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 79
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* See pages 409 and 450.
¡ The original petition is document "No. 11" in the volume of MSS. entitled "Susquehannah Settlers, 1755-1796, Vol. I"-mentioned on page 29, ante.
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of and attempts to settle the Wyoming lands, the presentation of the Company's case to King George, etc., and then stated that the Company had recently "voted to proceed to take possession of and settle those lands on said Susquehanna." The petition further set forth that "whereas, for the quiet holding, possessing and enjoying those lands," it might become "necessary for the tenants in possession not only to set up and shew the undoubted prior title of this Colony [of Connecticut] to those lands as being expressly contained in the royal Charter, but also to shew that they [the Company] are well vested with the title of this Colony ;" therefore the petitioners prayed that a lease and release of the said lands be properly executed to the Company by the Colony of Connecticut. Upon this prayer the Lower House voted "No," and the Upper House "Yes," whereupon a committee of conference was appointed and the matter was continued to the May session of the Assembly .*
Joseph Chew (whose name is mentioned on page 402) wrote to Sir William Johnson from New London, Connecticut, under date of January 24, 1769, as followst :
"I was at New Haven last week when the General Assembly of this Colony were setting, and heard Colonel Dyer make his application to them for a deed of the Susque- hanna lands. In doing this he was pleased to say some things that I knew were not true, and informed several of the House of it ; and could I have staid until he came out should have told him so. I have since heard the Assembly did not choose to give any deed."
At Lebanon, Connecticut, under date of January 7, 1769, Joseph Trumbullt (mentioned on page 441), who had returned from England
* It may be remarked here that when the subject of the Susquehanna lands was brought up at the May session of the Assembly it was voted, after a short debate, to postpone action till the October session ; and at that time a committee of conference was again appointed.
See "Documentary History of New York," IV : 253.
Į JOSEPH TRUMBULL was the eldest child of Gov. Jonathan and Faith (Robinson) Trumbull of Con- necticut. John Trumbull (or "Trumble," as the surname seems to have been spelled at one time-as late, even, as 1754), the ancestor of the Connecticut family of Trumbull-one of the most distinguished families in the history of the Colony and State-came from England and settled in Rowley, Essex County, Massa- chusetts. Capt. Joseph Trumbull (born at Rowley in 1679) became an inhabitant of Suffield, Connecticut, whence he removed to Simsbury, Connecticut, about 1703. Soon afterwards he was married to Hannah Higley, a native of Windsor, Connecticut, and in 1704 they settled in the town of Lebanon, New London County, Connecticut. There Captain Trumbull became a well-to-do farmer and merchant, and continued as such until his death, June 16, 1755.
Jonathan Trumbull, third child of Capt. Joseph and Hannah (Higley) Trumbull, was born at Lebanon October 12, 1710. At the age of thirteen years he entered Harvard College, and having been graduated with distinction in 1727 he began the study of theology. About two years later he was licensed to preach, but in 1731 he resigned from the ministry in order to take the place vacated by his elder brother in the store of their father. While managing the latter's mercantile business Jonathan Trumbull studied law, ' and in 1733 was elected to represent Lebanon in the General Assembly of Connecticut. In 1739, being still a Representative from Lebanon, he was chosen Speaker of the Lower House. In 1740 he was elected an Assistant (see page 248),and to that office was subsequently re-elected twenty-two times. In the course of a few years he became Judge of the Windham County Court (Lebanon being at that time in Windham County), later an Assistant Judge of the Superior Court of the Colony, and from 1766 to 1769 Chief Judge of the latter Court. In October, 1739, he was appointed and commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the 12th Regiment, Connecticut Militia, and in October, 1753, was promoted Colonel of the regiment. He became a proprietor in The Susquehanna Company as early, at least, as 1761. (See page 393.)
In 1767 Colonel Trumbull was elected Assistant, or Deputy, Governor of Connecticut, and held the office for one year-being succeeded by Roger Sherman. In October, 1769, upon the death in office of the Hon. William Pitkin, Governor of Connecticut (see page 283), Colonel Trumbull was chosen to fill the vacancy. In the following May he was elected to serve a full term in this office, and thereafter, by suc- cessive elections, he was continued in the office of Governor until May, 1784, when, having expressed a desire to be "excused from any further service in public life," he was succeeded by Matthew Griswold, of Lyme, New London County.
