Chap. 2. 



SETTLEMENT AND CONTROVERSIES. 



29 



RESOLUTIONS AND REMONSTRANCES. 



PROGRESS OF POPULATION. 



armed force, repaired to tlie court house. 

 Being refused admittance, some of the 

 party fired into the house and killed one 

 man* and wounded several others. The 

 wounded men they seized and dragged to 

 prison, with some others who did not suc- 

 ceed in making their escape. 



By means of those who escaped, tlio 

 news of this massacre was quickly spread, 

 and before noon the next day, a large body 

 of armed men had collected. A jury of 

 inquest brought in a verdict, that the man 

 was murdered by the court party. Sev- 

 eral of the officers were made prisoners 

 and confined in the jail at Northampton, 

 in Massachusetts. But, upon the appli- 

 cation to the Chief Justice of New York, 

 they were released from prison and re- 

 turned home.t 



These proceedings aroused the spirit of 

 opposition to New York throughout the 

 grants on tiie east side of the mountains. 

 A meeting of committees from the several 

 townships was held at Westminster, on 

 the ]lth of April, 1775, at whicJi a num- 

 ber of spirited resolutions were adopted 

 relative to the late unhappy transactions. 

 Among other things it was voted, "That 

 it is the duty of the inhabitants, as pre- 

 dicated on the eternal and immutable law 

 of self preservation, wholly to renounce 

 and resist the administration of the gov- 

 ernment of New York, until such times 

 as the lives and property of the inhabi- 

 tants may be secured by it." A commit- 

 tee was also appointed, of which Ethan 

 Allen was one, to remonstrate to the court 

 of Great Britain against that government 

 and to petition his Majesty, " to be taken 

 out of so oppressive a jurisdiction and 

 either annexed to some other jurisdiction, 

 or incorporated into a new one." 



Thus were the settlers on the east side 



* William Frencii. The following is a literal copy 

 of the inscription on his monument in Westminster, 

 lurnished to the Compiler of tlie V^ermont State Pa« 

 pets hy the Hon. Win. C. Bradley. It is preserved 

 both as a literary curiosHii and as fxhibitiug une- 

 quivocal indication of the sph-it of the times. 



In Memory of William French Sou to Mr 

 Nathaniel French Who AVas Shot at Westmin- 

 ster March ye 13lh l'i75 by the hands of Cruel 

 Ministerial tools of Georg ye 3d in the Corthouse 

 at a 11 a Clock at Night in the 22d year of his 

 Age — 



Here William French his Body lies 

 For Murder his blood for Vengance cries 

 King Georg the third his Tory crew 

 tha with a bawl his head Shot threw 

 For Liberty and his Gountrys Good 

 he Lost his Life his Dearest blood 



f A full account of these transactions was pub- 

 lished by a committee appoiisted for that purpose, 

 on the 23d of March, 1775, and may be found in 

 Slade-s Vermont State Papers, page 55. 



of the mountains driven to make common 

 cause with their brethren on the west, in 

 opposing the government of New York. 

 The indignation of the settlers throughout 

 the New Hampshire grants was now rais- 

 ed to tiie highest pitch, and probably the 

 commencement of the American war at 

 Lexington, on the ll'th of April, was the 

 only thing which prevented the parties 

 proceeding to open hostilities. This event 

 produced a shock which was felt through- 

 out the colonies ; local and provincial con- 

 tests were at once swallowed up by the 

 novelty, the grandeur and the importance 

 of the contest thus opened between Great 

 Britain and her American colonies. 



Section V. 



Progress of ScUlcment, character of the 

 Settlers, and modes of punishment. 



It has already been remarked that, al- 

 though several establishments had been 

 made in Vermont previous to that time, 

 the commencement of the settlement may 

 properly be dated from the conquest of 

 Canada in 1760. In that year, the whole 

 number of settlers on the territory of Ver- 

 mont did not exceed 300 persons, and al- 

 though the settlement began from that 

 time sensibly to advance, it was by no 

 means rapid till after the treaty of peace, 

 in 1 763, by which Canada was ceded to 

 Great Britain. In 1764, settlements had 

 been commenced in many of the town- 

 ships on Connecticut river as far north as 

 Newbury, and in several townships on 

 the west side of the Green Mountains, in 

 the county of Bennington. 



In 1765, the government of New York, 

 having acquired authority from the British 

 crown to exercise jurisdiction over the 

 New Hampshire grants as far eastward as 

 Connecticut river, commenced the division 

 of the territory into counties, as mentioned 

 in section third. The division lines be- 

 tween the counties were, however, amat- 

 ter of little consequence, towards the close 

 of this period, for when the government 

 of New York found the opposition to 

 their measures so determined and so gen- 

 eral among the settlers on the grants, they 

 seem to have given the court of AUjany 

 county jurisdiction over the whole tract 

 of country. This gave rise to the expres- 

 sion, iiuUmited counlij of Albami, so fre- 

 quently used by the Vermont pamphleteers 

 during the controversy with New York. 



Previous to the year 1770, scarcely any 

 settlements had been made on the west 

 side of the Green Mountains to the north- 

 ward of the present county of Benning- 



