USA > Vermont > The history of Vermont, from its discovery to its admission into the Union in 1791. By Hiland Hall > Part 18
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humanity on their part. It was doubtless used as the most effectual punishment " short of life and limb " which was within their power, the disgrace, which was supposed to attach to it, forming one of the elements that commended it to their favor.1
1 Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. 4, p. 116. Livingston and Smith's N. Y. Statutes, p. 339, 340, 297. Act of 1785, chap. 40 and 47. Col. Ilist. N. Y., vol. 8, p. 445. Articles of War of 1776, sec. 18, art 3. Jour., Cong. Sept. 20, 1776. Army Regulations, article 24. Jour. Cong., May 31, 1786.
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CHAPTER XV.
CONFLICTS OF THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS WITH COLONEL REID'S TENANTS, AND WITH THE CLAIMANTS UNDER THE PATENT OF SOCIALBOROUGH AND DURHAM.
1773.
Attempts of Col. Reid to occupy and maintain the possession of the dis- puted land on Otter Creek by force-His tenants dispossessed with a strong hand-Capt. David Wooster and his patent in Addison-Application of Gov. Tryon for regular troops to put down the rioters, refused-County of Charlotte constituted and officers appointed-The illegal and void New York patents of Socialborough and Durham, with an account of the grounds of the controversy in regard to them. Violent proceedings of the Green Mountain Boys.
N OTWITHSTANDING the formidable demonstrations of the Green Mountain Boys, some of the Yorkers were determined to maintain their titles by force, and to keep out the New Hampshire men. In the month of June, 1773, Col. Reid engaged several Scotch emigrants, then recently arrived at New York, to occupy as his ten- ants, the lands of which he had been dispossessed the previous autumn, and he went with them to Otter creek. On entering on the lands they found several persons settled on them, claiming under the New Hampshire charters. These Col. Reid compelled by threats to leave, making however, as he claimed, compensation for the growing crop of one of the principal occupants. He caused the grist mill to be repaired and several log huts to be erected, and then returned to New York. It appears from the affidavit of one of the tenants, that they were informed on their way to Otter creek, that the title to the land was in dispute and desired to return to New York, but that the colonel assured them there was no question about the title, that he would put them in possession and protect them there. This second invasion of the territory by Col. Reid, called out the Green Mountain Boys in considerable force. On the 11th of August, Allen, Warner and Baker appeared on the ground with over one hundred armed men, informed the Scotchmen that they had been imposed upon by Col. Reid, and that the land did not belong to him, and warned them to depart. A short time was given them to remove their effects, when the huts were set on fire and burnt to the ground. The grist mill could not be thus disposed of
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without endangering the saw mill which had previously been erected by New Hampshire men. It was therefore pulled down, and the mill stones, after being broken, were thrown down the falls into the · creek. The land being within a few miles of Crown Point, the New Hampshire men were apprehensive Col. Reid might, by aid from there, attempt to regain the possession. The destruction of the property was therefore deemed necessary as a warning to him that any further improvements he might make would be sure to share a similar fate.
According to the affidavits of several of the tenants, the party of Green Mountain Boys conducted in a very boisterous and swagger- ing manner, boasting that they were a mob, and defying the authority and power of the New York government : that Baker said " he lived out of the bounds of law, that his gun was his law ; " that " he despised everything the New York government could do; that they were resolved never to allow any person claiming under New York to settle in that part of the province ; " that he " tore the bolting cloth belonging to the mill in peices, and distributed it among the mob to wear in their hats as cockades, or trophies of their victory," and that, when asked for his commission for doing the work he was then about, Baker held up his thumb which had been cut off in his encounter with Justice Munro, at Arlington, saying "that was his commission ;" that Allen when asked for his name in order that it might be given to Col. Reid, declared that " his name was Ethan Allen, captain of that mob ; that his authority was his arms, pointing to his gun ; that he and his companions were a lawless mob, their law being a mob law; that if any of Col. Reid's settlers offered thereafter to build a house and keep possession the Green Mountain Boys would burn their houses and whip them into the bargain ; " and when one of the tenants who had said that he meant to build a house and keep possession for Col. Reid was brought before him, Allen with an oath told him if he attempted such a thing he would have him " tied to a tree and skinned alive;" and that Allen and several others declared " that if they could but catch Col. Reid they would cut his head off."
