USA > Vermont > Orange County > Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt., 1762-1888 > Part 5
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Immediately upon the issuing of Gov. Colden's proclamation, the govern- ment of New York claimed that the new territory added to that state formed a part of Albany county of which the town, now city, of Albany was the county seat, thus bringing the territory now called Orange county within the county of Albany, N. Y. Neither the state of New York nor the county of Albany exercised a very efficient jurisdiction over these distant towns and their inhabi- tants received little benefit from courts held at the county seat on the Hud- son river. They were a great deal farther from the seat of justice, so far as convenience of access was concerned, than we are from St. Louis to-day. And although it was charged that this territory had for several years been the resort of a "lawless banditti of felons and criminals " who found in that dis- tant region a safe retreat from creditors and officers of the law, there were some who, although hostile to the government of New York, desired at least courts of justice of some kind. No courts, even before a justice of the peace, were ever held here, and no man had yet been found, with the courage and the money, to take a suit to Albany for trial from the locality of which we are now speaking.
1288708
On the 16th day of March, 1770, an ordinance was passed by Lieutenant- Governor Colden and council, establishing Gloucester county, which included that portion of the state of Vermont between the Green Mountains and the Connecticut river lying north of Cumberland county. The latter county had been originally organized as early as 1766, but up to 1770 had never included any territory north of what is now the southern boundary of Orange county. This new county of Gloucester included all that is now within the limits of Orange county. Kingsland, now Washington, was made the county seat, although there was not a house nor an inhabitant within its limits. A village, or as our western people would say in these days, a city, was plotted upon paper, near its center, but it has never yet been built. At some time between
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ORANGE COUNTY.
March 16, 1770, and May 29, 1770, a log court-house and jail must have been built in Kingsland, for the records show that the first session of the court was held there at the last named date, and when the courts were held there, it is known that those two convenient accessories were in existence.
The following is an exact copy from the original records of the courts held in Kingsland, as preserved in the county clerk's office at Chelsea. Some· account of the judges of these first courts will be given further on :-
" Kingsland, Gloucester county, Province of New York, May twenty- ninth, one thousand seven hundred and seventy.
"N. B. These courts were the courts of Quarter Sessions and the court of Common Pleas for said county.
The court met for the first time there, the ordinance and comitions (?). being read.
John Taplin, 7 Judges being ap- pointed by the gov- Sam'l Sleeper, ernment of New Thomas Sumner. York were pres- ent.
The courts opened as is usual in other courts.
Also Present,
" James Pennoc,
" Abner Fowler, Justices of the Quor'm. "John Peters, " John Taplin, Jr., High Sheriff.
"The court adjourned to the last tuesday of August next to be held in said Kingsland.
" Tuesday, August
The court opened according to adjournment.
28, 1770.
"N. B. These courts appointed Simeon Stevens, Constable for New- bury, Jesse McFarland for Mooretown, Abna Howard for Thetford, Sam'ı Pennoc for Strafford, and ordered that the Plaintiff filing Declaration in the Clerk's office eight days before the courts should be a Barr to the Def'd's Pleading on Imparlance.
Present John Taplin, Esq's. Judges. Thomas Sumner,
John Peters, Esq'r, of the Quor'm.
The court adjourned to the last Tuesday in Nov'r next.
" At his Majesty's courts of Qr. Sessions and Courts of Common Pleas for the county of Gloucester Held at Kingsland in and for said county on. tuesday the 27th of Nov'r 1770. " Present, John Taplin, ¿ Esq'rs "Thomas Sumner, S Judges. " John Peters of the Quor'm.
Richard Youngue, V. Jacob Kent, John Peters, V
Action called.
Put over.
Called.
Put over.
Jabob Kent, ~
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BENCH AND BAR.
Sam'l Sleeper,
V. Er Chamberlin,
Ditto.
Jopal Heriman, V. Er Chamberlin, John Hazen, v. Noah White,
Ditto.
Entered and adjourned to next term.
Asa Porter, Esq'r, V. John Sawyer, John Peters, Esq'r, V. Sam'l Gillett,
Ditto the like.
Ditto the like.
Noah Martain, V. Sam'l Sleeper,
Neither appearing. Nothing done.
" The Court appointed Ebenezer Green constable for Thetford.
"Surveyors appointed for the county : Sam'l Pennock, Ebenezer Martain, Ebenezer Green, James Aken.
"The court adjourned to Feb. next to be held at Kingsland on the last tuesday.
