The Grounds of the Controversy -- Issue of Conflicting Patents -- Schedule
of Patents and Date of Issue -- Difficulties Engendered in Attempts to
Eject Settlers -- A Military Organization under Ethan Allen -- Lydius's
Claim and Grants under it -- The First Arrest and Trial -- Other Incidents
-- Benjamin Hough's Offense and Punishment -- Proclamations and Counter
-- Proclamations -- The Controversy Quieted by the Opening of the Revolutionary
Struggle. |
But a brief reference can be made to the long and bitter controversy
with the authorities of New York, which caused so much annoyance and troubleto
the early settlers on the New Hampshire Grants. It was a controversywhich
was to decide the strength of New York laws and the fate of the settlerson
the territory now constituting the county of Rutland, as well as the surrounding
vicinity. The situation of affairs that led to this historical controversy
may be briefly stated as follows:
On the 10th of April, 1765, a proclamation was issued by Lieutenant-Governor
COLDEN, of New York, giving a copy of an order of the king in council of
the 20th of July preceding, declaring the boundary line between New Hampshire
and New York to be the Connecticut River, and notifying his majesty's subjects
to govern themselves accordingly.
That a twenty mile line from the Hudson, extending northerly to
Lake Champlain, was the eastern boundary of New York, is proven by the
charter title of the Duke of York upon his accession to the throne in 1685,
making New York a royal province. The disputed territory had been repeatedly
and uniformly recognized by the king's government as belonging to the Province
of New Hampshire, and never to that of New York.
The king, in 1741, commissioned Benning WENTWORTH governor of New
Hampshire, describing his province as reaching westward "until it met his
other governments," thus bounding it westerly by New York. Governor
WENTWORTH, with authority from the king to grant his lands, issued charters
of over one hundred townships, each of six miles square, within such territory.
Among these charters nearly all the land in the present Rutland county
had been granted in sixteen different townships, viz.: Brandon (by the
name of Neshobe), Castleton (by the name of Harwich), Pawlet,
Pittsford, Poultney, Rutland, Sherburne, Shrewsbury, Sudbury, Tinmouth,
Wallingford and Wells.
Meanwhile, and soon after the issue of the proclamation of Lieutenant-Governor
COLDEN, he began the issue of patents in the present territory of Rutland
county, and by the following November had granted about twelve hundred
acres under what were termed military patents, chiefly in Benson, Fairhaven
and Pawlet. The military patents entire that were granted in the county
embraced more than 26,000 acres, all of which patents, except one thousand
acres, were made in direct contravention of the order of the king, of July
24, 1767, forbidding the New York governors from making such grants. The
last patents embraced lands in Pawlet, Wells, Poultney, Castleton, Fairhaven
and Benson. Although these military patents were ostensibly a reward for
military service, they were in reality made for the benefit of land speculators.
The grants made for purposes of settlement were not to exceed one thousand
acres each, and to only one individual; these were termed civil grants.
The following compilation from the records of New York patents shows the
date of each patent, the name of the leading patentee, the location of
the tract and the number of acres as far as relates to Rutland county :
1770, May
20, KELSO, Tinmouth, 21,500 acres; August 1, HUTTON, Shrewsbury, 12,000
acres; September 8, Wm. FAQUAR, Benson, 5,000 acres.
1771, February
28, Adam GILCHRIST, Poultney, 12,000 acres; April 3, Socialborough, Rutland,
Pittsford and Clarendon, 48,000 acres; June 12, Halesborough, Brandon,
23,ooo acres; June 24, Newry, Shrewsbury, Sherburne and Mendon, 37,000
acres; June 28, Richmond, Wells and vicinity, 24,000 acres.
1772, January
7, Durham, Clarendon and Wallingford, 32,000 acres; February 20, John TUDOR,
Danby, 1,000 acres; November 6, Henry VAN VLECK, Ira, 5,000 acres; June
19, John THOMPSON, Pawlet, 2,000 acres. Making in all 222,500 acres.
