USA > Vermont > Windsor County > Windsor > The birthplace of Vermont; a history of Windsor to 1781 > Part 6
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Both petitions, however, according to memoranda endorsed thereon, came before the Provincial Council of New York on October 29, 1765, but although both are endorsed as having been granted on that day, it is probable that favorable action was taken only on the later one. The endorsement on the later petition also contains the words "warrant of survey to issue dated day of . Gw. Banyar, Dep. Clerk." On the strength of such action by the Council it might have been expected that the business was practically settled, but no such good fortune attended the petitioners, as they subse- quently learned to their annoyance and sorrow.
While in New York City the Windsor representatives be- came interested in the efforts to secure separate county organ- ization for the townships on the New Hampshire Grants. The first step in that direction had been taken by Thomas Chand- ler, who has already been mentioned, and by four other per- sons, none of whom was an inhabitant of Windsor. Their plan, contemplating the erection of five separate counties, was obviously too elaborate for so scantily populated a region, and was quickly recognized as such by Chandler himself and by the men of Windsor. Accordingly, within a week after Chand- ler had submitted his first proposal, Zedekiah Stone, Nathan
1
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THE BIRTHPLACE OF VERMONT
Stone, Joseph Wait, and Benjamin Wait joined with Chandler and seven other persons in a petition for the erection of a sin- gle county to comprise all the region between the Connecticut River and the Green Mountains, lying north of the Massachu- setts line and south of the forty-fifth degree of north latitude. With great discretion the petitioners suggested "Colden" as the name of the proposed county. Probably out of deference to Thomas Chandler and perhaps as the price of his giving up his original proposal, they designated Flamstead (Chester), his home town, as the county seat. This petition is undated, but it came before the Provincial Council October 15, 1765. It is printed in full on page 359 of the fourth volume of the Documentary History of New York.
Within a week a more urgent petition along the same lines, signed by Zedekiah Stone, Nathan Stone, and four other per- sons, appeared at the Council Chamber. This paper contains the interesting assertion that "it is now near six months since to our knowledge we became inhabitants of this Province," in- dicating that the subscribers had not only heard the news of the boundary decision in the spring of 1765 but had been liv- ing on the Grants since about that time. They lamented the fact that the region was without law, that creditors could not collect debts, that a murder' had been committed "between the Upper and Lower Cowass and one man more missing that is supposed to be murdered by the same Villin." Altogether they foresaw nothing but lawlessness for their region unless they secured a county government. "And now upon the whole," they closed, "may it please your Honours, we appre- hend there is sufficient evidence to Induce your Honours to grant a County as prayed for and hope ye same may be forth- with accomplished and we Dismissed to Return to our Sev- erall homes with pretention of Law." 2
The petition for the new county failed, although the Pro- vincial Council soon saw the need of appointing justices of the peace and constables to maintain order on the Grants. How long Zedekiah and Nathan Stone remained in the city after the disposal of the last county petition on October 22, there is no way of determining. By that date David Stone, Joseph 1 See Wells's History of Newbury, p. 44. 2 4 Doc. Hist. 360.
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A VISIT TO NEW YORK CITY
Wait, and Benjamin Wait had probably left for Windsor. Perhaps the favorable vote of the Council on the township re-grant on October 29, sent Nathan Stone and his father home on that day in the belief that the more important part of their errand had been successful. A stay of but three days more would have made them witnesses of the Stamp Act riots and the burning of Cadwallader Colden's coach by the mob. One cannot help wondering if the younger Stones and the Waits did not tarry in the city long enough for such excitement, and so learn the art of mob violence which they themselves prac- ticed at Windsor less than five years later.
