THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS.
A military force was organized, of which Ethan Allen was colonel
commandant, and his active coadjutors, Warner, Baker, Cockran,
Sunderland, and others, were captains. Of the name which they assumed,
and which Vermonters are always proud to bear, Ira Allen says: "The
governor of New York had threatened to drive the military (his
opponents) into the Green Mountains, from which circumstance they took
the name of Green Mountain Boys."[41]
The necessities of backwoods life accustomed every man of this force to
the use of the musket, the long smooth-bore, or the rifle, and most were
expert marksmen with any of these weapons, while many, from ranger
service in the late war, were accomplished bush-fighters. Inured to
hardship and toil, they could not but be enduring, and, to face the
dangers that ever beset the pioneer, they must be brave. Rough but
kindly and honest backwoods yeomen, they were of the same spirit, as
they were of the same race and generation, as the men who fought at
Lexington and Bunker Hill.
They were occasionally mustered for practice and drill. Esquire Munro
informed Governor Tryon in 1772 that the company in Bennington,
commanded by John Warner,[42] was on New Year's Day "received and
continued all day fireing at marks," and again that "the Rioters had
brought to Bennington two pieces of Cannon and a Mortar piece from the
small Fort at East Hoseck with powder and Ball."
Ethan Allen was the chosen as well as the self-appointed leader of the
people in their resistance to the claims of New York and its attempts to
enforce them. Early in the controversy, he, with four of his brothers,
came from Connecticut, and taking up lands under grants from New
Hampshire in the southern part of the territory, west of the Green
Mountains, very naturally espoused the cause of the New Hampshire
grantees. His rude eloquence was of the sort to fire the hearts of the
uncultivated backwoodsmen, whether he harangued them from the stump of a
clearing, or, addressing a larger audience in the gray pages of his
ill-printed pamphlets, he recited their wrongs and exhorted them to
defend their rights. His interests and sympathy, his hearty
good-fellowship and rough manners, though upon occasion he could assume
the deportment of the fine gentleman, brought him into the most intimate
relations with them; while his undoubted bravery, his commanding figure,
and herculean strength set this rough-cast hero apart to the
chieftaincy which his self-asserting spirit was not slow to assume.
His brother Ira afterwards became a man of great note and influence in
the young commonwealth, but was more distinguished for civil than
military service, though he was a lieutenant in Warner's regiment, and
afterward captain, colonel, and major-general of militia.
Seth Warner was of a commanding presence, "rising six feet in height,
erect and well-proportioned, his countenance, attitude, and movements
indicative of great strength and vigor of body and mind," says Daniel
Chipman, who in his boyhood had often seen him.[43] But he was cast in a
finer mould than was his more renowned compatriot, Ethan Allen. Modest
and unassuming, he was no less brave, and with no lack of firmness,
energy, and promptness to act, his bravery was tempered with a coolness,
deliberation, and good judgment which made him a safe and trusted
leader. He was no pamphleteer. In the public documents to which his name
is appended with those of his associates, Allen's peculiar style is most
apparent, yet his letters show that he could express himself with ease,
clearness, and force. He too was of Connecticut birth, and removed with
his father to Bennington in 1763, when he was twenty years of age. The
abundant game of the region gave a first direction to his adventurous
spirit, and he became a skillful hunter, expert in marksmanship and
woodcraft. The same spirit presently led him to take an active part in
the controversy respecting the Grants, and he soon took his place among
the leaders of the opponents of New York. Remember Baker, the kinsman of
both, was a native of Connecticut. He was killed early in the War of the
Revolution while with the army invading Canada he was reconnoitring the
enemy's position at St. John's. Ira Allen says: "He was a curious
marksman, and always kept his musket in the best possible order," which
was the cause of his death, for he had so over-nicely sharpened his
flint that it caught, and prevented his firing so quickly as did the
Indian who killed him. Robert Cockran was another of the border
captains, and made himself particularly obnoxious to the government of
New York by his active resistance to its encroachments. He served during
the Revolution first in a Connecticut, then in a New York regiment, and
rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.[44] Peleg Sunderland, who in
peaceful times was a wood-ranger, hunting moose in the loneliest depths
of the Wilderness and setting his beaver-traps on streams that were
strange to the eyes of white men, was another leader of the Green
Mountain Boys, prominent enough to suffer outlawry.
