut Historical Society's Collections", IX : 9 and X : 172.)


As previously related, Lebbeus Tubbs removed to Nova Scotia at the same time with his parents; returned to Connecticut with them, and finally located in Kingston Township, Wyoming Valley, in 1773. At a town-meeting held there June 24, 1773, he was appointed a member of the committee to run the boundary-line between Kingston and Plymouth; and on the 23d of the following December he was appointed a member of the committee directed to prosecute all persons who should unlawfully cut tim- ber on the common lands in Kingston. In May, 1777, Lebbeus Tubbs was established by the General Assembly of Connecticut, and subsequently commissioned by Governor Trumbull, Ensign of the "1st Alarm List Company in the 24th Regiment"; and in October, 1777, he was promoted Lieutenant of this company. In 1777 he purchased lands in the townships of Salem and Exeter. He was at Forty Fort on the 2d and 3d days of July, 1778, and undoubtedly took part in the battle on Abraham's Plains. Later he fled from the Valley, but returned on the 4th of the ensuing August in the detachment of militia commanded by Lieut. Col. Zebulon Butler, and was in service at Wilkes-Barre until October 1, 1778, at least. (See Chapter XVI.)


About 1785 or '86 Lebbeus Tubbs removed to Sheshequin-mentioned hereinbefore-and in 1787 he left there for Newtown (now Elmira), New York, where he resided until his death in the fore part of 1800. His wife died there about 1820. The children of Lieut. Lebbeus and Bathsheba ( Hamilton) Tubbs were as follows: (1) Samuel (born in 1755; died September 7, 1841), (2) Lucy (born April 5, 1758: married to Lebbeus Hammond-whose name is several times mentioned hereinafter; died April 17, 1844), (3) Lebbeus (born in Nova Scotia in 1762; married Hannah Mathews; died July 29, 1843), (4) Bathsheba (became the wife of Phineas Stevens), (5) Hamilton (married Abigail Hammond; died September 10, 1857).


(1) Samuel Tubbs was born in East Haddam, Connecticut, in 1755, and accompanied his parents in their migrations, as previously described. At Wilkes-Barre, in September, 1776, he was mustered into the Continental service as a private in the 1st Westmoreland Independent Company, commanded by Capt. Robert Durkee. He was still a member of this company in June, 1778, when it was consolidated with the 2d Westmoreland Independent Company and placed under the command of Capt. Simon Spald- ing, as previously narrated, and he continued in service under Captain Spalding until the company was discharged. He then returned to Wyoming Valley and resided here until 1785 or '86, when he removed to Sheshequin, and thence, in 1787, to Newtown, New York. There he resided until 1811, during a part of which period he was a Colonel in the New York militia. In 1811 Colonel Tubbs set- tled in Elkland, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, and there he lived until his death, which occurred Sep- tember 7, 1841. (1) Samuel Tubbs was married (undoubtedly in 1777) to Sara Susanna (born at Voluntown, Windham County, Connecticut, in 1760), daughter of Lieut. Col. George Dorrance and his first wife, Mary Wilson. Mrs. Tubbs died at Elkland August 16, 1838.


