USA > Vermont > State papers of Vermont, v. 2 > Part 27
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See Kent, (New York grant), post.
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ANDOVER .- Town in Windsor County granted by New Hamp- shire, Oct. 13, 1761, (State Papers N. H., 26:7). The Vermont charter of Benton's Gore, a tract of about 5,000 acres, constituted it a part of Andover after Oct. 25, 1781. Andover was divided Oct. 26, 1799, and the western part thereof with Benton's Gore was incorporated as the town of Weston. By the act of 1799 the two towns of Andover and Weston were restricted to one representative for both, but each town elected a representative in 1823, and from that time on each has had one, though no repeal of the restriction has been found.
Laws of 1799, p. 14. Thompson's Gazetteer, p. 3; ditto, edition of 1824, p. 48; Child's Gazeteer of Windsor County, p. 72; Coolidge and Mansfield's History of New England, p. 734; Deming's Vermont Officers, 1918, p. 74; State Papers Vt., 1:29.
See Virgin Hall, (New York grant), post.
ARLINGTON .- Town in Bennington County granted by New Hampshire July 28, 1761, (State Papers N. H. 26:11). Lieut. Gov. Colden of New York granted about 26,000 acres under the name of Princetown, May 21, 1765, to Isaac Vrooman and twenty-five others, covering part of Arlington, Sunderland, Manchester, and Dorset; this being the first New York patent, (except perhaps some of the 154 military patents issued by New York in 1765), for land in what is now Vermont. Oct. 30, 1765, Lieut. Gov. Colden granted (by the second New York patent other than military) to James Napier a tract of 10,000 acres described as "lying partly within the town ships of Shaftsbury, Glastenbury, Sunderland and Arlington, formerly granted under the Province of New Hampshire." March 19, 1771, Gov. Dunmore of New York granted John Munroe 4,000 acres lying chiefly in Arlington. Ethan Allen, Remember Baker, and Thomas Chittenden were sometime residents of Arlington, Chittenden being its first representative and Allen its second.
H. Hall's Early History of Vermont, pp. 80, 81, 133, 134, 276, and citations made by Hall of Documentary History of New York. Thom- son's Gazetteer, p. 4; ditto, edition of 1824, p. 48; Child's Gazetteer of Bennington County, p. 68; Hemenway's Vermont Historical Gazetteer, I:121 to 138; History of Arlington, J. K. Batchelder, 1911; Deming's Vermont Officers, 1918, p. 75; Crockett's History of Vermont, 1:212; State Papers Vt., 1:29.
ATHENS .- Town in Windham County granted by Vermont May 3, 1780, ante p. 8. Oct. 30, 1794, part of Athens with a part of Putney was incorporated as the town of Brookline. Nov. 13, 1813, that part of
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Brookline formerly part of Putney was "annexed" to Athens for the purpose of choosing a representative and voting for state officers. Part of Avery's Gore was annexed to Athens in 1815. Part of Athens was annexed to Grafton, Oct. 30, 1816. Lines between Athens and Westminster established 1839. The New York grant of Warrenton covered part of what is now Athens. May 16, 1767, Gov. Moore of New York granted John Adair a tract of 5,000 acres which lies partly, at least, in Athens.
Laws of 1794, pp. 124-6; 1813, p. 124; 1815, p. 167; 1816, p. 40; 1839, p. 85; 1846, p. 10; Thompson's Gazetteer, p. 5; ditto, edition of 1824, p. 50; Coolidge and Mansfield's History of New England, p. 736: Child's Gazetteer of Windham County, p. 80; Hemenway's Vermont Historical Gazetteer, pp. 357 to 376; Deming's Vermont Officers, 1918, p. 76; State Papers Vt., 1:30.
See Warrenton, (New York grant), post.