When, under the encouragement of the New York claimants, settlements
were made on the western border of the Grants, though armed to defend
themselves, the new-comers were driven away, their log-houses torn down
and burned by Allen, Baker, Cockran, and six others. For their
apprehension as rioters, warrants were thereupon issued. But the justice
who issued them gave it as his opinion that no officer could arrest
them, and recommended that a reward be offered to induce "some person of
their own sort" to "artfully betray them." Accordingly Governor Tryon
offered a reward of twenty pounds each for their apprehension.[45]
Thereupon Allen, Baker, and Cockran issued a proclamation offering a
reward of fifteen pounds and ten pounds respectively for the
apprehension and delivery at the Catamount Tavern in Bennington of James
Duane and John Kemp, two New York officials who were conspicuously
active in pushing their claims to lands in the disputed territory. And
one proclamation was as effective as the other.
However, some months later Esquire Munro was impelled to undertake the
capture of Remember Baker at his home in Arlington, and in the early
morning of March 22, 1772, with a dozen of his friends and dependents at
his back, forcibly entered Baker's house. In the fray that ensued, Baker
and his wife and boy were all severely wounded by sword-cuts, and he
being overcome and bound was thrown into a sleigh and driven with all
speed toward Albany. But the triumph of his captors was brief, for
before reaching the Hudson they were overtaken by a rescue party that
followed on horseback in swift pursuit upon the first alarm, and
abandoning their bleeding and exhausted prisoner, they fled into the
woods, and Baker, after being cared for by his friends, was triumphantly
carried to his home. Munro also attempted the arrest of Seth Warner, who
while riding with a friend was met by the squire and several adherents.
Seizing the bridle of Warner's horse, Munro called on the others to aid
him. When, in spite of all entreaty, he would not desist, Warner struck
him to the ground with a blow from a dull cutlass delivered on his head,
and went his way. The pugnacious squire had now had enough of the barren
honors of his magistracy. "What can a justice do," he asks, "when the
whole country combines against him?" and begs Governor Tryon to excuse
his acting any longer. He gave his neighbors of the Green Mountains no
further trouble, and in 1777 fled to the army of Burgoyne. His property
was confiscated, and he was one of those who were forever proscribed by
the Vermont act of February 26, 1779.[46]
The Green Mountain Boys were ready to resist more formidable attempts to
bring them to submission. When news came to Bennington that Governor
Tryon was ascending the Hudson with a considerable force to invade their
territory, the Committee of Safety and the officers convened and
resolved that it was "their duty to oppose Governor Tryon and his troops
to the utmost of their power." Accordingly the fighting men of
Bennington and the neighboring towns were assembled. The cannon,
mortar, and ammunition were brought out. Sharpshooters were to ambuscade
the narrow passes of the road by which Tryon's force must approach, and
cripple the invaders by picking off his officer.
While this warlike preparation was in progress a messenger, who had been
sent to Albany to gain information of the strength and intended march of
the enemy, returned with the news that the troops, which were wind-bound
somewhere below that town, were not coming to invade the Grants, but to
garrison the lake forts. In fact, during this season of alarm, Governor
Tryon was contemplating a milder policy than had so far been pursued,
and presently dispatched a letter "to Rev. Mr. Dewy and the inhabitants
of Bennington and the adjacent country on the east side of Hudson's
River."
Though he censured their acts of violence, and warned them that a
continuance of such acts would bring the "exertions of the Powers of
Government" against them, and reasserted the claim of New York to the
Connecticut as its eastern boundary, his tone was conciliatory, and he
invited them to lay before his government the causes of their illegal
proceedings, which should be examined with "deliberation and candor,"
and such relief given as the circumstances would justify. To accomplish
this, such persons as they might choose to send to New York were
promised safe conduct and protection, excepting Ethan Allen, Warner,
Baker, Cockran, and Sevil. This was briefly replied to by those to whom
it was addressed, and at more length by Allen, Warner, Baker, and
Cockran.[47] In both replies the validity of the titles given by New
Hampshire was maintained, and Allen and his associates declared their
resistance had not been to the government of New York, but to
land-jobbers and speculators who were endeavoring to deprive them of
their property.
These were delivered by the settlers' appointed agents, Captain Stephen
Fay and his son, and were laid before his council by Governor Tryon.
