USA > Vermont > The history of Vermont, from its discovery to its admission into the Union in 1791. By Hiland Hall > Part 7
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1 It has already been seen that the "ancient Dutch records," which the assembly were desirous of having examined, furnished conclusive proof that New Netherland, at the time of its conquest by the English, did not reach eastward beyond a twenty mile line from the Hudson.
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and together with the previous reports and proceedings of the New York authorities in relation to the inatter, was transmitted to England to be laid before his majesty, as evidence that the province extended eastward to Connecticut river.1
These representations do not, however, appear to have had much effect upon the English board of trade, who, in May, 1757, after duly considering the same, made their report to the king, declaring it as their opinion that a twenty mile line from the Hudson should be fully established by his majesty as the boundary between the two provinces of New York and Massachusetts, as has already been seen.
In February, 1761, Cadwallader Colden, having by the death of Lieut. Gov. DeLancey, become acting chief magistrate of the colony, wrote to the lords of trade that he was " clearly convinced the province of New York extended eastward to Connecticut river, and that New Hampshire could have no pretence to the westward of that river," and he earnestly urged that the river should be established as the boundary. But notwithstanding the zeal of Mr. Colden and others, in favor of the castern extension of New York, the officers of the province were by no means unanimous on the subject, as appears by a formal representation made by the council to Gov. Monckton, on the 25th of June, 1763. At the head of the council, at that time as its president, was Mr. Horsmanden, who had been one of its members for thirty years, and who was afterwards chief justice of the colony. The report referred to the adjustment of the boundary by the king's commissioners, with the assent of those of Connecticut in 1664; to the letter of Col. Nichols to the Duke of York, approving such adjustment, and also to the action of the king's commissioners, in 1665, declaring a twenty mile line from the Hudson to the western boundary of Massachusetts; and it expressed the belief of the council, that a twenty mile line from the Hudson was understood at an early day to be applicable to the whole eastern boundary of New York, and that it would, therefore, be an equitable line with both Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The council accordingly advised Gov. Monckton that in order to prevent further tumults and controversies on the border, it would be proper to agree to its establishment as such .?
Upon the return of Governor Monckton to England, the adminis- tration of the affairs of the province devolved upon Lieut. Gov.
1 Doc. Ilist. N. Y., vol. 4, pp. 537-547 ; vol. 3, p. 734. New York Assem. Jour., June 14, 1753 ; Law of July 4, 1753.
2 Col. Hist. N. Y., vol. 7, pp. 562-5. Colden's Letter Book in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Library, Sept. 25, 1763.
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Colden, who, in numerous communications to the lords of trade, prosecuted the boundary claim with great industry and skill ; and, as before stated, succeeded in July, 1764, in obtaining an order of the king in council declaring " the western banks of the river Con- necticut from where it enters the province of Massachusetts bay, as far north as the forty-fifth degree of northern latitude, to be the boundary line between the two provinces of New Hampshire and New York." (For a copy of this order See Appendix No. 4.)
The reasons for making this order are not stated in the order, and must, perhaps to some extent, be matter of conjecture. The transfer of the territory from New Hampshire to New York, could not have been founded upon any considerations of public necessity or convenience. It weakened a small province to increase the power and extent of a larger one; was made without consulting the feelings or interest of the people who were the subject of the transfer, and was contrary to their wishes.1
. That the order was not understood by the English government as establishing an old boundary, but as making a new one, may be fairly inferred from the letters of the lords of trade of July 13, 1764, to Lieut. Gov. Colden, written some days before the date of the order, in which they say that " as the reasons you assign for making Connecticut river the boundary line between the two provinces appear to us to have great weight, we have adopted and recommended that proposition." These reasons of Lieut. Gov. Colden are to be sought in his letters to the board of trade of Sept. 26, 1763, and of January 20, February 8, and April 12, 1764; all of which will be found in the seventh volume of the Colonial History of New York.
Besides the claim of right which he made under the old charter to the Duke of York, the lieutenant governor urged several consid- erations of expediency in favor of the Connecticut river boundary. The king's revenue, he stated, would be increased by having the lands granted under the government of New York, the quit rent in that province being two shillings and sixpence sterling for cach hundred acres, and but one shilling in New Hampshire. A great number of reduced officers and soldiers, he said, who were entitled to bounties, under the king's proclamation of 1763, were desirous of locating their land in New York, and would not accept of grants
1 It was for a long time believed by the settlers that fraudulent petitions had been presented to the crown in their names, falsely stating that they wished to be annexed to New York. See Ira Allen's Vt., p. 18. But no evidence to sustain such belief has been found, and it was probably errone- ous.
