USA > Vermont > The history of Vermont, from its discovery to its admission into the Union in 1791. By Hiland Hall > Part 14
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The sheriff and those who accompanied him, on approaching the house held a parley with the leaders of the settlers in which Coun- sellor Robert Yates endeavored to persuade them to desist from any opposition to the execution of the writ. He told them, in substance that the jurisdiction of the government of New York over them was undoubted, and that although the king had power " to allow, establish or change the jurisdiction as often as he pleased, yet that when once his majesty had divested himself of the right of soil, any dispute that should arise between subject and subject about the right could only be determined by the courts of justice where such controversies arose." Mr. Yates says, they readily acknowledged that they were under the present jurisdiction of New York and that they were the king's loyal subjects, but insisted that they had been very ill used in the trials for their lands by reason that the proofs they offered were rejected by the court," and declared that " they had lately received from their agent in England the strongest assur- ance that their differences would soon be determined in their favor,
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and that he had advised them in the meanwhile to hold their pos- sessions until such decision, which they were resolved to do." It appearing evident that the New York arguments, however plausible, were not to be accepted by the Bennington tribunal, the sheriff seized an axe and going towards the door of the house threatened to break it open. Immediately the party in the field perceiving his movement presented their pieces towards him, upon which he came at once to the conclusion that in his position " discretion was the better part of valor," and retired. On returning to the bridge the sheriff, doubtless to save himself from blame, made a formal demand of the posse to accompany him five miles further into the township of Bennington to aid him in taking possession of the farm of Mr. Josiah Fuller, but as no one seemed inclined to venture farther in that direction, it was concluded to omit that part of the programme of the expedition from Albany. "The power of the county " was allowed to evaporate, and the men composing it dispered with all commendable speed to their several homes, thus leaving the settlers in the quiet occupation of their property, and illustrating the truth of the quaint apothegm of Allen, after the trials at Albany, " that the gods of the valleys were not the gods of the hills." !
It is scarcely possible to overestimate the importance, in the New York controversy, of this discomfiture of the sheriff and his posse. It not only gave confidence to the New Hampshire claimants in their ability to defend their possessions, but served to convince their opponents, that the feelings of the body of their own people were in unison with those of the settlers. and that any attempt to gain possession of the disputed lands by calling into public action the civil power of the province, would necessarily prove unavailing. This defeat of the New York claimants was the entering wedge that eventually severed the New Hampshire grants from a province to which they had been without their knowledge, annexd by the arbitrary will of the crown. Here, in fact, on the farm of James Breakenridge, was born the future state of Vermont, which, strug- gling through the perils of infancy, had by the commencement of the general revolution, acquired the activity and strength of adven- turous youth ; had by its close reached the full stature of manhood, and which not long afterwards became the acknowledged equal of its associate American republics.
1 Manuscript Letter of Robert Yates to Kempe and Duane of July 20, 1771. Ira Allen's Vt., p. 23-31. Doc. Ilist. N. Y., p. 732-749. Connectiont Cour- ant, March 24, and April 21, 1772, Nos. 379, 383, and May 5, No. 384.
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CHAPTER XII.
COLLISIONS BETWEEN NEW YORK AND NEW HAMPSHIRE CLAIMANTS - continued.
1771 -1772.
Town committees of safety meet in general convention and resolve to stop New York surveys, and settlements on lands granted by New Hamp- shire - Military organization of Green Mountain Boys - Surveyor Cock- burne prevented from surveying Socialborough, and other lands -Sur- veyor Stevens driven off - New York military grants in Rupert. Pawlet, and Dorset, for the benefit of Dnane and other speenlators -New York claimants prevented from occupying lands in those towns- Seizure of Remember Baker at Arlington by John Munro, and his rescue - Formida- ble character of the opposition to the New York claims- Cannon brought from Fort Hoosick for defense against an apprehended attack by Gov. Tryon with regular troops- Tryon by letter to Rev. Mr. Dewey proposes negotiation - Agents by his invitation' sent by the settlers to New York - Terms of reconciliation proposed by the governor and council, and approved, with great rejoicing, by a public meeting of the settlers at Bennington.
