undue influence on their minds, the man being a stranger to my acquaintance, that any supposable unfavorable consequence may be prevented, I have judged it not improper to communicate this hint to you, & am, Sir, with sincerity & esteem, your most obedient, hble. servant, COLO EBEN BREWSTER, Officer of the Board of War [of Vermont]. J. WHEELOCK. DRESDEN, 6 May, 1781. SIR,In consequence of the above intelligence from President Wheelock, as well as from several circumstances that have occurred to my knowledge, there is some foundation to suspect that there may be an unjustifiable intention of the Frenchman [referred to in the preceding letter], & which may perhaps in greater or less degree affect the prosperity of this state. You are therefore hereby requested to find where the said frenchman may be with the Canadian youth, members of this institution; & if upon examination you may judge it necessary, you are empowered to apprehend him, & see that he is properly secured under proper authority. You will please to act with prudence & discretion with respect to them in this matter. I am, sir, yours, &c., EBENR BREWSTER.1 The following order is in the handwriting of Bezaleel Wood Colonel of the Third Regiment of Militia in said State. Pursuant to orders received from his Excellency the Capt. Gen! and Commander-in-chief in the said State, you are hereby required to call on the commanding officers of the several military companies to a choice of officers proper to command them, and to any bodies of men within the limits of your regiment who are not already formed into companies, to convene together and make choice of proper officers, according to the laws of the State. And you are further required forthwith to raise two Sergeants, three corporals, and thirty-eight privates out of the part of your regiment east of Connecticut river, to serve in the regiments raising for defence of this State till the 15th day of Dec. next, unless sooner discharged; which men are to be apportioned to the several towns east of said river by you, in an equitable way and manner, to be raised according to the laws of the State. And you are also to call on the officers of the several companies on the west side of the river (Connecticut) within your regiment to see that the raising of men within their several companies, for defence of this State, pursuant to orders herewith issued for that purpose be forthwith completed. And you are further required to call on the commanding officers of the several companies within your regiment to make returns to you, so soon as may be, of the state of their several companies in respect to members, arms, accoutrements, &c. 1 From original MS. in author's possession. Hereof fail not, and make returns to me of your doings hereon, and such returns as you shall receive in consequence of your orders, as soon as may be. Given under my hand at Norwich, this eighth day of May, A. D. 1781. Brigadier General.1 In pursuance of these orders it was voted by Hanover, May 31, "to give 20s. L. M. per month to each man of the present quota who engage in the State service, to commence and end with their wages from the State." Eight men were accordingly enrolled in June for six months, on wages of 40s. per month and £6 bounty.2 They went on duty in Capt. Charles Nelson's company of rangers at Corinth, Vt., under command of General Enos, Colonel Waite, and Major Sanford Kingsbury, guarding at Colonel Waite's headquarters, and scouting. Dresden had two men in the same company for the same period, to whom £18 each was paid as bounty, and £3 per month as wages. These were Josiah Goodrich and Daniel Hovey. Hovey was taken prisoner Oct. 10, 1781, and was detained in Canada nine months. He was living in 1832 in Lyme. There was also another company at the same place, under Major Kingsbury, in command of Capt. Abner Seeley, drawn from the west side of the river, in which Woodward and Goodrich say they served for a while.3 In September, 1781, Hanover paid £12 to five men for scouting eleven days. Their names are not known.1 We have no definite indication that Hanover furnished any men later than these. Though active hostilities in general 1 Jonathan Chase MS., p. 30. 2 They were David Woodward, sergeant, Salmon Dow, Benjamin Smith, Jonathan Woodward, Eliada Brown, Elijah Wright, Daniel Jacobs, Nathaniel Ketcham. At this May meeting, Hanover chose John House, Jonathan Freeman, Thomas Durkee, James Murch, and Nathaniel Wright a committee to adjust and settle accounts with such persons as have done service in the militia in the several alarms the year past. 8 See their pension affidavits at Washington. There was at this time renewed anxiety regarding the Tories that were still numerous in some of the neighboring towns. They were credited with a purpose to capture the person of Colonel Chase, for whom the enemy had offered a reward, and to destroy the army stores habitually kept at his house in Cornish. The capture of two Tories (Jones and Buel) in arms west of the river, opposite Cornish, gave point to the rumors. The house was therefore constantly guarded (see Pension Affidavit of Samuel Putnam). ceased with the surrender of Cornwallis, Oct. 19, 1781, the northern frontiers remained to some degree under arms for more than a year. In January, and again in March, 1782, the New Hampshire Assembly ordered the maintenance of small scouting parties at Haverhill, and in June directed the levy out of the several regiments of two companies to rendezvous at Haverhill.1 Of these men, seven were to be taken from Colonel Chase's regiment. We have not Colonel Chase's order, or the record of the Hanover contingent.2 1 N. H. State Papers, viii. 927, 939, 946. 