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under New Hampshire. But these reasons seem hardly sufficient to justify so important a measure. Lieut. Gov. Colden further alleged that it would be more convenient for the inhabitants of the territory in question to be connected with New York, for the reason that their commerce and business would naturally be with Albany and along the Hudson river. This must have been understood to have been but partially true, it being evident that the business of the largest part of the territory would be likely to take other directions. Lieut. Gov. Colden also made loud and earnest complaints against the conduct of Gov. Wentworth for granting numerous townships of land without any expectations, as he alleged, that the grantees would occupy and improve them, but to enable them "to make jobs " by selling out their claims to others ; as evidence of which he, among other things, stated that " a man no better in appearance than a pedler had lately traveled through the provinces of New Jersey and New York, hawking and selling his pretended rights of thirty townships on trifling considerations." He also complained of Gov. Wentworth's violation of an engagement with the governor of New York in regard to his granting lands, and of his selfishness in reserving a farm to himself in each of the numerous townships he had patented. But however strong and weighty reasons such conduct of Gov. Wentworth might furnish the king for removing him from office and placing another in his stead, it could not possibly be any ground for dismembering the province over which he temporarily presided. The period was, however, favorable to the success of the New York claim. The English ministry had an- nouced their intention to tax the colonies and were preparing their measures for that purpose. They were desirous of circumscribing within as narrow limits as possible, the stubborn republican spirit of New England, from which they anticipated the most determined opposition. Lieut. Gov. Colden was favorably known to the ministry for the high-toned tory principles which he had mani- fested in advocating the taxation of the colonies by parliament, the establishment of fixed salaries for the crown officers, and " an heredi- tary council of privileged landholders, in imitation of the lords of parliament," to curb and control the popular features in the colonial governments. In urging the claims of New York he did not over- look the political aspect of the question, but presented it in the fol- lowing characteristic language, viz :
" The New England governments," he says, "are founded on republican principles, and these principles are zealously inculcated on their youth, in opposition to the principles of the constitution of
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Great Britain. The government of New York, on the contrary, is established as near as may be, after the model of the English con- stitutions. Can it be good policy to diminish the extent and juris- diction in his Majesty's province of New York to extend the power and influence of the others ? "
It is well known that the measures of the English ministry at this period were adopted with entire reference to the great object of establishing an unlimited power over the colonies, and there can be little doubt that this political argument of Lieut. Gov. Colden - founded as it was upon undeniable facts -exerted a controling influ- ence in the councils of the king, and decided the controversy in favor of the more aristocratic province.
Although the order of the king, annexing the New Hampshire grants to New York, bore date July 20, 1764, yet for some reason, which has not been explained, it was not made known to the settlers until the spring of 1765.
It appears from the minutes of the New York council that it was laid before that body by Lieut. Gov. Colden on the 10th of April of that year, and in pursuance of their advice, a proclamation was issued bearing that date, giving notice of the same "to the end that all his Majesty's subjects within the province might conform thereto and govern themselves accordingly." The proclamation recited the order in council at length, and will be found in full in the Appendix, No. 4
The territory annexed to New York by virtue of this order of the king, comprised the whole of the present state of Vermont. It had until then, as has been seen, been considered as a part of New Hampshire, and a large portion of it had been granted in townships of six miles square by Gov. Wentworth of that province. The charters of these townships had been issued under the great seal of the province in the name of the king, George the Third by the grace of God, of Great Britain. France and Ireland, king defender of the Faith, etc.," being the grantor, "by and with the advice of our trusty and well beloved Benning Wentworth, Esq., our governor and commander in chief, of our said province of New Hampshire, in New England, " etc. The land covered by each charter was usually divided into seventy shares of which sixty-four were granted to that number of individuals whose names were entered on the back of the charter ; upon which was also an indorsement disposing of the remaining six shares as follows. viz :
" Ilis Excellency Benning Wentworth, Esq., a tract of land to con- tain five hundred acres, marked BW on the plan, which is to be
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accounted two shares, one whole share for the incorporated society for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts, one share for a glebe for the church of England, as by law established, one share for the first settled minister of the gospel, and one share for the benefit of schools in said town."
