USA > Vermont > Records of the Council of Safety and Governor and Council of the State of Vermont, to which are prefixed the records of the General Conventions from July 1775 to December 1777, Vol. I > Part 13
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MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL.
HEMAN ALLEN, of Colchester.1
IRA ALLEN, of Colchester.1
JACOB BAYLEY, of Newbury.
BENJAMIN CARPENTER, of Guilford, [from Dec. 24, 1777, in place of Benj. Spencer, of Clarendon, Tory. ]
THOMAS CHITTENDEN, of Williston.1
JEREMIAH CLARK, of Shaftsbury-[ probably.]
NATIIAN CLARK, of Bennington.
JONAS FAY, of Bennington.
JOSEPH FAY, of Bennington.
MATTHEW LYON, of Arlington-[ probably.]
MOSES ROBINSON, of Bennington.
PAUL SPOONER, of Hartland.
OFFICERS.
THOMAS CHITTENDEN, President. JONAS FAY, Vice President. IRA ALLEN, to Sept. 6, 1777, JOSEPH FAY, Sept. 6, 1777, to March 12, 1778, Secretary.
1 Their homes were in these towns, though at this time they were tem- porarily residents of Bennington county.
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THE ALLEN FAMILY.
The presentation of the above names in alphabetical order puts first on this Roll of Honor two brothers out of five who were then residents of the State ; and yet there was a third to whom by common consent at this day. the same honor would be assigned-ETHAN ALLEN. He was, however, at that date, in duress as a prisoner of war. The most remark- able family in Vermont at that period, or indeed that has ever been in it, was the ALLEN FAMILY. A few others have been equally or more numerous, but the members of no one family have ever been both so eminent and so generally identified with the history of the State. From SAMUEL ALLEN, of Chelmsford, Mass., (in 1632,) and Windsor, Conn., (in 1636,) descended the six sons of JOSEPH ALLEN of Litchfield and Coventry, Conn., to wit : Gen. ETHAN, Capt. HEMAN, Maj. HEBER, Lieut. LEVI, ZIMRI, and Col. IRA ; and also Hon. HEMAN ALLEN, of Colchester, son of Maj. Heber Allen. This Heman was called " Chili Allen," to distinguish him from other two HLemans. From MATTHEW AL- LEN, a brother of the ancestor of JOSEPH the father of Ethan, &e., de- scended Major EBENEZER ALLEN of Tinmouth and Hon. HEMAN AL- LEN of Milton, (afterwards of Burlington, ) and their issue. To this is to be added the fact that MARY BAKER, wife of JOSEPH ADLEN and mother of Ethan, &c., was sister of the father of REMEMBER BAKER, the brave associate of Ethan Allen. BAKER and the six sons of JOSEPH ALLEN were therefore cousins. Finally, the mother of REMEMBER BAKER WAS aunt to SETH WARNER : and thus the most distinguished of the carly heroes and statesmen of Vermont were allied far more intimately than by their common descent from Adam. In the Ethan Allen Mss., close of the index, is the following record :
JOSEPH ALLEN was married at Woodbury, Connecticut, to Mary daughter of John Baker. March 11. 1737. She was sister of Remember Baker the father of Capt. Remember Baker who was born June 1737 at Woodbury, [Conn. ] and killed near Canada line Aug 22d 1775. Joseph and Mary Allen's children were-
[Gen.] ETHAN-born at Litchfield, Conn., Jany 10. 1738, married Ma- ry Brownson of Roxbury June 23, 1762, [who died at Sunderland early in the year 1783,1 and was buried in the north cemetery, which had
1 The following monumental inscription for MARY BROWNSON ALLEN was written by her husband, and published in the Vermont Gazette, Ben- nington, July 10, 1783. It is Gen. ALLEN's only attempt at poetry so far as the editor knows:
Farewell, my friends, this fleeting world adieu,
My residence no longer is with you,
My children I commend to Heaven's care, And humbly raise my hopes above despair: And conscious of a virtuous transient strife, Anticipate the joys of the next life; Yet such celestial and ecstatic bliss
Is but in part conferred on us in this.
