USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Windsor > The birthplace of Vermont; a history of Windsor to 1781 > Part 3
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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
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THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANT OF WINDSOR
orders of General Jeffery Amherst, was completed in 1760. Its eastern end was on the west bank of the Connecticut River at Wentworth's Ferry landing, a point some two miles north of the fort at Number Four (Charlestown) : its western end on Lake Champlain opposite Crown Point.
Colonel Joseph Blanchard, of Dunstable, New Hampshire, in an affidavit which forms an appendix to the New York Narrative of 1773, tells how he was employed by Governor Benning Wentworth to make the survey on which the gov- ernor was to conduct a true land-office business in township grants. In the year 1760 Governor Wentworth sent Colonel Blanchard to the Connecticut River to survey both banks of the river northward from Rockingham. Starting at the north- east corner of Rockingham, Colonel Blanchard pursued his survey to the northern end of the "Intervale of Cohass," as he called it, a distance of about sixty miles, and every six miles he left a monument. Six miles from his starting point on the west bank of the Connecticut he probably marked a tree with the figures 1 and 2 to indicate the end of his first six-mile course and the beginning of his second. This would be the monument for the northeast corner of Springfield and the southeast corner of Weathersfield. Six miles further up the stream he marked a "black ash tree" standing on the west bank of the Connecticut with the figures 2 and 3 to in- dicate the end of his second course and the beginning of his third. This "black ash" is the tree that was afterwards men- tioned as the monument for the southeast corner of Windsor in the New Hampshire grant of Windsor township. Measur- ing off still another six miles to locate the northeast corner of the township, Colonel Blanchard marked a maple-tree with the figures 3 and 4. That tree, also, is mentioned in the de- scription of the township of Windsor in the New Hampshire charter and is identified as a maple in the paper set forth at page 60. Though other white men may have been on Wind- sor soil before the expedition of Colonel Blanchard and his chainmen, his expedition of 1760 is the first that is positively known to have set foot there and tramped those matchless Windsor meadows.
Colonel Blanchard in his affidavit tells how he made a re-
26
THE BIRTHPLACE OF VERMONT
turn of his survey to Governor Wentworth and how later, at the governor's request, he plotted out on the map a number of townships, each six miles square, "three tier deep from the banks of the river." He states it as his belief that without obtaining any further survey Governor Wentworth presently assembled the Province Council, procured the Council's ad- vice that grants of all that region should be made, and did grant charters for fifteen or sixteen of the townships that Colonel Blanchard had laid out on the map. The only other survey in the neighborhood that Colonel Blanchard had heard of was a line which was run some time later by Robert Fletcher from the Connecticut River along the south lines of Windsor, Reading, and Saltash (Plymouth) to Otter Creek.
There is a close similarity between all the township grants of this period. They were made on printed forms in which were blank spaces for a description of boundaries, the name of the town, the date of the initial town meeting and other par- ticulars which varied in different cases and which necessarily had to be filled in in writing. Each charter reserved five hun- dred acres for Governor Benning Wentworth himself, one whole share for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, one share for the first settled minister of the Gospel, one share for a glebe for the Church of England, and one share for the benefit of a public school. Each grant bore the signatures of Benning Wentworth and the secretary of the Provincial Council. The names of the several grantees were written on the back.
In theory the procedure in obtaining one of these grants was orderly, systematic, and careful. Benning Wentworth's nephew, John Wentworth, who succeeded Benning as gov- ernor of the Province of New Hampshire in 1767, described his uncle's method of granting townships as follows: "Upon the petition of sixty or eighty men for a township of six miles square, qt about 27,000 acres of land, which they are desirous to cultivate, the quantity is regularly surveyed and granted to the petitioners and their heirs forever." 1
In actual practice there was probably little trace of the formality which John Wentworth describes. Judge Oliver Willard, one of the first settlers of Hartland, testified on this 118 N. H. Prov. St. & T. Papers, pp. 560-577.
