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 80
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A few days subsequently to the despatching of the foregoing letter the Pennsylvania Assembly passed and the Governor approved an Act- with a preamble similar to that in the Act of February 3, 1768 (see page 447, ante)-providing for the punishment, by a fine of £500 and twelve months' imprisonment, of any person or persons who, singly or in com- panies, should presume to settle upon any lands within the boundaries of the Province of Pennsylvania not purchased from the Indians; or who should make, or cause to be made, any survey of any part thereof ; or who should mark or cut down any trees thereon, with design to settle or appropriate the same to his or their own use or that of any other per- son. This Act, being without limitation, would expire only on the ex- tinguishment of all the Indian titles.
Five days after the enactment of the abovementioned law the Sec- retary of the Provincial Land Office issued an official advertisement to the effect that on the 3d day of April, 1769, the Land Office would be opened "to receive applications from all persons inclinable to take up lands in the new Purchase, upon the terms of £5 sterling per hundred acres, and one penny per acre, per annum, quit-rent." It was stated, further, that no person would be "allowed to take up more than 300 acres, without the special license of the Proprietaries or the Governor." The surveys upon all applications were "to be made and returned within six months, and the whole purchase money paid at one payment." All persons were "warned and cautioned not to apply for more land" than they would be able to pay for within the time given for that purpose.
* See "Pennsylvania Archives," Fourth Series, III : 406.
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Returning now to the "First Forty" pioneers of 1769, whom we left a short while since near the confluence of the Susquehanna and the Lackawanna, we find that they proceeded down the left bank of the Susquehanna to Mill Creek, where they arrived in the afternoon of Wednesday, February 8th. Much to their surprise they found that, on or near the site of the old block-house erected by the New England settlers of 1762-'63, the Pennsylvanians had built a new building (as mentioned on page 460); that in the vicinity several small cabins had been erected, and that Charles Stewart, Esq., John Jennings, Sheriff of Northampton County, Nathan Ogden, a brother of Capt. Amos Ogden, Capt. Alexander Patterson,* of Northampton County, and some six or seven other men were in possession of these improvements. The "Forty" were in doubt as to what they should do in the circumstances, but they finally decided to retrace their steps a short distance and encamp for the night. This they did. Here we will introduce some extracts from an original affidavit, never before published. This affidavit, which is in the handwriting of Col. Jedidiah Elderkin, was sworn to October 20, 1782, before Hezekiah Bissell, a Justice of the Peace in Windham County, Connecticut, by "Lieut. Col. Thomas Dyer" and "Capt. Vine Elderkin," previously mentioned. The document itself is now among the "Trumbull Papers" referred to on page 29, ante, paragraph "(6)."
"That towards the end of January, 1769, they [the deponents], with about thirty- six other persons, set off from Windham-being proprietors in the Susquehanna Purchase under the Government of Connecticut-with instructions from the Committee of The Sus- quehanna Company (so called) not to fight or contend in arms with any that might be sent against them from the Government of Pennsilvania ; but with a purpose and design to begin a settlement at a place called WYOMING MEADOWS. That in the month of Feb- ruary following they arrived on said lands at a place called Mill Creek, and, before they had opportunity even to settle themselves for the first night after their arrival, they received a letter from the Sheriff of Northampton County addressed to ISAAC TRIPP, Esq., BENJAMIN FOLLETT and VINE ELDERKIN-all of whom were of said company [of forty] -in which said company were required to make their reasons known to said Sheriff why they should undertake to possess those lands, &c.
"Whereupon said Tripp, Follett and Elderkin went down to the trading-house, so called, where they met said Sheriff, sundry Justices of the Peace and a large number of people with them. That said Sheriff and Justices informed said Tripp, &c., that, unless they would engage and undertake that said company of settlers should immediately depart and leave said lands, they should be arrested and imprisoned in Easton Gaol. Said Sheriff, &c., being informed by said Tripp, &c., that they could not engage for said company that they should depart, said Sheriff proceeded to threaten, insult, and, with language, to abuse said Tripp, &c .- as was supposed, to terrify and affright said settlers. And also, with and by force of a writ in the hands of said Sheriff, by hini said Tripp, Follett and Elderkin were taken and carried off for imprisonment in Easton jail; and the residue of said company of settlers retired off said lands to the Delaware River.
