History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 11

Author: Rann, W. S. (William S.)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1054

USA > Vermont > Chittenden County > History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 11

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

Wentworth were void. The government of New York therefore proceeded to carry into practical effect the theories which they held. The settlers were or- dered to surrender their charters and purchase their titles under grants from New York. A few of them complied with this order, but for the most part it met with peremptory resistance. The lands of those who opposed the order were therefore sold to others, who at once instituted actions of ejectment in the courts of Albany, where they were invariably successful in obtaining judgment as opposed to justice. Finding that they could hope for nothing from the forms of law, the settlers determined upon resistance to the execution of the judgments of the court at Albany, till his majesty's pleasure should be further known. To render their opposition more effectual, they united in several associations, and at last convoked a convention of representatives from the different towns on the west side of the mountains. They met in the autumn of 1766, and after due deliberation appointed Samuel Robinson, of Bennington, to represent the grievances of the settlers to the court of Great Britain, and obtain, if possible, a confirmation of the New Hampshire grants. No attention was paid to the actions of ejectment still performing their farce at Albany, further than to see that the judgments were not carried into execution. Meanwhile, the busy spec- ulators in New York had, on the 3d of July, 1766, procured the passage of an act, by the Colonial Assembly of New York, erecting a portion of the territory west of the Connecticut and north of Massachusetts into a county, to which they gave the name of Cumberland, and providing for the construction of a court-house and jail at Chester. Before this act could be consummated, Mr. Robinson had obtained an order from his majesty, dated on the 26th of June, 1767, annulling this act of the provincial Legislature ; and on the 24th of July following, another special order was issued, prohibiting the governor of New York, " upon pain of his majesty's highest displeasure," from making any fur- ther grants whatsoever of the lands in dispute, until his majesty's further pleas- ure should be known. Unfortunately for the object of his mission, Mr. Robin- son died in London in October, 1767, of the small-pox, before he had fully accomplished his purpose, and, so far as known, before he had transmitted a detailed account of his proceedings, to the people who had made him their agent. Nothwithstanding the orders of the crown annulling the act of the Leg- islature of New York, and prohibiting the granting of further lands in the dis- puted territory, the government of New York assiduously prosecuted their de- signs by making additional grants and dividing the territory into counties. They had gone so far as to establish a Court of Common Pleas, and appoint judges in the county of Cumberland when, on the 2d of December, 1767, they were officially apprised of the order annulling their aggressive legislation. Even this did not suffice to make them desist. On the 20th of February, 1768, with the advice of their attorney-general, they re-enacted the law which had been annulled by royal decree, and proceeded in the organization of the county.

THE CONTROVERSY WITH NEW YORK.

This new county extended north to the south line of the towns of Tunbridge, Strafford and Thetford. For the first four or five years the courts were held at Chester, but no county buildings were erected ; and in 1772, upon the recom- mendation of the supervisor of the county, the county-seat was removed to Westminster and a court-house and jail were there erected. A portion of the inhabitants were disposed to acquiesce in the jurisdiction of New York, as may be learned from many of the transfers of titles to lands in those times which described the subject of the deed as lying within the town of -, in the province of New York. The larger portion, however, were more resolutely determined to resist.

On the 7th of March, 1770, another county, by the name of Gloucester, was erected, comprising all that territory lying north of Cumberland county and east of the Green Mountains. Its county seat was fixed at Newbury. At this time this county contained probably 700 inhabitants, for the most part opposed to the jurisdiction of New York. In 1772 another county was established on the west side of the Green Mountains, by the name of Charlotte. This county thus set off from the old county of Albany on the 12th of March, 1772, was bounded south by the north line of Sunderland and Arlington and a line run- ing thence westward to Hudson River, and included all the country to the northward, on both sides of the lake to the Canada line. It embraced, of course, the present county of Chittenden. The county seat was erected at Skeenes- borough, now Whitehall, and Philip Skeene was appointed one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas. All that part of Vermont lying south of this county and west of the mountains, was included in the county of Albany. The province of New York thus continued to organize new counties until the dec- laration of the independence of Vermont, in 1777.

