included in the Charter of this Colony, lying Westward of the Province of New York, without Liberty first had and obtained from the General Assembly of this Colony. "These Acts are made and passed by our Assembly, for the Protection and Government of the Inhabitants on the Lands mentioned, to preserve Peace and good Order among them, to prevent Hostilities, Animosities and Contentions among the People there, to promote public Justice, to discourage Vice and Iniquity, and to put a Stop to Intruders entering on those Lands. "I am, with great Truth and Regard, Sir, "Your most Obedient, “Humble Servant, "Honorable JOHN PENN, Esquire." "Sir: "JONTH TRUMBULL. "PHILADELPHIA, 24th February, 1774. "I have received your Letter of the 31st January last, informing me of the proceedings of your Government with respect to the Colony's Claim of Lands within the Province of Pennsylvania, and particularly of your having erected a Town within certain Boundaries, and annexed it to your County of Litchfield. In my turn, I must acquaint you that the jurisdiction of this Province hath been extended over this Town by Acts of our Assembly, and a very great Part of it hath been granted to the Inhabitants of this Province, and paid for long before your Colony ever determined to set up their Claim. Some of the People who purchased have settled their Lands, and the others have a right to settle them; so that, however your Proceedings may be intended to preserve Peace and good Order, and to prevent Hostilities, Animosities and Contentions, I fear they will have a contrary Effect. In my Opinion, a much more probable Method of promoting those valuable Ends, would have been a forbearance to exercise Acts of Government in that part of the Province of Pennsylvania, until your new Claim had been heard and adjuged to have any real Foundation, by His Majesty in Council, before whom you say you are preparing to lay your Case. "I shall do every Thing in my Power to avoid Contentions and Disorders among His Majesty's Subjects. At the same Time both my Duty and Interest will prompt me to assert the Rights of this Government, and support its lawful Jurisdiction; and if any disagreeable Consequences shall follow the Proceedings your Colony have adopted, I shall not look upon myself to be at all chargeable with them. "I am, Sir, "Your Obedient humble Servant, "To The Honorable JONATHAN TRUMBULL, Esq Governor and Commander-in Chief of the Colony of Connecticut, Lebanon." MEMORANDUM, 28th February, 1774. "The Governor received by Express from two of the Justices of Northumberland County, a Copy of an Advertisement which had been lately dispersed through the Counties of Northampton and Northumberland, by Zebulon Butler, at Wyoming, in the Words following, Viz: [Here follows half page of blank in Council Book.] The Governor and Council taking the same, together with the Letter lately received from the Governor of Connecticut, into Consideration, His Honor, by their Advice, issued a Proclamation in the following Words, Viz' : “By the Honorable JOHN PENN, Esquire, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, and Coun ties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware. "A PROCLAMATION. "WHEREAS, the Assembly of this Province in their last Sessions made the following Resolves, viz": "Resolved, that a number of Persons emigrating from the Colony of Connecticut, under a pretence of Right to Lands within the Limits and Boundaries of the Royal Grant to the Proprietaries of this Province, without prosecuting their Claim before His Majesty in Council, the only proper Place of Decision, have in a riotous and tumultious Manner, taken Possession of a Tract of Country within the said known Limits and Boundaries, and have held, and still retain their said Possession, in an hostile Manner, to the great disturbance of the Peace of the Province. "Resolved, that the said Emigrants, together with a number of ill-disposed Persons with whom they have confederated, have, in defiance of the Laws of the Country and executive Powers of this Government, afforded Protection to offenders of the most heinious kind, and have, moreover, embodied themselves, and in an hostile manner attempted to dispossess the peaceable Inhabitants, Settled far within the Limits of this Government. "Resolved, that this House will concur with the Governor in every reasonable measure to strengthen the Hands of Government, in preserving the Peace and suppressing all Riots and Tumults, and illegal attempts whatsoever, to disturb the Inhabitants of this Province in their peaceable Possessions. "Resolved, that the Governor be earnestly requested to give special Directions to all the Magistrates, Sheriff's, and other Officers concerned in the administration of Justice, to be vigilant and active in the discharge of their Duty within their several Jurisdictions, and to exert themselves in suppressing all acts of Violence, and every illegal Attempt to dispossess the peaceable Inhabitants of this Province. C "AND WHEREAS, the said Assembly, in order the more effectually to restrain those lawless disturbers of the Peace, and preserve the Public Tranquility, did also, at ther last Sessions, frame a Bill 'for preventing Tumults and riotous Assemblies, and for the more speedy punishing the Rioters,' which has been enacted into a Law; In compliance, therefore, with the said Requisition of the House of Assembly, and to promote the Salutary Ends proposed by the said Resolves and Act of General Assembly, I have thought proper, with the advice of the Council, to issue this, my Proclamation; And do hereby strictly enjoin and require all Magistrates, Sheriffs, and all other Officers concerned in the administration of Justice, to be vigilant and active in the discharge of their Duty within their several Jurisdictions, and