USA > Vermont > The history of Vermont, from its discovery to its admission into the Union in 1791. By Hiland Hall > Part 10
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William Samuel Johnson, an eminent lawyer and statesman of Connecticut, was then preparing to leave for England, as agent for that colony to the home government, and the petitioners employed him to assist Mr. Robinson in his mission. They sailed in the same vessel from New York, the 25th of December, 1766, and landed at Falmouth, England, the 30th of January following, and reached London a few days afterwards. 1
1 Mr. Johnson's Manuscript Diary, in possession of his grandson and name- sake at Stratford, Conn.
1
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The petition of which Mr. Robinson was the bearer was couched in the following terms :
" To the king's most excellent majesty. The humble petition of the several subscribers hereto, your majesty's most loyal subjects, sheweth to your majesty :
"That we obtained at considerable expense of your majesty's governor of the province of New Hampshire, grants and patents for more than one hundred townships in the western parts of the said supposed province ; and being about to settle the same, many of us, and others of us, having actually planted ourselves on the same, were disagreeably surprised and prevented from going on with the further intended settlements, by the news of its having been deter- mined by your majesty in council that those lands were within the province of New York, and by a proclamation issued by Lieut. Gov. Colden in consequence thereof, forbidding any further settlement until patents of confirmation should be obtained from the governor of New York. Whereupon we applied to the governor of said province of New York to have the same lands confirmed to us in the same manner as they had been at first granted to us by the governor of the said province of New Hampshire ; when, to our utter astonish- ment, we found the same could not be done without our paying as fees of office for the same at the rate of twenty-five pounds New York money, equal to about fourteen pounds sterling, for every thou- sand acres of said lands, amounting to about three hundred and thirty pounds sterling at a medium, for each of said townships, and which will amount in the whole to about thirty-three thousand pounds sterling, besides a quit rent of two shillings and sixpence sterling for every hundred acres of said lands; and which being utterly unable to do and perform, we find ourselves reduced to the sad necessity of losing all our past expense and advancements; and many of us being reduced to absolute poverty and want, having expended our all in making said settlements.
." Whereupon your petitioners beg leave most humbly to observe.
" 1. That when we applied for and obtained said grants of said lands, the same were and had been at all times fully understood and reported to lie and be within the said province of New Hampshire, and were within the power of the governor of that province to grant ; so that your petitioners humbly hope they are equitably entitled to a con- firmation of the said grants to them.
" 2. The said grants were made and received on the moderate terms of your petitioner's paying as a quit rent our shilling only, proclamation money, equal to nine pence sterling per hundred acres; and which
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induced us to undertake to settle said townshipsthroughout, and thereby to form a full and compacted country of people, whereas the imposing the said two shillings and six pence sterling per hundred acres will occasion all the more rough and unprofitable parts of said lands not to be taken up ; but pitches, and the more valuable parcels only to be laid out, to the utter preventing the full and proper settlement of said country, and in the whole to the lessening your majesty's revenuc.
"3. Your humble petitioners conceive, that the insisting to have large and very exorbitant fees of office to arise and be computed upon every thousand acres in every township of six or perhaps more miles square, and that when one patent, one seal and one step only of every kind, towards the completing such patents of confirmation respectively is necessary, is without all reasonable and equitable foundation. and must and will necessarily terminate in the totally preventing your petitioners obtaining the said lands, and so the same will fall into the hands of the rich, to be taken up, the more valuable parts only as aforesaid, and those perhaps not entered upon and settled for many years to come ; while your petitioners with their numerous and helpless families, will be obliged to wander far and wide to find where to plant themselves down, so as to be able to live.
" Whereupon your petitioners most humbly and earnestly pray, that your majesty will be graciously pleased to take their distressed state and condition into your royal consideration, and order that we have our said lands confirmed and acquitted to us on such reasonable terms, and in such way and manner as your majesty shall think fit.
" Further, we beg leave to say, that if it might be consistent with your majesty's royal pleasure, we shall esteem it a very great favor and happiness, to have said townships put and continued under the jurisdiction of the government of the said province of New Hamp- shire, as at the first, as every emolument and convenience both public and private, are in your petitioners' humble opinion, clearly and strongly on the side of such connection with the said New Hampshire province. All which favors, or such and so many of them as to your majesty shall seem meet to grant, we humbly ask ; or that your majesty will in some other way, grant relief to your petitioners; and they, as in duty bound, shall ever pray.
