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 early Wyoming Valley history, together with many biographical sketches and much genealogical material. Volume I > Part 73
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May 8, 1764, Governor Colden of New York wrote to the Earl of Halifax :
"By the last letters which I received from Sir William Johnson he makes no doubt of a peace with all the western Indians; and that the Delawares and Shawanese only remain in hostility-against whom he has sent several parties of the Six Nations, who, he expects, will effectually chastise them."
On the 27th of the following June Sir William Johnson arrived at Oswego, on the shore of Lake Ontario, with about 550 Indians of various tribes, and was received by upwards of one hundred Caughnawagas and others whom he had sent forward some days previously. An officer of this expedition writing* from Oswego under date of June 28, 1764, said :
"We are to be joined by 300 Indians of Oneida, Tuscarora and adjacent villages ; so that on Sir William's setting out for Niagara there will be at least 900 Indians (Mohawks, Caughnawagas, Oneidas, Onondagas, [Eastern] Senecas, Cayugas, Tusca- roras, Nanticokes and others) to accompany the troops [numbering 1,196]-which, with 140 now at Niagara, and those who are expected to join us there from the upper nations, will make a larger body than has ever been known to take the field in our favor. A party of Indians has brought in two scalps from the Shawanese, and all our Indians express a great desire to go against those people. The Senecas have sent a great number of English prisoners, who are to be delivered up to us on our way to Niagara, agreeable to their late engagements."
Schoolcraft sayst that three vessels were employed to transport the heavy stores of this expedition from Oswego to the mouth of the Niagara River, and that the troops were conveyed in an immense num- ber of bateaux, especially built for the purpose-each boat being sufficiently capacious to carry twenty-seven men. "The Indians, in their canoes, followed the extended train of bateaux along the Ontario coasts. They arrived at Niagara in the beginning of July. A large number of Indian tribes had been summoned to a council by Sir William Johnson, who had collected 1,700 Indians at Niagara. Never had such a body of Indians been congregated under his auspices. The council was held in Fort Niagara. Johnson had brought with him the "Preliminary Articles of a 'Treaty of Peace'.} The [Western] Senecas, however, whose conduct had been equivocal during the war, did not make their . appearance, although their deputies had signed [with Sayenqueraghta] the 'Preliminary Articles' at Johnson Hall. Sir William sent to their villages on the Genesee repeated messages for them, which were uni- formly answered by promises. But promises would not serve, and con- sequently Colonel Bradstreet authorized the Baronet to send a final message, announcing that if they did not present themselves in five days he would send a force against them and destroy their villages. This brought them to terms, and they immediately attended the con- vention and, at the same time, surrendered their prisoners. A formal treaty of peace was then concluded."
Shortly before Sir William Johnson's expedition to Niagara was organized, Indian affairs on the western frontiers of Pennsylvania had reached a crisis. The Provincial Government, in consequence, "agreed, in order to give encouragement for a more successful carrying on of the war on the frontiers, to offer a reward for Indian scalps-provided the
* See his letter in The New London Gazette (New London, Connecticut), July 27, 1764.
+ In "History of the Indian Tribes of the United States," VI : 253.
See page 437.
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project should be approved by Sir William Johnson." The Baronet was communicated with, and under date of June 18, 1764, he replied : "I cannot but approve of your design to gratify the desire of the people in your Province by offering a bounty on scalps." Whereupon, at a meeting of Governor Penn and the Council held July 7th, it was resolved to issue a proclamation-to be published in the Pennsylvania Gazette-offering a reward of 150 dollars for every male Indian prisoner who should be delivered to the Government; 138 dollars for every female Indian prisoner ; 134 dollars for the scalp of every male and 50 dollars for the scalp of every female Indian.
In The New London Gazette of September 14, 1764, was printed the following letter from the city of New York, dated September 10th.