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been deeded to the town by Ira Allen .- Vt. Hist. Mag. vol. 1, pp. 135, 239. Married, Feb. 9, 1784, Mrs. Frances [ Lydia, Fanny,] Buchanan,1 widow of a British officer and daughter of Margaret Montuzan, who was second wife of the notorious tory, Crean Brush .- Eastern Vermont, pp. 604, 629 : Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. 1, p. 764.] He died Feby 13 [or 12] 1789, at Burlington.
[Capt.] IIEMAN-born at Cornwall, Conn., October 15, 1740; died May 18, 1778 .- 1. Allen's History, p. 101, in Vt. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. I, p. 388.]
LYDIA-born at Cornwall, Conn., April 6, 1742. [Married a Mr. Finch, and lived and died in Goshen, Con .- Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, p. 561.]
[Major ] HEBER-born at Cornwall, Conn., Oct. 4, 1743. [Father of IIe- man Allen of Colchester, known as "Chili Allen." who, on the death of his father Heber at Poultney, was adopted by Ira Allen. HEMAN ALLEN of Colchester was born in Poultney, Feb. 23, 1779, was member of Con- gress in 1817-18, and resigned in the latter year to accept the office of U. S. Marshal for the District of Vermont He was appointed Minister to Chili by President Monroe in 1823, resigned that office in 1828, and died at Highgate, April 9, 1852 .- See Dictionary of Congress, and Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, p. 764. HEMAN ALLEN of' Milton and Burlington was of another line of the same Allen Family, son of Enoch Allen, born at Ashfield, Mass., June 14, 1777. He was a member of Congress eight years, 1827-29 and 1833-39, and died at Burlington Dec. 11, 1844 .- Dic- tionary of Congress, and Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. 1, pp. 606-8, 840.]
[Lient. ] LEVI-born at Cornwall, Conn, July 16, 1745. [ Died in Bur- lington in 1801 .- Vt. Hist. Mag., vol I, p. 562.]
LUCY-born at Cornwall, Conn., April 2, 1747. [ Married a Dr. Bebee, and lived and died in Sheffield, Mass .- Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, p. 561.]
ZIMRI-born at Cornwall, Conn., Dec. 14, 1748. [ Died at Shetlield, Mass .- Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, p. 562. ]
[ Col.] IRA, (the youngest)-born [at Cornwall, Conn, April 21, 1751. Married Jerusha, daughter of Gen. Robert Enos, and had three chil- dred : Zimri, who died at Colchester, Aug. 22, 1813, aged 21 : Ira H., who died at Irasburgh, April 29, 1866, in the 76th year of his age ; and Maria Juliet, who died at St. Albans, August 18, 1811, aged 17 years.
Confiding in the power of God most high, His wisdom, goodness, and infinity, Displayed, securely I resign my breath To the cold, unrelenting stroke of death;
Trusting that God, who gave me life before, Will still preserve me in a state much more
Exalted mentally beyond decay,
In the blest regions of eternal day.
However irreligious many suppose ETHAN ALLEN to have been, it is clear that he here recognized the sublime power of Christian faith in his wife. He represents her, not as being annihilated, but as having en- tered into " the blest regions of eternal day."-See Zadock Thompson's Lecture on the Allen Family, in Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I. p. 567.
1 Frances Buchanan in Eastern Vermont; Lydia Buchanan in Vt. Hist. May., vol. I, p. 567; and called Fanny, by Ira Allen in 1809, when she was the wife of Jabez Penniman.
