this conduct he was apprehended by Arthur (afterwards General) St.
Clair, a magistrate of Westmoreland County, and thrown into jail at
Hannastown.
He was released on bail and returned to Virginia. Here he was appointed
a justice of Augusta County, which the Virginians contended embraced the
territory in debate, and shortly returned to Pittsburgh with a strong
force.
He captured the court at Hannastown, and at Pittsburgh, April 9, 1774,
he arrested Justices Mackey, Smith, and McFarlane, and sent them
prisoners to Staunton, Virginia.
Conolly’s high-handed proceedings called for action by Governor John
Penn, who wrote to Governor Dunmore, complaining of Conolly’s actions,
and describing the boundaries of Pennsylvania.
Governor Penn gave a careful delineation of the several surveys and
closed his letter by suggesting a temporary line of jurisdiction until
the affair could be settled by King George III in Council.
Lord Dunmore replied March 3, 1774, in which he contravened the opinions
of Governor Penn and refused to comply with his suggestions. He
furthermore resented the arrest of Conolly and demanded the dismissal of
St. Clair.
Governor Penn replied, March 31, when he recapitulated the history of
the claim, and declined to dismiss St. Clair from his office.
On May 7, James Tilghman and Andrew Allen were appointed commissioners
on the part of Pennsylvania to settle the question in dispute. They
reached Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia, May 19.
Governor Dunmore demanded their proposition in writing, and they gave it
to him on the 23rd.
The substance of the paper was that the Mason and Dixon’s line should be
continued to the end of the five degrees from the Delaware River, and
from the end of that line a line should be run corresponding in
direction to the courses of the Delaware, and drawn at every point at
the distance of five degrees of longitude from that river. This
proposition would have the western boundary of Pennsylvania of the same
form as the eastern.
Lord Dunmore replied that he did not believe the Crown intended such an
irregular western boundary. He then proceeded to explain the boundary as
he understood it.
It is a fact worthy of remark that Governor Penn’s proposition gave to
Virginia nearly all that she claimed, while Dunmore’s gave to
Pennsylvania far more than she demanded; the boundary lines as he
defined them being almost identical with those at present established.
No agreement was reached and Lord Dunmore refused to relinquish his
authority over Fort Pitt.
Meanwhile Conolly’s conduct was outrageous. He not only oppressed the
people, but stirred up a war with the Indians, who committed great
barbarities.
Governor Penn could not save the situation, nor could the law furnish
any protection.
The war with the mother country developed and Dunmore and Conolly took
sides against the colonists.
On the night of June 7, 1775, Dunmore was compelled to seek safety on
board the “Fowney,” an English man-of-war, at York, Va., and Conolly
soon joined Dunmore in his place of refuge.
In December, 1776, the legislature of Virginia proposed a line of
demarcation, which was slightly different from those already suggested,
but Pennsylvania could not accept it.
In the meantime matters remained in a chaotic condition, especially as
to Westmoreland inhabitants. But the time came when it was necessary to
do something.
Finally George Bryan, John Ewing, and David Rittenhouse, on the part of
Pennsylvania, and Dr. James Madison and Robert Andrews, on the part of
Virginia, met as commissioners at Baltimore, August 31, 1779, and after
thorough consideration of the subject agreed as follows:
“To extend Mason and Dixon’s line due west five degrees of longitude, to
be computed from the river Delaware, for the southern boundary of
Pennsylvania, and that a meridian, drawn from the western extremity
thereof to the northern limit of said state, be the western boundary of
said state forever.”
This agreement was ratified and confirmed by the legislature of
Virginia, June 23, 1780, and by that of Pennsylvania, September 23,
1780.
In 1782 commissioners appointed by the two states ran the lines, but
these were only temporary. In 1783, David Rittenhouse, John Lukens, John
Ewing, and Captain Hutchins, on the part of Pennsylvania, and Dr. James
Madison, Andrew Ellicott, Robert Andrews, and T. Page, on the part of
Virginia, again ran the lines, and set up stone pillars at regular
intervals.
This work was accomplished in 1784, and ended further dispute in the
matter.
