Foreword

THESE volumes on land speculation in Maine had their origin in the year 1894, when the late George Nixon Black of Boston was elected a member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Mr. Black was a loyal supporter of our society during his lifetime, and at his death in 1928 he bequeathed to the society the papers of his great-grandfather, General David Cobb, together with a generous sum of money.1 For some years after Mr. Black’s death, the Cobb Papers remained on deposit, either at the Massachusetts Historical Society or at the Harvard University Library: some of them were used by our fellow-member Robert E. Moody in the preparation of his article on Samuel Ely;2 photostats of a number of them were deposited at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by our late corresponding member William Otis Sawtelle; and at one time the papers were used by the students of our then president Samuel Eliot Morison in connection with his seminar at Harvard.

In 1938 Professor Morison conceived the idea of having our society publish a volume of selections from the Cobb Papers, together with pertinent documents from the Knox Papers, the Massachusetts Archives, and other sources, and suggested to the Council of our society that I act as editor. The Council approved the project and I was accordingly commissioned to carry it into execution. At this stage of the journey the focus of the volume was to be on General David Cobb, both because of the nature of the papers themselves and because of Mr. Black’s generosity to our society.

Since General Cobb was the agent of William Bingham of Philadelphia in the management of the latter’s land speculations in Maine, I soon saw the necessity of using whatever pertinent Bingham papers I could discover. Though some were already available at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the bulk of William Bingham’s papers were, I found out, in the archives of the Bingham Estate in Philadelphia. Through the kindness of the late Richard W. Hale of Boston, I was given an introduction to our recently elected corresponding member R. Sturgis Ingersoll of Philadelphia, one of the present trustees of the Bingham Estate. Mr. Ingersoll generously allowed me to rummage among the papers in the Bingham archives, and after I had completed a preliminary survey and reported to him that I considered the papers of historical importance, he decided to place them all on deposit at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He then arranged to have those papers which dealt with the Maine speculation transferred to the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, at Phillips Academy, Andover, to facilitate my research. Finally, he gave me permission to publish whatever documents I wished.

The Bingham Papers contained a large amount of new material on the Maine speculation and their availability led to a review of the basic concept of the project. It was now possible to publish documents to illuminate in great detail the whole story of the Bingham speculation in Maine lands; on the other hand, if such a course were to be followed, General Cobb could, of necessity, no longer remain the central figure. After consultation with the Editor of Publications of our society it was decided that it would be unfortunate to publish only part of the story of the speculation, even though David Cobb’s position might become a secondary one, and even though this would expand the work to two volumes. As a compromise, a fairly full treatment of the early life of General Cobb was retained, even though it was out of proportion to the biographical material on the other figures in the story.

At this point the war delayed the project four years, and other commitments retarded work on the Bingham Papers after the war. By 1952, however, the manuscript was completed, and publication was planned for the fall of 1953. In the summer of that year our fellow-member Robert E. Moody called my attention to a microfilm collection of Baring Papers which had recently been acquired by the Library of Congress. On investigation these papers proved to be extremely important for a complete account of the Bingham speculation in Maine, and it was accordingly decided to delay publication for a year so that these papers could be worked into the volumes, which were then at the galley stage. Through the generosity of Alexander Francis St. Vincent Baring, Sixth Baron Ashburton, permission was obtained to publish pertinent items from the Baring Papers.

The volumes in their present form have, therefore, undergone several transformations in the course of their preparation. It is my hope that the scars of the various operations performed on them will not be evident.

The editorial policy which has been followed in the preparation of these volumes stems from a desire to make the documents readable. As a result, a certain amount of modernization has proved necessary. I am wholeheartedly in agreement with Wilmarth S. Lewis, the distinguished editor of the Yale edition of the correspondence of Horace Walpole, when he says: “What is amusing and ‘flavoursome’ in small doses becomes wearisome in large, and it imparts an air of quaintness to a text which was not apparent to the correspondents themselves.”3 No attempt, therefore, has been made at facsimile reproduction of the documents printed.

The following editorial procedures have been adopted:

1. The punctuation has been modernized throughout. Every sentence has been made to begin with a capital letter and end with a period or question mark. The capital letters which adorned many of the nouns in the original manuscripts have been eliminated. In some instances, where the original punctuation did not conform precisely to modern usage, but where it did nothing to lessen readability, it has been retained; in others, where the addition of commas was necessary, it has been added without brackets.
2. All abbreviations have been spelled out, with the exception of those in signatures, which have been retained as written, and of a few set abbreviations like “No.” when used with a numeral to designate a township in Maine.
3. The original spelling has been retained throughout. Since I believe that sic is only too often used simply to reassure the reader that the editor can spell, I have used it sparingly and only where a confusing passage or word seemed to demand it. Though Bingham was an excellent speller, Cobb, Knox, and Baring were all “free-wheelers.” The reader will, I think, soon become familiar with Knox’s “ie” trouble, with Cobb’s devotion to phonetic spelling, and with Baring’s independence in the matter of double letters—“bussiness,” “inteligent,” and the like. Anyone who has struggled with Knox’s orthography knows that many readings must be tentative, but again I have been sparing of question marks in brackets. I believe the only possible alternative to this procedure would be to adopt the punctuation policy of Lord Timothy Dexter, provide each reader with a generous supply of question marks in brackets, and then encourage him to “peper and solt” the Knox letters as he pleases. I have had trouble with the French names that appear in the account of Madame de Leval’s colony, for I have found a great deal of variation in both manuscript and printed sources. In general I have tried to spell these French names as I have seen them written; thus, for example, I have used “De Gregoire” without the accent because I did not find it used in any of the contemporary spellings of the name.
4. The editorial policy with respect to footnotes will not please those who look for exhaustive explanations of every point raised in the text. I have tried to identify, or at least locate, practically every person mentioned in the text, but I have attempted to do no more than give the reader a start, should he wish to investigate the subject further. In some cases I may not have cited the latest, or the best, references, but I hope that in all cases the works cited are respectable. Because I believe that in a book of this length the reader may well have missed the first identification, I have in some cases repeated it later on in the volumes. I have followed no uniform policy on this; I have simply re-identified people where, to me, it seemed desirable. When no source is included with a footnote, the material has been obtained from one of the standard biographical dictionaries. In citing works that are familiar and easily available in any good library, I have omitted the place and date of publication. In general I have included this information only in cases of books published before 1900, after 1950, or abroad. Since I have prepared no bibliography, I have avoided completely the use of op. cit. and have inserted only a very occasional ibid. All references should, therefore, be intelligible by themselves alone.
5. Since most of the principals in the Maine speculation kept copies of the letters which they wrote, many of the documents printed in these volumes exist in two versions. Because these two versions are in most cases practically identical, there has been no need to note variations. I have always printed the letter actually sent, if available. Occasionally, when an obvious slip of the pen in the letter sent was correct in the copy which the writer kept, I have made the correction without brackets.

When it comes to acknowledging the help and encouragement which I have received from many friends during the preparation of these volumes, I find myself torn by two conflicting desires: on the one hand I wish to give full credit to those who have assisted me; on the other hand I want to avoid hanging around their necks the albatrosses of any editorial horrors which I may have perpetrated. Insofar as is possible, I wish to extend a full measure of gratitude to these friends and at the same time to exonerate them from responsibility for what these volumes contain. Never in the course of my labors have I sought aid without having had it accorded me with good humor and wisdom.

In a very real sense these volumes are the result of a coöperative effort on the part of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. At every stage of the work, from its original inception to the actual printing, members of our society have made important contributions. I have already spoken of the part which Samuel Eliot Morison played in starting the project on its way. To the respect and admiration which I have for him as a teacher and writer, I wish to add my appreciation of his willingness to entrust a work of this scope to an untried student of history. The opportunity which he and the Colonial Society have given me is a rare one.

I have spoken, too, of the help which R. Sturgis Ingersoll has given to this work. It is by no means too much to say that without his coöperation, the volumes as they now stand could never have been published. In addition to making the Bingham Papers available to me, he was instrumental in getting permission from Lord Ashburton to allow me to use the Baring Papers, and throughout my years of study he never failed to respond effectively to speed the progress of the work. Our society is fortunate to be able to count him as a member.

My debt to the staffs of the various libraries which I visited in the course of this work is beyond measurement. From among many institutions where I received help, I wish to record my particular appreciation to the staffs of the following: the Boston Athenæum, especially Miss Margaret Hackett, whose skill in tracking down elusive facts is unparalleled; the Massachusetts Historical Society, especially our fellow-member Stephen T. Riley, who performed countless acts of kindness, not the least of which was to initiate me into the mysteries of Henry Knox’s handwriting; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, especially Miss Catherine Miller of the Manuscript Division, a friend of long standing, who on many occasions acted as my representative in Philadelphia; the Massachusetts Archives, especially Leo Flaherty, Senior Archives Assistant; and the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, Phillips Academy, Andover, especially Mrs. Theresa W. Richardson, former librarian, and Miss Elizabeth Eades, present librarian, both of whom have unprotestingly endured much at my hands. My associations with these and other members of the profession have led to both knowledge and friendship.

It has been my great good fortune to have these volumes printed by The Anthoensen Press of Portland, Maine, and to have the illustrations engraved by The Meriden Gravure Company, of Meriden, Connecticut. Fred Anthoensen and our fellow-member E. Harold Hugo have contributed much more than technical knowledge to these volumes; whatever may be the verdict as to the text, the printing and illustrating are the work of craftsmen. I wish also to express my particular appreciation to Miss Eleanor Richmond, head of the Editorial Department at The Anthoensen Press, who took what can be best described as a chaotic manuscript and serenely restored it to order. She has saved me from countless errors. The same care and quality of work have gone into the making of the Index, which has been expertly prepared by my friend Arthur McComb. I have acknowledged in the list of illustrations the kindness of various individuals and institutions in giving me permission to make reproductions of portraits in their possession; I am grateful, too, for the coöperation of the Frick Art Reference Library in furnishing many of the actual prints and for the help of our fellow-member, David M. K. McKibbin, of the Art Department of the Boston Athenæum, in tracking down some of the portraits themselves.

Richard M. Gummere, a Vice-President of our society, and socer carissimus, read the entire manuscript in page proof and provided not only a sharp eye for textual errors but also reassurance at a time when it was much needed. And there are many others, some of whom I have mentioned in appropriate footnotes, who, each in his own way, have helped to make these volumes become a reality.

Three people have done so much to help me that I want them to have special recognition. The first of these is Miss Margaret L. Brown of New York City, whose three articles on William Bingham4 are models of historical craftsmanship. Though she worked without the benefit of either the Bingham Papers or the Baring Papers, I have found her short account of the Bingham speculation in Maine almost flawless. Miss Brown generously read most of the chapters in manuscript and brought to bear upon them her precision and her knowledge of the subject; in every case the chapter returned the better for her having read it. I count myself fortunate to have been able to enlist the aid of the leading authority—indeed the only one—on William Bingham himself.

My friends Walter M. Whitehill and Robert E. Moody have placed me forever in their debt for the assistance and encouragement which they gave at every stage of this work. The former, as Editor of Publications of our society and my chief adviser on strategy, never failed to remove obstacles to progress as fast as they appeared and constantly drew on his vast fund of editorial experience to counsel me. The latter, a member of the Committee on Publication of our society and my chief adviser on tactics, read both the original manuscript and the galley proofs and as the leading authority on the history of Maine during this period generously gave me the benefit of his mature historical judgment so as to improve the volumes in countless ways. These two gentlemen created for me a perfect climate in which to work and by their example, as scholars and as men of taste, made me want to do everything in my power to produce something worthy of them and of our society.

Though Allyn B. Forbes, formerly Editor of Publications of our society, died before this project had more than begun, I shall always remember him with affection and be grateful for the encouragement he gave me.

Before I close I wish to propose an affectionate toast to my wife, who has loyally accepted Bingham, Cobb, Baring, Knox and company as permanent house guests these many years. She never wavered in her determination, as a good hostess, to allow them to stay out their visit.

Frederick S. Allis, Jr.

Phillips Academy

Andover, Massachusetts

September, 1954

1 See our Publications, xxvii. 128.

2 See “Samuel Ely: Forerunner of Shays,” New England Quarterly, v. 105–134.

3 See the Yale edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, i. xxxvi.

4 See “William Bingham, Agent of the Continental Congress in Martinique,” “Mr. and Mrs. William Bingham of Philadelphia,” and “William Bingham, Eighteenth Century Magnate,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, lxi. 1–34, 286–324, 387–434.

5 La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels through the United States of North America, etc. (London, 1799), 1. 443, 447. The terms “Maine frontier,” “eastern Maine,” and “eastern country” will be used interchangeably throughout this chapter to designate that part of the present state of Maine which lies east of Portland. When the single word “Maine” is used, to avoid clumsiness of expression, it should be understood to refer to this area only. No statement in this chapter should be taken as referring to York County.

6 See J. Whipple, History of Acadie, Penobscot Bay, etc. (Bangor, 1816), 53. For evidence on importation of grain at an even later date, see below, pp. 774, 775, 813.

7 The Memoirs of Rufus Putnam (R. Buell, editor), 245–246. Allowance must be made for the fact that Putnam was one of the prime movers in the Ohio Company at the time this letter was written.

8 T. Dwight, Travels in New England and New York (New Haven, 1821), ii. 233.

9 Quoted from the unsigned article on Maine in the North American Review, iii. 376–377. For a similar statement written at about the same time, see below, p. 1245.

10 See, for example, Benjamin Lincoln, “Observations on the Climate, Soil, and Value of the Eastern Counties in the District of Maine,” I Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, iv. 147. See also J. Whipple, History of Acadie, etc., 6–7.

11 J. Whipple, History of Acadie, etc., 53.

12 See, for example, R. H. Gardiner, “History of the Kennebec Purchase,” Collections of the Maine Historical Society, ii. 269–294, for the problems of the Plymouth Company. See also the report of the commission appointed to study land claims in the Kennebec region, a report which is summarized in a Resolve of the Massachusetts General Court of 20 June 1811.

13 See, for example, Talleyrand’s statement in “Talleyrand in America as a Financial Promoter,” American Historical Association Report, 1941, ii. 86: “It would be more prosperous if the country had more capital, and especially more capital consecrated to cultivation.” Liancourt, Travels, i. 426, explains the slack business in Maine by referring to the “want of sufficient capitals in the hands of their merchants.”

Benjamin Lincoln summarized the reasons for Maine’s retarded development as follows: “Among them [the reasons] may be considered the very extensive grants to small companies and individuals: The different claims to the same lands, arising from a partial and vague description of some of them, and the continual law suits consequent upon disputed titles, and the little prospect discovered in many instances of obtaining a good one: The want of power in the commonwealth to grant any of the lands lying between the rivers Penobscot and St. Croix: The hazard and the sufferings experienced by settlers, from the very frequent wars with the savages for nearly a century and an half were not only damps on the spirits of too many of the settlers, but deterred others from joining them: Hence their attention to husbandry, which should have been their chief employment, was diverted, and they were led to other pursuits, less interesting, though from them they received an immediate supply; so that their lands, although the timber was cut off, were neither properly cleared nor seeded, were soon over-run with bushes, fell thereby into disrepute, and many of the inhabitants into poverty and want.” Lincoln’s “Observations, etc.,” I Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc, iv. 149–150.

14 Talleyrand, “Talleyrand in America,” AHA Report, 1941, ii. 79.

15 These census figures are taken from A Century of Population Growth in the United States, 1790–1900. W. D. Williamson, History of the State of Maine, etc., gives a careful account of the incorporation of towns.

16 Quoted in S. B. Harding, The Contest over the Ratification of the Federal Constitution in the State of Massachusetts, 8, note.

17 Maine newspapers in 1786 voiced many of the same grievances as did the Shaysites in Massachusetts and printed full reports of conventions held by the malcontents in the summer and fall of that year. See especially the Cumberland Gazette for 17 August and 7 and 14 September 1786. For these newspaper references and others in this chapter, I am indebted to my friend Robert E. Moody, who has generously allowed me to use his notes on Maine newspapers for this period.

18 See E. Stanwood, “Separation of Maine from Massachusetts,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, xli. 128–129. See also the Cumberland Gazette for 14 September 1786.

19 A long article in the Cumberland Gazette for 13 April 1787 pretty effectively demolishes these particular charges.

20 The Falmouth Gazette for 10 September 1785 called attention to separatist movements in Kentucky and North Carolina and suggested that the nascent one in Maine was similar in character.

21 See the Cumberland Gazette for 15 February 1787.

22 See E. Stanwood, “Separation of Maine from Massachusetts,” Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., xli. 130–134.

23 See, for example, the Cumberland Gazette of 2 and 16 February 1787. The Falmouth Gazette of 17 September 1785 had remarked that there were not enough gentlemen in Maine to run a state and so many illiterates that one would certainly be elected governor.

24 See E. Stanwood, “Separation of Maine from Massachusetts,” Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, xli. 134.

25 See A. E. Morse, The Federalist Party in Massachusetts to the Year 1800, 48.

26 Harding, Contest over Ratification, 79–80.

27 Morse, Federalist Party in Massachusetts, 43–44.

28 O. G. Libby, Geographical Distribution of the Vote of the Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution, 14.

29 See O. and M. F. Handlin, “Radicals and Conservatives in Massachusetts after Independence,” New England Quarterly, xvii. 343–355.

30 For the final votes of the Maine members, see L. A. Emery, “Maine and the Federal Constitution,” Sprague’s Journal of Maine History, v. 32–33.

31 See M. Greenleaf, A Statistical View of the District of Maine, 83–84.

32 Talleyrand reported that prostitution was paid for in pins, the small money of the country. See “Talleyrand in America,” AHA Report, 1941, ii. 82. For Alexander Baring’s comments on the scarcity of money at this time, see below, p. 787.

33 See the letter of William Morris to Theophile Cazenove, New York, 9 December 1792, in BP, printed below, p. 190. Liancourt, Travels, i. 445, gives a table of lumber prices.

34 See B. Lincoln to Bingham, Hingham, 23 February 1793, in BP, printed below, p. 182.

35 See B. Lincoln to Bingham, below, p. 184. For the detailed expenses of building a mill above Bangor, see Bangor Historical Magazine, iv. 199. The total came to just over $ 1,000.

36 See Morris to Cazenove letter, below, p. 195.

37 Liancourt, Travels, i. 437.

38 Talleyrand, “Talleyrand in America,” AHA Report, 1941, ii. 80.

39 Ibid.

40 Dwight, Travels, ii, 236. Dwight’s charge of intemperance is borne out by much other testimony. The Cumberland Gazette for 2 October 1788 carried an article on the evils of rum in the eastern country and spoke of its “deplorable ravages” which brought “hunger, cold, nakedness, diseases and death.” See also A. Bradford, “A Description of Wiscasset, and of the River Sheepscot,” I Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., vii. 170.

