USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. IV > Part 15
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Inhabitants; and the House being on fire, the said Cressap, with his Accomplices, rushed out, loaded with Arms, & firing upon the Sherif & his Company, they wounded one of the Sherif's Men, & happened to kill one of their own before said Cressap was taken.
" But notwithstanding the taking of that turbulent Man, we have still just reason to apprehend yet further & greater Injuries from that Government, large & tempting Rewards being promised in Proclamation & otherwise by their Deputy Governor, before the taking of said Cressap, for seizing divers of our Inhabitants, & par- ticularly some of the principal Magistrates of Lancaster County, which we can by no means here divert, without entring into such an open Rupture as neither our. Duty to Our Sovereign nor our Reli- gious Principles will suffer us to Engage in.
" We therefore most humbly beseech Our Gracious Sovereign, the common Father of all His People, to take our Case into His Princely Consideration, And that He will be pleased to enjoyn the said Lord Baltimore, & all others claiming Authority under him, to desist from all further Acts of Violence to the People of Pennsyl- vania, and that he do confine himself to the Bounds and Limits set to his Province, as well by his Grandfather as himself, until the same shall be determined by due course of Law, or grant to us such Relief as the King, in his great Wisdom, shall judge Equitable and Just.
" And we, His humble Petitioners, as in Duty bound, shall ever pray.
" In behalf of the Council, " JAMES LOGAN, President. "By Order of the House of Representatives, " A. HAMILTON, Speaker."
Sundry affidavits about the apprehending of Cressap and the Association for dispossessing the Dutch on Sasquehannah having been taken and lodged in the Secretary's Office, exemplified Copies of these & divers other Papers, under the Great Seal, were trans- mitted to the Agent in Support of the aforesaid Petition.
At a Council held at Philadia., December 13th, 1736, P. M. PRESENT :
The Honble JAMES LOGAN, Esqr., President.
Samuel Preston, Ralph Assheton,
Clement Plumstead, Thomas Griffitts, & Esqrs.
Thomas Laurence,
The President laid before the Board a Paper, this morning de- VOL. IV .- 9.
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livered to the Secretary by Mr. Jenings and Mr. Dulany, which being read, is in these Words :
" To the Honble James Logan, Esq"., President, & the Council of the Province of Pensylvania.
" May it please your Honours :
" When we read the beginning of the Paper we had the Honour of receiving from you the tenth instant, wherein your Honours are pleased to Declare, that 'There is nothing consistent with Reason & Justice that may contribute to the establishing of a good Understanding between the two Provinces of Pennsylvania & Mary- land, wherein you would not readily & chearfully Concur with us for obtaining so good an End,' We immediatly entertained the most agreeable hopes of meeting with your Honours' concurrence in what we had before requested from your Board, in order to shew each Government sincerely disposed to act as Neighbors & peaceable Subjects of the same Prince. But on perusal of the other parts of the said Paper, we cannot but own ourselves very greatly con- cerned, as well as disappointed in those Expectations (which if com- plyed with), we doubt not your Honours, on more mature Consider- ation, will be satisfied must have such Consequences as to evince our desires not only reasonable for us to make, but Just and Hon- ourable for your Board to grant; And as there is little occasion at present to enter into every Circumstance your Honours are pleased to urge for Arguments to support your Refusal of our Request, we shall only in General take notice how unsatisfactory they appear to us for that purpose.
"Your Honours are pleased to say that 'The Government of Pennsylvania never acknowledged the place of Cressap's settlement to be in Maryland; that you are assured of the contrary, and that the Lords Proprietary of Maryland never claimed it till after the Agreement you mention to have been entred into by his present Lordship.' Perhaps your Honours might have been led into this Assertion by not knowing that the Right & Title which Mr. Cressap had, & claimed to that Land on which he lived when his House was burnt, is founded on a grant from the Lord Baltimore many years before the Agreement you mention was made; that the said Cressap, ever since his Possession thereof, held the same as Tennant to his Lordship; that he paid his Taxes in that Province, has been Subject to its Laws, & under its protection, and looked upon by the Government even of Pennsylvania, as well as that of Maryld-, as an Inhabitant of Maryland.