" Dated in New England, November, 1766; and in the seventh year of his majesty's reign." 1
1 Doc. HIist. of N. Y., vol. 4, p. 1027. The original petition with most of the signatures, found among the papers of Mr. Johnson, is preserved in the office of the secretary of state at Montpelier.
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After the arrival of Mr. Robinson in England, it was deemed advisable to present the case of the New Hampshire claimants to his majesty in greater detail than it had been stated in the foregoing petition. A new petition was therefore drawn up by Mr. Johnson, giving a more particular statement of their grievances, which being subscribed by Mr. Robinson "in behalf of himself and more than one thousand other grantees," was delivered to Lord Shelburne, principal secretary of state for the colonies, the 20th of March, to be laid before his majesty in council. A petition was also presented about the same time by " the society for the propagation of the gos- pel in foreign parts," to which one right of three hundred and fifty acres had been granted in each of the charters of Gov. Wentworth, and which also had an indirect interest in another right in each township " for a glebe for the church of England." 1
The New York grants not being by townships, but to individuals in pitches, as they were termed in New England, did not reserve any right to the society, or indeed for any public or charitable purpose whatever.
The immediate action of the king in council upon these petitions is stated in a letter of sharp rebuke from Lord Shelburne to Gov. Moore, which is as follows :
" WHITE HALL April 11, 1767.
"Sir : Two petitions having been most humbly presented to the king in council, one by the incorporated society for the propagation of the gospel, and the other by Samuel Robinson, of Bennington, in behalf of himself and more than one thousand other grantees of lands on the west side of Connecticut river, under certain grants issued by Benning Wentworth, Esq., governor of New Hampshire, and praying for redress in several very great grievances therein set forth, lest there should be any further proceedings in this matter till such time as the council shall have examined into the grounds of it, I am to signify to you his majesty's commands that you make no new grants of those lands, and that you do not molest any person in the quiet possession of his grant, who can produce good and valid deeds for such grant under the seal of the province of New Hamp- shire until you receive further orders respecting them.
" In my letter of the 11th of December, I was very explicit upon the point of former grants. You are therein directed 'to take care that the inhabitants lying westward of the line reported by the board
1 Mr. Johnson's Diary and ante.
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of trade as the boundary of the two provinces be not molested on account of territorial differences, or disputed jurisdiction for what- ever province the settlers may be found to belong to, it should make no difference in their property, provided that their titles to their lands should be found good in other respects, or that they have long been in the uninterrupted possession of them.
" His majesty's intentions are so clearly expressed to you in the above paragraph, that I cannot doubt of your having immediately upon receipt of it removed any cause of those complaints which the petitioners set forth. If not, it is the king's express command that it may be done without the smallest delay. The power of granting lands was vested in the governors of the colony, originally for the purpose of accommodating, not distressing settlers, especially the poor and industrious. Any perversion of that power therefore, must be highly derogatory; both from the dignity of their stations and from the disinterested character which a governor ought to sup- port, and which his majesty expects from every person honored by him with his commission. The unreasonableness of obliging a very large tract of country to pay a second time the immense sum of thirty-three thousand pounds in fees, according to the allegations of this petition, for no other reason than its being found necessary to settle the line of boundary between the colonies in question, is so unjustifiable that his majesty is not only determined to have the strictest inquiry made into the circumstances of the charge, but expects the clearest and fullest answer to every part of it.
I am, etc.,
SHELBURNE." 1
Sir Henry Moore, Bart.
With this letter were transmitted copies of the petitions of Mr. Robinson and of the propagation society, which however are not preserved in the public archives at Albany, nor have copies been found in print. Our only knowledge of their contents is derived from the replies made to them by Gov. Moore, contained in several elaborate letters to Lord Shelburne dated the 9th and 10thi of June, and published in the 7th volume of the Colonial History of New York, and also in the 4th volume of the Documentary History.