41 Liancourt, Travels, i. 432.

42 Morris to Cazenove letter, below, p. 205.

43 Talleyrand, “Talleyrand in America,” AHA Report, 1941, ii. 81.

44 Talleyrand, “Talleyrand in America,” AHA Report, 1941, ii. 73–75. Liancourt, Travels, i. 427, 431.

45 Liancourt, Travels, i. 435–437.

46 L. Castiglioni, Viaggio negli Stati Uniti dell’ America Settentrionale (Milan, 1790), i. 54–56. I am indebted to my friend Mrs. Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr., of Andover, for translating Castiglioni’s description for me.

47 E. Channing, History of the United States, iii. 417–423.

48 C. Febiger, “Extracts from a Merchant’s Letters, 1784–6,” Magazine of American History, viii. 351–354.

49 Morris to Cazenove letter, below, p. 205.

50 Morris to Cazenove letter, below, p. 189.

51 Charles Vaughan to Bingham, Boston, 8 April 1793, in BP.

52 Liancourt, Travels, i. 432–434, where a description of the type of lumber used in Maine shipbuilding is given. For this general subject, see W. H. Rowe, The Maritime History of Maine, 62–97.

53 W. L. Lucey, “Two Irish Merchants of New England,” New England Quarterly, xiv. 633–645.

54 Liancourt, Travels, i. 431–432.

55 Talleyrand, “Talleyrand in America,” AHA Report, 1941, ii. 82–85. For a specific example of this characteristic, see E. A. Kendall, Travels through the Northern Parts of the United States in the Years 1807 and 1808, iii. 84–104.

56 Baring’s account is contained in a long letter which he wrote to Hope and Company dated Philadelphia, 3 December 1796, in BaP. It is printed below, pp. 765–799.

57 Journal of Rear-Admiral Bartholomew James, 1752–1828 (edited by J. K. Laughton and J. Y. F. Sulivan), Publications of the Navy Records Society, vi. 188–199. Captain John Parker had inherited Parker’s Island from the original John who had acquired the property in the seventeenth century. That the family was a wealthy one is testified by the fact that according to the census of 1790 they had two servants and by Lieutenant James’s statement that one of the nieces had been educated in Boston and that the two girls expected to receive handsome inheritances from their uncle. See W. Willis, History of the Law, Courts, and Lawyers of Maine, 133.

58 See R. H. Gardiner, Early Recollections (Hallowell, 1936, privately printed), passim.

59 See, for example, the statement of Benjamin Lincoln in his letter to Bingham, Hingham, 26 February 1793, in BP, below, pp. 177–178.

60 C. J. Bullock, Historical Sketch of the Finances and Financial Policy of Massachusetts, from 1780 to 1905, 7–22.

61 See S. Livermore, Early American Land Companies, 197–203. See also A. M. Sakolski, The Great American Land Bubble, 54–60.

62 See the report of a Committee of the Massachusetts Senate appointed in 1835 to review the land policy of the Commonwealth. This report was published as Senate Documents, 1836, Number 4, 13.

63 P. J. Treat, National Land System, 8, footnote.

64 Resolve of 1 May 1781.

65 Resolve of 28 October 1783.

66 Acts of 11 July 1783 and 24 October 1783. See W. D. Williamson, History of Maine, ii. 507–508.

67 Samuel Phillips, Jr., the founder of Phillips Academy, Andover, had long been active in Massachusetts politics. He had been a delegate to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, was a State Senator and a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. See C. M. Fuess, An Old New England School, 17–43.

Nathaniel Wells, a native of Wells, Maine, was a member of the Massachusetts legislature and was to become Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. See E. E. Bourne, History of Wells and Kennebunk, 611–615.

Nathan Dane, a native of Ipswich, served in the General Court until his election to the Continental Congress in 1785. While a member of Congress he helped draw up the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. He returned to Massachusetts in 1790 to continue his political career in the state.

68 Resolve of 22 March 1784.

69 Resolve of 9 July 1784.

70 Resolve of 5 November 1784. Rufus Putnam had served on a committee appointed to explore and survey lands on the Mississippi claimed as bounties for veterans of the French and Indian wars. From 1784 to 1788 he was active in surveying and exploring lands in Maine for the Massachusetts government. As an active promoter of the Ohio Company, he moved to Marietta, Ohio, in 1788, where he spent the remainder of his life.

71 Resolve of 2 June 1785.

72 Report of the Committee for the Sale of Eastern Lands (Boston, 1795), Table 1.

73 The act was passed on 14 November. For the earliest printed text, see Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Boston, 1783 ff), 513–516.

74 See the map facing page 16. Rufus Putnam’s map of these lands is in the Massachusetts Archives.

75 John Brooks, after an active career in Massachusetts politics, was finally to serve as governor from 1816–1822.

Leonard Jarvis, a Boston business man, was a representative in the legislature at this time. He later purchased a large tract of land in what is now Surry and Ellsworth, Maine, and eventually moved there with his family. His son of the same name had a distinguished political career in Maine and served for several years as representative in Congress.

76 For examples of newspaper advertisements of the lottery, see the Independent Chronicle, ii January 1787 through 15 February 1787.

77 See the record book of the managers of the lottery. The original is in the Massachusetts Archives and a copy is in BP.

78 Resolve of 4 February 1790.

79 Lottery Record Book.

80 Massachusetts Senate Documents, 1836, Number 4, ii.

81 Resolves of 17 November 1788 and 12 June 1789.

82 John Read was one of the leading citizens of Roxbury and was a representative and later a councillor in the Massachusetts government. See F. S. Drake, The Town of Roxbury, etc., 128.

Daniel Cony, one of the leading citizens of Hallowell, had a long career in Massachusetts as representative, senator, councillor, and Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. See J. W. North, History of Augusta, 170–173.

83 See the report which the Committee for the Sale of Eastern Lands made in 1795. This was printed in Boston the same year. The records of the Committee have been preserved in the Massachusetts Archives in a series of boxes labeled “Eastern Lands.” Box 1 contains the expense accounts of the Commiteee. Boxes 8 and 15 contain records of the Committee’s dealings with Henry Jackson, Royal Flint, William Tudor, Samuel Ogden, Henry Dearborn and most of the other speculators with which this volume is concerned. Box 16 contains some papers on the land lottery of 1786. Land sales can also be checked in a series of volumes in the Massachusetts Archives labeled “Eastern Lands, Deeds.” See especially volumes I and II.

84 For these grants see a convenient collection entitled Resolves on Eastern Lands (Boston, 1811), passim. For an account of the educational grants, see H. W. Marr, “Grants of Land to Academies in Massachusetts and Maine,” Essex Institute Historical Collections, lxxxviii (1952), 28–47.

85 Massachusetts Senate Documents, 1836, Number 4, 13.

86 Massachusetts Senate Documents, 1836, Number 4, 11.

87 Massachusetts Senate Documents, 1836, Number 4, 11–13.

88 For a discussion of Massachusetts Land Policy, see O. and M. F. Handlin, Commonwealth: A Study of the Role of Government in the American Economy: Massachusetts, 1774–1861, 86–92.

89 Quoted in A. M. Sakolski, The Great American Land Bubble, 30.

90 Quoted in M. Jensen, The New Nation, 181.

91 On speculation during this period, see J. S. Davis, “William Duer, Entrepreneur, 1747–99,” Essay ii in his Essays in the Earlier History of American Corporations; E. Channing, History of the United States, iv. 90–113; I. Brant, James Madison, Father of the Constitution, 1787–1800, 290–305. For land speculation, see S. Livermore, Early American Land Companies, passim; A. M. Sakolski, Great American Land Bubble, 29–53. Talleyrand’s statement is in “Talleyrand in America,” AHA Report, 1941, ii. 137.

92 There is no adequate biography of Knox. The earlier works of Noah Brooks and Francis S. Drake are, for the most part, uncritical eulogies.

93 For Duer, see J. S. Davis, Essays, i. 111–345. For important additional material on Duer’s part in speculation in the federal and state debt, see I. Brant, Madison, 1787–1800, 300–305.

94 William Constable (1752–1803) was born in Dublin and came to America sometime before or during the Revolution. After 1780 he emerged as one of New York’s leading merchants and until his death was active in almost every phase of speculation and in the China trade as well. He was closely associated with Duer and most of the other New York speculators of this period. His career deserves further study. See A. M. Sakolski, Great American Land Bubble, 42–43.

95 KP, xxviii. 82. The numbering of the articles and subdivisions is confusing in this document. As I interpret it, the 6th Article has five subdivisions, and the last or fifth subdivision has eight sub-subdivisions.

96 For Jackson and Flint, see below, p. 43.

97 Henry Jackson (1747–1809) was born and brought up in Boston. During the Revolution he was commissioned colonel of the 16th Massachusetts Regiment in 1777, and the following year commanded the 9th under General Sullivan in the Rhode Island campaign. He was treasurer of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati from 1783 until his death, and from 1792 to 1796 was a major-general of the Massachusetts militia. See F. S. Drake, Memorials of the Society of the Cincinnati of Massachusetts, 360–361.

98 Royal Flint (1754–1797), a native of Windham, Connecticut, graduated from Yale in 1773 and during the Revolution served as assistant commissary-general for the Continental Army. From 1786 to 1789 he was United States commissioner for settling the Continental accounts of the eastern states, stationed at Boston. He was one of the leading spirits in the Scioto Company and was selected to go to Europe as agent, only to be replaced by Joel Barlow when he fell ill. From this time on he became Duer’s right hand man and, together with Duer, went bankrupt in the spring of 1792. He later moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where he died. See F. B. Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, iii. 477–478.

99 KP, xxviii. 81.

100 On 12 June 1775 the 3rd Provincial Congress had accepted the report of a committee on the Penobscot Indians which among other things forbade trespassing on their land on the upper Penobscot. See Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, etc. (Boston, 1838), 371.

101 Samuel Ogden (1746–1810) gained prominence during the Revolution as an iron manufacturer in New Jersey. After the war he became interested in the Indian lands in northern New York and purchased extensive property along the St. Lawrence River. One of his associates in this purchase was Henry Knox.

102 Knox to Duer, Philadelphia, 8 June 1791, KP, xxviii. 91.

103 Knox to Duer, Philadelphia, 14 June 1791, KP, xxviii. 104. See also Massachusetts Archives, Eastern Lands, Box 15, for a copy of Ogden’s refusal, dated Boston, 16 May 1791, and the original of his relinquishment dated Delaware Works, 10 June 1791.

104 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 12 June 1791, KP, xxviii. 100.

105 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 16 June 1791, KP, xxviii. 114. See also Massachusetts Archives, Eastern Lands, Box 15, for the Committee’s letter to the Senate and House, dated Boston, 14 June 1791. See also the manuscript journal of the Massachusetts House, xii. 108–110, for an account of this maneuver. This journal is in the Massachusetts Archives. David Cobb was Speaker of the House at this time. For his part in bringing the negotiations to a successful conclusion, see below, p. 500.

106 Knox to H. Jackson, Philadelphia, 19 June 1791, KP, xxviii. 122.

107 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 19 and 23 June 1791, KP, xxviii. 124, 137.

108 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 26 June 1791, KP, xxviii. 143.

109 Original and several copies in BP. Draft and copy in KP, xxviii. 157–158.

110 The present township of Trescott.

111 The present township of Baring.

112 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 30 June and 3 July 1791, KP, xxviii. 155, 165.

113 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 10 July 1791, KP, xxviii, 176.

114 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 17 July 1791, KP, xxix. 8. For the De Gregoire grant, see R. W. Hale, Jr., The Story of Bar Harbor, 90–95.

115 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 31 July 1791, KP, xxix. 35. Originals or copies of most of the relevant documents for the De Gregoire purchase are in BP, among them the agreement with Jackson of 29 July 1791 and De Gregoire’s deed to Jackson of 4 August 1792.

116 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 26 June 1791, KP, xxviii. 143.

117 Bruce’s account of the lands, dated 27 July 1791 at Boston, is in BP. See also Bruce to H. Jackson, Machias, 27 September 1791, KP, xxix. 120, where he reports on the lands north of the first million and speaks of the face of the country as “beautiful and romantick.”

118 This entire letter is in Knox’s hand. A crossed out paragraph instructs the agents to acquire also a strip of land on the west side of the Penobscot twelve miles wide and forty miles long from the head of the tide up the river.

119 Ogden to Knox, Delaware Works, 2 August 1791, KP, xxix. 37.

120 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 1 September 1791, KP, xxix. 82. See Massachusetts Archives, Eastern Lands, Box 15, for Jackson’s letter to the Committee offering to purchase a second tract. Jackson to Committee, Boston, 18 August 1791.

121 See below, Chapter IV.

122 KP, xxx. 52.

123 The status of these seven townships today is as follows: No. 7 is still unincorporated, though part is now included in Gouldsborough 5 No. 8 is also unincorporated, though part is included in Hancock; No. 9 is Franklin; No. 10, unincorporated; No. 11, Cherryfield; No. 12, Columbia; and No. 13, Columbia Falls.

124 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 22 January 1 792, KP, xxx. 91.

125 Alexander Macomb (1748–1832), born in Ireland, came to America in his youth and became a fur merchant in Detroit. In 1791 he bought some three million acres of land in northern New York in conjunction with such New York speculators as William Duer and William Constable. The next year he became involved with Duer in security speculation, and like his partner, wound up in debtors’ prison. The management of his “Great Purchase” was continued thereafter by Constable and other associates. See A. M. Sakolski, The Great American Land Bubble, 40–41, 65–68. For his security speculations, see Davis, Essays, i. 278–304. Richard Soderstrom was the Swedish consul at Philadelphia. See J. Hardie, The Philadelphia Directory and Register (Philadelphia, 1793), 172.

126 William Tudor (1750–1819), after graduating from Harvard in 1769, entered John Adams’s law office. In 1775 he was made Judge Advocate General for the Continental Army and spent the next three years on Washington’s staff. After the war he continued his practice of the law, being appointed a judge in 178:, and serving as one of Boston’s representatives to the General Court from 1791–1796 and as a Suffolk County senator from 1801–1803. See 2 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc, viii. 285–325, and R. H. Gardiner, Early Recollections, 156–161.

127 Thomas Russell was a leading merchant and financier of Boston. He was a director of the Massachusetts Bank and an active promoter of the Charles River Bridge Corporation. See T. R. Sullivan, Sketches of the Lives of John L. Sullivan and Thomas Russell (Boston, 1861), 13–19; and J. Morse, The Duty of Resignation under Afflictions.… A Sermon Occasioned by the Death of the Honourable Thomas Russell, Esquire (Boston, 1796), 20–31. See below, pp. 102–103.

128 Macomb to Tudor, New York, 14 January 1792; Macomb to Russell, New York, 15 January 1792; H. Jackson to Massachusetts Land Committee, Boston, 10 March 1792 (copy), KP, xxx. 83, 85, 142. See also L. Jarvis to Tudor, Boston, 9 March 1792 in BP; H. Jackson to Committee, Boston, 7 March 1792; and Tudor to Committee, Boston, 9, 12, and 15 March 1792, Massachusetts Archives, Eastern Lands, Boxes 8 and 15.

129 H. Jackson to Duer or Flint, Boston, 9 March 1792, KP, xxx. 141.

130 KP, xxxiii. 154.

131 Originals of these two 1792 contracts in BP. There is a copy of the “back tract” contract of 18 April 1792 in KP, xxxi. 44. The details of Jackson’s negotiations can be followed in his correspondence in KP for March and April, 1792.

132 William Shaw (1756–1803) was the son of Francis Shaw, one of the three original grantees of Township No. 3, later Gouldsborough. William’s brother Samuel distinguished himself in the Revolution and after the war was one of the pioneers in developing American trade with the Orient. See F. S. Drake, Memorials of the Society of the Cincinnati of Mass., 455, and Bangor Historical Magazine, vii. 94–95.

133 A resolve of the Massachusetts legislature of 29 February 1792 confirmed the grant of Gouldsborough to Sarah Shaw, widow of Francis; Lane and Frazer of London, assignees of Robert Gould; and Nathan Jones. On 22 February 1792 William Shaw gave bond to Jackson and Flint to sell about half his family’s holdings at 1/6 per acre. Most of the relevant documents concerning this transaction are in BP. See below, pp. 522–524.

134 A resolve of the Massachusetts legislature of 17 February 1789 had granted the Beverly Manufacturing Company the land. On 8 February 1792, the Massachusetts Land Committee located it in No. 7, north of Gouldsborough, and deeded to Cabot and his associates 8,333 acres. Apparently Cabot knew of the impending action of the Committee, for on 1 February 1792 he agreed to sell the land to Jackson for £500. These documents, or copies of them, are in BP. See also C. F. Ware, The Early New England Cotton Manufacture, passim.

135 There is almost no reference to this purchase in the later history of the speculation. Apparently it was paid for (see H. Jackson to Bingham, Boston, 4 February 1793, in BP), but no attempt was made to develop it later.

136 KP, xxx. 176.

137 On Walker, see below, pp. 141–143.

138 On Fontaine Leval, see below, Chapter IV.

139 On these transactions, see H. Jackson to L. Trescott, Boston, 12 March 1792 (two letters), KP, xxx. 150.

140 H. Jackson to Duer or Flint, KP, xxx. 141.

141 On the canal in which Knox was interested, see below, pp. 452–462.

142 Knox had offered Dr. William Eustis, Boston physician and future Secretary of War, the post of chief surgeon of the army hospital. See Knox to Eustis, Philadelphia, 5 March 1792, KP, xxx. 133.

143 For the Dearborn contract, see Massachusetts Archives, Eastern Lands, Box 15. It is dated 22 March 1792. The twelve associates were: Henry Dearborn of Pittston, Me.; John Dearborn of Northampton, N. H.; Joseph Cilley of Nottingham, N. H.; Jonathan Clark of Epping, N. H.; Thomas Denny of Leicester, Mass.; Samuel Flagg of Worcester; Timothy Green of Worcester; Jonah How of Shrewsbury, Mass.; Joel How of Worcester; Jedidiah and Stephen Jewett of Pittston, Me.; and John Southgate of Leicester. There are two copies of this contract in BP.

144 For Duer’s bankruptcy, see Davis, Essays, i. 278–338.

145 KP, xxxi. 30.

146 KP, xxxi. 6, 21.

147 Knox-Duer Indenture, 7 June 1792, KP, xxxi. 131.

148 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 17 June 1792, KP, xxxi. 145.

149 Cazenove was a Dutch financial agent who had come to the United States in 1790 as a protégé of Pieter Stadnitski, a leading banker of Amsterdam. His purpose was to investigate possible speculations in securities and lands for his Dutch superiors. See P. D. Evans, The Holland Land Company, passim. See also Cazenove Journal, 1794, edited by R. W. Kelsey, published in Haverford College Studies, No. 13, for an account of a journey Cazenove took through Pennsylvania in that year. In many of the letters where reference is made to him, the name is spelled “Cazneau.”

150 KP, xxxii. 16.

151 On the French colony, see below, Chapter IV.

152 “That business” was the survey of the canal. See below, pp. 452–462.