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Two Brothers of Doan Family of Outlaw
Sons Hanged September 24, 1788
During the Revolutionary War a number of young men either to escape from
serving in army or paying fines, or for the reason that they may have
sympathized with the element which opposed the independence of the young
colonies, and did not choose to enlist openly with the enemy, found a
more profitable employment in secret acts of treachery and piracy among
their neighbors.
For that service they were amply compensated by the British, especially
during their occupancy of Philadelphia and New York City.
There were not a few such outlaws, and they did not reside in any one
quarter of the State, but the most notorious of them all were several
brothers by the name of Doan.
The Doans lived in Plumstead Township, near Doylestown, Bucks County.
The father, Israel Doan, was a worthy man, but his six sons as they grew
to manhood abandoned all the noble principles of the religious sect with
which they had been reared, and retaining only so much of the outward
forms as suited their nefarious schemes, they became a gang of most
desperate outlaws.
The sons were professedly Tories and pursued for a time a very
profitable trade in stealing the horses and cattle of their Whig
neighbors, and disposing of them to the British Army, then in
Philadelphia.
The brothers lived in the highways and hedges and waged a predatory and
retaliatory war upon their persecutors. They were men of fine figures
and addresses, elegant horsemen, great runners and excellent at
stratagems and escapes.
The Doans were distinguished from their youth for great muscular
activity. They could run and jump beyond all competitors, and it is said
one of them could jump over a Conestoga wagon.
They delighted to injure public property, but did no injury to the weak,
the poor, or the peaceful.
One of the brothers, Joseph, was a school teacher in Plumstead Township.
Two of the brothers had joined the British in Philadelphia, and through
them the stolen horses were disposed of and the proceeds shared.
The Doans at school were often displaying their pockets full of guineas,
which at first were believed to be counterfeit; but subsequent events
proved their genuineness, and disclosed the source from which they had
procured so considerable an amount of gold.
Suspicion had long fastened upon the family; they were closely watched
and eventually, about the year 1782, the stealing of a horse belonging
to John Shaw, of Plumstead, was positively traced to them. This brought
upon Mr. Shaw and a few others, who were active in their detection, the
combined malignity of the whole banditti and it was not long before they
obtained their revenge.
The Doans added to their band another villain of kindred spirit by the
name of Robert Steele. Under the leadership of Moses Doan and Joseph,
the schoolmaster, the seven outlaws fell upon Mr. Shaw in the dead of
the night, in his own house, bruised and lacerated him most cruelly, and
decamped with all his horses and everything of value they could take
from the house.
A son of Mr. Shaw was dispatched to the nearest neighbors for assistance
and to raise the hue and cry after the robbers. But these neighbors
being Mennonites, conscientiously opposed to bearing arms and having
besides an instinctive dread of personal danger, declined interfering in
the matter. Such was the timidity and cautiousness manifested in those
times between the nearest neighbors, when of different religions and
political sentiments.
Young Shaw, however, soon raised a number of the inhabitants, part of
whom responded to his father’s call for assistance, and part of whom
armed themselves and went in pursuit of the robbers.
When the Doans finished with Mr. Shaw, they proceeded to the house of
Joseph Grier, and robbed him, and then went to a tavern kept by Colonel
Robert Robinson, a very corpulent man, whom they dragged out of bed,
bound him in a most excruciating position, and placed him naked in the
midst of them; then they whipped him until their ferocity was satisfied.
They robbed and abused several other persons the same night, and then
fled into Montgomery County. Here they were overtaken, somewhere on
Skippack, and so hotly pursued that they were glad to abandon the five
horses on which they rode, and seek safer refuge in the thicket. Joseph
was shot through the cheeks, and captured when he fell from his horse.
The others escaped.
The prisoner was confined in jail at Newtown, then the county town of
Bucks, but while awaiting trial effected his escape. He fled into New
Jersey, where he taught school, under an assumed name, for nearly a
year.
The Federal Government offered a reward of $800 for him or his brothers,
dead or alive. While Joseph was in a saloon one evening a man was heard
to say that he would shoot any one of the Doans on sight for the sake of
the reward. Joseph took the hint and made his way into Canada.
Moses, the captain of the gang, with two of his brothers, had taken
refuge in a cabin occupied by a drunken man, near the mouth of Tohickon
Creek. Mr. Shaw learned of the place of their concealment, rallied a
party with Colonel Hart as leader, and surrounded them.
