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 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134 | Part 135 | Part 136 | Part 137 | Part 138 | Part 139 | Part 140 | Part 141 | Part 142 | Part 143 | Part 144 | Part 145 | Part 146 | Part 147 | Part 148 | Part 149 | Part 150 | Part 151 | Part 152 | Part 153 | Part 154 | Part 155 | Part 156 | Part 157 | Part 158 | Part 159 | Part 160 | Part 161 | Part 162 | Part 163 | Part 164 | Part 165 | Part 166 | Part 167 | Part 168 | Part 169 | Part 170 | Part 171 | Part 172 | Part 173 | Part 174 | Part 175 | Part 176 | Part 177 | Part 178 | Part 179 | Part 180 | Part 181 | Part 182 | Part 183 | Part 184 | Part 185 | Part 186 | Part 187 | Part 188 | Part 189 | Part 190 | Part 191 | Part 192 | Part 193 | Part 194 | Part 195 | Part 196 | Part 197 | Part 198 | Part 199 | Part 200 | Part 201 | Part 202 | Part 203 | Part 204 | Part 205 | Part 206 | Part 207 | Part 208
must be a due east and west line, and there- fore the opposite parts of the shore of that river must necessarily be both in the same province.
"To my great trouble I am to observe that I received a melancholy letter from John Hendricks and Joshua Minshall, dated from the gaol at Annapolis, with copies signed by your Sheriff of their commitment by yourself and some members of your Council, dated the second day of last month, that is three days before the date of your letter, and in this commitment I find the true allegations against them are for having disparaged his Lordship's title, that is, in other terms, as may well be supposed, that they asserted their right to their own settlement under Pennsylvania, about ten miles by our compu- tation more northerly than Philadelphia, where neither his Lordship nor any for him then made, unless it be now done, any claim whatsoever. We have also heard of the manner of taking them, viz. : that the Sheriff of Baltimore County, with above twenty men, armed with guns, pistols, swords and cutlasses, traveled up thither to apprehend two men, who were quietly following their business on their plantations. 'Tis said also, that this is done by way of reprisal, and to intimidate, that is because our magistrates, in a most peaceable and legal manner, re- moved a forced and most unjust entry, you must make a prisoner of the man upon whom that force was committed, and over whom you can claim no manner of right. There must be some certain known limits for the exercise of powers of government, without which his Majesty's subjects cannot possibly be secured in their persons or estates, such known limits as we always had till now with- in these two years, for the proprietors had by mutual agreement concluded an absolute determination of all disputes and differences on these heads, without any regard to which one Cressap has been authorized, or at least countenanced, with a pocket dial, as divers persons of credit have affirmed, to scatter and plant pieces of Maryland and his Lord- ship's tenants, as they are called, where he and they please, and the removal of these abuses, in a legal way, is called rioting. His Majesty's peaceable subjects are hurried off their rightful settlements into distant pris- ons to the danger of their health and lives, and now in the springtime, to the irreparable injury of their families, who depend for their bread on their labor and care. This fur- ther shows the absolute necessity of applying to his Majesty, without any delay. . . . In the first place calling for a reparation of this
*I Archives, 414.
54
HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.
last injury to Hendricks and Minshall, and that Cressap may be delivered to receive his trial in this province, in which he perpe- trated the murder. I must earnestly beseech you that we may concert some certain, just and equitable measures for preserving peace between his Majesty's subjects in both gov- ernments."*
MISSION OF MESSRS. HAMILTON AND GEORGES.
