give them possession of the lands; and arms The two Justices of the Superior Court of to water and shoot him; and Cressap told him he would not be a faithful servant unless he did it. Another of Cressap's men present, offered to go over with Jacob, and wait in the canoe while he committed the murder, and take him. safely back; and Cressap added a promise of his freedom if he did it, and a discharge, with a pass to tr ato Maryland, where (he said) the Pennsylvania men durst not follow him. On this day Cressap sent down two men with four horses to Colonel Rigby's, for the arms and ammunition, and declared that he daily expected up about 150 men, who were to be by him conducted to the Dutch settlements, to take the people out of their houses in the night by force of arms, and carry them to Maryland, and that these people were to hold the said places by force of arms, as tenants to Lord Baltimore. In all the foregoing instances the people of Pennsylvania have been passive, and have most peaceably submitted to these treatments; the only instance charged against them, wherein they are said to be active, is the apprehending Cressap upon a legal warrant, to answer for the murder he had committed, and for the other many disorders he had been guilty of; some only of which are before related, as nearly as possible in the very words of the proofs. Cressap gave out, that in the winter next coming, when the ice was in the river, a great number of armed men would come up from Maryland, and lie in the woods, near the Dutch inhabitants, and he the said Cressap, with ten armed men, would go from house to house, and take the masters of the families prisoners, and when they had as many as they could manage, they would carry them to the armed force in the woods, and return again, till he had taken all who would not submit to Maryland. And if any other inhabitants of Pennsylvania should come to their relief, the armed force who lay in the woods, would pursue, take, and carry them all prisoners to Maryland. And if any of the men fled from their houses, he would turn the women and children out of doors, and bring up other people from Maryland and place in their possessions; Nov. 24. Cressap was apprehended by the Sheriff of who should hold the same by force of arms for Lord Baltimore. Cressap declared that he himself had advised the Sheriff, when the 300 men came up before, to fire on the people in the boats crossing the river, but said that they were fools and cowards, and had done no good in coming up. Cressap declared that the governor of Maryland had now sent up a great number of small arms, cannon, and ammunition, to Colonel Rigby's, to be conveyed to Cressap's, and that the sheriffs and officers were to be sent up in a little time, to dispossess and confine all the Dutch people on the West side of the river, south-westerly from John Hendricks, who would not submit to the Maryland government, and that the governor of Maryland had sent to Newcastle and Chester county for Irish people, who were to come up and be put in possession by the sheriff and officers of the Dutch people's possessions. Cressap listed one man in his service at £15 a year, as his drummer, and to exercise his men, and promised to recommend him to the governor to make it worth 25 or £30 a year; and promised him to give him one of the Dutch people's plantation if he would help to dispossess them. Nov. 18. Cressap listed another man at £12 a year, to and 20. defend him, and to go on such enterprises against the Pennsylvanians, as Cressap should think proper.-Cressap's wife brought him news that Munday and Leet, two of the heads of those people, who petitioned for the Dutch people's lands, were taken with their papers, and with Governor Ogle's orders; and she proposed that if Cressap and Jacob would go over the river, one Mary Emerson should engage John Ross at a game at cards, and in the mean time Cressap should go in and seize and carry him away, and Jacob swore he would be revenged of Mr. Ross, and would go over the And it is most humbly submitted, whether in duty to his Majesty, and to themselves, they were not only justified in apprehending him, but bound to do it, and culpable if they had omitted so seize him. Lancaster county. And the circumstances of the taking him, are deposed by many witnesses to be as follows: The sheriff was attended by 23 men; he went to Cressap's house early in the morning; he himself and others read the warrant for murder to Cressap, and in his hearing several times over. He several times required him to surrender peaceably. In answer thereto, Cressap swore he would never surrender till he was dead. He called for a dram of rum, and drank "Damnation to himself and all with him, if ever they surrendered. He swore he would kill all the Pennsylvanians before he would be taken. He would shoot the first of his own men who refused to fire at his command, or who offered to capitulate. Before any force or violence