CHAPTER X SIR HARRY MOORE
ON the 12th of November, 1765, arrived at New York City Sir Henry Moore, the new governor of the Province of New York. This amiable character is delightfully described by Mrs. Anne MacVicar Grant in her Memoirs of An American Lady. Testifying as an eye-witness, she says of him: “Sir Harry, like many of his predecessors, was a mere show gov- ernor, and old Cadwallader Colden, the lieutenant-governor, continued to do the business, and enjoy the power in its most essential branches, such as giving patents for lands, etc. Sir Harry, in the meantime, had never thought of business in his life; he was honorable as far as a man could be so, who always spent more than he had; he was, however, gay, good natured, and well bred, affable and courteous in a very high degree, and if the business of a governor was merely to keep the gov- erned in good humor, no one was fitter for the office than he, the more so, as he had sense enough to know two things of great importance to be known: one was, that a person of tried wisdom and good experience like Colden, was fitter to trans- act the business of the province, than any dependent of his own: the other, that he was totally unfit to manage it him- self." 1
To this description of Sir Henry Moore, Governor Hiland Hall, in his Early History of Vermont, deprecatingly adds that "though well meaning he was indolent and frivolous and ad- dicted to social pleasures and amusements, and was conse- quently in the ordinary affairs of his government influenced and led by those about him."2 The gravity of these charges need not cause tears. Governor Hall derived his information from Mrs. Grant's description, which has just been quoted, and from the following passages of her charming Memoirs, which surely cannot reasonably bear so dreadful an interpre-
1 Memoirs of An American Lady (1901 ed.), vol. II, pp. 132-133.
2 H. Hall's Early History of Vermont, pp. 83-84.
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SIR HARRY MOORE
tation as our righteous Governor Hall has placed upon them. Mrs. Grant thus proceeds: "The government house was the scene of frequent festivities and weekly concerts, Sir Henry being very musical, and Lady Moore peculiarly fitted for doing the honors of a drawing-room or entertainment. They were too fashionable, and too much hurried to find time for par- ticular friendships, and too good natured and well bred to make invidious distinctions, so that, without gaining very much either of esteem or affection, they pleased every one in the circle around them; and this general civility of theirs, in the storm that was about to rise, had its use." 1
It may not be the proper function of this History or any article on Vermont history to speak lightly of the Early His- tory of Vermont by Governor Hiland Hall. Nevertheless at this stage of the narrative now being recited come both the opportunity and the provocation to make a point of one of Governor Hall's forgivable failings. Merely compare his de- scription of Moore with Mrs. Grant's. Governor Hall pur- posely omitted the complimentary allusions to Colden because to include them would mar the argument in condemnation of Colden which Governor Hall was making in the Early His- tory of Vermont. He paraphrased in commonplace language what Mrs. Grant had so picturesquely written of Moore's social side, and he did so not because he could not see the his- torical value of what she wrote, but because he preferred to say as little as possible in the way of making Moore appear attractive. For anything pretaining to what Governor Hall called "aristocracy" he had an almost childish aversion. Nor is it impossible that his feelings in this regard were unduly aroused by that "aristocratic" lady, Mrs. Anne MacVicar Grant, who had elsewhere spoken of the settlers of southwest- ern Vermont as "these very vulgar, insolent and truly dis- agreeable people." 2 A careful checking of the Early History of Vermont with the documents on which Governor Hall relied will reveal too many instances of partisan and unjust inter- pretations to permit unmixed confidence in his book. Yet his history is the result of earnest and painstaking work and con-
1 Memoirs of An American Lady (1901 ed.), vol. II, p. 133.
2 Memoirs of An American Lady (1901 ed.), vol. II, p. 137.
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tains a notable collection of historical matter. Its value, though, is that of the brief or argument rather than that of a history.
From the beginning to the end-perhaps like this History of Windsor-Governor Hall's book has the tone of the lawyer's plea. Mr. Eliakim P. Walton, editor of the valuable Governor and Council, really strikes the keynote of the Early History of Vermont when he says that by it Benning Wentworth "is am- ply vindicated." 1 That, no doubt, was one of Governor Hall's objects, and, if attained, would have been an achievement lit- tle short of miraculous. But, with due respect to Mr. Walton, no power this side of the Judgment Seat could or ever will vindicate Benning Wentworth. The most that humans can do is to wish peace to the ashes of that competent, eminent, and not unkindly royal governor and a final pardon for his trans- gressions.
Early in Sir Henry Moore's administration there was cur- rent an impression that the township of Windsor might not be re-granted in its entirety to the inhabitants. At the time of Governor Moore's arrival in New York there was pending a very important petition on behalf of the Earl of Ilchester, Lord Holland, and others for land grants in several of the Connecticut valley townships. Among other lands, this peti- tion sought twenty thousand acres in Weathersfield and Wind- sor. Both B. H. Hall in his History of Eastern Vermont2 and Governor Hiland Hall in the Early History of Vermont3 refer to this application. The latter went into the history of the subject with zest, since it afforded him the opportunity to air a scandal in a family of the British nobility and thus to make one of his frequent digs at "aristocracy." Indeed Governor Hall chortled at his best and not without eloquence in the pas- sages relating to the Ilchester application. However, neither he nor Mr. B. H. Hall related what finally became of the peti- tion, nor has the writer of this volume ascertained how the petition was finally disposed of. Perhaps it never came before the Provincial Council for final action. That it was at one
1 8 Governor & Council, p. 371.
