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At a Council held at Philadelphia, on Saturday 25th February, 1775.
PRESENT:
The Honorable JOHN PENN, Esquire, Governor.
Benjamin Chew, James Tilghman, }Esquires..
Edward Shippen, junr.
The Governor laid before the Board several Letters he had this Day received by Expresses from the Magistrates of Westmoreland County, complaining of further Violences in breaking open the Gaol of that County and discharging the Prisoners, and other outrages lately committed by the Militia and People of Virginia, and inclosing sundry Depositions to support these Complaints, which were severally read, and one of those Letters and Depositions follows in these words, the others being much of the same Purpose,
Viz t. :
"May it Please your Honor:
"Sir:
"Our Difficulties on account of the Conolly Party is now grown to an Extream; all we can do or say in favour of our Priviledges, from Pennsylvania, will not do; the Depositions sent down or transmitted to you will, we hope, give you a sense of their very irregu-lar Proceedings. We are sorry to have occasion to repeat our Complaints so often, but William Crawford Esquire, and Dorsey Pen-tecost, hath each opened a Land Office, and assumed the Title of Deputy Surveyors to execute their Entries. Several surveys they have already made. The People in general hath already given up, and what can we do to support Government, there now being Writs granted for almost every acting Officer in this County, and we are every Day expecting Confinement. In short, any Person applying for Justice to us, may be assured to be arrested by them. James Smith, Capt n. was taken and bound over to the Virginia Court, for only applying to the Laws of Pennsylvania for to have a Bandite
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of Villans punished for pulling down his House. Our Gaol is of no use, the worst Raskel is set at Liberty; so we rest with patience waiting for the opinion of your Honour, with such Instructions as you may think adequate to our present Difficulties. This from S r.
"your Honors most Obedient,
"and most humble Servants,
"ROBT. HANNA,
"W. LOCHRY,
"JOHN CARNAHAN,
"DEVEREUX SMITH.
"HannaÂ’s Town in Westmoreland County, the 13th Febr. 1775."
Here follows the Sheriff's Deposition, Vizt.:
" Westmoreland County, ss.
"Personally appeared before me the Subscriber, one of His Majesty's of the Peace for the County aforesaid, John Carnahan, Esquire, high Sheriff for the County aforesaid, being duly sworn upon the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, doth depose and say, that yesterday Morning, he hearing that there were a number of armed Men breaking the Gaol, he went to see whether it was so, and coming up to the Gaol he saw a number of armed Men, (by name as the Party themselves gave them in,) Benjamin Harrison, David Vance, Samuel Newel, Robert Newel, James Peopel, Thomas Bays, Joseph Marshal, Charles Clark, Isaac Justice, David McKaw, John McKaw, William Bays, Charles Kyle, Hugh Newel, (Samuel Warden, Samuel Wilson, John Neil, the three Prisoners,) George Watt, who having broke two of the Gaol Doors, (both being locked,) upon which he the said Carnahan demanded to know by what Authority they broke those Doors; they made answers and told him that they had their Authority; upon which he demanded to see it, when one Benjamin Harrison, who appeared to be their Commander, told him they had their orders from Major William Crawford, and that he could show them if he pleased; upon which he told him, (the said Harrison,) that a civil Question deserved a civil Answer; upon which he, the said Harrison, showed him the said Carnachan, a Paper, and read to this Effect, or near to this substance, for them the Party aforesaid, to press Horses, and what was necessary, and to go to Hanna's Town and to open the Gaol and let the Prisoners go out, and signed by William Crawford; And the said John Carnahan further saith, that the Party aforesaid shewed a Warrant signed by one Dorsey Penticost, as they told him, who acts as a Magistrate under the Colony of Virginia, to take one Captain James Smith, and one Edward Murray, for executing Warrants and takeing one of the People which the Party aforesaid took out of Gaol, (for committing a Riot, and throwing down a Man's House, and almost killing
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a Woman), and acting as Constables under the Province of Pennsylvania, and upon which warrant, signed by Dorsey Pentecost, (as they said,) they took the aforesaid James Smith and Edward Murray along with them to answer for the Crime aforesaid, (as they called it,) And the said John Carnachan further saith, that one of the aforesaid Party (David Vance by name) told him that he would be taken soon, and that he, the said Vance, had positive Orders that if any Pennsylvania Officer would offer to take him or any of them, with Precepts under the Government of Pennsylvania, to shoot them, and that he would do it, And further this Deponent saith not.
"JOHN CARNAHAN.”
"Sworn and Subscribed before me this 8th day of February 1775”
"ROBERT HANNA."
1st March, 1775.
The Governor this Day wrote a Letter to His Excellency the Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, inclosing Copies of several Depositions which he lately received, relative to the Disturbances in Westmoreland County, and dispatched the same by Express, which Letter follows in these words, Vizt:
"PHILADELPHIA 1st March, 1775.
"My Lord:
"When you reflect how many of my Letters to your Lordship, on public affairs, remain unanswered, you must be sensible it cannot be very agreeable to me to write to You on the present Occasion, yet I find myself under the necessity of troubling you once more on the Subject of the Disturbances in the Western Parts of this Province.
" The inclosed Copies of several Depositions will inform your Lordship what recent Outrages have been committed in the County of Westmoreland, under the sanction of your Government as those who have been active in them publickly declare, and my Intelligence informs me that your Lordship has set up an Office for granting Lands far within the Limits of this Province, and that Lands already patentted by me have been granted hy your Lordship, which cannot fail to produce the utmost Confusion.
"The Justice due to myself and the other Proprietor, and the Protection I owe to the People who have taken up Lands under this Province, and settled them long before your Lordship thought fit to disturb its Peace by extending the Government of Virginia within our Charter Bounds, oblige me to apply to your Lordship to know if these violent proceedings are the effect of your Orders, or
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have your Countenance, that in Case they have, I may take the proper Measures for Redress, or, if they have not, that they may receive your Discouragement. Your Lordship well knows that a Petition is depending before the Crown for settling the Bounds and running the Lines of this Province, which, when done, will put an End to the unhappy Disputes between the two Governments. You must remember that you have engaged to forward that good Work rather than throw Impediments in its way; and I would fain hope that your Lordship, in the mean Time, will use your Power and Influence in composing, rather than inflaming the Differences amongst His Majesty's Subjects of the two Colonies, occasioned by our clashing Jurisdictions, especially when you consider that the Country which is the Seat of the present Disturbances was first settled under this Province, and that our Jurisdiction was extended there, in the Time your Predecessor, Lord Botetourt, and recognized by his Lordship in his sending hither for tryal a Person who had com-mitted a murder at Stewart's crossings, which is Westward of the, Laurel Hill.
"I shall forbear to take any steps in this disagreeable Affair 'till I have the Honor of an Answer to this Letter, which I hope your Lordship will favor me with by the return of the Express.
"I have the Honor to be your Lordship's
"most Obedient humble Servant,,
"JOHN PENN.
"To The Right Honorable the Earl of Dunmore, Governor &
Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Province of Virginia, Williamsburg”