27
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANT OF WINDSOR
subject as an expert witness. He had been well acquainted with Governor Benning Wentworth and knew the governor's manner of making grants. Willard himself had been con- cerned in obtaining no less than five township charters, and he states that for two of them he made merely a verbal appli- cation on the strength of which the governor gave him a note to the secretary, who promptly issued the letters patent with- out any survey except that which Colonel Blanchard had al- ready made and without consulting the Provincial Council as to the particular cases.1 What Judge Oliver Willard could ac- complish by verbal application was equally within the power of his mighty elder brother, Colonel Josiah Willard, of Win- chester. It was the latter, as will shortly appear, who "sued out" the grant for the township of Windsor, and there is little doubt that he obtained it on his own initiative, probably on mere oral request, and without even mentioning the matter in advance to all of those whom he chose to be his associate grantees.
It was on July 6, 1761, that the charter of Windsor was issued under the Great Seal of the Province of New Hamp- shire, and on the same day came the charters for Reading and Saltash (Plymouth). These succeeded by two days the grants of Norwich and Hartford and were followed on July 7 by the grant of Killington (Sherburne), on July 8 by the grant of Pomfret, and on July 10 by the grants of Hertford (Hartland), Woodstock, and Bridgewater. All told, Benning Wentworth's grist of new townships for the year 1761 was fifty-eight. More followed in each of the next three years. In the text of the Windsor grant, which follows, the words in italics are those which were written in on the printed form.
"Province of New-Hampshire.
GEORGE The Third, By the Grace of GOD, of Great-Britain, France and Ireland, KING, Defender of the Faith, &c. -
"To all Persons to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting. "Know ye, that We of Our special Grace, certain Knowl- 1 4 Doc. Hist. 428.
28
THE BIRTHPLACE OF VERMONT
edge, and meer Motion, for the due Encouragement of settling a New Plantation within Our said Province, by and with the Advice of Our Trusty and Well-beloved BENNING WENT- WORTH, Esq; Our Governor and Commander in Chief of Our said Province of New-Hampshire in New-England, and of Our Council of the said Province; HAVE upon the Condi- tions and Reservations herein after made, given and granted, and by these Presents, for us, Our Heirs and Successors, do give and grant in equal Shares, unto Our loving Subjects, Inhabitants of Our said Province of New-Hampshire, and Our other Governments, and to their Heirs and Assigns for ever, whose Names are entered on this Grant, to be divided to and amongst them into Sixty five equal Shares, all that Tract or Parcel of Land situate, lying and being within our said Prov- ince of New-Hampshire, containing by Admeasurement, 23,500 Acres, which Tract is to contain Something more than Six Miles square, and no more; out of which an Allowance is to be made for High Ways and unimprovable Lands by Rocks, Ponds, Mountains and Rivers, One Thousand and Forty Acres free, according to a Plan and Survey thereof, made by Our said Governor's Order, and returned into the Secretary's Office, · and hereunto annexed, butted and bounded as follows, Viz.
" Beginning at a black Ash Tree marked with the figures 2 and 3, from thence running North Seventy four degrees West six miles, from thence North Ten degrees East six miles, from thence South seventy five degrees East six miles & a quarter to a tree marked with the figures 3 and 4 standing on the bank of the River Connecticut six miles on a strait line South of the South East corner of Hartford, from thence down the River to the first bounds mentioned.