" This, we doubt not, will at last appear to be a true state of the Fact with regard to the place of Mr. Cressap's residence, and as to its being relinguished with a great extent of Land by the Lord Baltimore, by virtue of the said agreement. Your Honours must remember that the Agreement was never carried into Execution,
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that the validity of it is under the consideration of the High Court of Chancery, where, without all Question, the Arguments of the Learned Council who have given there Opinion in the Case, will be heard & considered agreeably to the Justice administred in that High Court, and since that Dispute was at the earnest Instance only of the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, permitted by His Majesty to be carried & is now depending in that Supreme Tribunal for Original Causes (as Your Honours are pleased to stile that Court). We beg your Honours will most seriously consider how consistent with the Duty of a Subject with the Deference due to the High Court of Chancery, & with Justice or prudence it was in the Sherif & a Justice of Peace of Lancaster County, with an armed Force to anticipate the Decree of the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, and to establish the Bounds & pretentions of the Proprietaries of Penn- sylvania with Fire & Sword.
"Your Honours justly observe that the action was violent. We. take the liberty of adding so Violent as no Government, which. derives its Institution from the Crown or Laws of Great Britain,, can neither Justify or justly Countenance by any delay of securing; those horrid Offenders.
"You are also pleased to Declare your Government would never. encourage such an Action, and yet these bold Incendaries & Mur- derors have not been taken into Custody, and it is hardly to be. questioned but that they & others will look on their continuing still. at large to be such an Approbation of their Conduct as Equals a real Encouragement.
"As to the Provacation your Honours mention we are entire Strangers to the Facts or the Proofs whereby they can be Supported. But your Honours' great experience in the World must convince you it has been the Misfortune of many Men to have been unjustly traduced & Charged with Facts of which they have been perfectly Innocent, tho' such Facts have had the Oaths of many Witnesses to support them; and we need not remark how far the authors of" the late Cruelty may think it their Interest, and indeed (tho' falsely) the only means of their safety, to accuse Mr. Cressap un- justly & endeavour to make good such Accusation; But upon a supposition of the fact being as it is stated by your Honours, This plain Question will occurr. Is it tolerable, or not rather highly Criminal, for the Sherif of Lancaster County & Mr. Smout, a Magistrate of the same county, under a pretence of any Warrant whatsoever, to besett Cressap's House with an armed Force, and to burn it over the Heads of him, his Wife, & Children, with all the Substance he had in the World (which was very considerable), to his utter Ruin & manifest Danger of their Lives? Surely the . often repeated insinuation of that House being to the northward of a Line mentioned in an Agreement now in Contest in the High; Court of Chancery (but which at last will be found to be to the,
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southward of the 40th Degree), cannot give the least Colour to such a Proceeding.
"Your Honours indeed are pleased to say Cressap intended to do some very violent things which would have disturbed several People in their peaceable Possessions. But we cannot help thinking your Honours are equally sensible with us, that such pretences cannot even amuse and much less extenuate or justify this Action in the Eye of that Law by which all our Liberties and Properties are secured. We must indeed acknowledge that burning his House, endeavouring to shoot him, & when he very surprizingly escaped with his Life, imprisoning, loading, & still keeping him with Irons, are most effectual means to prevent his carrying his Schemes into Execution.
" As to the Persons whom your Honours mention were intended to have been turned out of their Possession for disowning the Jurisdiction of the Lord Baltimore, we agree they must certainly be ignorant Forreigners or they would never have been so far deluded as to imagine it to be in their Power to divest the Lord Proprietary of Maryland, from whom they received their Possessions, of the Rents or Services due from them as Tennants, to throw off & trans- ferr that Obedience which is due from every Subject to the Laws of a Province, in which they acknowledge their places of abode to be, or that any engagement of Fidelity to the Proprietors of Penn- sylvania would justify them in so extraordinary a Behaviour; But we hope, we may without Offence wish, that engagements of Fidelity taken to any Subject may not Infatuate the takers to violate all Laws & Rule which they shall fancy inconsistent with the Interest of those to whom they attached themselves by such Engagements.