Agreeably to a decision made by the Council of New York, to the effect that the " king's order did not extend to prevent the governor from the grant- ing of any lands which had not been previously granted by New Hampshire," the governor had continued to make new grants to his friends and favorites. He did not confine himself to the ungranted territory, but frequently re-granted such as were already covered by New Hampshire charters. At the same time the endeavors of his grantees to obtain possession of the lands were unremit- ting. They were everywhere defeated by the vigilance and determination of the settlers under the New Hampshire grants. In October, 1769, a party of surveyors from New York was observed to be running a line across the farm of James Breckenridge, in Bennington, and were forbidden, by Breckenridge and others who had collected at that place, to proceed. They returned to New York. Thereupon Abraham Ten Broek, one of the proprietors of the patent of Wallumschaik, presented a petition to the Governor and Council of New York, alleging that the commissioners and surveyors for dividing that patent had been "riotously opposed by sundry persons, and prevented by their threats

HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

from executing the trust reposed in them." The governor then issued a proc- lamation " for apprehending the principals and ringleaders," and at the follow- ing January term of the court at Albany the Rev. Jedediah Dewey, Joseph Robinson, Elijah Fay, Thomas Henderson, Ebenezer Robinson, and John Stew- art were indicted as riotors. None of them, however, was arrested or brought to trial.

On the 18th of October, 1769, the settlers petitioned the Governor and Council of New Hampshire to interpose with the crown in their behalf. This petition was repeated on the 24th of the same month, the last petition being subscribed by Samuel Safford for Bennington, Benjamin Gardner for Pownal, Jehiel Hawley for Arlington, Benjamin Purdy for Manchester, Thomas Barney for Sunderland, and Benjamin Colvin for Shaftsbury. It was about this time that Ethan Allen came to reside in the grants, and he at once undertook to defend the actions in ejectment brought against the New Hampshire grantees. He went to New Hampshire, where he procured the documents necessary for the establishment of his claims, engaged the services of Mr. Ingersoll, an emi- nent lawyer of Connecticut, and in June, 1770, proceeded with him to the court at Albany. The trial of Josiah Carpenter, of Shaftsbury, came on, and the counsel for the defendant produced to the court the documents which Allen had brought from New Hampshire, among which were the charter of the town- ship and the defendant's deed from the original proprietors. These were imme- diately set aside by the court, on the alleged ground that the New Hampshire grants were illegal, and a verdict was rendered against the defendant. Thus was established a precedent to annihilate all the titles of land held under the New Hampshire grants. Ingersoll and Allen thereupon retired from the court. In the evening, it is related, three New York lawyers by the names of Kemp, Banyar, and Duane called on Allen, and Kemp, the king's attorney, observed to him that the people settled on the New Hampshire grants should be advised to make the best terms possible with their landlords, for might often prevailed against right. To this Allen replied : "The gods of the valleys are not the gods of the hills." Kemp asked for an explanation, whereupon Allen remarked that if Kemp would accompany him to Bennington the phrase should be explained. Kemp proposed to give to Allen and other men of influence on the grants large tracts of land to secure peace and harmony ; but the proposal was rejected without the compliment of consideration, and the conversation ended. The inhabitants of the grants were thoroughly indignant at the unjust and contemptuous consideration bestowed upon their claims in Albany. On Allen's return a convention was called at Bennington, in which it was " Re- solved, to support their rights and property which they possessed under the New Hampshire grants, against the usurpation and unjust claims of the Gov- ernor and Council of New York, by force, as law and justice were denied them." This was a bold measure of a hundred men, united in opposition to the most

THE CONTROVERSY WITH NEW YORK.

favored colony under the crown. The people on the grants, however, were intelligent enough to see that the controversy did not lie between themselves and the body of the people in New York, but was alone with the Governor and Council of that province, " and their land associates, who were but a small and Jesuitical part of the community."

The spirited resolution just quoted was followed by so determined a resist- ance to the execution of the provincial decrees of New York that several of the settlers were indicted as rioters; but the officers sent to apprehend them "were seized by the people," as Ira Allen has vigorously written, "and severely chastised with twigs of the wilderness."