Instead of shooting them down at once, Colonel Hart opened the door, and
cried out, “Ah! You’re here, are you?”
The Doans seized their guns and shot down Mr. Kennedy, one of the party.
Two of the outlaws crawled through a window unseen, and escaped in the
woods. Moses, the most respectable of all the brothers, surrendered.
Immediately after he gave himself up he was shot down by one of the
attacking party. It was discovered that the man who killed Moses was a
former member of his outlaw band and killed him to close his mouth
forever.
Two others of the Doan brothers, Abraham and Levi, were later captured
in Chester County, and afterward hanged on September 24, 1788, in
Philadelphia. Their bodies were taken back to Plumstead Township for
burial.
Their valor and generosity made them respected above ordinary robbers,
and many temperate people in the county expressed or felt great
commiseration for them.
The Doans made a desperate fight to obtain pardons and their case caused
intense excitement throughout the entire State, but they paid the price
their lawlessness deserved.
Many years after the Shaw robbery, young Shaw became a magistrate in
Doylestown. One day Joseph Doan, the robber and schoolmaster, now a
refugee from prison, entered his office. The Squire gave him a cool
reception but inquired of his errand.
The old scoundrel had returned from Canada to bring suit against a
Quaker for a small legacy of $40. He had the impudence to require Squire
Shaw’s services, although he had robbed and nearly killed his father.
Squire Shaw performed his professional duties, but treated his unwelcome
client with cool disdain and hatred.
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Dutch Gain Control of the Delaware River
September 25, 1655
After the arrival of John Claudius Rysingh, as the successor of John
Printz, Governor of New Sweden, May 20, 1654, he became a very
aggressive officer. He began his administration by capturing the Dutch
Fort Casimer, thus destroying the authority of the Dutch on the Delaware
River.
On June 17, he held a great convocation of Indians at Printz Hall, on
Tinicum Island, now Essington, on the Delaware River near Chester, at
which a new treaty was successfully consummated.
The triumph of Rysingh was regarded as a reconquest of usurped territory
and no other means to reclaim it by the Dutch were apprehended. That was
a fatal delusion, for at the close of 1654, while estimates were being
made in Sweden for the support of their colony during the ensuing year,
on a peace basis, an armament was being fitted out in Holland not only
sufficient “to replace matters on the Delaware in their former
position,” but “to drive out the Swedes from every side of the river.”
In the spring of 1655 five armed vessels, well equipped and with 600
men, were forwarded by Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch Governor at
Manhattan. This expedition was commanded by Stuyvesant in person and
arrived in Delaware Bay Monday afternoon, September 5, 1655.
By Friday the fleet reached Fort Casimer, now in control of the Swedes,
and renamed Fort Trinity. The garrison was in command of Sven Schute,
while Governor Rysingh, in person, had charge of Christina, in what is
now Wilmington, Del.
To prevent a communication of the two forts Stuyvesant had landed fifty
men. The demand made by the Dutch was a “direct restitution of their own
property,” to which Commander Schute, after having had an interview with
Stuyvesant, reluctantly yielded on the following day upon very favorable
terms of capitulation.
The nine guns of the fort were to be reserved for the Swedish “crown”
and removed when convenient. The Swedes were to march out, twelve fully
equipped, the rest with their side-arms. Stuyvesant proclaimed that
Swedes who would take the oath of allegiance to him might remain
unmolested, and twenty did so.
The surrender of Schute was unknown to Governor Rysingh, and his
position was virtually untenable. He had placed some of his best men in
the captured fort, and an additional party, sent the very day of the
surrender. He prepared for resistance, collected all the people for the
defense of Fort Christina, and strengthened the ramparts.
On September 12, the Dutch appeared on the opposite side of Christina
Creek, and the siege began, which was continued uninterruptedly for
fourteen days.
On the 16th, Stuyvesant sent a letter “claiming the whole river.”
Rysingh replied asserting the rights of the Swedes on the Delaware and
protesting against the Dutch invasion. Stuyvesant renewed his demand,
and Rysingh next urged that the boundaries between the Swedish and Dutch
colonies be settled by the Governments at home, or by commissioners to
be agreed upon.