" When a Number of People are instigated to Act in Opposition to the Government they live under, to refuse contributing the pro- portion of the Taxes which must be borne by the Community, are they not to be reclaimed by the Officers of Justice ? And when the Number of such refractory People is considerable, and there is good Reason (not to say undoubted Evidence) to believe that they expect to be supported by a Neighbouring Government, are not the Officers of Justice to have such assistance as may preserve Peace and prevent Bloodshed ? was there a House burnt, or Subject killed or in the least injured in his Possession or property, by the supposed Hostile Force of Maryland ? The conduct & behaviour of the proper Officers & those who attended them shew very plainly that they had nothing in view destructive of the Peace and Security of His Majesty's Subjects, And it is to be wished that the Sherif & Justices of Lancaster & their Forces had observed the like inof- fensive Conduct.
"We are very sensible that great Clamours have been raised .against Mr. Cressap, & all possible Artifices used to render him Odious to many that he never offended or injured, or even knew; whether in order to furnish a colourable pretence for the violences
.
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intended to be committed upon him, & as much as might be to pre- vent that Compassion which Humanity (especially in the Breasts of English Men) dictates towards every Sufferer, Or in hopes to induce Mankind to believe that a Person who is accused of so many things as he is, is so ill a Man as that what any other person might do innocently & justifiably, is in him a Crime of the deepest Die, we will not take upon us to determine. But we may venture to say, that if this unhappy person was not thought even by your Honours to be under Circumstances different from any other Man breathing, he could not be represented in such Terms as he is by your Honours in the Paper now before us, where your Honours are pleased to say that there were Warrants to apprehend him for Mur- . der, which Imputation, we beg leave to say, from this Government is very extraordinary ; for it is notorious, that a Number of Men, & some of them armed, pretending to be Inhabitants of Pennsyl- vania, many years since attempted to break into his House by force in the night and threatned to kill him, that some of them actually got in by Force & Violence, that he drove them out again, that one of them snapt a pistol at his Breast, that after they were driven out they endeavoured to re-enter by forcing the Door open, & that he killed one of those People in his own necessary & just Defence. This is the Action which is called Murder in Thomas Cressap, & we are perswaded would be thought not only justifiable but even commendable in any other Man on Earth. This fact is sufficiently well known & supported, not only by the Testimony of Witnesses of Veracity and Credit, but even by the Confession of the late Governor of Pennsylvania, who owned that what the said Cressap did was no more than self-Defence; And also, this Government, upon the Complaints from the Government of Maryland, has been pleased to declare that the Persons who were guilty of the said Vio- lence against Cressap acted without authority. Would it have been justifiable to burn the dwelling House and all the Effects of any other Person upon Earth but this same Thomas Cressap, in order to gratifie a giddy Multitude, or to prevent in time the Execution of those imaginary or real Designs mentioned by your Honours ?
" Your Honours seem to think that the Man killed (or rather Murdered) fell by a shot from one of Cressap's party, & therefore. the Death of His Majesty's Subject not chargeable on those Incen- diaries. But your Honours will be pleased to reflect, that Cressap's party (if four or five Men who had the misfortune to be in the House when it was beset by a great number of armed men can properly be called his party) were obliged to defend their Lives in the best manner they could, and if any accident or Death happened by any Person's hands in that Confusion, it can hardly be doubted but that the Sherif, Magistrate, and those under their command were the Aggressors, and consequently answerable for all mischiefs which Ensued. Nor can we apprehend how the discovery (if it were true) which your Board has made, that the House belonged not to Cressap but that he lived in it by the permission of an old In-
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habitant of Pennsylvania, alters the case, unless it can be thought to be Right & Lawfull, or less Criminal, to burn a House possessed by a Tennant because the Landlord does not live in it.
"Upon the whole, we cannot but think that your Honours will be thoroughly convinced, upon further Consideration of this tragi- cal affair, that the Sherif & Justice of Lancaster & the Forces under their Command are accountable for all the Evils that happened, & the Blood that has been shed; and as to their answering for it in any Judicatory in Pennsylvania, we are in Duty & in Discharge of the Trust reposed in us to insist, as we hereby Do, That no Court in Pennsylvania has any Cognizance or Jurisdiction of this Fact, And that it is only & properly Tryable in Maryland. But least the Dispute concerning the place where the Fact has been com- mitted should give such great Offenders (as the said Sherif, Justice, & all their Company undoubtedly are) an opportunity to escape that Justice which is due to their Crimes, & which we verily be- lieve His Most Sacred Majesty will require to be Executed on them, we Request & Desire that your Board will be pleased to cause im- mediate Search & Discovery to be made of every such Offender within your Government, and that they or so many of them as are or can be found therein, & particularly the Persons mentioned in a List hereunto annexed, may be forthwith apprehended so as that they may be amenable to Justice, when His Most Sacred Majesty shall be pleased to declare His Royal pleasure where they shall be tryed; and that the said Thomas Cressap & Miles Foy, Michael Risner & Jacob Mathias Minshar, here in the Goal of this County, and George Bear, in the Goal of Lancaster County, may be ad- mitted to Bail, to be also forthcoming when & where His Majesty shall please to direct. This Request, we apprehend, is so mani- festly Reasonable & Necessary, & so becoming the part of us all as Subjects to Our wise & just King, the Royal Protector of His People, that we flatter ourselves with the hopes that your Honours will comply with it without the least Hesitation, whereby you will convince the World that you condemn that Action we have in Charge to complain of, that your Government will neither encour- age it, or screen the Offenders from Justice.
