Ckl.mrim:: I'knnsvlvama J)ol'.\L)AK\ Con iruxkrsv. 515 



one hundred and eighty men, " with their colors flying, and Captains, 

 iVc, had their swords drawn." "The first thing they did was to 

 ])hue sentinels at the court-house door, and then Connolly sent a mes- 

 sage that he would wait on the magistrates and communicate the 

 reasons of his ajjpearance :" so says the letter of Thomas Smith to 

 (iovernor Penn, dated April 7, 1774. Connolly explained his ap])ear- 

 ance. saying among other things, " My orders from the (lOvernment of 

 Virginia not being ex])licft, I have raised the Militia to su])port the 

 Civil Authorit\- oi that Colony vested in me." The Penns\ hania 

 Court at Hanna's 'lown rose the next day, April 8th, and /Eneas 

 Mackay, Devereux Smith, and Andrew McFarlane, three of the justices 

 residing at Pittsburgh, returned to their homes at that place ; and the 

 next day, April 9th, all three were arrested upon the order of Dr. 

 Connolly and sent under guard to Staunton* jail, in the valley of old 

 A'irginia. Arriving at Williamsburg the prisoners met Lord Dunmore, 

 who heard their story and told them "that Connolly was authorized 

 bv him as Governor of A'irginia to ])rosecute the claim of that Colony 

 to Pittsburgh and its l)e])endencies ; and, as to taking of prisoners, he 

 Connolly, only imitated the Pennsylvania officers in Respect to Con- 

 nolly's imjjrisonment by them." Dunmore, moreover, released them, 

 and permitted them to return to their homes. 



Then followed a series of arrests and counter-arrests, long continued, 

 resulting in riots and broils of intense passion. Every one who, under 

 color of an office held under the laws of Pennsylvania, attempted any 

 official act,- was likely to be arrested and jailed by persons claiming to 

 hold office under the government of Virginia. Likewise were Virginia 

 officials liable to arrest and imprisonment by the Pennsylvania partisans. 



It is impossible to go into any detail in narrating special instances 

 of these extraordinary commotions among the pioneers of a wilderness, 

 all of them occupying homes of rude construction, their roof-trees and 

 firesides all the time to be guarded from the incursions of their savage 

 Indian foes. This condition of things must be remembered in think- 

 ing of the.se scenes ; and an illustration of the state of the times among 

 our white fathers themselves may be found in extracts from a letter 

 dated August 4, 1771, a little i)rior to the assumptions of John Con- 

 nolly, written by George Wil.son, residing on the Monongahela near 

 the mouth of George's Creek, in what is now Fayette County. George 

 Wilson was then one of the justices of the courts of Bedford county, 

 which had been organized early in 1771 ; and was the great-grand- 