The largest portion of this party of Green Mountain Boys was from the southern part of the territory, but they had been joined by others from several of the neighboring towns. A number were from the adjoining town of Addison, which had been chartered by New Hampshire, in 1761. David Wooster, who had been a captain in the French war, had subsequently obtained a New York patent for three thousand acres within that township, but had found it occu-
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pied by settlers under the New Hampshire charter, who refused to remove or acknowledge his title. "On the return home of the Addison men, thirteen in number, from the expedition against Col. Reid's tenants, they found Capt. Wooster, with his sheriff serving . writs of ejectment on those that were on the land which he claimed. Their indignation rose to the highest pitch, that while they had been driving off the Yorkers for their neighbors, their own homes had been invaded. They finally took him and his sheriff and tied them to a tree, and threatened to give them the beech seal. After blustering a good deal, Wooster saw they were in earnest, and that his threats of New York law did not intimidate them ; he gave in, sent off his sheriff and took up his copies of the writs he had left, and promised not to disturb them again. The whole was sealed over a stiff mug of flip; and in the morning the captain left. IIe was afterwards a major general in the revolutionary army, and was mortally wounded, April 27, 1777, at Ridgeferd, on Tryon's inva- sion of Danbury, Conn.1 it'd,
Information of the attack upon Col. Reid's settlement being laid before the New York council, they unanimously advised the governor to request Gen. Haldimand, then in command of his majesty's forces, " to order a sufficient number of troops to occupy the posts of Ticon- deroga and Crown Point, to give such aid to the civil magistrate as he should from time to time require for the preservation of the public peace, and the due execution of the laws." This advice was at once communicated by the governor to Gen. Haldimand, by whom it was not received with favor. In his answer he observed " that Crown Point being entirely destroyed and unprovided for the quarter- ing of troops, and Ticonderoga being in a most ruinous state, such troops as might be sent thither, would not be able to stay a sufficient time at those posts to render them of much utility." In conclusion, however, he desired to know, (if the request for troops was persisted in) the number that would be required, and asked to have provision made for the expenses of their transportation. The council being of opinion that a body of two hundred troops would be necessary, and the general declaring that no more than fifty could be provided with winter quarters, the council came to the conclusion that the season was too far advanced for the troops to be of any essential service, and that the aid required must be necessarily postponed. Lord Dartmouth, the colonial secretary, being informed of this appli-
1 Doc. ITist., vol. 4, p. 842, 846. Allen's Nar. of 1774, p. 152-6. Ira Allen's Vt., p. 41. Swift's Hist. Addison Co., p. 67. Miss Hemenway's Vt. Magazine, Addison, p. 4, also p. 32, 69, 79.
1
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cation for troops, promptly wrote Gov. Tyron that the requisition " was not under all the circumstances approved." Thus ended this second attempt of the New York claimants to enforce their titles by military power.1
.
The New York government and claimants failing in their open attempts to get possession of the disputed lands, sought to gain a foothold in the territory by sowing the seeds of jealousy and division among the settlers. Some of them who were supposed to possess influence over others were induced, by favorable offers, to accept conveyances of the New York title to their lands in confirmation of that under New Hampshire, thereby separating their interest from that of their neighbors, while others were flattered by appointments to office.
When the New York jurisdiction over the New Hampshire grants had been first assumed in 1765, the whole territory was treated as included in the county of Albany. We have seen that the lands on the east side of the Green mountain had been formed into the counties of Cumberland and Gloucester. By act of the assembly of March 12, 1772, a new county by the name of Charlotte was con- stituted on the west side of the mountain, reaching from Canada line on the north to the Batten kill and the south line of the New York patent of Princetown on the south, and extending west beyond Lakes George and Champlain. The greatest portions of the towns of Arlington and Sunderland, as well as all the territory to the northward of them, were thus included in the new county, while the lands to the south remained in the county of Albany. The courts of the new county were at first directed to be held at the house of Patrick Smith near Fort Edward, but afterwards Skenesborough, now Whitehall, was made the county scat. The organization of the new county was not completed until the summer of 1773, when a full complement of county officers was appointed. Among them were several who resided in the limits of the New York patents of Socialborough and Durham. Of these patents it is necessary to give some account.
