USA > Vermont > Orange County > Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888 > Part 26
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" Charter of Moore Town, subsequently called Bradford, by King George the Third, May 3d, 1770.
"GEORGE the Third, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, defender of the faith, and so forth : To all to whom these pres- ents shall come, Greeting, WHEREAS our loving subject, William Smith of our city of New York, Esquire, by his humble petition in behalf of his asso- ciates presented unto our trusty and well beloved Cadwallader Colden, Esquire, our Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of our Province of New York and the territories depending thereon in America, and read in our Council for our said province, on the twenty-eighth day of March now last past, did set forth that on the Seventh day of November which was in the year of our Lord One Thousand seven hundred and sixty-six, a petition was preferred to our late trusty and well beloved Sir Henry Moore, Baronet, then our Captain General and Governor in Chief of our said Province, in the name of John French and his associates, praying a grant of certain lands on the west side of Connecticut river. That our said late Captain General and Governor in Chief was advised by our Council to Grant the prayer of the said petition, and that a Warrant issued the same day to the Surveyor General for a survey thereof-That the said John French is since deceased, and that the petitioner and his associates are the persons intended to be chiefly benefitted by that application -- That the tract which they desire to take up contains, as it is supposed, about Thirty Thousand Acres, to the southward of a tract of land commonly called or known by the name of Newberry, and adjoining the same, and was granted under the province of New Hampshire-That there are divers persons settled within the limits of the said tract of land, amount- ing in all to Thirty families, to whom the petitioner and his associates intend to convey, after a Patent is issued, Three Thousand Acres, to wit, to the head of each family One Hundred Acres, in such manner as to secure to. them the parts they have respectively cultivated-and therefore the petitioner did humbly pray that the lands aforesaid might be granted to him and his associates as tenants in common in fee, agreeable to the directions and upon the terms of our Royal Instructions. Which petition having been referred to. a Committee of our Council for our said province, our said Council did after- wards on the same Twenty-eighth day of March, in pursuance of the report. of the said Committee humbly advise and consent that our said Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief as aforesaid, should, by our Letters Pat- ent, grant to the said William Smith and his associates and their heirs, the land described in said petition according to the prayer thereof, under the quit
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rent provisos, limitations and restrictions, presented by our Royal Instruc- tions, and that the said lands should by the said Letters Patent be erected into a township. by the name of Moore Town, with the privileges usually granted to other Townships within our said Province. In pursuance thereof and in obedience to our said Royal Instructions, our Commissioners appointed for setting out all lands to be granted within our said Province have set out for the said petitioner William Smith, and for his associates, to wit :- James Robertson, Richard Maitland, William Sherreff, Goldsbrow Banyar, Andrew. Anderson, Jonathan Mallet, Peter Van Brugh Livingston, Charles McEvers, Hugh Gaine, Francis Stevens, William Bruce, Thomas William Moore, Sam- uel Ver Planck, Richard Yates, Abraham Mortier, Abraham Lynsen, Abraham Lott, Hamilton Young, Garret Noel, Ebenezer Hazzard, John Alsop, Thomas James, Thomas Smith, and Samuel Smith, All that certain tract or parcel of land lying and being on the west side of Connecticut River in the County of Gloucester, within our province of New York. Beginning on the west bank of said river at a white pine tree blazed and marked for the Northeast corner of a tract of land known by the name of Fairlee, and run thence north, sixty- one degrees west, five hundred and ninety chains ; then north thirty-two degrees east, five hundred and twenty chains; then south fifty-nine degrees east, five hundred chains, to the said river ; then down said river, as it winds and turns, to the place where this tract began ; containing Twenty-five Thousand Acres of land and the usual allowance for highways. And in setting out the said twenty-five thousand acres of land, our said Commissioners have had regard for the profitable and unprofitable acres, and have taken care that the length thereof doth not extend along the banks of any river otherwise than is con- formable to our said Royal Instructions, as by a Certificate thereof under their hands, bearing date the Seventh day of April now last past, and entered on record in our Secretary's Office for our said province may more fully appear ; which said tract of land, set out aforesaid according to our said Royal Instruc- tions, we being willing to grant to the said petitioner and his associates, their heirs and assigns forever, with the several privileges and powers hereinafter mentioned."