Gov. Moore in his reply expresses much " concern and astonish- ment " at his lordship's letter, and great indignation at the presump- tion of Mr. Robinson, in making " free with the characters of his
1 Col. ITist. of N. Y., vol. 7. p. 917. Doc. Ilist. N. Y., vol. 4, p. 589.
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majesty's governors," a man, he says, whose " service in the late war was nothing more than that of driving an ox cart for sutlers," and who thus following " one of the lowest and meanest occupations. at once sets himself up for a statesman, and from a notion that the wheels of government are as easily managed as those of a waggon. takes upon himself to direct the king's ministers in their departments." And he adds in the way of irony. "as for my part I have been taught to treat with so much respect, those whom his majesty is pleased to honor with his confidence, that I am persuaded they will do that which is best for his service and the good of the people, without standing in need of such able counselors as Mr. Robinson, or myself."
In regard to Mr. Robinson, it is unnecessary to repeat what has already been stated in the beginning of this chapter. His character was without reproach, and his standing highly respectable. The muster rolls now in the office of the secretary of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, for 1755 and 1756, show that he was a captain of a company in Col. Ruggles's regiment of provincials. and served as such on the frontier in both of those years, and that he was in the battle of Lake George. The rolls of his company also contain the names of several of those who, afterwards. emigrated with him from Hardwick to Bennington.
In preparing his answer to Mr. Robinson's petition, Sir Henry Moore availed himself of the assistance of James Duane, Esq .. who he says " is a barrister at law here, and a man of so good character, that his testimony carries the greatest weight with it." As we shall often have occasion hereafter to mention the name of Mr. Duane, it is proper to say of him now that he was a prominent lawyer of New York city -that at the commencement of the troubles with the mother country, he belonged to the class of New York conserva- tive whigs, was a member of the Continental congress, from that state during most of the revolutionary period. was afterwards mayor of the city of New York, and a judge of the United States district court, and died in 1797. He had married in early life, the daughter of Robert Livingston, the proprietor of Livingston's manor, and he thus became associated in interest and feeling with the landed aristocracy of the province, whose leading ideas in regard to the soil of the country, appear to have been, that it was formed by the Creator, to be subdued and worked by the mass of mankind for the benefit of a class of lordly proprietors. and that the ownership by an individual of only so much of the earth as he could actually cultivate, would be an infringement of the laws of the divine
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economy. We have already seen that he was the proprietor of one third of twenty-six thousand acres in the first grant made by Colden in Vermont. He afterwards became the owner under the New York title of nearly fifty thousand acres more, thirty-nine thousand acres of which were the military claims of officers and soldiers of which he had by purchase become the assignee. He was the acknowledged leader and champion of the New York speculators in Vermont lands, was their attorney and counselor in the institution and prosecution of the numerous ejectment suits brought against the settlers, and was the author of most of the official and unofficial papers and docu- ments in favor of the New York title during the whole period of the controversy. He could therefore, be considered in any other light, than that of an impartial adviser of the governor in relation to the character and rights of the New Hampshire claimants. 1
With the aid of Mr. Duane, Gov .. Moore was enabled to make a somewhat plausible, but by no means a very clear and satisfactory answer to Mr. Robinson's petition. In relation to the grants which had already been made of lands in the occupation of the settlers, he referred to an order of the New York council of the 22d of May, 1765, requiring the surveyor general not to return surveys of lands thus occupied to other persons than the occupants ; but neglected to state, as the truth was, that the order had been wholly disregarded. He also referred to two instances of large grants to New Yorkers in which the lands possessed by several New Hampshire claimants had, as he said, been excepted out to the extent of two hundred acres to each person.
In regard to the application for confirmation of the charters of ninety-six townships he disposes of twenty-one of them in quite a summary manner, by declaring that " they were deemed to be within this government before his majesty's order in council fixing the limits on Connecticut river, as they were within twenty miles of Hudson's river and within the same distance of the waters of South bay and Lake Champlain," thus marking out an eastern boundary line for New York between Lake Champlain and Connecticut river, which had never before been heard of. The twenty mile line, whether recognized as a boundary or not, had always been treated as having its northern termination at the south end of the lake. Having thus shown, as he would be understood, that these townships situated on the west side of the Green mountain are not entitled to
1 Memoir of Duane, in Doc. ITist. N. Y., vol. 4, p. 1061. Ms. Journal of N. Y. Coms., p. 1797. Life of John Adams, vol. 2, p. 349, 354, 357. Gordon's Am. Rev., vol. 2, p. 119. 120, London edition.