"The white people that were delivered up to Sir William Johnson at Niagara arrived here last Monday [September 3d] from Albany, and are now in a room in the barracks of this city. Benjamin Sheppard was taken the 15th of October at Wyoming, Pennsylvania, by the famous 'Captain Bull' (now in our jail), in company with Daniel Baldwin and Jane his wife, Abraham Baldwin, John and Emanuel Hower and one Isaac Hollister. The Indians burnt Daniel Baldwin, and his wife died of hunger at the Genesee town last Winter. John Hower attempted to make his escape, but was found dead in the woods, having lost his way. Emanuel Hower got off. Abraham Baldwin was murdered, and Sheppard would have been murdered also had not 'Captain Bull' persuaded the Indians to the contrary ; however, 'Bull' with his own hands gave him a severe whipping. Sheppard says there are yet a great many prisoners at the Indian towns."
As to what was ultimately done with "Captain Bull" and the thirteen other Indian prisoners who were confined in the jail at New York-from early in March until, at least, the middle of September, 1764-we have been unable to learn. We are able, however, to give the following interesting account of the experiences of Isaac Hollister (previously mentioned), while in captivity among the Indians. Upon his release in 1767 Hollister wrote a "Brief Narrative of the Captivity of Isaac Hollister, who was taken by the Indians, A. D. 1763." This was published the same year at New London, Connecticut, in pamphlet form, and, so far as known, the only copy now in existence is in The Library of Congress, at Washington. Prior to the production of their respective works none of the early historians of Wyoming had seen or read this narrative. The writer, after describing the descent upon the settlement at Mill Creek October 15, 1763, by the Indians, and their murder of his father and his brother, says :
"The Indians, after they had burnt and destroyed all they could, marched off, and carried me up the Susquehanna River 150 miles to a town called by them Wethouounque; and when we had arrived there they tied me with a rope about my neck, and an Indian was ordered to lead me while others beat me with their fists. This they continued to do until I ran about a quarter of a mile. When I arrived at one of their huts they tied me to one of the spars of the hut, where I remained all that night. The next day they let me loose, but would not let me go out of their sight. Here I tarried about three months, in which time I underwent many hardships, and had like to have famished with hunger and cold-having nothing to cover me but an old coat and an old blanket which was almost worn out. My employment was to fetch wood every day, upon my back, half a mile, which made me almost weary of my life.
"At this place was brought a young Dutchman, who was taken at the same time and place that I was, and when we had convenient opportunity we laid our heads together to contrive an escape. To this end we stole everything we could, without being discovered, and hid it in the hollow of an old log. It was about the latter end of March, as near as I can judge, * * * when we had got together about forty ears of corn and six cakes of bread each, about the bigness of a hand. * * The next day about noon we (the Dutchman and I) were sent after wood at the usual place, when, instead of returning back, we set out with a design to reach the nearest English settle- ment we could. We ran all the afternoon until evening, when we made a stop and built a fire, where we remained during the night."
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These two fugitives traveled for a number of days, during which they suffered many hardships on account of hunger and cold-the weather being extremely severe. Finally the Dutchman succumbed and died, and, says Hollister :
"The evening before his death he told me that if he died first he would not have me afraid to eat of his flesh, 'for I am determined,' said he, 'to eat of yours if you should die before me.' * * * I thought the absolute necessity I was in would excuse my pursuing the advice he gave me, of eating his flesh as soon as he died. I went immedi- ately about performing the disagreeable operation, and cut off five or six pounds of his legs and thighs. I left the rest and made the best way I could down the creek [which emptied into the Susquehanna]. I had not traveled but four days before I arrived at an Indian town, where I was soon discovered ; and being taken up by them they conveyed me to one of their huts."
Hollister was given parched corn to eat at this village, but on the day following his arrival there the Indians vacated the place and removed to the very town whence Hollister had escaped. Here many of the Indians wanted to burn him at the stake, but a council being held it was concluded that on account of his youth he should not be put to death, but be whipped on his naked body. The next day, having been stripped of all his clothing, he was ordered to run the gantlet .* He had run about 600 feet-meanwhile being switched with whips and thumped with clubs-when an uncommonly vicious blow felled him, gashed and bleeding, to the ground. Thereupon an old squaw ran to his relief and dragged him to her hut. Proceeding with his narrative Hollister says :
"I tarried here about fourteen days, and then they sent me to the Senecas, about 150 miles off.t I lived here one year, in which time I suffered almost insurmountable hardships. For the most part of the time we had nothing but ground-nuts and herbs to subsist upon in Summer, and red plums in Winter. Several of the Indians actually starved to death."