was offered, two blunderbusses with shot were fired from Cressap's house, upon the sheriff and his asssistants. Some of the sheriff's assistants were wounded thereby. The sheriff desired and entreated him to let his wife go out of the house, and the sheriff and his assistants would retire, but he refused. Cressap declared he had sent down to Maryland for arms, and expected 300 men by that time it should be night. Thereupon night coming on, some of the people, without the sheriff's consent, set fire to a shed near to the house, which was only round rough logs of wood, piled upon each other, and was very low, the roof being within reach; the sheriff endeavoured to put it out. And then Cressap and his men rushed out, and fired upon the sheriff and his assistants, and wounded several. And his own man, Michael Risner by name, shot another of his own men, Laughlan Malone by name, and killed him, mistaking him for a Pennsylvanian. Note-In the Lord Baltimore's answer to the original petition, he insists, here, that the Pennsylvanians killed the man, but his own de Νον. 29. Dec. 11. puty-governor and Council, on the spot, do not pretend any thing like it; they themselves only say, that a firing of guns ensued, whereby a man was killed, and the proofs say it was done in the manner, and by Cressap's own man, the person above related. Immediately after Cressap's being seized, with Risner, he decla. that if he was a prisoner in Lancaster town, they could not keep him long, for he would soon be relieved, and the town set on fire; and again declared that a body of men would soon be sent from Maryland, and burn Lancaster town to ashes, and that it was the Sheriff's best way to remove him from thence as soon as possible. The two provincial judge., by their warrant, committed Cressap to the goal of Pennsylvania county, till delivered by due course of law. Immediately thereupon, the President of Pennsylvania called the Council and Assembly, and they together signed the present original petition to his Majesty, humbly informing him of these matters. Three days afterwards, they informed a couple of agents, who were sent up from Maryland, that they had applied to his Majesty in this affair. The two cross petitions from the deputygovernor and council, and from the commissary and clergy of Maryland, were for the first time, lodged in the Council Office, and were some time afterwards referred to the Lords of the Committee. 1737. The original petitioners beg leave to offer, June 1. that had one single attack been made upon July 12. them, though it had been ever so clearly within Pennsylvania-Or had many attacks been made upon them, but in such places as by any possibility there could have been any shadow for doubt which province they had been in; in either of those cases, they would not have given his majesty and the lords this trouble. world, and may be determined by those single points, which the Lord Baitimore so much insists on in his answer, viz. That his bounds are those of his own charter, and those only, and that his people have never, in any one instance, exceeded those bounds; but that the people in Pennsylvania have, in many instances, and in a great degree, encroached on his said bounds. Because his bounds end low, according to his charter, within the l'eninsula, and these disturbances have all been committed very high and far up, within the main continent. For the charter for Maryland grants only (as to this purpose) a part of a peninsula, and supposing that was to have been the very highest part of all the peninsula (which it is not) even in that case, every one of these disturbances have happened in no part at all of the peninsula, but far up within the main continent, and so far within it, as twenty-five miles above, and more north than, the whole and every part whatsoever of the peninsula, and many of them a great many miles more north even than the city of Philadelphia. These matters therefore would be twentyfive miles at least out of his bounds, if the whole and every part of the Peninsula, had been granted to him; which removes his bounds from the scene of these disturbances made by his deputy-governor and Cressap, full fifty-seven miles, over and above the twenty-five miles. For such part of the peninsula as is granted to him, is such part of the peninsula as lies between the ocean, on the east, and the bay of Chesapeake on the west; and that is the middle part only of the peninsula, and removes his bounds at least eighty-two miles below the place where these disturbances were committed. It is also to be observed, that the place where the very lowest of these disturbances was committed by Maryland, is so far north, as to be nineteen miles and a half above the line claimed by the Lord Baltimore himself in 1683, and above seventeen miles and a half upon an exact measurement, above the line, which the present Lord Baltimore demanded, and which Messrs. Penn conveyed to him by the agree ment in May 1732. But when these attacks are, for the first time, begun, after Lord Baltimore by his own agreement in 1732, had, for a most valuable consideration, precisely fixed his own bounds, and those much higher than were ever before claimed, and daily and frequently made, and in places beyond all possibility of doubt, in which province they were, are carried on by an army, and by fire and sword, and with such outrages, as if the Marylanders thought them- Aug. 18. 