History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 10

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104

USA > Pennsylvania > York County > History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended > Part 10

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was also sent to Lord Baltimore. Gov.

Gordon, and complained in his letter of Ogle sent a copy of the deposition to Gov.

the saying by Mr. Cornish, that he knew no reason why Cressap had to expect justice there, since he was a liver in Maryland. And

that Cressap was in great fear of other inju-

other circumstances, and that some Indians ries from the behavior of the magistrate and

said they were offered a good reward by one

Cartlidge, of Conestogoe, to drive Cressap

and his family off his land and burn his house. The affadavit of Cressap also stated

that a great number of horses and mares,

which were claimed by James Patterson and

and his neighbors, in throwing down their been very injurious and troublesome to him others, inhabitants of Pennsylvania, had fences and destroying their corn. This mat- ter of the horses becomes important, because of another incident arising out of the killing carceration of persons on both sides, and my of the horses, which led to the arrest and in- Lord Baltimore became a participant in the scenes that were enacted on this border land of oura. To the letter of Gov. Ogle,

Gov. Gordon replied, among other things,

that "Cressap, believing himself ag- grieved, applied to one of our magistrates, telling him that he was an inhabitant of

Maryland. In which application it must be owned that he had a large share of assur- ance, for Justice Cornish lives more northerly than Philadelphia, and Cressap's dwelling, by his own description of the Blue Rock, cannot

be less than five miles northward. That jus- tice had been administered in Pennsylvania, and that as to the fray, the government was in no way concerned in it, unless justice was denied, which was not the case. "For 'tis plain the whole amounts to no more than that a quarrel happened between Cressap and come others in Pennsylvania, which he thinks fit to call Maryland." It appears from this and throughout the whole controversy, that the Pennsylvanians continually resented the intrusions of the Marylanders into their ter- ritory, above a designated line, while on the other hand the Marylanders, with the con- nivance of their government, refused to recog- nise that line and collisions occurred necessa- rily incident to settlements under such con- flicting claims. The lands about the Codo- rus and Conewago were attractive, as Gov. Gordon wrote in the course of the corres- pondence, "and some Maryland gentlemen cast their eyes on those lands made valuable by the neighborhood of our inhabitants, and it suited their purposes to settle such persons there as would intimidate Pennsylvanians,

*I Archives, 295.

BORDER TROUBLES.

and give some countenance to their claims."* Indeed Maryland surveys had been made and returned many years before, as in the in- stances related in the chapter on Indian titles, among which was a warrant issued for the survey of a manor to the Lord Baltimore, upon the banks of the Susquehanna, includ- ing Newberry, which led to the survey of Springetsbury Manor in 1722, and earlier, that made by Phillip Syng, by a Maryland title that same year. ? In the year 1729, Charles Carroll, as appears by a petition of his, about the time of the commencement of our border troubles, located a warrant of 10,000 acres on the vacant lands lying on Pipe Creek, and Codorus and Conewago Creeks, and lands contiguous, according to the accustomed method used within his Lord- ship's province. This location was in pos- session of the surveyor of Baltimore County and was renewed from time to time.

Charles Carroll states in his petition that, apprehending some cultivation made during the former location, which the said warrant could not effect, he had obtained a special warrant to take up the same on express terms. About the 14th of June, 1732, he and John Ross went to view the lands, the better to inform themselves how to finish a survey of the same, and on the 21st of that month they came to the house of John Hen- dricks, on the Susquehanna' River. The com- plaint of Carroll was that while they were at Hendrick's house several persons came there with a warrant from Justice Wright to arrest John Tradane, of the province of Maryland, resident at Monochasie, and which they were told was intended to try whether they would interfere, by objecting to the power of Pennsylvania. But they took no notice of the proceedings. Carroll com- plained that John Wright, Jr., a son of the Justice, had said " that in case the hominy gentry hindered their executing the warrant, they themselves should be put in prison, and that the best of their hominy gentry in Mary- land should not get them out, and that if the Governor were there they would serve him in the same manner; that they would teach them to come to take their lands, and that neither they nor their Marylanders should come there to make a hominy country of their lands." He complained also, he said, of other reflecting and abusive language to that purport. The complaint of Carroll also set out that one James Pattison, wlio came over, said that all the lands thereabout belonged to Mr. Penn. That Mr. James Logan advised the people of Pennsylvania