153 The “new bank” was the Union Bank. See O. and M. F. Handlin, Commonwealth: Massachusetts, 1774–1861, 122–123.

154 KP, xxxii. 30.

155 These details refer to some of Knox’s business affairs in connection with the Waldo Patent.

156 H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 5 August 1792, KP, xxxii. 38.

157 Flint to H. Jackson, New York, 31 July 1792, KP, xxxii. 31.

158 H. Jackson to Knox, New York, 12, 13, and 15 August 1792, KP, xxxii. 47, 49, 50.

159 I have not been able to discover much about William Green. Apparently he was either an Englishman or an American who had spent much time in England. He had engaged in commercial enterprises in Calcutta and had become involved in a lengthy law suit when the English house to which he had consigned his property failed. The only specific information on Green which I have found is in a memorandum which Knox wrote about him which is in the volume of Knox Papers in the Chamberlain Collection in the Boston Public Library. This memorandum is dated 25 October 1792. A mention of Rhode Island in this memorandum suggests a possible connection with the Rhode Island Greenes, but the names are spelled differently.

160 KP, xxxii. 80.

161 James Jarvis was a prominent New York speculator of the period and a close associate of Duer’s. See Davis, Essays, i. passim.

162 “Little Machias” refers to the purchase from John Lucas in the present town of Jonesborough.

163 Presumably William Bingham. J. S. Davis, Essays, i. 325, believes it “probable” that Green was acting for Bingham. I have found no evidence to support this.

164 KP, xxxii. 104.

165 Both Alexander Macomb and Robert Morris had attempted to sell their lands in Europe. Morris had already succeeded in selling a tract to Sir William Pulteney and associates, but William Constable, acting for Macomb, was not to close his agreements with certain French noblemen until later in 1792. See A. M. Sakolski, Great American Land Bubble, 74, 87.

166 Green-Knox agreement with Duer, New York, 21 October 1792, KP, xxxii. 144.

167 Knox to Duer, Philadelphia, 29 October 1792, KP, xxxii. 160.

168 Duer to Green, New York, 30 October 1792, KP, xxxii. 162.

169 On Bingham see the three articles by M. L. Brown, “William Bingham, Agent of the Continental Congress in Martinique,” “Mr. and Mrs. William Bingham of Philadelphia,” and “William Bingham, Eighteenth Century Magnate,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LXI. 1–34, 286–324, 387–434.

170 Knox to Bingham, Philadelphia, 29 July 1792, KP, XXXII. 29.

171 See J. S. Davis, Essays, I. 325. There are no letters to or from Green in BP. Furthermore, it is unlikely that there would have been trouble about the bonds Green offered, had Bingham been behind the negotiation. See above, pp. 77–78.

172 Knox to Duer, Philadelphia, 22 November 1792, KP, XXXIII. 25.

173 Knox to Duer, Philadelphia, 28 November 1792, KP, XXXIII. 29.

174 Knox to Duer, Philadelphia, 30 November 1792, KP, XXXIII. 30.

175 KP, XXXIII. 31.

176 Herman Le Roy was a partner in the commercial and banking house of Le Roy and Bayard, one of the leading institutions of its kind in New York City. This firm acted as banker for the Holland Land Company in America and was also closely connected with the Barings. See “Talleyrand in America,” AHA Report, 1941, II. 97, note 50.

177 KP, XXXIII. 43

178 This was the agreement of 7 June 1792 by which Duer agreed to make the payment of $25,000 due Massachusetts and pay Knox $37,500 with interest for his share in the enterprise. See KP, XXXI. 131, and above, p. 68. Richard Harrison was a prominent New York attorney, bank director, and speculator. See J. S. Davis, Essays, i. passim.

179 There is a rough draft of this letter in KP, xxxiii. 33–35.

180 This is a puzzling statement, for it refers to the land purchased from the Beverly Manufacturing Company, which was located in No. 7 north of Gouldsborough. The existence of two No. 7’s, one above Gouldsborough and the other a part of present-day Ellsworth and Surry, was confusing to all concerned. The only conclusion I can draw is that Knox himself was confused in this matter, though it is hard to believe that he did not know the location of some of the land which he had purchased.

181 On the Leval contracts and the Germans, see below, pp. 137–140, 144–146, 151.

182 KP, XXXIII. 48. The date of this letter is determined by Knox’s endorsement on the back.

183 Captain William Morris had been sent by Cazenove to explore the Kennebec tract. For his report on that tract, see below, pp. 188–205

184 Knox to Bingham, Philadelphia, 18 December 1792, KP, xxxiii. 57.

185 The text of this memorandum has been lifted from the final agreement between Bingham and Knox signed 31 December 1792, where it is quoted, together with Duer’s letter proposing the transfer. This final agreement makes provision for the carrying out of the agreement in the case of the death of either party and for an accounting system for the concern, but otherwise adds little to this memorandum.

186 William Lewis (1751–1819) was an acknowledged leader of the American bar of his day. Born and bred a Quaker, he served for a time in the Pennsylvania legislature, as district attorney, and as judge of the federal district court for eastern Pennsylvania. He returned shortly thereafter to private practice and attracted public attention when he defended Fries at the time of his trial for treason. He was active in the antislavery movement of his day and helped to launch Pennsylvania’s program of gradual emancipation.

187 For an account of William Jackson’s part in this business, see his undated deposition in connection with a suit which he filed against the Bingham Trustees in 1807, printed below, pp. 377–384. See also William Lewis’s deposition, dated 29 July 1807, which corroborates much of what Jackson says. Both documents are in BP.

188 KP, XXXIII. 63.

189 On Boulogne, see below, pp. 146–147.

190 See W. Jackson’s deposition for a vivid account of this transaction. This is printed below, pp. 377–379.

191 This final agreement, dated 31 December 1792, is in BP.

192 KP, XXXIII. 74.

193 This was Joseph Peirpoint of Township No. 22, Middle Division. The journal which he and William Albee of Machias kept on their tour is in BP.

194 On 13 December 1792 Theophile Cazenove, acting for what became the Holland Land Company, had contracted with Robert Morris to purchase about a million and a half acres in the Genesee country. See Evans, Holland Land Company, 25.

195 This probably referred to the tract on the St. Lawrence purchased by Ogden. Knox was involved in this purchase, and the chances are that Jackson was included as well. See A. M. Sakolski, Great American Land Bubble, 64–65.

196 Knox’s son, who was in Boston being educated. Jackson had been acting in loco parentis for him.

197 KP, XXXIII. 81.

198 De Gregoire had mortgaged his property in Mount Desert and Trenton to J. C. Jones of Boston.

199 James Sullivan, Attorney General of the Commonwealth. His name appears as witness on the final deeds Bingham received from the State. Christopher Gore was at this time United States District Attorney for Massachusetts.

200 KP, XXXIII. 78.

201 Knox apparently wrote in the number “8” and then forgot to include a separate point to go with it.

202 For General Lincoln’s letter to Bingham on the subject of Maine lands, see below, pp. 176–187.

203 For Morris’s work for the Holland Land Company, see Evans, Holland Land Company, 23, 113. Evans speaks of him as “honest and intelligent.”

204 Actually, Morris’s description of the mountain chain was fairly accurate. See below, p. 198.

205 Knox got the pagination of his letter wrong and says, “I have made an irish blunder.”

206 Knox to Bingham, Philadelphia, 12 January 1793, KP, XXXIII. 96.

207 KP, XXXIII. 105.

208 John Hancock.

209 The original deeds and copies of them are in BP. See the reproduction of one of these deeds, together with the escrow package, facing this page.

210 See the actual accounts in Appendix A.

211 Nathaniel Appleton was a Boston merchant and the father of Nathaniel W. Appleton the physician.

John Coffin Jones was a cousin of Stephen Jones of Machias, with whom he was associated in business. The whole Jones family was active in the coastal trade between Boston and the District of Maine. J. C. Jones had purchased a large tract of land in what is now Jonesborough in 1789. See Sprague’s Journal of Maine History, iii. 211–218.

Oliver Wendell (1733–1818), the grandfather of Oliver Wendell Holmes, was a Boston merchant and one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bank. He was a delegate to the Provincial Congress of 1775–1776 and later served as representative, state senator, and governor’s councillor in the Massachusetts government. He also held for many years the position of probate judge for Suffolk County.

212 This figure includes only the cost of the lands themselves, plus the payment to Duer. If interest and the expenses of developing the lands were to be included, the figure would, of course, be much higher. For the actual expenses, see Appendix A.

213 Copies of these bonds, together with similar ones for the contract for the six townships and the counter security given Thomas Russell, are in BP.

214 Jackson to Knox, Boston, 13 January 1793 and 4 February 1793, KP, XXXIII. 99, 121.

215 For the background of the Scioto Company, see J. S. Davis, Essays, i. 124–150, 213–253. There is a good short account in R. A. Billington, Westward Expansion, 212–220. For the story of the Leval colony, see S. E. Morison, “A French Description of Frenchman’s Bay, 1792,” New England Quarterly, i. 396–402; and F. S. Childs, “Fontaine Leval, a French Settlement on the Maine Coast, 1791,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, li. 187–199.

216 This title appears in the copy of Monsieur de Leval’s power of attorney to Madame de Leval dated Paris, 14 December 1790, in BP. Alexander Baring speaks of Madame de Leval as “a mistress of Calonne’s and many others in France.” See below, p. 648. I have found no evidence to support this statement.

217 Jackson to Knox, Boston, 19 June 1791, KP, xxviii. 124.

218 There is a copy of this agreement in KP, xxix. 78. For the French version of this document, see Proc. Amer. Ant. Soc., li. 199–203.

219 About $1.12. The livre tournois was worth a little more than eighteen cents at this time.

220 Knox’s ratification of this agreement appears in BP only.

221 Knox to Jackson, Philadelphia, 2 September 1791, KP, xxix. 83.

222 KP, xxix. 113.

223 KP, xxix. 130.

224 Colonel Nathan Jones was one of the original grantees of the town of Gouldsborough. During the Revolution he had been suspected of Toryism, but had managed to regain his position as a leader in eastern Maine after the Revolution. See Bangor Historical Magazine, vi. 71–72.

225 Paul Dudley Sargent had settled in Sullivan in 1789. See E. W. Sargent, Epes Sargent of Gloucester and His Descendants, 213–217; Bangor Historical Magazine, ii. 125–131.

226 This account of Madame Leval’s exploratory trip is taken from the diary printed in F. S. Childs, “Fontaine Leval,” Proc. Amer. Ant. Soc., li. 204–219.

227 Jackson to Knox, Boston, 13 November 1791, KP, xxx. 16.

228 KP, xxx. 5.

229 Phineas Bruce of Machias, one of the leading lawyers of Washington County. See W. Willis, History of the Law, the Courts, and the Lawyers of Maine, 151–152. There is a picture of Bruce’s house in G. W. Drisko, History of Machias, 222. Talleyrand stayed with Bruce during his tour down east.

230 Jones’s property is shown on the right-hand map between pages 136 and 137.

231 This was the offer from William Shaw. See above, p. 62, and below, pp. 523–524.

232 Knox to Jackson, Philadelphia, 17 November 1791, KP, xxx. 22.

233 KP, xxx. 41.

234 The decimal points have been omitted in the figures in this paragraph. The French apparently assume that the first payment of three livres per acre is all they need consider, and ignore the second payment of three additional livres per acre provided for in the provisional agreement. On the other hand, the contract of 14 January 1792 provides for payment at three livres per acre. See below, p. 138.

235 For Baron von Steuben’s land speculations, see P. D. Evans, Holland Land Company, 18, 66, 84.

236 This document should be read in conjunction with that printed in the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, li. 219–222. The one printed here is a much more elaborate plan of settlement and is doubtless another draft of a final prospectus which may well have been sent to France. F. S. Childs, editor of the Antiquarian Society document, suggests, on the basis of handwriting analysis, that the diary that precedes the general observations on Maine lands was kept by De la Roche. The handwriting of this document is the same as that of the long analysis of Maine lands in KP printed above, pp. 117–124, and similar to that of the Antiquarian Society document. It is certainly not the handwriting of Regnier, Madame Leval’s secretary, as two letters from Regnier to Duer dated Rock Hill, 8 August and 18 August 1790, in the Scioto and Ohio Land Company Papers in the New York Historical Society show. The suggestion that the Antiquarian Society document might have been penned by one Peter Hassenfratz (Childs, “Fontaine Leval,” 205, note 42) seems untenable in view of the fact that there exists a letter from Hassenfratz to Duer dated Buffalo, 19 October 1791, the very time that Madame de Leval and her party were in Maine (ibid.). The handwriting of this document is certainly similar to that of De la Roche as it appears in the Scioto Papers in the New York Historical Society. However, since so many copies of the various documents, prospectuses, and reports are extant, I believe the determination of authorship on the basis of handwriting identification to be a dubious business.

In editing the document printed here, I have made no attempt to regularize the spelling, punctuation, or capitalization in any way. My friend James H. Grew, head of the French Department of Phillips Academy, Andover, assures me that the French is very irregular, but he believes the document to be the work of a French person rather than of a foreigner.

Except when otherwise noted, the financial estimates are reckoned in livres tournois, then worth a little over eighteen cents.

237 The copyist probably omitted something here. The Antiquarian Society document reads “et nous nous y sommes aventurés.” Proc. Am. Ant. Soc., li. 204.

238 Wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley, peas, hemp, flax, potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips, cabbage, pumpkin, beetroot. The modern French for hemp is “chanvre”; the reading of hemp for “chamuze” is therefore based more on context than anything else.

239 Oak, pine, chestnut, sugar maple, beech, birch, elm, linden, hazelnut, walnut, wild cherry, cedar.

240 Either Thomas Handasyd Perkins of Boston, or his brother James. Both had been to Santo Domingo and had had numerous contacts with the French there. T. H. Perkins was active in helping the French who came to this country. See F. S. Childs, French Refugee Life in the United. States, 1790—1800, 90.

241 I am unable to explain the meaning of these figures. Reckoned in livres, sols, and deniers, the £6 11s. 6d. come to one tenth of one per cent of the total price. Whether this was a commission the proprietors of the company proposed to take for themselves, or whether it was some method of reckoning the amount of money to be invested, I am unable to say. There were 20 sols to a livre, 10 deniers to a sol.

242 The “droit d’aubaine” was a French law whereby the property of unnaturalized persons reverted to the Crown upon the death of the owner.

243 This figure 50 and the 50 immediately above refer to sols.

244 Shingles, staves, clapboards, laths, boards, potash.

245 These calculations are in error. Seventy-two feet of plank at 3d. would give 18s., and a cord £3 12s.

246 “Piastre” as used in this document refers to the American dollar.

247 This figure is also incorrect. Sixteen voyages at a profit of $125 a voyage would give $2,000. Translated into livres, this would be something over £10,000.

248 There is another copy of this contract in BP and a fragment, incorrectly dated 14 January 1793, in KP, LV. 170. See Childs, “Fontaine Leval,” Proc. Am. Ant. Soc., li. 194, note 19.

249 Adrien Lezay-Marnésia had come to America under the auspices of the Scioto Company. He returned to France later in 1792 and on his return wrote Lettres Ecrites des Rives de l’Ohio. See Childs, French Refugee Life, 49.

250 See above, p. 61.

251 Jackson to Lemuel Trescott, Boston, 12 March 1792 (two letters), KP, xxx. 150.

252 Walker had been an aide to and close friend of Baron von Steuben and had later been appointed naval officer for the port of New York. See Davis, Essays, I. passim.

253 Duer to D’Epremesnil, New York, 29 April 1792, KP, xxxi. 62.

254 Duer to Bancel de Confoulens, New York, 29 April 1792, KP, xxxi. 62 (on same sheet as letter to D’Epremesnil above). On Bancel’s tour of inspection down east and the diary which he wrote, see Morison, New England Quarterly, i. 396–410. See also Childs, “Fontaine Leval,” Proc. Amer. Ant. Soc., li. 187, note 1.

255 Knox’s receipt is dated Philadelphia, 19 May 1792, KP, xxxi. 97.

256 Knox to Jackson, Philadelphia, 20 May 1792, KP, xxxi. 99.

257 Jackson to Knox, Boston, 27 May 1792, KP, xxxi. 114.

258 In August Cazenove had apparently considered the idea of joining with Madame de Leval to take up 300,000 acres of the Knox-Duer contract. See Jackson to Knox, New York, 15 August 1792, KP, xxxii. 51.

259 There is a copy of this contract in KP, xxxii. 82, and another beside the original in BP. See also Jackson and Flint to Massachusetts Land Committee, New York, 12 September 1792, where they present this scheme to the Committee. This letter is in Massachusetts Archives, Eastern Lands, Box 15.

260 The contract was actually dated 14 January 1792.

261 See the right-hand map between pages 136 and 137.

262 The original and a copy of this agreement, dated New York [?], 20 September 1792, are in BP. Bue Boulogne had come to America with the Scioto adventurers and later served as agent for the Asylum Company. See Childs, French Refugee Life, 72, 99–100.

263 KP, xxxii. 102.

264 Stephen Higginson (1743–1828), a merchant and a friend of Madame de Leval’s, had been a member of the Continental Congress, 1782–1783, had acted as advisor to Governor Bowdoin during Shays’s Rebellion, and was to hold the position of naval agent in Boston from 1797–1801.

265 Isaac Winslow, a relative of Mrs. Knox’s, had an interest in the Waldo Patent, which Knox was anxious to buy.

266 Knox and his wife had twelve children, nine of whom died in infancy. See N. Brooks, Henry Knox, 247. This was one of those who died at an early age.

267 Leval and La Roche to Jackson, Boston, 31 October 1792, KP, xxxii. 164.

268 See Jackson’s undated memorandum on this subject, KP, xxxii. 164. See also the protest drawn by Samuel Cooper, notary public, dated Boston, 3 November 1792, KP, xxxii. 172.

269 Knox to Leval and La Roche, Philadelphia, 19 November 1792, KP, xxxiii. 19, in which he says he has told Jackson to deliver the deeds. See also Jackson to Knox, Boston, 2 December 1792, KP, xxxiii. 36.

270 The original and a copy of this agreement are in BP.

271 KP, xxxiii. 65.

272 Presumably Benjamin Hichborn, a mutual friend. See Childs, “Fontaine Leval,” Proc. Amer. Ant. Soc., li. 198, note 31. He had fought under Henry Jackson during the Revolution and led a force to suppress the Shays rebels in the Groton area. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, vii. 816, and G. Minot, History of the Insurrections in Massachusetts in 1786, 76–77. Also S. Breck, Recollections, 22–23, and J. S. Loring, Hundred Boston Orators, 131–132.

273 Leval to Knox [?], Boston, 18 December 1792 in BP.

274 Knox to Leval, Philadelphia, 31 December 1792 in BP (copy).

275 See Leval to Bingham [?], 12 January 1793, Boston, 20 [?] January 1793 and Boston, 18 January 1793, all in BP. In the last of these letters she roundly denounces Knox and Duer and complains of their talk about “leurs bontes et de leurs bonnes dispositions a faire avec moi un arrangement genereux et liberale” when all the while they were refusing to carry out the terms of their contract.

276 Bingham to Leval, Boston, 29 January 1793 in BP.

277 The letterpress copy of this letter is in the William Bingham Letter Book, 1791–1793 in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 493–495.