18th August 1737, it appears to have been inselves at war in an enemy's country; It then became the duty of the President, Council, and Assembly of Pennsylvania, to represent the matters to his majesty. Their original petition contains also their fears and apprehensions, that these violences would be still continued from Maryland, and, notwithstanding notice was given them on the fourteenth of December, 1736, that the Pennsylvanians had petitioned his majesty; yet on the twenty-ninth of December, 1736, and in June and October, 1737, they have been carried on to a greater degree (if possible) than before. But as those matters are subsequent to the date of the first Pennsylvania petition, they are not stated at present. It may be very necessary to observe as to the places where every one of these disturbances has been committed: and in domestic or foreign transactions, it would be scarcely practicable to give clear and satisfactory evidence, at this distance from the spot, of those facts; but it is particularly fortunate that this case does not labour under any uncertainty in that respect, but is the most clear one in the whole 1737. With regard to the quieting order made on tended to preserve peace,not to affect the right of either proprietor, and it also appears to have been as a provisional order, until his Majesty's pleasure should be further signified. That order consists of two parts; the first, an order to keep the peace; the second, an order to grant out no lands, as a means also, for preserving the peace. And, as this is the first opportunity the Pennsylvania proprietors have had of offering any matter for consideration on that head, they beg leave to submit, in the first place, that they dutifully do contend to have peace and tranquility established, being unable to support themselves against these cruel attacks and hostilities: They hope they shall be believed to be very much in earnest, when they desire to have peace established; and their behaviour, under all these, and many more cruel and barbarous attacks, may be offered, as the strongest proof of such their desire. It is for peace sake, and for that only, that they are at this time sueing by his Majesty's order, to enforce Lord Baltimore's agreement of 1732, by which, so very far from their gain ing any territory, they lose a vast tract and territory, which they conveyed to him, purely and for no other end in the world, but that they might have somewhat, that might be at peace and free from interruption. Wherefore they earnestly hope that both Governors shall be most strictly enjoined to keep the peace, but with this addition, that the limits of their respective jurisdictions may be precisely and respectively determined, for the present only, and without the least view or intention to prejudice the right of one, or advance the right of the other, Proprietor. For, as it at present stands, to keep the peace amongst the people inhabiting the said borders, it will be utterly impossible to know what or where, those borders are. The borders of Lord Baltimore's charter are incontestably in the middle of the peninsula, above fourscore miles below these disturbances, but as Cressap has first propagated it, it may now be pretended, for Lord Baltimore, that his borders reach above fourscore miles higher than that, and even more north than the city of Phidelphia itself, which space contains by far the greatest number of settlements in the whole province; wherefore, if all that country may be called borders, or contested bounds, that will open a door for all imaginable inconveniences and contests about jurisdiction between the two provinces, and will leave, in effect, the whole province without any jurisdiction at all, or under an uncertainty which jurisdiction they belong to, which would be attended with the most fatal consequences. Nay, indeed, to leave one single mile, without a certain jurisdiction, would be an opportunity for debtors, for criminals, and all lawless persons, to establish and shelter themselves there, without control, to the annoyance of every body in both provinces, which the proprietors are very certain was never intended. The Pennsylvania proprietors do most humbly offer, that they already have, and will in the most positive and effectual manner, give directions to their deputy governor and officers, not to pretend, till the dispute is ended, to claim the least jurisdiction whatever, beyond the lines settled by Lord Baltimore's own agreement