There Was a Time in America Before the Republican Party Existed

Simeon E. Baldwin. “Connecticut in Pennsylvania”, Papers of the New Haven Colony Historical Society, Vol. VIII. New Haven, Ct.: New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1914, pp. 1-19.

page 1: The Earl of Warwick gave paper title to Connecticut proprietors land from the Western Sea (Pacific Ocean) to the South Sea as the coast lies towards Virginia along a breadth of 40 leagues beginning at the Narragansett River.

Connecticut adopted a Constitution in 1641.

pages 1-2. Charles II granted Connecticut a charter in 1662. It lowered the northern boundary giving Massachusetts Colony more land. Yet it continued the western boundary to the Pacific Ocean.

page 2. In 1664 the King carved land for the Duke of York out of the title of Connecticut. The Duke of York. The Duke of York was given land from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of the Delaware Bay as well as to the Hudson River to the Mohawk branch of the Hudson.

The western boundary on the grant to the Duke of York lists Connecticut on the western boundary.

page 3. A group of mostly Connecticut people bought good farming land in the Susquehanna from the Five Nations for 2,000 pounds. The Pennsylvania Colony thought this was a good barrier against Indian attack.

There were 850 people in the syndicate known as the Susquehanna Company. They petition the Connecticut General Assembly in 1755 of their intention to apply to to the King for a colonial charter. The French and Indian War kept the issue from moving forward for a few years. The Wyoming Valley residents settled with the Indians as part of the Connecticut Charter.

The1681Pennsylvania Charter placed the Wyoming Valley within Pennsylvania. In 1763, Pennsylvania asked England to halt immigration from Connecticut. A Mohawk delegation went to Hartford to urge there be no further colonization in the Wyoming Valley.

The Susquehanna Company in Wyoming Valley sent Colonel Eliphalet Dyer to England to ask for a charter. He was unsuccessful.

The King agreed to a boundary between England and Indians in the Wyoming Valley in 1768. Pennsylvania proprietors purchased from the Four Nations the same land the Susquehanna Company had purchased from them 14 years prior.

page 4. The East Branch of the Susquehanna was mostly Connecticut settlers while the West Branch of the Susquehanna was mostly Pennsylvanians.

4,000 freemen who supported the Susquehanna Company petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly to asset and maintain Connecticut’s claim to the Wyoming Valley. None of the petition signers were from the Susquehanna Company yet this was a show of public support within Connecticut for their claim.

page 5. England moved to resolve the conflict by having four counsel review the case. page 7. They supported the Connecticut claim.

page 5. In 1774, Connecticut created the town of Westmoreland in the Wyoming Valley.

page 6. In 1774, Connecticut accepted the Pennsylvania settlement and in October 1776 created Westmoreland County. A 1774 Census found 922 inhabited Westmoreland County.

The Provost of the College of Pennsylvania, Dr. William Smith, and Jared Ingersoo, wrote a pamphlet supporting Pennsylvania’s claim. Rev. Dr. Benjamin Trumbull in 1776 published a reply supporting Connecticut’s claim.

The question was presented to the Colonial Congress in December 1775. By a 6 to 4 vote Congress sides with Connecticut and ordered all taken property be returned to their original Connecticut owners.

page 9. 500 armed men from the West Branch (who were Pensylvanians), formented by British influence, invaded.

page 10. On December 23, 1774, John Jay of New York recommended Connecticut send no more settlers. This passed 4 Colonies to 3 Colonies.

Pennsylvania named their western side the Manor on Sunbury and the eastern side side the Manor of Stock.

Connecticut built Fort Durkee. Pennsylvania fired a four pound cannon into the fork.
page 11. The homes of Connecticut residents were plundered and their cattle taken away.
page 12. Most of the Connecticut garrison returned to Connecticut.

page 11. The Susquehanna Company retook the Fort, sized the four pound cannon and took a block house. This was a violation by the Connecticut forces that the garrison may not be taken until the matter was resolved.