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Col. Ira Allen died at Philadelphia, Jan. 7, 1814, in the 62d year of his age .- Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, pp. 770-776.]1
Of the six sons of JOSEPH ALLEN, Zimri seems to have resided in the state no very long time-in any event, he is not named in history ; and Levi was never a permanent resident. He was in the state in 1775, and served as lieutenant on the Whig side, but he soon left it and be- came and continued to be a Tory until the close of the revolutionary war. For this, Ethan Allen complained of him to the court of confisca- tion, Jan. 9, 1779, and his property was confiscated .? In 1786 he returned and was employed by the state as commissioner to negotiate a commer- cial treaty with the Provinces of Canada and Great Britain. It was a service for which his Tory proclivities fitted him, but he failed in it.3 The four other sons rank among the fathers of Vermont, and two of them with the most eminent Vermonters of their day. Ethan, Heman, Zimri, and Ira Allen, with Remember Baker, constituted " The Onion River Land Company," and as such became the most extensive proprietors of land in the state-of course under the New Hampshire Grants origin- ally, and subsequent to the state organization by grants from Vermont.+ Thus the controversy with New York involved their title to landed prop- erty to an immense amount, and this stimulated them to their zealous, courageous, persistent, and finally successful efforts for the independence of the state. Levi Allen was the equal of his brothers in talents, en-
1 It will be observed that the dates of the death of Heber and Zimri Allen are not given. Heber died at Poultney; and from a letter of Ira Allen to all the branches of the Allen family (in Letters of Ira Allen, in the State Library,) Feb. 9, 1809, it appears that Ethan, Heman, Heber and Zimri died previous to 1795. Heber was first town clerk of Poultney, and he was a member of the court of confiscation for the shire of Rut- land in 1778-his last office apparently. He doubtless died soon after his service in this capacity, otherwise it is most probable his name would have appeared as representative of Poultney, or as an officer of Rutland county, which was organized in 1781. The birth of his son Heman is given above as Feb. 1779, and it is recorded that this son was adopted by Ira Allen; the inference being that he was young when his father died.
2 Slade's State Papers, p. 563.
8 Vt. Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. II, pp. 441, 445.
4 In 1809 and 1810, IRA ALLEN estimated his real estate in Vermont to be worth, on a proper appraisal, from one million to one million and a half of dollars: which, he charged, "a conspiracy of men" was attempt- ing to secure by fraudulent titles. As he had been, and was then, the administrator of the estates of Ethan, Capt. Heman. Levi, and Zimri Allen, and also of Remember Baker, and as such had taken all their land into his possession, this seems to be Allen's estimate of the value of the then remnants of the real estate of the Onion River Land Company. -- See Letters of Ira Allen, in the State Library, pp. 18, 31.
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ergy, enterprise and bravery, but not in patriotism and judgment. He was eccentric and unstable-as "the rolling stone that gathers no moss" -- and he therefore garnered no such wealth of honor and renown as did they. From the first they seem to have doubted the character of Levi, since he was not a member of the great land company, and was after- ward repudiated as a Tory. Of this an amusing piece of evidence is found in doggerel verses which were attributed, not without reason, to Levi Allen, as having been written when he was smarting under the loss of his property, which he charged to Ira. although Ethan entered the complaint. It shows that both Ethan and Ira regarded Levi as a great rogue, for which Levi took his revenge by counting Ira as the greatest rogue of the three. It is as follows :
THE THREE BROTHERS.
ETHAN .- Old Ethan once said over a full bowl of grog. Though I believe not in Jesus. I hold to a God : There is also a Devil-you will see him one day In a whirlwind of fire take Levi away.
IRA .- Says Ira to Ethan it plain doth appear That you are inclined to banter and jeer : I think for myself and I freely declare Our Levi's too stout for the prince of the air; If ever you see them engaged in affray, Tis our Levi who'll take the Devil away.
LEVI .- Says Levi, your speeches make it perfectly clear That you both seem inclined to banter and jeer: Though through all the world my name stands enrolled For tricks sly and crafty, ingenious and bold, There is one consolation which none can deny That there's one greater rogue in this world than I.
