Item 65: Legislation to Repeal the Confirming Law, [ca. 1788-1790]

Item — Box: 12, Folder: 105

Staff Only

Legislation to Repeal the Confirming Law, [ca. 1788-1790]

Dates

[ca. 1788-1790]

Disclaimer for Name and Subject Authorities

Some of the name and subject authority tags have been assigned by educated guessing and estimation of persons and subjects by region, age, profession, and familial relationships. They have been thoroughly researched by using primary and secondary sources available digitally, and named in each description, or in some cases linked directly to the person tag.

Access:

All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.

Extent

From the Collection: 17 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

Type of Material:

Legislation

Condition Note:

Fair. The paper is torn down the old creases of the paper, leaving the remaining document to be split into three sections and the bottom half of the paper is missing.

Measurements:

8 2/16 in. x 6 ⅝ in.

Description:

The following item depicts a legislature to repeal the Confirming law, undated and being signed by the subscribed claimants under the Connecticut titles. The address states that the Connecticut claimants have been The Yankee Pennamite Wars were a three part war between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, as they attempted to resolve a dispute over the land in the upper regions of what is now Pennsylvania. King Charles II granted the land twice, once to Connecticut in 1662, and again to William Penn as he founded Pennsylvania in 1681. Under the command of Colonel John Franklin, Connecticut soldiers went to war against the Pennamite militia being led by Northampton County Justice of the Peace, Alexander Patterson. As Pennsylvania sought to strip Connecticut settlers of their status and rights as people in the land, in May 1784, Pennamite troops forcibly removed “one-hundred and fifty” Connecticut families from their homes under Patterson’s command. They forced the families to “find their way through the wilderness of the Lackawaxen to the Delaware Valley, a distance of about eighty miles,” without supplies or clothing to sustain them (Gnichtel, The Trenton Decree of 1782). The violence and brutality levied by Patterson’s troops was so severe that it drew attention from neighboring states, and condemnation on the governing bodies of Pennsylvania. That critique ultimately led the Pennsylvania Assembly to remove Patterson from his position within the valley around July 1784, replacing him with colonel John Armstrong Jr. This item was originally curated with Series II: the McClintock Family Series, as part of a binder, original number 1.6 Binder: Andrew McClintock Correspondence and Biographical Materials and Photo, 1831-1881. The binder was dissolved in processing the collection and items pertaining to the Susquehanna Claim and General Wyoming Valley Collection moved to corresponding collections.

Transcription:

Front Page:

Whereas the present General Assembly of Pennsylvania have repealed the law usually called the Confirming law, made by a former Assembly, by which the Lands of the Connecticut Claimants were confirmed to them & their Heirs and Assigns; & these claimants being thereby exposed to actions of ejectment which may now be brought against them by the claimants of the same lands under Pennsylvania: And whereas the great sufferings & losses sustained by the Connecticut claimants in times past, have reduced them to such general distress as will render their just defence against such suits of the wealthy claimants under Pennsylvania, a very (sic) [very] grievous burthen; and whereas all the titles of the Connecticut claimants rest on the same ground; and the decisions concerning them in a few cases will in effect de[illegible]

Back Page: Solomon Avery And[re]]w Lee Abraham Bradley Jno [Jonathan/John] Hageman Abraham Westbrook Jesse Fell Comfort Shaw Nathan Draper Matthias Hollenback Ebenezer Bowman John N Woolley Henry Hark Jesper Billings Samuel Cary