By a deed from the before named William Smith, to Samuel Sleeper, dated August 14, 1770, and recorded in the office of the clerk of Gloucester county, subsequently Orange, December 31, 1770, it appears that the twenty- four grantees who were associated with the said William Smith, whose names are given in the above extract from the royal grant or charter, did, on the 30th and 3Ist days of May in that year, by a certain "Indenture of Lease and Release," convey and confirm to him, the said Smith, all their rights and titles to the lands, and everything pertaining thereto in the said Moore Town,-and that, in accordance with a request from, and agreement with, the settlers on the said tract, made in writing, before the royal charter was obtained, and with a view to secure to them their respective rights, the said Smith did, August 14, 1770, by an "Indenture of Lease and Release," convey and con- firm to Samuel Sleeper all his right and title to certain tracts or sections of land which are particularly described, lying along on the Connecticut river, eight in number, not adjoining each other, but in alternate sections, and reaching back from said river about one mile and a half, on an average, the same to contain in the whole three thousand acres, more or less.
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In the then unsettled state of land titles New Hampshire made some grants here, and much contention among the settlers, lasting through a series of years, was the result. Taken to the legislature, that body appointed Israel Smith, Esq., of Thetford, Alexander Harvey, Esq., of Barnet, and James Whitelaw, Esq., of Ryegate, January 25, 1791, a committee to regulate the difficulty and deed the lands to the settlers. This committee, having failed to settle all matters of difficulty among the inhabitants, especially among those on the Hazen tract, further legislation was demanded, and an act, enti- tled, " An act for the purpose of quieting the settlers on a certain tract of land in the western part of Bradford," was passed by the General Assembly at Rutland, November 6, 1792 .* In accordance with this legislative enactment the settlers who before had no legal claims .to the lands they occupied, were quieted, and valid titles to lots unoccupied were given to those who were wishing to possess them, and the general settlement of the township was accomplished.
The original name of the town was, beyond doubt, given it in honor of Sir Henry Moore, Baronet, from 1765 to '69, captain-general and governor-in- chief in and over the province of New York. But, in accordance with the request of its inhabitants to the General Assembly of Vermont, it was changed, October 23, 1788, as follows :-
"It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont, That the name of the Township of Moretown, in the County of Orange, be forever hereafter known by the name of Bradford :- And that it is hereby provided that whenever an advertisement respecting said township shall be published within three years from the passing of this act, it shall be called ' Bradford, heretofore known by the name of Moretown, in Orange county.'"
This town was for a while called Salem, as appears from a deed given, and a road survey made and recorded, in 1786. The first name of all, how- ever, was Waits River Town, or Waitstown, at which place a petition signed by Samuel Hale, John Peters, and others, May 21. 1770, was dated.
The town was organized May 4, 1773. The first town meeting of which any record has been preserved, was held at the house of Samuel McDuffee, at which the following list of officers was elected: John Peters, moderator ; Stephen McConnell, clerk : Benjamin Jenkins, supervisor; Hugh Miller and Noah White, overseers of the poor ; Benjamin Jenkins, treasurer ; Jesse McFarland, Lieut. Jacob Fowler, and Hezekiah Silloway, surveyors of high- ways; Hezekialı Silloway, constable ; Amos Davis, collector ; Samuel Gault and Amos Davis, tithingmen.
William, Thomas, and Hugh Peters were brothers, who emigrated from England to Boston, Mass., about the year 1634. Rev. Thomas, soon after their coming to this country, was settled in the ministry at Saybrook, Conn., where he patronized an academy which became Yale college, and was removed to New Haven in 1716. Rev. Hugh Peters was settled in Salem, Mass.,
* See MS. Laws of Vt. 1787 to 1792, vol. ii., p. 453.
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about five years ; returned to England in 1640, or 1641, where he earnestly espoused the cause of Cromwell and the Parliament, in opposition to Charles I., became a man of influence and distinction, and was among those who heartily approved of the execution of that ill-fated king. After the elevation of Charles II., son of Charles I., to the throne, he was by royal authority arrested, tried on a charge of high treason, and beheaded October 16, 1660. William, brother of the two clergymen above named, had six sons and four daughters. He lived to a great age and died at Andover, Mass. From him the race bearing the name of Peters, in New England, have mainly descended. William, Jr., his fourth son, had six sons and two daughters. William, son of William, Jr., was killed in a battle with the Indians, at Andover, leaving his widow, Mary Russell, with an infant son named John, then but eleven days of age. This John Peters, when he became of age, in 1717, removed from Boston to Hebron, Conn., and by his wife, Mary, a granddaughter of the martyr Gen. Thomas Harrison, had a large family. Distinguished among these was the Rev. Samuel Andrew Peters, LL. D., an Episcopal clergyman, who was a man of ability, and during the Revolutionary war a decided loyalist. He became so offensive on this account that he found it expedient to leave his native state in haste and take a voyage to England. After the war was over he returned to this country and claimed to be, not only in title but in fact, " Bishop of Verdmont," as he denominated this new state.