ETHAN AND IRA .- " Who's that ?" they both cry with equal surprise. LEVI .- 'Tis Ira ! 'tis Ira ! I yield him the prize.1
The fate of the sons of JOSEPH ALLEN was as remarkable as were the qualities of the men. Heber and Zimri did not become very promi- nent, and nothing remarkable is recorded of their end; but the other four were all marked men. Gen. Ethan's most vigorous days. and at the period when his services would have been most useful to his country, were wasted in a British prison, and he died suddenly at the age of fifty- one. Capt. Heman, whose public life opened with a fair promise of rich fruitage. died in his twenty-ninth year. Lieut. Levi was as brilliant in capacity and as daring in enterprise as either Ethan or Ira, but he was "unstable as water," and his life was a failure; while Ira the last
1 Vt. Hist. Mag., vol. I, p. 573.
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born attained the longest age, rendered the most numerous and valuable services, and had the largest opportunities, but the immense wealth he acquired was wasted through protracted controversies at home and abroad; he was forced to quit the state he so successfully served, to preserve his personal liberty from exacting ereditors; he died in poverty, and was buried in a stranger's grave with no stone to mark the spot.1
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL.
Capt. HEMAN ALLEN'S birth and death have been already recorded. Beyond these events in his short life we get only a few glimpses ; but these impress us with a strong conviction that in character and capacities he was fully the equal of the two brothers whose fame is now national. His name appears in the record of every Convention, save two, from July 1775 to July 1777; and of the last he was undoubtedly a member, as he was appointed by it on the Council of Safety. In two he was a dele- gate at large, or adviser and counsellor: once with SETH WARNER, and again with THOMAS CHITTENDEN, JONAS FAY, JEREMIAH CLARK, TIMOTHY BROWNSON, and IRA ALLEN, who were all in the first Gover- nor's Council under the constitution. He was employed on the most important committees, sometimes as chairman, as of the committee of
1 In a letter to ELEAZER KEYES, July 3, 1810, IRA ALLEN wrote as follows:
It is very strange that my friends [heirs of Ethan Allen, &c.,] and Enemies act on one Principle to cut off' my Resources, of many which has been considered the most sure means [ by cutting them off'] of Pre- venting me from obtaining Justice in Great Britain and Vermont. By this strange Coalition I was obliged to consert such measures as I could to Leave Burlington Prison, for it was the Price of my Life to be Lib- erated, for my Health was so much Injured by English and French and Vermont Prisons it was Certain Death to Remain there, nor have I yet Gained my Health although for much time constantly in use of Medical aid. On these Principles I left Burlington in 1803. " Skin for skin, yea all that a Man hath will he Give for his Life," are the words of Satan in answer to the Lord in the Book of Job. Are these the rewards for un- common Exertions in Exploring a new Country before I was Twenty- one years of age, Concerting Plans for Extensive Purchases of Lands, the attention Paid to my Deceast friends [and] their Heirs, and Exer- tions for the Independence of Vermont and the United States?
In another letter, Oct. 9, 1809, to Mrs. FANNY PENNIMAN, widow of ETHAN ALLEN, he wrote:
I publicly, even in the newspapers, declared my determination to sup- port the rights of the Heirs of my deceased friends, and commenced a Suit against Major Ormsby for the recovering of the old Homestead of my deceased brother; but was soon after obliged to fly from every thing dear to me in Vermont, to preserve my own existence; and not having fully regained my health lost in English, French, and Vermont Prisons, I shall not hastily expose my person to a Vermont Bastile .- Letters of Ira. Allen, pp. 13, 34.