AVERILL .- Township in Essex County granted by New Hamp- shire June 29, 1762, (State Papers N. H., 26:16) The appraised acreage of this and other towns is but an approximation to the real acreage as is illustrated in the case of Averill in which the appraised acreage of 1894 was 21,200 acres, of 1882 was 22,716 acres, and of 1880 was 20,468 acres. Other towns show less discrepancy in their returns which is perhaps ac- counted for by Averill being one of the three towns yet unorganized in Vermont-Ferdinand and Lewis being the other two.
Thompson's Gazetteer, p. 6; ditto, edition of 1824, p. 51; Coolidge and Mansfield's History of New England, p. 737; Child's Gazetteer of Caledonia and Essex Counties, p. 389; Hemenway's Vermont Historical Gazetteer, I:943; [ms.] Chandler,-Atlas, p. 53; Land Records, pp. I-33, 583-4; State Papers Vt., 1:30.
AVERY'S GORE .- Samuel Avery was of Westminster as early as 1780 and as late as 1799, and there were issued by Vermont to him or in his behalf, charters of eight tracts of land. Six at least of these tracts both in neighborhood speech and legislative phrase were each called Avery's Gore.
Some of the enactments distinguished the gore to which they applied by adding the name of the county in which it was situated; others did not. The six tracts referred to were all chartered direct to Avery, and one of them, that in Orleans County and now a part of Troy, was often called Avery's Grant as well as Avery's Gore. Direct reference by name to the smallest of the eight tracts, a gore of only 554 acres which was also granted direct to Avery and was between Franklin (then Huntsburgh)
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and Sheldon (then Hungerford), has not been found in any enactment or legislative record. The tract chartered on Avery's account to Thomas Pearsall, being the 3,926 acres that from 1803 to 1856 constituted the unorganized township of Bradleyvale and that now forms part of Concord and Victory, probably never went by the name of Avery's Gore. The story of these grants is illustrative of the time.
In an article on New York Land Grants in Vermont it is stated (Vermont Hist. Soc. Collections, 1:157), that to Samuel Avery (and others) there was granted Aug. 16, 1774, 28,000 acres in Lincoln and Ripton; to Humphrey Avery Sept. 6, 1774, 24,000 acres in Lincoln, Ripton and Granville; and Oct. 28, 1775, to Samuel Avery, 40,000 acres under the name of Whippleborough. in Starksborough and vicinity. In each of these cases there is no doubt that the grant was to the party named and his associates. As early as 1780 and 1782 some arrangement seems to have been made between the grantees so that Samuel Avery (who was perhaps a son of Humphrey Avery of New London, Con- necticut) had come to own the New York title to the first two tracts, and Mary Whipple (who was perhaps the widow of Daniel Whipple, of Brattleborough) that title to the third, or Whippleborough. (See Avery's caveats against the granting of the first two tracts, Oct. 4, 1780, Vt. [ms.] State Papers, 21:181, 183, and Feb. 18, 1782, ditto, 22-23; also Mary Whipple's caveat against granting Whippleborough Feb. 18, 1782, ditto, 22:22). Avery also laid claim to 1,000 acres in Middlesex (the New York Grant, now Randolph), as is shown by his caveat of Oct. 4, 1782, Vt. [ms.] State Papers, I:182; and to some interest in Thomlin- son (now Grafton), as is shown by his caveat of Feb. 18, 1782, Vt. [ms.] State Papers, 22:22. He evidently depended mainly on his claim to the first two tracts, covering together 52,000 acres, and from his persistent efforts to obtain them or an equivalent came the numerous Avery's Gores. His original 52,000 acres granted by New York were part of the Lydius tract, or what was known as the Otter Creek Lydius tract, to distinguish it from his Wood Creek tract.