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confirmation on any terms, he speaks of the residue as mostly unoccupied, and of those that were occupied, as having fewer settlers on them than had been stated by Mr. Robinson. He also undertakes to weaken the equity of the claims of the New Hampshire grantees by affirming that their expenses in obtaining their charters, were much less than they pretended.
Upon the important subject of patent fees the governor is very far from being explicit. He does not assert that the New Hampshire charters would have been confirmed on the payment of any less sum than that stated in the petition, though he evidently wishes it to be so inferred. He declares that he had " never made a demand for fees of any kind either from Mr. Robinson or any person living," but had always " thought himself happy in having an opportunity in remitting them," to those he " apprehended would be distressed in paying them." This was however a mere evasive flourish. IIc admits that he had received fees for the six patents of the New Hampshire lands which he had already passed, which, if according to the bill he had transmitted to the lords of trade the preceding February, must have been at a still higher rate than that stated by Mr. Robinson. According to Mr. Colden, Sir Henry exceeded him in the pertinacity with which he exacted the payment of fees. In relation to the six patents, before mentioned, he says, in a letter to the colonial secretary of the 4th of January, 1770, that he, Colden, had prepared patents for the confirmation of several townships, and had agreed with the proprietors to accept such proportion of the regular fees as they might choose to pay, which induced them "to take the necessary steps for obtaining the new grants," but that he " was prevented from putting the seal to any of them by the arrival of Sir Henry Moore." He then says that Sir Henry " afterwards took his full fees for one of those grants which had been very near ready for the seals before he came," and he was told " refused to pass any without his full fees were paid." This he says, "gave great disgust to the people, and occasioned those applications which have since been made to the king on the subject." Upon this point there is indeed no doubt of the truth of the statement in Mr. Robinson's petition.1
The residue of Gov. Moore's reply to Lord Shelburne is principally taken up in an account of measures which he had adopted for the benefit of the newly acquired territory, among the most prominent of which was a plan he had " determined to engage in personally,"
1 Doc. ITist. N. Y., vol. 4, p. 590 to 608, and 620- 1. Col. Ilist. N. Y., vol. 7, p. 921 - 926.
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for the encouragement of a settlement in the north eastern part of that district. His plan, which he says had been approved by the council, was " to have a township laid out to himself and some others associated with him, at twelve miles distance from the north line of the new county of Cumberland, and on a spot neither granted by New Hampshire nor claimed by any persons whatever. to be distribut- ed out to poor families in small farms. on condition that they should begin upon the manufacture of potash and the culture of hemp." and upon the production of certain quantities of these articles yearly, " the fee of the land was to bevested absolutely in the possessors with no rents or profits reserved to himself." He says that as soon as these terms were made known " applications were made by different persons for grants, and no less than fourteen families were already settled on it, and that he had had proposals for ten more then living in town (New York) who would settle there in the course of the summer, besides several others. as well from Connecticut as Massachusetts bay, so that there was the greatest probability of a considerable settlement being made there in a very short space of time." ... But." he continues, " as the giving of lands alone to those people was not sufficient without other assistance, I have at their request ordered a saw mill and grist mill to be built for their use, and as there is uo building in that part of the country yet appropriated for divine worship, I have directed a church to be built at my sole expense in the center of the township, and shall set apart a large farm as a glebe for the incumbents." " Those measures " he adds " will contribute greatly to the peopling of that part of the province," etc., etc. Now all this, no doubt, appeared very well when read by the lords of trade in London, but like many settlements of more modern date the improvements were only on paper. The township described was situated on Connecticut river, and is now known as Bradford. Its settlement had been commenced as early as 1765, prior to the arrival of Governor Moore in New York; but either from dislike to the terms imposed by him on the settlers, or from distrust of his promises, its progress was so tardy that the township six years afterwards, in 1771, contained only ten families. A large portion of the "fourteen families already settled on it," if ever there, had departed; the ten families from New York city as well as " the several others from Connecticut and Massachusetts," had remained at home, and neither the saw mill, the grist mill or the church which Governor Moore was " at his sole expense " to build, had ever been erected ; and the " large farm". which was to be " set apart for a glebe for the incumbent " was never more heard of. On the 3d of May, 1770, after Governor Moore's
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death, the township by the name of Mooretown, containing twenty- five thousand acres, was granted by Colden to William Smith the historian, in the name of himself and twenty-four others, he agreeing to convey three thousand acres of it to persons in the occupancy of sonie of its lands. The residue of the township was afterwards deeded by Smith to his son-in-law John Plenderleaf of Scotland, perhaps as his wife's marriage portion, by which he was enabled to obtain about eleven hundred dollars of the thirty thousand paid by Vermont to New York, on the final settlement of the controversy. There is no doubt that the course taken by Governor Moore was of serious injury to the prosperity of the town. Most of the land was taken up by pitches, and troublesome contentions arose and continued among the settlers for many years, which were only terminated in 1791, by a grant by Vermont of the township to three trustees to be conveyed by them to those persons they should deem entitled to the ownership.1
Governor Moore also in a separate letter comments at some length upon the petition of " the society for the propagation of the gospel," but his answer to it is very general in its terms, and contains nothing requiring special attention.