Only delay resulted. Stuyvesant was cocksure of his ability to capture
the fort, and was satisfied to wait. It would have been folly in
Rysingh, with his thirty men to have begun to fight. During the long
siege no one was killed or wounded. September 25, Rysingh surrendered. A
formal capitulation was drawn up and signed by the two commanders on the
parade-ground outside the fort.
The soldiers were to march out with the honors of war. The guns and
everything to remain the property of the Swedes. The Swedish settlers
might stay or go, as they chose, and for a year and six weeks, if they
stayed, need not take the Dutch oath of allegiance.
Swedes who remained should enjoy the Lutheran faith, and have a minister
to instruct them. Rysingh and the commissary, Elswick, were to be taken
to Manhattan, and thence provided with passage to Europe. Thus ended the
short but exciting career of Governor Rysingh, and with him fell the
whole Swedish Colony.
Soon thereafter, Rysingh with other Swedish officials, proceeded to
Manhattan. Rysingh, Lindstrom, the engineer; Elswick, the commissary,
and the two clergymen, Hjort and Nertunius, sailed on a Dutch merchant
vessel early in November, and were landed in Plymouth, England, where a
report of the Dutch conquest was made to Lyderberg, the Swedish
Ambassador to England.
Had not internal troubles arisen in Sweden at this time, their claim
might have been pressed with effect, but in 1664 the whole of New
Netherlands was seized by the English, and both Sweden and Holland had
lost their colonies. Neither was likely to obtain much satisfaction from
the other, and the controversy faded away.
Many improvements had been made by the Swedes, from Henlopen to the
Falls of Alumingh. They laid the foundation of Upland, the present
Chester; Korsholm Fort was built at Passyunk; Manayunk Fort was placed
at the mouth of the Schuylkill; they marked the sites of Nya Wasa and
Gripsholm, somewhere near the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill,
Straus Mijk, Nieu Causeland, the present New Castle; and forts were
erected at Kingsessing, Wicacoa, Finland and other places.
The Swedes lived at peace with the Indians. The Government of the Dutch
was established by the appointment of John Paul Jacquet as vice director
and commander-in-chief, and Andreas Hudde as secretary and surveyor,
keeper of the keys of the fort, etc.
The overthrow of the Swedish authority on the Delaware was complete and
final, and for a period of nine years the white settlements on the
river, on both sides, remained wholly under control of the Dutch. The
Swedes lived together, mostly north of Christina, and the Dutch gathered
about Fort Casimer, where a little hamlet sprang up, which became known
as New Amstel, the New Castle of the English and of the present.
The authority centered at New Amstel. Christina was eclipsed, and
Tinicum ceased to have importance except as the residence of Madam
Popegoja and the location of a church. The log forts at both places
rotted down and were not rebuilt.
In April, 1657, Jacob Alricks assumed the governorship of the colony for
the Dutch, when Hudde was appointed to command at Fort Christina, the
name of which was changed to Altona.
Stuyvesant again visited the Delaware in May, 1658. At Tinicum he
conferred with Sheriff Van Dyck, Magistrate Olaf Stille, Mathys Hansson,
Peter Rambo and Peter Cock. These and Sven Schute and others took the
oath of allegiance to the Dutch authority and were granted a number of
requests.
In July, 1658, William Beekman was appointed by Stuyvesant to represent
the Dutch West India Company on the Delaware.
But Pennsylvania was soon to be wrested from the Dutch and England
gained possession October 1, 1664.
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British Under General Howe Invest City of
Philadelphia, September 26, 1777
After the defeat of the American Army in the battle of Brandywine,
September 11, 1777, the British did not pursue Washington’s Army, which
marched to Chester and then to Germantown. Here provisions and
ammunition, both much needed, were obtained.
The British advanced toward Philadelphia, which was unprepared to make
an adequate defense, and General Mifflin, who was to take command, was
too ill to do so.
When the news reached the city, early on the morning of September 19,
that the British had crossed the Schuylkill, all was in confusion.