to stand up manfully against the Maryland- ers, and that Pattison said, for his own part, he would fight to his knees in blood before he should lose his plantations on either side of the river. Carroll asked him if ever he had a patent under Mr. Penn for his planta- tion or the lands he claimed, or had a war- rant for taking it up, to which Pattison an- swered that he had neither warrant nor pat- ent, and Carroll then said that Mr. Logan's advice was dangerous. This memorial of Charles Carroll was presented for the purpose of praying protection from the Maryland government in executing his warrant, and settling the lands, as they, the petition said, would have to repel force by force .*

James Patterson, or Pattison as above called, had been settled, according to Gov. Gordon, on Springetsbury Manor about fifteen years, but because it was a manor he had no patent. j

The titles within this manor are elsewhere explained. Patterson had a plantation on this side of the river, but resided on the east side. He had, it appears, a number of horses necessary for carrying goods and skins in his trade with the Indians. Some of the family of John Lowe killed his horses, whereupon he came in the night time with a warrant, and the sheriff's posse, to arrest two of Lowe's sons, Daniel and William Lowe. But they also seized John Lowe, the father,. and he, being brought before Justices Blun- ston and Wright, and nothing appearing against him, was discharged. Affidavits made by John Lowe and Thomas Cressap were sent to Gov. Ogle, representing the ar- rest to have been made with great violence. Iu Cressap's affidavit it is represented that Patterson had said he would let them know that they were prisoners of Pennsylvania. Cressap said that if Lord Baltimore would not protect them in their rights and land, they, the inhabitants of the west side of the river, must appeal to the King. To which Patterson answered "that they had no busi- ness with the King, or the King with them, for Penn was their King." Such were the representations sent for the grave considera. tion of the proprietary and authorities of Maryland. John Lowe, in his affidavit, rep- resented that the party came in the dead of night and arrested him in bed, and violently dragged him on the ground and over the river on the ice and kept him in custody the re- maining part of the night. The consequent struggle arising from the resistance to the arrest was made the ground of complaint for

*I Archives, 331.

*I Archives, 333.

+I Archives, 338.

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

riot in Maryland. The affair was communi- cated to the Lord Baltimore, and a letter was received from him by Gov. Gordon. As this letter came from a person of such dig- nity, and as it contains his own opinion of his rights, and his claim to obedience in this particular, it is given in full:

ANNAPOLIS, Decr. ye 15th, 1732.

Sir :- By the enclosed precept, founded upon In- formation given upon Oath to a Magistrate here, you will see that a most outrageous Riot hath lately been committed in my Province, by a great number of People calling themselves Pennsylvanians. It appears by the same Information that some of your Magistrates, instead of preventing or discouraging these violences, Countenance and abet the Authors of them ; whether with or without the approbation of your Government, you best know. For my own part. I think myself in Honor and Justice obliged, and I am determined, to protect such of his Maj- esty's subjects who are my own Tenants, in all their Rights, aud therefore, to the End the Persons com . plained of may be punished, if upon a fair tryal they shall be found guilty. I desire that they-or such of them as can be found in your Province, may be sent without loss of time into this, as the Only and proper place, where the fact with which they are charged is cognizable, and where my Officers will be ready to receive them, particularly the Sher- iffs and Justices of my Counties of Baltimore and Cecil. I also desire that such of your Magistrates as shall appear to have Encouraged the commission of these or any other violences in my Province by the people of Pennsylvania, may be punished for their abuse of Authority, and that you'll favor me with a Categorical answer to these my just demands by this bearer.

Your Humble Servant, Baltimore.

Addressed thus: To his Excellency Patrick Gor- don, Esq., at Philadelphia. *

The letter enclosed a precept for the arrest of the persons concerned in the alleged riot. Lord Baltimore was then at Annapolis, and was of course acquainted with the location of the scene of this affair. In a subsequent let- ter, he speaks of it as having taken place in the province of Maryland.

