USA > Vermont > History of eastern Vermont, from its earliest settlement to the close of the eighteeth century with a biographical chapter and appendixes > Part 19
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
Continuing in this line of argument, he referred to the action of Governor Moore and his Council, in choosing Chester as the county town because of its central position, when they well knew that it was but lately settled, and that some of the river towns had been, comparatively speaking, long inhabited. He mentioned also the choice by the same dignitaries of Kings- land as the shire town of Gloucester county, when the place did not contain a single family. His own experience as an early settler was the next point touched on .* Turning then to the charge relative to the accommodations of his adopted town, he asserted that they were as good as in any town in the county ; that the same was true of the provisions there furnished, and as to bedding, in his opinion as many spare beds could be obtained there as at any other place in the shire. He explained the dis- daraging accounts which had been given of household arrange- ments at Chester, by saying that most of those who had attended court there had never seen more than the four or five families located near the county buildings ; that, although by travelling a mile or so they might have procured lodgings, they had chosen, being used to camp duty, to stay where they obtained their food, and had preferred the ground to a " good bed." In closing, he stated that it would, no doubt, be necessary sooner or later for the judges from Albany to hold a court of Oyer and Terminer and General Jail delivery in the county ;
* " When I first moved to Chester," said he, "I was the first man with a Family that had in this part of the Country moved out from the River, and there was no Road from the River to Chester or from Chester to Albany. Neither were there any Inhabitants for Thirty Miles West of Said River, and now there are Nine Families in Rockingham on the Road to Chester, and many on the Right hand and Left ; there are also many Inhabitants on the Road to Albany."
fs e
b
179
COUNTY BUILDINGS.
1771, 1772.]
that a route had within a year been traced between Chester and Albany, which had been much travelled, and by proper care would make a good wagon road; that there was no road either north or south of it leading to Chester for nearly a hundred miles, with the exception of one, which was partly in Massachu- setts, and that in case the courts were removed from Chester, the judges would be first obliged to come to that town, and then set out for the shire town wherever it might be. Of the road over "Hoosuck mountains," he said, "it is difficult and dangerous both for man and horse. A corpulent person can but scarcely get up with the help of his horse's tail to draw him up by, and if the horse should miss his step, as horses have often done, he would fall, roll, or slip many rods before he would recover."* Such were the arguments advanced in the replication of Chandler.+
The hearing, which was to have been held in May, does not appear to have taken place, and, for several months, the ques- tion as to the future location of the courts, remained undecided. On the 2d of December, the inhabitants of Rockingham, in view of the attempts of the people of Westminster and other towns to obtain a removal of the shire town to the southern part of the county, and as a result of the belief that the selec- tion of Rockingham would be "more beneficial and less de- trimental" than any other which could be made, offered to pay £70 towards the erection of the county buildings, provided the shire town was removed to that place. Similar offers were made by other towns on similar conditions. On the 15th of January, 1772, the subject was brought before the Legislature of New York. After some time spent by the house in com- mittee of the whole, the speaker resumed the chair, and John Thomas Jr. of Westchester county reported, that the com- mittee were of opinion that several bills should be brought in relative to Cumberland county. Among those which he pro- posed, was one to enable the freeholders and inhabitants of the county "to erect and build a court-house and gaol, and to elect
* "This is a truth," added the letter writer, "that Samuel Wells Esq., will not Deny." Wells was on the bench with Chandler, and was of the number who favored the removal of the shire town from Chester. In the remarks about " a corpulent person," reference seems to have been had to Wells, and it is not improbable that he had been the subject of an accident similar to that the pro- bable results of which are given in the text.
+ N. Y. Colonial MSS., in office Sec. State, Dunmore, Tryon : 1771, xvii.