Concerning Trumbull, at the time he was chosen Governor, the historian Bancroft says: "He was the model of the virtues of a rural magistrate; profoundly religious, grave in manner, discriminating in judgment, fixed in his principles." "When Trumbull became Governor," writes Frederic C. Norton (in The Connecticut Magazine, VII : 170), "the people of Connecticut were convinced that in him the Colony had found the man the people needed at that time. Before Trumbull doubt and hesitation flew in the twinkling of an eye. He threw his whole soul into the impending struggle, and while the war-clouds were not as black in Connecticut as in the neighboring Colony of Massachusetts, * * yet the crisis called for a man in whom craven frailty was an unknown quantity. * * His private opinions were quickly set aside, however, when the declaration of war came; and from that time Trumbull was labor- ing day and night for the cause for which the Colonies were making such a sacrifice. A correspondence soon ensued between Governor Trumbull and Gen. George Washington. It gradually assumed a close, personal cast, which was continued throughout and after the Revolution. In August, 1776, when Wash- ington wrote Governor Trumbull concerning the weakness of the Continental army, the latter immedi- ately called together the Council of Safety [see page[283, ante] and supplemented the five Connecticut regiments already in the field by nine more, which proved to be of incalculable benefit to the cause." Governor Trumbull took a very prominent part in forwarding the war for independence, and Washington
your obudsent humble Servant Jon Trum bull Jony
THE HON. JONATHAN TRUMBULL. A photo-reproduction of an original portrait in oils in the State Capitol at. Hartford Connecticut. By courtesy of The Connecticut Magazine.
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in the latter part of December, 1768, wrote to William Samuel Johnson, Esq., of Stratford, Connecticut, but then temporarily in London (at Lancaster Court, near St. Martin's-in-the-Fields), as follows* :
"The Susquehanna Company, at a meeting at Hartford last week [December 28th], unanimously agreed to pursue the settlements, etc. Forty men of the Company are to go and take possession of the lands by February 1st, that they may get possession, if possible, before Mr. Penn. At the 1st of June 200 more heads of families are to go on. * *
* They are all in high spirits, and no want of people to embrace the offered * * encouragements for settling. Their ardour will rather want restraining, than need any prompting. Mr. Penn, in their opinion, is now all their obstacle, and that point they think may as well be determined now as ever." *
By the middle of January, 1769, the Executive, or Standing, Com- mittee of The Susquehanna Company, aided by the special committee
placed great reliance on him and frequently consulted him. To this habit, and his phrase-often repeated, when in doubt-"Let us hear what Brother Jonathan says !" has been traced the name which stands (though not so generally now as "Uncle Sam") for a personification of the United States.
Jonathan Trumbull was married December 9, 1735, to Faith, daughter of the Rev. John and Hannah ( Wiswall) Robinson of Duxbury, Massachusetts. She was born at Duxbury December 11, 1718, and died at Lebanon, Connecticut, May 29, 1780. Governor Trumbull died at Lebanon August 17, 1785.
Jonathan and Faith (Robinson) Trumbull were the parents of two daughters and four sons. Faith Trumbull, the elder daughter, became the wife of Gen. Jedidiah Huntington of the Revolutionary army, whose father, Gen. Jabez Huntington, was a second-cousin of the Rev. Enoch Huntington whose wife was Mary Gray. (See page 293.) Mary Trumbull, the second daughter, was married February 14, 1771, to Col. William Williams, mentioned on page 283. Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., the second son (born March 26, 1740), was graduated with honors at Harvard College in 1759. He was married March 26, 1767, to Eunice, daughter of Ebenezer Backus of Norwich, Connecticut. When the Revolutionary War began he was a member of the General Assembly of Connecticut. By the Continental Congress he was appointed Pay- master General for the Northern Department of the army. This office he filled with great credit until 1781, when he succeeded Alexander Hamilton as private secretary and first aide-de-camp to General Wash- ington. In this position he continued till the end of the war, when he returned to Connecticut. Later he was a Representative in Congress from his native State and became the second Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1795 he was elected to the United States Senate, but resigned the office in 1796 to become Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut. This office he held two years, when he was elected Gover- nor to suceeed Oliver Wolcott, mentioned on page 285. He was Governor for eleven consecutive years. He died at Lebanon August 7, 1809. David, third son of Jonathan and Faith Trumbull, was an Assistant Commissary in the Continental army during the Revolutionary War. His son Joseph became a Repre- sentative in Congress, and was Governor of Connecticut in 1849 and '50. John Trumbull, youngest son of Governor Jonathan, was born at Lebanon June 6, 1756. He served in the Continental army, and became Assistant Adjutant General, with the rank of Colonel, on the staff of General Washington. After the war he studied painting in London under Benjamin West, and on the Continent. In 1804 he settled as a por- trait painter in New York, where he continued to make his home until his death, November 10, 1843. A valuable collection of his paintings is owned by Yale University, and upon the walls of the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington are four of his largest productions : "The Declaration of Independence," "The Surrender of Burgoyne," "The Surrender of Cornwallis" and "The Resignation of Washington."