Sat out from Mooretown (now Bradford) for Kings Land
" Feb'y 25th, I771. travieled untill Knight there being no road and the Snow very Depe we travieled on Snow Shoes or Racatts on the 26th we travieled some ways and Held a Council when it was concluded it was Best to open the Court as we saw No Line it was not (known) whether in Kingsland or Not But we concluded we were farr in the woods we did not expect to see any house unless we marched three miles within Kingsland and no one lived there when the Court was ordered to be opened on the spot.
"Present John Taplin Judge "John Peters of the Quor'm. " John Taplin Jun'r Sheriff.
" All cases continued or adjourned over untill next term.
" The Court, if one, adjourned over untill the last tuesday in May next.
" May 28th 2
1771 Att Kingsland the Court opened by Proclamation. " Present John Taplin " Thomas Sumner "John Peters, Assistant.
" Dated some time agoe.
"Recognizance returned by Abner Fos- ] Conditioned that said Nat'l Cham- ter Esq. Nathaniel Chamberlin £40.
Esq's Judges
{ berlin appear and Not to depart without liberty and abide the judge- "[Obliterated] Chamberlin ditto £40." ] ment of said Court.
[A portion of the record is gone or illegible.]
" be of good behavior " - -
-
"Nath. Chamberlin being recognized at the complaint of the overseer of the poor of Newbury and also on the oath of Eunice Badger. Said Badger hav-
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ORANGE COUNTY.
ing solemnly made oath that she the said Eunice was with child by the said Nath'l Chamberlin.
"Said Chamberlin not appearing the recognizance was and is adjudged for- feited.
Asa Porter
V. The defendant Not appearing and it appearing that he had
John Sawyer timely notice of tryal being at this court it was ordered that judgment be entered for the Plaintiff that he have his debt and costs.
Debt Cost
Jazul Heriman, v. Er. Chamberlin,
Continued.
John Hazen, V.
the Like
Noah White,
John Peters, V.
the Like as in Porter v. Sawyer
Sam'l Gillet,
Debt Cost
The Court then adjourned to the last tuesday of August next to be held at the same place."
The record of the term to which the last session adjourned, to wit, August, 1771, is not to be found.
On the 9th of April, 1772, the council of New York, realizing to some extent the inconveniences of holding courts in Kingsland, passed an ordinance directing the courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace for Gloucester county to be held in the township of Newbury in the months of February and August during the space of seven years.
Pursuant to this order the court was held at Newbury on the last Tuesday of August, 1772. When this session of the court adjourned it was to meet on the last Tuesday in November. The court met according to adjourn- ment, but it convened at Kingsland and without doing any business ad- journed to meet at Newbury on the last Tuesday in February, 1773. Court met at Newbury in February accordingly, and when it then adjourned it was to meet at Kingsland on the last Tuesday in May. The following is the record of what was probably the last court held in Kingsland, viz .:--
" At an Inferior Court of Common Pleas and Court of General Sessions of the Peace held for the county of Gloucester at Kingsland in the same county on Tuesday 25th of May 1773.
" Present, John Taplin " ThomasSumner Esqrs Judges"
It was disputed whether two made a court. The clerk introducing the ordinance for the county and the comitions for the Sessions of the Peace and Court of Common Pleas. Proclamation being made by the sheriff the ordi-
·
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BENCH AND BAR.
nance and comitions being read, the judges of the county (viz .: the rest of them) and justices were called for, But not appearing-the sheriff returned the following precepts to him directed :-
Obediah Wells, V. Benjamin Whitney, John Taplin Jr., V. Peletiah Bliss, John Taplin Jr., V. Jacob Hall, Fairwell, V. Ben Sawyer, Josiah Burnham, V.
Execution non est.
Wallace Church,
Execution satisfied.
" The President Declaired all to rest or continue untill Next terme-and adjourned to Newbury to tuesday 31 Day of August next att 10 o'clock. "John Peters, Clerk."
The first County Court, after the organization of Orange county, in Feb- ruary, 1781, was held in Thetford, at the tavern of Capt. William Heaton, on the second Tuesday of June, 1781. The chief judge was Gen. Jacob Bayley, and one of the assistant judges was Hon. Israel Smith, neither of them lawyers, of both of whom some account may be found in the bio- graphical sketches. The second session of the Orange County Court was held at Thetford on the second Tuesday of September, 1781, although the record calls it 1782. But that is evidently an error as is shown from the dates given before and after that date. At the close of the September session is the following record, viz .:--
"Ordered this court be adjourned to the first Tuesday in December next, then to be held at Orford." [N. H.]
And the beginning of the next record is as follows, viz .:-
" Orange, ss. Orford, Ist Tuesday in December, 1781, Met according to adjournment.