"And that the same be, and hereby is Incorporated into a Township by the Name of Windsor. And the Inhabitants that do or shall hereafter inhabit the said Township, are hereby declared to be Enfranchized with, and Intitled to all and every the Privileges and Immunities that other Towns within Our Province by Law Exercise and Enjoy: And fur- ther, that the said Town, as soon as there shall be Fifty Fami- lies resident and settled thereon, shall have the Liberty of holding Two Fairs, one of which shall be held on the
29
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANT OF WINDSOR
And the other on the
annually,
which Fairs are not to continue longer than the respective
following the said and that as soon as the said Town shall consist of Fifty Families, a Market may be opened and kept one or more Days in each Week, as may be thought most advantagous to the Inhabitants. Also, that the first Meeting for the Choice of Town Officers, agreeable to the Laws of our said Province, shall be held on the first Wednes- day in August which said Meeting shall be Notified by Samuel Ashley who is hereby also appointed the Moderator of the said first Meeting, which he is to Notify and Govern agreeable to the Laws and Customs of Our said Province; and that the annual Meeting for ever hereafter for the Choice of such Offi- cers for the said Town, shall be on the Second Tuesday of March annually, To HAVE and to HOLD the said Tract of Land as above expressed, together with all Privileges and Ap- purtenances, to them and their respective Heirs and Assigns forever, upon the following Conditions, VIZ.
"I. That every Grantee, his Heirs or Assigns shall plant and cultivate five Acres of Land within the Term of five Years for every fifty Acres contained in his or their Share or Propor- tion of Land in said Township, and continue to improve and settle the same by additional Cultivations, on Penalty of the Forfeiture of his Grant or Share in the said Township, and of its reverting to Us, our Heirs and Successors, to be by Us or Them Re-granted to such of Our Subjects as shall effectually settle and cultivate the same.
"II. That all white and other Pine Trees within the said Township, fit for Masting Our Royal Navy, be carefully pre- served for that Use, and none to be cut or felled without Our special Licence for so doing, first had and obtained, upon the Penalty of the Forfeiture of the Right of such Grantee, his Heirs and Assigns, to Us, Our Heirs and Successors, as well as being subject to the Penalty of any Act or Acts of Parliament that now are, or hereafter shall be Enacted.
"III. That before any Division of the Land be made to and among the Grantees, a Tract of Land as near the Centre
30
THE BIRTHPLACE OF VERMONT
of the said Township as the Land will admit of, shall be re- served and marked out for Town Lots, one of which shall be allotted to each Grantee of the Contents of one Acre.
"IV. Yielding and paying therefor to Us, our Heirs and Successors for the Space of ten Years, to be computed from the Date hereof, the Rent of one Ear of Indian Corn only, on the twenty-fifth Day of December annually, if lawfully de- manded, the first Payment to be made on the twenty fifth Day of December, 1762.
"V. Every Proprietor, Settler or Inhabitant, shall yield and pay unto Us, our Heirs and Successors yearly, and every Year forever, from and after the Expiration of ten Years from the abovesaid twenty-fifth Day of December, namely, on the twenty-fifth Day of December, which will be in the Year of Our Lord 1772 One shilling Proclamation Money for every Hundred Acres he so owns, settles or possesses, and so in Pro- portion for a greater or lesser Tract of the said Land; which Money shall be paid by the respective Persons abovesaid, their Heirs or Assigns, in our Council-Chamber in Portsmouth, or to such Officer or Officers as shall be appointed to receive the same; and this to be in Lieu of all other Rents and Services whatsoever.
"In Testimony whereof, we have caused the Seal of our said Province to be hereunto affixed. Witness BENNING WENTWORTH, Esq; Our Governor and Commander in Chief of Our said Province, the Sixth Day of July In the Year of our Lord CHRIST, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty one And in the First Year of Our Reign.
By His EXCELLENCY'S Command With Advice of Council, B Wentworth Theod' Atkinson Secry
Province of New Hampshire July 6th 1761 Recorded according to the Original under the Province Seal.
Ppr Theodore Atkinson Secry -
Copy of Record Ex : Theodore Atkinson Secry
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THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANT OF WINDSOR
"The Names of the Grantees in Windsor, viz.
Samuel Ashley Joseph Hubbard
Ebenezer Stratton
Jacob Cummins
Nehemiah Houghton
Samuel Spalding
David Hubbard
Eleazar Harlow
David Stone JunT.