2 B. H. Hall's History of Eastern Vermont, pp. 140-141, note.
3 H. Hall's Early History of Vermont, pp. 82-83.
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SIR HARRY MOORE
time in a fair way to be granted may be inferred from the fol- lowing paper in volume XX of Land Papers in the Secretary of State's office at Albany at page 112:
"To His Excellency Sir Henry Moore, Baronet, Governor & Captain General of the Province of New York & the Terri- tories thereon depending etc., etc.
The Petition of Joshua Loring, Esqr Captain of the Royal Navy
Sheweth :
"That your Petitioner having had the Honour of com- manding His Majesties Ships on the Lakes in North America during the Late War, is entitled to 5000 acres of vacant Land agreeable to His Majesties Proclamation. He therefore prays your Excellency will be pleased to allow him to Locate said 5000 acres in the Township of Reading adjoining to lands located for the Earl of Ilchester & others in the Township of Windsor.
New York, 30 December, 1765. Josª Loring."
Whatever temporary obstacle the Ilchester petition may have been to the re-grant in entirety of the township of Wind- sor, Sir Henry Moore found it possible on May 29, 1766, to issue to the surveyor-general a warrant for the survey of the township "for Zedekiah Stone, Nathan Stone and David Stone the second and their associates." Before this date Cadwalla- der Colden had succeeded in having his son Alexander ap- pointed to the post of surveyor-general of the Province of New York. The latter deputized Samuel Stone to do the actual surveying of Windsor. By July 7, 1766, Samuel Stone had completed the survey and had placed it in the hands of the surveyor-general, who made the following return to the Provincial Council:
"Pursuant to a Warrant from his Excellency Sir Henry Moore, Baronett, Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the province of New York and the Territories de- pending thereon in America, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the Same, bearing date the twenty-ninth day of May Last past
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THE BIRTHPLACE OF VERMONT
"Surveyed by Samuel Stone for Zedekiah Stone, Nathan Stone and David Stone the second and their Associates All that certain tract of Land called by the name of Windsor, Situate, Lying and being on the West side of Connecticut River in this Province and in the County of Cumberland Be- ginning at a Black Ash tree Standing on the West Bank of the said River marked with the figures two and three for the Northeast Corner of Weathersfield and runs thence North seventy-four degrees West four hundred and eighty chains Then North six degrees East four hundred and ninety-four chains Then South seventy-four degrees East five hundred chains to Connecticut River then down the stream of the said river as it runs to the place where this tract first Began Con- taining twenty-four thousand three hundred acres of Land and the usual allowance for highways.
"Given under my hand this seventh day of July one thousand seven hundred and sixty-six.
Alex' Colden Surveyor Genl."
Attached to this return is a rough outline map of the town- ship with the several courses and distances and containing in the center the legend "Windsor Plotted from a Scale of One hundred Chains in an Inch. Alex' Colden, Surveyor Genl." The return and map together form one document in volume XXXI of the Land Papers in the Secretary of State's office at Albany, page 17.
Mr. Benjamin Homer Hall states at page 114 of his History of Eastern Vermont that the government of New York granted the township of Windsor to David Stone 2d and his associates on July 7, 1766, the date of the surveyor-general's return. This cannot have been the fact, for at the foot of the proposed list of grantees of Windsor, submitted for the information of the Provincial Council, is the following memorandum: "1766 July 9. Read in Council & the Grant to issue to the said per- sons accordingly. Gw: Banyer, Dep. Cl." In fact, the council minutes for July 7 show no allusion to Windsor matters, while the minutes for July 9 show that the subject came up and that the Council voted to regrant the township to the persons
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SIR HARRY MOORE
mentioned in the list omitting the last name. This list, entitled "List of names to be inserted in the Patent for the Township of Windsor," is preserved in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany in volume XIX of the Land Papers, page 155. In it one might expect to find the names of all the actual New Hampshire proprietors at that date and only those. Curiously enough, the list does not contain all who were known pro- prietors and settlers in Windsor in July, 1766, and among the twenty-five names in the list are the names of ten men who never had had any connection whatever with Windsor, and who were to be made temporary grantees solely for the pur- pose of holding an interest in the land until the inhabitants of the township had raised and paid the heavy costs of the re- grant. The names of the ten are italicised in the list which follows, viz., Zedekiah Stone, Nathan Stone, David Stone, Sam1 Stone, Israel Curtis, Jacob [Joab] Hoisington, Steel Smith, Willard Stevens, Enos Stevens, Joel Stone, Thomas Cooper, David Young, William Pearson, Robert McGinnis, John Armstrong, John Fitzpatrick, George Wilson, Peter Prim, Wm. Swan, Martha Stone, Alexander Dulles,1 John Paisley,2 Mary Stone, Samuel Hunt, Joshua Willard. The last three names are written in a hand that looks like Nathan Stone's and bring the total number to twenty-five. In the Council Minutes Joshua Willard's name is dropped, thus leaving- unless the omission was a clerical error-twenty-four as the number of grantees to be named in the New York patent.
The Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State of New York mentions a "certificate of sale" of the township of Windsor to Zedekiah Stone, Nathan Stone, and David Stone 2d under date of July 14, 1766, but this paper, like many others pertaining to the history of Vermont, seems to be missing and perhaps was destroyed in the fire at the Capitol at Albany in 1911. In the same fire was very likely lost a certain deposition of Robert McGinnis that he had ex-
1 Alexander Dallas.
" The New York grantees were residents of New York City. Young and McGinnis were innholders; Pearson and Fitzpatrick were yeomen; Wilson and Paisley were merchants; Prim a mariner; Dallas a dyer; Armstrong a peruke maker, and Swan a schoolmaster.
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ecuted a deed of trust for lands in Windsor in favor of Nathan Stone.
There is, however, among the manuscripts of the Vermont Historical Society at Montpelier a parchment document which, if not an original "certificate of sale" of the Township of Windsor, is either a duplicate original of the same or a cer- tificate of the New York Provincial Commissioners' award or allotment of the Township to Zedekiah Stone and twenty-four named associates. Beautifully penned, subscribed with the handsome signatures of Governor Sir Henry Moore, Receiver- General Andrew Elliot, and Surveyor-General Alexander Colden, and embellished with an outline map of the town- ship, this paper, bearing date July 14, 1766, forms one of the links in Windsor's history. At the risk of overloading this volume with too many documents we give the certificate here- with:
"BY HIS EXCELLENCY SIR HENRY MOORE Baronet, Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over the Province of New York, and the Terri- tories depending thereon in America, Chancellor, and Vice Admiral of the same. Andrew Elliot Esquire Receiver General of the said Province; and Alexan- der Colden Esquire Surveyor General of the same Province-Commissioners appointed by his Majestys Instructions for the Setting out of all Lands to be granted within the said Province.
"To all to whom these Presents shall come GREETING. WHEREAS Zedekiah Stone, Nathan Stone and David Stone the Second, in behalf of themselves and twenty other Persons, by their humble Petition presented to the Honourable Cad- wallader Colden Esquire, Lieutenant Governor and then Com- mander in Chief of the said Province, and read in Council on the twenty ninth day of October last, did Set forth, That there is a certain Tract of Land lying in this Province called by the Name of Windsor, a little more than six Miles square, and bounded as follows, Viz: Beginning at a black Ash Tree (stand- ing on the West bank of Connecticut River) marked with the Figures Two and Three, and runs from thence West sixteen
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SIR HARRY MOORE
Degrees North six Miles; Then North six Degrees East six Miles and fifty six Rod; Then East sixteen Degrees South six Miles and a Quarter to a Maple Tree, standing on the said Bank of the River, marked with the Figures three and four; Then down said River to the Tree first mentioned; Bounding Easterly on said River; Southerly on a Township called Weath- ersfield; Westerly on a Township called Reading; and North- erly on a Township called Hertford. That the Petitioners and their Associates held the same by a Grant from Governor Wentworth; That they thought their Title was good and set- tled about Sixteen Families thereon; and that there would have been as many more settled on the same, had it not been laid to this Province by a Resolve of the King and his Privy Council on the twentieth of July One thousand seven hundred and Sixty four: That they were willing and desirous to secure their Property, Possessions & Improvements by obtaining his Majesty's Grant under the Seal of this Province, and to hold the same under such Grant, and to proceed to make further Settlements on the Premises-And therefore in Consideration of the Equity of their Case, they humbly prayed his Majesty's Letters Patent granting to the Petitioners and their Asso- ciates, their Heirs and Assigns for Ever, the said Tract of Land, containing upward of Twenty three thousand and six hundred Acres. And that the same might be Erected into a Township by the Name of Windsor, and vested with such Powers and Priviledges as other Towns in this Province have and do Enjoy; Which Petition having been then and there re- ferred to a Committee of his Majesty's Council; his Majesty's Council did afterwards on the same Day, in pursuance of the Report of the said Committee, humbly advise the said Hon- ourable Cadwallader Colden Esquire, Lieutenant Governor, and then Commander in Chief as aforesaid, to Grant the prayer thereof: Under the Quit Rent, Provisoes, Limitations and Restrictions prescribed by his Majesty's Instructions. In Pursuance whereof and in Obedience to his Majesty's said In- structions, We the said Commissioners, Do hereby Certify, that We have set out for the said Zedekiah Stone, Nathan Stone, and David Stone; and their Associates Samuel Stone, Israel Curtis, Jacob Hoisington, Steel Smith, Willard Stevens,