Thomas Penn, proprietary, on the 14th of May, 1734, informed the Council that the business then to be considered by them re- lated to some very unneighborly proceedings of the province of Maryland, in not only barrassing some of the inhabitants of this province who live on the border, but likewise extending their claims much further than had heretofore been pretended to be Mary- land, and carrying off several persons and imprisoning them. That some time since they carried off John Hendricks and Joshua Minshall from their settlements on Susque- hanna, and still detain them in the goal at Annapolis. The proprietor said he in- tended to make use of the opportu- nity of Mr. Hamilton's going to Annapo- lis, (Andrew Hamilton, Esq., who was to appear for the prisoners), to press the Lieu- tenant-Governor of Maryland to enter into such measures as should be most advisable for preventing such irregular proceedings for the future, and as he designed that his secre- tary, Mr. John Georges, should accompany Mr. Hamilton, he had drawn up instructions for them. Whereupon the Council desired that credentials be granted for the purpose mentioned.+
Messrs. Hamilton and Georges made their visit to Maryland, and on their return made a full report to the proprietor .¿ Mr. Hamil- ton attended the Council, and made a narra- tive verbally of the proceedings had in the Provincial Court of Maryland against those who were carried off prisoners from this gov- ernment, and the arguments he had advanced for obtaining their discharge. Messrs. Ham- ilton and Georges reported that they arrived at Annapolis on the 20th of May about sun- set. Soon after coming to their lodgings they went to speak with John Hendricks and Joshua Minshall in prison, but were not suf- fered to see them until the next morning, when, going again, they were after some time admitted to the speech of the prisoners, who gave an account of their uneasiness in a most unwholesome prison; as likewise the best ac-
count they could of the several charges al- leged against them. They waited upon Gov. Ogle, and delivered him a letter from the Lieutenant-Governor of Pennsylvania, and acquainted him that they were sent to concert proper measures for the peace and good neighborhood between the two govern- ments, and to desire a discharge of four of our inhabitants who were imprisoned at An- napolis. To which he was pleased to answer that he was mighty ready to cultivate any measures with the government of Pennsyl- vania which would answer that purpose; and at the same time took occasion to say that our inhabitants were imprisoned for much greater offenses than probably they were aware of. To which they answered that they had no other way of coming at the knowledge of the cause of their imprisonment but by their sev- eral commitments, and by those, as they con- ceived, there seemed scarce a color for such proceedings as had been taken against them. They added, further, that supposing the of- fenses were really committed, and as great as his Excellency was pleased to allege, yet the place where they were committed, as well as the place where the men were taken, was clearly beyond all the former claims of Mary- land, and therefore it was their opinion the men were very hardly dealt by. Gov. Ogle began to enumerate the many abuses the in- habitants of Maryland had suffered from those of Pennsylvania, and that since his ac- cession to the government of Maryland, he had taken all possible care to be entirely on the defensive side, and was resolved to con- tinue so, but at the same time he could not suf- fer Lord Baltimore's right to be so violently encroached upon, and his character so pub- licly affronted within his Lordship's own gov- ernment. "For," added he, "we claim no bounds but what are given to his Lordship by the express words of his charter." However, he expressed his willingness to enter into any reasonable measures for preserving the peace; and to show his readiness, proposed their meeting him in council, the next day, about ten of the clock, at his own house, to which they readily agreed. And then he was pleased to invite them to dine with him, which they did accordingly. They reduced to writing the heads of what they were to propose, and on the day appointed they met Gov. Ogle, and he said to them that he was glad to find our government seemed at last to agree to what he had long ago proposed in his letters to the Governor of Pennsylvania, to lay their unhappy misunderstandings be- fore his Majesty, and in the meantime for- bear making any encroachments upon one .
*I Archives, 417.
+III Col. Rec., 542.
ĮIII Col. Rec., 547.
55
BORDER TROUBLES.
another, which he thought was the most like- ly way for preserving peace among the peo- ple; yet he fixed upon nothing certain by which the jurisdiction of the respective gov- ernments could be known. The Governor proposed that they ought to join without de- lay in representing to the King the unsettled state of the two provinces, and the necessity of his Majesty's interposition.
They finding this method of treaty was not likely to produce any certain conclusion, de- livered to his Excellency a written represen- tation, which set out the complaints on the part of Pennsylvania : That under the agree- ment of 1724 and that made in 1732, most careful provision was made for the ease and quiet of all his Majesty's subjects, whose es- tates or possessions should be affected by the same, and that the description of the south- ern boundaries of Pennsylvania might be very nearly discovered without new actual surveys, notwithstanding which two of his Majesty's subjects, to wit, John Hendricks and Joshua Minshall, inhabitants of Lancas- ter County, settled upon lands legally sur- veyed and patented to them under the pro- prietors of Pennsylvania, on the west side of the river Susquehanna, had been taken at their homes, which were at least eight miles to the northward of Philadelphia, and about twenty-three miles to the northward of the line agreed upon by the aforesaid articles to be the northern bounds of Maryland, which line runs near the mouth of Octoraroe Creek, to the northward of which Maryland has never exercised any jurisdiction, except over thir- teen families, that is known to Pennsylvania, till within two or three years, about the time ! when an absolute boundary was agreed upon - by the proprietors, though Pennsylvania has maintained its government as far southward as the mouth of the said creek for above these thirty years.