Tho® Root Augustus Wells
Isaac Rice
Simeon Smead
Jonathan Parkhurst
Stephen Ashley
Joseph Stevens
David Sanderson
Timothy Ruggles
Samuel Stone Jun.
Josias Holland
Thos. Butterfield
Adonijah Rice
Joshua Lyman
Oliver Ashley
Manassa Divel
James Otis
M. H. Wentworth
George Field
Joseph Ashley
James Nevin Esqr.
Josiah Brown
Samuel Hunt Jun.
Samuel Wentworth of Boston
Nathaniel Mattoon
David Field
Simon Chamberlain
Jnº. Moore Jun". Jnº. Cass
Clement March Esqr. Josiah Willard Esqr.
Simon Cooley
Joseph Root
Robert Harris
Zedekiah Stone
Levy Silvester
William Harris
Samuel Ashley Jun'.
Jonathan Fairwell
Eliakim Spooner
Cornelius Winslow
Arad Hunt
Thomas Witt
Jnº. Murry
Jnº Chandler
Jnº. Butterfield
Simon Alexander
Thos. Frink
Moses Watkins
Ebenezer Wells
"His Excellency Benning Wentworth Esqr. a Tract of Land to contain Five Hundred Acres which is to be accounted two of the within Shares as marked B. W. in the plan, one whole Share for the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts One whole Share for the first Settled Minister of the Gospel, One share for a glebe for the Church of England as by Law established One share for the benefit of a publick School in said Town.
Province of New Hampshire July 6th 1761.
Recorded from the back of the Charter of Windsor Ppr. Theodore Atkinson Secry. Copy of Record. Ex: Theodore Atkinson Secry."
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THE BIRTHPLACE OF VERMONT
What became of the original of this grant is unknown. A copy remains in the New Hampshire archives and a reprint of such copy may be found in volume 26 of the New Hamp- shire State Papers. An early certified copy on a printed form is filed in volume XX, page 90, of Land Papers in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany. A framed photograph (slightly reduced) of the last-mentioned copy is to be found in the Windsor Town Clerk's office and also in the Windsor Public Library and in the Old Constitution House at Wind- sor. Still another copy was recorded in vol. IV of Windsor deeds at pages 18 to 23.
As in the case of almost if not all of the other grants in Vermont, the great majority of the grantees in the Windsor charter never became settlers in the township they received. Most of the grantees were either traders or speculators in the titles and sold them at a profit to investors and intending set- tlers or else were dummies who turned over their rights to the promoters. In the case of the Windsor grantees, none except Captain Zedekiah Stone, David Stone, Jr., and Samuel Stone, Jr., became inhabitants of the township. Even these three men were speculators in grants, since their names appear as grantees in other township charters. The charge that the sub- sequent New York grants in the Vermont country were made mainly to speculators or land jobbers, while abundantly sus- tained by the facts, appears a little flat when one discovers that the New Hampshire grants were made in favor of specu- lators also.
The rights of the grantees under New Hampshire charters were sold in some instances by itinerant vendors who traveled through New England, New York, and as far south as New Jersey. Doctor Cadwallader Colden reported some of these traveling dealers as of no better appearance than peddlers. The general run of sales prices on that sort of hawking was doubtless low and the profit small. Judge Oliver Willard states that most of the settlers bought their titles "on small considerations." 1 Sir Henry Moore, Governor of the Prov- ince of New York, wrote Lord Shelburne that the rights of individual proprietors, entitling a holder to about three hun-
1 4 Doc. Hist. 428.
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THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANT OF WINDSOR
dred and fifty acres, could be bought for about thirty shillings.1 Major Philip Skene in a letter written by him to Secretary Pownall of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Planta- tions asserts that entire townships could be bought at New York at three hundred dollars apiece.2 Some may have sold for more. There is reason to believe that the initial cost of the township of Windsor was considerably less.