278 KP, xxxiii. 134.

279 This refers to the “back tract” contract of 18 April 1792.

280 This may refer to a survey of two townships in the Kennebec Tract made by Samuel Weston and Ephraim Ballard in 1792. Some notes from this survey are in BP.

281 This last paragraph refers to the Waldo Patent and Knox’s plan to purchase the Winslow share in the property.

282 Leval to Knox, Philadelphia, 28 February 1793, 10 March 1793, KP, xxxiii. 161, 171.

283 KP, xxxiv. 7. This must have been about 10 March, for the contract was finally signed on 15 March.

284 Jared Ingersoll was one of the leading members of the Philadelphia bar. He had been a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and was at this time attorney general for Pennsylvania. He had just finished acting as counsel for the State of Georgia in Chisolm vs. Georgia.

285 Since there are many undated and unaddressed proposals from Leval in BP, it is difficult to determine which set this refers to. In an undated letter to Walker in BP, Leval speaks of having written a “volume” on what she considered her rights.

286 There is in BP a series of documents originally bound in a single package entitled “Papers relative to Lands conditionally Sold to B. Walker and Madame Leval,” which covers almost every phase of this contract. These papers include the deed from William and Ann Bingham for the property, the escrow terms, Leval’s release of rights under all former contracts with Duer and Knox, Walker’s obligation to give bonds, and copies of most of these documents.

287 Letterpress copy in the William Bingham Letter Book, 1791–1793, 427–430, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

288 This letter is in BP. In it, Leval speaks of her wish to purchase land on Mt. Desert so as to open communication between her property and “South Harbor” on that island.

289 See below, pp. 174–187.

290 Leval to Bingham, Fontaine Leval, 16 and 28 July 1793, Boston, 26 September 1793, in BP. See also undated document indorsed “Leval’s Observations on the Settlement of her Lands” in BP.

291 KP, xxxiv. 164.

292 In a letter to Knox dated Boston, 26 January 1794, KP, xxxv. 33, Jackson speaks of the completion of the new theater and assembly room, in the construction of which he had been interested. This was presumably the New Exhibition Room or Board Alley Theatre, which was opened that year.

293 Internal evidence would indicate the date of this letter as early in 1794. The undated French original of this document is also in BP. This letter seems to have been written to Knox, but identification of the addressee is tentative.

294 The question of whether or not the French were accountable to Bingham for the $8,000 which Duer had advanced to her and her friends was a major source of dispute during the entire Bingham-Leval relationship.

295 The corresponding phrase in the original French version of this document, also in BP. is “j’essuye a” which should have been translated as “I suffer at.”

296 The corresponding phrase in the French version reads, “J’estime plus mes 100,000 acres que son million d’acres sans ce que j’ai.”

297 Non-success.

298 The Jackson referred to in the rest of this document is Henry Jackson. Major William Jackson may have made the following statement, or it may have been merely a slip of the pen.

299 John Peters of Blue Hill, who did most of the surveying for Duer and Knox, and later Bingham, in the Frenchman’s Bay region. See Bangor Historical Magazine, i. 200.

300 See the right-hand map between pages 136 and 137.

301 Van Berckel to Knox, Philadelphia, 21 May 1794, KP, xxxv. 114. The van Berckels were a distinguished Dutch family. Engelbert Francis van Berckel had been an early supporter of the American Revolution and had drafted the first treaty between Holland and the United States. John Adams, Works, iii. 270, note 2. Peter John van Berckel, Engelbert’s brother, was the first Dutch minister to the United States. For an account of his reception by the Continental Congress, see E. C. Burnett, The Continental Congress, 587–589. Madame de Leval’s husband was Peter Francis van Berckel, the son of Peter John. When his father returned to Holland in 1787, he remained in this country as representative of the Netherlands, with the title of Resident. See A. J. van der Aa, Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden (Haarlem, 1853), ii, part 1. 352.

Monsieur de Leval must have died in Europe, though Henry Jackson, when he heard of the marriage to Van Berckel, said he could not believe it because Madame de Leval was married to another. See Jackson to Knox, Boston, 26 May 1794, KP, xxxv. 118.

302 Van Berckel to Bingham, Philadelphia, 30 June 1795, in BP.

303 The copy of Walker’s bill, filed in the Maine Circuit Court and dated 7 July 1796, in BP, gives an account of Van Berckel’s attempts to pay Bingham.

304 In addition to the bill itself, cited above, see Daniel Davis to Jackson, Portland, 10 December 1796 in BP. Davis represented Bingham in this case. For Alexander Baring’s account of Van Berckel’s attempts to realize something on the Leval contract see below, pp. 649 and 794.

305 The offer to Walker drawn up by Otis is in BP dated Boston, 10 July 1796. See also Otis’s undated opinion in BP which suggests to Bingham the procedure actually followed.

306 Walker to Hare, Utica, 12 May 1808 in BP. Also Walker’s power of attorney to Richard Peters of Philadelphia, one of the custodians of the deeds under the terms of the escrow, of same date, ordering-Peters to exchange the deeds for the bonds, and Peters’s receipt of the bonds dated 22 July 1808, all in BP.

307 Walker’s memorandum on Trenton is enclosed in Knox to Bingham, New York, 11 January 1796, in BP.

308 See the map facing page 862.

309 See Bangor Historical Magazine, viii. 113–114.

310 See Bruce’s description, Boston, 27 July 1791, and Trescott’s answers to questions, 28 September 1791, both in BP. For Trescott, see below, p. 208, note 7.

311 Benjamin Lincoln had become acquainted with the Passamaquoddy region when, in 1784, he had served on a committee with Henry Knox and John Allan to ascertain the true St. Croix. Shortly after this he attempted to promote a settlement in what came to be Dennysville. See Memorial of the 100th Anniversary of the Settlement of Dennysville (Portland, 1886), 21–39. See also Bangor Historical Magazine, vi. 269–272.

Since William Jackson had been an aide to General Lincoln during the Revolution, it is probable that Bingham met the General while in Boston closing his contract with the Massachusetts Land Committee, if he had not done so before. In any event, in view of the Jackson connection, Lincoln would have been a natural person to write to for information.

312 Charles Vaughan resided at Hallowell. His father, Samuel Vaughan, a London merchant, had married Sarah Hallowell; hence the connection with the Kennebec region. For the Vaughan family, see R. H. Gardiner, Early Recollections, 119–121. Vaughan’s answers to Bingham’s questions are in BP, dated Boston, 8 April 1793.

313 Bingham to H. Jackson, Philadelphia, 25 February 1793, in BP. See below, p. 253. There are several copies of the printed forms of these questions in BP.

314 The Maine members were Daniel Cony, John Gardiner, David Silvester, and Francis Winter. In general, their replies are thin and add little to what Lincoln had said. For Cony, see above, p. 30. For the celebrated John Gardiner, see R. H. Gardiner, Early Recollections, 17–21; Sprague’s Journal of Maine History, ix. 49–59. David Silvester was a representative from Pownalborough, Francis Winter from Gorham.

315 This letter, a copy of the original, should be read in conjunction with the version printed in Bingham’s pamphlet referred to above. In the printed version the order of the questions has been changed, some qualifying remarks have been excised, and the material in General Lincoln’s article for the Massachusetts Historical Society (see above, p. 7) on the reasons for the backwardness of Maine has been added. There is a list of these questions in William Jackson’s hand in KP, xxxv. 14. A copy of Bingham’s letter to Lincoln, dated February, 1793, is in BP.

316 Probably a slip of the pen on the part of the copyist. The census figure was 96,540.

317 Vaughan says about 10,000 annually. Both he and Lincoln are high in their estimates. The average annual increase from 1790 to 1800 was something over 5,000. See M. Greenleaf, A Survey of the Stale of Maine (Portland, 1829), 134.

318 This probably refers to an act passed in 1700 and renewed from time to time that required masters to furnish lists of passengers and give security that immigrants would not be charges on the towns. See R. L. Garis, Immigration Restriction, 16.

319 In answering this question, the four Maine members state that “a separate government” would contribute to Maine’s advancement. Vaughan suggests that large proprietors must undertake to spread small settlements throughout the unpopulated areas of the District.

320 Vaughan was more sanguine about Maine’s possibilities as a manufacturing area. The four Maine members answered this question with a curt “No.”

321 Vaughan states that the duration of the winter has been shortened by five weeks during the last eight years.

322 Vaughan states that hemp has been tried and that a superior grade has been produced.

323 Vaughan says that the proprietor’s share depends on the distance of the timber from water conveyance, but estimates that on the Kennebec it ranges from one tenth to one eighth after the timber is “sawn.”

324 Vaughan estimates the cost between 150 and 400 pounds. The annual output of a sawmill, according to him, would vary between 250,000 and 600,000 feet.

325 Vaughan says the price is twelve shillings per acre in incorporated towns on the Kennebec.

326 Ginseng was already in great demand for the oriental trade. See M. G. Kains, Ginseng (New York, 1899), 5.

327 Vaughan states that if the winter is to be measured by the length of time that the stock are foddered, it is from 21 November to 1 June, but that the woods are open after 1 April.

328 Vaughan gives the following price table: masts under 25 inches, 2/6 per inch; boards 30/ to 48/; scantling same as boards; white oak staves, $15–20 per thousand; red oak staves, $5–8 per thousand; white pine shingles, 9/ to 12/.

329 Vaughan is more optimistic. He points out that with blacksmiths and carpenters as cheap as in Boston and materials much cheaper, shipbuilding is bound to succeed.

330 Vaughan adds two pieces of information not included in General Lincoln’s letter; first, that in 1786 there was one topsail vessel built and owned on the Kennebec and in 1793 twelve; and second, that in 1786 grain was being imported on the Kennebec but that this was no longer true in 1793.

331 See above, p. 99.

332 For the use to which Cazenove put this information in dealing with Robert Morris, see P. D. Evans, The Holland Land Company, 23.

333 Jan Lincklaen had been sent to America by Pieter Stadnitski and other Dutch bankers to investigate opportunities for investment and to check on Cazenove and other agents. He later was intimately associated with the Holland Land Company. Evans, Holland Land Company, passim.

334 Samuel Deane, pastor of the First Church in Portland. See Journals of the Reverend. Thomas Smith and the Reverend Samuel Deane, edited by W. Willis (Portland, 1849), passim. According to the census, Portland had 2,239 persons in 1790. A Century of Population Growth, 188.

335 Compare these figures with those given in A Century of Population Growth, 188.

336 Compare these figures with Vaughan’s, above, p. 187, and with Liancourt’s. See the latter’s Travels, i. 445.

337 This table was also printed in Bingham’s pamphlet. It is probable that Morris obtained these figures from the Reverend Mr. Deane, an inveterate temperature-taker. Compare these readings with those in M. Greenleaf, Survey of Maine, 96.

338 The Dutch had visions of developing large maple sugar manufacturing establishments that could compete with cane sugar refineries. See Evans, Holland Land Company, 14, 63–66.

339 The body of this letter is a copy of the original, but the signature is in a different hand and may be that of Morris himself.

340 Though this table was filed separately in BP, I believe that it was part of the material collected by Morris and have accordingly included it as an appendix to the letter proper.

The figures to the right of the decimal point in this table appear to be in 95ths, at least in the first and third columns. I believe the 31/95 at the bottom of the second column to be a mistake in addition.

341 Park Holland (1752–1844) spent his youth in Petersham, Mass., where his father was a farmer. At the outbreak of the Revolution he joined the American Army and served with distinction throughout the war. In 1784 he accompanied Rufus Putnam, who had been commissioned to survey lands along the Schoodic and Passamaquoddy Bay. During Shays’s Rebellion, he was captain of a militia regiment that pursued Shays from Pelham to Petersham. He was a representative in the General Court during most of the period from 1788 to 1800, elected first from Petersham and then from Belchertown, where he had moved with his family in 1790. In 1794 he and Jonathan Maynard surveyed the “back tract” for the Massachusetts Land Committee, and in 1797 he mapped the nine townships above Bangor that had been opened for settlement by the treaty with the Penobscot Indians the previous year. In 1801 he moved to Eddington, Maine, where he continued surveying until his retirement in 1820 and acted also as agent for the Penobscot Indians during part of this period. He moved to Orono, Maine, in 1824, and to Bangor in 1842. A map of settlers’ lots which he surveyed in Bangor in 1801 is in KP, xlv. 6. For Holland, see Bangor Historical Magazine, iii. 84–86.

342 I am indebted to L. Felix Ranlett, librarian of the Bangor Public Library, for making available to me the manuscript of the Holland autobiography. The document itself was written long after the events which are described took place, and has suffered furthermore from having been copied several times. The original is no longer extant, having apparently been destroyed in the Bangor fire of 1911, along with other material belonging to the Bangor Historical Society. At the end of the autobiography (pp. 129–130) there is this note by Bathsheba Ivory Holland: “In the winter of 1834, my father wrote the above journal, which I have copied, with the exception of some anecdotes related by him as I have been copying, which I have thought worth preserving. He merely sketched it, intended to copy it, when completed, but alas, he never wrote much more, soon after losing his sight.…” This note is dated Eddington, 28 June 1841.

The manuscript now in the possession of the Bangor Public Library is a copy of the “original” made by Park Holland’s daughter, Bathsheba Ivory Holland. It was copied by Mrs. Mary H. Curran, who prefaces her copy with the following note:

“The letter of Park Holland to his nephew, Major Jonas Holland, was written in 1832. [This letter describes his experiences in the Revolution and is not printed here.] The diaries of his exploring trips to the Maine Woods were written from his notes, in 1834, and copied by his daughter, Bathsheba Ivory Holland, in 1841. Several copies of the original have been made. The one from which this copy was made was copied from the original by one of his granddaughters, who made many changes in the wording. The original copy, in three books, has lately been presented to the Bangor Historical Society by his granddaughters, Josephine Park Holland and Elizabeth Winslow Eaton Holland. This copy has been carefully compared with the original and in some cases changes have been made, in others, the wording remains as was found in the book from which this was copied.”

There is no question but what the wording of a large part of this document has been altered by the copyists. The factual information, however, gives every indication of being accurate. Park Holland’s field notes of his surveying trips are in BP and correspond with the topographical information contained in the autobiography. My friend Frederick Johnson, of the Peabody Foundation for Archaeology, Andover, who is an authority on the Penobscot Indians and their country, says that the accounts of the surveying trips ring true and could have been written only by someone who had actually been on the spot. I believe, therefore, that despite obvious changes in phraseology, the document is authentic as far as factual information is concerned.

As Felix Ranlett points out, however, there is still the problem of the original autobiography. The Bangor fire occurred in 1911; yet Mrs. Curran dates her copy 1915 and says she has checked it with the original. The only explanation I can suggest is that she did her checking before 1911 and did not get around to making a final fair copy until after the fire.

There is a typewritten copy of the autobiography at the Petersham Historical Society and a copy of that copy at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

In editing this document I have made no attempt to identify the various rivers, lakes, and mountains which Holland mentions. The general route which he followed on his Maine expeditions is, I believe, clear enough from the text.

343 Lemuel Trescott (1751–1826) had been a major in Henry Jackson’s regiment in the Revolution. See W. H. Kilby, Eastfort and Passamaquoddy, 440–44.3. The township of Trescott is named for him. For John Crane, see Bangor Historical Magazine, vi. 14–16. General Jackson refers to a “General Crane” as one of those who were going to help him catch lumber thieves. Jackson to Bingham, Boston, 10 November 1793, in BP.

344 The census of 1790 lists a Widow Flagg living in what became Eastport. There was also a Flagg’s Point in the Narrows that may have been named for this gentleman. Kilby, Eastfort, 240.

345 According to the census of 1790, both John and Samuel Frost were living in what is now Perry.

346 This probably refers to James Cochran, a native of Ireland, who was one of the first settlers on Moose Island. Kilby, Eastport, 139.

347 For John Bernard, see G. E. Street, Mount Desert, 125–128, 132 note. Street in this passage quotes from Rufus Putnam’s journal, now in the possession of Marietta College, Ohio. Parts of Putnam’s account coincide almost exactly with that printed here.

348 Madame Hayley, a wealthy English widow, came to Boston just after the Revolution and in 1786 married Patrick Jeffrey, an agent for a British mercantile firm. See G. L. Kittredge, The Old Farmer and His Almanac, 9–13.

349 Edward Chaloner, of Hardwick, Massachusetts, had been an ensign in Rufus Putnam’s regiment during the Revolution. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, iii. 251.

350 There follows an account of Holland’s part in Shays’s Rebellion, which has been omitted.

351 Jonathan Maynard had served in the Revolution in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment. He was captured in 1778, was a prisoner for two years, and finally was exchanged. He was promoted captain in 1781. Writings of Washington (J. C. Fitzpatrick, editor), xx. 70, note ii.

352 Benjamin Shute of Frankfurt was Lt. Colonel of the 1st Regiment of the 2nd Brigade of the 8th Division of the Massachusetts Militia. Bangor Historical Magazine, ii. 85. He was also one of the signers of a petition from Frankfort to the Massachusetts General Court, dated 28 November 1789. See 2 Coll. Me. Hist. Soc, xxii. 223–224.

David Cobb’s son Thomas, who spent the winter of 1794–95 in Maine, had a poor opinion of Colonel Shute’s establishment. In a letter to his father, Thomas complained of the difficulty of finding good lodging at Prospect and said he knew “of none but Colonel Shute’s, which beside its being a tavern is by no means a reputable house; for it often happens that the Colonel and his wife are noding over the fire by the power of New England, while the girls are in bead [sic] with there sweethearts.” See Thomas Cobb to Cobb, Camden, 26 November 1794, in CP.

353 For Jonathan Eddy (1726–1804) and his exploits in the French and Indian War and the Revolution, see Bangor Historical Magazine, iv. 41–54.

354 Sabatis, or Sabadis, was a name borne by several Penobscot Indians. This one may well have been the Sabatis who signed a petition from the Penobscots to the governor of Massachusetts, dated 6 September 1755. See 2 Coll. Me. Hist. Soc, xxiv. 56.

355 John Marsh lived on Marsh’s Island, up river from Bangor. See Sprague’s Journal of Maine History, ii. 202–205.

356 Stephen Jones of Machias. His autobiography is printed in Sprague’s Journal of Maine History, iii. 199–218.

357 It is hard to believe that Park Holland had never eaten butter. It is possible that the word was originally something else and that one of the copyists decided to change it.

358 Frederick Johnson suggests that the diggings may have been made by the Indians, who used deposits of this kind for paint.

359 At the close of the autobiography, in a section not printed here, Holland tells of how Major Treat gave him the change which the Indian had left.

360 This description of Madawaska follows very closely an account of the settlement written by Park Holland in BP. I have been unable to identify either Mr. Loquires or Mr. Everett, mentioned above. Neither is included in a long list of the early settlers of Madawaska given in C. W. Collins, “The Acadians of Madawaska, Maine,” New England Catholic Historical Society Publications, No. 3, 34–41.