At a meeting of the Provincial Council held at Philadelpia on the 9th of January, 1733, the Governor acquainted the Board with the letter of Lord Baltimore, together with a report of the affair from Messrs. Wright and Blunston. The statements of this report are material to the consideration of the question regarding the claims of the respective prov- inces, to allow settlements within the ter- ritory west of the river Susquehanna, and north of Philadelphia. The substance of it is as follows :

run: nor the exact boundaries known, no au- thority was claimed over those few families settled to the northward of Octoraroe, by or under pretense of Maryland rights. They remained undisturbed, though many inhabit- ants of Pennsylvania lived some miles to the southward of them. At that time there were no English inhabitants on the west side of the Susquehanna River, in those parts, for, about two years before, Edward Parnell aud several other families who were settled on the west side of the river near the same, at a place called by the Indians Conejohela, were at the request of the Conestogoe Indians re- moved by the Governor-the Indians insist ing upon the same to be vacant for them. But about two years since, Thomas Cressap and some other people of loose morals and turbu- lent spirits came and disturbed the. Indians who were peaceably settled on those lands from whence Parnell and the others had been removed-burnt their cabins, aud destroyed their goods and drove them away. The for- mer settlers were good citizens of Pennsyl- vania, and before Cressap and his company none had settled by a Maryland claim, so far to the northward by nearly thirty miles. These men would fly to our laws for redress against their own party, and they who had fled from their creditors into this province, when creditors would pursue them hither, would cry Maryland. They disturbed the peace of the government, carried people out of the province by violence, took away guns from friendly Indians, tied and made them prisoners without any offense given, and threatened all who should oppose them. They killed the horses of such of our people whose trade with the Indians made it necessary to keep them on that side of the river for carry- ing their goods and skins, and assaulted and threatened to look after them. That this usage obliged James Patterson to apply' to them for a warrant to apprehend and bind to the peace the two young men who had been most active, Daniel and William Lowe, and they were dismissed on security for their good behavior and appearance at court. They then say, that if they had supposed the issuing of their warrants would have given the least of- fense to Lord Baltimore, or that he would have looked upon those persons as his sub- jects and under his protection, they would have represented the case to the Governor and waited his direction .* With this re- port they sent affidavits which were read Patterson was informed that his horses were killed near Lowe's plantation and that his

In the year 1729, when the county of Lan- caster was formed, the southern boundary was, by the order, to be Octoraroe Creek and the province of Maryland, and including the in- . before the Board. The affidavits showed that habitants, to lie open to the westward. But as the line between the provinces was never

*I Archives, 393.

*III Col. Rec., 470 et. seq.

BORDER TROUBLES.

sons said they would kill all the horses that came upon that land, and would tie and whip all he should send over thither. The consta- ble, Charles Jones, to whom the precept was directed, having formerly met with resistance from these people and fearing new insults, for Thomas Cressap and his associates had threatened to shoot any officer who should come into those parts to do his duty, though he only took his staff himself, yet he thought it necessary to have a suitable strength, took in all nine men with him. Amongst them were only three guns, and these not loaded, serving only as an appearance of defense. They went quietly to the house of Lowe, the father, and the door being opened appre. hended Daniel and William Lowe, his two sons. They made no disturbance but what was occasioned by the resistance of the pris- oners, and those who came to their relief. That Lowe's house, where his sons were taken, is several miles more northerly than Philadel- phia (which appears by a well known line that had been run about forty years since on a due west course from the city to the Susque- hanna, in order to a more certain discovery of the country) and that there are about 400 people living more southerly than Lowe's house who pay taxes in the county of Lancaster, and have always acknowledged themselves inhabitants of Pennsylvania. The Council having fully considered the said let- ters and affidavits and remarking on the style and manner of Lord Baltimore's letter, which they conceived too peremptory, were inclinable to think that his lordship had left room for no other answer than barely to ac- quaint him that the supposed riot was com- mitted within the reputed and known bounds of Pennsylvania; and consequently not cogniz- able by him. Lord Baltimore, in a letter of the 15th of February, 1733, says "that it is the first instance in His Majesty's plantations, when rioters and people levying war against any of his subjects, have been denied to be delivered up to the government in which the offense was committed, on proper application, and such I make no doubt mine will appear to have been in due time." These facts appear upon the records of the Provincial Council, and are of no importance historically, except so far as they bear upon the conduct of the government in relation to them. The excited state of the parties im- mediately concerned in these quarrels is man- ifested by their violence of language. Con- sequently we find the depositions on either side laying stress on words used. Several witnesses deposed that they heard Cressap say, that if the sheriff of Pennsylvania or