Upon due consideration, the council recommended that all prosecutions in
behalf of the crown, for crimes with which the settlers were charged,
should be suspended till his Majesty's pleasure should be known, and
that owners of contested lands under grants from New York should stop
all civil suits concerning the same during the like period, and agree
with the settlers for the purchase thereof on moderate terms, on
condition that the inhabitants concerned in the late disorders should
conform to the law of New York that settlers on both sides in the
controversy should continue undisturbed, and such as had been
dispossessed, or forced by threats or other means, to desert their
farms, should in future enjoy their possessions unmolested.
This report was approved by the governor. When the agents, returning
with it, laid it before the Committee of Safety and the people assembled
in the meeting-house at Bennington, there was great rejoicing over it.
There was a universal expression of a desire for peace. The "whole
artillery of Bennington, and the small arms," thundered and rattled
salutes in honor of the governor and council of New York, and healths to
the king, to Governor Tryon, and to the council were drunk "by sundry
respectable Gentlemen."
Unfortunately for the continuance of this promising condition of
affairs, news had come before the return of the agents that a surveyor
employed by the New York claimants was surveying lands for them in some
of the townships to the northward. Thereupon Ethan Allen, with a small
party, went in pursuit of him, took him prisoner, and returned with him
to Castleton, where he was tried and sentenced to banishment, under pain
of death if again found within the limits of the Grants. Upon learning
the favorable progress of the negotiations with New York, his judges
revoked the rigorous decree and set him at liberty. Making the most of
their time while in pursuit of the surveyor, Allen and his men halted at
the First Falls of Otter Creek, in the present city of Vergennes, to
dispossess the tenants of Colonel Reid, who had himself previously
dispossessed persons who, under a New Hampshire grant issued in 1761,
had settled there and built a sawmill. Allen's party drove the intruders
away, burned their log-houses, and broke the stones of the gristmill
Reid had built, and reestablished the New Hampshire grantee in his
sawmill.
Governor Tryon was soon informed of the summary proceedings of the
mountaineers, and in a letter dated August 11, 1772, he sharply
reprimanded the people of the Grants for "so manifest a breach of public
confidence," and, to "insure a continuance of his friendly intentions,"
required their assistance to reinstate in their possessions the persons
who had been ejected. To this an answer was returned by the Committees
of Safety of Bennington and ten other towns, in which they denied that
any breach of faith had been committed in the seizure of the surveyor,
or the dispossession of Reid's tenants, as at that time the proposals of
Governor Tryon had not been accepted or even received, and asserted that
not they but Reid and the surveyor who was acting for the land-jobbers
were the aggressors, and they declined giving any aid in reinstating
Reid's tenants in possession so unjustly obtained.[48] They respectfully
asked a reply, but it does not appear that any was vouchsafed them, or
that further advances were made by the government of New York.
Colonel John Reid, who had been lieutenant-colonel of the Forty-Second
or Royal Highland Regiment, held to the purpose of maintaining his
settlement on Otter Creek, and in the summer following he repaired
thither with a company of his countrymen lately arrived in America. The
New Hampshire settlers were again ousted, the gristmill was made
serviceable by hooping the stones, and the Scotchmen were installed in
their wilderness home, with orders to hold possession against all
claimants. Ira Allen chanced soon after to come that way, at nightfall
of a stormy day, on his return from an exploration of lands on the
Winooski with a view to settlement there. The wet and weary traveler
sought admittance at a log-house, whose cheerful firelight promised such
welcome as had before been given him there. He was met instead by the
savage thrust of a Highlander's skene dhu, delivered through the
scarcely opened door, and was questioned, not in the familiar drawl of
his compatriots, but in such broad Scotch dialect as unaccustomed ears
could scarcely comprehend. He was grudgingly permitted to enter, and
then discovered who his unwilling hosts were. He was given shelter for
the night, and then went his way to Bennington with the news of this
latest intrusion of the "Yorkers."
Ethan Allen and Seth Warner then mustered a force of sixty Green
Mountain Boys, and set forth for Otter Creek. Arriving there after a
march of four days, they at once set about dispossessing the Scotchmen
and their families, burned their houses after their effects had been
removed, and destroyed their corn by turning their horses loose in the
fields. Allen's party was joined next morning by Remember Baker, with a
force nearly as large, when they completed the work of destruction by
tearing down the mill, breaking the millstones past all mending, and
throwing the pieces into the river. With his sword Baker cut the
bolt-cloth into pieces, which he distributed among his men to wear in
their hats as cockades. When the sturdy miller, John Cameron, demanded
by what authority or law he and his men committed such acts, Baker
answered, "We live out of the bounds of the law," and, holding up his
gun, said, "This is my law."[49] Cameron told him that with twenty good
men he would have undertaken to defend his house and mill, though there
were a hundred and ten of them, and was answered that he and his
countrymen were all for the broadsword, but they were for bush fighting!