In the afternoon they endeavored to speak privately with Hendricks and Min- shall and the two Rothwells, who were in prison. The jail was so noisome they could not go near it, but taking with them gentlemen of Maryland, they prevailed with the Sheriff to speak with them at his own house. They inquired particularly into the manner and cause of their commitment. They all gave the greatest assurances that they had never spoken any time of Lord Baltimore or his government that they could remember ; that they never had any conver- sation with any one about Lord Baltimore or his government but upon their own planta- tions, and Hendricks and Minshall insisted that no person could swear any such thing
against them, unless Cressap should be so wicked, who had threatened to ruin them. They applied themselves how they should get Hendricks and Minshall into court, who had been committed by the government and Coun- cil. They attempted to get a habeas corpus and consulted on the law Mr. Calder, who gave his opinion of the difficulties he appre- hended they might meet with in the defense of the prisoners, which led them into thoughts of employing some other eminent gentleman of the law, who by his credit with the people and acquaintance with the practice of the court might be able to do the prisoners some service. But to their great disappointment they found them all engaged on the side of Lord Baltimore. At least there was none could be prevailed on against him. When their paper was presented, Gov. Ogle went on to enumerate all the differences that had happened upon the borders of the two govern- ments since his coming to Maryland. He alluded to the affair of Patterson and Lowe, and the great abuses he said had been com- mitted in manifest contempt of Lord Balti- more's government upon Cressap. All these he aggravated in such manner as if he had been speaking to men who had never heard of them before. They thought it necessary to show that they were no strangers to these facts, and were not to be imposed upon by such a representation, and answered him as had been represented by Gov. Gordon.
Gov. Ogle declared that Hendricks and Minshall were under prosecution in the Pro- vincial Court, which was then sitting, and that he would not interpose but let the law take its course. So they parted that day, after which time Gov. Ogle troubled himself no more about the formality of a Council. The Governor delivered to them an answer in writing to their representations, in which he desired them immediately to join with him in an application to his most gracious Majesty. In considering this paper they were not satisfied that it was proper for them to agree to join in such representa- tion, but rather that the proprietors them- selves or their lieutenant-governor should do so, and they concluded upon a paper which they delivered Gov. Ogle at his own house on the 24th of May. The Governor received them without any form and with civility, as if nothing had passed the day be fore, and promised them an answer by the next morning. In this paper they said they were now ready to agree upon any bounds that should be judged reasonable for limiting the present jurisdiction of the two govern. ments without prejudice to the rights of the
56
HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.
proprietor thereof, and that proclamation should be issued to forbid all persons within the respective governments from making any new settlements near the borders under the severest penalties. And that they were ready further to agree to remove any new settle- ments that had been made upon such bounds as should be agreed upon, lest the same may disturb the quiet of their governments, until the boundaries be actually settled be- tween the proprietors themselves or until his Majesty's pleasure be known therein. And as they were well assured that a representa- tion to his Majesty would be most agreeable to their government, they did not in the least doubt but that their proprietors, or their Lieutenant Governor, would readily join with the Right Honorable, the Lord Propri- etor of Maryland, or himself, in such a one as may best conduce to put an end to the misunderstandings which have arisen between the governments by reason of the present uncertainty of the respective boundaries. To this Gov. Ogle answered that he had believed that they were invested with a sufficient power to agree to any reasonable proposals for the accommodating the present disputes, and preventing any of a like kind for the future, and upon that hope had offered the particular methods mentioned in his letter of the 23d inst. as very reasonable and the most proper for those desirable ends. But since he perceived by their paper that they thought themselves not sufficiently authorized to join with him in his just and reasonable proposi- tions, he hoped that on their return they would receive more ample powers for their agreement with him.