From this place Hollister was carried to Allegany, in south-western New York, and thence to Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg, Pennsylvania). There he remained about one month, when he was taken down the Ohio River some 300 miles to an Indian town, where he was kept three or four months-in which time he was well cared for and provided with necessary food and clothing. Then there came a messenger from Sir William Johnson with an order that all prisoners should be released without delay. After the Indians had stripped Hollister of almost everything he had he was turned over to a guide, who conducted him to Fort Pitt, where he was delivered up to the commanding officer. At that place he remained eleven months; then he was sent to Phila- delphia, and, after three months spent there, finally reached New Lon- don-to the great joy of his mother, brothers and sisters, from whom he had been separated for three years and six months.
Early in October, 1764, Colonel Dyer returned home (as mentioned on page 393) from his mission to England in behalf of The Susquehanna Company and The Delaware Company. During his stay in London he had worked faithfully and earnestly in behalf of his clients. Stone, in his "Poetry and History of Wyoming" (note, page 143), says that he "obtained a collection of Colonel Dyer's correspondence while he was abroad upon this mission. His letters prove his diligence and his per- severance in prosecuting his business." During nearly all the time that Colonel Dyer was in London Maj. Gen. Phineas Lyman (men-
* See page 150.
+ Evidently the Western Senecas, in the Genesee region previously referred to.
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tioned on page 281) and Capt. Joseph Trumbull* of Connecticut were there-both of them capable lawyers, and shareholders in The Susque- hanna Company-and they rendered Colonel Dyer all the assistance possible. A case stated was prepared and presented, for an opinion, to four English lawyers of high authority, viz .: Edward Thurlow, then King's Counsel and later, as Baron Thurlow, Lord Chancelor of Eng- land ; Alexander Wedderburn, t Richard Jacksont and John Dunning- the last two then eminent as Crown lawyers.
The opinion given (in writing) to Colonel Dyer and his associates in London, early in 1764, by the learned counsel abovementioned, was as follows§ :
"We are of opinion that the words 'actually possessed and enjoyed' do not extend to lands on the west side of the Dutch settlements which were at the time of the grant of James I in a wilderness state, though divided from the English settlements by the actual possession of the Dutch. And that the grant to the Council of Plymouth did not mean to except in favor of any one anything to the westward of such Plantations. The agree- ment between the Colony of Connecticut and the Province of New York|| can extend no further than to settle the boundaries between the respective parties, and has no effect upon other claims that either of them had in other parts ; and as the Charter to Connecticut was granted but eighteen years before that to William Penn, there is no ground to contend that the Crown could, at that period, make an effectual grant to him of that country which had been so recently granted to others. But, if the country had been actually settled under the latter [the Penn] grant, it would now be a matter of considerable doubt whether the right of the occupiers, or the title under which they hold, could be impeached by a prior grant without settlement.
"In case the Governor and Company [of Connecticut] shall, in point of prudence, think it expedient to make their claim and support it, it will be proper-either amicably and in concurrence with the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, or, in case of the refusal of those Proprietaries, without them-to apply to the King in Council, praying His Majesty to appoint Commissioners in America to decide the question."
After a delay of some months a carefully-drawn document (endorsed "Petition of Eliphalet Dyer, Esq., and others, praying His Majesty will
* See a subsequent chapter for a sketch of his life.
+ ALEXANDER WEDDERBURN was born at Edinburgh February 13, 1733, the son of a Scottish Judge. He was called to the English Bar in 1757, and in 1762 entered Parliament. Having distinguished himself as a lawyer he was appointed Solicitor General in 1771, when he left the opposition to become a strenuous supporter of Lord North. In April, 1774, Edmund Burke delivered in the House of Commons his cele- brated speech on American taxation. Wedderburn spoke in reply to Burke, and, among other things, said : "I feel the warmest zeal to vindicate the motives and the conduct of that great Minister [George Grenville] who first planned the measures with regard to America [see the succeeding foot-note], to which, unjustly, so much mischief has been imputed." About this same time Wedderburn, as Solicitor General, took the chief part in the famous examination of Benjamin Franklin before His Majesty's Privy Council, during which he abused and insulted Franklin-for which he was hanged and burned in effigy at Phila- delphia in May, 1774.