Perhaps it was in admiration of his brave Scotch spirit that they
offered him a gift of land if he would join them, an offer which he
rejected, while it may be that Donald McIntosh, who had fought at
Culloden and under Wolfe at Quebec, at least took the proposal into
canny consideration, for his house was not molested, nor he forced to
leave it.
Cameron deposed that he was informed some three weeks later by one
Irwin, who lived on the east shore of the lake not far from Crown Point,
that Baker and eight others had lain in wait a whole day near the mouth
of Otter Creek, with the intention of murdering Colonel Reid and his
boat's company on their way to Crown Point, and would have done so, had
not Reid departed a day sooner than expected. The story seems unlikely,
as the Green Mountain Boys, who had come so far to enforce their laws
of the green wood, could have had no means of gaining information of
Colonel Reid's intended movements, even had they desired to take his
life. They retaliated with hard and unrelenting hand the oppressive acts
and the encroachments of New York, but never, though the opportunities
were frequent and the chances of retribution few, did they, in all the
course of this bitter feud, take the life of one of their opponents,[50]
even when their leaders were outlawed and a price set upon their heads.
Having destroyed six houses, the mill, and most of the growing and
harvested crops, the "Bennington Mob" departed from the desolated
settlement, Thompson says to build a block-house at the lower falls of
the Winooski, to prevent the intrusion of New York claimants there, but
it was not reported to the New York government that such fortifications
had been built at that place and at Otter Creek till September of the
next year.
The controversy engaged the attention of the British government in a
direction favorable to the New Hampshire grantees, the Board of Trade,
in a report to his Majesty's Privy Council, proposing measures[51]
which, if carried out, would have confirmed the rights of settlers under
the grants of New Hampshire.
It is worthy of notice that in this report the board spoke with
considerable severity of the conduct of the governor of New York in
passing patents of confirmation of townships before granted by New
Hampshire, and in granting other lands within the district, and in like
manner called attention to the exorbitant fees exacted for grants by the
governor, secretary, and surveyor of New York, which were more than
double those established by an ordinance of 1710. Added to these were
unauthorized fees taken by other officers, making "the whole amount of
these fees upon a Grant of one thousand acres of Land in many instances
not far short of the real value of the Fee Simple." It was in
consideration of these emoluments, the board supposed, "that His
Majesty's governors of New York have of late years taken upon themselves
the most unwarrantable pretenses to elude the restrictions contained in
His Majesty's Instructions with regard to the quantity of Land to be
granted to any one person," by the insertion in one grant of numbers of
fictitious or borrowed names, for the purpose of conveying to one person
a grant of from twenty thousand to forty thousand acres. They
recommended that his Majesty be advised to give the most positive
instructions to the governor of New York that the granting of lands
should be attended by no fees to the attorney-general, the
receiver-general, or the auditor; and that neither the governor, the
secretary, nor the surveyor-general should take any fees but those
prescribed by the ordinance of 1710, which were greater than those
taken by the same officers for similar service in any other colony.[52]
That portion of the report proposing a method of settling the dispute
was transmitted by Lord Dartmouth to Governor Tryon, who in a lengthy
reply set forth the impossibility of an adjustment upon the plan
proposed.
No further conciliatory measures were proposed or entertained by either
party in the quarrel, which after this brief respite grew more bitter.
New York attempted to make herself friends in the grants by appointing
some of the prominent settlers to office. To prevent the success of this
policy, the Committees of Safety assembled in convention decreed that no
inhabitant of the Grants should hold or accept any office of honor or
profit under the government of New York, and all civil and military
officers who had acted under the authority of that government were
required to "suspend their functions on pain of being viewed." It was
further decreed that no person should take grants or the confirmation of
them under the government of New York. The punishment for violation of
these decrees was to be discretionary with the court, except that for
the first offense it must not be capital.[53] Banishment from the Grants
was a frequent punishment, and as frequent was the application of the
"beech seal." As may be imagined, when the spirit of the times and the
rough character of a backwoods community are considered, this was often
inflicted with cruel severity. Yet it must be remembered in extenuation
that the whipping-post was then a common adjunct of justice, and that,
by the sentence of properly constituted courts, the scourge was
mercilessly applied for the correction of very venial crimes.