180
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
[1772.
supervisors and other county officers." His report having been delivered in at the table, was again read and agreed to by the house. On the same day, George Clinton and Capt. Seaman were ordered to prepare a bill comporting with the above title. Agreeable to the order, a bill was presented on the 16th, and was passed to a second reading. By the terms of the bill as first reported, the county buildings were to be located at Cliester. So much had been effected by the replication of Chandler. On its second reading, on the 29th, the bill was referred to a com- mittee of the whole house .*
Meantime, William Tryon had succeeded to the government of the province, and was unacquainted with the condition of affairs in Cumberland county. On the 25th of January, Chan- dler addressed to him a petition couched in terms similar to those with which he had approached Dunmore. This docu- ment, as it was dated at Fort George in the city of New York, was probably prepared in a council of Chandler's friends and advisers. After rehearsing facts connected with the rise and progress of the county, he referred to the good effects which had attended the location of the shire town at Chester, and described a court-house which he had lately built there and leased to the county.| He detailed the advantages which the county would receive, if the shire town should be allowed to remain where it then was, and in proof of the disposition of many of the inhabitants, referred to a petition which they had presented to the General Assembly, asking for leave to tax the county for the purpose of finishing the court-house begun at Chester, or for building a new one and a jail, at that place. In conclusion, he promised, in case the tax prayed for was not levied on the people, that he, at his own expense, would make the incomplete court-house comfortable, and build "a .good jail" at Chester, rather than suffer the courts to be removed " to the damage of the publick." On the occasion of a riot which happened soon after at Putney,¿ when the rioters threat- ened among other " felonious actions," to "go to Chester, pull down ye jail," and deliver some of the prisoners, Chandler again wrote to Governor Tryon. Having detailed the origin and incidents of the disturbance, he did not lose the opportu- nity of deducing from it an argument in favor of his adopted
* N. Y. Colonial MSS., in office -Sec. State, Dunmore, Tryon : 1771, xcvii, Journal Gen, Ass. N. Y., 1767-1775.
t See ante, pp. 175, 176.
# See ante, pp. 172, 173.
181
A PETITION.
1772.]
town. "If the jail had been in any one of the river towns," said he, " as prayed for by some, the jail had by said mad Rioters been pulled down. Your Excellency will therefore see that it will on this account, be best to continue the jail and courts in ye centre of the county, if no other reasons were given but to prevent such sudden mischiefs being perpetrated as may be done in a sudden heat of passion."*
Pending the discussion of the subject, a petition from the inhabitants of the county was read before the house, on the 22d of February, setting forth the many inconveniences which they would experience, should the bill in its present form pass into a law, and praying that they might not be obliged to build the court-house and jail in the township of Chester. The peti- tion was referred to the committee to whom the bill had been given in charge. In order to rebut Chandler's representa- tions Samuel Wells, Oliver Willard, William Dean, William Williams and Nathan Stone, addressed Governor Tryon in behalf of those who were opposed to the present location of the shire town. Their representations were similar to those they had made on former occasions, and in some instances were contradictory of certain assertions which had been made by the opposite party. They accused Chandler of failing in the per- formance of his promise to erect county buildings worthy of the name ;} described the road to Chester as only partly opened, improperly constructed, but little travelled, and in many places almost impassable, and declared the town destitute of neces- sary accommodations, and its houses " mean, slight and uncom- fortable." They stated that it would "tend much to the ad- vancement of justice," the "benefit and utility " of the county, and " contribute greatly to the ease and satisfaction " of the people, if the courts were held nearer the river; that the inha- bitants would willingly submit to be taxed, were the change made, and since two terms in a year had proved " insufficient for the dispatch of business," and the length of time interven- ing between them, had given many persons "opportunities of absconding, or defrauding their creditors, by embezzling their effects," that the addition of two more terms had become neces- sary for the due administration of justice. In making these representations, they declared that they spoke the sentiments of
* N. Y. Colonial MSS., in office Sec. State. Tryon, 1771, 1772, xcviii. Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv. 759-761.
t See ante, p. 175, Note.
182
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
[1772.
more than three fourths of the inhabitants of the county. For this reason they prayed his Excellency to remove the courts to Westminster, and increase the number of terms to four in each year. This petition was read in the house on the 27th of February, and was referred to a committee of the whole.
