USA > Vermont > Addison County > Shoreham > History of the town of Shoreham, Vermont, from the date of its charter, October 8th, 1761, to the present time > Part 20
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
foot every year from the commencement of the war, to proceed with a large force through the lake. A disgraceful failure attended them all, until the expedition under General AMHERST, in 1759. These failures occurred through the ignorance and indiscretion of ministers at home, or the imbecility of the officers entrusted with the com- mand of the troops. In the year 1758, more efficiency was given to the war by the appointment of Mr. PITT to the ministry. General ABERCROMBIE was that year appointed to command the expedition against the French forts on Lake Champlain, and prosecuted the enterprise with more vigor than his predecessors. He advanced as far as Ticonderoga, and made a violent assault on the fort ; but meet- ing with unexpected obstacles, he retreated without taking the place. In the year 1759, General AMHERST, commander in chief of the British forces in America, took command of the expedition, reached Ticonderoga, and without much opposition captured the fort there on the 27th of July, and before he reached Crown Point, the French garrison had burnt their forts on both sides and abandoned them. The settlers also in the neighborhood retreated with the army, and thus ended the French settlement in the County of Addison.
The French settlers had cleared off the timber along the shore of the lake, three or four miles north of Chimney Point. Most of it probably had been used in erecting the forts and other buildings connected with them, and the cabins of the settlers, and by the garrisons and families in the neighborhood. This was prob- ably the extent of the settlement, although the population was rather thickly crowded together. The cellars and other remains of numerous huts were found afterwards by the English settlers, scat- tered over the whole tract, and many of them are still seen there. On the STRONG farm were four, on the VALLANCE farm three or four, and on others two or three. The buildings of the French set- tlers were burnt the next year after their retreat, by the Mohawks. KALMER, the author of an early history, which Hon. JOHN W. SRONG found in Montreal, gives an account of his visit to the place in 1749. He says, " I found quite a settlement, a stone windmill and fort, with five or six small cannon mounted, the whole inclosed by embankments." The remains of these embankments, surround-
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
ing Chimney Point, we have seen within a few years, and they are probably still to be seen. KALMER further says, that, within the enclosure, they had a neat little church, and through the settlement well cultivated gardens, and good fruit, such as apples, plums and currants. Old apple trees and plum trees, planted by them are still standing.
The first permanent settlement by the English in this County, was on that tract. This clearing and its beautiful location on the borders of the lake, were the occasion that a prosperous neighbor- hood was found here earlier than elsewhere, and it was for some time considered the most eligible place for holding the courts, when the County was first organized. In the spring of 1765, ZADOCK EVEREST, DAVID VALLANCE and one other person came from Con- Hecticut, and commenced a clearing on their respective farms, on which they lived and died, about three miles north of Chimney Point. They put in some crops and remained until fall. In Sep- tember, of the same year, JOHN STRONG and BENJAMIN KELLOGG, came on by the lake to Crown Point, then in possession of the Brit- ish. After stopping a day or two, they extended their explorations east and south, and went as far east as Middlebury Falls. While on this expedition, they were delayed by a violent storm and swollen streams for several days, until their provisions were exhausted, and they were two days without food. When they returned to the lake, STRONG concluded to settle on the farm on which he resided until his death, and which is still in the possession of his grandson, Judge STRONG. With the aid of the settlers, STRONG erected a log house around an old French chimney, near the lake. VALLANCE, in a similar manner, converted the remains of another French hut into a tenement, which he afterwards occupied, for some years, with his family. In the fall they all returned to Connecticut. In February following, STRONG came on with his family, and was the first Eng- lish settler, it is said, in Western Vermont, north of Manchester, and his fourth son, JOHN STRONG, Jun., in June 1765, was the first English child born north of that place. EVEREST and KELLOGG, who were married during the winter, came on with their wives in the spring. and VALLANCE also returned with his family the same
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
season. From JOHN W. STRONG, mentioned above, we have obtained many of the above details. His father's family resided in the house with his grandfather, and he learned the facts from his grand- parents, and especially from his grand-mother, who lived to a great age, and often amused him in his childhood with the stories of their early history.