"Said Tripp, Follett and Elderkin being arrived with said Sheriff at Easton, pro- posals were made them by said Sheriff and one Lewis Gordon, Esq., to procure bail for their appearance at a future Court, which being done, that they should be set at liberty. Said Tripp, &c., informed said Sheriff and Justice that they were altogether strangers in that part of the country, and did not suppose it possible for them to procure bail to any considerable amount. To which they were answered, that if they did not procure bail they the said Tripp, &c., must and should go into prison-which gave them much trouble and perplexity. At length, for their relief, one Mr. WILLIAM LEDLIE of Easton inter- posed, offering himself as surety, and became recognized in the sum of £300, lawful money, for their appearance at the then next Quarter Sessions-which was in March fol- lowing. Upon which said prisoners, after four days' confinement, were released, and returned to Lower Smithfieldt upon the Delaware, where they again joined their former companions ; and [having], upon consultation and consideration, concluded that at said March Sessions there would be a fair tryal of said cause, and the Title of the lands be made the main question, [they] determined to proceed, and wait the event of said suit-
* See various references to him in subsequent chapters.
+ Lower Smithfield Township in Northampton County, now, wholly or in part, Smithfield Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania. The locality referred to in the above affidavit was the one (mentioned on page 432, ante) where the refugees of 1763 congregated-about thirty or thirty-five miles north of Easton.
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and accordingly went on and settled themselves at a place called Lackawanuck, which is at the entrance of the creek known by that name into the Susquehanna River (then about the 1st March, 1769)." * * *
The path or trail over which the "Forty" traveled from the Dela- ware to the mouth of the Lackawanna was the same over which they had journeyed some three weeks previously. Having reached their des- tination they hastily built two or three rude log cabins for their accom- modation, purposing to occupy them until the 200 other settlers should come on in the Spring. (These cabins stood within the present limits of the city of Pittston.) News of the arrest and dispersal of the New Englanders at Wyoming was carried to Governor Penn at Philadelphia by Charles Stewart; but while the latter was still in Philadelphia a messenger arrived from up the Delaware with information that the New Englanders had set out from Lower Smithfield for Wyoming. By direction of the Governor Edmund Physick, Receiver General of the Province, paid on March 2d the sum of £64, 19s. 8d .* to Charles Stewart, on account of expenses incurred and to be incurred in removing the New Englanders from Wyoming. Stewart was instructed to proceed to Easton and notify Sheriff Jennings and Justice Gordon to raise a suffi- cient force of men to proceed with them to Wyoming to arrest the intrud- ing "Forty."
On the 8th of March Joseph Shippen, Jr. (see page 361), Secretary of the Provincial Council, paid £100 to Thomas Apty, who was to "deliver the same to Lewis Gordon, Esq., at Easton, to be applied by him in defraying the expences of hiring men, &c., on an expedition to Wyo- ming to remove the New England intruders on the lands there."t Gordon received this money at Easton on the 9th of March, and the next day he, Henry Hooker and Aaron De Pui (three Northampton County magistrates), Sheriff Jennings, Capt. Alexander Patterson and Capt. Amos Ogden set off for Wyoming at the head of over 100 armed men. On the 11th and 12th of March Charles Stewart purchased stores and provisions at Easton and hired men and horses to convey the same to Wyoming for the use of Sheriff Jennings' posse comitatus. Stewart and his supply-train left Easton in the afternoon of Sunday, March 12th.
The Jennings-Gordon party reached the mouth of the Lackawanna on the 13th of March, and found that the New Englanders (who had been apprized of the approach of the party) had shut themselves up in their cabins. The next day the Pennsylvanians invested, beseiged and overcame the New Englanders, and on March 15th Justice Gordon issued a warrant and mittimus directed to the "High Sheriff of the County of Northampton, or his Deputy, and to the Keeper of the com- mon Goal of the said County"-the document being worded, in part, as follows§ :
"WHEREAS Isaac Tripp, Benjamin Follett, Vine Elderkin, Elijah Shoemaker, Thomas Dyer, William Buck, John Jenkins, Elijah Buck, Samuel Gaylord, Joseph Frinck, Rudolph Brink Vanorman, Job Yale, Richard Brockway, Asa Atherton, Joshua Hall, Nathan Denison, John Comstock, Timothy Smith, Silas Bingham, Zerubbabel Jerom, Benajah Pembleton, Thomas Bennet, Simeon Draper, Oliver Smith, Ezra Belding, Reuben Davis, Stephen Harding, Timothy Peirce, Elias Roberts, Allen Whitman and Cyprian Lothrop and divers others, evil disposed persons to me unknown, were, in my presence, riotously, routously and unlawfully assembled ; and being so assembled did,
* See the "Penn-Physick Manuscripts," III : 89, in The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
t See original document among "Wyoming Papers" in The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
# See the "Penn-Physick Manuscripts," IV : 227, in The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
§ The original writ is now in the possession of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania-among its "Wyoming Papers."