2 The order in Cheshire County was as follows [original in possession of author]: TO CAPT. OLIVER Ashley, Claremont. Pursuant to orders from the General Court of this State, you are required immediately to raise, by draft or enlistment, from your company, one good, able-bodied, effective man, to be well equipt with arms and other necessary accoutrements, and send him forward to Haverhill, there to wait on Col. Charles Johnson for orders, and to serve as soldier for the defence of the frontiers to the last day of November next, unless sooner discharged, which man is to be paid the same wages as soldiers in the Continental army; and make returns to me of your doings hereon. WALPOLE, June 29, 1782. CHRISTOPHER WEBBER. CHAPTER VII. 1774-1784. THE COLLEGE HALL IN POLITICS. UNTIL 1771 the fountain of justice, as well as of political authority for the whole Province, was at Portsmouth. By the Act published March 19, 1771, the Province was for the first time divided into counties. These were five in number; but Strafford and Grafton (including what is now Coos), being not fully inhabited, were "for the present deemed to be parts and members of the County of Rockingham," until the Governor, with advice of the Council, should "declare them sufficient for the exercise of jurisdiction." That condition having been fulfilled as to the County of Grafton, it was "made active," and courts were established at Haverhill and Plymouth in February, 1773. Hanover had contested with others for the honor of being a half shire-town; but Haverhill won the prize through the management of Col. John Hurd, for which the proprietors had contracted to give him a thousand acres of land. The court-house was built on the bluff at the great ox-bow, just where Colonel Phelps had chosen a site for the College three years before. Considering the circumstances of that affair, one may be pardoned who should see in the present result something of poetic justice. In the course of the negotiations it was represented, to the disadvantage of Hanover's aspirations, that Dr. Wheelock was himself opposed to them; but he informed Governor Wentworth, in a sort of negative pregnant, that he never did oppose the plan, "except on the supposition we were to have judges and officers of such immoral, dissolute lives as have been appointed on the other side of the river." In the organization of the County Court of Common Pleas, Bezaleel Woodward, of Hanover, was made the junior justice, and in his capacity of justice of the peace a member of the Court of General Sessions.1 As yet Hanover, in common with the other towns in Grafton County, was without representation in the Provincial Assembly. The only towns west of the Merrimac valley enjoying that privilege were Charlestown, Keene, and Winchester. At a special town-meeting, April 30, 1774, Hanover appointed John Fenton, of Plymouth, its agent to petition the Governor for representation, and Bezaleel Woodward as a substitute in case Mr. Fenton declined. Though this application was fruitless, writs were the next year issued to three towns in Grafton County, Lyme, Orford, and Plymouth, and their representatives presented themselves at the last session of the Assembly, in May, 1775, but were excluded by the House. Hanover had not even this degree of recognition.2 The revolutionary body known as the "Provincial Congress was first organized at Exeter, July 21, 1774. There is no positive evidence that Hanover sent delegates to any Congress prior to the fourth, or that it was asked to do so. It is certain, however, that some of the other towns in this region were invited to the second Congress, and it is probable that Hanover was.3 In the Convention which assembled at Exeter, May 17, 1775, known as the "Fourth Provincial Congress," there was a large attendance from the Connecticut valley, and Hanover was for the first and only time represented. The town records make no allusion to the matter, but Dr. Wheelock records in his Diary, "May 11th. My son John and Dr. Estabrook were appointed to represent their towns alternately at the Congress." This 1 Col John Hurd, of Haverhill, was chief justice, and Asa Porter, David Hobart, and Bezaleel Woodward were associate justices, with John Fenton as clerk. This court was closed in April, 1775. It probably did but little business. 2 The excluded representatives were Israel Morey, of Orford, Ebenezer Green, of Lyme. and the same John Fenton, of Plymouth. N. H. State Papers, vii. 445; Sketch of Fenton by Charles R. Corning; Grafton and Coos Bar Association, Proceedings, 1885. 8 Printed circular from J. Wentworth, chairman, dated Nov. 30, 1774, now in Plainfield files. The following is from Orford records: "At a meeting held January 16, 1775, voted not to send a Deputy to the Provincial Congress which is to meet at Exeter the 25th instant, but voted the Town Clerk send a letter in behalf of the town that we will concur with the doings of the Congress in choosing Delegates to the Continental Congress, and that we will be at our part of the charges of the meeting of said Continental Congress.” |