The patent of Socialborough, to which reference has already been made, bore date April 3, 1771, and was issued by Gov. Dunmore in violation of the king's order in council of July, 1767, forbidding any such grant. This prohibitory order, and the con- sequent want of authority in the governor to make the grant, was well known to the parties for whose benefit it was made, and it was
' Col. Hist., vol. 8, p. 394, 395, 399. Doc. Ilist., vol. 4, p. 843-846, 855-6.
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therefore illegal and void. The patent covered forty-eight thousand acres of land, bounded on the south by Clarendon, and was a tract thirteen miles in length from north to south, by over six in width, and was nearly identical with the New Hampshire townships of Rutland and Pittsford. Both of these townships had been granted by New Hampshire ten years previously, and both had been occu- pied under the New Hampshire charters prior to the date of the New York patent. The nominal grantees in the patent were forty- eight persons, each entitled to one thousand acres, but most of them, a few days after the patent issued, conveyed their shares to a few New York city speculators, for whose benefit the grant had really been made, and who instigated and sustained all subsequent efforts to eject tlie New Hampshire claimants. 1
The patent of Durham, which was issued by Gov. Tryon, bore date January 7, 1772, and like that of Socialborough was issued in violation of the king's order in council of July, 1767, as well as of the 40th article of his standing instructions, which Tryon had brought with him from England and laid before his council. It purported to grant thirty-two thousand acres in shares of one thousand acres each to thirty-two individuals by name, and was described as a tract bounded on the north by Socialborough and the
1 From the minutes of the proceedings of the New York commissioners appointed to distribute the thirty thousand dollars paid that state by Ver- mont on the final adjustment of the controversy, now in the office of the secretary of state at Albany, it appears that allowances were made for the failure of the New York title in Socialborough, as follows, viz, (all the claimants being residents of New York city) :
James Duane,
15,000 acres.
Goldsbrow Banyar,
4,000
William Walton, 4,000
John Watts, 2,000
John Kelly, 6,000 "
John DeLancey,
1,000 66
Gerard Walton,
1,000 66
Making
33,000
Leaving claims not provided for
15,000
These 15,000 acres probably belonged to members of the New York council, or others whose property had been confiscated as loyalists, and who would not therefore be entitled to any allowance.
It is observable that no claim was made by any person who had under- taken to occupy the land in Socialborough in person, for the probable reason that such persons were mere employes or tenants of the New York owners.
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New York patent of Newry. It was not in regular square or oblong form, but included most if not all the land in the township of Clarendon, which had been chartered by New Hampshire, September 5,1761.
