Chap. 2. 



SETTLEMENT AND CONTROVERSIES. 



21 



DEFENCE AT ALBANV, 



MILITIA ORDERKD OUT. 



Benjamin Gardner for Pownal, Jehiel 

 Hawlcy for Arlington, Benjamin Purdy 

 for Manchester, Thomas Barney for Sun- 

 derland, and Benjamin Colvin for Shafts- 

 bury. In the meantime, the government 

 of New York continued to make grants, 

 and actions of ejectment against the set- 

 tlers continued to be brought in the court 

 at Albany ; and Ethan Allen, afterwards 

 so distinguished, first coming to reside in 

 the grants about this time, undertook the 

 defence of the" New Hampshire grantees 

 in the actions brought against them. He 

 proceeded to New Hampshire, procured 

 the necessary documents from the colo- 

 nial government there, engaged the ser- 

 vices of Mr. Ingersoll, an eminent lawyer 

 in Connecticut, and in June, 1770, they 

 appeared before the court at Albany, and 

 the trial of Josiah Carpenter, of Shafts- 

 bury, came on. The counsel for the de- 

 fendant produced to the court the docu- 

 ments above mentioned, among wliich 

 were the charter of the township and the 

 defendant's deed from the original pro- 

 jirietors. But these were immediately 

 set aside by tli9 court, on the alleged 

 ground that the New Hampshire grants 

 were illegal, and a verdict was readily 

 obtained against the defendant. 



Two other cases being tried with like 

 results, no further defence was made be- 

 fore the court. And it is related that 

 before Allen left Albany, he was called 

 upon by the attorney general and some 

 other.'?, who told iiim that the cause of the 

 settlers was desperate, and urged liim to 

 go home, and persuade his Green Moun- 

 tain friends to make the best terms they 

 could with their new landlords, remind- 

 ing him of the proverb that might often 

 prevails against right. Allen coolly re- 

 plied to them, that the gods of the vallics 

 lire 7iot the gods of the hills ; and when 

 asked by Kemp, the King's attorney, to 

 explain his meaning, he only added, that 

 if he would accompany him to Benning- 

 ton, the sense would be made clear. 



When the news of the proceedings at 

 Albany reached the grants, it created 

 loud murmurs of discontent among the 

 people. A convention of the settlers was 

 held at Bennington, in which it was 

 " Resolved, to support their rights and 

 property which they possessed under the 

 New Hampshire grants, against tlie usur- 

 pation and unjust claims of the governor 

 and council of New York, by force, as 

 law and justice were denied them." Hav- 

 ing thus appealed to the last arbiter of 

 disputes, their resolution was followed by 

 a spirited and determined resistance of 

 the authority of New York, in conse- 

 quence of which several of the settlers 



were indicted as rioters ; but the officers 

 sent to apprehend them " were seized by 

 the people," says a writer of that period, 

 " and severely chastised with twigs of the 

 icildcrncss." 



At this period, and for sometime after- 

 wards, one of the most efficient support- 

 ers of the authority of New York was 

 John Munro, who was proprietor of a pa- 

 tent under that province, lying upon 

 White Creek, and extending into what is 

 called Shaftsbury Hollow. He held IJie 

 office of justice of peace for tJie county 

 of Albany, and resided on his patent near 

 the west line of Shaftsbury. He had 

 about him a number of tenants and de- 

 pendants, and ]jy his boldness and energy 

 of character was very troublesome to the 

 New Hampshire grantees. By his assist- 

 ance, the sheriff of Albany county sur- 

 prised and arrested Silas Robinson in 

 Bennington, early in the morning of the 

 29th of November, 1770, and succeeded 

 in conveying him to Albany, where he 

 was imprisoned. At the January term of 

 the court in 1771 he was indicted as a 

 rioter, and kept in jail till October, when 

 he was liberated on bail. Simeon Hatha- 

 way, Moses Scott, and Jonathan Fisk 

 were also indicted, but none of them 

 were arrested. 



Whenever the sheriff appeared upon 

 the grants for the purpose of arresting 

 rioters, or ejecting the settlers, he was 

 sure to be met by a party larger than his 

 own, fully determined to frustrate his ob- 

 ject. Being required to serve a writ of 

 ejectment on James Breckenridge, the 

 sheriff, by order of the governor, called to 

 his assistance a. posse of 750 armed mili- 

 tia. The settlers having timely knowl 

 edge of his approach, assembled to the 

 number of about 300, and arranged their 

 plans to resist him. An officer with 18 

 men was placed in the house, — 120 men 

 behind trees near the road by which the 

 sheriti' must advance, and the remainder 

 were concealed behind a ridge of land 

 within gun shot of the house ; and the 

 forcing the door by the sheriff was to be 

 made known to those concealed without 

 by raising a red flag at the top of the 

 chimney. 



When the sheriff approached all were 

 silent, and he and his men were com- 

 pletely within the ambuscade before tliey 

 discovered their situation. Mr. Ten Eyck, 

 the sheriff, went to the door, demanded 

 entrance as sheriff of the county of Alba- 

 ny, and threatened, on refusal, to force 

 it. The answer from within was, " at- 

 tempt it, and you are a dead man.'' On 

 repeating his demand, with a threat of 

 using force, he received for a second an- 