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in my presence, commit a riot to the great terror of His Majesty's liege subjects and against the peace of our Lord the King. *
* These are to require you to receive the bodies * * into your custody." * *
Quoting further, now, from the joint-affidavit of Messrs. Elderkin and Dyer, previously mentioned, we have :
"At that place [Lackawanna] they [the "Forty"] remained in a peaceable manner, building huts, shelters, &c., until about the middle of said March, when they were attacked by about 150 armed men, headed and commanded by the Sheriff of Northampton County. (The subordinates of that company were mostly of low and despicable char- acters. ) The whole soon niade an onset, seized upon the people in one of our huts, and by their legs dragged and drew them out and off to some distance, and leveled the small building with the ground. They were then about to treat the remainder of the settlers- . who then were in the other hut-in the same manner, when two of their number, as a committee, went out and treated with the assailants ; the conclusion of which was that (as the settlers had no orders or liberties to commit the least act of hostility) the whole became prisoners, were disarmed and drove down to Easton under a strong guard. When arrived at Easton the Court was there sitting, and the whole [were] admitted to bail in about the sum of £100 each-conditioned for their appearance before the Quarter Sessions in June then next following."
The following extract is from an original unpublished affidavit (now among the "Trumbull Papers" previously mentioned) sworn to by Cyprian Lothrop of Lebanon, Connecticut, before William Williams, Esq. (see page 283), October 9, 1782.
"That he, with about forty settlers, some time in the month of February, 1769, went from Connecticut to settle on our lands nigh the River Susquehanna; and some time in the month of March next following was attacked by a number of Pennsylvania people with arms, who demanded surrender of our garrison. A party from them set fire to a house belonging to our neighbours and then returned to the house that he [the depo- nent] was in and made a second demand of the same ; and he and the rest that occupied said house was constrained to surrender the same, and fell into their hands and was kept under guard one night and then dismissed without further trouble."
"Allen Wightman" deposed in 1782* that :
"In January or February, 1769, he, with a number of other settlers, went from the town of Lebanon [Connecticut] to Wyoming, and some time in March following was attacked by a body of armed men to the number of about 100, from Pennsylvania-as they said. When he and a number of his friends was in their house, was denianded by the said Pennsylvania people to surrender the same to them. Whilst they were consulting among themselves a party of the Pennsylvania men went to our neighbours' house and set fire to it, which consumed it. Then they returned to the house that he [the depo- nent] and others were in and made a second demand of the same, and he and they were compelled to surrender ; and he was kept under their guard one night and then dismissed."
The statement of Sheriff Jennings, as to what happened at Lacka- wanna on the 14th and 15th days of March, differs somewhat from the foregoing statements. At Philadelphia, June 1, 1769, the Sheriff de- posedt before James Biddle, Esq., that :
"He went to Lachnawanack near Wioming. That the said intruders had built there two houses, one of which was a strong log house, built for defense. That the said in- truders betook themselves to their said houses and declared they would not give up pos- session of the said lands, but would maintain the same as their own and put to death any persons that attempted to dispossess them. That, after long and fruitless expostulations, the said Justices recorded the forcible detainer, and this deponent, by their orders, pre- pared to take the said intruders, and received two blows from some of them ; but having forced into one of the said houses and taken those that were therein, at length the rest surrendered, and the whole, to the number of thirty-one, were taken into custody. That some of them, on their way to Easton, found means to escape, and the rest procured bail at the next Court."
In the foregoing warrant and mittimus issued by Justice Gordon the names of thirty-one of the "First Forty" appear. The other nine of the company were either temporarily absent from the encampment at Lackawanna when the Pennsylvanians arrived there, or, in the excite- ment, managed to escape from the encampment, and thus avoided
* See his original affidavit among the "Trumbull Papers," previously mentioned.
+ See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, IV : 343.
