History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 11

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372

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THE CHESTER COUNTY PLOT.

The difficulties concerning the boundary lines between Maryland and Pennsylvania began when the first settlements were made. They originated in Chester and Lancaster counties and the bordering coun- ties of Maryland, as early as 1720. What was known as the "Chester County Plot" originated with adherents of the Governor of Maryland in Chester county. It was their purpose to drive the early settlers on Springettsbury Manor away from their habitations which they had built on the val- uable lands of Kreutz creek and Conodochly valleys, then known as Grist valley and Conodochly valley.

. At a meeting of the Provincial Council, held at Philadelphia, on the 23rd of Novem- ber, 1736, "the president acquainted the board, that a discovery had lately been made of an association or engagement en- tered into by several persons living in or about New Garden, in the county of Chester, who, having received some encouragement from the Governor of Maryland and others in authority there, had undertaken to oust by force of arms those German families set- tled on the west side of the Susquehanna within this Province, against whom the late hostile preparations of Maryland were in- tended, and to possess themselves of their

plantations, which they proposed to draw lots for, and, acknowledging to hold them in right of the proprietary of Maryland. they were to defend those possessions against this government. For this end arms and ammunition were provided and lodged at the house of one Rigby, in Balti- more County, and everything was in readi- ness for carrying their design into execu- tion. On making this discovery, a warrant was issued, by one of the provincial judges. for apprehending several persons concerned in this unlawful association, particularly Henry Munday, who from the information given, appeared to be one of the principal persons in conducting it, and such care and diligence had been used in executing said warrant, that Munday was taken at his house that very day, when he expected a rendezvous of the party, and had sundry papers relating to the conspiracy lying be- fore him, and several letters to persons in Maryland on this subject, just finished and ready to be forwarded, all of which were, with himself, secured." Edward Leet, an- other of the persons embarked with him in this design, was likewise apprehended, but Charles Higginbotham, a principal person in it, had escaped.

Among the papers found with Munday, was an application signed by thirty-one per- sons, stating that "being informed that there is some vacant land and plantations near Susquehanna River, that were settled by some German families, and that the said lands were by them located by warrants issuing from the land office in the Province of Maryland, as of the right and property of Lord Baltimore ; and that since the German families have disclaimed the right and prop- erty of Lord Baltimore and hath taken um- brage under the heirs of Penn; that we are informed that the absolute fee and right to said land is within the limits and bounds of Lord Baltimore's patent or charter ; that the Lord's chief agent hath and doth give en- couragement for the resettling the said va- cant plantations and land. We therefore, pray and request, that you will in our behalf and stead intercede with the Governor and agent to settle us in such vacant land or plantations, and we shall all be willing to pay such fee or rent charge as his Lordship usually demands, and we shall with our lives and fortunes defend the same, and be

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

subject to the laws of his province, and tain them in possession and give them a defend his right, for which service, Sir, we lawful right, and assured them that the land shall be all your very much obliged."

There was a list of names of several per- sons ranged in three columns, with the fol- lowing certificate signed by Governor Ogle,

of Maryland: "Whereas application hath been made to me by Henry Munday, Ed- ward Leet and Charles Higginbotham, and forty-nine persons by them mentioned, I have given instructions to Thomas White, deputy surveyor, to lay out, and in the names of the said persons, two hundred acres for each person."

There was a paper signed by Munday Testimony. addressed to Messrs. Betties in these words : " November the 14th, 1736. If instructions can be sent to Captain Cresap to return some of the names of the vacant plantations reserving eleven of the best, which is the number of the third column, then every per- son that appears to draw hath his equal chance."

"Captain Cresap sent for the parties to come to draw the lots by next Saturday."