in 1732, on condition only that Lord Baltimore will give the like directions to his governor and officers-and the Pennsylvania proprietors humbly pray that such directions may be, in the most effectual manner, enforced by his Majesty's royal orders. And thus, a certain temporary limit may be established for the exercise of jurisdiction, which may preserve peace and good order amongst all his Majesty's subjects, and thereby answer the whole of his Majesty's most gracious and good intentions. But with respect to the not granting out any lands in contest, nor any part of the three lower counties, the Pennsylvania proprietors do most dutifully submit to their Lordships, that such a restraint would prevent both the proprietors from answering the declared ends and purposes for which the charters were granted to them. As the lands in contest may be said and pretended to be the whole country, if Lord Baltimore thinks proper to depart from the former claim and settlement of the bounds; and any such restraint would be more particularly hurtful to Mr. Penns, who though they suffer in their loss of their fortune by it, have yet the pleasure to observe, that that constitution which was established by their father has so fully answered the ends of his charter, as to invite foreigners, in very great numbers, from every part of Europe, who find themselves oppressed at home, to seek shelter in Pennsylvania, and become useful and additional new subjects to his most sacred Majesty, and who would be utterly disappointed, and that good end defeated, if lands could not be granted out to them, or, which is all one, if no lands but such as lay a great way back, in the uninhabited part of the country could be granted out to them. Wherefore, they humbly hope his Majesty will not see cause that so great a check should be put to settling this most flourishing province of Pennsylvania, and the rather, since the other matter of settling the jurisdiction, may fully answer his Majesty's royal intentions, and fully preserve peace to all his subjects. But the last part of the direction at present subsisting, not to grant any part of the lower counties, is apprehended to bear hard on Mr. Penns, and on them only, and they submit whether there may appear occasion for the same, since none of the forementioned matters are pretended to have happened there, or within very many miles of the same. And Mr. Penns humbly hope there is the less reason now, for laying any restraint whatever, on their granting out land in the lower counties, in regard not only that those counties lie very remote from the scene where the Marylanders have committed all the foregoing disturbances, but also that, in August 1737, when the quieting order was made, Lord Baltimore had then two petitions depending, to oppose Mr. Penns nomination of a new gov ernor of the three lower counties, which his Lordship called an assertion of his right to those counties; but, within a few days now past, when those petitions were brought on and appointed to be heard, his Lordship moved, by the advice of his council, as declared, to withdraw those petitions. Mr. Penns hereby offer, That they already have, and will further give the most effectual and positive orders to their governors and offi cers, not to grant any lands whatever pending the suit, beyond the lines settled by Lord Baltimore's own agreement, and humbly hope his Lordship shall be directed to confine himself (during the continuance of the suit) to the lines so fixed and settled by himself, and not to set up a pretence, that the whole province of Pennsylvania is in contest; and that upon the injuries complained of by the original petition, your Lordships will make such order as shall to your Lordships seem just. EMIGRATION. W. MURRAY. A daily statement of the number of waggons, teams, &c. which passed through Easton Pennsylvania from 19th Sept. to 24th Oct. 1817, emigrating to the westward principally to Ohio-average 6 souls each, 3066. Sept. 19 Waggons. 53 Oct. 1 15 6 REVOLT OF THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE. DOCUMENTS Concluded from p. 206. Answer to Governor Reed's note demanding the spies, agreeable to promise. January 10, 1781. As it was a misunderstanding in regard to sending the prisoners to your quarters, we hope you'l excuse-how ever they are gone under a proper guard to the committee of Congress's quarters over the river-however if you are desirous now to see them, we shall bring them to your quarters. We are Yr. Hble. Servts. Excellency Gov. Reed, & Genl. Wayne, &c. WM. BOUZAR. Bloomsbury, Jan'y. 12, 1781. Dear Sir-Mr. Smith arrived this afternoon, and his presence will be useful. I hoped he would have brought the money, as I fear there will be much confusion till the discharged are separated from the retained. The com missioners began to day as the troops are clamorous, and disagrecab'e things expected if any delay was attemptcd. At the same time it must be observed, that