By these charters there were reserved to the crown "all the white and other pine trees fit for masting our royal navy " and also a yearly rent for the first ten years of one ear of corn if demanded, and after the expiration of that time a rent of one shilling, proclam- ation money for every one hundred acres, payable at the council chamber at Portsmouth, on the 25th of December, annually.1
Prior to the king's order, making Connecticut river the boundary, the number of those charters which had been issued by Gov. Went- worth was about one hundred and thirty, sixteen of which had been granted before the breaking out of the French war in 1754, and the residue after its close -from 1760 to 1764. The grantees in these charters were exclusively inhabitants of New England, largely those of Massachusetts and Connecticut, though many were from New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Little or nothing, indeed, was known of the territory by the people of the other colonies. It had, however, long occupied the attention of New England. Separating its frontier settlements from those of the French and Indians of Canada, its dark points had for several generations been frequently pericolo passed through by New England people, either as hunters, prisoners to the Indians, fugitives from captivity, or soldiers on expeditions against their enemies. Previous to the last French war, several routes to the lakes and Canada, across different parts of the territory had often been traversed by them, and had become quite well known. That war called to the field in the vicinity of lakes George and Champlain, and finally to Canada, large bodies of New England troops who participated in the bloody contest for supremacy with the French, and in its successful issue. In 1755 the colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island fur- nished over six thousand men for the expedition to the lakes; in 1757 a still larger number, and probably an equal or greater number in cach of the three last years of the war. Early in the summer of 1759, the French abandoned and the English took possession of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and the next year the conquest of Canada was completed. During the two latter years of the war, a
1 (For the form of a New Hampshire charter, See Thompson's Vermont, part 2d, page 224.)
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military road was constructed from Crown Point to Number Four, Charlestown, New Hampshire, and other routes from that fortress and Ticonderoga were opened, taking a more southern direction. In passing to and from the military stations on the lakes and in Canada, almost every part of the territory, now Vermont, had been explored and noticed by New England men. Much of the soil appeared rich and of easy tillage, and to possess many advantages over the lands which could be obtained nearer their residences. The desire to possess and improve new lands, which has since distinguished the people of New England, was then as strong among them as it has been since. The dangers from a foreign enemy being happily removed by the termination of the war, the wish to emigrate to this territory extensively prevailed. Particular localities had sometimes been selected by officers and men as they traversed the territory. Such was the case in regard to the township of Bennington, the first that was granted by Gov. Wentworth. Capt. Samuel Robinson of Hardwick, Massachusetts, belonging to the regiment of Col. Ruggles, in returning from the lakes with his company or a portion of it, encamped on its soil over night, and resolved to settle upon it. Finding that it had been granted some years previously, he sought out the original proprietors and with others, his associates, purchased their rights, or a large portion of them, and commenced its occupa- tion in the spring of 1761. ' Purchases of lands in other townships, by other parties, were made in like manner, and numerous new grants of townships were obtained from Gov. Wentworth by persons who had thus visited the lands for which they sought. It was usual for people residing in the vicinity of each other, in different parts of New England, to associate themselves together to the necessary number of sixty, in order to procure the charter of a township, and to defray the expenses of the charter and survey.
In this manner most of the charters were granted, and thus a very great proportion of the people in all parts of New England became directly interested in the New Hampshire title. In one hundred and thirty townships of sixty proprietors each, they would number nearly eight thousand, cach of whom was entitled to about three hundred and thirty acres of land. Some of the names in the charters will doubtless be found repeated in others of a subsequent date ; but making liberal allowances for such repetitions, and for cases in which one person obtained more than a single right by the use of the names of others, the number of actual proprietors would still be extremely large. They probably numbered several
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thousand. Very many of them were persons who obtained grants for speedy settlement, either by themselves, or by members of their families.1
At the time of Lieut. Gov. Colden's proclamation in the spring of 1765, announcing the annexation of the lands west of Connecticut river to New York, the settlers under the New Hampshire charters had spread themselves over a considerable extent of country, and were constantly receiving accessions to their numbers from Massa- chusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, in all of which colonies extensive preparations were making for further emigration. The settlers had cleared lands, erected dwellings, outhouses and mills, laid out and opened roads, established schools and organized churches. Their several charters had conferred on them all the " privileges and immunities" of other corporate towns in New Hampshire, in con- formity to which they had organized themselves, chosen their town officers and passed local ordinances and regulations for their govern- ment, and were in short enjoying many of the advantages of well ordered and cultivated society, with favorable prospects for future improvement and prosperity.
This change of jurisdiction, which had been made without the knowledge of the settlers, was displeasing to them. A jealousy, to call it by no harsher name, had always existed between the colonies of New England and the colony of New York, and the people of the former were not favorably inclined towards the institutions and government of the latter province. A large portion of the lands in New York had been granted in very extensive tracts, the cultivators of the soil occupying the position of tenants to landlord owners, who were dignified with the lordly titles of patroons. This tenancy was looked upon by the independent farmers of New England as a species of degrading servitude. The government of New York, as had been represented by Lieut. Gov. Colden, was also of an aristocratic character, in which the body of the people appeared to have but little participation. Nearly all the officers, from the highest to the lowest, from the judges of the superior courts down to overseers of the poor and of highways, were appointed, either directly or indi- rectly by the central executive authority ; the town meeting, that school and nursery of republican equality and instruction, in which the men of New England were accustomed to elect their inferior
1 Hildreth's U. S., vol. 2, chap. 26 and 27. Belknap, chap. 22. Hall's Eastern Vt., Index Roads. Slude's State Papers, p. 13.