Henry Munday, when he was arrested, voluntarily offered to a member of the Council, to make a full declaration under his hand of all that he knew of the affair. His statement, was, that in September, 1736,, Rev. Jacob Henderson and Squire Tasker, of Maryland, lodged at the house of William Miller, where he met with Thomas Thomp- son, brother-in-law of Henderson. Thomp- son applied to Henderson for advice in set- tling a plantation. Parson Henderson re- ferred to Tasker, who wrote to someone in Maryland to show some plantations near the Susquehanna, and John Starr and Wil- liam Downard joined with Thompson and received the land. John Starr went back to Annapolis and procured from the Gov- ernor of Maryland an order to settle him- self, and the others concerned. That he was informed the plantations of the Ger- mans on the Susquehanna had become va- cant by their disowning the government of Maryland, John Starr had made a visit there and to the Governor of Maryland, and was shown by Cresap a very large tract of good land, which was enough to supply several families, and that the Governor would order 200 acres to be surveyed for each per- son at four shillings quit rent, and costs of survey and patent. That he would main- from Maryland.

was within the limits of Lord Baltimore's charter. Munday went to Annapolis to see Governor Ogle, where he met Edward Leet and Charles Higginbotham, and joined in procuring an order to the surveyor of Baltimore county to survey 200 acres for them and forty-nine other persons named. Munday said he never proposed to settle upon any tract of land settled by the Ger- mans, but to seat some uncultivated land.

The council was not satisfied

Leet's with the statement of Henry Munday, and examined Ed- ward Leet, who related that Munday came to him with a petition signed by several persons for land which Leet de- clined to sign; that a few days after Charles Higginbotham came to him and acquaint- ing him that there were to be some lands laid out in Maryland, asked him to go with him to Annapolis, to which he agreed, want -. ing to take up some land for himself and others. They with others set out for Mary- land. They went up the east side of the Susquehanna to the ferry, late John Emer- son's, over against Thomas Cresap's house on the west, and crossing the river, went to his house. In the morning they took a view of the lands in the neighborhood of Cresap's, and five of them, with one Lowe, went to view the lands where the German people were settled who were said to have revolted from Maryland. They canie to Annapolis on Saturday, the 30th of October, and went to Governor Ogle with Cresap. The Governor said he intended to dispos- sess the Germans who were settled there, and for that end he was sending up arms, and would very soon give the necessary orders to the sheriff. He would give 200 acres to each and defend them therein. He gave the names of Samuel Blunston and John Wright, for the apprehension of whom the Governor offered a reward of one hun- dred pounds for one and fifty pounds for the other. Higginbotham said he knew one of them, and had no doubt he could ap- prehend him. Cresap received on board a sloop a considerable quantity of fire-arms, powder and ball, which were to be carried to Baltimore county to be used in dispos- sessing the Germans, who had revolted Three drums and two

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trumpets were sent by land by certain Ger- man men who were with them. When Munday came, he appeared to be dissatisfied with Higginbotham for being there before- hand. The Governor said, in a monthi's time, he would cause possession to be given. Leet, apprehending difficulty, laid aside, he said, all thoughts about the matter.

In this matter, John Coats de-

Coats' posed that Henry Munday in- Deposition. vited him to go over the Sus-

quehanna about seven miles to settle on 800 acres of land, taken up by Maryland, on which eight German families were settled, whom the Marylanders would dispossess if they did not sell their interest and be gone. And that Maryland would give arms to all such members of the Church of England as would settle the said land to defend themselves against the in- habitants of Pennsylvania. That the land would cost the survey only, and Munday was to have a gratuity. Jeremiah Starr deposed that Thomas Thompson told him that Jacob Henderson, Commissary of Maryland, had by letter recommended him to Thomas Cresap, to be shown land on the west side of the Susquehanna, and Thomas Thompson, John Starr and William Down- ard went and were shown the land which was settled by German people, and Thomp- son chose for himself a certain piece whereon was a settlement and a corn-mill. and that John Starr told him that he went with Cresap to the Governor of Maryland, who granted him and his friends the land, and if they would be true subjects to Lord Baltimore, he would defend them, and pat- ent the land at four shillings an acre, they paying only survey fees. Henry Munday proposed a way of gaining the lands, and it was resolved that the militia of the govern- ment should be ready about the end of the month to take and give the possession to Munday and his friends. William Miller deposed that Jacob Henderson and Benja- min Tasker were at his house and advised him where persons should settle on land west of the Susquehanna which was settled by the Germans, and invited persons in Chester county to come and live in Mary- land.