to exert themselves in quieting and suppressing all acts of Violence, and every illegal attempt to dispossess the peaceable Inhabitants of this Province, and also to enforce and carry the said Riot Act into strict Execution. "And Whereas, I have received information that a certain Zebulon Butler, under pretence of Authority from the Government of Connecticut, hath lately presumed to issue and disperse through the Counties of Northampton and Northumberland, in this Province, a Summons or Advertisement, setting forth that the General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut had appointed him a Justice of the Peace for the County of Litchfield, and in a Town lately made and set off by the Assembly of the said Colony, called by the Name of Westmoreland, beginning on the West side of Delaware River, at the Bank of said River, extending westerly fifteen miles from Wyoming, North and South, as the Grant of the said Colony extends, requiring all the Inhabitants of the said Town to meet at Wyoming on a Day therein mentioned, to chuse the several Town Officers, by the Laws of the said Colony, to be chosen at their annual Town Meeting, and to do any other Business proper to be done at the said Meeting. Now I do hereby strictly prohibit and forbid the Inhabitants of the said Counties of Northampton and Northumberland, and all other the Inhabitants of this Province, to yield any Obedience, or pay the least Regard whatsoever to the aforesaid Summons or Advertisement, or to any Orders which may be hereafter given or issued by the said Zubulon Butler, or any other Person or Persons whatsoever, who shall presume to act under his authority, or exercise any Jurisdiction within the said Counties of Northampton or Northumberland, or any other Parts within the Limits of this Province, by virtue of any Powers or Instructions from the Government of Connecticut; And I do, in His Majesty's Name, Charge and Command all Persons whatsoever, within the said Counties, as well as all other Inhabitants within the Limits of this Province, to yield due Submission and Obedience to the Laws of this Government, as they will answer the contrary at their Peril; And I do hereby, also, strictly forbid all His Majesty's Subjects of this or any other Province, or Colony, on any pretence whatsoever, to intrude upon, Settle, or possess any Lands within the said Counties of Northampton or Northumberland, or any other Lands within the Limits of this Province, without a Grant or Licence obtained from the Proprietaries of the said Province; And I do further hereby enjoin and require all Magistrates, Sheriffs, and other Officers, as well as all other His Majesty's Liege Subjects within this Province to exert themselves, and use their utmost Endeavours to prosecute and bring to Justice all Offenders in the Premises. "Given under my Hand and the Great Seal of the said Province, at Philadelphia, the twenty-eighth day of February, in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-four, and in the fourteenth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the third, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and so forth. "By his Honour's Command. "JOHN PENN. "GOD SAVE THE KING." MEMORANDUM, 4th March, 1774. The Governor this day issued a Commission appointing Alexander Wilcorks, Esquire, a Justice of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace and of the County Court of Common Pleas for the County of Philadelphia. At a Council held at Philadelphia on Wednesday 9th March, 1774. PRESENT: The Honourable JOHN PENN, Esquire, Governor. Richard Peters, James Tilghman, The Board taking into Consideration the Necessity of an Addition being made to the Commission of the Peace for the County of Northampton, to supply the Place of those Justices who have removed from that County, as well as to accommodate such parts of the County where none at present reside, it was agreed that a new General Commission be issued, and that the Names of those who are now recommended for that purpose, be inserted therein, and a Commission was accordingly issued by the Governor, appointing the following Gentlemen Justices of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, and of the County Court of Common Pleas for the said County of Northampton, Viz: The Members of the Proprietary and Governor's Council; and MEMORANDUM, 16th March, 1774. The Governor this day received the following Letter from Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, by Express, in answer to His Honor's Letter of the 31st of January : "Sir: "WILLIAMSBURG, 3d March, 1774. "I have been favoured with your Letter of the 31st January, 1774, and Duplicate of the same, the occasion of which having been the appointment of certain Officers by me in a remote District of the County of Augusta, in this Colony, which includes Pittsburg, which having been done as is always my Rule, with the advice of His Majesty's Council, I could not till I had an Oppurtunity of Laying your Letter before them return you an Answer, and it is not till now that I am enabled so to do. "From the Opinion, therefore, of His Majesty's Council of this Colony, I must inform You that, although the Calculations on which you rely, in the Plan accompanying your Letter, may possibly be found exact, yet they can by no means be considered by us, as the Observations on which they were founded were made without the participation of this Government, or the Assistance of any Person on the part of the Crown; and even if they were admitted, we apprehend they would decide nothing in the present Case, for the Right of the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania to the Country about Pittsburg, must be founded on better Authority than is there adduced to make it valid, and we are strengthened in this Opinion by |