Col. John Henry Lydius, born in Albany, 1694, son of a Dutch minister, became a trader with the Indians, a resident of Montreal until he was banished therefrom in 1730, afterwards a resident on his Wood Creek tract in New York near Fort Edward, and from 1767 a resident in England where he died near London in 1791. He obtained a paper purporting to be a deed from certain Mohawk Indians of a tract extend- ing sixty miles south of the mouth of Otter Creek and to the east twenty- four miles. This covered nearly all of what is now Addison County and a good part of Rutland County. His "deed" was dated Feb. 1, 1732, and is about the only evidence that the Mohawks themselves ever counted the land as theirs. Lydius obtained Aug. 31, 1744, from Gov. Shirley of Massachusetts a paper purporting to be a confirmation of his Indian deed and an absolute conveyance to him of the lands it described in fee, "in obedience to His Majesty's special command of the 5th of Oct. last." Hiland Hall thinks there never was any such command;
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(Early History of Vermont, p. 496). Lydius also received his title of Colonel from Gov. Shirley. The claimants to parts of this tract have been so numerous that in giving some account of them it is a relief as well as somewhat of a surprise to know that Arthur Orton and Dr. Kenealy never pretended that any of it belonged to the Tichborne estate. About an eighth of it was granted to Mons. Hocquart (to whom curiously was due the banishment of Lydius from Montreal) by a French grant in 1743 or 1745, and Hocquart's tract was sold by him in 1763 to one Michel Chartier de Lotbiniere who was making claim of Great Britain in 1776 for his "Lordship of Hocquart, " which "Lordship of Hocquart" was described as lying on the east side of Lake Champlain extending four leagues in front and five leagues in depth. It was opposite Crown Point and was pretty nearly what is now the southwesterly part of Addison County. See Documents Relating to the Colonial Hist. of N. Y., 7:642, and 8:577, 670.
Following the Mohawk-Lydius-Massachusetts claim and the French claim, were the New Hampshire grants made in great number on this tract. Lydius had made a plan of this tract dividing it into thirty- five townships. New York followed, granting a number of townships within its limits and a still greater number of military patents here and there. Durham (now Clarendon) and Socialborough were within its limits. Durham was settled by grantees under the Lydius title who obtained a subsequent charter from New York; and it was in Durham that the "Bennington mobb" in 1773 erected a "judgment seat" upon which Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, Remember Baker, and Robert Coch- ran, who had been appointed by " the proprietors of the New Hamp- shire grants * to inspect and set things in order," took their places as judges and held such a court as never was before or has been since on land or sea. (Hall's Early Hist. of Vt. pp. 169 to 177, and Doc. Hist. of N. Y., Vol. 4.). The object of the expedition was to make the settlers recognize the New Hampshire title, not to drive them off the lands they had made settlement on or to make them pay exorbitant prices in recognition of the New Hampshire title. See Allen's letters to the people of Clarendon, Hall's Early History of Vermont, pp. 175-177.
These Durhamites were holding their lands by the same title Avery had to the 52,000 acres claimed by him with the addition that they were actual settlers.
One of Avery's petitions to Vermont, never before in print, is this: To his Excellency Thomas Chittenden Esq" Captain General
and Governor in Chief of the State of Vermont, and the Territories depending thereon in America, and the Honorable the General Assembly of said State, now Convened and Sitting at Windsor within and for said State-
The Petition of Samuel Avery a friend to this and the United States of America-
Humbly Sheweth
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That your Petitioners and the Rest concerned with him, Did many years since Purchase a tract of Land (now within this State) of Col. John Henry Lydius of Albany, He pretending to have a Title to the same, For which we paid a large sum of money, Bounded and Described as follows, Beginning at the distance of nineteen miles and fifty Chains from the mouth of Otter Creek where it emptieth itself into Lake Champlain, On a Course south forty three degrees east, and from the said place of Beginning, East eight degrees South Six miles and seventy Chains, Then south sixteen degrees west six miles and sixty five Chains, Then west twenty seven degrees north six miles, and from thence to the place of Beginning, Containing twenty four thousand acres of land and the usual allowance for highways, which tract of land we then supposed we had obtained a good title to, But unfortunately for us, we found, that the Government of New York who then Claimed the Jurisdiction of that part of the Country, paid no Regard to Col. Lydius's Title or pretentions to that Tract of Land. But was granting the same to any Persons that would apply to them and pay them their enormous fees, On which your Petitioner supposed himself Reduced to the necessity of Obtaining a grant or Confirmation of the land from the Government of New York.