any other officer from thence, came to take any person on the west side of the Susque- hanna River he would shoot them, for they had pistols and guns and would use them in their own defense. And with regard to a higher person in authority it was deposed. that Cressap said he had been at Annapolis, and in council Lord Baltimore assured him that as he had received money for the land on which Cressap lived, he would defend him from the proprietor of Pennsylvania, although Lord Baltimore did believe that when the di- vision line between the provinces was run, Cressap's lands would fall in Pennsylvania. But until that line was run, he would protect him, and thereupon gave him a commission of the peace, as a magistrate for the county of Baltimore, and with it gave him a strict charge to apprehend any person coming out of Pennsylvania, bearing arms, or commit- ting the least offense whatsoever, and be sure to take no security of them but such as were freeholders in Maryland. *

On another occasion Cressap said he had been at Annapolis since the arrival of Lord Baltimore, had been very kindly received by his Lordship, and had got his com- mission to be a Justice of the Peace, and added that his Lordship would never execute the agreement made between him and the proprietors of Pennsylvania, be- cause they had cheated his Lordship by im- posing a false map of the country upon him, and that his Lordship would rather choose to pay the £5,000 forfeiture, mentioned in the agreement, than comply with the terms of it. And that he, Cressap, had heard this at Annapolis from gentlemen of note there. i

At a meeting of the Provincial Council, held at Philadelphia on the 14th of Febru- ary, 1733, the Governor informed the Board that he had received a letter from the Lieu- tenant-Governor of Maryland, enclosing one from Lord Baltimore, by which it appeared that his Lordship, notwithstanding what had been written to him, continued to insist on the demands made in his former letter, of delivering up those persons concerned in the execution of the warrant issued against the sons of John Lowe. In this communication Gov. Ogle says : " His Lordship cannot but be surprised to find your magistrates are jus- itfied in issuing warrants for the apprehen- sion of persons in his Lordship's province. before the lines are run and bounds settled. which are stipulated by the articles to be done, and that probably such may fall with- in the government of Maryland, when the

*I Archives, 356.

+I Archives, 375.

HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.

lines are run. If this is the case, his Lord- ship thinks it should not be so useful and necessary to name commissioners or to run the line intended by the articles, since every magistrate may, on the one hand, take upon them, though no lines are run, to distinguish the bounds and each government protect them." **

The Council expressing their surprise that Lord Baltimore should, without taking the least notice of what the Governor had writ- ten to him, have thought fit to insist on the former demands in so peremptory a manner, came to the unanimous resolution that for the reasons contained in the said letter, his Lordship's demand is by no means to be com- plied with, and that the same should be sig. nified to his Lordship in very plain terms. And they directed, among other things, the Governor to say, in his letter to Lord Balti- more, that the offense was only cognizable in Pennsylvania, the place where it was done, and that his Lordship may be assured that this government shall have such a strict regard to do impartial justice between all its inhabitants, that John Lowe, if the case be as he represents it, on a proper application, may depend on being redressed in due course of law. That the demand of his Lordship was not a sufficient reason for delivering up a freeman of Pennsylvania to be tried in Maryland. That those persons were as inde- pendent of Maryland as were his of Pennsyl- vania, and though his principles and those of the greatest part of the inhabitants of Penn- sylvania, allowed of no force, except that of the civil magistrates, yet, being protected by his Majesty's wisdom and justice, we appre- hend no danger from the different principles and superior strength of Maryland.t

We have now come to a tragic incident, in these unfortunate disturbances, which had the effect of prolonging the unpleasant atti- tude of the rulers of the rival provinces to- ward each other, and after a continued voluminous and acrimonious correspondence, and further disturbances, resulted in the arrest of Cressap and his being held for trial. According to a letter from Mr. Blunston to Thomas Penn, proprietary, on the 30th of January, 1734, on information that Cressap and several hands were to be at John Hend- ricks' to square logs for a house and build a float for the ferry, John Wright, with Sheriff Emerson and others, went over the river with intent to proceed against Cressap and his party for forcible entry. The workmen were arrested and committed to jail. An attempt