TI resolve of the Bennington town meeting, to resist the execution of the Albany judgments, and hold the possessions of the defendants by force, if necessary, until the final decision of the crown upon their titles. was very generally approved by the inhabit- ants of the other townships. It was also readily seen that, upon the principles adopted by the New York courts, judgments would at once be rendered against the settlers in all actions that had been or might be brought by the New York patentecs, and that it was perfectly useless to appear in court and contest them. Nor could the settlers gain anything by waiting to have the elaims of their adversaries prose- cuted. The opposition to them seemed indeed more likely to be made effectual by resisting at once, all the efforts of the claimants towards perfecting their titles.
The inhabitants of the several townships, as fast as they had become sufficiently numerous, had organized themselves into munici- pal communities in conformity to their charters, and had adopted rules and regulations for their local government. The maintenance of the possession and title to their lands against the New York claimants, soon became an absorbing interest, and town committees were appointed, whose special duty it was to attend to their defense and security. The committees of the different townships, as occa- sion seemed to demand, met in general convention to consult upon
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and adopt measures for their common protection. Few records of the proceedings of these conventions remain, though sufficient accounts of them have been preserved to show that they exercised a general supervision over the affairs of the settlers, and that their decrees in re- gard to their land title controversy, were received and obeyed as laws.
At these general conventions, the resolve of the people of Ben- nington to resist the execution of the Albany judgments was not only approved, but in conformity to the policy above indicated of meeting their adversaries at the threshold, it was further determined that New York claimants should not be permitted either to take possession or make surveys of lands which had been granted by New Hampshire, and that New York officers should be prevented from serving writs of ejectment on the settlers and from arresting any of them for riots or other offences connected with their land controversy.
At first the execution of these resolves seems to have been left to individual and neighborhood efforts. But subsequently as the at- tempts to intrude upon the settlements increased and became more formidable, a military organization was resorted to. This consisted of several companies of volunteers, of which Seth Warner. Remem- ber Baker, Robert Cochran and some others were captains, the whole being under the command of Ethan Allen with the title of colonel. These eventually assumed the name of Green Mountain Boys, in derision and defiance it is said. of a threat of Gov. Tryon, to drive the settlers from their possessions into the Green mountains. This name, by the bravery and military exploits of those who bore it during the revolutionary period, became an honorable appellation, and has often been used to designate all the troops of the state and sometimes the whole people.
This military organization of the settlers appears to have been commenced towards the close of the year 1771, some months after the expedition of the posse of Albany county to Bennington. The resistance on that occasion was doubtless made by the militia of the town, of which a company had been formed as early as October, 1764, aided probably by volunteers from the neighboring towns. The first notice which has been found of the volunteer organization for opposing " the Yorkers," as they were styled, is in a letter from John Munro. Esq., to Governor Tryon, dated in February, 1772, and in an affidavit of one Benjamin Gardner, taken by Munro three days afterwards and forwarded to the governor. From the letter and affi lavit it appears that a company, connnanded by Seth Warner (Munro erroneously has it John Warner), met on the
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preceding new year's day and "reviewed and continued all day firing at marks." Gardner in his affidavits says : "he was present on the first day of January last when a number of men were under arms at the house of Seth Warner of Bennington, when the men honored said Warner as their captain, Tubbs as their lieutenant, and Nathaniel Holmes as ensign, by firing about his house, etc., and drinking good success to Governor Wentworth and all his grants, and damning the Yorkers ; and deponent heard often that they were enlisting men and putting each recruit under oath to be true in maintaining the New Hampshire Grants." 1
The duties of these men were to watch, and detect in their several neighborhoods, any hostile movements of their adversaries, and to hold themselves in readiness to repair to any part of the territory to which the general convention or its executive committee should require them to go for the proper defence of the persons or lands of the settlers. It was not often that occasion was found for calling them out in large numbers, but they were always prompt and efficient in every emergency.