The salesman, agent, peddler, hawker-call him what you will-of rights under the Windsor charter found a good mar- ket at Farmington, Connecticut, for from that town and its immediate neighborhood hailed at least six who made pur- chases of proprietary rights and soon became landowners and residents in Windsor, and, with the Stones, became conspicu- ous among the proprietors. By the Farmington citizens Wind- sor was doubtless regarded as a "boom" town of much prom- ise and appeared to some of them as tempting an opportunity for fortune, as did Cardiff and Fort Payne to the people of Windsor in 1889.
There is a popular tradition that Windsor and several other of the Vermont towns were named for older towns in Connec- ticut and were given their names by the Connecticut men who composed in large part the early Vermont settlers. For this belief there seems no real foundation. The Vermont townships had names long before they had settlers. Among the grantees named in the charters there is no such predominance of Con- necticut men as to warrant the idea that Connecticut had the naming of the new townships. The more reasonable view is that Governor Benning Wentworth and the secretary of the New Hampshire Provincial Council, assisted by the chief pro- moters of applications for charters, selected the names for most of the townships with a view to paying compliments where compliments seemed worth while or becoming. For ex- ample, Charles Watson-Wentworth, Marquess of Rocking- ham, bore the governor's family name and was a man of im- portance in England. The Earl of Halifax, Francis Fane, Charles Townshend, and Francis Guilford were members of the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations. Colonel Brattle was a man of consequence in Massachusetts. The 1 4 Doc. Hist. 372.
2 7 Lond. Doc. 615.
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THE BIRTHPLACE OF VERMONT
Pownalls have already been mentioned. Next to personal compliments, it seems to have been the policy of the New Hampshire governor to incline to those English place-names which had been appropriated by men of title and were there- fore supposed to be regarded with favor in the mother coun- try. It is likely that the Duke of Marlborough, the Marquess (previously the Earl) of Hertford, and the Earls of Norwich and Bridgewater had unconsciously given Governor Went- worth some good ideas; and it probably was not mere accident that Saltash, one of the Vermont townships, got the same name as the borough represented in Parliament by Went- worth's old rival, Governor George Clinton, after the latter's retirement from colonial office. Rather than copying Connec- ticut names, although it often seems-especially in the cases of Windsor, Weathersfeld, and Hartford-as if Benning Went- worth had been merely copying them, it is the more reason- able belief that, according to his habit of life, he looked to England for what was in favor there and transplanted it to New England.
Whatever the correct historical theory, it is the fact that Benning Wentworth supplied the Vermont country almost wholly with township names of dignity and euphony. For this he richly deserves thanks. That he gave to Windsor one of the noblest names in English history is not to be denied, but it is far more likely that he had in mind either the ancient English Windsor or Lord Windsor, a former member of the Council for Foreign Plantations and Governor of Jamaica, than the town of Windsor in Connecticut.
In the Vermont Journal of March 17, 1823, is the absurd statement that the original or Indian name of Windsor was "Cushankamaug." This cock-and-bull yarn was unfortu- nately copied in Child's Windsor County Gazetteer and perhaps elsewhere. The origin of the story may be found in Hubbard's History of New England at page 307, where the author states, probably truthfully, that the locality of old Windsor in Con- necticut previous to the settlement of the colonists there in 1636 bore that uncouth Indian name.