The result of AMHERST'S expedition was, that on the opening of the campaign of 1760, Montreal was surrendered to him; and Que- bec and every other French. post in Canada having been conquered and captured, the whole province, by the treaty which followed on the 10th day of February 1763, was surrendered to the British government.
The French, having had uninterrupted possession of Lake Cham- plain for nearly thirty years, not only claimed the control of its waters, but the right to the lands on both sides of it, and made grants of scigniories to favorite nobles and officers, and of smaller tracts to others. The grants in the County of Addison were less numerous than at the north part of the lake. As early as the year 1732, a grant had been made to one CONTRE COUER, Jun., lying on both sides and including the mouth of Otter Creek. On the 7th day of October 1743, a grant was made to " SIEUR HOCQUART In- tendant of New France," of a tract "about one league in front by five leagues in depth, opposite Fort St. Frederic, now Crown Point, bounded on the west by the lake, east by unconceded lands," north and south the lines running east and west. And on the first of April 1745, another grant was made to HOCQUART, lying north of and adjoining the other tract, three leagues in front on Lake Cham- plain, by five leagues in depth. Both these, making four leagues on the lake, and five leagues east and west, constituted the " Seign- iory HOCQUART," which extended from Willow Point, near the south line of Addison, north, and included the whole of the towns of Ad- dison and Panton, and is represented on an old English map, as ex- tending, as it must, some distance beyond Otter Creek, and inclu- ded Middlebury and other lands east of that stream. Soon after the execution of the treaty, by which the French government sur- rendered Canada to the British, on the 7th of April 1763, Hoc-
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
QUART conveyed his seigniory to MICHEL CHARTIER LOTBINIERE. As the inhabitants of Canada, by the treaty, became the subjects of the British government, it was claimed that the grants by the French government were valid, and should be confirmed by the British government, and LOTBINIERE prosecuted his claim perseveringly before the latter goveenment, from the time of his purchase until the year 1776, before it was settled.
LOTBINIERE claimed, as evidence of his title, the "frequent clearances," and "various settlements," on these lands, which the war had not wholly obliterated ; although it is probable that none of them were made under the authority of this grant. It is stated by Governor TRYON of New York, in a letter to Lord DARTMOUTH, president of the board of trade and plantations, "that when the French, on the approach of Sir JEFFREY AMEERST, in 1759, aban- doned Crown Point, there were found no ancient possessions, nor any improvements worthy of consideration, on either side of the lake. The chief were in the environs of the fort, and seemed in- tended mostly for the accommodation of the garrisons."
The lines between the provinces of Quebec and New York, had been settled by the British government on the 20th of July 1764, at the latitude of 45° on the lake. It was finally decided, that as the territory south of the River St. Lawrence, including the lands on Lake Champlain, was owned by the Iroquois, or Five Nations, and that these tribes, by treaty, had submitted to the sovereignty and protection of Great Britain, and had been considered subjects, all the possessions of the French on Lake Champlain, including the erection of the forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, were an in- trusion and trespass, and of course that government had no right to make grants there, and therefore the British government denied the claim of LOTBINIERE, as they did all others, for lands south of latitute 45°, but consented to give him lands in Canada.
In the meantime, all the lands, which had been granted by the French government east of Lake Champlain, had been granted anew by the governor of New Hampshire, in the name of the Brit- ish crown, and the governor and council of New York had spread their grants to the reduced officers and soldiers of the army, which
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
had been disbanded after the conquest of Canada, on the top of the New Hampshire grants.
And previous to all these, and many years even before the settle- ment of the French, in 1696, GODFREY DELLIUS purchased of the Mohawks, who claimed the whole of this territory, a large tract of land extending from Saratoga along both sides of Hudson River and Wood Creek, and on the east side of Lake Champlain, to twenty miles north of Crown Point, and the purchase was confirmed under the great seal of New York; but in 1699, the grant was repealed by the legislature, " as an extravagant favor to one subject."