The first settlement made in Clarendon was about the year 1768, under a conveyance or lease from one John H. Lydius, an Indian trader and native of Albany. He claimed title to a very large tract of land on Otter creek by virtue of a deed from some Mohawk Indians, dated in 1732, and a pretended confirmation by the king, through Gov. Shirley of Massachusetts, in 1744. When the settlers found their title to be spurious, they were induced by the representation and influence of the New York land adventurers to seek protection against the New Hampshire title by obtaining a patent under the government of New York, although it was well known the king had forbidden the issuing of any such patent. An arrangement was accordingly entered into with Mr. Duane, to procure a patent for them, by which he and his New York friends were to be entitled to fourteen thousand two hundred and twenty-five acres, nearly half of the land, all the persons who were to become patentees executing a covenant under seal, by which they agreed to stand seized of that quantity for Mr. Duane and his associates. By this means the interest of " the Durhamites," as they were afterwards styled by the New Hampshire claimants, became fully indentified with that of the New York speculators.1
Among the justices of the peace for the new county of Charlotte, were Jacob Marsh of Socialborough, and Benjamin Spencer of Durham. The latter was also an assistant judge of the court of common pleas. Marsh held under the New York patent, and was prominent in advocating it, and in discrediting the New Hampshire title. Spencer is represented by Ira Allen in his history, as " an artful, intriguing and designing man." He had been an active agent of Mr. Duane and his patentees of Socialborough, in their efforts to get possession of the lands held by the settlers and claimants under the New Hampshire charters of Rutland and Pittsford. His name was at the head of the petition to the governor for the patent of
' Albany Records, Patents, vol. 16. Ira Allen's Vt., p. 36. Doc. Hist. N. Y., vol. 4, p. 956. Thompson's Vt. Gaz., Clarendon. Minutes of N. Y. Com. of 1797, p. 12, 88. By these minutes it appears that Mr. Duane was entitled to four thousand seven hundred and forty-one acres of the Durham land, being one-third the quantity reserved. The other two-thirds were probably for two other persons who by becoming loyalists could not share in the land indemnity paid by Vermont. For a more particular account of Lydius and his title, see Appendix No. S.
22
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Durham, and he was one of the principal actors in obtaining it. He was in close correspondence with Mr. Duane, and his letters. some of which have been preserved, although they evince a strong feeling of hostility and prejudice against the New Hampshire claim- ants, throw some light on the nature and character of the controversy, in that section of the disputed district. Under date of April 11, 1772, he had written Mr. Duane from Durham, as follows :
" Sir : The people of Socialborough decline buying of their land, sav- ing four or five, and say they will defend it by force. The people that settled under Lydius's title and those that have come in this spring, have agreed for their land. The New Hampshire men strictly for- bid any further survey being made only under the New Hampshire title, which riotous spirit has prevented many inhabitants settling this spring. You may ask why I do not proceed against them in a due course of law, but you need not wonder when I tell you it has got to that the people go armed and guards are set in the roads to examine people, what their business is, and where they are going, and if they do not give a particular account, they are beaten in a most shameful manner, and it has got to that, they say they will not be brought to justice by this province, and they bid defiance to any authority in the province. We are threatened at a distance of being turned off our lands or our crops destroyed.
* I hope the survey of our patent may not be stopped on account of this tumult, as we shall labor under a great disadvantage if our lands are not divided this Spring. I look upon it to be dangerous for Mr Cockburn to come into the country until those people can be subdued. One Ethan Allen hath brought from Connecticut twelve or fifteen of the most blackguard fellows he can get, double armed, in order to protect him, and if some method is not taken to subdue the towns of Bennington. Shaftsbury, Arling- ton, Manchester and those people in Socialborough and others scat- tered about the woods, there had as good be an end of the govern- ment. I am with all due regard your humble servant,
BENJAMIN SPENCER.
The twelve or fifteen " blackguard fellows" mentioned in the letter as being with Allen were doubtless, Baker, Warner, Cochran and their associate Green Mountain Boys, who though many of them were originally from Connecticut, were then residents in the territory, and claimants under the New Hampshire title.
In another letter to Mr. Duane, dated in May following, Spencer says, "The tumults have got to such a height, both in Socialbo-
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rough and from Bennington to Manchester, that I cannot travel about to do my lawful business, indeed I cannot with safety travel two miles from home. I am threatened daily of having my house burnt over my head, and the rest of the inhabitants driven out of their possessions in Durham. If we are not relieved by government, I know not what our fate must be. The Hampshire people swear that no man shall stay on these disputed lands that favors the go- vernment in any shape whatever. The people of Socialborough prevent any settlements at present, swearing they will shoot the first man that attempts to settle under a title derived from New York, although there are many desirous of purchasing."