In carrying into execution the resolves of the general convention collisions with the New York officers and claimants were not unfre- quent, and they occured occasionally through a series of years. Some of those which their adversaries most loudly complained of, will now be noticed.
We have a pretty full account of the manner in which the New York claimants were sometimes prevented from making surveys of their " interfering grants," in a letter from Mr. Cockburn, a deputy of the surveyor general, to James Duane, dated at Albany, in Sep- tember, 1771, ou his return from an attempt to survey, and divide into lots the lands included in the patent of Socialborough. Of this patent a full account will be given hereafter. For the present it is sufficient to say that it was issued by Governor Dunmore. in 1771, in violation of the king's prohibitory order of July, 1767. that it covered the two townships of Rutland and Pittsford, which had been chartered ten years previously by New Hampshire, and that the lands were already occupied under those charters. The patent- ees of Socialborough were all New York city speculators, among the most prominent of whom was Mr. Duane. Notwithstanding the illegality of their patent the patentees seemed determined to enforce it, and to deprive the settlers of their possessions. The following extracts comprise all the material parts of Surveyor Cockburn's letter.
1 Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. 4, p. 762. Allen Papers, in Vermont secretary of state office, p. 15.
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" ALBANY, Sept. 10, 1771.
Sir : Your favor of the 16th of August, and the £60. 2s. 9d. of Mr. Robert Yates, I received on my return here, after being the second time stopped in Socialborough by James Mcads and Asa Johnson in behalf of the settlers in Rutland and Pittsford. I have run out lots from the south bounds to within about two miles of the Great Falls. I found it in vain to persist any longer, as they were resolved at all events to stop us. There have been many threats pronounced against me. Gideon Conley who lives by the Great Falls was to shoot me, and your ac- * quaintance Nathan Allen was in the woods with another party blacked and dressed like Indians, as I was informed. Several of my men can prove Townshend and Train threatening my life, that I should never return home, etc.
The people of Durham, [now Clarendon] assured me, these men in- tended to murder us if we did not go from thenee, and advised me by all means to desist running. I found I would not be allowed to go to the northward as they suspected I would begin again, and therefore intended to convey us to Danby and so on to the southward, and by all accounts we should not have been very kindly treated. I was advised by no means to go that road.
On my assuring them I would survey no more in those parts, we were permitted to proceed along the Crown Point road, with the liearty prayers of the women, as we passed, never to return. * I have not been able to fix Kier's location and Danby people have been continually on the watch always. * * Since I have been here several have visited me, asking questions, no doubt to be able to know us, should we venture within their territories, and at the same time warning us of the danger, should we be found there. Marsh's survey is likewise undone as I did not care to venture myself that way. I shall be able to inform you more particularly at our meeting, and am Sir your most obedient servant,
WILL. COCKBURN."
In this case no actual violence appears to have been used, but the surveyor was deterred from continuing his work by the apprehen- sion of personal injury from men who he believed designed to shoot him, some of whom disguised as Indians, he supposed, were prowling in the woods for that purpose. It is not probable that his life was at any time in actual danger, though it was doubtless the object of the settlers to make him think so and thus by intimidation to frighten him away, in which they were successful. There is no
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doubt however that force would have been applied to expel him from the territory and perhaps to inflict personal chastisement upon him, if it had been found necessary.
The threatening demonstrations of the settlers appear to have prevented him from making further attempts under the patent of Socialborough. The next summer however, he was found with a number of assistants at Bolton on Onion river, and was arrested by Remember Baker, Seth Warner, and others, who after breaking his compass and chain took him and his party to Castleton for trial before a court of the settlers, but on learning that negotiations for arranging their difficulties had been entered into at New York between Governor Tryon, and agents of the people of Bennington, he was allowed to proceed to Albany without further molestation.