On the 29th of November, 1736, a letter was addressed to the magistrates of Chester county, in behalf of the council :

"The seasonable discovery of the late wicked design, which from the encourage- ment of four unkind neighbors of Maryland was set on foot and upon the point of being carried into execution, for ousting by force of arms those German families settled on the west side of the Susquehanna within the unquestionable bounds of this province, and the apprehending of some of the per- sons who were principally concerned in pro- moting within your county the association for this purpose, having for the present, we hope, defeated the evil intentions of those who by such practices would have intro- duced the utmost confusion and disorder among his Majesty's subjects of this gov- ernment, we have had it under consideration in what manner those disturbers of the pub- lic peace ought to be proceeded against."

Thereupon the magistrates of Chester county were directed by the Council to call before them as many of the associators as they could, and to take their examinations apart, and such as were disposed to live for the future in due obedience to this govern- ment, might, on submission, and on being bound on recognizance, be discharged with- out persecution.

The following document concerning the "Chester County Plot" was obtained from the court records at West Chester and con- tains the names of many of the German settlers west of the river in 1736: County of Chester, ss :

The grand inquest for our Sovereign Lord the King, upon their oath and affirma- tion respectively do present that Henry Munday, late of the county of Chester, sad- ler, and Charles Higginbotham, late of the same county, laborer, contriving and with all their might purposing and intending the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King within the province of Pennsylvania, said Majesty's just and lawful authority which of right his said Majesty's liege subjects ought to bear and exercise as much as in them lay to impugn, due and legal, said ad- ministration of justice within the same prov- ince to hinder, and his said Majesty's faith- ful subjects with great fear and terror to have associated to themselves divers other persons of evil name, fame and conversation to the number of forty and upwards, the twenty-fifth day of October in the tenth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA '

George the Second by the grace of God of lands and tenements by, from or under the Great Britain, France and Ireland, King said proprietaries of the province of Penn- sylvania aforesaid, violently and with an armed force to keep, hold and maintain and the persons of them the said Christian Crawl, Henry Libert * * * and Nich- olas Cone with force and arms, etc., to arrest and imprison in high violation and contempt of the laws in disinherison of the said honorable proprietaries to the great terror and disturbance of his Majesty's sub- jects, inhabitants of the said county of Lan- caster to the evil and pernicious example of others in the like case delinquents and against the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King who is now in his crown and dignity, etc. defender of the faith, etc., and divers other days and times as well before as after at the township of London-Grove in the county of Chester within the jurisdiction of this court in pursuance of their wicked and unjust in- tentions aforesaid and being united and con- federated together between themselves wickedly and unlawfully did conspire and combine with armed force and with a mul- titude of people in hostile manner arrayed into the lands and tenements of the Honor- able John Penn, Thomas Penn and Richard Penn true and absolute proprietaries and governors in chief of the province of Penn- sylvania, county of Lancaster on west side J. Growdon of the Susquehanna within the province of Endorsed "Billa Vera." a "Henry Munday." per Dno. Rege. Pennsylvania then in the quiet and peaceful possession of Christian Crawl, Henry Libert, Jacob Huntsecker. Methusalem Test. Edward Leet sworn. Griffith, Michael Tanner. Henry Stands. Martin Shultz, Jacob Welshover, Paul COLONEL THOMAS CRESAP. Springler, Andreas Felixer, Ulrick Whist- Colonel Thomas Cresap, one of the brav- est and most audacious of the Maryland settlers, figured prominently in the conten- tions about rights to lands in Springetts- bury Manor and southward. He became the leader among the Maryland invaders until the temporary line was run between the provinces of Pennsylvania and Mary- land in 1739. ler, Nicholas Booker, Hans Steinman, Con- rad Strickler, Caspar Springler, Michael Walt, Peter Kersher, Reynard Kummer, George Hans Pancker, Frederick Leader, Michael Miller, Martin Weigle, Hans Henry Place, Tobias Fry, Martin Fry, Peter Stein- man, Henry Pann, Henry Smith, Jacob Landis, Henry Kendrick, Tobias Rudisill, Jacob Krebell, Michael Springle, Jacob Singler, Philip Ziegler, Caspar Crever, Der- ick Pleager, George Swope, Michael Krenel, Thomas May, Nicholas Brin, Kilian Smith, Martin Bower, George Lauman, Martin Brunt, Michael Allen, Christian Enfers, and Nicholas Cone, tenants occupying and hold- ing the same lands and tenements under the honorable proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania aforesaid, unlawfully and un- justly with force and arms, etc., to enter and them the said Christian Crawl, Henry Libert, etc., *

