The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1894-02-16


as the county sea. The sheriff of the
county, with posse cOmitatus number
ing $50 men, attempted to serve writ OF
possession against James Breckenridge
of Bennington. The Green Mountain
boys assembled to the number of 300, and
presented so formidable an appearance
that the sheriff and his posse, mot be-
ing interested in the dispute, made a
hasty retreat. so that a musket was not
fired on either side" Writs of eject
ment were still issued and judgments
obtained; but when an execution or
writ of possession issued, it was mat
ter of certainty that the officer attempt
ing to make service would experience a
vigorous application of the beech seal"
or "twigs of the wilderness" So many
of the recalcitrant settlers were sum-
mpned to the city hall in Albany, in
which the blind goddess purpUrted to
hold sway, that a meeting of the settlers
was held at Bennington to devise means
to get rid of the building. Several modes
of blowing it up were suggested, when
Ethan Allen, to divert their minds from
that manner of destruction, proposed
that Sim Sears, a famous land specu.
iator, noted for selling property that did
not belong to him, "be employed to sell
| the id thing"
Cumberland county, established by or
dinance of the governor and council of
! the New York province, dated July 81,
! 1776, was the first county organized with
in the limits of Vermont. 1t embraced
substantially the present counties of
Windham and Windsor. Chester was
made the county seat, and provision
made for the erection of a court house
and Jail at that place. A court of com
mon pleas and general sessions of the
peace was authorized to 0e held semi
annually, each session being limited to
four DAYS, and the two courts authorized
to sit at the same time, in order that
business might be constantly proceeded
III md all unnecessary attendance avoid
ed" In l772 Westminster was selected
as the shire town; and it so remained
until the sessions of the New York courts
ceased in March, 177j. The judges of the
Inferior Court of Common Pleas were
Thomas Chandler of Chester, Joseph
Lord of Putney and Samuel Wells of.
Brattleboro.
In March, IT'S, the people became SO
excited over what they deemed to be
grievous wrongs and injustice inflicted
upon them that they determined that the
administration of justice in the hands of
tories should cease; and "such proceed
ings were thereupon had" that the riot
in respect thereto eliminated in the
death of William French and Daniel
Houghton, and effectudlly closed the
New York courts in this country, and
none were afterwards held.
In l772 the nOrtherly part of Albany
county lying on both sides of Lake Cham
plain. including western Vermont north
Sc Do o.
ganized as Charlotte county.
In April, 1772, 26 inhabitants of Social
borough, which included. under a New
York charter, the whole or part of the
towns of Rutland and Clarendon, pc
titiOned for the establishment of the
shire at that place, while 81 of the resi-
dents of that town, with others of the
New York towns of Crown Point, Ticon-
deroga, and SkenesborOugh (now White
halD, asked that the latter be made the
county seat. The New York executive
and council deemed it prudent to locate
the court house at greater distance from
the grants; for on the Sth of September,
1913, it was ordered by his excellency
with the advice of the council, that an
ordinance issue establishing a court of
common pleas and court of general SEES
sions of the peace to be held annually in
the county of Charlotte at the house of
Patrick Smith, Esq, near Fort Edward,
on the third Tuesdays in the months of
October and MAY"
On the same day Phillip Schuyler was
appointed Judge of the Court of Common
Pleas, and Patrick Smith county clerk;
the first session was held in October,
1773. In 1774 there was no Jail nor court |
house in the county, and the Legislature
passed an act reciting that "a great part |
of the said county being involved in a
state of anarchy and confusion, by rea-
son of the violent proceedings of riotOus
and dis rderly people, from whence 1t !
must at present be extremely difficult, if !
not impracticable, to bring Offenders to
justice within the said county," and pro-
viding that the courts in Albany county
should have jurisdiction of crimes com
mitted in Charlotte county.
The government of New York also |
passed the most despotic and blood |
thirsty act that ever was enacted in !
America, which contained provision,
that, if offenders should be indicted for |
certain capital offences, they should be !
adjudged to be convicted and attainted |
of felony, and should suffer death as in
cases of persons convicted and attainted |
VI ASiObg ny NClOlCO duu
the courts were authorized to award ex-
ecution the same as if they had been con-
victed. Death was the penalty under the
New York law to be inflicted upon any
one assuming judicial power unauthor-
lied by that State, and upon rioters for
demolishing an clubhouse or destroying
even sheaf of wheat in any enclosure.
The people of New YOrl' sympathized
with the settlers, and the processes of
the courts of Albany and Charlotte coun-
tries were disregarded by the settlers in
Vermont, and forcibly resisted if neces-
sarv.
No resident of the State ever held any
judicial position in the courts of either
unless that of justice of the
peace. OF the latter there were John
Munro of Salisbury, Benjamin Hough
AMI Mr.. Spencer of Scarborough, Bliss
Willoughby and Ebenezer Cole at or
near Bennington, and George Gardiner
of Pownall; but the exercise of theil
judicial functions was not pleasant
pastime. No session of the courts of
either county was ever held in Vermont;
and their jurisdiction, save in theory,
never extended over it.