" As it is not our Intention to Recriminate, & that we are unwil- ling to trouble your Honours with more than is absolutely necessary, we pass by several things contain'd in the Paper your Honours have been pleased to favour us with, wherein you endeavour to throw the Blame of all the disturbances on the Borders of both Provinces on the Governor or Government of Maryland, which tho' capable of clear answers, yet we shall only trouble you with the mention of one Fact, which is, that in the year 1734, when two Gentlemen were sent from hence to Our Government to make some Proposalls concerning the Inhabitants on the Borders of the two Provinces, such offers were made to them, & since repeated, as would (had this Government been pleased to have agreed to them)
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have effectually prevented all the Disturbances that have since hap- pened, and preserved that Peace & Friendship which ought to be cultivated & subsist between Neighbours and fellow Subjects.
" We cannot but Lament those pacifick offers were rejected, and we are in no doubt at whose Door the consequences of their being so will Lye.
" And altho' we have not the Honour of any Commands to treat fully & settle that point, yet we can assure your Honours of the same ready Disposition as formerly in the Government of Mary- land towards Amity & a good Understanding, and that we shall be proud of being the Messengers to our Government of your Honours sincere Inclinations for the same purpose.
" Notwithstanding so many Differences in our Opinions of things, we really rejoice in the joint & unanimous Resolution which your Board professes to have, And which we are Commanded to declare the Government of Maryland has, sincerely taken, to loose no time in applying to His Most Gracious Majesty for His Royal Protection against the Violences committed on His Majesty's Subjects in that Province, and more particularly for Justice against those Violaters of their Peace, and Destroyers of their Lives & Properties.
"EDM. JENINGS. "D. DULANY.
"Philadelphia, Dec". 12th, 1736."
A List, referred to in the annexed Memorial, of some of the Per- sons concerned in the Felonious Burning the late dwelling House of Thomas Cressap, with all his Goods, & in Murdering Loughlin Malone.
" Samuel Smith,
" James Patten,
" Edward Smout,
" Arthur Buchanan,
" John Ross,
" James Moore,
" John Patten,
" Andrew Smith,
" James Allison,
" Daniel MacDaniel,
" John Capper,
" Hugh Mackenelly,
" Edward Hampill,
" William, ) both Servis. to John
" Patrick Clark,
" Edmund, S Wright.
" David Priest,
" James Mitchell,
" Samuel Scott,
" John Mitchell,
" John Sterrat,
" Alex". Mitchell, Junr.,
" Benja. Sterrat,
" Michael Adkison,
" Jacob Peat,
" John Hart,
" John Gilbreath,
" Francis Steward,
" John Kelly,
" John Patten,
" William Clark,
" Alexandr- Mackran,
" William Hacker.
"EDM. JENINGS, " D. DULANY.
" Philadelphia, Decr. 12, 1736."