Wedderburn supported the American war policy of the Government, and in 1780 was made Chief Justice as Lord Loughborough. He joined the administration under Pitt in 1793, and succeeded Lord Thurlow as Lord Chancelor-from which office he retired in 1801 with the title of Earl of Rosslyn. He was the author of a work on the management of prisons. He died January 3, 1805, whereupon George III made the not very complimentary remark : "He has not left a greater knave behind him in my dominions !"
Į RICHARD JACKSON, of London, England, was a son of Richard Jackson of Dublin, Ireland. Novem- ber 22, 1751, he was admitted to the Inner Temple, and became a Bencher in 1770. In March, 1760, he was appointed by the Governor and Company of the Colony of Connecticut Agent and Attorney for the Colony, "with power to receive all money granted by Parliament and ordered to be paid to the Colony of Connecticut." He still held this office in 1764, in which year he was also created Standing Counsel for the South Sea Company. In 1765 he was a Member of Parliament, and in that year warned the House of Commons against applying the Stamp Act to the American Colonies. About that time he was appointed private secretary to the Hon. George Grenville-Chancelor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the Treasury-the famous statesman who passed the Stamp Act (mentioned above, as well as in the preced- ing note), which first drove the American Colonies to resistance. In 1767 a Bill was introduced in the House of Commons providing for the establishing of a general civil list in all the American Colonies. Jackson opposed this, claiming that its object was to render all the public officers and magistrates in America independent of the people. The royal Governors sent to America, he observed, were often needy, unprincipled men, and always dependent for the duration of their functions on the pleasure of the Crown. Only one other member of the House supported Jackson in his opposition, and the Bill was passed. In October, 1765, Richard Jackson gave £100 towards paying the expense of finishing the Chapel of Yale College. Dr. Johnson, in speaking of him, called him "All-knowing" Jackson. He died in London May 6, 1787.
§ See "Connecticut Colonial Records," XIV : 447.
| November 30, 1664, His Majesty's Commissioners, appointed "to decide the bounds betwixt His High- ness the Duke of York and the Connecticut Charter," fixed, with the approbation and assent of the Agents of Connecticut, a line east of the Hudson River to be the western bounds of the said Colony. In 1683 the Commissioners of Connecticut, with the Governor of New York, fixed upon a new line, which, it was declared, "shall be the western bounds of the said Colony of Connecticut." This constituted the New York-Connecticut boundary-line in 1764.
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be pleased to grant to them sundry lands purchased by them from the Indians near the Rivers Susquehanna and Delaware in America") was presented to the King in Council July 11, 1764, and having been read was duly referred to a committee. Five days later an authenticated copy of the petition was served upon the Hon. Thomas Penn, in London. That copy is now preserved (MS. No. 67) among the "Penn Manu- scripts," mentioned on page 30, ante ; and as no part of the petition has heretofore been printed, we give the following extracts from it.
"The humble petition of ELIPHALET DYER, Esq., on behalf of himself and of sundry other persons, purchasers of several large tracts of land on or near the Rivers Susquehannah and Delaware in North America, commonly called by the names of Sus- quehannah and Delaware Companies-amounting to the number of 2,000 persons, or thereabouts-
"SHEWETH : That your petitioner's constituents did, in the years 1754 and 1755, for a full and valuable consideration, and without any the least imposition, fraud or deceit, purchase from the sachems of sundry Indian tribes, in the form and according to the usage constantly practised by the said Indian tribes, considerable tracts of land lying between the 41° and 43º of North Latitude, near to the said Rivers Susquehannah and Delaware-as the same lands are more particularly described and set forth in the said purchase deeds in your petitioner's custody. That the principal view and intent of mak- ing such purchases was to cement and fix the Indians in those parts in friendship with Your Majesty's subjects, and to further the security as well as cultivation of those parts of Your Majesty's dominions. And, in order to carry this plan into execution, it was intended and proposed that an humble application should be made to Your Majesty's late royal Grandfather, King George II, for his royal Charter for erecting and settling a new Colony upon the said purchased lands-in such form and under such regulations as should seem most expedient to His Majesty's royal wisdom. * * *
"That the breaking out of the war soon after, both in Europe and America, put a stop to the abovementioned intended application by your petitioner's constituents to his said late Majesty ; but soon after the conclusion of the late Peace the said Companies resumed the consideration of their respective purchases and of the means of establishing themselves therein. In consequence thereof great numbers of The Delaware Company repaired unto, and for some time continued upon, that tract purchased of the Delaware Indians, with whom they lived in the most perfect peace and harmony ; and The Sus- quehannah Company were moving forward to take possession of and settle on their said purchased lands, when a letter was received by the Governor of Connecticut from the Right Hon. the Lord Egremont, then one of Your Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, dated January 26, 1763, importing that it was Your Majesty's pleasure that the said Governor should exert every legal authority * * to prevent the prosecution of
any such settlements. * * That the Governor of Connecticut having immediately communicated to the said Companies Your Majesty's said orders, they, in testimony of their entire submission and acquiescence therein, unanimously agreed that no person whatsoever belonging to the said Companies should enter or make any settlement upon any of the said purchased lands, until the state of their case should be laid before Your Majesty and Your Majesty's royal pleasure should be further known therein.
