Daily stories of Pennsylvania : $b prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state...Godcharles, Frederic Antes
History
Daily stories of Pennsylvania : $b prepared for publication in the leading daily newspapers of the state...
Godcharles, Frederic Antes
Pennsylvania -- Biography; Pennsylvania -- History
When Virginia saw that Pennsylvania was extending jurisdiction over the
forks of the Ohio she renewed her claims to that country.
The Earl of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, asserted that Pittsburgh was
outside the limits of Pennsylvania. In this contention he was supported
by Colonel George Croghan and many others, who believed that the five
degrees of longitude which were to be the extent westward of
Pennsylvania placed the Monongahela beyond the limits of that province.
Croghan maintained that the limits were at the Alleghenies or Laurel
Hill Range, “having heard, among other things, that a degree of
longitude at the time of the charter of William Penn meant forty-eight
miles.”
At the close of 1773 Governor Dunmore appointed Dr. John Connelly, a
Pennsylvanian, as commandant of the militia of Pittsburgh. He took
possession of Fort Pitt and changed its name to Fort Dunmore.
Connelly defied Pennsylvania authority and commanded all the people to
appear as a militia under the authority of Lord Dunmore.
Arthur St. Clair, Prothonotary, Clerk, and Recorder of Westmoreland
County, had Connelly arrested and bound over to keep the peace. St.
Clair reported his actions to Governor Penn, who sent to Lord Dunmore a
draught of the lines of Pennsylvania as surveyed by David Rittenhouse,
William Smith and Surveyor General John Lukens, showing that Pittsburgh
was east of the westernmost limit of the grant to the Proprietaries.
Dunmore demanded better evidence and that St. Clair should be dismissed
from office for committing Dr. Connelly to jail.
A large company paraded in arms through the streets of Pittsburgh, and
opened a cask of rum. St. Clair issued an order for them to disperse.
The Sheriff allowed Connelly to go to Pittsburgh under promise to
return. He traveled about collecting adherents, and on the day he was to
return he appeared before the Hannastown court house at the head of 200
men, all armed and colors flying. He placed sentinels at the door and
kept the magistrates from entering unless they agreed to act under
Virginia authority, and he demanded their decision in writing.
The magistrates declared they would continue to act under authority of
Pennsylvania, when Connelly, a few days later, had them arrested and
brought before him in Pittsburgh. When they refused to give bail, he
sent them to the court of Augusta County, at Staunton, Va.
Governor Penn advised the three magistrates to get bail, but sent the
Attorney General of Pennsylvania and James Tilghman, as commissioners to
induce Lord Dunmore to join with the Proprietaries in a petition to the
King to have the boundary line run and marked, and in the meantime to
agree to a temporary line of jurisdiction, suggesting that the
Monongahela River would answer for a line.
The application to the King was consented to, but the boundary was not
agreed upon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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