These elaborate replies to the petitions of Mr. Robinson and the society, did not produce any change in the determination of the crown, expressed in Lord Shelburne's letter of the 11th of April; and on the 24th of July following, upon a report of the case by the lords of trade, a formal order of the king in council was made, commanding the governor of New York, " upon pain of his majes- ty's highest displeasure" to make no grant whatever of any part of the controverted lands, "until his majesty's further pleasure should be known concerning the same." 2
1 Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. 4, pp. 595, 596. Ms. Journal of N. Y. Coms., 1797, Thompson's Gazetteer of Vt., Bradford. Demming's Vt., Bradford. Smith's Hist. N. Y., vol. 1, p. xx. Journal Vt. Assembly, Oct. 28, 1781. Hull's E. V.t., 123. According to Hall's Eastern Vermont (p. 123-4) the town was patented to John French and others, Nov. 7, 1766, and afterwards on the death of French to Mr. Smith and his associates. This is an error. There was no patent to French. He merely petitioned for the land for himself and associ- ates without naming them, estimating the quantity at twenty-four thousand acres. Smith and his associates in their petition March 28, 1770, state that French is dead and that "the petitioners were the persons intended to be chiefly benefited by French's application." Thus it seems the settlers under Governor Moore, if there were any, had no title but only his promise. Albany Land Papers, vol. 22, p. 39, and vol. 27, p. 4. Patent Records, vol. 14.
" Doc. HIist. N. Y., vol. 4, p. 609. For a copy of the order, see also Appendix, No. 5.
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These measures of the king and his ministry were highly favorable .to the New Hampshire grantees and settlers, recognizing as they did, in the fullest manner the equity and justice of their claims, and strongly condemning the oppressive conduct of the New York government towards them. Still their New Hampshire titles re- mained unconfirmed, and the New York grants of their lands, which had already been made, had not been declared inoperative. It was evident that no certain remedy for the past or security for the future had been obtained, though there was much ground of hope for both. Mr. Robinson, in a letter to his family, written in August, appears confident that the whole of the privy council were of opinion that the New Hampshire grantees ought not to be disturbed by New York patents, though they differed in regard to the mode in which a remedy should be furnished. Lord Shelburne, the colonial secretary, John Pownal, secretary of the board of trade, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, were active and firm friends and willing to grant speedy relief by the action of the crown ; but Lord Nor- thington, the president of the council, who was old, gouty and irritable, and averse to any further hearing before that body, insisted that the parties should be left to seek their remedy at law, by instituting suits in the New York courts, with perhaps an ultimate appeal to the king in council. This opposition of Lord Northington, together with the interference of other matters, in which the council was almost constantly engaged, seemed likely to prevent the further consideration of the subject for a long period ; and Mr. Robinson, who began to feel seriously the want of pecuniary means to continue his stay in London, and to prosecute his business with advantage, determined to return home, leaving the interests of his constituents in the charge of Mr. Johnson. But before he was ready to embark he was so unfortunate, to take the small pox, from which he died in London, the 27th of October. Mr. Johnson, in communicating the intelligence of his decease to his widow, under date of November 2, 1767, says of him : " He is much lamented by his friends and acquaintances which were many. You may rest assured no care or expense was spared for his comfort and to save his life, had it been consistent with the designs of Providence. After his death, as the last act of friendship to his memory, I took care to furnish him a decent funeral, at which General Lyman and other gentlemen here from America attended with me as mourners. He is interred in the burial ground belonging to Mr. Whitefield's church, where he usually attended public worship."
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