20 



CIVIL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Part II. 



TERRITORY DIVIDED INTO COUNTIES. 



SURVEYS ATTEMPTED. 



the people on the New Hampshire grants, 

 who had made him their agent. 



Notvvithstandinor tlie annulling of tlie 

 act of the provincial legislature above 

 mentioned, and the prohibition contained 

 in the order of the 24111 of July, 1767, tlie 

 government of New York continued to 

 make grants, and to proceed in carrying 

 out their designs in the division of the 

 territory into counties. Tiiey had already 

 established a court of common pleas, and 

 appointed judges in the county of Cum- 

 berland, when, on the 2d of December, 

 17G7, they received official notice of the 

 annulling of the act by which that county 

 was established. But instead of desisting, 

 in obedience to the royal decree, they, 

 with the advice of tlie Attorney General, 

 on the 20tli of February, 176S, re-passed 

 the act which had just been annulled, 

 and proceeded in the organization of the 

 county. 



The courts for Cumberland county 

 were held at Chester for four or five 

 years, but no county buildings were 

 erected. In 1772, upon the recommenda- 

 tion of the supervisor of the county, the 

 county seat was removed to Westminster, 

 and a court house and jail erected. A 

 j)ortion of the inhaliitants was disposed to 

 acquiesce in the jurisdiction of New York, 

 while another portion was equally, and 

 even more, disposed to resist, and this 

 state of things continued, as will be seen 

 in the subsequent pages, for some time 

 after the declaration of the independence 

 of Vermont in 1777. 



The count}' of Cumberland extended 

 northerly to the soutli line of the towns 

 of Tunbridge, Strafford and Thetford. 



The territorj' lying north of this coun- 

 ty and east of the Green Mountains, was, 

 on the 7tli of March, 1770, erected into a 

 county by the name of Gloucester, and 

 the county seat soon after fixed at New- 

 bury. This county, at the time of its es- 

 tablishment, was said to contain about 

 700 inhabitants, who were generally op- 

 posed to the jurisdiction and authority of 

 New York. In 1772 another county was 

 constituted on the west side of the moun- 

 tain, by the name of Charlotte. It was 

 bounded south by the north line of Sun- 

 derland and Arlington and a line extend- 

 ing westward thence to Hudson river, 

 and included all the country to the north- 

 ward, on both sides of lake Champlain, to 

 Canada line. The county seat was fixed 

 at Skeensborough, now Whitehall, and 

 Philip Skeene was appointed one of the 

 judges of tlie court of common pleas. 

 All that part of Vermont on the west side 

 of the mountain Ij'ing south of tliis coun- 

 ty was included in the county of Albany. 



This organization of counties continued 

 till the declaration of the independence 

 of Vermont in 1777. 



In 1761> the council of New York had 

 decided that the King's order "Did not 

 extend to prevent the governor from the 

 granting of an}' lands which had not been 

 previously granted by New Hampshire." 

 The governor had, therefore, continued to 

 make new grants to his favorites and 

 triends ; nor did he confine his grants, 

 agreeably to the decision of the council, 

 to the ungranted lands, but in many cases 

 regranted such as were already covered 

 by New Hampsliire charters. But while 

 the success of Mr. Robinson's mission to 

 England had liardly served as a tempo- 

 rary check upon the proceedings of New 

 York, it inspired the settlers on the 

 grants with new confidence in the justice 

 of their cause, and gave them strong 

 grounds to hope that their rights would 

 be eventually acknowledged and protect- 

 ed by the Crown. 



In the meantime, the efforts of the 

 claimants under New York to get posses- 

 sion of the lands were unremitting. Sur- 

 veyors were sent on to allot them, but 

 these, when discovered by the settlers, 

 were not permitted to proceed. In Octo- 

 ber, 17G9, a party of New York surveyors 

 was observed to be running a line across 

 the farm of Mr. James Breckenridge, in 

 Bennington, and being forbidden to pro- 

 ceed by Breckenridge and others, who 

 had collected at the place, they desisted, 

 and went home. Whereupon, Abraham 

 Ten Broek, one of the proprietors of the 

 patent of Walloomscoik,* petitioned the 

 governor and council of New York, set- 

 ting fortli that the commissioners and sur- 

 veyors for dividing that patent had been 

 " riotously opposed by sundry persons, 

 and prevented by their threats from exe- 

 cuting the trust reposed in them." The 

 governor issued his proclamation, "for 

 apprcliending the principals and ring- 

 leaders," and at the following January 

 term of the court at Albany, the Rev. 

 Jedediah Dewey, Joseph Robinson, Eli- 

 jah Fay, Thomas Henderson, Ebenezer 

 Robinson, and John Stewart were indict- 

 ed as rioters, but none of them were ar- 

 rested, or brought to trial. 



In this state of things, the settlers, on 

 the 18th of October, 1 769, petitioned the 

 governor and council of New Hampshire 

 to interpose with the Crown in their be- 

 half, and again on the 24th of the same 

 month. The last of these petitions was 

 signed by Samuel Satford for Bennington, 



* This is said to be a Dutch word, signifying 

 Wallurn's patent. It is uniformly written Jt'alliini- 

 sckaik in all tho N. Y. records. 