1233668
CHAPTER VI
THE PROPRIETORS
THOMPSON'S Gazetteer of Vermont and Thompson's Vermont state that upon the grant of the township of Windsor "the proprietors immediately organized themselves under this char- ter and proceeded to survey, make a plan of, and allot the town." Benjamin Homer Hall, in his History of Eastern Ver- mont, adopts this statement as his own. Whatever the true state of the facts may be, there appeared in the New Hamp- shire Gazette, a newspaper published in Portsmouth, in the issue of November 13, 1761, the following advertisement :
"PROVINCE OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE
"WHEREAS Application has this Day been made to me the Subscriber, one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace for said Province, by the Owners of more than one sixteenth part of the Rights of Shares in the Township of Windsor, in said Province, desiring me to Notify or Warn the proprietors of said Windsor, to meet at the Dwelling House of Mr. Hilkiah Grout in Winchester in said Province, on the third Tuesday in December next, at Twelve o'Clock, to act and vote on the
following Articles, viz. 1. To chuse a Moderator. 2. To chuse a proprietor's Clerk. 3. To chuse a proprietor's Treas- urer. 4. To chuse Assessors. 5. To chuse a proprietor's Collector. 6. To see if the Proprietors will agree to lay said Township into Lots, and raise Money for that End or any other for the Advantage of said Township, and forwarding the Settlement thereof. 7. To agree on a Method for calling proprietors Meetings for the future. 8. To see if the pro- prietors will accept of a plan that may then be exhibited, to proceed to draw their Lots accordingly. And the said pro- prietors are hereby Notified to meet at the abovemention'd Time and place accordingly.
D. PEIRCE."
"Nov. 6 1761.
35
36
THE BIRTHPLACE OF VERMONT
Accordingly, on December 15, 1761, at the tavern of Hil- kiah Grout in Winchester, New Hampshire, convened what appears to have been the first meeting of the Windsor Pro- prietors. Happily the record of that meeting seems to be in- tact. It reads as follows:
"Att a Leagal meeting of the Proprietors of the Township of Windsor in the Province of New Hampshireheld att the house of Mr Hilkiah Grouts in Winchester in sd Province on Tues- day ye 15th Day of December 1761 att Twelve of the Clock on sª Day agreable to a warrent advertised in the public prints Notifieng Sa Proprietors to meet att sd Grouts: agre- able to an act made and passed in sd Province of New Hamp- shier Impowering Propritors to call meetings
"1. the Proprietors proceeded and made Choice of Colo: Jo- siah Willard for their moderator.
"2ly Chose Doctr Thos Frink Proprietors Clerk
"3ly Chose Lt. Joshua Lyman Lt. Samuel Ashly Doctr Thos Frink Assessors
"4ly Chose Colo: Josiah Willard Collector
"5ly Chose Lt. Samuel Ashly Tresurer
"6ly Chose Colo: Josiah Willard Capt Zedeciah Stone Lt. Samuel Ashly Phylip Mattoon Josiah Willard Jr. Joshuah Willard Samuel Stone Simeon Alexander a Comtee to vie and Lott oute Said Town
on each
"7ly Voted to Pay Colo: Josiah Willard three Dollars to Defray the Charges of the Charter and plan of the Town
"Sly Voted to Raise three Dollars on each Right to defray the charges of Lotting ought said Land and other In- sident Charges
"9ly Voted ye oners of Five Whole Shares in sd Town making applycation to the Clerk setting forth in writting under theire hands the articals to be acted upon and his puting up a Warrant or Notification in sum public place in Winchester or Petersham
Fooreteen Days before sd Time of meeting Shall be a Suf-
37
THE PROPRIETORS
ficient Warning for the meetings of Said Proprietors of Windsor untill further orders of this Proprietee.
"Voted to Dismiss this meeting
Josiah Willard
Attest Tho& Frink
Moderator Clerk Proprietors"
The minutes of this meeting are interesting or important in several particulars. First, the meeting was held at Hilkiah Grout's. This fact, the proprietors must have afterwards re- garded as ominous; for no other name in early Windsor his- tory came so near being anathema among the Windsor settlers as "Grout." Hilkiah himself, although he became a pro- nounced New York supporter after he settled in Weathers- field, was not the cause of annoyance; but his quarrelsome and erratic brother John, a pettifogging lawyer, a New York sym- pathizer, and, finally, a Tory, was the cause of lawlessness, riot, and, no doubt, bitter hatreds.
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