Margaret Peters, a sister of the Rev. Samuel, married John Mann, a farmer, February 17, 1765. On the 16th of the following October this enterprising young couple set out on a journey through the wilderness, to build up a home in Orford, N. H., where they arrived on the 24th of the same month. They were persons of honorable distinction among the early settlers of that town.
John Peters, Jr., the eldest brother of Samuel and Margaret, was born in Hebron, Conu., in 1718. His wife, Lydia Phelps, was a direct descendant from John Phelps, secretary to Oliver Cromwell. They had a family of six sons and seven daughters. Lydia, one of the daughters, married Benjamin Baldwin, subsequently one of the influential settlers of Moretown, now Brad- ford. Mary Peters, a sister of Mrs. Baldwin, married Joseph Hosford, Esq., of Thetford, and Susanna, another sister, married Col. John House, of Nor- wich. Their brother, General Absalom Peters, was born in Hebron, Conn., in 1754, and graduated at Dartmouth college in 1780. He married Mary Rogers, a sister of Mrs. Col. John Barron, of Bradford, and resided on a farm in Wentworth, N. H., for many years, where he took an active part in public affairs. He was, during the war of the Revolution and to the close of his life, decidedly loyal and patriotic. He died in the city of New York, in April, 1840, aged eighty-six years.
Col. John Peters, brother of General Absalom, and eldest son of John Peters, Jr., was born in Hebron, Conn., in 1740. He married Ann Barnet, and their children were one daughter and eight sons. He emigrated from Connecticut to Thetford, Vt., in 1765, and from Thetford to Bradford in 1771.
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In 1772 he built the first grist-mill in the town. In the troubles which soon after occurred between this country and England, and during the war of the Revolution, like his uncle, Dr. Samuel Peters, his sympathies were decidedly with the British government. while his brother, Gen. Absalom, and some or all of his sisters, were as decidedly in favor of the independence of the colo- nies. This set the two brothers in strong opposition to each other, and caused an unpleasant division in the family. Near the commencement of the war he emigrated to Nova Scotia, and received a commission as colonel of a regiment styled the " Queen's Rangers." After the war closed he left his family at Cape Breton and went to England to prosecute his claims on the government, and died there January 11, 1788.
Andrew B. Peters, the second son of Col. John, was born in Hebron, Conn., January 29, 1764, and by the course taken by his father he became a subject of the British government. From his seventeenth to twentieth year he was engaged in the king's service in the inland naval department. Soon after the close of the war he settled in Bradford, and, January 18, 1787, united in marriage with Anna White, of Newbury, who died at Bradford a little over a year after their marriage. Mr. Peters married for his second wife Miss Lydia Bliss, then residing in Bradford, a native of Hebron, Conn., and daughter of Ellis Bliss, December 16, 1790. Mrs. Peters died in this town March 5, 1816, in the fiftieth year of her age, leaving a large family. In 1798 Mr. Peters was chosen town clerk, and held that office forty years of the ensuing forty- six years. He also represented his town in the state legislature in 1798, which position he held five years, was justice of the peace for many years, and served his town in various positions with general satisfaction for half a century. The children of Mr. Peters and his second wife (Lydia Bliss) were John, Anna,. Samuel, Daniel, Hannah, William and Andrew B. Mr. Peters married Keziah Howard, of Tamworth, N. H., his third wife, September 15, 1816. She was a native of Bridgewater, Mass., was born November 25, 1783, and resided in Bradford after her marriage for nearly fifty-six years. She died September 2, 1872, aged nearly eighty-nine years. Andrew B. had by this third marriage two sons, viz .: Joseph Howard, and Edmund Fanning. The former was born October 7, 1817, married Miss Clarissa Culver Washburn, of Lyme, N. H., November 25, 1841, and settled on the old homestead, where he still resides. He is giving his attention to the cultivation of his fine farm, the rearing of high blood cattle and sheep, with a specialty for full blood Morgan horses, of which he has as fine stock as are found in Vermont. Mr. Peters has been called by his townsmen to serve in various official capacities. His children are Andrew Barnet, born March 10, 1843, married Miss Jennie S. Kessler, May 14, 1872, and settled in Fitchburg, Mass .; Mary Ann, born June 23, 1845, died August 20, 1846 ; Mary Ellen, born March 30, 1847, married Charles A. Leavitt, December 25, 1871, and resides in Bradford vil- lage ; Clara Emma, born June 15, 1848, married Andrew G. Tarleton, December 20, 1870, and settled in Woburn, Mass .; Arthur W., born July 31,
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1851, married Velma L. Jenkins, of Bradford, November 14, 1871, and remains on the home farm with his father ; and Minnie S., born June 4, 1855, married Job Clement, of Bradford, March 17, 1872.