Messrs. Hamilton and Georges then say, in their report, that they saw from their first waiting on Gov. Ogle, they had no reason to expect any success in the business they were sent to prosecute, and that they saw plainly by his last paper that Gov. Ogle was resolved to avoid doing everything that might pre- vent any further differences upon the bound- aries. and observing the ill use that he made of their saying that their proprietors or lieutenant-governor would readily join in a representation to his Majesty, and that he had construed those words into their thinking themselves not sufficiently qualified to join with him in what he calls his just and reasonable propositions ; in order to re- move that objection, they drew up a paper and delivered the same to him on the 27th of May, which would have been delivered sooner but they were obliged to give their attendance at court when the case of the prisoners was under consideration. That
paper said they were ready on the part of Pennsylvania, at the same time that they agree upon some reasonable boundaries for limiting the jurisdiction of the two govern- ments, to join with his Excellency in a just representation to his Majesty of the uncer tainty of the present boundaries between the two governments, occasioned by not execut- ing the articles of agreement solemnly entered into and concluded between the Right Honorable, the Lord Proprietor of Maryland and the Honorable the Proprietor of Penn- sylvania, in May, 1732, and to pray his Majesty that he would be graciously pleased to interpose and enjoin the execution of the said agreement according to the true intent and meaning thereof, in such manner as his Majesty should please to direct. After this they heard no more from Gov. Ogle, though they stayed till the 30th of the month. In the meantime they made the most press- ing instances to the Provincial Court to have our people discharged. But that could not be granted lest it should be understood as giving up his Lordship's right to the lands in question, as appears by the minutes of these men's case taken at the hearing. Though being denied any relief for the pris- oners by the Provincial Court, and Gov. Ogle having taken no notice of what they said or proposed in their paper of the 27th, they thought a longer stay could be of no purpose and thereupon they resolved to represent to Gov. Ogle a just reason our government had to complain of the unreasonable proceedings of Maryland, and the absolute necessity they were under to take proper measures for the protection of his Majesty's subjects under the government of Pennsylvania, and accord- ingly on the 30th of the month they drew up a memorial. But the Governor, Ogle, being said to be indisposed that day, they waited on hini the next morning and delivered it to him, which he received, and, without reading it, desired his compliments might be made to Mr. Gordon and to those that he knew at Philadelphia, and wished them a safe return. In this memorial they enumerated the refusal of the court to discharge the prisoners and that they had used all means in their power to be in some measure relieved from those injuries and violences done to the inhab- itants of Pennsylvania, and to procure the concurrence of the government of Maryland in measures to preserve the peace. It was therefore hoped that none who entertain any just notions of the rights of mankind will blame the government of Pennsylvania, if they take proper measures for protecting his Majesty's subjects under their jurisdiction,
57
BORDER TROUBLES.
from the outrages frequently committed upon them by the people of Maryland, and by du- tiful representation of their great patience under those public abuses imploring his Majesty's most gracious interposition, and for the meantime should the government of Pennsylvania, whose principles are well known to be against all force, and who next to his Majesty's protection have no means to defend themselves but the authority of the several magistrates, to be laid under a neces- sity for their own safety to avoid what may be deemed unneighborly or to give trouble or uneasiness to his Majesty's subjects, pretend- ing themselves to be under the government of Maryland. "We do declare that it will be entirely to your Excellency's not joining with us in some reasonable and equitable measures for preserving the peace amongst his Majesty's subjects inhabiting near the boundaries of the two governments, and the unreasonable confinement and prosecution of our inhabitants who were without all question taken by your officers within our government of Pennsylvania, and for that reason had they really been guilty of any offense ought to have been discharged."