"That the several purchases made by the said two Companies lying very near and contiguous to each other, they have agreed to unite in their humble suit and applica- tion to Your Majesty, and have deputed your petitioner their Agent to lay a state of their case at Your Majesty's feet. Your petitioner, therefore, most humbly beseeches Your Majesty, on the behalf of the said two Companies, his constituents, that he may be per- mitted to lay before Your Majesty in Council, or in any other manner as to Your Majesty's wisdom shall seem meet, the fullest proof of the validity, justice and fairness of the said several purchases, and the perfect satisfaction and acquiescence therein by the Indians from whom the same was made.
"And your petitioner also most humbly beseeches Your Majesty that, upon the renunciation of the Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut of all right and title to the said purchased lands as lying within the limits of their Charter, Your Majesty will be most graciously pleased to grant the said purchased lands to your petitioner's said con- stituents, and to constitute and erect them into A NEW COLONY, or Settlement, by such name, in such form and under such regulations and restrictions as to Your Majesty in your royal wisdom shall seem most fitting and convenient." * *
From this petition we learn that the ostensible object, or project, of the two Connecticut land companies was to have their contiguous territories, comprehended in the respective purchases made by the com- panies, combined and erected into a new Colony. This was in line with the resolution adopted by The Susquehanna Company in May,
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1755 (see page 306, ante), and which, it is presumed, was duly laid before the General Assembly of Connecticut and became the basis for its action as recorded on page 307. The resolution of the Assembly at that time, however, referred only to The Susquehanna Company. The Delaware Company had then been organized but a short while, and beyond its own proprietors its existence was scarcely known; besides, its purchase of the lands along the Delaware was not effected until just about the time the Assembly acted on the memorial of The Susque- hanna Company. (See page 293.) It will be seen, by a glance at the "Map of a Part of Pennsylvania," in Chapter XI, that the combined area of the Delaware and Susquehanna Purchases would have made a very respectable Colony-territorially considered ; considerably larger, in fact, than either the State of Connecticut or the State of Massachu- setts to-day, and very much larger than Rhode Island or Delaware or Maryland or some of the other States that might be named.
The petition of Colonel Dyer lay buried and, evidently, forgotten- among the documents of the committee of the Privy Council to which it had been referred-up to the time of the Colonel's departure from London for Connecticut. How much longer it lay in that condition we are unable to state. January 16, 1765, a meeting of The Susquehanna Company was held at Hartford (the first meeting that had taken place since May 18, 1763-according to the records of the Company), when Colonel Dyer made a full report of his efforts in behalf of the Company during his eleven months' stay in England. Thereupon John Gardiner, Esq., of the Inner Temple, London, was appointed by the Company its agent in Great Britain, "to appear at Court to prosecute the Company's case," etc. ; and the next month the sum of £200 was transmitted to him "to be improved in forwarding the cause of the Company." Some months later Gardiner reported to the Company that, in connection with his strenuous efforts to forward its cause, the following-named persons had been by him "admitted as proprietors of the Company," to wit : "Sir Herbert Lloyd, Baronet ; Howell Gwynne, of Garth, Esquire ; Mr. John Augustine Leavy, Attorney at Law; George Wingfield, of the Inner Temple, Esquire; Mr. William Powell, Attorney at Law"- and others.
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