Accordingly we made application to the State of New York and after a Solicitation of about Six years and paying to the Officers of Govt about Seven or Eight hundred pounds, besides the Expenses of Sur- veying application &c., to the amount of near fifteen hundred pounds, we Obtained a grant or Confirmation from that State for the same lands, We then supposed we had a good title beyond all dispute. This Grant we Obtained from the Govt of New York nearly on the principles of equity, having been at so great expense in the purchase from Lydius Surveying &c :- But Still unfortunate, Our misfortunes do not end here, those Publick Confusions come on, An intire Revolution Takes place, This State of Vermont set up Jurisdiction and form a Constitution for themselves, by which means our Title is again brought in question and all set afloate
Your Petitioner would beg leave further to observe to your Excel- lency and this Honorable Assembly, That the lands before described have never been granted by the Government of New Hampshire, or this State of Vermont, nor has any Person any Just Challenge or Pretention, Except your Petitioner-
And that your Petitioner is willing to subject himself to any Regula- tions or Conditions with Respect to Settlement &c .: To which other lands granted by this State are Subjected-
That your Petitioner has ever been a fast friend to this and the united States of America, which he is well able to prove by those on both sides of the question and early, and ever, both publickly and privately, espoused the Cause of those New Hampshire Grants against the Arbit- rary and unjust proceedings of the Govt of New York.
That your Petitioner has been near Twenty years in the pursuit of those Lands, Constantly attending thereto-
7
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That your Petitioner was forty days in the Wilderness without Shelter in the Survey of those lands and gone throug every dificulty Expense and fatigue, till he has nearly expended his whole Interest in the pursuit-He now Humbly Conceives he has the highest degree of -Justus in his favour. And that the Granting or Confirming those lands to your Petitioner Cannot be esteemed or made use of as a president, for I presume there is not anothere Claim or pretention to land in this state Cloathed with the same Circumstances.
Your Petitioner therefore Humbly Prays, that your Excellency and this Honorable Assembly will at this time be favorably Pleased to grant or Confirm to your Petitioner the tract of Land before described, without fees.
And that the same may be created into a Township by the name of and Vested with the usual Priviledges Granted to other Town- ships within This State --
And Your Petitioner as in Duty bound Shall ever Pray-
Samuel Avery
Windsor Feby 16th 1781.
Avery, who in 1781 said he had "been near twenty years in the pursuit of those lands, constantly attending thereto," continued eight years more in that pursuit before the Vermont legislature in 1789 took the action that resulted in the creation of Avery's Gores. In October of the last named year he presented the following petition to the legislature (see [ms.] Vt. State Papers, 22:193) :
"To the Honorable the General Assembly now Convened at West- minster-
The Petition of Samuel Avery and Associates Humbly Sheweth
That at the Session of this Honorable Assembly in the month of October 1780 your Petitioners presented a Petition [to this assembly] praying for a grant or Confirmation [of a grant of land] therein described, which Petition was laid over for a further hearing at an after Session of the Assembly-
That in the February following your Petitioners again prefered their Petitions, which were taken up and a Committee appointed, who reported that those petitions should have a hearing on the 5th day of the next Session of this Assembly
That at the Session of this Assembly in February 1782 a Committee of both Houses of this Assembly was appointed who took the matter of our Petition into Consideration and Reported for us to have a grant of the Land described in the Petition which Report was rejected by the Assembly and an Additional Committee appointed, which Committee again agreed to Report in our favor, but was prevented by an Order for an Additional Committee from the Council which Committee after again hearing the matter Reported that they Consider it a matter of un- certainty whether the Land prayed for had not been already granted either by the State of New Hampshire or by this State-Therefore they
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advise that the Petition should ly till an Actual Survey is made by the Surveyor General and that no grants should be made to any other Person of any part of the Lands described in our Petition, and those Petitions have ever since lain before this Honorable Assembly-which suspense has been Greatly to the Prejudice of your Petitioners.