361 A Daniel Spencer made his mark on a petition of the inhabitants of the “Upper Plantation on the West Side of Penobscot” to the General Court dated 6 June 1786. See 2 Coll. Me. Hist. Soc, xxi. 209.

362 A Daniel Skinner signed a petition of the inhabitants of Penobscot River dated 23 November 1790. See 2 Coll. Me. Hist. Soc, xxii. 403.

363 Both Andrew and Gordon Grant signed the same petition as the one above signed by Skinner.

364 Jonathan Buck, founder of Bucksport. See Bangor Historical Magazine, i. 133–134; ii. 21–24.

365 Joseph Tucker of York was Town Clerk, Representative to the General Court, and Collector of Customs. C. E. Banks, History of York, Maine, ii. 354, 359, 360. Gibbs was presumably Caleb Gibbs, who had served with the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment, been wounded at Yorktown, and made a brevet lieutenant-colonel at the close of the war. See F. S. Drake, Memorials of the Society of the Cincinnati of Massachusetts, 310.

366 The rest of the autobiography is concerned with Holland’s later experiences in Maine and with the recounting of various down-east anecdotes. There is a short section dealing with the War of 1812 in eastern Maine.

367 See Monvel to Knox, Thomaston, 20 June 1792, KP, xxxi. 151. See also Sprague’s Journal of Maine History, v. 278, for information on the journal Monvel kept during his exploring trip for Knox.

368 This document is a letterpress copy from the Bingham Letter Book, 1791–1793, 423–426, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

369 Wilhem and Jan Willink were prominent Dutch bankers who had participated in the first Dutch loan to the United States. They remained thereafter the official financial agents of the American government in Holland and became heavy purchasers of American stocks and later of American lands. See P. D. Evans, Holland Land Company, passim. For Bingham’s relations with the Willinks, see M. L. Brown, “William Bingham, Eighteenth Century Magnate,” Pa. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., lxi. 407–409.

370 This document is a letterpress copy from the Bingham Letter Book, 1791–1793, 502–508, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

371 These last two letters are from the Bingham Letter Book, 1791–1793, 464–467, 441, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The English firm of Strachan and MacKenzie was apparently active in American trade and investment. There are several references to the firm in Alexander Baring’s letters to England. See, for example, Alexander Baring to Francis Baring, Philadelphia, 5 May 1796, in BaP.

372 Letterpress copy in the Bingham Letter Book, 1791–1793, 419–422, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

373 This is the report printed above, pp. 188–205.

374 Letterpress copy in the Bingham Letter Book, 1791–1793, 436–437, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

375 Henry Hope (1736?–1811) was the head of one of the most successful Dutch banking houses. His father, of the same name, had been sent by the House of Hope, which had been founded in the seventeenth century, to represent the firm in America and had come to Boston about 1730. Henry the younger was born and brought upin America, went to England for his education, entered the English firm of Gurnell Hoare and Company, and in 1762 joined the firm of his uncles, Thomas and Adrian Hope, in Amsterdam. He soon became the dominant member of the firm, was instrumental in arranging loans to Catherine II of Russia, and in the 1780’s built a magnificent country house outside Haarlem. With the French invasion of Holland, Henry Hope fled to England, where he lived the rest of his life. In 1814 the Hope family sold their interest in the firm to the Barings, with whom they had always had intimate financial relations, and the great days of Hope and Company were at an end. H. W. and I. Law, The Book of the Beresford Hopes (London, 1925), 267–275. For information on Hope’s financial activities, see J. B. Manger, Recherchessur les Relations Economiques entre La France et La Hollande pendant la Revolution Française (1785–1795) (Amsterdam, 1923), passim. There is a portrait of Hope in this volume facing page 60. I am indebted to our fellow member George P. Anderson for some interesting material on the Hope family.

376 This is a letterpress copy. Fading makes some of the readings tentative.

377 Probably Thomas Handasyd Perkins.

378 Since Cony and Wells had not been present during Bingham’s negotiations with the Land Committee, he was anxious to get their signatures so as to avoid any possible question about the legality of the contract. These two signed an assent dated Boston, 28 February 1793, which is in BP.

379 There is an undated document in BP in William Jackson’s hand which lists five points on which Bingham would like his contract modified. He wished an article to designate method of counting settlers, one to define the form of the hundred-acre lot to be given to old settlers, a reduction in his personal security from $60,000 to $30,000, a chance to deposit United States six per cents as collateral security so as to get his deeds more easily, and a chance to use deferred debt as a deposit against the fulfillment of settling duties. Though this document is not in the form of a memorial, it probably served as the basis for the one mentioned here.

380 Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1700–1790, A. J. Dallas, editor (Philadelphia, 1793), ii.645. For Alexander Baring’s comments on the subject of alien land holding, see his Memorial to Bingham, dated Philadelphia, 2 February 1796, in BaP, and also below, p. 661. See also, P. D. Evans, Holland Land Company, 87.

381 Apparently, during Bingham’s stay in Boston and the round of dinners which took place, he was told that if he ate enough Boston fish and venison, he would become so invigorated as to produce the son and heir which he so much desired.

382 Richard Soderstrom had been interested in purchasing the “back tract” in the spring of 1792. See above, pp. 59–60. He was the Swedish consul at Philadelphia.

383 The journal of Joseph Peirpoint and William Albee of an exploratory expedition over the lottery lands 15 October 1792 to 4 December 1792 is in BP. There is a map which shows the route which they followed in KP, xxxiii. 83.

384 See Osgood Carleton’s map, above, facing page 16. The two towns mentioned are the present Athens and Harmony, which had been granted to Berwick and Hallowell Academies, respectively.

385 These two bills are in a package of vouchers for 1793 in BP.

386 This is the letterpress copy. Much of it is badly faded, which makes many of the readings doubtful.

387 The letter of 4 February 1793 is in BP. The bill for £100 is in the package of vouchers for 1793 in BP.

388 This was the Bank of Pennsylvania, incorporated 30 March 1793. J. J. Knox, History of Banking in the United States, 443. In a letter to Bingham dated Boston, 11 March 1793, in BP, Thomas Russell states that he is sorry that Pennsylvania is establishing another bank and thinks that the First Bank of the United States should be sufficient.

389 This was the future Eddington, across the river from Bangor.

390 This was the future town of Solon.

391 This letter is in BP. In it Jackson reported on the price asked for the Academy Townships and on the problem of acquiring the lottery prizes.

392 David Cobb. See below, Chapter VII.

393 For Bingham’s attempt to get his contract modified, see above, p. 244, note 7. “Morris’s accommodation” refers to the relatively generous terms granted to Robert Morris when he took over the Phelps Gorham purchase. A. M. Sakolski, Great American Land Bubble, 55–56.

394 For this episode, see above, p. 149.

395 Probably Samuel Sewall of Marblehead, a graduate of Harvard in 1776, judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, 1800, Chief Justice, 1814. See introduction to Samuel Sewall’s Diary, 5 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., v. xxx–xxxi.

396 Captain Hills had surveyed possible routes for a canal from the Connecticut River to Boston for the Massachusetts Canal Corporation, in which Knox was interested. See below, pp. 452–462.

397 John Peters of Blue Hill and Samuel Weston. On Peters, see Bangor Historical Magazine, i. 200. There are some excerpts from the field notes of Weston and Ephraim Ballard of a survey of Nos. 3 and 4, 4th Range on the Kennebec in 1792 in BP.

398 This may have been Theophile Cazenove. See below, pp. 256, 267, 272.

399 This is a letterpress copy and like the others printed in this chapter is almost illegible in places.

400 On Bingham’s Gouldsborough purchases, see below, pp. 523–524.

401 This was the No. 7 to the north of Gouldsborough, part of which had been granted to the Beverly Manufacturing Company and purchased from them by Jackson. Bingham’s confusion may have arisen from the fact that Knox himself thought the Beverly Company’s lands were in the No. 7 that later became part of Ellsworth. See above, p. 86, note 3.

402 This was the down payment on the “back tract” contract of 18 April 1792.

403 William Eustis, a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1772, served in the Revolutionary Army as a surgeon and later practised medicine in Boston. He was a prominent Jeffersonian and later served as Secretary of War in Madison’s cabinet.

404 I believe this calculation in error. The figure should read $31,250.

405 For the Dearborn townships, see above, p. 65.

406 Letterpress copy.

407 Bingham was afraid the border might be determined at the chain of lakes along the northern borders of the present towns of Baileyville and Princeton. While these lakes do extend along a part of the northern border of Bingham’s Penobscot purchase, they by no means reach to the northwest corner.

408 The letterpress copy of this letter is in BP.

409 Jackson to Knox, Boston, 31 March 1793, in KP, xxxiv. 6. There are two copies of Sullivan’s opinion in BP. James Sullivan was at this time attorney general of the Commonwealth and was later to become governor. See T. C. Amory, Life of James Sullivan. In the summer of 1792 Duer had written Aaron Burr to get his opinion on the same contract. Burr’s reply, dated New York, 19 July 1792, fully upholds Bingham’s position regarding this contract. Burr’s letter is in BP.

410 Letterpress copy.

411 On Monvel, see above, pp. 232–234. These three letters are in BP.

412 This letter, dated Boston, 15 April 1793, is in BP. In it Jackson reports that Higginson appears interested in acquiring the “back tract” contract and may be acting for Cazenove; and that Higginson knows that Bingham gave Royal Flint $2,500 to relinquish his interest in the “back tract” contract.

413 Thomas Davis, a citizen of Boston, and formerly treasurer of the town, was now the State Treasurer. Boston Town Records, 1784–1796, 167. See also S. F. Rockwell, Davis Families of Early Roxbury and Boston (North Andover, 1932), 292.

414 For Thomas Russell’s part in this, see Russell to Bingham, Boston, 10 May 1793, enclosing Davis to Russell of the same date, both in BP.

415 These two letters are in BP.

416 There is a copy of this agreement dated 24 May 1793 in BP. The field notes of Peters and his son and their accounts for this survey are also in BP.

417 The pertinent portions of this letter of instructions are printed below, p. 381, where they are quoted by W. Jackson in connection with his suit against the Bingham Estate in 1807.

418 See Jackson to Bingham, Philadelphia, 26 May 1793, in which he attempts to explain his present financial situation in the light of some slurring remarks made by Thomas Willing. This letter is in BP.

419 A brief note written by W. Jackson to the Willinks, 20 July 1793, in BP, is headed “On Board the Ship Peggy, in the Channel.”

420 On the shift of Dutch investments from Britain to the United States, see C. Wilson, Anglo-Dutch Commerce and Finance in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge, England, 1941), 190–191 and Appendix E.

421 In the letters that follow I have made no attempt to study in detail Jackson’s accounts of European politics and military events. I have checked his statements in J. W. Fortescue, History of the British Army, iv, Part i; A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and Empire; The Cambridge Modem History, viii; and C. Brinton, A Decade of Revolution. Except where noted, I have found his reports as accurate as one would expect from a contemporary observer, bearing always in mind his pro-French attitude. Fortescue has a volume of maps accompanying his fourth volume which are useful in locating many of the places mentioned in the letters.

422 Thomas Pinckney. See S. F. Bemis, “The London Mission of Thomas Pinckney,” American Historical Review, xxviii. 228–247.

423 Joshua Johnson, brother of Thomas Johnson, the governor of Maryland, was to be the father-in-law of John Quincy Adams. Johnson had been in France during the American Revolution and in 1779 had settled with his family as a merchant in Nantes. He was afterward employed in the settlement of accounts of the United States in France. His daughter, Louisa Catherine, married John Quincy Adams in London in 1797. See John Adams, Works, iii. 193; Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vii. 536; and S. F. Bemis, John Quincy Adams, 79–80.

424 When Jackson left America, Bingham gave him a bill drawn on Lewis Poleske of London by Charles Poleske for £200 in favor of Bingham and dated 15 June 1793. A copy of this bill appears in a package of papers labeled “Vouchers for 1793” in BP.

425 For Henry Hope, see above, p. 241, note 3.

426 Possibly George Walker, though he is cited as living in Philadelphia. He was an investor in Washington real estate. A. C. Clark, Greenleaf and Law in the Federal City, 156–162.

427 For the Willinks, see above, p. 234, note 6.

428 The letter mentioned is in BP, dated on board the ship Peggy in the Channel, 20 July 1793.

429 The price of the medallion finally came to one hundred and two pounds fifteen shillings, Jackson to Bingham, London, 27 September 1793, in BP. It was sent to Mrs. Bingham by T. W. Francis, Jackson to Bingham, London, 24 June 1794, in BP.

430 Mrs. Bache was the wife of Franklin’s grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, and the former Margaret Hartman Markoe of Denmark. Bache later achieved prominence as a Jeffersonian editor.

431 For an account of this campaign, see Fortescue, British Army, iv, Part I. 84–113 The Marquis de Bouillé was one of the leading émigrés. Bingham would have been particularly interested in hearing news of De Bouillé, for he had had many dealings with him when they were both in Martinique. See M. L. Brown, “William Bingham ... in Martinique,” Pa. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., lxi, passim.

432 Dumouriez’ military genius undoubtedly saved the French Republic at the start of the war. He soon, however, fell out with the Jacobins, who saw in later defeats evidences of treason. After a good deal of intrigue, he finally turned himself over to the Austrians.

433 The second partition of Poland, among Russia, Austria, and Prussia, had taken place in January, 1793.

434 William Vaughan was a younger brother of Benjamin Vaughan, the most distinguished of the family. See R. H. Gardiner, Early Recollections, 119–131. Unlike the other brothers, William never emigrated to America. See also E. H. Nason, Old Hallowell on the Kennebec, 76–77.

435 The siege of Nantes and its eventual failure was the turning point in the revolt in La Vendée against the French Republic.

436 This may have been Dr. George Edwards (1752–1823). After winning a medical degree at Edinburgh, he practised his profession in London. He was also active in numerous social reform movements of the day.

437 Benjamin Vaughan was at this time an MP whose sympathies were strongly with the French Revolution. A cabinet investigation led to disclosures which prompted him to flee to France in May, 1794. In 1796 he emigrated with his family to Hallowell, Maine. During the peace negotiations of 1782–1783, Vaughan had acted as Lord Shelburne’s confidential messenger and had made numerous trips between London and Paris. See Gardiner, Early Recollections, 121–128. See also E. H. Nason, Old Hallowell, 76–81.

438 William Pitt.

439 Sir Francis Baring (1740–1810), London merchant, was the founder of the eminent financial house of Baring Brothers and Company. Though deaf from youth, he was possessed of an indomitable energy, which enabled him to build up a house which, it is estimated, earned seven million pounds in the first seventy years of its existence. So prominent did Baring become that Lord Erskine spoke of him as “the first merchant in Europe.” He was also a director of the East India Company and an MP, his services in the former capacity winning him a baronetcy. See R. W. Hidy, The House of Baring in American Trade and Finance, Chapter I, passim.

440 Charles Wall was one of Sir Francis Baring’s sons-in-law. See Hidy, House of Baring, 38, 43.

441 William Temple Franklin, grandson of Benjamin, was the natural son of William Franklin, former governor of the province of New Jersey and a Tory during the Revolution. William Temple Franklin acted as his grandfather’s secretary while the latter was in Paris during the Revolution and later edited his works. At this time, among other things, he was trying to sell American lands in Europe for Robert Morris.

442 For William Constable, see above, p. 40, note 6.

443 For a very lucid account of this transaction, see P. D. Evans, “The Pulteney Purchase,” New York State Historical Association Quarterly Journal, III. 83–104.

444 The sale to James Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont was in connection with the so-called “Castorland” project in northern New York. See S. Livermore, Early American Land Companies, 209–214, and A. M. Sakolski, The Great American Land Bubble, 86–92. There is a portrait of Le Ray de Chaumont in Sakolski facing page 67.

Church was presumably John B. Church, an Englishman of great wealth, who had served as commissary general under Lafayette during the Revolution, had later married Angelica Schuyler of the prominent New York family, and had then returned to England, where his home became the resort of Pitt, Fox and Burke. See Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris (A. C. Morris, ed.), i. 151 note.

“Young Morris” was presumably Robert Morris’s son William, who was in Europe at this time acting as a land agent for his father. See E. P. Oberholtzer, Robert Morris, 268–269.

445 Patrick Colquhoun was a Scotchman who moved to London and there became prominent as a reorganizer of the London police force and as a police magistrate. He was also one of Pulteney’s associates in that purchase. See Evans, “The Pulteney Purchase,” N. Y. State Hist. Ass’n Quarterly Journal, iii. 84, 92.

446 Colonel William Stephens Smith (1755–1816) served under both Lafayette and Washington during the Revolution. After the war he went to England, where he met and married John Adams’s daughter Abigail. After touring Europe with his wife, he returned to America and engaged in several land speculations in New York State. Late in 1790 he went to Europe to peddle New York lands and transact other business matters. His biographer, K. M. Roof, in Colonel William Smith and Lady, 211, gives him credit for the sale to Pulteney. Evans, in “The Pulteney Purchase,” does not mention Smith and names William Temple Franklin as the agent who effected the sale. Smith must have done some work in America as agent for Pulteney, but was not the prime mover in the original purchase. While in Europe, he also spent some time in France acting as agent for the French government in American matters. See S. F. Bemis, Jay’s Treaty, 148, note 32. See also below, p. 299, for his sale to Boylston.

447 For Bingham’s efforts to get such a law passed, see above, p. 244.

448 Dr. Joseph Priestley (1733–1804.), the celebrated liberal theologian and man of science, was so outspoken in his support of the French Revolution that he got into serious trouble in England. On 14 July 1791 a dinner was held in Birmingham to commemorate the fall of the Bastille which touched off serious riots. Although Priestley did not attend, his property, including some scientific apparatus, was destroyed. Although Parliament paid him some compensation for this loss, the difficulties of his life in England prompted him to emigrate to America in 1794. He remained in this country for the rest of his life, becoming, as one might guess, an ardent Jeffersonian. The letter of introduction referred to is in BP dated London, 8 August 1793.

449 William Russell (1740–1818) was a merchant-reformer friend of Dr. Priestley and one of Birmingham’s leading citizens. (Jackson erred when he wrote “of Manchester.”) He promoted the dinner which led to the Birmingham riots—he always claimed his aim was to promote Birmingham-French trade—and had his house burned by the mob for his pains. He visited the United States in 1795 and remained for about five years, superintending his commercial affairs and his paternal estate in Maryland.

450 Dr. John Coakley Lettsom (1744–1815) was a Quaker physician in London and a man of means.

451 Henry Drinker was a prominent Philadelphia Quaker. See C. K. Drinker, Not so Long Ago, passim.

452 James Wilson (1742–1798) of Philadelphia, the noted jurist, had been appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1789. In the early 1790’s he turned to land speculation, being associated with the Holland Land Company’s purchases in Pennsylvania and New York, and later with one of the Yazoo companies. At the height of his speculative career he evolved a grandiose scheme for encouraging European immigration and settlement which was never put into effect.

453 Tench Coxe (1755–1824), the political economist, was one of the most active students and promoters of American industry and commerce after the Revolution.