we have not yet had the necessary papers. They therefore proceeded no further than one company-and the discharged of that are still here for want of a little money to bear their expenses. If therefore it is not already done, I persuade myself it will be sent immediately. Farmer came last evening and to-day I formed his arrangements, so that he will begin to-morrow. Mr. Deane will take care of money matters. The officers at Pennington were in so deplorable a plight that I was obliged to borrow £270 specie in this town on my own credit to relieve them. The people of the country are prejudiced against them, and callous to their necessities. Mr. Deane has just returned, having paid them the above sum on account of their depreciation. I expect we must send them £500 more. By a little address we have saved the 100 guineas, and our credit as you will In pursuance of the above order the Court met and see by the enclosed. Genl. Wayne was gone up to proceeded to hear the evidences and allegations of the Pennington, and as I apprehended some mistake in the parties concerned, and after maturely considering the matter, I did not like to give up so much money withoat same, are decidedly of opinion, that the said John Ma- farther light. I have not yet been able to settle the moson and James Ogden came clearly within the descrip-ney sent up by Nicola. There is a justice necessary to tion of spies, and that according to the rules and customs of nations at war, they ought to be hung by the neck until they are dead. Sigued, A court of inquiry to set this afternoon at 4 o'clock at Somerset, state of Pennsylvania, to hear and report their opinion, whether John Mason late of N. York, and James Ogden, of South River, state of New Jersey, were found within the lines of the American army in the character of spies-And if the said court find the charge, then to give their determination thereon. Genera! Wayne will preside. Genl. Irvine, Col. Butler, Col. Stewart, and Major Fishbourne, members. Given at Head quarters 10th Jany. 1781. Signed, STIRLING, M. G. ANT'Y WAYNE, B. G. Given at head quarters this 10th day of January 1781. be observed with soldiers in money matters, which we must in future attend to. I shall be much obliged to you for one or more of the laws for making up the de preciation, the soldiers have not been properly made acquainted with it. I wish they had known it sooner, I think it would have had a good effect. The commissioners and some of the principal officers had some little warmth to-day as I am informed. The former proceeded in their own way, and I believe it was the right one. Great indulgences must and ought to be shown to the feelings of the officers in this new and unexpected scene-it is a sore trial, and requires no small degree of patience and good sense to submit to it. The men certainly had not those attachments which the officers supposed, and their fears being now at an end, they give loose to many indecencies, which are very provoking to those who have been long accustomed to receive unconditional submission. The mutineers are in all cases to be condemned; there are sometimes in armies just causes of discontent. The people of this state are un versally in sentiment with the men. The officers re Lieut. Col. Harmer and Inspector Genl. of the Penns'a. line, in his absence to the next officer in rotation. The prisoners are to be executed at the Cross roads from the upper ferry from Trenton to Philadelphia at the four lanes' ends. In case of the absence of the above officers Major Fishbourne will see this order car-maining with them have not been able to make the ried into execution. His Excellency Gov. Reed, and Genl. Potter, &c. Agreeable to the information of two serjeants of our board, who waited on your Excellency, that in consideration of the two spics they informed the remainder of the board that your Excellency has been pleased to of fer a sum of gold as a compensation for our fidelity-but as it has not been for the sake, or through any expectation of receiving a reward, but for the zeal and love of our country, that we seut them immediately to Genl. Wayne, we therefore do not consider ourselves entitled smallest party on whom to depend even for information. Your obed. Hbble. Serv't. JOS. REED. [Instructions to Mr. Smith, when ordered to Bordentown to distribute the cloathing, &c.] Sir-You will be pleased to proceed to Bordentown as soon as convenient, where you will first direct the issue of the cloathing to such troops as shall be sent down by the commissioners, and who will be under the care of some officer or officers. 2dly. Pay cach man one month's pay, taking a receipt therefor-viz. fifty shillings or the equivalent in continental, at 75 for one. Sdly. Pay each recruit, who shall be certified by any justice of peace as enlisted, for the war freely and voluntarily, and attested to serve the United States, SI pounds state money, or the value in old continental, |