was made to arrest Cressap at his house, and one of the Sheriff's men was shot in the leg, from the effects of which wound he died. The unfortunate man who was shot was Knowles Daunt, and it appeared from the affidavits that he was killed by Cressap. Mr. Blunston wrote that they were extremely con- cerned at this rash and indiscreet procedure, and not knowing what use might be made of it, for they heard that Cressap had set out for Maryland, and would doubtless give a relation far beyond the truth, and that it was possible the government of Maryland might write to our government about it. "Pray don't fail to let us hear from thee at our court, for we seem to be much at loss how to proceed against them we have taken, as well as what to say of the madness of the other." * A letter came from the government of Maryland, as was expected, and some extracts may not be uninteresting from the ensuing correspondence, bearing on the con- troversy. Governor Ogle, February 24, 1734: "It has always been my constant aim and view to prevent all disturbances as much as possible, having always hopes that the quiet and peaceable behaviour of our people, would, at least, induce those under your government to follow their example. and for this reason, notwithstanding the repeated violences committed against his Lordship's tenants on the borders, I have given them frequent orders not to offer the least injury to any person whatsoever, but when defending themselves against any unjust attack, which may be made upon them. What gives me the greatest concern is that these people were headed when they came over the river by two persons acting as magistrates under your commission, Mr. Wright and Mr. Smout. For now that things are come to that pass that magistrates, at the head of a parcel of desperate fellows, come out of one province and attack in the night time a magistrate in another, where blood is shed. Nobody can tell what dismal consequences may follow it, if not prevented in time. Therefore, I hope you will show that discountenance to your magistrates which may effectually discourage others from committing the like offenses. I do assure you I have ordered Mr. Cressap, (by whose hand the death of the person is supposed to have happened) into the custody of the Sheriff of Baltimore County, that he may be forthcoming at the next assizes to be held for that county, on the 1st Tuesday of next April, in order for his trial, and I hope for the satisfaction of justice you will give official orders to compel any witnesses under

*III Col. Rec., 481.

+Ibid.

*I Archives, 410.

BORDER TROUBLES.

your protection to be at the assizes for the discovery of truth. . . I am afraid we should but ill answer His Majesty's gracious appro- bation of us, if we neglect to take the most proper steps in laying before His Majesty the unsettled condition of our confines-making application to our proprietors on this head, and pressing them to procure His Majesty's directions herein." *

Gov. Gordon, March 8, 1734 : "It is with a very deep concern that I observe complaints arising and multiplying, and that you seem to charge this province with a prevailing humor to rioting. . . . . John Hendricks had for several years past. and I think for some years before any settlement was attempted in these parts by any parties from Maryland, been seated on the west side of the Susquehanna, about four or five miles higher up the river above those since made by Cressap and his associates, and had ob- tained a grant and survey for the land on which he now dwells, and where he has lived peaceably until Cressap took it into his head, with divers others, to enter upon the posses- sion of Hendricks, and when they were desired to leave the place, and desist from their unlawful attempts, the owner of the lands was insulted and menaced by Cressap, and such as he thought fit from time to time to encourage in their proceedings. This oc- casioned complaint to our magistrates, who took care to have the best council and advice how to proceed. Accordingly, the magistrates went over, and when they came to Hendricks' land, they found eight men at work, whom I am sorry you call his Lord- ship's tenants, felling and squaring his tim- ber, and building a house within 100 yards of Hendricks' door. I am really troubled to find you saying in your letter that I know that Cressap is one of your magistrates. I assure you, sir, that I did not. I know that he has generally been said to be. From our knowledge of him we have no reason to con- sider him other than an incendiary or public disturber of the peace of both governments, and the main cause and prompter of all late contentions that have happened between us, and indeed the first placing of him there has always appeared to us not easy to be ac- counted for. I cannot comprehend in what sense their (the magistrates) going out of one province into another is to be understood, for I never yet heard it alleged that Susque- hanna River was a boundary between Mary- land and Pennsylvania. Nothing can be more certain than that their boundary on the north of the one and south of the other,

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History of York County, Pennsylvania : from the earliest period to the present time, divided into general, special, township and borough histories, with a biographical department appended, Part 10

Author: Gibson, John, Editor Publication date: 1886 Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Gibson, John, Editor
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: F.A. Battey Publishing Co., Chicago
Number of Pages: 1104