Every day witnessed the occurrence of stirring events. To be in readiness for any emergency that might arise, the settlers organized a military associa- tion, of which Ethan Allen was appointed colonel commandant, and Seth War- ner, Remember Baker, Robert Cochran, Gideon Warren, and some others were appointed captains. Under them the inhabitants of the grants were armed, and frequently met for military exercise and discipline. Of this organization Governor Tryon learned early in the year 1772, from a letter written to him by John Munro, one of the most assiduous supporters of the authority of New York, who resided near the west line of the town of Shaftsbury. Among other things, the letter states that "the rioters have established a company at Bennington, commanded by Captain Warner ; and on New Year's day his com- pany was reviewed, and continued all day in military exercise and firing at marks."

Under the encouragement of the government of New York a number of settlers had established themselves in the western parts of Rupert and Pawlet, and armed themselves for defense against the New Hampshire grantees. In October, 1771, Ethan Allen, Remember Baker, and Robert Cochran, with six others in sympathy with them, proceeded to warn off the intruders. Finding resistance useless the " Yorkers " fled to New York, and left the log houses, which they had erected, to the mercy of their pursuers, who pulled them down, laid them in heaps, and burned them. In consequence of this deed, Alex. Mc- Naughton, a justice of the peace of New York, issued a warrant for the arrest of the persons last named as rioters. At the same time he wrote privately to the governor of New York that by reason of their situation among the mountains no officer would be able to apprehend them, and he therefore recommended that a reward be offered for their capture. In pursuance of this suggestion, the governor, by the advice of the Council, issued a proclamation on the 27th of November, offering a reward of twenty pounds each for the apprehension of Allen, Cochran, Baker, and six others. In February of the year 1772 the sheriff of Albany went to Rupert with this proclamation, but failed to accom- plish the object of his errand. In his report afterward submitted to the gov- ernor, he stated that he had been unable to find the rioters, but among those

HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

whom he saw, "he found the greatest appearance of a determined resolution not to submit to the government, and this he found particularly verified by the conduct of eight or nine, who were armed with guns and clubs, in which man- ner they came to the house of one Harmon, near Indian River, where he then was, and from their conduct it plainly appeared what they intended."

On the 22d of the following month (Sunday) John Munro assembled ten or twelve of his coadjutors, before day-light, and proceeded to the house of Remember Baker, in Arlington, with the intention of arresting him. They aroused him by breaking open his door and entertaining his room armed with swords and pistols. They rushed on him with a fury born of fear, and wound- ed him on the head and arm with strokes from the sword. His wife and one of his sons were also inhumanly wounded with the same weapon. Baker was finally overpowered, bound, thrown into a sleigh, and hurriedly conveyed towards Albany. The news of his apprehension was carried with the greatest speed to Bennington, where ten men mounted their horses and started out to intercept Munro and his gang, and rescue Baker. They came upon their enemies just on the cast bank of the Hudson. Munro and his followers at once abandoned Baker and fled. His friends, finding the prisoner nearly exhausted by his suffering and the loss of blood, refreshed him and carried him home.

Soon after this ineffectual attempt to arrest Baker, the experiment was re- peated upon Seth Warner. Warner and a friend were riding on horseback not far from Munro's residence, and were met by the latter and several of his dependents. In the midst of the conversation which followed, Munro suddenly seized the bridle of Warner's horse, and called upon the bystanders to assist in his arrest. Warner admonished him that it would be wise to desist, but as this had no effect, he struck his assailant on the head with a cutlass, and felled him to the ground. Finding that the spectators evinced no disposition to in- terfere Munro, when he recovered from the stunning effect of the blow, per- mitted Warner to proceed without further molestation. These repeated at- tempts on the part of Munro to aid in enforcing the unjust and unauthorized decrees of New York at last met with a severe but merited punishment. The affairs of the inhabitants of the grants seem to have been managed at this period by committees from the several towns, who assembled in convention as neces- sity required, and adopted measures for the common defense and welfare. Their resolutions were held to be the law of the land, and any violation thereof was always punished with exemplary severity. The most usual method of punishment was the administration of the " beech seal." This mode of pun- ishment derived its name from allusion to the provincial seal of New Hamp- shire, which was affixed to the charters of the townships granted by the governor of that province. Of this the beech rod vigorously applied to the naked backs of the " Yorkers " and their adherents, was considered a confirma- tion. Ira Allen in giving a description of the punishment meted out to the