JOSEPH TRUMBULL, the eldest child of Gov. Jonathan and Faith Trumbull, was born at Lebanon March 11, 1737. He was graduated at Harvard College a Bachelor of Arts in 1756, and three years later received the degree of A. M. Some time after leaving college he became connected with his father's mercantile business, and later became a partner in the business. In 1763, 1764, and probably later, the firm was Trumbull, Fitch and Trumbull-composed of Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., Col. Eleazar Fitch (men- tioned on page 448) and Joseph Trumbull-and they carried on an extensive business, trading with the West Indies and elsewhere, and having warehouses at Lebanon, Norwich and other places in eastern Connecticut. Joseph Trumbull's sojourn in London in 1763 and '64, as noted on page 441, was in relation to the business of his firm. He was not, however, at that time, as erroneously stated hereinbefore, an attorney-at-law. In May, 1763, he was established and commissioned by the General Assembly of Con- necticut Captain of the 1st Company in the 12th Regiment of the Colony. In 1767, '69, '70, '71, '72 and '73 Captain Trumbull, with his brother-in-law William Williams, previously mentioned, represented Lebanon in the General Assembly. Early in 1768 he again made a business trip to London, returning to Lebanon in December of that year, as hereinbefore noted. Having been for some time engaged in the study of law, he was admitted to the Bar of Windham County in the Summer of 1769. The following is a copy of the original certificate of his admission-now preserved among the unpublished papers of Joseph Trumbull in the collections of The Connecticut Historical Society.
"WINDHAM, Ss. County Court. June Term, I769.
"This Court being properly and fully satisfied of the integrity and good understanding of Mr. Joseph Trumbull of Lebanon, in Windham County, and of his skill in the law : upon his motion do admit said Joseph Trumbull an Attorney-at-Law, and the said Trumbull appeared in this Court and was sworn accordingly. Witness the seal of the County hereunto affixed.
[Seal]
"Teste-SAMUEL GRAY, Clerk."
In October, 1770, Gurdon Saltonstall and Joseph Trumbull were appointed by the General Assembly to collect all the public letters and other papers relating to the affairs of the Colony of Connecticut-which properly belonged to the Colony-and arrange and file the same. In May, 1771, Col. William Williams and Captain Trumbull were appointed by the Assembly "to collect all such evidences and exhibits as may be found of consequence for ascertaining the boundary-line between Massachusetts and Connecticut." In 1774 Captain Trumbull was appointed an alternate delegate to the First Continental Congress (see page 354), but Roger Sherman-who was also an alternate-performed the duties of the office. At that time Captain Trumbull was located at Norwich, Connecticut, in the practise of his profession. July 19, 1775, he was appointed and commissioned by the Congress Commissary General of Issues of the Continental army, with the rank of Colonel. In this office he served until June, 1777, when he resigned and was suc- ceeded by Col. Charles Stewart, as mentioned on page 459. November 27, 1777, Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates, Col. Joseph Trumbull, and Richard Peters, Esq. (mentioned in the note on page 262), were elected by Congress members of the new "Board of War." "Maj. Gen. Thomas Mifflin and Col. Timothy Pickering were the other members of this Board, whose province it was to manage certain military affairs now en- trusted to the War Department. Colonel Trumbull performed the duties of this office until April, 1778, when, on account of ill health, he resigned and went to Lebanon, where he died July 23, 1778. Colonel Trumbull was married in March, 1777, to Amelia, only daughter of Col. Eliphalet Dyer. (See page 394.) No children resulted from this union.
* See the original letter among the unpublished papers of William Samuel Johnson in the possession of The Connecticut Historical Society.