" Present, Israel Smith "Noah White Esqrs."
" 'Thos. Russell
Haverhill, Piermont, Orford and Lyme, now in New Hampshire, were then for a short time included in Orange county, Vermont, under a tem- porary union of the towns on the east side of the Connecticut river with the government of Vermont.
THE FIRST JUDGES, CLERK AND SHERIFF IN THE COUNTY.
Col. John Taplin was the chief judge of the first court ever held within the territory now called Orange county. He was appointed commissioner
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ORANGE COUNTY.
to administer oaths of office and judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, March 17, 1770, and judge again April 10, 1772. His court is called in the record the " Courts of Quarter Sessions and the Court of Common Pleas for Gloucester county." His first term of court was held at Kingsland, as ap- pears before, May 29, 1770. It was the only court in the county until the last Tuesday in August, 1772, when a court was held at Newbury by Jacob Bailey, judge, which is styled in the record, a "Court of General Sessions of the Peace in and for Gloucester county." After this courts were held alternately at Newbury and Kingsland for more than a year, Col. Taplin being the chief judge, but the sessions at Kingsland are styled sometimes during this time " An Inferior Court of Common Pleas and General Ses- sions of the Peace," and at other times "A Court of Common Pleas." The last record of any court held by Judge Taplin at either place is Feb- ruary 25, 1774, at Newbury. Judge Taplin, or as he was more frequently called, Col. Taplin, was not a lawyer, but had been a soldier under the king. "He was one of the most noted men of his times, had been a colonel in the British American army under General Amherst, and actively engaged with Rogers, Putnam, Stark and other distinguished American officers in re- ducing the fortresses of the French on Lake Champlain and fighting their red allies then prowling through the entire wilderness territory of Vermont." At he time his son John Taplin, Jr., who was high sheriff under his father in Gloucester county, was born, in 1748, Col. Taplin lived in Marlboro, Mass., and he remained there until about 1764, when he removed to Newbury, being one of the first settlers of that town. He probably resided there while he was judge of the courts as above stated, but at some time he re- moved to Corinth in the same county. His sympathies were undoubtedly with the colonies in their effort to throw off the British yoke, for July 15, 1775, he wrote a letter from Newbury to Peter V. B. Livingston, Esq., president of the Provincial Congress at the city of New York, in which he uses these words : "The county seems to be very well united, and firm to one another, and also in the cause of liberty ; and I make no doubt but they will cheer- fully join in whatever measures and directions the honorable Congress may point out from time to time." But D. P. Thompson, in his History of Mont- pelier, says that " on the opening of the Revolution, Colonel Taplin, declin- ing to take sides against the king who had distinguished him, retired during the war into Canada, leaving his son, John Taplin, Jr., on the paternal property in Corinth, Vermont."
Gen. Jacob Bayley, judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas of Gloucester county and the first chief judge of Orange County Court, was born in Newbury, Mass., July 2, 1728, and married Prudence Noyes, October 16, 1745. He settled in Hampstead, in 1745 ; was a captain in the French war, 1756, and escaped from the massacre of Fort William Henry in August, 1757 ; was colonel at the taking of Ticonderoga and Crown Point by Amherst in 1759; and arrived in Newbury, Vt., of which he was one of the original
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BENCH AND BAR.
grantees, in October, 1764. While he resided in Newbury, which was as long as he lived, General Bayley was the most prominent and influential citizen of Gloucester and Orange counties. Under the New York authorities he was a commissioner to administer oaths of office, chief judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, and justice of the peace. He was elected deputy for the session of the New York Provincial Congress which commenced May 23, 1775, but did not take his seat ; and was appointed brigadier-general of the militia of Cumberland and Gloucester counties, August 1, 1776. He con- tinued nominally under the jurisdiction of New York until June 14, 1777, when he addressed a letter to the New York Council of Safety, of which the following is an extract :--
"GENTLEMEN : I acknowledge the receipt of an ordinance from you for the election of governor, lieutenant-governor and senators and representatives for the state of New York by the hand of Mr. Wallace. The sheriff and committee [of safety] gave the proper orders, but I am apt to think our people will not choose any members to sit in the state of New York. The people, before they saw the constitution, were not willing to trouble themselves about a separation from the state of New York, but now almost to a man they are violent for it.
" I am, gentlemen, etc., " JACOB BAYLEY.
" To the Council of Safety, Kingston."