The Mohawks also, on the first day of February 1732, sold to Col. JOHN HENRY LYDIUS, a large tract of land embracing most of the Counties of Addison and Rutland. There is a map of this tract in the possession of HENRY STEVENS, Esq., President of the State Historical Society, of which we have a copy, laid out into thirty- five townships, with the name of each. The southeast corner is at the sources of Otter Creek, and the northwest at its mouth, and the territory embraces the whole length of that stream, running diago- nally through it. The west line-and the east is parallel with it -- is marked as running from the north, south 16 degrees west 58 miles 20 chains. On the back of the map is the following certifi- cate. "Feb. 2. 1763. A plan of a large tract of land, situated on Otter Creek, which empties itself into Lake Champlain, in North America, casterly from and near Crown Point, purchased by Col. JOHN HENRY LYDIUS, of the Mohawk Indians, by deed dated Feb. 1732, and patented and confirmed by his Excellency WIL- LIAM SHIRLEY, Esq., Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, August 31, 1744, divided into townships, and sold by the said LYDIUS, to upwards of two thousand British subjects, chiefly be- longing to the Colony of Connecticut."
The New York town of Durham, and probably other towns in Rutland County, were originally settled under this grant. Two of the citizens, JEREMIAH SPENCER and OLIVER COLVIN, belonging to that town, in their petition to the General Assembly of New York, dated October 17, 1778, say, " That the township of Durham was originally settled by the late inhabitants, under Col. JOHN LYDIUS:
ʻ
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
That discovering the imperfection of their title, they applied to and obtained letters patent under New York. That many of the inhab- itants (of which your petitioners are) have since been compelled to purchase the New Hampshire title to their lands, under a penalty of being turned out of their possessions by a mob."
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY:
CHAPTER V.
NEW HAMPSHIRE CHARTERS-CONTROVERSY WITH NEW YORK.
BENNING WENTWORTH was appointed governor of New Hamp- shire, in 1741, with authority from the King to issue patents of unoccupied lands within his province. Claiming that that province extended the same distance west as the provinces of Connecticut and Massachusetts, that is, to within twenty miles of Hudson River, on the third day of January 1749, he granted the charter of Benning- ton, on that line, to which he claimed the province extended, and six miles north of the line of Massachusetts. This grant occasioned a correspondence and mutual remonstrances between the governors of New York and New Hampshire, in relation to the rights of their respective provinces. The governor of New York claimed and con- tended, that the grant to the Duke of York in the year 1663, which was confirmed to him in the year 1674, after the conquest of the Dutch in 1673, and extended to the west bank of Connecticut River, settled the claim of New York .*
Notwithstanding the controversy between the governors of these two provinces, and the opposition made by New York, to the issuing of grants by New Hampshire, Governor WENTWORTH continued to grant charters of townships, as applications were made for them. During the following five years, from 1750 to 1754 inclusive, sixteen townships were chartered, principally on the east side of the moun- tains. From that time to the year 1761, during the prosecution of the French war, the territory became a thoroughfare for the excur- sions of French and Indian scouting parties, and was, on that ac-
* Nearly the whole h'story, which we have given of the controversy between the gov rnors of New Hampshire and New York, and subsequently, between the latter and the Green " ountain Boys, is taken from original documents, in the Doct me .- tary History of New York.
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
count, in so disturbed a state, that no grants were made or asked for. After the conquest of Canada, in the year 1760, and after quiet and security had been restored to the territory, numerous applications were made, and in the year 1761 no less than sixty towns were char- tered. In that year, all the towns in the County of Addison were chartered, except as follows : Ferrisburgh, Monkton and Pocock, now Bristol, were chartered in 1762, Orwell, and Whiting, in August 1763, and Panton, was re-chartered on the 3d of November 1764. And this was the last charter granted by the governor of New Hampshire, within the territory. The whole number of charters of towns granted by him in this State, is one hundred and thirty- one. besides several others to individuals.