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Jan. 1776 to fix the basis of representation of the towns in Convention, of the committee of July 1776 to treat with the inhabitants of eastern Vermont, and of Jan. 15, 1777, to prepare the " Declaration" for the press. Ile was also in the list of the first agents or commissioners appointed January 1776 to present the case of Vermont to Congress, and was ap- pointed to the same office in January 1777. He attended upon Congress in 1776, and by his taet saved the state from an adverse decision by that body which at that time would have been greatly injurious if not fatal to the interests of Vermont. He thus stands out prominently as a leading man in the conventions, and the important and delicate duties assigned to him by his colleagues indicate even a higher degree of confidence in his judgment than they would probably accord to the more impulsive but older brother Ethan, or the much younger and perhaps more brilliant Ira. It is worth remarking that Ira was quite willing to stand subordinate to HIeman, which is high testimony to the excellence of the elder brother. Heman Allen doubtless took an active part in the Council up to the battle of Bennington, in which he contracted the disease that proved fatal in the month of May succeeding. He died in Connecticut,
IRA ALLEN came to Vermont "in 1771, when 21 years of age," says Hon. DAVID READ, but in fact he was a little younger. His first work was for " The Onion River Land Company," but speedily his landed interest drove him into public affairs, and chiefly in the controversy with New York. In July, 1775, he was appointed Lieutenant in Warner's regi- ment ; soon he became Captain, then Colonel, and finally Major-General of militia. He was most distinguished, however, for his civil services, As delegate in Conventions he was very active, serving as Secretary and on important committees. He was ever busy with his pen, defending the interests of the State in newspaper articles and pamphlets, assisting Gov. Chittenden in his correspondence, preparing documents for the Conventions, and finally conducting the diplomatie correspondence with Gen. Haldimand,3 If any other opportunity for diplomacy occurred-as
3 Since the publication of the second volume of the Vermont Histori- cal Society Collections, containing the Haldimand correspondence, the editor of that volume (and of this) has discovered a very interesting esti- mate of the valuable fruits of the services and policy of Vermont in 1775 -'83, by a principal actor in the drama-IRA ALLEN, It is in a letter of ALLEN to Hon. SAMUEL HITCHCOCK of Burlington, dated Oct. 11, 1809, of which the following is an extract :
I have no doubt, but the British Government have been deceived by designing men, and that some prejudices remained from the events of the revolution, [Haldimand Correspondence, ] by which means designing men could the easier impose on Government; but these frauds have vanished before truth, as white frost before the beams of the rising sun.
It is recorded in sacred writ, " That a Prophet has no honour in his own country and amongst his kindred." I have much reason to believe
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for example, with New Hampshire on the projected Unions, or in enlist- ing officers of the army and leading men of the New England and Mid- dle States in the interest of Vermont, or in negotiating for free trade with Canada and Great Britain,1-Ira Allen was the man selected. He was a member of the Council of Safety, and of the Board of War ; of the General Assembly two years, and of the Governor's Council nine years ; State Treasurer nine years ; Surveyor General nine years also ; and finally, in 1790, he was one of the commissioners on the part of Ver- mont who amicably settled the long protracted and violent controversy with New York and ensured the admission of Vermont to the Union. Early in his career he designed the connection of the St. Lawrence river with Lake Champlain by a canal, some years in advance of the similar scheme of ELKANAH WATSON and Maj. Gen. PHILIP SCHUYLER for
this seripture, which is the more confirmed, when I know that the cap- ture of Ticonderoga, &c., and the fame of the Green Mountain boys are more thought of in Europe than in the United States. That in the Southern States, the battle of Bennington is considered to have caused the change of the Commander in Chief of the Northern army, and a stepping-stone to the capture of Gen. Burgoyne and army. That the truce between the British in Canada and Vermont, in causing the inac- tivity of 10.000 British troops, enabled Gen. Washington to capture Lord Cornwallis and army. As the people in the Southern States severely felt the movements and effects of Lord Cornwallis and army, and as Virginia has been famous for Presidents, it was not improper to give a sketch of these matters in a pamphlet addressed to the freemen of Ver- mont.