Your Petitioners would Therefore Humbly Pray That the Honor- able Assembly would take [the matter] of their Petitions into Con- sideration [and would grant] the Lands described to them if not already g[ranted and if] granted already to other Persons, Grant your Petitioners Rightious Compensation in other Lands, or in some way, Grant Relief to your Petitioners.
And your Petitioners as in Duty bound Shall ever Pray-
Westminster Oct' 10th 1789
Samuel Avery
The original petition above copied is in one place torn and the words printed within brackets are supposed to be those missing.
The committee appointed to consider the foregoing petition reported that in their opinion the facts set up in the original petition were true, that the lands described had been granted to others and recommended that there should be granted to Avery and his associates an equal quantity of unlocated lands.
In Council Oct. 24, 1789, (Governor & Council, 3:198), it appears that: "An Act Granting fifty two Thousand acres of Land to Samuel Avery Esq' having passed the General Assembly, was read and con- curred, reserving as an Amendment, that the Grants of two Townships, one to Governor Marsh and one to Mr. Randall & Company be first Located and all other Grants yet unlocated, provided said Locations shall be made and returnes thereof to the Governor and Council by the 15 day June Next-said Avery to have a Gore of Land east of Starks- borough which he has liberty to pitch immedeately."
Pursuant to the above action the following grants were made of tracts which with one or two exceptions each went under the name of Avery's Gore with some distinguishing addition to designate the particular tract referred to.
I. Avery's Gore in Chittenden County. This consisted, according to the statement in the charter, of 5,910 acres west of Fayston, but is stated in a table of Avery's patents made by Joseph Fay and found in [ms.] Vt. State Papers, 38:47, to have contained but 4,000 acres. This table, is without date but was probably made by Fay in 1794, in which year he ceased to be Secretary to the Governor and Council and removed to New York. This table of the Avery grants includes all of them except one of 554 acres made June 28, 1796, noted hereafter; the filing upon it is: "List of Locations executed to Saml Avery, " and it is as follows:
"One Gore of Land adjoining Fayston
Acres 4000
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one gore lying West of Lewis Orang County
10685
One Do do west of Kingston
8744
One do-between Westminster, Athens & Tomlinson
1380
One gore north of Enosburgh
9723
One do west of Duncansboro
11040
One do granted Thomas Pearsall
3926
49508
52000 49508
2492 remains to be satisfied
True copy from the Several Patents issued to Mr. Avery attest
Joseph Fay Late Secy to the Gov & Council State of Vermont-"
This gore west of Fayston was one of three gores of which Avery obtained a charter in one instrument dated January 27, 1791, ante p. 9. Part of it was annexed to New Huntington (now Huntington) October 22, 1794, pp. 55-57.
This gore lies beween Buel's Gore and Fayston and is commonly mentioned in connection with the former under the name of "Avery's and Buel's Gore;" though the two gores, because now so much reduced in area, or for some other reason, are together called sometimes "Buel's Gore," and sometimes "Avery's Gore. " Elias Buel, November 16, 1788, (see [ms.] Vt. State Papers, 22:184, and post under Buel's Gore and Coventry), after he had located his "flying grant" of 1784, petitioned to have the land in question given to him and united with his own newly acquired gore under the name of Montzoar, but his request was not complied with and the land became Avery's. Buel's memory is kept green much better by the present arrangement than it would have been by the one he wanted.
