514 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



fore introduced to us by Col. Washington, who had dined with him 

 at Sample's. Most probably Lord Dunmore, who was an intense loy- 

 alist, had early information of transactions presaging the rupture of the 

 colonies from the mother country, and in the controversy instituted 

 over the boundary c[uestion, as well as in his management of the Indian 

 war of 1774, known as Dunmore's war, he was impelled in both to put 

 the two colonies of Pennsylvania and Virginia in antagonism to each 

 other. And it must be remembered that on February 26, 1773, West- 

 moreland county had been erected, covering all the territory of south- 

 western Pennsylvania, and the seat of justice was placed at Hanna's 

 Town, about four miles from the present Greensburg. The establish- 

 ment of government and courts of justice over this territory neces- 

 sitated increased taxation upon the lands of the pioneers ; and, 

 as the greater number of them had come over the mountains from 

 Maryland and Virginia, by way of Braddock's road, it was not a mat- 

 ter of very great difficulty to equal the number of patriotic Pennsylva- 

 nians by the numl)er of Virginian partisans from our own settlers. It 

 may be noted that Capt. William Crawford, he who was burned at the 

 stake by the Indians at Sandusky in July, 1782, was a Pennsylvanian, 

 being one of the justices of the peace, and justices of the county of, Bed- 

 ford, when first organized in 1771 ; but he afterwards espoused the 

 cause of Virginia in the boundary controversy, and in 1775, when pre- 

 siding judge of the Westmoreland county court, his judicial office was 

 taken from him, as he had then accepted the appointment of justice 

 under Lord Dunmore. 



On January i, 1774, Dr. John Connolly had posted a printed 

 advertisement at Pittsburgh, and throughout the vicinity, announcing 

 that Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, had been pleased to nomi- 

 nate and appoint him " Captain, Commandant of the Militia of Pitts- 

 burgh and its Dependencies," and proposed " moving to the House of 

 Burges.ses the necessity of erecting a New County, to include Pitts- 

 burgh;" a Virginia county, of course. This official announcement 

 created some consternation among the good people of the Pennsylvania 

 jurisdiction. Arthur St. Clair, prothonotary of Westmoreland county, 

 caused Dr. Connolly to be arrested, but the prisoner, after a few days 

 confinement in the county jail at Hanna's Town, prevailed upon the 

 sheriff to permit him to visit Pittsburgh, pledging his honor to return 

 before the next court in April. He did return, but in a manner en- 

 tirely unexpected. He returned with from one hundred and fifty to 