* and Nicholas Cone from their quiet and peaceable possession aforesaid with an armed force in hostile manner to expel, eject and remove and the same Christian Crawl, Henry Libert *

and Nicholas Cone so being expelled and ejected from the possession of the lands and tenements of aforesaid against them the said Christian Crawl, Henry Libert * * * and Nicholas Cone and against all persons whatsoever claiming or to claim the said

Colonel Cresap was born at Skipton, Yorkshire, England, in 1702, and came to Maryland when fifteen years of age. In 1732 he gave his occupation as that of a car- penter. He settled at the mouth of the Susquehanna, where he engaged in boat building. In 1725 he married Hannah Johnson, whose father, Thomas Johnson, March 24, 1725, had surveyed to himself Mount Johnson Island, at Peach Bottom Ferry. Cresap soon after went to Virginia, but he was not long there before an attempt was made by a dozen or more persons to drive him away while he was engaged in hewing timber for his dwelling. He de- fended himself and cleft one of his assail- ants with a broad-ax. He then returned to Maryland, and took out a patent for a ferry over the Susquehanna river at the head of tide-water, at or near what is now Bell's Ferry, which must have been near the ter- minus of the voyage of Captain John Smith, of Virginia, up the river in 1608. While

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there his restless and roving spirit led him tices of the Supreme Court issued their to visit the rich valleys thirty miles farther warrant to the sheriff of the county of Lan- caster for the apprehension of Thomas Cresap, for the murder of Knowles Daunt, and other high crimes and misdemeanors. up the right bank of the river, now in Hel- lam and Lower Windsor townships, and re- ported the state of affairs there to Lord Baltimore, who contemplated as early as At a meeting of the Council, 1721 to extend the northern boundary of Arrest of held on the 27th of November, his province on the west side of the Sus- Cresap. 1736, the president laid before quehanna to the northern limits of the fortieth degree of latitude. Gradually a few settlers from Maryland moved up to Conojehela (incorrectly Conodochly) val- ley. They were aggressive to Pennsylva- nia settlers near them. It was not the policy of Baltimore or his followers to pur- chase lands from the Indians; they drove them away by force of arms, and hence we find that the Maryland settlers treated the Indians on the west side of the river with cruelty. They had no person capable of holding the ground they had taken against the Indians or the followers of Penn, who were on the alert to prevent Baltimore from getting a foothold upon this disputed land. Cresap came up to Conojehela valley in March. 1730, and built a blockhouse upon the banks of the river, at the mouth of the Cabin creek, four miles below Wrightsville, near the site of Leber's mill. In the same year he took out a Maryland patent for several hundred acres of land near the Sus- quehanna river and for "Blue Rock Ferry" at the same place. In 1731 Cresap was commissioned a justice of the peace for Baltimore county. In 1735 he took out a Maryland patent for a group of islands at the Blue Rock Ferry, called the "Isles of Promise." General Jacob Dritt afterwards became the owner of these islands, which were later sold to John B. Haldeman.

At this time Cresap had at least two and perhaps three of his children with him, the eldest being about nine years old. Mean- time, his wife and children resided with his cousin, Daniel Lowe, who drove one of the German settlers from his place in Kreutz Creek valley, near the Codorus. Colonel Cresap's education was limited, but he be- came a land surveyor, and was of great service to Lord Baltimore in .extending the western boundary of Maryland from the source of the south branch of the Potomac due north, which added at least one-third more territory to Maryland.