Edmund Fanning, the youngest son of Andrew B. and Keziah (Howard) Peters, was born September 5, 1822. He married Mary Ann Slack, of Wil- mington, Mass., and has had born to him a son and daughter, and resides in Charlestown, Mass.
Daniel McDuffee emigrated with his wife and daughter Margaret, then about two years of age, to America, from the North of Ireland, in 1720, and settled in Londonderry, N. H., among their Scotch-Irish friends. They were parents of six sons and three daughters. Five of their sons were in the war with France, and three of them were at the decisive battle of Quebec. One son, Daniel, Jr., was born in Londonderry, in March, 1739. He married Margaret Wilson, whose brother James was father of James, the globe maker. Mr. McDuffee and his wife emigrated to Bradford, Vt., in February, 1796, and settled on a farm at the north end of the "Upper Plain." His house was on the east side of the road, and near what was a long time McDuffee's ferry, across the Connecticut river, and where several of his posterity are now living. They were parents of fifteen children, all of whom were born in Londonderry. Of those who lived to mature age, John was born June 16, 1766, and, when old enough, assisted his father on the farm and in the black- smith shop, attending the district schools. In his seventeenth year he had mastered Fisher's arithmetic, and commenced the study of surveying. In the spring of 1788 he taught school a few weeks, then attended Andover academy for a time, the meanwhile prosecuting the study of surveying. He taught several terms in the towns of Falmouth, Saco and Brunswick, Maine. When about nineteen years old, on his first journey into that country, he had a narrow escape from wolves in Saco woods. He was on foot, and near even - ing inquired at a house the distance to Saco Falls. Being told it was five miles, he pushed on, thinking that there were inhabitants along the route as there had been on the road just passed. He soon found himself in the wil- derness and in the darkness of night. Presently he heard the barking of a wolf scenting his track in the distance behind him. Being young and spry he quickened his steps. Soon the howl of the first wolf was increased by a pack of them in hot pursuit. He ran with all his might and exerted his strength to his utmost to escape ; but the wolves were coming nearer and nearer ; and just as his courage and strength were failing, and the monsters were about to sieze and devour him, he discovered a light ahead, and with one last effort for his life, pressed on, reached the cabin, and, dashing open the door, fell exhausted and senseless upon the floor. In June, 1788, Mr. McDuffee made his first visit to Bradford. The object of his visit was to assist in the settlement of the estate of his uncle, Samuel McDuffee, who had been drowned in the Connecticut river in 1781. The widow was still living on the desirable farm to which his uncle became entitled as one of the
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first settlers ; and being pleased with it he bought it. In the spring of 1789 he took up his residence on this place and continued a distinguished citizen of Bradford until his death. In 1791 he purchased of Uriah Stone, of Pier- mont, the ferry, which was for many years a noted crossing place over the river, until bridges were built above and below it, and where he kept a small store for some time. He married Martha Dake, then a resident of this town, but a native of Londonderry. He left this farm for his father and removed to another one on the eastern slope of Wright's mountain, and near the line of Bradford and Newbury, where he reared his family and spent the remain - der of his life. He was celebrated as a surveyor and was extensively em- ployed by all the towns about. He was employed by Mr. James Whitelaw, surveyor-general of Vermont, to survey and divide into suitable lots for set- tlement, the Hazen tract, in the western part of Bradford.' He aided effi- ciently in the construction of the railroad from Concord, N. H., to Wells River, through the towns of Plymouth, Wentworth and Haverhill, having previously surveyed over the most formidable part of this route with a view to constructing a canal. He was a zealous politician, and at a railroad meet- ing at Concord, when called upon for a sentiment or toast, called out the applause of the assemblage by giving, impromptu, this sentiment : "The political compass of the United States, with the representative needle equally balanced on the pivot of the Union, freely playing over the four cardinal points-freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom in elections and freedom in religion." Mr. McDuffee died at his mountain home in Brad- ford, May 4, 1851, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. His