Congress and the Supreme Executive Council of the State, which had
remained in Philadelphia during the exciting events transpiring before
the city, now adjourned to meet elsewhere, the former, on the 18th, to
meet in Lancaster. After a flight to Bethlehem and then via Reading it
reached Lancaster, where it convened on the 27th, but three days later
removed to York, which became the capital of the United States.
The State Government remained until the 24th, when it also went to
Lancaster, the archives, etc., having previously been removed to Easton.
The first meeting of Wharton and his councilors was held in Lancaster
September 29.
On the 19th Washington passed the Schuylkill at Parkers Ford, leaving
Wayne with 2000 men on the west side to fall upon any detachment of the
enemy or destroy his baggage. That night occurred the Paoli massacre.
The British crossed the Schuylkill at Fatland Ford on the 22d. General
Howe established headquarters at Norristown on the 23d and 24th.
Washington had marched his army in the direction of Reading. On the 25th
the British began an encampment at Germantown, Howe making Stenton his
headquarters.
Lord Cornwallis entered Philadelphia on September 26 at the head of a
detachment of British and Hessian grenadiers.
An American flotilla held the channel of the Delaware River below the
city, but the British immediately constructed batteries which repulsed
an attack the following day.
The main army of the enemy remained in camp at Germantown. Thus the
richest and most populous capital of the whole confederation fell into
the enemy’s hands, after a sanguinary battle, and a series of maneuvers
no less masterly than painful to the two armies.
Washington, descending along the left bank of the Schuylkill, approached
to within sixteen miles of Germantown, where he encamped at Skippack
Creek.
General Howe, having occupied Philadelphia, at once took measures to
secure the unobstructed passage of his fleet up the Delaware. Colonel
Sterling was sent with a detachment to attack the American fort at
Billingsport, on the Jersey side of the Delaware River, as its capture
would place it in their power to make a passage through the obstructions
in the channel and enable their vessels to approach within striking
distance of Fort Mifflin.
Colonel Sterling’s attack was successful October 2, as no resistance was
offered by the small garrison under Colonel Bradford. They had taken off
all the ammunition and some of the cannon, spiking those that remained
and burned the barracks.
While this action was in progress, General Washington regarded it as a
favorable opportunity for making an attack on the British force encamped
at Germantown, and with between eight and nine thousand Continentals,
besides some militia marched toward that place on the night of October
3.
When Washington gave the order to retire the Americans executed their
retreat in good order, followed by the British for about nine miles.
The American Army gathered at the back of Perkiomen Creek with a post
formed on the hillside of the road near White Marsh Church, and
Washington at Pennypacker’s mill.
The Congress expressed its approbation, both of the plan of enterprise
and the courage with which it was executed, for which votes of thanks
were given to General Washington and the army.
On October 13 the Assembly at Lancaster established a Council of Safety
consisting of the members of the Supreme Executive Council and John
Bayard, Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, Jonathan B. Smith, David
Rittenhouse, Joseph Gardner, Robert Whitehill, Christopher Marshall,
James Smith, of York; Jacob Arndt, Curtis Grubb, James Cannon and
William Henry with power to punish even capitally in a summary manner,
and to take at their appraisement any necessaries for the army.
A rule also was made against profiteers, and any person who should buy
up more bar-iron, leather, salt, wheat, cattle or other merchandise, or
victuals, than proper for his own need and supply should be punished
severely.
During the British occupation there were as many as 20,000 troops in and
about Philadelphia. General Howe lived for a time in Stenton, the home
built by James Logan, and later in the Samuel Morris house; he also
lived for a time in the Perot mansion, which in 1793, was the residence
of General Washington, while President of the United States. During the
time he stayed in Philadelphia he seized and kept for his own use Mary
Pemberton’s coach and horses, with which he rode about town.
General Knyphausen lived in General Cadwallader’s mansion, on Second
Street; Lord Cornwallis dwelt in David Lewis’ house, Second, above
Spruce Street; Major André dwelt in Benjamin Franklin’s mansion. Other
officers occupied fine residences and it was a season of much social
gayety.
On October 19 the main body of the British Army left Germantown and
encamped behind the line of redoubts in the Northern Liberties.
Philadelphia was now walled in from river to river by lines of British
troops, but yet the British men-of-war commanded by General Howe’s
brother, Lord Howe, could not freely pass the obstructions in the
Delaware River.