On the 25th of September, 1736, the jus-

the board a letter from Lan- caster county, brought by messengers, who gave an account, that in pursuance of the warrant issued by the provincial judges for apprehending Thomas Cresap, he had been taken with four others, who abetted him in resisting the sheriff. One of them was committed to the jail of Lancaster county for a crime charged against him there, and Cresap and the three others were brought to Philadelphia. The letter stated that the magistrates, upon considering the danger wherewith those parties of that county ly- ing on the west of the Susquehanna near Thomas Cresap's settlement, were threat- ened, if he should be joined by those who had lately entered into a combination for dispossessing the Germans settled there, and likewise having understood that he had applied to Colonel Rigby, a justice of Mary- land, for more arms and ammunition, they judged it absolutely necessary to apprehend Cresap. Sheriff Samuel Smith of Lancas- ter, had called to his assitance twenty-four persons, and had gone over the river on Tuesday night, November 23rd, in order to have Cresap taken by surprise early the next morning. But Cresap with six men, se- cured himself in his house, and stood on his defense. He fired on the sheriff and his company. The sheriff set fire to his house, and Cresap, still refusing to surrender, at length rushed out, and after some firing, in which one of his men was killed, he was ap- prehended. The magistrates reported "that nothing but absolute necessity and the pres- ervation . of so many innocent families, whose ruin seemed to be determined upon, could have obliged the people to proceed to such extremities in taking this man ; that his behavior has since showed that he will stop at nothing to gratify his resentments, and therefore, unless strict care is taken, it may justly be apprehended that he will at- tempt either firing the prison or any other desperate action, that he can find means to compass."

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

George Aston, of the county of Chester, two miles of Cumberland, where he again in the province of Pennsylvania, saddler, aged about fifty years, being one of the people called Quakers, upon his solenin af- firmation, according to law, did declare and affirm that, upon some conversation hap- pening between Thomas Cresap, Robert Buchanan, and this affirmant on the road, in sight of the city of Philadelphia, that Cresap said, "Damn it, Aston, this is one of the prettiest towns in Maryland. I have been a troublesome fellow, but by this last job I have made a present of the two prov- inces to the King, and that if they found themselves in a better condition by the change, they might thank Cresap for it," or words to that effect.

Philadelphia, December 3, 1736, taken be- fore me. Clement Plumsted, Mayor.

On the representations of the magistrates, the Council ordered that Cresap should be put in irons and closely confined in the most secure place, but supplied with what was necessary. It was left to the judges to proceed against him and the others taken with him, agreeably to law. On the 8th of December, 1736, a message was brought from the Assembly, and finding that the government of Maryland had not shown any real disposition on their part to enter into amicable measures for preventing fur- ther differences between the two govern- ments, the House had come to a resolution, that an humble address should be prepared and transmitted to the King, praying his royal interposition for putting a stop to these disorders. The petition of the Presi- dent and Council, and of the General As- sembly of the province of Pennsylvania, to- gether with sundry affidavits about the ap- proaching of Cresap and the association for dispossessing the Germans on the Susque- hanna, were transmitted to the King, after the meeting of the Council on the IIth of December, 1736.

About 1739 Cresap again moved beyond the frontier and took up

Removal to about 2000 acres of land in Maryland. Maryland along Antietam creek where he established a store and Indian trading post. He accumulated a large quantity of furs and peltries and shipped them to England, and the vessel was captured by the French and he lost everything. He moved farther west within

embarked in the Indian trade until the French and Indian war, when he raised a company of rangers. He had a number of skirmishes with the Indians and stood his ground, manfully assisted by his sons. He was elected a representative for a number of years from Washington County to the Maryland legislature. When the French and their savage allies attempted to wrest the entire territory west of the Allegheny Mountains from the English, he and his sons at their own expense raised two com- panies of volunteer soldiers. Col. Cresap became a very large land owner. He be- came totally blind a few years before his death. He died at his home in Allegheny County, Md., in 1790, aged eighty-eight.

His first wife, Hannah Johnson, during "Cresap War" in York County, frequently mounted a horse and rode with the mounted militia in battle array, with a sword by her side. And when Cresap's stronghold was surrounded by militia from Donegal, she knew how to handle a musket; she never manifested any fear, but superintended the construction of a house, and the building of some flats, in the absence of her husband at John Hendricks', now the upper end of Wrightsville, where forcible possession had been taken of Hendricks' plantation by Cresap. And while there she saw a flat filled with armed men crossing the river. She mounted a horse and sounded a bugle, and rode rapidly . to Cresap's block house, three miles and a half further down the river, and returned at the head of the militia.

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History of York County Pennsylvania, Volume I, Part 11

Author: Prowell, George R. Publication date: 1907 Publisher: J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1372

Author: Prowell, George R.
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1372