In the books of the Olive Branch you will see that I have been severe on the British and French Governments, and that I have not in some instances spared individuals. A justice due to myself. family, and coun- try, made such measures a duty incumbent upon me : yet you will find that I have uniformly been opposed to this country's being involved in war, ever since I commenced negociator for peace and friendship in 1780. That the negociators of Vermont in 1781 fulfilled all the engage- ments they made, that the event at Yorktown by the combined power of France and the United States, was as much out of the controle of the cabinet of Vermont, as the events of Europe are now out [of] the controle of the cabinet of the United States ; yet, you will see by the 20th page of a pamphlet addressed to the freemen of Vermont that by uniting the people in Vermont, by union, &c ..* (before which they were exposed to enemies on every side.) they gained the securest situation of any of the people in the United States : for if the events of war had terminated in favour of Great Britian, Vermont would have been a favourite Colony under the Crown ; if in favour of the United States, they were prepared for a sister State in the Federal Union, which they obtained, after extinguishing all the grants of land made by the late Colony of New York in Vermont, for a trifling consideration. - Letters of IRA ALLEN, pp. 9,10.
* The " union, &c.," refers to the East and West Unions, with parts of New Hampshire and New York, " which," as ALLEN subsequently said in this letter, "were dissolved when I [he] was at Congress supporting them." This was the fact, and he disapproved of their dissolution as soon as he was apprized of it.
1 Ira was at the head of the project, and Levi was employed to go per -. sonally to Quebec on Ira's suggestion.
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the present "Champlain Canal ;" and he was the founder of the Univer- sity of Vermont. In Dec. 1795 he sailed for England to press his canal project, for which he could get nothing but fair words from the British Cabinet ; and to purchase arms for the State, which he succeeded in do- ing in France and shipped them under the French flag. The vessel was seized by a British cruiser and the cargo was condemned as a law- ful prize. For eight years Allen contested this case in the British courts, and finally won his property, but at a cost, in expenses, far exceeding its value. On his return he found his business in Vermont broken up, and himself so involved pecuniarily that he must leave the State, never to return. The State of Vermont has just provided munificently for a statue of ETHAN ALLEN, to stand in the old Representatives' Hall of Congress till it shall erumble by the breath of time, a mute but eloquent witness of the bravery and patriotism of her sons : but the records of the services of IRA ALLEN, in her struggles and history,-of his skill as statesman and diplomatist-of his grand designs for the promotion of learning and the development of the material resources of the State,- will forever stand, a monument more brilliant than brass and more last- ing than marble.
GEN. JACOB BAYLEY was born in Newbury, Mass., July 2, 1728, and married Prudence Noyes, Oct. 16, 1745. He settled in Hampstead in 1745 ; was a captain in the French war, 1756, and escaped from the mas- sacre of Fort Wm. Henry in Aug. 1757; was colonel at the taking of Ticonderoga and Crown Point by Amherst in 1759; and arrived in New- bury, Vt., in Oct. 1764. In 1776 he commenced the celebrated Hazen road, which was designed as a military road from Connecticut river to St. Johns, (Canada,) and was completed by Gen. Hazen as far as Hazen notch, near Montgomery line. Gen. Bayley was commissary-general during a portion of the Revolutionary war, a brigadier-general of militia under New York, and served as such in western Vermont, August to November 1777. He was a leading man in his town and county, serving as town representative, member of the state council, and judge of Glou- cester [under N. Y.] and Orange county courts. He died March 1, 1816. -- History of Newbury in Vt. Historical Magazine ; Deming's Catalogue, 1778 to 1851; Drake's Dictionary of American Biography.
BENJAMIN CARPENTER, of Guilford .- The following inscription on his tombstone gives a more complete history of the services, character, and person of this public man than can often be found of any man in so few words. It is copied from Thompson's Vermont, Part III, p. 83.
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF TIIE HON. BENJ. CARPENTER, Esq. Born in Rehoboth, Mass., A. D. 1726. A magistrate in Rhode Island in A. D. 1764.
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