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Upon entring into the Consideration of the said Paper, & observ- ing that these Gentlemen had mentioned in it the pacifick mea- sures of Maryland, the Board thought proper to recur to the Trans- actions at Annapolis between the Lieutenant Governor of Mary- land & Mess's. Hamilton & Georges, in May 1734, and to several Letters which passed between the said Lieu" Governor & the late Lieut Governor of this Province, and accordingly these letters with sundry Papers were read, whereby to the Satisfaction of the Board it appeared very evident that tho' the Governor of Maryland had often used the Expression of their pacifick measures, yet when called on to show what these were upon a solemn Declaration of the late Lieu" Governor, that he was only ignorant of any such that ever were proposed by Mr. Ogle, with the least Appearance of a Probability that they could answer that great & good End; he had offered nothing but what was fully shewn to be either dilatory or impracticable, and that he had constantly evaded & declined the Proposal, so often repeated by this Government, of agreeing on some Limits to which, for the Preservation of His Majesty's Peace, the Jurisdiction of each Government should extend, with a Salvo to the Right of either Proprietor, till the Dispute between them should be fully ended ; And the Board being of Opinion that it may be very proper to be particular on this Head in the Answer to the aforegoing Paper ; & that the Necessity of agreeing on some Methods for preserving Peace on the Borders ought still to be in- sisted on, It is Recommended to the President that in the Draught of the said Answer a particular Regard be had hereunto; and some other Heads of the Answer being briefly mentioned, the Board ad- journed till to-morrow morning.
At a Council held a Philadia., December 14th, 1736. PRESENT :
The Honble JAMES LOGAN, Esqr., President.
Samuel Preston, Ralph Assheton,
Clement Plumstead, Thomas Griffitts, Esquires.
Thomas Laurence,
1
A Draught of an answer to the Paper of Mess's. Jenings & Du- lany yesterday delivered, being laid before the Board by the Presi- dent, and read, the further Consideration thereof was deferred till the afternoon.
EODEM DIE, P. M. PRESENT :
The Honble the President, and the same Members as in the forenoon.
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The Board resuming the Consideration of the Paper brought in this forenoon by the President, several amendments were made to the same, which being transcribed was unanimously agreed upon, & being by Order of the Board, signed by the President, the Sec- retary is Ordered to deliver the same this evening to Messrs. Jen- nings and Dulany ; which paper is in these Words :
"To Edmund Jennings and Daniel Dulany, Esq's.
"Gentlemen :
" As in your Reply to us delivered yesterday to the Clerk of our Board, you chose to wave entering into every Circumstance we urged (you say) for arguments, to support our Refusal of your re- quest, we shall, to save time, take the same Method in relation to your Paper; but there are some Points we cannot forbear observing, wherein we clearly see you have either been misinformed, or have not been let into, or have not considered the full state of the Case.
"We assure you the place where Cressap settled was many years since surveyd. in right of our Proprietors, and a regular Return made of it, and divers persons were seated thereabouts, and on the adja- cent Lands, and paid Taxes to this Government, some years before Cressap was known in those parts, as incontestably appears by the County Levy Rolls and the Evidence of such as Collected those Taxes, & of other Inhabitants ; and we shall add that tho' the 40th degree which you mention in another place, no way enters these Debates, if there be any dependance on the Artists of Pennsylva- nia, there is not that certainty that the said place lies within that degree that your Government seems of late to have imagined.
" Your proposing to us to Consider how consistent the late Pro- ceedings against Cressap are with the Deference due to the High Court of Chancery, would be just if our People were the Aggres- sors, but an officer executing a legal Warrant against a Criminal was never yet, we presume, accountª such in any Construction of the Law whatever; Our Sherif's had made several fruitless at- tempts before to take him for the said Crime, and his behaviour daily rendred that execution more necessary; But while you referr this to our Consideration, we must desire you on your parts to re- flect how inconsistent the late violent Proceedings of Maryland, mentioned in our former Paper, are with that Deference which you cannot but be sensible is equally due from your Governmt as from us.
"It would take up too much time to state again the Case of those Germans; they have themselves represented it to His Majesty, whose great Wisdom & Goodness cannot fail to consider it. Nor is it now of any use to discuss a point so generally understood as Cressap's just Character, which Numbers of your Government know to be infamous; and it is surprising that any should have represented him as a modest Man, while he is so well known to be one of the most scurrilous & Abusive of Mankind.
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"Our Observation that the House was not Cressap's, arose not from any opinion that it altered the Nature of the Fact, but was mentioned to show his Loss was the less by that Deduction.
"The Germans who yearly arrive here in great numbers, wholly ignorant of the English Language & Constitution, are obliged, on Account of our too near northern Neighbours, the French, whose Language many of them understand, not only to swear Allegiance to Our Sovereign, but as a farther Tie upon them promised Fidelity to our Proprietors & this Government, a Practice only used with them & no others.
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