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appointed to superintend and manage the affairs of the "Forty" (see page 469), had enlisted forty proprietors who agreed to proceed, either personally or by hired substitutes, to the much-coveted Wyoming lands. About the 20th of January the nucleus of the party, composed largely, if not entirely, of residents of the counties of Windham and New London, set out on horseback from the town of Windham. Their course lay to Hartford and thence through Litchfield County, Connecticut, into Dutchess County, New York, where they were joined by Simeon Draper and William Walsworth of Beekman Precinct, William Buck of Amenia Precinct, and perhaps some others. Continuing their journey they passed through Goshen, in Orange County, New York, where they were joined by Thomas Bennet. Striking the Delaware River in the vicinity of the present town of Milford, Pike County, Pennsylvania (see map in Chapter XI), they journeyed down along the river, through the "Mini- sinks" (see note, page 189), to the locality where dwelt the Shoemakers, McDowells and De Puis, and there, being joined by Benjamin Shoemaker, Sr., and his son Elijah, the "Forty"-being now complete in number- journeyed in a north-westerly direction, over the various ranges of moun- tains described on pages 44 and 45, till they struck the Lackawanna River a few miles above its mouth.
During the past eighty or ninety years there have been published various lists of names purporting to be those of the "First Forty" Wyo- ming settlers of 1769. Owing to the dissimilarity of those lists, and to the fact that it has been claimed for a number of early Wyoming settlers whose names are not in the lists referred to that they, also, were among the "First Forty," there has been much doubt for many years as to just who composed that little band of pioneers. Of all the published lists which the present writer has seen the one that is nearest completeness and correctness is a copy of an original "True list, or roll, of the Forty first settlers on the West Side of the Easternmost Branch of the Susquehanna River." This list is dated June 28, 1770, and is signed by "Andrew Metcalf, clerk to said Forty." The original document was in the pos- session of the late Steuben Jenkins, Esq., and the copy just referred to was furnished by him in 1886 for publication in Dr. F. C. Johnson's Historical Record, I: 70, where it may be seen. This list, however, is not a list of the "First Forty," but-as its title states-of the "Forty first settlers" who, in 1770, claimed to be the proprietors of the town- ship of Kingston, or the "Forty Township" as it was then called.
Some of the original "Forty" were, as previously intimated, the hired substitutes of bona fide proprietors in The Susquehanna Company, and by the year 1770 their principals had stepped into their places. Also, by that time, some of the original forty proprietors had assigned their rights in the "Forty Township" to new-comers, who were on the ground in 1770 and were recognized as proprietors in the township. To illustrate : In the list of 1770 printed in the Historical Record appear the names of Zebulon Butler, Nathaniel Wales, Andrew Metcalf and Parshall Terry. None of these men was of the "First Forty." According to an original account-book kept by Zebulon Butler, and now in the possession of The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, he sailed in his sloop Anne from his home in Lyme, Connecticut, for the Island of Antigua just about the time that the "First Forty" arrived in Wyoming Valley ; and he did not return from this voyage until early in
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April, 1769 .* The reasons for the appearance of the names of Nathaniel Wales and Andrew Metcalf in the aforementioned list are given in Chapter XI, post, in certain extracts from the recorded proceedings of "a meeting of the Committee of Settlers on the Susquaha Lands July 19th 1770." Parshall Terry, in his affidavit mentioned on pages 403 and 404, states : "That he went [to Wyoming], in company with more than 100 others, some time the last of April or beginning of May [1769]; that upon their arrival at Wyoming they found near fifty of The Susquehanna Company who had gone on early the same year ; that the deponent was admitted as one of the first forty."
With much care, and at a cost of considerable time and patience, the present writer has compiled from original authentic records the fol- lowing list of the "First Forty" settlers of 1769, which he believes to be accurate.
Atherton, Asahel
Elderkin, Vine
Roberts, Elias
Belding, Ezra
Follett, Benjamin
Shoemaker, Benjamin-Sr.