The last record of the appearance of Judge Bayley as chief judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas in Gloucester county was on "the last Tuesday in August Anno Domini seventeen hundred and seventy two and of the reign of our Lord George the Third by the Grace of God of Great Britain the King," so far as appears from the mutilated records now pre- served in the Orange county clerk's office. Undoubtedly the court was held at a later date but there is no record of it preserved.
In 1776 Gen. Bayley commenced the celebrated Hazen road, which was designed as a military road from the Connecticut river to St. John's, Canada, and was completed by Gen. Hazen as far as Hazen Notch, near Montgomery, Vt., line. July 8, 1777, he was appointed a member of the Vermont Coun- cil of Safety, and was an active member of that autocratic body, and in March, 1778, he was elected a councillor, and was thus a member of the first Gover- nor's council, and was made a member of the court for Cumberland county, then including all of the territory of Vermont east of the Green Mountains, as Bennington county included all west, for the confiscation of the property of tories. In September, 1777, the General was at Castleton on military service, and affixed to his name the initials "B. D. G.," which stand, it is presumed, for Brigadier General. Mr. Walton, in the "Governor and Council," from which many of these facts are taken, remarks, "If so, he continued very wisely to execute his duties as a New York officer, although he had been assigned to fill another important station for Vermont." October 20, 1778, he was ap- pointed judge of probate for Newbury district in Gloucester county. He
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ORANGE COUNTY.
was a leading man in his town as well as in the county and state, and in 1784 represented Newbury in the General Assembly. In the record of the proceedings of the Governor and Council for October 29, 1784, appears the following record : "The Hon'ble Gen'l Jacob Bayley appeared & Took the Necessary oath to qualify him to the office of Chief Judge of the County Court in & for the County of Orange." But he had held that office since 1781, and had presided over the Court of Common Pleas held at Thetford in and for said Orange county on the second Tuesday of June, Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and eighty-one. Gen. Bayley was not a lawyer and apparently had never given much attention to matters pertaining to courts and trials. He held this position until and including 1791, excepting the years 1783 and 1784, when that position was filled by Hon. Israel Smith, of Thetford. Gen. Bayley died March 1, 1816.
Israel Smith, the second chief judge of Orange County Court, was one of the original proprietors of Thetford named in the charter of the town which was granted August 12, 1761. He came into Thetford in 1766, but where from we have been unable to ascertain. At the first session of Orange County Court, held at the tavern of Capt. William Heaton, in Thetford, on the second Tuesday of June, 1781, the court consisted of Jacob Bailey, chief judge; Israel Smith, Noah White and Thomas Russell, assistant judges, and Davenport Phelps, clerk. Judge Smith was assistant judge from 1781 to 1792, except two years, and chief judge of the Orange County Court for 1783 and 1784, and from 1793 to 1796 inclusive. October 27, 1781, he was. commissioned judge of probate for the district of Thetford in Orange county, by order of the governor and council. He represented Thetford in the Gen- eral Assembly in 1784, 1790, '91, '92, '98 and '99. At the February session of the General Assembly he was one of a committee with such men as Isaac Tichenor and Matthew Lyon, to make " provision for quieting antient set- tlers, and that the laws be opened for land trials." At Bennington, January 25, 1791, the legislature granted to Israel Smith, Alexander Harvey and James Whitelaw, as a committee, in trust, the township of Bradford, with authority to settle disputes as to claims respecting titles and boundaries, and to execute conveyances to actual settlers and real owners. This authority was renewed November 6, 1792, and again October 16, 1795. Very many of the conveyances of the land in Bradford during that year, executed by said committee, are on record in the Bradford Land Records. Judge Smith also held offices under the state of New York from 1770 to 1777. He was commissioned a justice of the peace by the Province of New York, March 16, 1770, and on the next day was commissioned assistant justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas by the same authority.
Dr. Jonathan Arnold, of St. Johnsbury, was the third chief judge of Orange County Court, and served in that capacity from 1792 until his death, February 1, 1793. He was born in Providence, R. I., December 14, 1741, and was descended from one of the first settlers. He was a member of the Assembly
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BENCH AND BAR.
of Rhode Island in 1776. In the war of the Revolution he commanded the independent company of grenadiers of Providence, and was a delegate from Rhode Island to Congress under the old confederation. He was educated a physician, and chosen by his native state, in the Revolutionary war, director of its hospitals. After the war he removed to St. Johnsbury, in this state. and was its first town clerk. He was one of the Governor's council in 1790, '91 and 92. Judge Arnold had a rare taste for music and poetry, and was himself a proficient in both. He was a man of broad education, and a patriot in the times that tried men's souls. When he was judge of Orange County Court, that county included St. Johnsbury within its limits.