A few weeks afterwards, another surveyor, by the name of Benjamin Stevens, was discovered in the same section of the country, and was taken into custody by Baker, Ira Allen, and others ; and, according to the New York account of the affair was still more roughly handled than Corkburn had been. By the activity and perseverance of the settlers, the New York claimants were prevented from making much progress in the location of their grants, and the operations of the speculators were greatly obstructed.1
Nor were the efforts of the New York claimants to obtain and hold possession, without process of law, of lands under their inter- fering grants, more successful than their attempts to make surveys. The settlers were continually on the alert, and whenever an intrusion on their chartered territory was made, the invaders were pretty sure to be met and either by intimidation or force were compelled to remove. Some of the early personal contests of this character occurred in Rupert and its vicinity.
Rupert and the adjoining towns of Pawlet on the north and Dorset on the east had been chartered by New Hampshire in 1761. In 1771 ten years afterwards, military patents were issued by Lord Dunmore, governor of New York, covering a great portion of the most desirable land within the limits of these towns. These claims of officers and soldiers had long previously been purchased by New York city speculators, and were located by them for their own benefit in detached parcels, without regard to regularity of form, the sole object being to obtain the specified quantity of good land, rejecting the poor. These military grants were principally included in two patents, the
1 Allen Papers in the office of the Vermont secretary of state, p. 3, 36, 63. Ira Allen's Vermont, 37-40. Slade, 29-33. Doc. ITist. N, Y., 799, 803, and N. Y. Nar. of 1773.
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patentees and those who might oceupy adjoining lands being incorpora- ted into two townships, by the names of Chatham and Eugene. The patentees of Chatham were Lieut. John Cruikshank and four other commissioned officers, thirteen non commissioned officers, and three privates, to whom were granted in the whole twelve thousand seven hundred and fifty aeres, ten thousand acres of which belonged to James Duane. These lands were principally in Dorset. The patentees of Eugene were two commissioned officers, forty-seven non commissioned officers, and thirty-nine privates, to whom were granted fifteen thousand three hundred and fifty acres, all of which belonged to Mr. Duane. These lands were mainly in Rupert and Pawlet.
The patent of Chatham bore date March 14, and that of Eugene June 14, 1771, and both were in plain violation of the king's order of July 1767, even upon the limited construction which had been given it by Colden, all the lands having been previously granted by New Hampshire. Mr. Colden, indeed, declined to patent them, and in regard to the lauds in Chatham, Mr. Duane made an appeal to the sympathies of the king and his ministry by petition in the name of Lieut. Cruikshank and the other ostensible claimants. urging the hardships of their case in not being allowed to obtain the lands they liad sought for, which petition was transmitted to Lord Hillsborough, the colonial secretary, by Lieut. Gov. Colden in Jan., 1770. In his letter to the secretary, Mr. Colden after stating that he was forbidden to grant the lands by the king's order before mentioned, and arguing in favor of the justice of the application. added that "the petitioners had been at considerable expense in exploring and surveying their lands. and had hitherto been pre- vented from receiving the benefit of his majesty's bounty." It is difficult to conceive how Mr. Colden could have been ignorant of the fact that the patentees had parted with all interest in their elaims long before an exploration or survey of the land had been made, and that they had already received all " the benefit of his majesty's bounty," which they could ever possibly obtain. No favorable answer was returned 'o the petition, but patents for this and the other township were issued by Gov. Dunmore. as before stated. in direet violation of the order and instruction of the king, which patents were consequently null and void, for want of authority in the governor to make theni.1
The shameless manner in which the commands of the king in relation to the granting of these lands were disregarded by Gov.
1 Albany Land Papers, vol. 21, p. 88, vol. 23, p. 138. Albany Military Patents, vol. 2. Col. HIist. of N. Y., vol. 8, p. 196, 206, 272. Rep. of N. Y. Com. of 1797, p. 42, 44, 85.
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Dunmore, was not calculated to inspire in the New Hampshire settlers and grantees respect for his own authority ; and we accord- ingly find them resisting with spirit and determination, every attempt of the New York patentees to encroach upon their territory. As early as June, 1771, efforts appear to have been made by claimants under military grants to occupy some lands in the western part of Rupert, but the intruders were attacked by a large party under Robert Cochran, who claimed the lands by the New Hampshire title, and driven off. Other attempts to make settlements in Rupert and Pawlet were made under New York claims in October following, but with no better success.