The patent
of Socialborough bore date April 3, 1771, and the grant covered about 48,000
acres, as stated, forming a tract thirteen miles in length and six in width,
and was nearly identical with the New Hampshire townships of Rutland and
Pittsford. The patent of Durham, which was issued by Governor TRYON, bore
date January 7, 1772, and included most, if not all, of the land in the
township of Clarendon, which had been chartered by New Hampshire September
5, 1761.
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It was well known in New York that these lands had long been granted
by New Hampshire, and were actually occupied under such grants, and the
new patents were procured in utter disregard of the rights and claims of
the settlers. So all attempts to survey the new patents, or to eject the
present holders, were met with sturdy resistance on the part of the settlers,
and thus it came about that those who opposed the authority of New York
were stigmatized as "rioters," "conspirators," and "wanton disturbers of
the public peace," while the "Yorkers" were in turn called "land jobbers,"
"land pirates," etc.
Of the many personal collisions that grew out of this state of affairs,
we can refer to only a few; others will be found described in the various
town histories. Committees were appointed for local protection from the
operations of the New York speculators, and towards the latter part of
the year 1771 a military organization was instituted with Ethan ALLEN in
command. The duties of this body were to watch for and report in their
several neighborhoods any hostile movements of their adversaries, and to
hold themselves in readiness to move to any part of the threatened territory
whither they were directed for the defense of the interests of the settlers.
The first settlement was made in Clarendon about 1768, under a lease
from one John Henry 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 Governor SHIRLEY, of Massachusetts, in 1744. This claim
aroused the "Green Mountain Boys," who at once determined to put a stop
to this encroachment. They determined that none of the New York officers
living in the disputed territory should be permitted to perform any official
acts, and that in order to separate the interests of the inhabitants of
Durham from those of their New York associates, the latter 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 resolutions, forcible means should be resorted
to.
This soon led to open hostilities against the New York adherents,
and especially Benjamin SPENCER, of Clarendon. Under the lead of Ethan
ALLEN and Remember BAKER, on Sunday night, the 20th of November, a party
of twenty or thirty men took SPENCER into custody and kept him until Monday
morning, by which time the number of Green Mountain Boys had increased
to over one hundred. Before beginning SPENCER's trial, ALLEN addressed
the people, informing them that he and others had been appointed "to inspect
and set things in order, and to see that there should be no intruders on
the grants, and declaring that Clarendon [then Durham] had become
a hornet's nest that must be broken up." The trial then began, SPENCER
being accused of "cuddling with the land-jobbers of New York to prevent
claimants of the New Hampshire rights from holding the lands which they
claimed, and with issuing a warrant as justice of the peace contrary to
orders; and with endeavoring to seduce and inviegle the people to be subject
to the laws and government of the colony of New York."
SPENCER was found guilty and his house declared to be a nuisance,
and sentence was passed that it should be burned to the ground, and that
he should promise that he would not in the future act as a justice of the
peace under authority from New York. On an appeal from SPENCER the sentence
was reconsidered, and it was decided that the house should not be wholly
destroyed, but only the roof should be taken off and might be put on again,
provided SPENCER should declare that it was so put on under the New Hampshire
title, and should purchase a right under the charter of that province.
SPENCER, promising compliance with these terms, the Green Mountain Boys
proceeded to remove the roof "with great shouting, much noise and tumult."
On a further promise that he would not act again as magistrate, SPENCER
was discharged from custody. A part of the company then visited the house
of the New York coroner, named JENNY, and finding him absent and his house
deserted, set it on fire and it was burned to the ground. Most of the inhabitants
of Clarendon who held under the New York patents were also visited, and,
upon their being threatened, agreed to purchase under the New Hampshire
title. The New York narrative of this invasion of Clarendon said: "The
men composing the mob conducted themselves in a coarse, boisterous and
blustering manner, using very violent as well as profane language, threatening
destruction and death to those who should fail to acknowledge the New Hampshire
title and become its advocates."
These incidents serve to illustrate the measures of the Green Mountain
Boys during those troubled times, as well as the spirit of the people and
the temper of the period of the long and bitter controversy. Many manifestoes,
appeals and other documents were issued and negotiations attempted, and
violent measures adopted against the New York claimants, until they, in
general, became unwilling to further incur the displeasure of the Vermonters.