The chastisement of offenders was sometimes more ridiculous than severe.
A Dr. Adams of Arlington, who made himself obnoxious to the Green
Mountain Boys by his persistent sympathy with their enemies, suffered at
Bennington, according to his sentence, only the indignity of being
suspended in an armchair for two hours beneath the famous Green Mountain
Tavern sign, whereon stood the stuffed hide of a great panther, a tawny
monster that grinned a menace to all intruders from the country of the
hated "Yorkers."
Not long after Allen's raid on the Lower Falls of Otter Creek, he and
his men appeared in Durham and Socialborough, whose inhabitants were for
the most part friendly to New York, some of them having accepted office
under that government. The officials sought safety within its
established bounds at Crown Point and Albany, flooding courts and
council with depositions, complaints, and petitions. Those who remained
were obliged to recognize the validity of the New Hampshire titles.
By the advice of his council, Governor Tryon requested General
Haldimand, the commander-in-chief of his Majesty's forces, to order a
sufficient number of regular troops to Ticonderoga and Crown Point to
aid the civil authorities in enforcing the laws, but the general
declined on the ground that, in the present state of American affairs,
the employment of regular troops to suppress "a few lawless vagabonds"
would have a bad tendency as an acknowledgment of the weakness of the
civil government; also that "Crown Point, being entirely destroyed, and
unprovided for the quartering of troops, and Ticonderoga being in a most
ruinous state, such troops as might be sent thither would not be able to
stay a sufficient time to render them of much utility." If the request
was persisted in, however, he wished to know what force would be deemed
sufficient. The council thought that 200 men at Ticonderoga might be
enough,--a very modest demand upon the commander-in-chief, but not on
the individuals of a force so insignificant that it might as well have
undertaken to level the Green Mountains as to attempt to subdue in their
fastnesses these accomplished bush-fighters of the Grants. The
requisition was not approved by the king, and the troops were not sent.
In consideration of the representations and petitions laid before it, a
committee of the General Assembly of New York resolved that the governor
be requested to issue a proclamation offering a reward of fifty pounds
each for the apprehension, and securing in his Majesty's gaol at Albany,
of Ethan Allen, Warner, Baker, and five others, and that a bill be
brought in more effectually to suppress the riotous proceedings and
bring the offenders to condign punishment. These resolutions having come
to the Grants in the columns of the "New York Mercury," the committees
of the towns on the west side of the mountains met at Manchester and
made answer thereto. They said that in consequence of the report of the
British Board of Trade, so favorable to them, they were in daily
expectation of a royal confirmation of the New Hampshire grants, and
declared themselves loyal and devoted subjects of his Majesty; that the
government of New York was more rebellious than they, in that it had
acted in direct opposition to the orders of the king; that they had
purchased their lands of one of his Majesty's governors on the good
faith of the crown of Great Britain, and would maintain those grants
against all opposition, till his Majesty's pleasure should be known, and
recommended to the governor of New York to await the same before
proceeding to the harsh measures proposed, "to prevent the unhappy
consequences that may result from such an attempt." They resolved to
defend with their lives and fortunes their neighbors and friends who
should be indicted as rioters, and that the inhabitants would hold
themselves "in readiness to aid and defend such friends of ours who, for
their merit to the great and general cause, are falsely denominated
rioters," but they would act only on the defensive, and would "encourage
execution of the law in civil cases, and in criminal prosecutions that
were so indeed."[54]
But before this answer was approved by the general committee, the New
York Assembly had enacted a law (March 9, 1774) as stringent as its
committee could have urged, or its report had foreshadowed, and with it
or following close upon its passage was issued Governor Tryon's
proclamation of a reward of one hundred pounds each for the arrest of
Ethan Allen and Remember Baker, and fifty pounds for the apprehension of
Seth Warner and five others. Some of the provisions of this
extraordinary law were, that if three or more persons, "being
unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled within the counties of
Charlotte and Albany," did not disperse when commanded to do so by
proclamation made by a justice, sheriff, or coroner, they should upon
conviction suffer twelve months' imprisonment without bail; and any
person opposing, letting, hindering, or hurting the person making or
going to make such proclamation, should be adjudged a felon, and suffer
death without benefit of clergy. It should also be adjudged felony
without benefit of clergy for an unauthorized person to assume judicial