On the 14th of March, Mr. De Noyellis, from the committee of the whole house, to whom had been referred the bill relative to the courts of the county, reported that they had examined it, altered the title, and amended it in several particulars. The bill as amended was then read, and having been agreed to by the house was passed for engrossment. Having been read on the 16th the third time, it was passed by a resolution, and Messrs. De Noyellis and De Witt were appointed to carry it to the Council and desire their concurrence in its passage. From them it was returned on the 21st, by Oliver De Lancey, ap- proved of and unamended. The bill became a law on the 24th. Its original title had been altered, and it now appeared as “ An act for erecting a more convenient Court House and Gaol, for altering the terms appointed for holding the courts of Common Pleas and General Sessions of the Peace, and for enabling the inhabitants to elect supervisors and other county officers in and for the county of Cumberland."
By its provisions the judges and justices of the county were directed to meet at the court-house in Chester on the first Tues- day of the following May, and form "into convenient districts" such parts of the county as were not erected into townships " under the Great Seal" of the colony. A description of these divisions was to be made in writing, subscribed by the judges and justices and filed with the county clerk, who was ordered to record it. The districts thus constituted were to remain as divided until formed into townships. The people were author- ized to assemble on the third Tuesday of May following, and elect for each town and district one supervisor, two assessors, two collectors, two overseers of the poor, two fence-viewers, four constables, three highway commissioners, and as many persons for surveyors and overseers of highways, as the majority of " the freeholders and inhabitants" of each town and district should judge necessary. At the same time a county treasurer was to be chosen .* The election for these purposes was to be held annually.
* At the first election under this act, held May 19th, 1772, the people, for some reason not apparent, neglected to choose a county treasurer. That officer was
183
ACT TO ERECT COUNTY BUILDINGS.
1772.]
By other clauses of the bill, it was ordered that the "public and necessary charges" should be defrayed as in other counties; that " from and after" the first Tuesday in June, next ensuing, the courts should be held on the second Tuesdays in June, Septem- ber, December, and March, in each year, and that each session should not continue longer than four days. In order to intro- duce these last regulations, the judges were directed to open the next court at the time and place to which it had been adjourned, and again adjourn it with " all presentments, indict- ments, suits, causes, plaints, writs, processes, and proceedings, whether criminal or civil, and all parties charged, prosecuting or defending therein," to the term next ensuing, as established by this act, and to the place which should be hereafter ap- pointed. To the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Council, was reserved the power, according to ancient usage, of altering and fixing the terms and times of the court sessions.
In conformity with the first clause in the title of the bill, the supervisors who should be chosen at the coming election, were ordered to assemble on the last Tuesday in May at the court- house in Chester, and by a plurality of votes, ascertain the place where the court-house and jail were to be erected. The result of their ballotings was to be certified by an instrument under their hands and seals, and the place which they should choose was to "be and remain" the county town, if not disap- proved of by the Governor. To defray the expenses of build- ing, the supervisors were authorized to levy upon and collect, from the inhabitants of the county, a sum not exceeding £250. They were also instructed to nominate three fit persons to " su- perintend and direct the building of the said court-house and gaol, and the laying out and expending the monies to be raised for that purpose." Those who should collect the tax were directed to pay it to the three superintendents .*
In accordance with the rules laid down in this act, the towns which had not received charters from New York were divided into districts, and, on the 6th of May, an abstract of the divi- sions was posted in several public places, signed by Crean Brush, who, a few months before, had removed to Westminster, and had been appointed clerk and surrogate of the county by com-
afterwards appointed by the supervisors at their meeting in June following .- Council Minutes, in office Sec. State, N. Y., 1765-1783, xxvi. 302.
* Journal Gen. Ass. N. Y., 1767-1775. Act of 12th George III., in Laws N. Y., Van Schaack's ed., 1691-1773, pp. 700-702.
184
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
[1772.
missions from Governor Tryon .* The supervisors who had been chosen at the general election, held, according to appoint- ment, in the towns and districts of the county, on the 19th of May, assembled at the court-house in Chesert, on the 26th, for the purpose of locating the county buildings. Westminster was chosen as the shire town, and a spot adjoining "the public street or highway" in that township, and " as near the place where the meeting-house is erected," as would be convenient, was selected as the site of the court-house and jail. At a subsequent meet- ing of the supervisors, held on the 11th of June, at Westminster, for the purpose of proportioning the county tax, and choosing per- sons to superintend the erection of the court-house and jail, the question was raised as to the particular spot on which the build- ings should be placed. Although this question had been once de- cided, yet by a majority of one, the former decision was reversed, and it was voted that the court-house and jail should be built "near the north end of the northerly plain, above a mile from the meeting-house, and about forty rods to the northward of all the houses in the street but one."