454 Charles Biddle (1745–1821), the father of Nicholas Biddle, was a prominent citizen of Philadelphia. For many years he had been vice president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. See his Autobiography of Charles Biddle (Philadelphia, 1883).

455 Possibly Francis Nichols, who had been a brigade major under Wayne during the Revolution. See C. J. Stillé, Major-General Wayne and the Pennsylvania Line, 84. See also Writings of Washington (J. C. Fitzpatrick, editor), XI. 377, note 22.

456 Presumably William Macpherson, a native of Philadelphia, who had been a cadet in the British Army previous to the Revolution. When the war started, he resigned his commission, but did not enter the American Army until 1779, when Congress commissioned him a major, thus causing much resentment among those who had already fought for three years and who had been in line for promotion, so much so that many of the officers threatened to resign. See C. J. Stillé, Major-General Wayne, 174, 229–232.

457 Thomas Mifflin (1744–1800) was governor of Pennsylvania for three terms, from 1790–1799. His farm “Angelica” was near Reading, Pa. This property was purchased by John Nicholson (??–1800), a partner of Robert Morris, who speculated with him in Washington city lots, the Susquehanna Company, and many other ventures.

458 Colonel Benjamin Walker held as trustee the lands sold by Bingham to Madame de Leval. See above, p. 157.

459 For these events, see Fortescue, British Army, iv. 111–123.

460 For British naval policy during the summer of 1793, see Mahan, Sea Power, i. 100–103.

461 On the interchanges between Grenville and Pinckney, see Bemis, “The London Mission of Thomas Pinckney,” American Historical Review, XXVIII. 235.

462 This appears to have been Thomas Boylston, the friend of John Adams, who emigrated shortly after the outbreak of the Revolution. In England he invested his fortune of some £100,000 with the firm of Lane, Son, and Frazer, on the understanding that he would receive twelve per cent on his investment. When the firm failed, Boylston was caught on the horns of a dilemma; either he was a partner and thus responsible in part for the firm’s debts; or else he had invested money at an illegal rate of interest. As a result of this disaster, he lost his money and died ruined. See L. Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution, i. 248–249. The editors of R. H. Gardiner, Early Recollections, 9, indicate that all this happened to Nicholas, rather than to Thomas, Boylston.

463 Charles Jenkinson, first Earl of Liverpool and first Baron Hawkesbury (1727–1808), entered Parliament in 1761, soon after his graduation from Oxford. During the 1760’s he became one of the leaders of the “King’s Friends” and in 1778 Secretary of War under Lord North. He remained active in politics until his retirement in 1796.

464 Dr. Cutting was presumably John B. Cutting of Philadelphia. He had gone to England in 1788. See his letters to Jefferson printed in 2 Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, xvii. 501–508.

465 For the battle of Linselles, see Fortescue, British Army, IV. 121–122.

466 See Fortescue, British Army, IV. 120–133, for the details of this campaign.

467 Jackson overemphasizes the Dutch defeat in this passage. The real conquest of Holland by the French did not take place until the next year. See Fortescue, British Army, IV. 142.

468 The Prussians had failed to dislodge the French, after the latter had retreated to Weissenburg. The insurgents referred to are the rebels in La Vendée.

469 Lord Hood occupied Toulon on 28 August 1793. The French armies succeeded in driving the British and their allies out in December, 1793. See Mahan, Sea Power, i. 92, 105–106.

470 William Petty, first Marquis of Lansdowne, is better known to history as Lord Shelburne. He had a long and distinguished career in British politics, though he won for himself the rather undeserved reputation of being one of the most unpopular statesmen in British history. During the American Revolution he had opposed the war; he headed the government that signed the preliminary peace with the United States; and at this time he was opposing war with France and the repressive measures of the government. He had become acquainted with Bingham during the latter’s tour of Europe in the 1780’s. See M. L. Brown, “Mr. and Mrs. William Bingham,” Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., lxi. 289.

471 Lord Wycombe, the eldest son of the Marquis of Lansdowne, had visited Philadelphia in 1791. See M. L. Brown, “Mr. and Mrs. William Bingham,” Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., lxi. 309.

472 This was presumably Richard Puller (1747–1826), a London merchant.

473 Robert Gilmor of Baltimore, a partner of Bingham. See R. Gilmor, Jr., Memoir or Sketch of the History of Robert Gilmor of Baltimore.

474 A Monsieur Bonnet contracted for 6,000 acres of land in the Asylum Company in Pennsylvania. See F. S. Childs, French Refugee Life, 96. The editors of “Talleyrand in America” speak of a John Bonnet as an agent attempting to sell lands in Europe for Robert Morris. See “Talleyrand in America,” AHA Report, 1941, ii. 37, note 15.

475 Louis-Marie Vicomte de Noailles fought with Lafayette in the Revolution and later became his brother-in-law. A member of the Estates-General in 1789, he took a leading part in the passage of the decrees of 4 August 1789, which abolished many of the feudal privileges of the aristocracy. De Noailles stuck with the revolution for two years, but was finally forced to flee France, whence he came to America and went into business in Philadelphia. He was an active promoter of the Asylum Company, which attempted to found a settlement on the Susquehanna. See F. S. Childs, French Refugee Life, 31–32, 94–98.

476 Charles Noailles, a younger brother of Louis-Marie, had also fought in the American Revolution, and was now in London.

477 Amédée-Bretagne-Malo, Marquis de Duras (1771–1838). He had emigrated from France with his father in 1790 and later became Due de Duras. See La Grande Encyclopedie, xv. 126.

478 For Bingham’s Pennsylvania lands, see M. L. Brown, “William Bingham, Eighteenth Century Magnate,” Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., lxi. 411—414. That Jackson was well acquainted with Bingham’s Pennsylvania lands is to be deduced from an undated set of proposals for the sale of these lands which he made to Bingham, probably early in 1793. These proposals are in BP.

479 Arthur Young was one of the leading exponents of scientific agriculture, especially of the Norfolk system, in the England of his day. His book Travels in France soon became a classic.

480 Pieter Stadnitski and Son were leading Amsterdam bankers who as early as 1786 had begun speculating in American funds. Stadnitski and Etienne Clavière had united to send Brissot de Warville to America to purchase securities, and in 1789 he joined with other Dutch bankers to send Theophile Cazenove, one of his protégés, to the United States to investigate possible speculations. See P. D. Evans, Holland Land Company, 3–4.

481 The House of Hasselgreen was another Amsterdam banking establishment, apparently in close association with the Willinks. See J. B. Manger, Recherches sur les Relations Economiques entre La France et La Hollande pendant la Revolution Française (1785–1795) (Amsterdam, 1923), 77.

482 This apparently refers to the Pulteney purchase. Jackson’s reference to the type of contract used in this purchase may refer to the employment of American citizens as trustees to get around the restriction on alien landholding which existed in New York at that time. See S. Livermore, Early American Land Companies, 205.

483 There is a practically identical copy of this letter in BP.

484 For Omer Antoine Talon, see F. S. Childs, French Refugee Life, 33, 96–98. The lands in question were those of the Asylum Company. See also S. Livermore, Early American Land. Companies, 171–174.

485 The battle of 16 October 1793 was that of Wattignies.

486 For an account of the yellow fever epidemic, see J. H. Powell, Bring Out Your Dead. Bellevue was Bingham’s summer home on the Jersey coast.

487 There is a copy of this letter in BP which differs slightly in phrasing and punctuation from the one printed here.

488 For a discussion of the price-fixing decrees, see C. Brinton, A Decade of Revolution, 133–135.

489 A slam at Gouverneur Morris. See below, pp. 354–355.

490 These financial figures are far from accurate. Assignats were never at par during this period, and while it is difficult to estimate the resources of the French government, the Republic was in financial difficulties during this whole time. See S. Harris, The Assignats, 102–108, and Cambridge Modern History, viii. 194–196, 689–709.

491 Thomas Willing Francis of Philadelphia was the son of Thomas Willing’s partner, Tench Francis. His mother was a sister of Thomas Willing.

492 None of the letters which Jackson wrote from France to report on the progress of his mission is in BP. He must have reached France sometime in December, 1793. See Jackson to Bingham, Deal, 13 December 1793, announcing his departure for France. This letter is in BP.

493 Possibly Joseph Russell, who was in Europe during this period. See S. E. Morison, Maritime History of Massachusetts, 172.

494 This may have been Adèle Flahaut, Morris’s mistress, but I have been unable to discover the specific episode referred to. See Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris (A. C. Morris, editor), i. 42.

495 The livre tournois was worth a little over eighteen cents.

496 John Hornby, like Patrick Colquhoun, was an associate of Sir William Pulteney in his purchase.

497 Walter Boyd (1754?–1837) was a banker in Paris who fled France during the revolution and came to London, where he established the firm of Boyd, Benfield and Company in 1793. As principal partner, he is reputed to have contributed £60,000 to the firm’s capital. He and his partner Paul Benfield were particularly active in the purchase of British government bonds during the war.

498 This probably refers to the following letter.

499 This probably refers to the “Castorland” speculation in northern New York. See S. Livermore, Early American Land Companies, 209–214.

500 A copy of this letter, addressed to Thomas Pinckney, has been printed in the American Historical Review, ix. 525–532. The letter printed here is practically identical, with the exception of the omission of the first paragraph of the Pinckney letter. The reader is referred to the American Historical Review for a critical analysis of some of Jackson’s statements. In general, these footnotes indicate that Jackson’s figures on the numbers of the French armies were a good deal too high.

501 There is a practically identical copy of this letter in BP.

502 John Jay arrived in England 12 June 1794. See Bemis, Jay’s Treaty, 218.

503 For a fuller explanation of this scheme, see below, pp. 361–362.

504 See Fortescue, British Army, iv. 231–280, for the details of this campaign.

505 This was, of course, the Battle of the First of June. See Mahan, Sea Power, i. 135–161. Jackson’s account of the battle, like most of his other reporting, is definitely pro-French. See Mahan, Sea Power, i. 144, note 2, for the “Legend of the Vengeur.” Mahan makes no mention of the episode of one French ship firing on another which had struck. This may refer to the case of the totally disabled Mucius, which had struck to a British ship, but which was recaptured by the French before the British could board her.

506 There is an almost identical copy of this letter in BP.

507 Jackson wrote Baring a duplicate of this letter on 11 August 1794 and in the covering letter urged Sir Francis to go it alone, should the Hopes refuse to join in the purchase. The covering letter is in BP.

The “William” Hope mentioned below was John Williams Hope. Originally named John Williams, he had obtained a position in Henry Hope’s firm at Amsterdam and had soon won the affection of his employer. As a result Henry Hope, who was a bachelor, proceeded to adopt the young man and arranged a marriage between him and Anne Goddard, Henry Hope’s niece. From then on, John Williams used the last name of Hope. See H. W. and I. Law, The Book of the Beresford Hopes, 272–274.

508 There is a second copy of this letter in BP.

509 Including the assumption of state debts, the national debt of the United States was somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000,000 at this time. The three per cents were used to fund the arrears of interest on the domestic debt and one-third of the state debts. The total amount of three per cents issued came to something less than $20,000,000. See D. R. Dewey, Financial History of the United States, 89–95.

510 There is a practically identical copy of this letter in BP.

511 Jackson to Bingham, Amsterdam, 18 August 1794 in BP announces shipment of the seeds.

512 For Alexander Baring, later Lord Ashburton, see below, p. 605. For some caustic comments on Jackson by Baring, see below, p. 888.

513 The house of Jacob and Nicolaas Van Staphorst had been closely connected with American financial affairs since the floating of the first Dutch loan in 1782. Sometime about 1790 Nicholas Hubbard became a partner of the firm, a position which he held until 1802. See Evans, Holland Land Company, 3, 433.

514 Extinguishment of the Indian title was part of Robert Morris’s bargain with the Dutch who had purchased his lands. This was not accomplished until 15 September 1797 at the Big Tree Treaty. See Evans, Holland Land Company, 188–193.

515 See A. M. Sakolski, Land Bubble, 147–168, for an account of speculation in Washington real estate. Marshall was probably James M. Marshall, brother of the future Chief Justice. He had been sent to Europe by Washington to try to effect the release of Lafayette from an Austrian prison. See Bemis, Jay’s Treaty, 227, note 28.

516 This was the so-called “Thermidorean Reaction,” which marked the end of the Terror. Robespierre and his immediate followers were beheaded on 28 July 1794.

517 See the following document.

518 Jackson to Bingham, Amsterdam, 15 August 1794 in BP introduces a certain Stier family, which is probably the one referred to. Crommeline was presumably Daniel Crommelin, a leading Dutch financier.

519 Dr. Robert Blackwell was the second husband of Bingham’s sister, Hannah Bingham Benezet, and the rector of St. Peter’s Church, Philadelphia.

520 Henry Clymer of Philadelphia had married Mary Willing, sister of Mrs. Bingham, in the summer of 1794.

521 I have been unable to discover just what Gouverneur Morris had said about Jackson.

522 There is a copy of this letter, differing slightly in phrasing and punctuation, in BP.

523 See below, pp. 361–362.

524 For Morris’s report, see above, pp. 188–205.

525 For a detailed account of this campaign, see Fortescue, British Army, iv. 292–324. For the Spanish business, see Cambridge Modern History, viii. 439–440.

526 Robert Morris, John Nicholson, and James Greenleaf became associated in 1794. Together the three engaged in numerous land speculations, for example, the Asylum and North American Land Companies. The protested bills were probably in connection with the Asylum Company, which was designed to be a colony for refugee Frenchmen. See S. Livermore, Early American Land Companies, 162–174.

527 Jay’s treaty was signed on 19 November 1794.

528 I have not been able to discover who Jackson’s agent was. In his letter to Bingham dated 17 November 1794. he refers to this agent as one “whose name I must not, at present, commit to paper.” See above, p. 361. The phrase “Your knowledge of General Lincoln’s character” implies that the gentleman in question was an American. There is a copy of this letter, dated 16 November 1794, in BP.

529 See Fortescue, British Army, iv. 316–322. In speaking of the retreat, he says: “The days that followed are amongst the most tragical in the history of the Army.”

530 See Mahan, Sea Power, i. 170. In addition Britain soon thereafter seized most of the Dutch colonies.

531 By mid-July the Spanish campaign had ended. Jackson’s prophecy of a Franco-Spanish alliance was realized at the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1796.

532 For the League of Armed Neutrality of 1794, see Bemis, Jay’s Treaty, 221–222.

533 The peace with Tuscany, signed on 9 February 1795, was the first of a series of settlements made by France during the year.

534 This is presumably the proposal printed above, pp. 361–362.

535 The Treaty of Basel between France and Prussia was signed on 5 April 1795. By this treaty France was given a free hand on the left bank of the Rhine, while Prussia received virtual control of northern Germany.

536 There is a practically identical copy of this letter in BP.

537 See below, Chapter X.

538 Jackson’s release and Bingham’s deed, both dated 18 December 1797, are in BP.

539 See list of expenditures dated 11 December 1798 in BP.

540 Bingham to Jackson, Philadephia, 12 December 1798, in BP.

541 Jackson to Bingham, Philadelphia, 12 December 1798 in BP.

542 Bingham to Jackson, Philadelphia, 13 December 1798 in BP.

543 See for example Jackson to Bingham, Philadelphia, 19 February 1799 and Bingham to Jackson, Philadelphia, 27 February 1799 in BP.

544 Bingham to Jackson, Philadelphia, 13 May 1799 in BP.

545 There are a large number of papers in BP dealing with this suit.

546 This gentleman was probably Colonel Benjamin Walker.

547 This final deed of trust is not among the Bingham Papers. It doubtless followed pretty closely the agreement of 31 December 1792. See above, pp. 90–92.

548 William Lewis’s deposition, dated 29 July 1807, is in BP.

549 Jackson disregards Flint’s services in the closing of the original contracts. He and Henry Jackson did all the front work for Duer and Knox during the negotiations with the Massachusetts Committee for the Sale of Eastern Lands during 1791–1792. Still, the fact remains that Flint’s share of the work, in proportion to what he received, was small.

550 This was the pamphlet prepared for dissemination in Europe. Zachariah Poulson’s receipt, dated 1 July 1793, for £15 11s, 2d. for printing this pamphlet is among the vouchers in BP.

551 There follows a detailed documentation of the Jackson case with lengthy quotations from important letters. Since most of the documents and letters referred to have been either printed or cited above, this section of Jackson’s statement has been omitted.

552 See statement of executors in the Jackson suit, undated, in BP. Part of this statement is in the hand of C. W. Hare.

553 See deed of final settlement and release, Philadelphia, 14 May 1812 in BP.

554 See sketch of William Jackson in DAB.

555 This striking phrase was, I believe, original with the late Richard W. Hale of Boston.

556 There are four short accounts of the life of David Cobb: (i) F. Baylies, Some Remarks on the Life and Character of General David Cobb, first delivered as an address before the Taunton Lyceum on 2 July 1830, a few months after Cobb’s death, later reprinted in the New Eng. Hist. & Gen. Reg., XVIII. 5–17 (January, 1864), and finally printed separately (Albany, 1864) (the original manuscript of this memoir is the property of our Society and is now at the Massachusetts Historical Society, see our Publications, 1. 14); (2) F. Baylies, “David Cobb” in S. W. Williams, American Medical Biography (Greenfield, Mass., 1845), 82–100, an account which differs somewhat from Baylies’ first memoir and which was probably edited by Williams; (3) the sketch by Cobb’s grandson, Samuel C. Cobb, in F. S. Drake, Memorials of the Society of the Cincinnati of Massachusetts (Boston, 1873), 258–262, later privately published under the title A Brief Memoir of General David Cobb of the Revolutionary Army (no date or place of publication given); and (4) J. W. Porter, “Memoir of General David Cobb and Family, of Gouldsborough, Maine, and Taunton, Mass., Bangor Historical Magazine, iv. 1–8 (1888), later revised and condensed in 2 Coll. Me. Hist. Soc., vi. 1–6. Though all these accounts contain errors, they provide the only secondary sources for Cobb’s career as a whole. Unless otherwise noted, the material in this chapter will be based on one or more of these four basic accounts.

557 R. Davol, Two Men of Taunton (Taunton, 1912), 175.

558 For an account of Thomas Cobb, see J. Daggett, History of Attleborough (Boston, 1894), 671–674.

559 See J. W. D. Hall, “Taunton Green One Hundred Years Ago,” Collections of the Old Colony Historical Society, No. 5, 154–155. See also S. H. Emery, History of Taunton, Massachusetts (Syracuse, 1893), 645.

560 The quoted phrase is in Baylies, Some Remarks, 4. For Thomas Cobb’s membership in the General Court, see Emery, Taunton, 574. He was also a captain in the French and Indian War. See Emery, Taunton, 418.

561 Davol, Two Men of Taunton, 65.

562 Baylies, Some Remarks, 4.

563 Davol, Two Men of Taunton, 174–178.

564 Baylies, Some Remarks, 4.

565 See C. K. Shipton, Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, viii. 448–449; Life and Works of John Adams (C. F. Adams, ed.), i. 47.