THE CONTROVERSY WITH NEW YORK.

enemies of the laws of this convention, mentions one " Hugh Munroe" who, he says, was "an old offender." He was taken, tried, and ordered to be whipped on his naked back; he was tied to a tree and flogged till he fainted ; on re- covering he was whipped again until he fainted ; he recovered and underwent a third lashing until he fainted; his wounds were then dressed, and he was banished the district of New Hampshire grants, not to return on pain of suffer- ing the further resentment of the Green Mountain Boys.

The punishment inflicted on the person of Benjamin Hough has become historical. He was a resident in the vicinity of Clarendon, and was a bitter partisan of the "Yorkers." In the winter of 1774 he visited New York with the avowed intention of obtaining the aid of the government against the Green Mountain Boys. On the 9th of March he accepted the appointment of justice of the peace in and for the county of Charlotte. Although repeatedly warned from exercising in any manner the alleged authority derived from his appoint- ment, he proeeded, with incorrigible persistence, to execute his office within the grants; he was therefore arrested and taken before the Committee of Safety at Sunderland, which consisted of Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, Robert Cochran, Peleg Sunderland, James Mead, Gideon Warren and Jesse Sawyer. The de- cree of the convention and the charges under which he rested were read in his presence, and as he acknowledged the offense and pleaded nothing in extenu- ation but the authority of New York, the following sentence was pronounced upon him : "That the prisoner be taken from the bar of this Committee of Safety and be tied to a tree, and there, on his naked back, receive two hun- dred stripes; his back being dressed, he should depart out of the district, and on return, without special leave of the convention, to suffer death." This sen- tence was carried out in the presence of a large assemblage. Hough then asked and received a certificate of his punishment, signed by Allen and War- ner. It read as follows :

" SUNDERLAND, 30th of Jan., 1775.

" This may certify the inhabitants of the New Hampshire grants, that Benjamin Hough hath this day received a full punishments for his crimes committed heretofore against this country, and our in- habitants are ordered to give him, the said Hough, a free and unmolested passport toward the city of New York, or to the westward of our grants, he behaving himself as becometh. Given under our hands the day and the date aforesaid.

ETHAN ALLEN, SETH WARNER."

Allen sarcastically remarked, on delivering this certificate, that with the re- ceipt on his back, it would undoubtedly be admitted as legal evidence before the Supreme Court and Governor and Council of New York, though the . king's warrant to Governor Wentworth, and his excellency's sign manual, with the great seal of the province of New Hampshire, would not.

As a consequence of this affair, the Colonial Assembly of New York, on the 30th and 3Ist of March, resolved to appropriate £1,000 for the mainte- nance of justice and the suppression of riots in the county of Cumberland, and to offer a reward of fifty pounds each for the apprehension of James Mead,

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HISTORY OF CHITTENDEN COUNTY.

Gideon Warren, and Jesse Sawyer, and also a reward of fifty pounds each, in addition to the rewards previously offered, for the arrest of Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, Robert Cochran, and Peleg Sunderland. This assembly was soon after prorogued and never met again, being superseded by the Provincial Con- gress of Revolutionary birth.

These events were preceded by others which may not be omitted. The continued aggressions of the supporters of the authority of New York had de- termined the settlers to adopt this form of organized resistance, which has al- ready received a partial description. Early in 1772 intelligence was reported at Bennington that Governor Tryon was ascending the North River with a body of troops, for the purpose of subduing and chastising the Green Moun- tain Boys. The report was at first given credence. The committees of safety and military officers met in convention and resolved that " it was their duty to oppose Governor Tryon and his troops to the utmost of their power." Ex- tensive preparations for defense ensued, and a trusty person was dispatched to- Albany to ascertain the number and designs of the enemy. The messenger soon returned with the welcome intelligence that the troops were wind-bound in the river below Albany, and that they had no designs upon the grants, but were destined for the military posts on the lakes.