It seems that two brothers of the name of Todd, claiming under a New York patent to one Lieut. Farrant had commenced work on a lot, near the west line of Rupert, which was claimed by Robert Cochran under the New Hampshire charter, and which, it is said, he had partly cleared ; that another New York claimant of the name of Hutchinson had begun to build a log house on another lot belonging to a New Hampshire grantee, the logs being laid and rafters fixed for a roof; and that further to the northward one Reid had begun an improvement on a piece of land in Pawlet, and had erected there a shelter, having four crotches driven in the ground with boughs for a covering. Cochran with a party of seven armed men from Rupert, accompanied also by Ethan Allen and Remember Baker, went to the Todds, drove them from their work, declaring they would never suffer any man to be seated there who held under a New York title. The party then went to Hutchinson's place, took down the logs and rafters of his house and placing them in piles "burned them with fire." The house or shelter of Ried was afterwards de- stroyed in the same manner, all the claimants being required to de- part immediately from the lands granted by New Hampshire, and threatened with barbarous usage if they returned. According to the affidavit of Hutchinson, taken before justice McNaughton, his assailants conducted in a rough, swaggering, and boisterous manner, declaring that they had "that morning resolved to offer a burnt sacrifice to the gods of the woods in burning the logs of his house," with oaths boastingly telling him to go his way and complain to his " scoundrel governor," that they had hundreds of New Hampshire men to prevent any soldiers or others settling on their lands, defying the New York council, assembly and laws, and affirming that if any New York constable attempted to arrest them they would kill him, and that if any of them should be put in Albany jail they would break it down and rescue him.
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Complaint of these violent proceedings having been made to Gov. Tryon, who had succeeded Lord Dunmore as chief magistrate of the province, he, by advice of his council, issued a proclamation bearing date Dec. 9, 1771, offering a reward of twenty pounds each for apprehending and securing Cochran, Allen, Baker, and the six others concerned with them, " that they might be proceeded against as the law directs." Two days afterwards, on the 11th of December, Gov. Tryon issued another proclamation in which he maintained at considerable length by argument and authority, what he called "the ancient and incontrovertible right of New York to extend to Con- necticut river as its eastern boundary," and warned all persons that his government would adopt the most rigorous measures for suppressing all opposition to its authority.1
These threatening proclamations served to increase rather than to allay the ill feeling of the settlers. That of the 11th was answered in detail. in two communications in the Connecticut Courant of the 24th of March and April 28th, 1772. These articles, which were undoubtedly from the pen of Ethan Allen, were written with considerable ability, were extensively read, and exerted much influence in forming a friendly public opinion towards the settlers.
The proclamation for the arrest of Allen, Baker and Cochran, was treated by them with defiant contempt, by issuing and circu- lating extensively, over their signatures, a printed burlesque proclamation, offering a reward of fifteen pounds for the apprehen- sion and delivery at " Landlord Fays," in Bennington, of James Duane, and ten pounds for Attorney General Kempe, who are described as common disturbers of the public peace." It appears
1 Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. 4, pp. 720, 745-755. New York Narrative. Allen's Narrative, pp. 149 150.
2 The following is a copy of the proclamation :
£25 REWARD.
Whereas, James Duane and John Kempe, of New York, have by their menaces and threats greatly disturbed the public peace and repose of the honest peasants of Bennington, and the settlements to the northward, which peasants are now and ever have been in the peace of God and the king, and are patriotic and liege subjects of George III. Any person that will appre- hend those common disturbers, viz, James Duane and John Kempe, and bring them to Landlord Fays, at Bennington, shall have £15 reward for John Duane and £10 for John Kemp, paid by
Dated Poultney, Feb. 5, 1772.
ETHAN ALLEN, REMEMBER BAKER, ROBERT COCHRAN.
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