The children of Samuel and Sara Susanna (Dorrance) Tubbs were eleven in number, and were as follows: (a) A child that died at birth at the time of the battle of Wyoming. (b) Robert, born in Wyoming Valley March 24, 1780; died at Osceola, Pennsylvania, August 9, 1865. See below. (c) Cynthia, born in Wyoming Valley May 11, 1782; married to Samuel Jenkins; died at Elmira, New York, March 6, 1860. (d) Betsey, born at Sheshequin, Pennsylvania, in 1786; married to Jonathan Jenkins; died at Newtown, New York, March 28, 1816. (e) Polly, born at Newtown, New York, September 17, 1789; married to David, son of Capt. John Hammond; died at Elkland, Pennsylvania, January 21. 1847. (f) George, born about 1790, and died about 1792, at Newtown. (g) Susanna, born at Newtown January 10, 1792; married to John Ryon, Jr., son of John Ryon of Pittston, who was a soldier in the company of either Capt. Solomon Strong or Capt. William Judd in the Revolu- tionary War; died at Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, March 6, 1881. John and Susanna (Tubbs) Ryon were the parents of (i) John Ryon, who was a Representative in Congress, 1880-'83, (ii) James Ryon, who was Judge of the Courts of Common Pleas, Quarter Sessions, etc., of Schuylkill County, Penn- sylvania, for ten years, and (iii) Charles Ryon, who was Major of the 136th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, in the Civil War. (h) Samuel, born at Newtown December 15, 1794; died at Osceola, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, May 15, 1870. See next page. (i) Benjamin, born at Newtown December 19, 1796; married to Polly Taylor, a descendant of Ebenezer Taylor of Wyoming Valley; died August 19, 1873, at Woodhull, New York. (j) James, born at Newtown in January, 1800; married to Sally Coates; died at Elkland, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, November 20, 1823. (k) Hannah, born at New- town December 25, 1802; married to Martin Stevens; died at Elkland in August, 1842.


(b) Robert Tubbs was married at Kingston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, September 14, 1806, to Clara (born December 16, 1778), second child of Daniel and Anne (Gunn) Hoyt, originally of Dan-


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- Ensign. Those of the "2d Alarm List Company" were: Dr. William Hooker Smith,* Captain; Flavius Waterman, Lieutenant; Elisha Black- man, Sr., t Ensign. The members of the "Alarm List" companies did not rendezvous at any special places, but each man, armed and accoutered, repaired to the fort or stockade nearest his home. Thus there were considerable numbers of them at Forty Fort, Pittston Fort, Shawnee Fort and Fort Wilkes-Barre. Col. Nathan Denison, Lieut. Col. George Dorrance,# Maj. John Garrett§ and Adjutant Isaac Baldwin, Jr., ||


bury, Connecticut, and later of Kingston. (See a sketch of the Hoyt family in a subsequent chapter.) The late Dr. Robert Hamilton Tubbs of Kingston was a son of Robert and Clara (Hoyt) Tubbs. (h) Samuel Tubbs was married to Permelia Taylor (a descendant of Ebenezer Taylor previously mentioned), and their son James Tubbs was the father of the Hon. Charles Tubbs (born at Osceola, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, July 11, 1843), a prominent and influential citizen of Tioga County. He is a graduate of Union College (Schenectady, New York) and of the University of Michigan; he is a lawyer; has been for twenty years a member of the Osceola School Board; was for four years (circa 1880) a Representative in the Pennsylvania Legislature, and has occupied various other import- ant public positions. He is the author of several historical publications.


1 JOHN COMSTOCK was a native of Norwich (West Farms), New London County, Connecticut. He early became a member of The Susquehanna Company; was one of the original Wyoming settlers under the auspices of that company in 1762 (see page 403, Vol. I), and presumably was here also in 1763 at the time of the massacre of the settlers at Mill Creek by the Indians. He was also one of the "First Forty" settlers of 1769 (see page 473), and thereby became entitled to a share of the lands in Kingston Township-which in due time he received. He was at Fort Durkee, Wilkes-Barre, during the Summer and Autumn of 1769 (see pages 497 and 509), and was one of the company of New Englanders occupy- ing the fort when it was surrendered to the Pennamites. He was on the ground again in June, 1770 (see page 658), and was one of those who marched to the Valley in July, 1771, under the command of Capt. Zebulon Butler to besiege the Pennamites. During the Spring and Summer of 1772 he seems to have been absent from the Valley, but in September of that year he returned (see pages 750 and 751), and shortly afterwards established himself on his lands in Kingston. In May, 1773, as one of the agents for a number of proprietors in the Susquehanna Purchase, he aided in laying out the township of Newport (see page 770, and the map facing page 468), and became one of the original proprietors in the town.