2. Avery's Gore in Addison County. This gore contained 8,744 acres and was the second one named in the charter of three gores to Avery, dated Jan. 27, 1791, ante p. 9. It was bounded north by Lincoln, east by Kingston, (now Granville), south by Hancock and west by Ripton. Part was annexed to Kingston, (Granville since 1834), in 1833, (see Laws of 1833, p. 26); and the remainder was annexed to Lincoln in 1847, (See Laws of 1847, p. 8). (See State Papers Vt. 1:31).
3. Avery's Gore in Essex County. This gore of 10,685 acres, still existing as chartered, was the third named in the charter of Jan. 27, 1791, ante p. 9. When chartered it was within the bounds of Orange County as that county was then constituted. This gore lies west of Lewis. (See State Papers Vt., 1:31).
4. Pearsall's Gore. This was a gore chartered to Thomas Pearsall by a separate charter dated January 27, 1791, ante p 156. It was incor-
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porated as Bradleyvale in 1803, (Laws, p. 25); and Bradleyvale, which never was represented in the General Assembly, was annexed to Concord and Victory in 1856, (Laws, p. 91). (See State Papers Vt., 1:31).
5. Avery's Gore in Franklin County. This gore was chartered to Samuel Avery by charter dated Oct. 29, 1791, ante p. II. It contained 9,723 acres and was in Chittenden County when chartered. The annexation of part to Montgomery was authorized in 1858, and became effective, (Laws, p. 50); and provision was made for establishing the line between it and Belvidere, in 1866, (Laws, p. 75); Laws of 1896:92, Part annexed to Belvidere. According to the Grand List of 1894 it now contains 7,305 acres. (See State Papers Vt., 1:31).
6. Avery's Gore, in Windham County. This was a tract of 1,380 acres of land described in a resolution of the General Assembly passed Nov. 3, 1791, as "lying between Thomlinson [name in 1792 changed to Grafton] and Athens." This resolution directed the Governor to issue a charter to Samuel Avery pursuant to a grant made to him in Oct. 1789. No charter of this tract is found recorded but it was for a quarter of a century referred to in legislation as Avery's Gore, and it is not only included in Fay's list ([ms.] Vt. State Papers, 38:47), but Avery in a petition dated Sept. 19, 1799, ([ms.] Vt. State Papers, 20:297), states that "on the 29th day of October 1791 he obtained a grant under the great seal of the State of thirteen hundred and eighty acres of Land lying south of the town of Grafton and in width north and south 115 rods and in length east and west the whole length of the south line of Grafton." Avery, who in a petition dated Oct. 17, 1791, ([ms.] Vt. State Papers, 18:289), described himself as one who "from his many misfortunes with which Divine Providence has been pleased to Visit him is left in low Circumstances with a large family to support," seems to have undergone the last suffering with which Vermont records credit him, in respect of this 1,380 acre grant. In his petition of 1799, referred to, he tells how "one Amos Hale of a place called Johnson's Gore, " entered and took possession of his 1,380 acre tract, how he sued Hale and how he was cast in the suit, and asks that the legislature provide that he be given a new trial. This petition was served on Hale but was dismissed by the General Assembly Oct. 19, 1799, and to add insult to injury Samuel Crafts, Clerk, certifies that in General Assembly Nov. 4, 1799, the bill of costs was legally taxed at $6.25, ($1.75 being for 35 miles travel and $4.50 for 9 days' attendance). This taxation of the petitionee's costs came in a good year for Mr. Avery though, because he was awarded April 23, 1799, the sum of $2,655 of the $30,000 paid by Vermont to New York, upon distribution of that $30,000 among claimants by the New York commissioners. In H. Hall's Early History of Vermont, p. 507, it appears that Avery's $2,655 was awarded on this state of facts: "One of Avery's claims was founded on a patent issued to him and twenty-three associates for 24,000 acres, bearing date Aug. 16, 1774. On the 17th and 18th of the same month these twenty-three associates con- veyed their shares to him. Another claim was for 28,000 acres, patented
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