powers, or for any person to assist them, or to execute their sentences,
or to seize, detain, or assault and beat any magistrate or civil
officer, to compel him to resign his office, or to prevent his
discharging its duties; or to burn or destroy the grain or hay of any
other person; or to demolish or pull down any dwelling-house, barn,
stable, or gristmill, sawmill, or outhouse within either of the said
counties. When the persons named in the governor's proclamation, or any
other persons, were indicted for any offense committed after the passage
of this act, and made capital by it or any other law, did not, within
seventy days after the publication of the governor's command to do so,
surrender themselves to one of his Majesty's justices of the peace for
either of the said counties, they were to be adjudged guilty of the
offense for which they had been indicted; and if for a capital offense
thereafter to be perpetrated, they should be convicted and attainted of
felony, and should suffer death, as in the case of persons so convicted
by verdict and judgment, without benefit of clergy; and it should be
lawful for the supreme court of New York, or the courts of oyer and
terminer or general gaol delivery, to award execution against such
offenders as if they had been convicted in such courts. It was provided
that, as it was impracticable to bring offenders to justice within the
county of Charlotte, all persons committed within its limits should be
proceeded against by any grand jury of the county of Albany, and tried
in that county by a jury thereof, as if the crime or offense had been
perpetrated therein.[55]
Here was indeed an "exertion of the powers of government," but it was
barren of any result but to strengthen the spirit of opposition in those
against whom it was directed, and, instead of terrorizing them into
abject submission, as its authors had confidently expected, it served
rather to unite them in more stubborn resistance.
In response, Allen and his proscribed associates put forth a manifesto
and an address "to the people of the counties of Albany and Charlotte
which inhabit to the westward, and are situated contiguous to the New
Hampshire Grants," wherein, for the most part, the case is forcibly
stated in Allen's peculiar style, and closes with the declaration that
"We are under the necessity of resisting even unto blood every person
who may attempt to take us as felons or rioters as aforesaid, for in
this case it is not resisting law, but only opposing force by force;
therefore, inasmuch as, by the oppressions aforesaid, the New Hampshire
settlers are reduced to the disagreeable state of anarchy and confusion;
in which state we hope for wisdom, patience, and fortitude till the
happy hour his Majesty shall graciously be pleased to restore us to the
privileges of Englishmen."
Not many times, if ever, thereafter, was the authority of the king
invoked by those who set their names to this paper: but little more than
a year had elapsed when most of them were engaged in wresting from the
crown its strongholds on Lake Champlain.
Now, however, a scheme was set on foot to withdraw the Grants from the
hated jurisdiction of New York by erecting them, and that part of New
York east of the Hudson, into a separate royal government. Colonel
Philip Skene, who lived in considerable state in Skenesborough House on
his estate at the head of Lake Champlain, was engaged in it, probably
with a view to the governorship of the new province, and he went to
England to further the project. Whatever his success may have been, it
came to nothing with the breaking out of the Revolution.[56]
The people of the Grants maintained their attitude of defiance and
resistance. The stinging imprint of the beech seal was still set as
relentlessly on the backs of justices who yet dared to act under the
authority of New York, and their stern judges sent them "toward the City
of New York, or to the westward of the Grants," with duly signed
certificates that they had received full punishment for their crimes.
Lieutenant-Governor Colden, now acting governor, as Tryon "had been
called home to give Lights on the Points in dispute," applied to General
Gage at Boston for a force of 200 men to aid the civil officers in the
county of Charlotte, but Gage declined, as Haldimand had done; and the
attempts of New York to enforce its authority continued as futile as
ever, while the Rob Roys of the new world Highlands as boldly went their
way as if no price was set upon their heads.
FOOTNOTES:
[41] _Hist. Vt._ p. 345.
[42] Meaning _Seth_ Warner.
[43] Chipman's _Memoirs of Seth Warner_.
[44] He died among his former enemies, the Yorkers, at Sandy Hill, N.
Y., in 1812.
[45] 1771.
[46] _Governor and Council_, p. 149.
[47] _State Papers_, p. 22.
[48] _State Papers_, pp. 29, 30.
[49] Baker showed James Henderson the stump of a lost thumb, as his
commission (possibly given by Esquire Munro), for performing this "very
disagreeable work."
[50] _Doc. Hist._ vol. iv. pp. 512-516.
[51] _Ibid._ p. 488.
[52] _Doc. Hist. N. Y._ vol. iv. p. 493.
[53] Thompson's _Vermont_, part ii. p. 25.
[54] _State Papers_, p. 42.
[55] _State Papers._
[56] Williams's _History_; Thompson's _Vermont_.