Shortly afterwards Mr. Comstock returned to Connecticut where his family was still residing, and subsequently his elder son, Kingsley Comstock, came to Kingston and took up his residence on his fath- er's lands there. His name appears in the Kingston tax-list for 1776, but in that year his father and the other members of the latter's family came to Kingston, and Kingsley Comstock removed to his father's lands in Newport-which lay within the bounds of "Hanover District" of Westmoreland. Kingsley Comstock's name appears, therefore, in the tax-lists of Hanover for the years 1777 and 1778; and John Comstock's name appears in the lists of Kingston for 1777, 1778, 1780 and 1781 (the only lists now in existence). Kingsley Comstock was a private in the 5th (or Hanover) Company of the 24th Regiment, and according to Miner ("History of Wyoming", Appendix, page 60) fell in the battle of Wyoming. Letters of administration upon his estate were granted to his father by the Probate Court of Westmore- land, November 30, 1780.


John Comstock was established and commissioned Ensign of the 1st Alarm List Company in October, 1777. On the 1st or 2d of July, 1778, he removed his family from their home to Forty Fort, and on the 3d of July he and his younger son, Robert, marched out with the other patriots to the bat- tle-field on Abraham's Plains. The son fell early in the battle, but the father escaped from the field when the rout began. Becoming exhausted in his flight, he flung himself down behind a fallen tree. Presently two Indians sprang upon it, intent on something in the distance, and as they jumped to the ground to go on their way they brushed aside the bushes under which Comstock lay concealed; but they did not see him. When night came on he made his way to Forty Fort. Later he fled from the Valley with the members of his family who were in Forty Fort, but on the 4th of the following August be returned to Wilkes-Barre in the body of militia under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Butler, and was in service here until at least the 1st of October. Later he returned, with his family, to his home in Kingston, where he continued to live until his death in the Spring of 1783.


The children of John Comstock were as follows: Kingsley, Robert, Rachel (who became the wife of Isaac Parker prior to August, 1787), Margaret (who became the wife of William Stager prior to August, 1787), Elizabeth, Prudence, Mary and Eleanor. The last named (born in 1763) became the wife of Ambrose Gaylord (born in November, 1749), eldest child of Justus Gaylord, Sr., an early set- tler in Wyoming. Ambrose Gaylord and his brother, Justus Gaylord, Jr., were members of Captain Ransom's Westmoreland Independent Company, and later were members of Captain Spalding's com- pany-serving therein until the close of the war. Ambrose Gaylord was in Wilkes-Barre in 1784, shortly after which he was married to Eleanor Comstock. About 1787 they settled in what is now Braintrim, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, where they lived the remainder of their years. In 1788 Mr. Gaylord was elected and commissioned Lieutenant of the 1st Company, 2d Battalion, Luzerne County Militia, and this office he held for several years. He died at Braintrim June 12, 1844, and was survived by his wife Eleanor (who was still living in June, 1845) and several children.


* See a subsequent chapter for a sketch of his life.


t See page 1067 for a sketch of his life.


# See Chapter XXX for a sketch of the Dorrance family.


& JOHN GARRETT was born in West Simsbury (now Canton), Hartford County, Connecticut, in 1727, the third child of Francis and Sarah (Mills) Garrett. Sarah Mills (born in 1696) was the daugh- ter of John and Sarah (Pettibone) Mills of West Simsbury. She was married, first, about 1715, to Simon Tuller, who died in 1720 or '21, leaving three sons. Francis Garrett died in 1731, and in 1745 his widow became the wife of Capt. Joseph Woodford. She died in 1797, in the 101st year of her age. During the campaign against the hostile Indians in the closing months of Pontiac's War (see page 435, et seq., Vol. I), John Garrett served as a Sergeant from March 27 to December 4, 1764, in the 2d Company ( Abraham Foot of Branford, Captain) of the Connecticut Battalion commanded by Lieut. Col. Israel Putnam. (See "Connecticut Historical Society's Collections," X : 365.) John Garrett came from Hartford County, Connecticut, to Wilkes-Barre in the latter part of 1774, and in December, 1775. he bought of Daniel Downing, for £12, Lot No. 22 in the town-plot of Wilkes-Barre. (See page 655.) Later he purchased Lots 21 and 22 in the Third Division of Wilkes-Barre. In 1776 he was a member of the Standing Committee of the proprietors of Wilkes-Barre, and his name appears in the tax-lists of Wilkes-Barre for the years 1776, '77 and '78. In October, 1775, John Garrett was established and com- missioned Lieutenant of the 1st (or Lower Wilkes-Barre) Company of the 24th Regiment; in October, 1776, he was promoted Captain of the company, and in October, 1777, was promoted Major of the 24th