An account of these proceedings was carried to New York by Crean Brush, who informed Governor Tryon that the reversal of the first decision of the supervisors, had been "inadvertently acquiesced in" by some of the members of the board who were now convinced of the impropriety of the act. Owing to this representation, the Governor and his Council, at a meeting held on the 25th of June, approved of the selection which had been made at the first meeting of the supervisors, and authorized the erection of the court-house and jail on the spot which had on that occasion been chosen.t
Full permission having been obtained, the people of the county now turned their attention to the erection of a court- house which should be creditable and of service. The east village of Westminster is built on two plains which stretch along the banks of the Connecticut, and extend back to the mountains nearly a mile. At the northern extremity of the southern plain, which is higher than the other, and on the brow
* A copy of this abstract, taken from a rain-stained and weather-beaten origi- nal upon which the upturned eyes of the early inhabitants of the wilds of Vermont once gazed, as it looked down upon them from the side of an inn or of some humble place of worship, may be found in Appendix G. I am indebted to the Hon. Wil. liam M. Pingry, for this and other documents.
t Council Minutes, in office Sec. State, N. Y., 1765-1783, pp. 302, 303.
185
THE "OLD COURT HOUSE."
1772.]
of an elevation which afterwards took the name of "Court- House Hill," a spot was selected for the site of the building. It was located on the east side of the road but a short distance from the meeting-house which then occupied the centre of the highway. In shape it was almost square, the sides being about forty feet in length, and was built of hewn tim- ber, clap-boarded. The roof was gambrel, sur- mounted by a cupola or tower, open at the four sides. An aisle, ten or twelve feet in width, ran east and west through the mid- dle of the lower story. A double door was placed at each end of Court House at Westminster. the aisle, or, in other words, two doors opening either way from a centre fastening. In accordance with the custom of the times, the building was intended to afford some of the con- veniences of a tavern. In the south-east corner was a kitchen or cook-room, occupied by the jailer, and in the south-west cor- ner, a bar-room, in which the jailer served in the capacity of bar-tender. The chimney rose between these rooms, and opened into each in the shape of a large, old-fashioned fire-place. An- other door was cut in the south side of the building, leading into an entry, on either side of which were doors to the kitchen and bar-room. In the north part was the jail, which comprised within its limits two prison-rooms, divided the one from the other by a narrow aisle running north and south. This aisle communicated with the broad aisle, by a door. Doors also opened from the prison-rooms into the narrow aisle. A flight of stairs led from the east entrance to the court-room in the second story, which did not differ materially from the court- rooms of the present day in its arrangement.
Before the building was completed, the superintendents had expended all the money which had been raised by tax, and were compelled for a while to suspend operations. Meantime the county had obtained two representatives in the Legislature of the province. On the 3d of February, 1773, Crean Brush, one of the representatives, asked leave to bring in a number of
186
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
[1773.
bills designed to advance the interests of his constituents. Among these, was one "for raising £250 in the county of Cum- berland, towards finishing the court-house and gaol already erected in the said county." Permission being granted, a bill to that effect was presented, and having passed its first reading on the 8th, and its second reading on the 10th, was referred to a committee of the whole house. Thence it was returned on the 13th with an altered title,* and with the amendment was, on the 15th, ordered to be engrossed. Having been read a third time, it was enacted by the house. On the 18th, the concurrence of the Council in the bill was announced by Roger Morris, and on the 8th of March it was passed into a law. The work was soon after renewed, and by the close of summer the building was ready for use. The court-room was never finished ; but its walls, gray and cobwebbed, and its beams and braces rough and bare, were perfectly in keeping with the turbulent spirits who met within its precincts in legal conflict, or assembled there to engage in more important scenes. t
* The title was changed so as to read, "for raising the further sum of £250," etc. Act of 13th George III., in Laws N. Y., Van Schaack's ed., 1691-1773, p. 803.