first wife, Martha Dake, died at Bradford, May 14, 1822, at the age of forty-nine years. They had six sons and five daughters, all natives of Bradford. Mr. McDuffee married for his second wife Miss Dolly Greenleaf, of this town, November 10, 1833, who was born March 10, 1790. They had six sons, of whom Daniel, Mansfield and Henry died in childhood. Charles, the third son, was born November 19, 1827. Like his father, he was a fine mathematician, a professional civil engineer and land surveyor, and his aid was much sought as an efficient agent in the settlement of estates. He died at the family home on the mountain, July 31, 1863. Henry Clay, their fifth son, was born October 3, 1831. March 12, 1863, he married Miss Laura Waterman, of Lebanon, N. H., who died on the 15th of the ensuing September. Mr. McDuffee married his present wife, Miss Rosie M. Bill, daughter of Major R. M. Bill, of West Topsham, June 8, 1869. Their only son, Ernest B., was born November 23, 1870. Mr. McDuffee is also prominent as a practical civil engineer and surveyor. In politics he is an uncompromising Republican, always loyal to his convictions, and by no means without political honors. He represented Bradford in the state legislature in 1872-73, and has held other offices of honor and trust. He was high bailiff of Orange county in 1872-73; has been a selectman of Bradford, etc .; and served his county as state senator in 1885-86. He has, as an agent for parties in New
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York and Boston, conducted a large business in buying and selling lands in the Western and Southern states, and has also settled some large estates in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Horace G. McDuffee, the youngest son of John, was born December 22, 1833, graduated in the scientific depart- ment of Dartmouth college, in the class of 1861, and has given his attention to real estate, surveying and the manufacture and sale of lumber. In 1867 he married Mrs. Ellen P. Smith, widow of James C. Smith, of Cairo, Ill., and they have one daughter, Mabel.
Samuel McDuffee, son of Daniel, Jr., married Jane Wilson, September 7, 1773, and settled on a farm on the "Upper Plain," where he died July 20, 1850. He left a daughter, Alice, and a son, James. The latter married Mary P. Sawyer, with whom he lived over forty-four years, dying March 22, 1873, in the seventy-third year of his age. Of their children, Alice married Alexander Young ; the eldest son, Ellis, married Elizabeth Sawyer, and their children are Olivia, Annis, Louisa, Edward E. and Sarah S .; Horace Everett married Lucy McDuffee, a remote relative, and their children are Frank and Alice ; Homer S. married Adelaide Robinson ; and the fourth son, James L. R., married Carrie Woodward.
James Wilson, a native of Londonderry, N. H., was born in 1763. To him belongs the honor of making the first terrestrial and celestial globes in America. He possessed talents of high order, and his genius or inclination turned to the investigation of the science of astronomy, and included geogra- phy ; but his circumstances in life compelled him to devote his energies to farming until he was about thirty-six years of age. In 1796 he removed with his family to this town and purchased a farm on the Connecticut river about one mile north of the village, which became his permanent home. Here in 1799 he constructed his first globes. These were balls turned from blocks of wood, nicely covered with paper maps, and were heavy and clumsy. He persevered and in time produced them of fine quality. He became a skill- ful engraver and protracted his maps on copper plates, the impressions from which fitted with perfect accuracy when pasted upon the light but durable hollow paper spheres which he then constructed. In 1814 he personally exhibited to the people of Boston the first American globes which were seen there. He was encouraged in his project by the assurance that they would take all the globes he could furnish. For a time he continued their manu- facture on a small scale in this town and in Londonderry, N. H., until about 1815, when, in company with his sons, who inherited from their father like tastes and genius, he established a large manufactory in Albany, N. Y., which continued and flourished for several years. The younger artists who com- menced it went to early graves, and the aged father not long after withdrew from business. When past eighty years of age he invented and con- structed with his own hands a machine or instrument, which finely illustrates the daily and yearly revolutions of the earth ; the cause of the change of seasons ; and the sun's place for every day of the year, in the ecliptic. The
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