These threats it is scarcely necessary to say, were never executed, and were doubtless uttered for the purpose of intimidation. The strife however between the respective claimants grew more earnest and severe as new occupations of lands were made or attempted. The continued efforts of the New York claimants to get possession of the lands covered by the patent of Socialborough, aided by Spencer and others residing in Durham, and the determination of the latter to prevent any lands being occupied by New Hampshire claimants under the charter of Clarendon produced bitter controversies that not unfrequently led to violent collisions. The active efforts of the newly appointed officers to exercise and establish their authority over the New Hampshire claimants, in connexion with the advocacy of the New York title by those who had recently been induced to accept it, increased the apprehensions of their neighbors, who held under the New Hampshire charters for the security of their possessions. If the Yorkers could fully establish their jurisdiction and au- thority over the territory covered by those two New York patents, they would not only deprive the New Hampshire claimants of their lands within the townships of Pittsford, Rutland and Clarendon, but would gain a footing in the district that might enable them to over- throw all the New Hampshire charters.
To counteract these alarming movements of their adversaries, it was resolved in the councils of the Green Mountain Boys that none of the New York officers residing in the disputed territory should be allowed to perform any official acts, and that in order to separate the interests of the inhabitants of Durham from that of their New York city associates, they should be required to acknowledge the validity of the New Hampshire title by purchasing and holding under it, and that if mild measures should not be found sufficient to carry into effect these resolves, forcible means should be resorted to.
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In accordance with these resolves, a large body of Green Moun- tain Boys with Allen and their other leaders visited Clarendon and its vicinity carly in the fall of 1773, and invited the compliance of the New York officers and claimants, informing them that unless such compliance took place within a specified time, they must expect force would be used. Justice Spencer having heard of the approach of the party, and being apprehensive of danger kept out of the way and was not to be found. No actual violence against the persons or property of the inhabitants appears to have been used at this time, except that a small dog which had the misfortune to be named Tryon was cut to pieces to show their dislike and defiance of the governor after whom the poor animal had been called. Threats of violence were however, freely used, in case the warning then given them should not be heeded, which threats it was hoped would frighten the New York leaders into submission. In this the Green Moun- tain Boys were disappointed. The justices still persisted in issuing writs against the New Hampshire men, other New York officers continued to act, and the claimants under that province led by Spencer, Marslı, and Samson Jenny, who held the place of coronor, were loud in their advocacy of the New York title.
A second visit to Durham was accordingly made. In order to be sure of capturing Spencer a party of some twenty or thirty men under the lead of Ethan Allen and Remember Baker went to his house about 11 o'clock on Saturday night, the 20th of November, and took him into custody. He was carried about two miles to the house of one Green, and there kept under the guard of four men, until Monday morning, when he was taken to "the house of Joseph Smith, of Durham, inn keeper." Being informed that he was to be put on trial for his offence against the New Hampshire men, he was asked where he would choose to be tried ; to which he replied that he was not guilty of any crime, but that if he must be tried, he would prefer that the place should be at his own door. This favor was readily conceded to him.
By this time the numbers of the Green Mountain Boys had increased to about one hundred and thirty, all armed with guns, cutlasses, etc. The people of Clarendon (alias Durham), with many from Socialborough, having notice of what was going on, were also assembled to witness the proceeding. Before commencing the trial Allen addressed the multitude at some length, informing them that " the proprietors of the New Hampshire Grants had appointed him- self, Seth Warner, Remember Baker and Robert Cochran to inspect and set things in order, and to see that there should be no intruders
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on the grants," declaring among other things that " Durham had become a hornet's nest," which must be broken up. After conclud- ing his harangue, the rioters proceeded to erect what they styled " a judgment seat," upon which Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, Remember Baker and Robert Cochran took their places as judges, Spencer was then ordered to stand before them, to take off his hat and listen to the accusations against him. Allen then charged him " with cudling with the land jobbers of New York to prevent the claimants ,of the New Hampshire rights from holding the lands they claimed, and with issuing a warrant as a justice of the peace contrary to their orders ; and Remember Baker charged him with having accepted a commission as magistrate in the colony of New York, and of having acted as magistrate in pursuance thereof con- trary to their orders, and of having represented their bad conduct in a letter by him wrote and sent to New York, and of having conveyed a piece of land by title derived under a grant obtained in the colony of New York, and with endeavoring to seduce and inveigle the people to be subject to the laws and. government of the colony of New York."
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