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officers and to consult and legislate upon their important local affairs being an institution scarcely known in that province. 1
But notwithstanding the aversion of the settlers to the New York system of laws, the new jurisdiction would have been quietly sub- mitted to if nothing further had been demanded. But the New York government not only claimed to extend its laws over the terri- tory, but insisted that the titles of the settlers under New Hamp- shire were absolutely void, and proceeded at once to grant the lands anew to others, which occasioned the long and bitter controversy that followed. Before however, giving an account of that controversy it will be necessary to take some notice of the land system of the province of New York and of the manner in which it was adminis- tered by those in authority.
1 Mr. Sabine in his American Loyalists, vol. 1, p. 28, appropriately de- signates and describes the political and social condition of New York at the commencement of the revolution in a few words, as follows: "To say that the political institutions of New York formed a feudal aristocracy, is to define them with tolerable accuracy. The soil was held by a few. The masses were mere retainers and tenants as in the monarchies of Europe. Nor has the condition of society entirely changed, since "anti-rent " dissen- tions of our own time arose from the vestige which remains."
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CHAPTER VII.
GENERAL CHARACTER OF NEW YORK COLONIAL LAND GRANTS.
1664-1775.
Early authority of New York governors to grant lands -Their selfish con- duct - A portion of their extravagant grants annulled - New regulations of the crown to prevent abuses, made, and evaded- The province par- celed out into large tracts to favorite persons- The governors by exacting exorbitant fees and reserving lands for themselves, in the names of others, acquired immense fortunes - When Lieut. Gov. Colden came into office in 1761, most of the vacant lands in the province had been granted - Hence his anxiety to extend its boundary to the Connecticut, and his disregard of the titles of the settlers.
T THE authority to grant lands, which the king had conferred on the governors of his royal colonies, had been very generally exercised by them with less regard to the interests of the erown and its subjects than to their own individual emolument, and in none of them had this disregard of the public good been carried to. so great excess as in the province of New York.
The principal object of the erown in allowing the governors to grant lands was declared to be to promote the settlement of the country, and thereby to increase the strength and wealth of the colonies. Lands were not to be sold by the crown for a considera- tion to be paid, but a small rent was to be reserved, payable annually, termed a quit rent, which it was anticipated might eventually yield some revenue to the government. Nothing was therefore to be paid by the subject on receiving the grant, except a compensation to the governor and other officials for their time and labor in pre- paring and issuing the patent.
When by the accession of James, duke of York, to the throne in 1686, the colony of New York became a royal province, Gov. Don- gan was by his commission, empowered, "with the advice and con- sent of his council, to agree with the planters and inhabitants of the province concerning such lands, tenements and hereditaments as then were or thereafter might be in his power to dispose of, and them to grant under such moderate quit rents, services and acknowledg- ments to be thereupon reserved to us, as he, by and with the advice aforesaid, should think fit."
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This authority in the same terms was continued to succeeding governors, and was by most of them very greatly abused. Instead of granting lands for purposes of settlement and cultivation, as had been intended by the king, they were generally parceled out in very large tracts to such persons as would by their money and influence, best contribute to the immediate wants of the governors, without any regard to the revenue of the crown, or to the improvement of the colony. Little notice of this misconduct appears to have been taken in England until Lord Bellamont became governor of the province in 1698, when he called the attention of the board of trade to the subject, by furnishing them with a list and description of several enormous grants which had then recently been made by Col. Fletcher, his immediate predecessor. This communication having been duly considered, the board made a representation of the matter to the lords justices of England, who administered the government during the absence of King William on the continent, and who directed the Earl of Bellamont "to put in practice all methods whatsoever allowed by law for the breaking and annulling the said grants."
Lord Bellamont, in obedience to these instructions, called the atten- tion of the New York assembly to the subject, and with considera- ble difficulty, succeeded in procuring the passage of an act entitled " an act for vacating, breaking and annulling several extravagant grants of land made by Col. Benjamin Fletcher, late governor of this province under his majesty." The principal grants which were vacated by this act (passed May 12, 1699), were the following, viz :
1. One to Capt. John Evans of a tract lying on the west side of Hudson's river, comprising a large portion of the present counties of Ulster and Orange, and containing about six hundred square miles, with a reserved rent to the crown, for the whole territory, of twenty shillings per annum.
2. One to Col. Nicholas Bayard, a member of the governor's council, of the valley of Schoharie creek, extending from the mouth of the creek at the Mohawk river about fifty miles toward its source, the rent one otter skin per annum.
3. A grant to the Rev. Godfrey Dellius, minister at Albany and four others, of fifty miles in length by four in breadth along the Mohawk river, two miles wide on each side of it, with a quit rent of one beaver skin per annum for the first seven years, and five beaver skins forever after.
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