206 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



County court has already Ijeen given, and the following is a continua- 

 tion thereof. 



What was Pennsylvania Doing ? 



It has already been noted, perhaps, that a large amount of business 

 of almost every nature and kind was transacted in these Virginia 

 courts, and it would appear that a large majority of the inhabitants of 

 the Monongahela Valley submitted their persons and property to the 

 laws and courts of Virginia ; indeed, it is undoubted that many land- 

 holders under Pennsylvania titles, and perhaps Pennsylvania sympathy, 

 were suitors in these courts. Why was this ? Doubtless it was be- 

 cause, the Revolution being on, and other causes existing, the power 

 of the laws of Pennsylvania was not strongly felt west of the Alle- 

 gheny Mountains. 



Note the following facts : 



Bedford County, the seventh Pennsylvania county established, was 

 formed from Cumberland County, on March 9, 1771, and extended 

 "Westward to the Western Boundaries of the Province," which boun- 

 daries, however, were not defined. The first term of court for that 

 county was held at Bedford, about a hundred miles east of Pittsburgh, 

 on April 16, 1771, and George Wilson, Esq., living near the mouth 

 of George's Creek in what is now southern Fayette County, was of 

 the justices, as were also Colonel (then Captain) William Crawford, 

 living on the Youghiogheny River nearly opposite what is now Con- 

 nellsville, Fayette County, Thomas Gist, son of Christopher Gist, 

 settled near Mount Braddock in the same county, and Dorsey Pente- 

 cost, then living on his "plantation" called " Greenaway " in the 

 " Forks of the Yough " settlement. 



Now, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, was formed on January 

 26, 1773, from Bedford County, and embraced all the lands west of 

 " the Laurel Hill," to " the limits of the Province." Old Westmore- 

 land was thus organized two years before the A'irginia Court at Fort 

 Dunmore, and its first Court of Quarter Sessions, then the principal 

 court of every county, was held at Hanna's Town, about three miles 

 northeast of what is now Greensburg, on April 6, 1773. This Court 

 of Quarter Sessions was the first court of justice ever held by English- 

 speaking people west of the Allegheny Mountains, and it was held 

 " Before William Crawford, Es(j., and his associate Justices." 



Oil January 25, 1775, about one month before the organization of 