566 Faculty Records, Harvard Archives, ii. 172, 173, 189, 193, 199, 207. A volume in the Harvard Archives entitled A List of Scholars Inhabiting the Several Chambers in College Disposed Alphabetically lists Cobb as rooming in Stoughton in 1762, in Massachusetts in 1763, and in Hollis in 1764.

567 For these traditions, see Baylies, Some Remarks, 4. In the list of scholars cited above, Cobb’s roommates are given as Crocker in 1762, Williams in 1763, and Hill in 1764. There is no mention of Jarvis.

568 For the Bradish family, see L. R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston, 1877), 497. Ebenezer Bradish was originally the Harvard College glazier. In 1740 he purchased a piece of property on Holyoke and Mt. Auburn Streets known as the Holyoke estate, where he lived until 1749. In that year he purchased the Blue Anchor Tavern, where he was landlord until his death in 1785. For an account of the Blue Anchor Tavern, see Paige, Cambridge, 224–225. For some slurring remarks about this establishment made during the time when Burgoyne’s troops were quartered in Cambridge, see S. F. Batchelder, “Burgoyne and His Officers in Cambridge,” Publications of the Cambridge Historical Society, XIII. 26. The British thought the tavern “a gloomy hole” and “a miserable public-house.”

569 Cobb’s wife was born on 30 January 1748/49. See Paige, Cambridge, 497. There is a curious letter from Cobb to his future brother-in-law, Robert Treat Paine, dated Andover, 13 March 1767, which seems to indicate that Cobb’s marriage was not entirely voluntary. In it Cobb speaks of knowing that the “city wou’d be soon on fire” and of deciding to “flea for refuge in neighbouring country.” He adds that he is not ashamed but says that if he had not done what he did “e’en the meanest vagabond upon the earth wou’d have dispis’d me.” He goes on to point out that the “crisis was so nigh” that he had to act, and adds, “I am confess’d a husband, worthy sir, at your service, and which, no doubt, was very dejecting to my friends, and much more so to my parents.” He closes by saying that he is not “troubled” with a wife every night; he has to content himself with one visit a month. And in the meantime he is hard at work studying medicine in Andover. This letter, which I believe to be the earliest of his extant, is in the Paine Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Since Cobb’s eldest daughter was born ten days after this letter was written, the presumption is that Cobb did more than drink beer at Bradish’s Tavern. He may well have derived comfort from the fact that his sister’s marriage to Paine took place on 15 March 1770, while their first child was born 14 May 1770. See Davol, Two Men of Taunton, 178. None of the memoirs gives a date for Cobb’s marriage and I have not been able to discover one.

570 C. R. Atwood, Reminiscences of Taunton (Taunton, 1880), 37.

571 See, for example, a letter from David Cobb’s son Thomas to his father dated Taunton, 28 April 1794 in CP in which he describes in some detail a persecution complex from which his aunt, Eunice Bradish, was suffering. He remarks, “... in short she has the Bradish complaint in perfection.” Thomas Cobb himself was “deprived of his reason ... by too close attention to study,” in 1795. See Cobb to Bingham, Taunton, 8 April 1795 in CP.

572 The most detailed account of Cobb’s eleven children is in J. W. Porter, “Memoir of General David Cobb, etc.,” Bangor Historical Magazine, iv. 6–8.

573 I have not been able to identify Dr. Perkins positively. J. W. Porter, Bangor Historical Magazine, iv. 2, suggests that it was Dr. Richard Perkins of Bridgewater. For this gentleman, who was John Hancock’s brother-in-law, see N. Mitchell, History of the Early Settlement of Bridgewater (Boston, 1840), 267. Dr. Nathaniel Perkins and Dr. William Lee Perkins were both practicing in Boston at this time, and one of them may have been the physician referred to. Since they were both Loyalists, it is perhaps less likely that Cobb would have studied with either of them. See J. Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, iv. 542; iii. 177. In his letter to Paine dated Andover, 13 March 1767, in the Paine papers, Cobb speaks of studying medicine at Andover, but I have been unable to discover a Dr. Perkins in that town.

574 Cobb was presumably back in Taunton by 1768. During that year he accompanied a party which went to Dighton to make a copy of the inscription on Dighton Rock. See our Publications, xix. 58–59.

575 Cobb to Paine, Boston, 10 June 1776, in Paine Papers. See below, p. 413. The regiment was commanded by Colonel Thomas Marshall. Cobb served from 15 May 1776 to i December 1776. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, iii. 667.

576 Cobb to Paine, Boston, 15 July 1776, in Paine Papers. See below, p. 415.

577 Cobb to Paine, Boston, 5 August 1776, in Paine Papers. See below, p. 421.

578 This document, in CP, is dated 15 April 1777. That Cobb was in Taunton in March, 1777, is evidenced by his account with Robert Caldwell, a Taunton merchant, which is printed in C. R. Atwood, Reminiscences of Taunton, 34. On 6 March 1777 Dr. Cobb treated Caldwell for dysentery and delivered his daughter Polly, for which services he charged two pounds eighteen shillings.

579 These anecdotes are taken from Baylies’ sketch in S. W. Williams, American Medical Biography, 95.

580 These two memoranda, in CP, are undated.

581 Baylies in S. W. Williams, American Medical Biography, 96.

582 S. H. Emery, History of Taunton, 471.

583 The original text, in Cobb’s hand, is the property of our Society and is now at the Massachusetts Historical Society. See our Publications, i. 162–163, 176–181. See also Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, 626–627; Emery, Taunton, 471–472. The full text of the preamble and resolves is available in each of these works.

584 Journals of Each Provincial Congress, 12.

585 Journals of Each Provincial Congress, 62, 139–141. Cobb must have returned to Taunton for a convention of delegates from the towns of Bristol County, held at Taunton on 4 and 5 January 1775. This convention considered measures for the enforcement of the Association, forbade the towns to pay taxes to the Tory Treasurer Harrison Gray, and took steps to strengthen the militia. Cobb was presumably clerk of this convention as he had been of the one the previous September. See our Publications, i. 254–257.

586 For Cobb’s activities on the Taunton Committee of Safety, Inspection, and Correspondence during this period, see Emery, Taunton, 474–477. Elected on 3 July 1775, Cobb was one of those appointed to have charge of the property of Daniel Leonard, the Tory, which had been confiscated. He was later appointed to a subcommittee to try to stop the exportation of flaxseed, contrary to the Association. Though he could not have been very active during a good part of this period, he was re-elected to the Committee of Safety, Inspection, and Correspondence on ii March 1776. That Cobb also did some work on the Bristol County Committee, to which he had been elected by the Provincial Congress, is shown by a petition from the inhabitants of Freetown dated 1 May 1775 asking for arms. This document is in CP.

587 This letter is in the Paine Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

588 Presumably Phanuel Bishop, later a representative in the General Court and from 1799 to 1807 a member of Congress. See Biographical Directory of American Congress, 1774–1927, 704.

589 I believe Brightman was Henry Brightman of Freetown, later a captain in the Revolutionary Army. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, ii. 537. There were at that time numerous Brightmans in Freetown. The census of 1790 listed nine Terrys as living in Freetown. Many of them had fought in the Revolution. See Heads of Families, 1790 Census, Massachusetts, 45–46, and Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, xv. 494–496. The Crane mentioned may have been either Henry Crane of Raynham or John Crane of Stoughton. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, iv. 82, 83. The census of 1790 listed some eight Cranes as living in Berkley. For Ezra Richmond of Dighton, see Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, xiii. 285. There is no Colonel Bowers listed in Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors. He may possibly have been Jerathmiel Bowers, a man of Loyalist leanings who, in 1777, was disqualified from holding any office of honor or profit in Massachusetts. The fact that the selectmen of Rehoboth later attacked his war record at least places him in Bristol County. See L. Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution, i. 244.

590 This was Thomas Gilbert, one of the leading Loyalists of Massachusetts. After a distinguished career in the French and Indian War, Colonel Gilbert took the side of the King in the pre-Revolutionary controversies. As Gage’s representative in Bristol County, he was mobbed several times, later raised a troop of three hundred Loyalists, and was finally forced to flee the country. In April, 1775, the Provincial Congress declared him “an inveterate enemy to his country, to reason, to justice, and the common rights of mankind.” See L. Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution, i. 468–472. See also Emery, Taunton, 473.

591 Possibly Levi Harlow, the only Harlow resident in Taunton at this time that I have been able to discover. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, vii. 294.

592 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

593 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

594 Possibly Joseph Greenleaf of Abington. His anti-British writings in the Massachusetts Spy led to his dismissal as justice of the peace for Plymouth County in 1773. He continued his campaign in Boston, publishing the Royal American Magazine until March, 1775. He was forced to flee Boston after Lexington and Concord. See J. Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, ii. 409–410.

595 Dr. William Baylies, a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1760. In addition to practicing medicine, he served as a “common sense” judge. See S. H. Emery, History of Taunton, 311.

596 William McKinstry was a Scotchman and a Tory who had been living in Taunton for the past fifteen years at least. See Emery, Taunton, 312–313.

597 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

598 Unfortunately, there are no Paine letters in CP. One letter from Paine to Cobb, dated Philadelphia, 17 June 1775, has been printed in the New Eng. Hist. & Gen. Register, xlv. 242. In it Paine reports on the doings of the Continental Congress, including the election of Washington as commander-in-chief. This document, the property of our Society, is now at the Massachusetts Historical Society. See our Publications, i. 14.

599 Dr. Joseph Warren, Colonel Thomas Gardner of Cambridge, and Lt. Colonel Moses Parker. On the last of these three, see i Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., XIV. 83.

600 Brown’s was an advanced post of the British on the western side of Washington Street. For this episode, see J. Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, III. 80, note i.

601 For Colonel George and Deacon Simeon Williams, see S. H. Emery, History of Taunton, 482, note 8, 239, 474. Both men served with Cobb on the Taunton Committee of Safety, Inspection, and Correspondence.

602 See Emery, Taunton, 574.

603 George Godfrey was brigadier-general in command of the several regiments of Bristol County. See Emery, Taunton, 436–442.

604 Nicholas Baylies, the father of Dr. William Baylies. See Emery, Taunton, 311, 641, and 643, note.

605 Presumably Thomas Cobb, David’s father and Paine’s father-in-law.

606 John McWhorter later served as a private in Lt. Colonel James Williams’ Bristol County regiment. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, x. 574.

607 Stephen Collins, a Quaker friend of John Adams, who was travelling from Philadelphia to Boston with a letter for James Warren from John Adams. See Works of John Adams, ii. 361.

608 My apothecary friends tell me that this is Peruvian bark or root, a source of quinine, which in those days was used as a tonic.

609 I can discover no relationship between this Cobb and David.

610 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

611 The Reverend John Burt, a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1736. See W. H. Munro, History of Bristol, Rhode Island (Providence, 1880), 221, 208.

612 Charles Paine was Robert Treat Paine’s third son. See Baylies, Some Remarks, 17.

613 This was Dr. Benjamin Church, Jr., son of “Deacon” Benjamin Church and a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1754. He was accused of treasonable correspondence with the enemy, tried and found guilty, and banished from the country. See L. Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution, i. 313.

614 Presumably John Adam, a merchant and would-be iron manufacturer of Taunton. See Emery, Taunton, 639.

615 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

616 Dr. Whiting was William Whiting, one of a committee appointed by the Provincial Congress to oversee the manufacture of gunpowder. See i Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., XIV. 256, note.

617 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

618 Both Tisdales were active in Bristol County military affairs, Simeon as lieutenant in Captain Joshua Wilbore’s company in the Third Regiment of the Bristol County Brigade, and Joseph as sergeant of the Training Band. See Emery, Taunton, 450–451.

619 Samuel Fales, later chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas of Massachusetts. See Emery, Taunton, 544–545. There are several letters from Fales to Cobb, written in 1794 and 1795 in CP.

620 This was presumably Robert Saunderson, an iron manufacturer of Attleborough, with whom the Cobb family must have been acquainted. See J. Daggett, History of Attleborough, 669–670.

621 Stephen Hopkins, a delegate from Rhode Island to the Continental Congress, and a former governor of Rhode Island.

622 Jacob French. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, VI. 72. French was a common name in Berkley. There were thirteen Frenches listed as living there in the census of 1790. See Heads of Families, 41.

623 James Warren of Plymouth. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, XVI. 618.

624 For the work in the manufacture of arms done by Hugh and Robert Orr of Bridgewater, see B. Hobart, History of the Town of Abington (Boston, 1866), 142.

625 Joseph Russell was one of the original publishers of the Boston Weekly Advertiser, which he and his partner John Green continued to edit until 1773. Russell was one of the leading auctioneers in Massachusetts. See J. Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, ii. 406. He is not to be confused with Joseph Russell the merchant, known to his intimates as “Quaker Joe,” who was also a friend of Cobb’s.

626 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

627 This was the schooner Franklin, commanded by Captain James Mugford of Marblehead. See G. W. Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., lxxvii. 135.

628 This was the Boston physician Miles Whitworth. See L. Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution, ii. 426–427.

629 The firm of Glover and Simmons, Ironmongers, is listed in J. Hardie, The Philadelphia Directory and Register (Philadelphia, 1793), 53. This may have been the Glover referred to.

630 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

631 For this episode, see G. W. Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 199.

632 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

633 Possibly John Winthrop, the astronomer, who had been in Philadelphia earlier in the year.

634 On the Andover powder mill, see S. L. Bailey, Historical Sketches of Andover, Massachusetts (Boston, 1880), 342–348.

635 On the Stoughton mill, see C. C. Smith, “The Manufacture of Gunpowder in America,” i Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., xiv. 250–251.

636 Colonel Nathaniel Leonard had led a Taunton detachment to Roxbury on 20 April 1775. See Emery, Taunton, 438.

637 Presumably Thomas Mifflin, future governor of Pennsylvania, though by this time he was actually a general officer. See E. C. Burnett, Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, I. 480, for his proposed trip to New England.

638 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

639 The act of the Continental Congress authorizing privateering, passed 23 March 1776, does not seem to have made this distinction clear. See G. W. Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 33–36, 49. The Adams mentioned may well have been Captain John Adams of Boston.

640 For the commission of the Yankee Hero, see Allen, Massachusetts Privateers, 48. For an account of its engagement with the Milford, see Allen, 329–330.

641 I have not been able to identify the Bond referred to here.

642 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

643 Up anchor.

644 Joseph Palmer, who had been chosen brigadier for Suffolk County. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, xi. 803.

645 For General John Thomas and his death, see J. H. Smith, Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony, ii. 298–299, 387.

646 William Cullen, a Scottish physician, an unauthorized edition of whose lectures on materia medica first appeared in 1771.

647 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

648 This was Captain Henry Johnson in the sloop Yankee. For an account of this episode see Allen, Massachusetts Privateers, 328.

649 This was Colonel Aaron Hobart of Abington, who had a contract with the state to manufacture cannon and shot. See B. Hobart, History of Abington, 141–142.

650 In 1776 Richard Price, the British non-conformist minister, published his Observations on Civil Liberty and the Justice and Policy of the War with America, which, because of its strongly pro-American sentiments, became immediately popular in the United States.

651 Silas Deane of Connecticut had been sent by the Continental Congress to France in the spring of 1776 to try to enlist aid for the American cause.

652 For two Charles Barstows, either one of whom may have been the one referred to, see Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, i. 705.

653 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

654 This was Captain John Fisk of the Tyrannicide, one of the first vessels built for the Massachusetts State Navy. See Allen, Massachusetts Privateers, 310.

655 This was the schooner Sturdy Beggar, Captain Peter Lander. See Allen, Massachusetts Privateers, 289.

656 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

657 For Sion Martindale and William Scott, see Henry Dearborn’s journal of the Arnold expedition to Quebec, entry of 1 June 1776, in 2 Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., ii. 301. See also Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, XIII. 929, for Scott, and G. W. Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution, 321.

658 A reference to Charles Lee’s repulse of Sir Henry Clinton’s attempt to take Charleston, South Carolina.

659 Benjamin Davis was one of the leading Tory merchants of Boston. At the time of the evacuation, he and his family had gone to Halifax. He later attempted to return to New York, but the ship he was on was captured and brought into Marblehead. See L. Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution, i, 359–360.

660 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

661 This was probably Henry White of Salem, who later commanded the brigantine Ranger, though there is no mention in Allen, Massachusetts Privateers, of his cruising in 1776.

662 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

663 14 August was the anniversary of the first march to the liberty tree by the Sons of Liberty in 1765. As such it was celebrated by that organization each year. See E. Forbes, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In, 101–103.

664 The firm of Lane and Frazer (also spelled “Fraizer” and “Fraser”) had close connections with New England and made several investments in the region. For their connection with Thomas Boylston, later to become almost a partnership, see L. Sabine, Loyalists of the American Revolution, i. 248–249. In 1786 John Bernard, son of the Governor, mortgaged his half of Mount Desert to that firm. See G. E. Street, Mount Desert, 132, note 1. They also had interests in the township of Gouldsborough, Maine. See Historical Researches of Gouldsborough, Maine, 5–6.

665 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

666 Mary Cobb, future wife of John Black of Ellsworth, was born on 26 July 1776.

667 If this is a quotation from some contemporary work, I have been unable to discover it. Cobb occasionally used quotation marks for emphasis, and perhaps that is the case here.

668 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

669 This was the Reverend Caleb Barnum. For a sketch of his life and services as chaplain, see Emery, Taunton, 213–218.

670 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

671 Francis Dana was later the first minister of the United States to Russia. James Lovell, a close friend of General Gates, was later sympathetic with, if not actually a party to, the Conway Cabal.

672 Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, iii. 667.

673 Baylies, Some Remarks, 5.

674 S. C. Cobb, Brief Memoir, 4. Baylies, Some Remarks, 5, speaks of Cobb’s attempt as a “forlorn hope.”

675 On Jackson’s possibly reprehensible conduct, see L. C. Hatch, in Commonwealth History of Massachusetts, iii. 132.

676 H. B. Carrington, Battles of the American Revolution, 501.

677 This letter is in the Norcross Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

678 If Jackson had been at Washington’s headquarters when this letter was written, this may well have been the house of Abraham Lott. See Writings of Washington (J. C. Fitzpatrick, editor), xvii. 169, 186.

679 Possibly John Lamb, at this time commander of artillery at West Point, though one would expect Cobb to use his title of Colonel. That he was away from camp during the winter of 1780 may be seen in Writings of Washington, xviii. 303.

680 The most probable Mitchell that I can discover was either Eliphaz or Reuben Mitchell of Bridgewater. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, x. 845, 851–852.

681 Possibly Major William Scott of New Hampshire. See Writings of Washington, xvii. 72.

682 On the problem of furloughs, see D. S. Freeman, George Washington, v. 148.

683 Presumably Henry Gardner of Stow, Receiver-General and Treasurer of Massachusetts. See Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., xli. 186–187.

684 Presumably William North of Boston, a captain in Henry Jackson’s regiment. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, xi. 520.