One notable instance, which occurred in Rutland county, will serve
to illustrate the punishments inflicted at times on the interlopers and
sympathizers with the hated authority. Benjamin HOUGH not only occupied
land in Clarendon under a New York patent, but during his residence, from
1773, had been an odious advocate of that title, although he claimed to
have agreed for that of New Hampshire. In 1774, after a visit to New York,
he returned with a commission as justice of the peace, and was loud in
his denunciations of rioters and active in the exercise of his office as
a magistrate. He was warned verbally and in writing to desist from the
further exercise of his official authority, and threatened with punishment
if he persisted. He set these warnings at defiance and the indignation
against him became very great, and it was determined to make an example
of him such as would silence him and deter others from a similar course.
He was accordingly seized by a party of his neighbors in Clarendon, placed
in a sleigh and taken thirty miles to Sunderland, where he was kept for
three days under strict guard, until Monday, the 30th day of January, 1775,
when he was tried. He was found guilty and sentenced "to be tied to a tree
and receive two hundred lashes on the naked back, and then, as soon as
he should be able, should depart the New Hampshire Grants and not return
again until his majesty's pleasure should be known in the premises, on
pain of receiving five hundred lashes." This sentence was read to him by
Ethan ALLEN and immediately put into execution. He was then given a pass
couched in the following terms: "This may certify to the inhabitants of
the New Hampshire Grants that Benjamin HOUGH hath this day received a full
punishment for his crimes committed heretofore against this country, and
our inhabitants are ordered to give the said HOUGH free and unmolested
passport toward the city of New York, or to the westward of our grants,
he behaving as becometh."
This chastisement of HOUGH seems to have been the last act of personal
violence to which the claimants under New York, as such, were subjected
by the Green Mountain Boys in this county during the colonial period, and
open resistance ceased from that time.
Another prominent feature of the controversy was the issuing of
proclamations by the New York authorities, which only served to increase
the antipathy of the settlers. The proclamation for the arrest of ALLEN
and his associates was treated by them with defiant contempt, and in return
they issued and extensively circulated in this county a burlesque proclamation
over their own signatures, of which the following is the text:
"25 Pounds
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 will apprehend those common
disturbers, viz., James DUANE and John KEMPE, and bring them to Landlord
FAY's at Bennington, shall receive £15 reward for James DUANE and
£ 10 for John Kempe, Paid by
"ETHAN ALLEN,
"REMEMBER
BAKER,
“ROBERT
COCKRAN.
" Dated
Poultney, Feb'y 5, 1772."
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Many of the most stirring events of this bitter controversy occurred
in this county, the records of which have passed into general history,
and aroused the people of the New Hampshire Grants to put forth their highest
efforts for the protection of their homes and their rights. The intellectual,
as well as the physical, nature and strength of the leaders was developed.
In perusing the records of those transactions, the living expression of
the times is caught. The actors therein were men of courage and intellect;
they were a plain, industrious, hardy race of men, who emigrated hither
to cultivate the soil and secure a competency for themselves and their
children. They cared not under what government they came, if permitted
,to enjoy unmolested the hard-earned fruits of their industry.
The opening of the Revolutionary War found the inhabitants of this
section thus engaged in the controversy for the title to their lands and
the government which they chose, and it is difficult to conceive what would
have been the issue of the controversy had not its progress been arrested
by the great struggle for freedom, which dwarfed all minor troubles. The
inhabitants hereabouts soon began to feel their importance in the oncoming
contest; and their own immediate safety, as well as a strong sympathy with
the general hostility to the mother country, led them to take an early
and prominent part in the common cause.
"History
of Rutland County Vermont with Illustrations &
Biographical
Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men & Pioneers"
Edited
by H. Y. Smith & W. S. Rann, Syracuse, N. Y.
D.
Mason & Co., Publishers 1886
History
of Rutland County
Chapter
IV.
(pages
50-55)
Transcribed
by Karima, 2002
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