+ Journal Gen. Ass. N. Y., 1767-1775. The courts were held at Westminster, until 1781. In that year, Westminster and Marlborough were declared to be half shire towns, and one court term was held at each place until 1787, when the half shire towns were abolished, and the county town was established at New Fane, where a new court-house and jail were erected, The engraving in the text was finished from a plan, made from memory by Daniel Hall, Esq., who, in the year 1794, attended a school in the "Old Court-House " taught by Master Dudley Chase, afterwards United States Senator from Vermont. The building was demolished about the year 1806.
CHAPTER VIII.
LEGISLATION OF THE NEW YORK COLONIAL ASSEMBLY. EVIDENCES OF A REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT.
Census of Cumberland and Gloucester Counties-Samuel Wells and Crean Brush chosen Representatives-Laws for Regulating the Affairs of the Counties- Road Law-License Law-Law for Supervising Intestates' Estates, and Regu- lating the Probate of Wills-Petition for Confirmation Charters-Law respect- ing the Sheriff's Fees-Law Establishing Fairs-Pay of Representatives-Road Law-Law Forbidding Justices' Courts to be held in Taverns-"Sons of Liberty"-Letter to the Supervisors of Cumberland County-Meeting at Ches- ter-Patriotic resolves of the Westminster Convention-Troubles at Dummer- ston-Dr. Harvey, the Town Clerk-His Account of the Imprisonment and Re- lease of Lieut. Leonard Spaulding-Another Meeting at Chester-Second Con- vention at Westminster-Committee of Inspection-Third Convention at West- minster-Committee of Correspondence-Petition to the New York Legislature.
IN the various petitions, remonstrances, and memorials which had been presented to the governors of New York at different times, by persons claiming to be residents on the " Grants," the population of that district had been made to appear much greater than it really was. To come at the truth on this point, Governor Dunmore, on the 16th of January, 1771, directed the sheriffs of Cumberland and Gloucester counties to take an enu- meration of the inhabitants of their respective bailiwicks. As the result of this census, it was shown that there were in the twenty- six towns in the county of Cumberland, from which returns were received, of white males, one thousand and eighty, under the age of sixteen; one thousand and thirty-three, between six- teen and sixty; and sixty, aged sixty and upwards ; of white females, nine hundred and forty-nine, under sixteen ; and eight hundred and eighty-seven above that age; of black males, seven, and of black females, eight. The whole population amounted to four thousand and twenty-four persons, of whom seven hundred and forty-four were heads of families. At the
188
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
[1772.
same time the total number of whites and blacks in Gloucester county was found to be seven hundred and twenty-two .* With these data, the Legislature of New York were prepared to ap- preciate better the wants of a people who, on account of their distance from the seat of government, had been neglected, although their rights were nearly the same as those of the inhabitants of the other counties of the province.t
Among the complaints which were made when the subject of removing the court-house was first mooted, was one arising from the fact that the people of Cumberland county were denied representation in the Provincial Legislature. Thomas Chandler, writing to Governor Dunmore, on the 10th of April, had in- formed him of this "grievance," and had expressed his belief that his lordship would endeavor to redress it. The right of petition being that most frequently exercised in such cases, the people of the county drew up an address to Governor Tryon, on the 7th of December, 1772, in which they set forth the "powers, privileges, and immunities" to which they were by the terms of their charter entitled. They declared themselves " wholly disposed to demean themselves as good subjects," but expressed a desire of " enjoying, in common with the inhabitants of the other counties," the liberty of choosing two representatives "to serve in the General Assembly." "Such representation," said they, " will fulfil the hopes of your petitioners, by establishing that firm and lasting connection which they are desirous should ever subsist between them and the government to which it is their happiness to belong, and will enable them the more readily to accomplish the good purposes of government, by obtaining such laws as will most tend to its honor and their own pros- perity." This address, which bore at its foot one hundred and fifty-one signatures, having been read in Council on the 23d of December, was favorably received, and a writ was ordered to issue, enabling the freeholders and inhabitants of the county to choose two representatives to sit in the next General Assembly of the province. At the election, which was held agreeable to this order, Samuel Wells, of Brattleborough, and Crean Brush, of Westminster, were returned as representatives. The Legisla- ture being then in session, they soon after repaired to the city
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.