Lieut. Governor COLDEN of New York, disturbed and alarmed by the great number of grants made by New Hampshire, issued his proclamation on the 28th day of December 1763, warning all per- sons against purchasing lands under those grants, and requiring all civil officers ' to continue to exercise jurisdiction in their respective functions, as far as to the banks of Connecticut River, " and enjoin- ing the sheriff of Albany to return to him " the names of all and every person or persons, who under the grants of New Hampshire, «lo or shall hold possession of any lands westward of Connecticut River, that they may be proceeded against according to law."
On the 19th of March, 1764, the governor of New Hampshire, issued a counter proclamation, in which he contends, " that the patent to the Duke of York is obsolete, and cannot convey any cer- tain boundary to New York, that can be claimed as a boundary, as plainly appears by the several boundary lines of the Jerseys on the west, and the colony of Connecticut on the cast," and encourages the grantees under New Hampshire, " to be industrious in clearing and cultivating their lands," and commands "all civil officers to continue and be diligent in exercising jurisdiction in their respective offices, as far westward as grants of land have been made by this government, and to deal with any person or persons that may pre- sume to interrupt the inhabitants or settlers on said lands, as to law and justice doth appertain."
At an early period of the controversy, and soon after the first
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
grant was made by New Hampshire, it was agreed by the gover- nors of the two provinces, to refer the question in dispute to the king: but no decision had yet been made. The king had, on the 7th of October 1763, issued a proclamation in behalf of the reduced officers and privates of the lately disbanded army, directing bounty lands to be granted them. In view of this order, and the great number of grants made by New Hampshire, in the disputed terri- tory, Governor COLDEN, about the time of issuing his proclamation, above mentioned, wrote several pressing letters to the board of trade in England, insisting on the grant to the Duke of York, as conclu- sive of the right of New York, and urging a speedy decision of the question. In his letter of the 6th of February 1761, he represents, that great numbers of the offers and soldiers had applied to him for grants; and in his letter of the 12th of April, of the same year, he says, "about four hundred reduced officers and disbanded sol- diers, have already applied to me for lands, pursuant to his Majesty's proclamation, which at this time are to be surveyed for them in that part claimned by New Hampshire. Your lordships will perceive the necessity of determining the claim of New Hampshire speedily." It was charged also, at the time by the claimants under New Hamp- shire, and stated by historians of that period .- on what authority we know not,-that a petition, with forged signatures of many of the New Hampshire settlers, was sent with the governor's letters to England, requesting that the territory should be annexed to New York. In the public remonstrances of the New Hampshire claim- ants, conjectures were expressed, that there were "more or less wrong representations made to his majesty to obtain the jurisdiction," and that his " majesty and ministers of State had been egregiously misinformed." However that may be, in pursuance of the urgent solicitations of Governor COLDEN. the king in council, on the 20th day of July, 1764, without notice to the opposite party, adopted an order, settling the west bank of Connecticut River as the boundary of the two provinces.
The only charter of which we have knowledge, as being issued, by the governor of New Hampshire, after the king's order, was that of Panton, as herefore mentioned, dated November 3. 1764, which S
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
was before notice of the order had been received in this country', that not arriving until the following spring. On the receipt of the order, Governor Wentworth, as well as the governor of New York, issued his proclamation, giving notice to all persons concerned, of the decision of the King in council, fixing the boundary. And in all his subsequent transactions, he seems to have acquiesced in the decision, and recognized the jurisdiction of New York over the territory. The claimants under New Hampshire expressed no op- position to that jurisdiction at the time, not suspecting that the titles, which they had derived from the British government through one agent, and had paid for, would be superceded by grants from the same authority, through another agent, and that, under these cir- cumstances, they should be compelled to re-purchase their lands, under much more oppressive conditions, in order to hold them.