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assembled at Forty Fort and continued there during the whole of Thurs- day, July 2d, while Lieutenant Colonel Butler remained at Fort Wilkes- Barre and directed affairs here and in this neighborhood.


Such was the situation, when, early in the morning of Friday, July 3d, Maj. John Butler sent to Forty Fort a flag of truce in the hands of Daniel Ingersoll (who had been taken prisoner at the capitulation of Wintermute's Fort), with a demand* for an unconditional surrender, not only of Forty Fort, but of all the forts in the Valley which had not yet been surrendered, together with the public stores, and all the Continen-


Regiment. In December, 1775, he took part in the battle at "Rampart Rocks" (described on page 860 et seq.), and, according to Miner ("History of Wyoming", page 173), was "second in command" to Col. Zebulon Butler. Miner says Butler despatched Garrett "to visit Colonel Plunket with a flag, and desire to know the meaning of his extraordinary movements, and to demand his intentions in approaching Wyoming with so imposing a military array. The answer given was that he came peaceably, as an attendant on Sheriff Cook [ should be Scull], who was authorized to arrest several persons at Wyoming for violating the laws of Pennsylvania, and he trusted there would be no opposition to a measure so reasonable and pacific. Garrett reported that the enemy outnumbered the Yankees more than two to one. "The conflict will be a sharp one, boys,' said he, 'but I, for one, am ready to die, if need be, for my country.'


Major Garrett fell early in the action on Abraham's Plains, July 3, 1778, and was survived by his wife and four sons, the names of the latter being: Wait, John, Francis and Mills. The first three were soldiers in the 24th Regiment, and, with their father, took part in the battle of Wyoming-fleeing from the Valley after the capitulation of Forty Fort. Wait was probably a member of the 5th (or Hanover) Company, as he was a tax-payer in Hanover in 1776. He and Francis returned to Wilkes-Barre in August, 1778, and were in service here-certainly until October 1st-in the detachment of militia com- manded by Col. Zebulon Butler. (See Chapter XVI.) The four sons (abovementioned) of Major Gar- rett were living in Southbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut, in 1788 and in 1792. Letters of admin- istration upon the estate of Maj. John Garrett were granted by the Orphans' Court of Luzerne County in September, 1787, to John Cary of Wilkes-Barre.


A ISAAC BALDWIN, JR., was born in Litchfield, Litchfield County, Connecticut, November 12, 1753, the second child and eldest son of Isaac Baldwin, Sr., and his wife Ann, daughter of the Rev. Timothy Collins, the first minister of Litchfield. Isaac Baldwin, Sr., was born in Milford, New Haven County, Connecticut, February 22, 1716, being a descendant, in the fourth generation, of Joseph Baldwin, one of the first (1639) settlers of Milford. Isaac Baldwin, Sr., was graduated a Bachelor of Arts at Yale College in 1735-in the same class with Aaron Burr, subsequently President of the College of New Jer- sey (Princeton)-and received the degree of Master of Arts in 1778. He was first a clergyman, then a lawyer, and then a farmer. He resided in Litchfield, where he was Clerk of the County Court from 1751 till 1793. He died in 1805.




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