Pennsylvanians led by Captain Ogden attacked the Fort and retook it. The Fort was expanded and renamed Fort Wyoming. The Connecticut settlers then captured the Fort back.

page 11-12. Yale President Stiles declared the British were using Pennsylvania Tories o create this conflict. In 176, 200 on each side fought with several being killed.

page 12. The Connecticut Governor’s Council saw the Pennsylvania efforts to expel Connecticut was to see that an anti-British colony was not created.

In July 1778, about a thousand Tories and Indians attacked the Connecticut colony They had been warned. The Connecticut settlers asked for Continental Army help that never arrived, Many able bodied Connecticut settlers were already in the Continental  Army. 40 or 50 received military training and formed a defense with help from a reserve consisting of old men and boys.

The Connecticut settlers decided it was best to surprise attack the enemy. The Tories and Indians were well prepared 300 were killed or missing including hte Connecticut Assembly members from Westmoreland.

page 14. The U.S. Congress appointed Commissioners to determine the dispute.

page 15. Private letters indicate those arguing for Connecticut did poor jobs. William Samuel Johnson was “bombastic”. John Adams wrote that Colonel Eliphalet Dyer was “long winded and roundabout, obscure, and cloudy, very talkative and very tedious, yet an honest, worthy man,means, and judges well.”

pages 14-15. Pennsylvania was represented well by William Bradford (later U.S. Attorney General), James Wildon (later U.S. Supreme Court Justice), Joseph Reed (a former Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council President) and Jonahan Sergeant (a former U.S. Attorney General).

page 16. Pennsylvania’s case was whatever merits of paper trails, it would not make sense for the States to have rights in territory encased by another state.
There was a unanimous decision for Pennsylvania. Connecticut had no right to land in the disputed lands, according to the decision.

page 17. Pennsylvania sent troops to assist the Sheriff oversee the Connecticut settlers. Pennsylvania passed a Quieting Act to look into the merits of their claims. A few years later, it was repealed. Thus, Connecticut residents had not merit in their claims. Most lost all their possessions. Legislation passed in 1799 and 1801 giving holders of Connecticut titles about $1 per acre.

page 18. Several private suites were attempted.

pages 18-19. In the law suit of Van Horne’s Lessee against Dairance, U.S. Circuit Court, District of Pennsylvania, 1795, it was determined that the Quieting Act of Pennsylvania of 1787 meant the verdict should be for the Pennsylvania claim and not for the Connecticut claim.

page 19. Pennsylvania passed a law that if someone claims land in the Wyoming Valley under Connecticut title then executes a lease, his tenant could dispute the title. A Pennsylvania law passed in 1826 that a tenant could not dispute his landlord’s title, and the courts upheld this law.

The following are notes not related to the previous topic found later in this book:

page 151. At the beginning all New England Colonies were required to support the Congregational order.

page 177. Hundreds of thousands of Irish wanted to retaliate against England for centuries of wrongdoings that were inflicted.

The United States demanded the British pay damages that were done by the British against U.S. ships during the Civil War. England did not acknowledge the claims.
There was an outcry among some Irish that “We will collect the claims for the United States.”
Fenians marched to the border of Canada.
page 278. Seward stopped the invasion of Canada.
U.S. soldiers had left their positions to help the Fenians. 90% of General Sheridan’s command left their New Orleans command. General Shale was ready to join the attack. Yet Seward ordered there be no fighting and told soldiers should go back to their commands. They had left without leave of absences. Then they went back to duty,, no questions were asked.

England arrested some Fenian leaders. Eight were sentenced to death for trason with the sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

page 278. British Premier Gladstone released all civil prisoners but held all soldiers.
Fenians in the U.S. sought finance aid to rescue them.
pae 178-279. More than 100,000 respected for the appeals for financial aid.
page 279. A ship was sent to Western Australia, where they were imprisoned, to rescue them.
The prisoners escaped and were placed on the rescue ship the Catalpa.
page 279-280. The British ship Georgetta chased after Catalpa.
page 280. Captain George Anthony rain the U.S. flag up on the Catalpa. He declared all men on board were freemen.
The Georgette feared the Catalpa would run it down The Georgette turned back and kept a distance behind the Catalpa until the Catalpa got fair wind. The Catalpa sailed for New York City.