Cornelius Lynde was not a lawyer, but he was the fourth chief judge of the Orange County Court, in 1797 and 1798, and assistant judge from 1793 to 1796, inclusive. He was born in Leicester, Mass., August 16, 1751. His parents died when he was young, and he was bound as an apprentice to the clothier's trade, and remained with his master till he was twenty-one years of age. After that, by his own exertions, he fitted for college and entered . Harvard, where he remained until his feelings of patriotism prompted him to enter the Revolutionary army, where he was soon made a lieutenant, and before he left the service a major. At the close of the war he took up his abode in Williamstown, Mass., and in 1785 removed to the Vermont town of the same name. In 1788 he married Rebekah Davis, daughter of Col. Jacob Davis, of Montpelier. Judge Lynde held many offices. He was elected town clerk in 1787, and held the office until 1797, with the exception of one year, being the first town clerk that was elected ; was also the first postmaster of the town, receiving bis appointment in April, 1804; represented the town in the state legislature from 1791 to 1794, and again in 1808. He was elected a representative in 1794, but was transferred to the Council, and was in that body until 1799; was also a delegate to the Constitutional convention of 1791, and died at Williamstown in 1836, in the eighty-fourth year of his age.
Hon. Jedediah Parker Buckingham was the fifth in order of the chief judges of Orange County Court, serving from 1799 to 1805, and again the tenth in order, serving another term from 1813 to 1815. He was probably a native of Connecticut, and came into Orange county quite early, settling first in Fairlee, according to Judge Child's account of him in Hemenway's Gazetteer. He graduated at Dartmouth college in 1779, and October 17, 1788, by special act of the legislature then in session at Manchester, was admitted as an attorney in the county of Orange. In the record in the proceedings of the Governor and Council the editor has put in brackets after his hamne [of Thetford]. Judge Child says that he was in Fairlee at that time, and re- moved to Thetford March 26, 1791. Abijah Howard, who prepared the sketch of Thetford for Hemenway's Gazetteer, says that he came to Thetford in 1781. Possibly he has made a mistake of ten years. He was a large land owner, conveying 1,200 acres at one time to General Israel Morey for £170. He was a justice of the peace while in Fairlee. After his removal
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ORANGE COUNTY.
to Thetford he resided there until his death, September 1, 1840. He was an able man in his profession and represented Thetford in the General Assembly in 1800, 1804 and 1805 ; was register of probate from 1786 to 1790 ; judge of probate for the Thetford district from 1797 to 1800, and was a member of the Governor's council from October, 1808, to October, 1809.
Moulton Morey, the third son of General Israel Morey, and the sixth in order of the chief judges of the Orange County Court, held that position from 1806 to 1808. He was born in Hebron, Conn., July 4, 1765, was educated at Dartmouth college and graduated at that institution in 1789. He married Patty Frizzell, November 10, 1793. He studied law and practiced his pro- fession with a good degree of success for many years in Fairlee. Judge Morey represented bis town in the state legislature during the years 1824 and 1825, was one of the assistant judges of the County Court prior to being its chief judge, from 1803 to 1805, inclusive, and was also an associate justice ·of the Supreme Court from 1806 to 1808. He died in Fairlee in the early part of the year 1854.
James Fisk was the seventh chief judge of the Orange County Court and held that position in 1809, having been assistant judge in 1802. At this time the town of Barre, in which he resided, was one of the towns of Orange county. Hon. E. P. Walton, in the Governor and Council, says of him that he was " born about 1762, (probably in Worcester county, Mass.,) was self- educated, chose the law for his profession, and distinguished himself both as a lawyer and a Democratic politician. He represented Barre in the General Assembly from 1800 until 1805, in 1809 and '10 and 1815, and as a delegate to the Constitutional convention of 1814; was judge of Orange County Court in 1802 and 1809, and of the Supreme Court in 1815 and '16; representative in Congress from March, 1805, until March, 1809, 1811 to 1815, and United States senator in 1817 and '18, resigning that post to accept the collectorship for the district of Vermont, which he held eight years. President Madison appointed him judge of the territory of Indiana in 1812, and he was con- firmed, but he declined the office." Judge Fisk was admitted to the bar of Orange county June 21, 1803 ; to the Supreme Court at its session in Orange county in June, 1815, and died in Swanton, December 1, 1844. He was both a personal and political friend of President Monroe, and at Montpelier, on the morning of July 24, 1817, at eleven o'clock, he had the pleasure of delivering the address of welcome in behalf of the citizens of Montpelier and vicinity to the President on reaching Montpelier on his tour through the New England states.
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