Bennet, Thomas
Frink, Joseph
Shoemaker, Elijah
Bingham, Silas
Gardner, Stephen
Smith, Oliver
Brockway, Richard
Gaylord, Samuel
Smith, Timothy
Buck, Elijah
Hall, Joshua
Tripp, Henry Dow
Buck, William
Harding, Stephen
Tripp, Isaac
Comstock, John
Harris, Peter
Vanorman, Rudolph Brink
Davis, Reuben
Jearum, Zerubbabel
Walsworth, William
Dean, Jonathan
Jenkins, John
Westover, Theophilus
Denison, Nathan
Jenkins, Stephen
Wightman, Allen
Draper, Simeon
Lothrop, Cyprian
Yale, Benjamin
Dyer, Thomas
Peirce, Timothy
Yale, Job
Pendleton, Benajah
About the beginning of February, 1769, Sir Henry Moore, Gover- nor of New York, transmitted to Governor Penn of Pennsylvania a detailed accountt of the proceedings of The Susquehanna Company at its December meeting ; and on February 6th Charles Stewart and John Jennings, at Wyoming, wrote to Governor Penn as followst :
"We have received information that upwards of 100 New England men were last Saturday at Nicholas Depue's? ; that they were to set off from thence this [Monday] morning for this place, with intent to turn us out of possession. *
* * We have not learned the names of any of them except William Buck, who was formerly here, with those who were killed by the Indians. * * At present we have only ten men here ; the others are returned home after building their houses. We still flatter ourselves this affair will end without blows, as we have certainly weakened their party in this County by getting the Van Campens and Shoemakers to take lands in the manors [of Stoke and Sunbury]."
At Easton, Pennsylvania, under date of February 7, 1769, Lewis Gordon, || lawyer and Justice of the Peace, wrote to Governor Penn as followsT :
"A few hours ago I received a letter by express from Messrs. Stewart and Jennings, now at Wyoming, intimating that they had intelligence from the Minisinks that a large body of New England men were to set off from thence for Wyoming, in order to take forcible possession of those lands. * * * This moment the Constable of the Minisinks is come down to me, and informs there are at least between forty and fifty New England men
* For a more detailed account of this voyage of Captain Butler to Antigua, see "The Harvey Book," page 615.
+ See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IX : 569. Į See ibid., 573.
¿ Nicholas De Pui, who lived at "The Minisinks," is here referred to.
| LEWIS GORDON was a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, who, after the battle of Culloden, in 1746, im- migrated to Philadelphia, where he practised law and served as a clerk in the office of William Peters, mentioned in the note on page 262. The new county of Northampton (see note, page 254) had hardly been erected when Lewis Gordon removed to Easton from Philadelphia, and was the first attorney to be ad- mitted to practise (June 16, 1752) in the Courts of Northampton County. He was Clerk of the Courts and a Justice of the Peace for many years at Easton ; he also followed surveying, and served as land-agent for the Proprietaries. He died at Easton in 1777. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth, became the wife of James Taylor, son of George Taylor of Easton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
T See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," IX : 572.
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in his neighborhood, on their journey to Wyoming; and that they have a great many friends amongst them [that is, amongst the inhabitants at the Minisinks]. I shall, as soon as I can learn any of the New England people's names, issue a warrant against them."
Governor Penn having laid the three last-mentioned cominunica- tions before the Provincial Council that body advised the Governor to write forthwith to Gov. William Pitkin of Connecticut, which he did on the 13th of February, in part as follows* :
"I have received certain advice that, in consequence of resolutions entered into by a society of people in your Province, a number are set out with a design to enter upon and settle a part of the River Susquehannah. When I consider that like atttempts have been made heretofore, and how often the same wild scheme has been disavowed by your predecessors, *
* I cannot give credit to the report that the adventurers have the countenance of your Government. * * *
"These purchases were always looked upon by the Six Nations as private and fraud- ulent, and inconsistent with their prior engagements to the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, and accordingly the settlements made by the people of your Province at Wyoming were highly resented and complained of by the Indians, who, at length, proceeded to the most fatal extremities. * * So that, in whatever light the matter is considered, it is against these rash and inconsiderate people, who, by their lawless intrusion, would again disturb the peace and tranquillity of this Government. You may well imagine that, after the Proprietaries have paid so large a consideration for this country-so evidently within the limits of their Charter-and have settled a number of people upon it (which I must inform you is truly the case), this Government cannot be tame spectators of an illegal forcible possession, taken by people who have not the least color of right.
"The consequence, therefore, of these deluded people's persisting in their un- warrantable designs, must be a scene of violence and confusion, which all good men would wish to avert, and which it is the peculiar duty of those who are in public stations to prevent. I cannot suppose that the Government of Connecticut would encourage a procedure so unreasonable and illegal, and big with mischievous consequences, which I would rather hope they would use the utmost of their power to prevent ; and it is under this expectation that I now apply to your Honor, requesting you to enquire into the matter, to place it in a proper light to the people of your Colony and to use your power and influence to prevent the many fatal consequences which must flow from their pursuit of any illegal or violent measures."
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