Gov. Ogle, May 30, 1734 : "It is to be wished there had never been a distinction made in your province between the power you have as Governor in other respects, and that in affairs relating to your land office. For the managers of that office not being restrained by the Governor, they themselves had liberty to make what encroachments they pleased, from which alone, I will venture to say, all the riots and disturbances have arisen amongst the borderers of the two provinces. I had the most sensible pleasure when I re- ceived your letter of the 14th of this month, wherein you require me to receive Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Georges, as duly authorized on behalf of your government to concert with us such measures as might effectually- secure peace till such time as the division lines shall be run, and our boundaries indis- putably fixed, the ultimate and only certain means of putting an end to all these most disagreeable contentions, or at least till such a time as his Majesty's pleasure is known therein, but to my great surprise I found these two gentlemen so far from agreeing to any settlement whatever for preserving peace upon the border till such time as the division lines be run and his Majesty's pleasure known therein, nothing would content them but the actual running of them directly contrary to the very purport of your letter, and to our duty as Governors, which obliges us to join heartily and sincerely in preserving peace in the
meantime that the dispute as to our lines is laid before his Majesty, from whose known wisdom and justice we have all the reason in the world to expect a just and equitable de- termination. As to that humble and dutiful application, I proposed to be made jointly to His Majesty to bring all our disputes to a speedy hearing, their behaviour was so ex- traordinary, that I shall not take it upon me to set it forth in any words of my own but refer you to their own papers for information. *
On the 17th of August, 1734, the House of Representatives made a representa- tion to Gov. Gordon that they had been cruelly disappointed in reasonable hopes that all disputes about the bounds of the provinces of Pennsylvania and Maryland were at an end. They hoped that people who had settled and improved lands under the grants of the proprietor of Pennsylvania and within the constant reputed bounds of this province, and who have never owned any other authority but the government of Penn- sylvania, ought to be protected in the pos- session of their freeholds until it shall appear by some legal decision or determination by some other authority, and as this province knows no other force but the lawful power of the civil magistrate, they requested that the Governor would be pleased to give direc- tions to the Magistrates and other officers of the government that will exert themselves in the protection of the people of this province by a diligent execution of the laws against riots and tumults and for the preservation of the peace within their respective jurisdic- tions. This was accordingly done by the Governor. t
During the year 1735 there were many outrages perpetrated under the lead of Cressap, who had been commissioned a Jus- tice of the Peace for Baltimore County, and made a captain of the Maryland militia. On the 1st of July, 1735, he, with men, women and boys, advanced, and with drums beating invaded the premises of John Wright, one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace, and although Cressap declared his intention to be to fight Pennsylvanians who had come over the river, Wright as a Justice com- manded them to keep the peace at their peril, and that he would proceed upon his lawful business unless prevented by force, and by his firmness deterred them from proceeding to hostilities. The deposition of Mr. Wright to the foregoing facts was taken in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, on the 24th
*I Archives, 434.
+I Archives, 566.
58
HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY.
of September, 1735, Daniel Dulaney, Esq., Attorney-General of Maryland, being present. Mr. Dulaney asked whether Thomas Cressap and his people did not assist Mr. Wright in carrying off his grain, to which he answered that Cressap, with those who were armed, being gone out of the field, the persons to whom the wagons belonged offered readily to assist in carrying it to the side of the river, since they said they were disappointed in carrying it where it was first intended .* On the same occasion there was taken before the Supreme Court, a deposition to the following facts : That on the 23d of September, a party of Marylanders had set upon Robert Buchanan, Sheriff of Lancaster County, and rescued some debtors under arrest, beat him and took him prisoner. This was brought before the council, who expressed their resent- ment, and a demand was made on the Gov- ernor of Maryland to set him at liberty, a reward was offered and a warrant issued for the arrest of the rioters. t
Another aggression was an attempt to sur- vey lands, by one Franklin, along the river side, on the 6th of May, 1736. He took a course up the river with an instrument, and there were men carrying a chain. Cressap accompanied them with twenty men armed. Robert Barber, a Quaker, who was at the house of John Wright, demanded by what authority the land was surveyed, and was answered by that of Lord Baltimore. Mr. Barber said that the land had long ago been surveyed and returned to the land office at Philadelphia. Cressap said he had orders from Gov. Ogle in person to raise the militia and guard the surveyor from Pennsylvanians. Franklin said, "My business is to follow the orders of the Governor of Maryland, to sur- vey all the lands from the Susquehanna to the Codorus."+ The affidavits of several Ger- mans show the wrongs to which they were subjected by reason of these surveys. Balt- zer Springler, in the beginning of the year 1733, by virtue of a grant from the proprie- taries of Pennsylvania, built a house on a tract of land lying on Codorus Creek about twelve miles westward from John Hendricks. He refused to have his land surveyed by Cressap, who pretended to have an order from the Governor of Maryland. But Cres- sap surveyed it to one John Keller, who came and settled thereon. Afterward the Governor of Maryland and the surveyor of Baltimore County told Springler, in the hearing of many people, that Cressap had no
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.