And such would seem to have been the views of the British gov- ernment at home. The order in council settling the boundary does not seem to be a decision, as to what had been or legally was the boundary, but it says, the King "doth hereby order and declare the western banks of the river Connecticut," "to be the boundary line between the said two provinces." On the 11th of April 1767, Lord SHELBURNE, president of the board of trade, wrote to Gover- nor MOORE, of New York. reciting that two petitions had been pre- sented to the King, "one by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the other by SAMUEL ROBINSON, in behalf of himself and more than one thousand other grantees," says, "In my letter of the 11th of December, I was very explicit upon point of former grants ; you are therein directed to take care, that the inhabitants lying westward of the line, reported by the Lords of Trade, as the boundaries of the two provinces, be not molested, on account of ter- ritorial differencec, or disputed jurisdiction ; for whatever province the settlers may belong to, it should make no difference in their property, provided their titles to their lands should be found good in other respects, or that they have been long in uninterrupted pos- session of them." And he adds, " the unreasonableness of obliging a very large tract of country to pay a second time the immense sum of thirty three thousand pounds in fees. according to the allegation
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HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
of this petition, for no other reason than its being found necessary to settle the line of boundary between the colonies in question, is so unjustifiable, that his majesty is not only determined , to have the strictest inquiry made into the circumstances of the charge, but expects the clearest and fullest answer to every part of it."
On the 24th of July 1767, the King in council, adopted an order on the subject. This order, after reciting at length the report " of the committee of council for plantation affairs," says. " His Majesty, with the advice of his privy council, doth hereby strictly charge, require and command, that the governor of New York, for the time being, do not (upon pain of His Majesty's highest displeasure) pre- sume to make any grant whatever, of any part of the lands de- scribed in said report, until His Majesty's further pleasure shall be known concerning the same."
While the controversy was pending between the two governments, and before the King's order settling the boundary was known, a collision arose out of it in Pownal. But the facts in the case pre- sented a different question from that, which so extensively prevailed afterwards among other patents granted by New York. One called the Hoosick patent was granted as early as 1688. The charter of Pownal, when granted by New Hampshire, included part of this patent ; and the New Hampshire grantees claimed possession of certain lands, on which several Dutch families had settled under the Iloosick patent. In August 1764, the sheriff of Albany, in pur- suance of the proclamation of Governor COLDEN, before mentioned, hearing that the New Hampshire claimants had dispossessed several of the Dutch families, and were about to drive off others, went in pursuit, taking with him " two of the justices and a few other good people," and arrested "SAMUEL ASHLEY, who called himself a deputy, SAMUEL ROBINSON, a justice .of the peace," and others, who claimed the land, and committed them to the jail in Albany. But they were afterwards bailed and not further prosecuted. Gov- ernor WENTWORTH being informed of this transaction, wrote to Governor COLDEN. remonstrating against it, and requesting him to release the prisoners. To which the governor, with the advice of the council, replied, that as the offence was committed "within the
HISTORY OF ADDISON COUNTY.
undoubted jurisdiction of New York, he could do no further therein, than to recommend that the bail be moderate," and added that the controversy respecting the boundary "already lies with His Majesty."
As soon as the boundary was settled by the king's order, a large number of grants were made by the governor of New York, to re- duced officers and disbanded soldiers. and others, who made appli- cation for them, and soon extended over nearly the whole territory chartered by New Hampshire. The valleys of Lake Champlain and Otter Creek, were granted principally to reduced officers, and a large territory, north of Addison County, was reserved for non- commissioned officers and soldiers. A small tract was also reserved for them in the County of Addison, near the bend of the creek in Weybridge and New Haven, and perhaps some contiguous territory.
At first the governor and council of New York, seemed desirous to encourage actual settlers under the New Hampshire grants to take out new charters under New York, in confirmation of their former titles. On the 22d of May 1765. the following order was adopted :
'. The council taking into consideration the case of those persons, who are actually settled on the grants of the governor of New Hampshire, and that the dispossessing of such persons might be ruinous to themselves and their families, is of opinion, and it is ac- cordingly ordered by his Honor, the Lieutenant Governor, with the advice of the council, that the surveyor general do not, until fur- ther order made. return on any warrant of survey, already or which may hereafter come to his hands, of any lands so actually possessed under such grants, unless for the persons in actual possession thereof as aforesaid."
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