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capture and arrest. It is quite evident that the names in the warrant were not placed there until after the arrests had been made. Some of the thirty-one-as, for instance, Cyprian Lothrop and Allen Wightman -were, for one reason or another, released by Sheriff Jennings the day after their arrest ; while others, on the way to Easton, escaped from their custodians (as stated in the deposition of Sheriff Jennings) and returned to their respective homes-as, for example, Thomas Bennet, who got away at Mill Creek, went to the Minisinks and thence to his home at Goshen, New York .* When, therefore, the Sheriff and his party · reached Easton they had in their custody only twenty prisoners, as follows: Asahel Atherton, Ezra Belding, Silas Bingham, Richard Brockway, William Buck, Nathan Denison, Thomas Dyer, Vine Elder- kin, Benjamin Follett, Samuel Gaylord, Stephen Harding, John Jenkins, Timothy Peirce, Benajah Pembleton [Pendleton], Elias Roberts, Elijah Shoemaker, Timothy Smith, Isaac Tripp, Rudolph Brink Vanorman and Job Yale. These were formally arraigned before Justice Gordon, and in default of bail were committed to the jail of Northampton County. Almost immediately, however, their friend William Ledlie, of Easton, came to their assistance and entered bail for their appearance at Court- as mentioned in the affidavit of Messrs. Elderkin and Dyer, from which we have hereinbefore quoted. The released prisoners immediately set out from Easton for the Minisinks, where some of them sojourned for a few weeks, while the others proceeded to their respective homes.
Within a short time after the release of these twenty men under bail Benjamin Chew, Esq., the Attorney General of the Province, drew up an indictment against them, setting forth that they, at the time and place set forth, "the close of the Hon. Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, Esquires, Proprietaries of the Province of Pennsylvania, then and there riotously, routously, tumultuously and unlawfully did break and enter, and twenty timber trees, of the value of £30, current money of this Province, the property of them the said Thomas and Richard Penn- then and there standing and growing-riotously, routously, tumultuously and unlawfully then and there did cut down and prostrate; and in and upon the said close then and there with force and arms riotously, rout- ously, tumultuously and unlawfully did erect and build a messuage." Upon this indictment the Grand Jury of Northampton County returned a "True Bill."
Returning now to Connecticut from the almost-deserted valley of Wyoming we find that on the 10th of March Col. Eliphalet Dyer wrote as followst to William Samuel Johnson, Esq.# (previously mentioned), who was still in London.
* See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, IV : 391.
¡ See the "William Samuel Johnson Papers," previously mentioned, for the original letter.
Į WILLIAM SAMUEL JOHNSON was born at Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, October 7, 1727, the son of the Rev. Samuel Johnson (born 1696; died 1772), a native of Guilford, Connecticut. The latter was graduated at Yale College in 1714 a Bachelor of Arts. He received the degree of M. A. from his Alma Mater in 1717, and from Oxford and Cambridge Universities in 1723, and in 1743 Oxford conferred upon him the degree of D. D. Dr. Dwight called him the "father of Episcopacy in Connecticut"-he having, within a few years after leaving college, abandoned the Presbyterian, or Congregational, for the Episco- pal Church. When, in 1750, the "Academy of Philadelphia"-now the University of Pennsylvania-was opened, the Trustees (particularly Benjamin Franklin) endeavored to induce the Rev. Dr. Johnson "to undertake the general direction of the Academy." But the Doctor declined-partly on the ground that the Academy was too distant from his home in Stratford, where he was then rector of an Episcopal Church. But some four years later he became the first President of King's College, in the city of New York-whose charter was granted October 31, 1754, nearly four months subsequently to The Susquehanna Company's purchase of the Wyoming lands. Dr. Johnson continued at the head of this institution until 1763, when he resigned his office. He continued to live in Stratford, where he died in 1772.