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Enos Stevens, Joel Stone, Thomas Cooper, David Young, William Pearson, Robert McGinnis, John Armstrong, John Fitzpatrick, George Wilson, Peter Prim, William Swan, Martha Stone, Alexander Dalles, John Paisley, Mary Stone, Samuel Hunt and Joshua Willard; All that certain Tract or parcel of Land situate lying and being in the County of Cumberland within the Province of New York, on the West. side of Con- necticut River, called and known by the Name of Windsor: Beginning at a black Ash Tree standing on the West Bank of the said River, marked with the Figures Two and Three, for the Northeast corner of Weathersfield; and runs thence North Seventy four Degrees West four hundred and eighty Chains; Then North six Degrees East four hundred and ninety four Chains; Then South seventy four Degrees East five hundred Chains to Connecticut River; Then down the Stream of the said River as it runs to the place where this Tract first began : Containing Twenty four thousand and three hundred Acres of Land and the usual Allowance for Highways-And in Setting out the said Tract of Land We have had regard to the profit- able and unprofitable Acres, and have taken Care that the Length thereof doth not extend along the Banks of any River, otherwise than is Conformable to his Majesty's Instructions for that purpose .- Given under our Hands at the City of New York, the fourteenth day of July One thousand seven hundred and Sixty six, in the sixth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith and so forth.
H. Moore Andrew Elliot Alex" Colden "
In the summer of 1766 something occurred to delay the actual issuance and delivery of the New York patent for the township of Windsor, although from what will later appear one was signed on July 19. Chester's patent came out on July 14, Brattleboro's on July 22, Hertford's (Hartland's) on July 23 and, after some delay, Putney's on November 14; but none that can now be found for Windsor. What the difficulty
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SIR HARRY MOORE
was is not clear. It is true that on June 6 the Provincial Coun- cil had ordered all applicants for township re-grants to pro- duce within three months their New Hampshire charters and all deeds, conveyances or other papers through which they claimed title, under the penalty of having their applications rejected; yet the Council's vote on July 9 to issue the patent for Windsor in favor of twenty-four named persons and the certificate of sale or certificate of award or allotment of July 14 certainly indicated that the Windsor petitioners had met at least some of the requirements of the order of June 6. The status of the Putney application was the same, but the Put- ney patent was duly issued on November 14. It may here be observed that there appeared in the New York Mercury for September 1, 1766 (a newspaper published in New York City by Hugh Gaine) the following important advertisement:
"New Hampshire Grants
"Notice is hereby given to all persons concerned in any of the New Townships granted by his Excellency, Governor Wentworth, under the Great Seal of the Province, of New Hampshire (which said Townships have since been claimed by the Government of New York, in consequence of their fall- ing within a line being run agreeable to his Majesty's Orders, for the better settling the Boundaries of each respective Prov- ince) that they appear either themselves or by their Attornies, at the House of Mr. Hugh Rider, in New York, on Monday the 13th of October next ensuing the Date hereof, then and there to consult on proper Measures to be taken relative to obtaining a confirmation of the said Grants under the Great Seal of the Province of New York; and it will be necessary for the proprietors of each Township, that they bring proper Vouchers of their being so constituted and appointed; and also the original patents and Grants of each Township.
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