Meanwhile several of the residents of the grants, who were in sympathy with New York, fled to that province, and by their representations and those of Monro, which were received about this time, Governor Tryon was induced to- believe that he could accomplish more by negotiation than by menaces. He therefore wrote to the Rev. Mr. Dewey, and the inhabitants of Bennington and the adjacent country, and after expressions of censure on their illegal con- duct, invited them to lay their grievances before him, and pledged security and protection to any persons they should send to New York on such errand, ex- cepting Allen, Warner and three others. This letter was dated at New York on the 19th of May, 1772. Two letters were sent in answer to this, one signed by a committee appointed for that purpose"by the settlers in and around Benning- ton, and consisting of Mr. Dewey and others ; and the other signed by the persons excepted in the governor's letter. The contents of these letters consisted of evidence sustaining the titles of the settlers to their lands under the grants from New Hampshire, and that therefore the proceedings which had been denounced against them as riotous, were justifiable in defending them- selves against aggressions which could be legalized by no court or legislature. They closed with expressions of a desire that his excellency would help to quiet them in their possessions " till his majesty, in his royal wisdom, shall be gra- ciously pleased to settle the controversy." Captain Stephen Fay and his son Jonas Fay were appointed to deliver the letters to the governor of New York. He received them kindly, and laid the communications before the Council, which reported favorably and recommended that his excellency afford all the relief in

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THE CONTROVERSY WITH NEW YORK.

his power, by having all criminal prosecutions and civil suits suspended until his majesty's pleasure should be known. This report was immediately approved by the governor. The feelings which the communication of this result awak- ened in Bennington may be inferred from the report made soon after by the agents to Governor Tryon. On the 15th of July the committee which had re- plied to the governor's letter, met at the meeting-house in Bennington, to- gether with a large concourse of people. The report upon their action read as follows : -

" We, as messengers, laid before the above committee an extract of the minutes of his majesty's Council of the province of New York of the 2d instant, together with His Excellency Governor Tryon's letter of the same date, directed to the inhabitants of Bennington, &c., and after the same, the above committee and a numerous concourse of the inhabitants of the adjacent country and other spectators, gave a full and nnanimons vote in favor of the papers aforesaid ; and the thanks of the people were presented to us for our diligence in procuring these papers. Peace was also recommended on the whole New Hampshire grants, by all who were present; when the whole artillery of Bennington, with the small arms, were several times discharged in honor of the Governor and Council of New York .- Health to the king-Health to Governor Tryon-Health to the Council of New York-Universal peace and plenty, liberty and prosperity, by sundry respectahle gentlemen, some of whom were from neigh- boring provinces.

STEPHEN FAY, JONAS FAY."

Ethan Allen and a small party of his friends had just before this made prisoner of a surveyor by the name of Kockburn, whom they had caught lay- ing out land in some of the northern townships. They had broken his instru- ment, and pronounced on him (at Castleton) the usual sentence of banishment on pain of death, when they learned of the proceedings with the governor of New York. They at once retracted their sentence, and set the prisoner free. On the same expedition Allen's party had committed a justifiable act at the lower falls on Otter Creek, where the city of Vergennes now stands, which, nevertheless, was seized upon by Governor Tryon as a pretext for the renewal of hostilities. The lands here had been granted by New Hampshire, in 1761, to Mr. Pangborn, and a settlement had been commenced under this grant, and a saw-mill erected as early as 1769. Soon after this Colonel Reed, a British officer, who had obtained a subsequent grant from New York of nearly all the lands now occupied by the towns of New Haven, Ferrisburgh, and Panton, and the city of Vergennes, forcibly dispossessed the New Hampshire settlers and placed his own tenants in possession. They had extended the settlement and erected several log houses and a grist-mill. Allen's party drove off these in- truders, burned their houses, threw their mill-stones over the falls, and put Pangborn in possession again.

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History of Chittenden County, Vermont, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 11

Author: Rann, W. S. (William S.) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 1054

Author: Rann, W. S. (William S.)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 1054