William Samuel Johnson was graduated at Yale College in 1744 with the degree of B. A. The degree of M. A. was conferred upon him by his Alma Mater in 1747 and by Harvard and King's Colleges in 1761. In 1766 Oxford University conferred upon him the degree of D. C. L., and in 1788 Yale gave him the degree
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"Your last [letter] advised to a settlement of the Susquehanna lands when the line should be settled with the Indians. At the late congress held at Fort Stanwix * * the line was fully settled, and for the lands lying within the line the Indians were fully paid and satisfied to their full content, and such precautions have been taken as to obviate any troubles with the Indians ; and as far as we can learn the Indians have no objections as to our settlement of the Susquehanna lands by us purchased, lying within the line. As we was informed that Mr. Penn proposed to send on a number of settlers in the Spring, our Company voted to send forward forty men to take possession the latter end of Janu- ary. The forty went forward, and were enjoined to use no violence nor force. Mr. Penn, it seems, sent up a Sheriff and one or two Constables with a number of men hired from the Jerseys for assistance, who lighted upon a small number of our people and arrested three for a riot or forcible entry. They went peaceably with them before Authority at Easton, who was ready to take their own bonds for appearance at their next Court. * Our friends are numerous in Pennsylvania, and many gentlemen of first note and con- sequence espouse our cause. Our people are still upon the land. They do not design to be removed by any illegal force. Col. [Samuel] Talcott is about setting out for the Court at Easton, but inclines to think they will not prosecute the action."
According to adjournment The Susquehanna Company met at Hartford, April 12, 1769, and transacted a considerable amount of im- portant business-John Smith, Esq., acting as Moderator and Samuel Gray as Clerk. First, it was voted that the proprietors then present, together with the special committee appointed at the last meeting (see page 466), be empowered "to admit and receive" additional settlers to the number of "300 good, able men, to proceed and settle the afore- said lands by the 10th of May next ensuing ; which said 300, as their encouragement, shall [should] have to themselves-or in proportion, if the number shall [should] fall short of 300-three townships on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, in the place they shall [should] choose, of the contents of five miles square each"-on the same condi- tions as the grants theretofore made to the "First Forty" and the 200 other settlers. (See pages 465 and 466.) It was further voted that the entire number (540) of settlers thus arranged and provided for by the several votes of the Company should be comprised only "of the proprie- tors, or of such as shall [should] come in under a proprietor." The following resolutions were then adopted :
"Voted, That the 540 above proposed to settle and take possession of the Company's land on Susquehanna River, and all others who may join them, shall be under the direc- tion and order of the Committee of Settlers; and that the Committee form the whole number present on the land into one body, joined together in one common interest and settled as compact together as may be, properly fortified, without any regard to any par- ticular township or townships which may be afterwards laid out ; * * * and also to divide and part out the men into parties, proper for the various businesses-husbandry, tillage, labor, fortifying, scouting, hunting, providing, and other parts necessary and con- venient for the whole, and to unite in peace and good order.
of LL. D. After leaving college he began the study of law, and within a few years following his admis- sion to the Bar he was looked upon as one of the ablest lawyers in Connecticut. In 1755 he was an in structor in King's College. In October, 1766, he was commissioned by the General Assembly of Connecti- cut to go to England as agent and attorney for the Colony in certain important affairs. He sailed from New York December 24, 1766, and remained abroad, in London, until August, 1771, when he left for home. During a number of years he acted as attorney and counselor for The Susquehanna Company in respect to some of its most important affairs. In 1774 Williamn Samuel Johnson was Lieutenant Colonel of the 4th Regiment, Connecticut Militia. In that year he was elected a delegate to the First Continental Congress, but did not attend any of its sessions. During the Revolutionary War he was a Loyalist, but did not make himself obnoxious to his fellow-citizens of Stratford, where he continued to live quietly during the war. From 1784 to 1788 he was a Representative in Congress, and from 1789 to 1791 a United States Senator, from Connecticut. In May, 1787, he was appointed by the Connecticut Assembly a dele- gate to the convention for framing the Constitution of the United States. With his retirement from the Senate in 1791 he gave up the practise of law.
In April, 1776, the exercises of King's College, previously mentioned, were suspended, and the college buildings were prepared for the occupancy of troops. During the remainder of the Revolutionary War the buildings were used for barracks and hospital purposes, now by the Americans and then by the British. When the college was reopened in 1784 an Act was passed by the Legislature of New York by which the name of King's College was changed to "Columbia"-"a word and name then for the first time recognized anywhere in law and history." The college-now Columbia University-was reopened May 19, 1784, under its new name and government, and DeWitt Clinton entered as its first student. In 1787 William Samuel Johnson was elected the first President of the reorganized and renamed institution, and in that office he served until 1800, when he resigned it. He died at Stratford November 14, 1819-five weeks after his ninety-second birth-day. At the sesqui-centennial celebration of the founding of King's College, held by Columbia University in October, 1904, "The Johnsonian Professorship of Philosophy" was established by the Trustees of the University in memory of Samuel Johnson and William Samuel Johnson.
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