685 Presumably William Canady of Middleborough. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, iii. 64.

686 Possibly Amos Turner of Hanover. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, xvi. 154.

687 Possibly the wagon of Captain Samuel Shaw, a native Bostonian and close friend of Henry Knox.

688 General Lincoln’s situation at Charlestown was, however, anything but secure and the town fell on 12 May. See D. S. Freeman, Washington, v. 167–168.

689 Possibly Major Hodijah Baylies of Taunton, a friend of both Cobb’s and Paine’s, who at this time was on General Lincoln’s staff in South Carolina. See Emery, Taunton, 484, note 17.

690 Baylies, Some Remarks, 5.

691 See General Order of 22 August 1780, Writings of Washington, xix. 423.

692 See Writings of Washington, xix. 423, note 69.

693 Writings of Washington, xxii. 216.

694 Writings of Washington, xxii. 268.

695 See Washington to Cobb, Headquarters, Peekskill, New York, 30 June 1781, Writings of Washington, xxii. 291–292.

696 See General Index to Writings of Washington for letters written by Cobb for the Commander-in-Chief.

697 Baylies in American Medical Biography, 85.

698 See Washington to President of Congress, Colonel Bassett’s near Ruffen’s Ferry, 6 November 1781, Writings of Washington, xxiii. 338.

699 This diary has been printed in i Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., xix. 67–72. It is in CP.

700 This letter is in the Paine Papers. It has been printed, together with the Yorktown diary, in i Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, XIX. 72–73.

701 i Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, xix. 72.

702 Writings of Washington, xxvii. 410.

703 See Washington to Major Hodijah Baylies, Headquarters, Newburgh, 8 January 1783, Writings of Washington, xxvi. 21, in which the Commander-in-Chief supposes that Cobb will be absent for the greater part of the winter.

704 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

705 Rodney had defeated De Grasse in the “Battle of the Saints” off Dominica on 12 April.

706 Presumably the Boston merchant William Shattuck. See L. Shattuck, Memorials of the Descendants of William Shattuck, etc. (Boston, 1855), 155.

707 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

708 For this letter, see Writings of Washington, xxiv. 472.

709 Eleanor and Betsey Cobb were the General’s two eldest daughters.

710 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

711 Jonathan Hastings, postmaster of Boston. See J. Winsor, Memorial History of Boston, iii. 109.

712 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

713 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

714 This was Thomas Grenville, the representative of Charles James Fox, at that time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. When Lord Shelburne became Prime Minister, Grenville was replaced.

715 This letter is in the Paine Papers.

716 This was part of the general evacuation of New York which had begun the previous April.

717 See Cobb to Heath, Headquarters, 15 June 1783, in the Heath Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

718 See Cobb to Pickering, Rocky Hill, 17 September 1783, in the Pickering Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

719 Cobb’s account is printed in O. Pickering, Life of Timothy Pickering, i. 431–433. There is a copy of it in CP. For a critical discussion of Cobb’s statements, see D. S. Freeman, Washington, v. 435, note 39.

720 See Washington to Secretary of War, Rocky Hill, 6 November 1783, Writings of Washington, xxvii. 232.

721 Washington to Superintendent of Finance, Mount Vernon, 4 January 1784, Writings of Washington, xxvii. 293.

722 The farewell at Fraunces’s Tavern took place on 4 December; Cobb was presumably with the Commander-in-Chief at all times during the latter’s progress from West Point through New York to Philadelphia, where Cobb left his chief on 15 December.

723 Writings of Washington, xxvii. 293.

724 J. Thacher, Military Journal during the American Revolutionary War, 342.

725 Baylies, American Medical Biography, 86–87.

726 S. C. Cobb, Brief Memoir, 4.

727 S. C. Cobb, Brief Memoir, 4.

728 Writings of Washington, xxvii. 410.

729 Writings of Washington, xxx. 413.

730 Writings of Washington, xxxi. 336.

731 Writings of Washington, xxxvi. 333.

732 Writings of Washington, xxxvii. 60.

733 Baylies, Some Remarks, 5.

734 These documents are all in CP.

735 The merchants were Daniel Parker and William Duer of New York, and John Holker of Philadelphia. This is the only connection I have found between Cobb and Duer before Cobb’s acceptance of Bingham’s agency. The document which explains this lawsuit, dated 9 September 1784, is in CP.

736 Cobb’s commission, dated 7 June 1784, is printed in New Eng. Hist. & Gen. Register, xlv. 241–242. This document, the property of our Society, is now at the Massachusetts Historical Society. See our Publications, i. 14.

737 See Cobb to Bowdoin, Taunton, 30 January 1786, Miscellaneous Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

738 Shays Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

739 This letter is in the Massachusetts Archives, CXC. 247–248. Governor Bowdoin left the whole problem of handling disturbances in Bristol County to the sheriff’s discretion.

740 A copy of this letter is in the Massachusetts Archives, cccxviii. 26.

741 Massachusetts Archives, cxc. 295. This letter has been printed in Emery’s Taunton, 487–489, and in Collections of the Old Colony Historical Society, Number 4, 83–85.

742 This was Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Orr of Bridgewater. See Collections of the Old Colony Historical Society, Number 4, 85.

743 This field piece was “Old Toby,” which had been purchased and given to Tobias Gilmore, a Negro veteran of the Revolution, and which was used for firing salutes on Washington’s birthday and the Fourth of July. See Collections of Old Colony Historical Society, Number 4, 87, note.

744 This was Colonel David Valentine of Freetown. Like the other leaders of the rebellion, he was later pardoned. See Collections of the Old Colony Historical Society, Number 4, 81, 86.

745 For a report on the early part of this affair, see David Sewall to Bowdoin, Taunton, 25 October 1786, 9 a.m., Massachusetts Archives, cccxviii. 28. When Sewall reported, all was still calm, and grand and petty juries were being empanelled. Sewall thought that if the Writ of Habeas Corpus had been suspended and the leaders sent to the Castle, it would “deaden” the “ardor” of leaders and followers alike.

746 Baylies, Some Remarks, 8–9. See also Baylies, American Medical Biography, 90–91

747 See Emery, Taunton, 489.

748 J. W. D. Hall, Collections of Old Colony Historical Society, Number 4, 84, note.

749 R. Davol, Two Men of Taunton, 176.

750 On Cobb’s use of profanity, see R. Davol, Two Men of Taunton, 177. C. R. Atwood, in his Reminiscences of Taunton, 21, tells of how the Reverend John Pipon of Taunton, after having been disappointed in plans to go to a Harvard Commencement, saw David Cobb’s son George on the street and asked him to get his father to do a little “independent swearing” for the minister.

751 The earliest mention I have seen of Cobb’s “sit as a judge or die as a general” speech is in a letter from David Humphreys to Washington dated Hartford, 24 September 1786. See F. L. Humphreys, Life and Times of David Humphreys, i. 363.

752 See Cobb to Keith, Taunton, 6 February 1787, Keith Papers.

753 Keith to Cobb, Boston, 7 February 1787, in CP.

754 Cobb to Keith, Taunton, 8 February 1787, Massachusetts Archives, clxxxix. 115. There is a copy of this letter in CP.

755 Knox to Cobb, Boston, 20 November 1788, in CP.

756 Baylies, Some Remarks, 9–10.

757 S. C. Cobb, A Brief Memoir, 7, says of Cobb’s ability as a presiding officer: “As a presiding officer of a public body, he was unrivalled. Graceful and dignified in his deportment, he despatched the public business with ease and facility, and won by his impartial performance of the duties of the chair the praise even of his adversaries.”

758 See Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1788–89, 684.. See also Cobb to J. Jackson, Boston, 7 September 1790, in the Lee-Cabot Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society in which he speaks of working on the lottery.

759 Acts and Laws, 1788–89, 657–658.

760 Acts and Laws, 1790–91, 179, 221.

761 Acts and Laws, 1790–91, 66–67. It may possibly have been in this connection that Cobb was awarded an honorary master of arts degree by Brown University in 1790. He had received a similar award from the College of New Jersey in 1783.

762 For an account of this venture, see C. Roberts, The Middlesex Canal, Chapter II.

763 See Roberts, Middlesex Canal, 19–21.

764 KP, xxix. 88.

765 This was John Hills of London, who, after working for the British Board of Ordnance, came to this country in the 1780’s. He was employed by Henry Knox on the Waldo Patent in Maine subsequently. See Roberts, Middlesex Canal, 21, note 7.

766 On 14 August 1791 Washington had written Benjamin Lincoln to see if Cobb desired a marshal’s position. See Writings of Washington, xxxi. 336.

767 Acts and Laws, 1790–91, 347–351.

768 KP, xxxii than ever my necessities which oblige me to submit to the whims 7. I have made no attempt to identify every pond and stream mentioned in this survey. Despite name changes and alterations wrought by the building of reservoirs, it is relatively easy to follow Cobb’s survey with the aid of a good atlas of Massachusetts.

769 Ezra Beaman. See Heads of Families, Massachusetts, 214. For Beaman’s military record, see Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, i. 860.

770 There is a Reverend John Cushing listed in the census of 1790 as residing in Ashburnham.

771 This is Cobb’s spelling of Assabet.

772 KP, xxxii. 48.

773 Acts and Laws, 1792–93, 44–46.

774 For the early history of the academy, see Emery, Taunton, 292–303.

775 George Cabot, Senator from Massachusetts.

776 Theodore Sedgwick, Representative from Massachusetts.

777 For a graphic account of the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic, see J. H. Powell, Bring Out Your Dead.

778 Henry Knox, Secretary of War.

779 William Bradford, former Governor and now Senator from Rhode Island.

780 For these Congressional affairs, see Annals of the Congress of the United. States, Third Congress (Washington, 1849), 132–152. Duke Humphreys was David Humphreys, formerly one of Washington’s aides and since 1790 a secret agent for the United States in Europe.

781 Thomas Davis, the Treasurer of Massachusetts.

782 Michael Moses Hays, the Boston merchant.

783 Dr. William Eustis, a graduate of Harvard in the class of 1772, was a leading physician and politician of Massachusetts. He was later Secretary of War under Madison and Governor of Massachusetts.

784 Rufus G. Amory, the grandson of Thomas Amory.

785 Washington had submitted these documents to Congress in December, and after some debate on the subject, Congress had ordered them printed.

786 Robert Morris, William Bingham, Samuel Breck, Henry Knox, Tristram Dalton, former Senator from Massachusetts, and General Walter Stewart of Philadelphia.

787 Benjamin Lincoln had been appointed one of three commissioners to treat with the Ohio Indians, but the negotiations had broken down.

788 This was Nathaniel Cutting of Brookline, who had had wide experience abroad. See i Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., xii. 60.

789 Mrs. Jones may have been Mrs. John Coffin Jones of Boston. “Quaker Joe” was Cobb’s friend Joseph Russell.

790 See Annals of Congress, Third Congress, 444–451.

791 On 14 February the House voted to unseat John Patton and seat Henry Latimer. See Annals of Congress, Third Congress, 453–455.

792 Presumably Christopher Gore and Joseph Russell, Jr., the merchant.

793 This letter, containing a summary of Boston news, is in CP.

794 The Gazette of the United States for 11 April 1794 carried an item with an Augusta, Georgia, date line which announced that one Beverly Allen had murdered Robert Forsyth, United States Marshal. After he had been apprehended Allen broke out of jail and escaped.

795 Anthony Wayne had occupied Fort Recovery early in the winter of 1794.

796 This diary is fragmentary. At least one front and one back leaf are missing. It may well be that in its original form it covered the entire first session of the Third Congress.

797 This was a measure designed to put economic pressure on Great Britain by prohibiting all trade with Europe and its dependencies for a certain period of time.

798 Nicholas Tillinghast, later postmaster of Taunton. See Emery, Taunton, 547–548.

799 Presumably Theophile Cazenove. See above, p. 68, note 7.

800 Colonel Thomas Lloyd Moore and his wife were leading members of Philadelphia society. Mrs. Moore was a distant relative of Mrs. Bingham. See R. W. Griswold, Republican Court, 299.

801 Jonathan Dayton, Representative from New Jersey.

802 The Order of 6 November 1793 had virtually prohibited all trade with the French West Indies. The new Order allowed French West Indian produce to enter the United States and relaxed some of the restrictions on trade with the British West Indies.

803 Seth Padelford, one of the leading lawyers of Taunton. See Emery, Taunton, 542–544

804 See R. W. Griswold, Republican Court, 371–74, for the Philadelphia theater during this period. For the production of The Spoiled Child by Isaac Bickerstaff and The Grecian Daughter by Arthur Murphy, see T. C. Pollock, The Philadelphia Theater in the Eighteenth Century, 208. The Sailor’s Landlady was also on the bill.

805 James Wilson, the eminent Pennsylvania jurist.

806 Mrs. James Ross, wife of the newly elected senator from Pennsylvania, who succeeded Albert Gallatin when the latter had been declared ineligible because he could not fulfill the citizenship requirements of the office.

807 I do not know what Cobb meant by the “Automatons.” There is no play of that name listed in Pollock, The Philadelphia Theater in the Eighteenth Century. He may have been referring to some sideshow, or to one of the pantomimes which were frequently given in the regular theater.

808 Mrs. Talbot was presumably the wife of Silas Talbot, Representative from New York, who had been born in Dighton and thus may have known Cobb. The Captain Cook referred to was, I believe, David Cook. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, iii. 921. I have not been able to establish the family relationship.

809 Captain Joseph Anthony, the Philadelphia merchant. For his financial relations with Henry Knox, see below, pp. 691–692, 720, 757.

810 Ralph Izard, Senator from South Carolina.

811 This was one of the early attempts to improve the navigation of the Schuylkill. See B. H. Meyer, et al., History of Transportation in the United States before 1860, 207–210.

812 This was the resolution of Abraham Clark of New Jersey which provided for the non-importation of British goods. See Annals of Congress, Third Congress, 600–601.

813 Presumably Samuel Bayley of Newburyport, who wrote Cobb a letter on 29 April 1794 urging stern measures against the British. This letter is in CP.

814 Fauchet was the French minister to the United States.

815 Indirect taxation.

816 Thomas Hartley, Representative from Pennsylvania.

817 Abram Trigg of Virginia had challenged the election of Francis Preston on the grounds that Virginia election laws had been violated. See Annals of Congress, Third Congress, 608–613.

818 Jonathan Hastings, later postmaster of Boston.

819 John Kean, delegate from South Carolina in the Continental Congress, and at this time cashier of the Bank of the United States.

820 Possibly Henry Hill, the only Hill with an “Esquire” after his name in J. Hardie’s The Philadelphia Directory and Register for 1793.

821 The wife of Senator James Jackson of Georgia.

822 Governor Thomas Mifflin.

823 Jeremiah Wadsworth and Jonathan Trumbull, Representatives from Connecticut.

824 Colonel William Smith, son-in-law of John Adams. Like Cobb, he had been one of Washington’s aides.

825 This portion of Cobb’s diary is from a notebook of his in CP. The notebook includes, as well, entries for 1797 and 1817. That part of his diary for the rest of 1795 and for 1796 which was printed in the Bangor Historical Magazine has disappeared. See below, p. 528, note 8. This part of the diary should be read in conjunction with Annals of Congress, Third Congress, 976–1284.

826 These troops were returning from service in the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion.

827 Mrs. Chew was the wife of Benjamin Chew, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. Miss Allen was one of the three beautiful daughters of Andrew Allen. See R. W. Griswold, Republican Court, 358, 326.

828 George Hammond, the British minister, had married one of the Allen sisters. The Penn family had been Loyalists during the Revolution, but were now back in Philadelphia. See Griswold, Republican Court, 358, 16.

829 The wife of Elias Boudinot, Representative from New Jersey.

830 For an earlier reference to a “public examination” put on by the young ladies, see the Gazette of the United States for 19 May 1794.

831 Reverend Dr. Robert Blackwell, pastor of St. Peter’s, had married a sister-in-law of Mrs. Bingham. See Griswold, Republican Court, 299.

832 The Gazette of the United States for 27 December 1794 announced the burning of this building, which stood on the corner of Fourth and Cherry Streets.

833 Cobb’s Taunton connections would enable him to write as an authority on this subject. See above, pp. 388–389.

834 James Oellers is listed as “keeper of an hotell” in Hardie, Philadelphia Directory and Register, 107.

835 Benjamin Goodhue, Member of Congress from Massachusetts.

836 Richard Bland Lee, Member of Congress from Virginia.

837 This was the memorial of Thomas Dannery. See Annals of Congress, Third Congress, 1083.

838 For Daniel Cony, see above, p. 30. Samuel Hodgdon had been active in the Commissary Department during the Revolution and was a friend of Henry Knox. See Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, viii. 29.

839 Presumably Ebenezer Breed, merchant, the only Breed listed in Hardie. See Philadelphia Directory and Register, 14.

840 See Annals of Congress, Third Congress, 1147. The petition for reimbursement was finally defeated, Annals, 1161.

841 For Gilbert Dench, see Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, iv. 671.

842 This was Samuel Meredith. See J. Hardie, The Philadelphia Directory and Register, 168.

843 Dr. Ebenezer Hunt of Northampton, Massachusetts, had married Sarah Bradish, the sister of Cobb’s wife. See L. R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 497.

844 On Washington’s communication and the action of Congress, see Annals of Congress, Third Congress, 1231.

845 Presumably John Dickinson’s brother Philemon, who had been a Senator from New Jersey in the previous Congress.

846 Presumably Phillips Crammond and Company, Merchants. See Hardie, Philadelphia Directory, 113.

847 Though the word in manuscript is clearly “bursts,” this must be a reference to the busts of Washington and other notables executed by the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi, who had visited this country in the early 1790’s and among other things attempted to persuade the citizens of Philadelphia to commission him to produce a large marble monument commemorating the Revolution. See Griswold, Republican Court, 410.

848 Not identified. There is no Blackstone listed as living in Philadelphia in either Hardie’s Philadelphia Directory or the Census of 1790. The only possibility is James Blackstone, a man of wealth who lived in Fayette County, but I can find no reason for his associating with Cobb. There was no Blackstone in Congress.

849 Presumably John Vaughan, brother of Benjamin Vaughan. Benjamin and another brother Charles, were at this time living in Hallowell, Maine. See R. H. Gardiner, Early Recollections, 119–120, for John Vaughan’s career. For Charles Vaughan, see above, p. 175, note 3.

850 James Swan, owner of Swan’s Island in Maine. See below, p. 503, note 7.

851 Dwight Foster, Representative from Massachusetts, who must have returned home before adjournment.

852 Nicholas Low, the New York merchant.

853 Presumably Daniel McCormick, an associate of Alexander Macomb, William Constable, and other New York speculators. See J. S. Davis, Essays in the Earlier History of American Corporations, i. 302.

854 Presumably Anna Stutson, listed in the census of 1790 as living in Dighton. See Heads of Families, 43.

855 The Reverend John Foster, a remarkable clergyman who caused so much turmoil in Taunton that he was finally dismissed. He later became an atheist. See Emery, Taunton, 227–228.

856 For Dr. Foster Swift, for many years one of Taunton’s physicians, and James Sproat, a Taunton lawyer, see Emery, Taunton, 314, 545–546. There are three letters from Sproat to Cobb and a large number from Swift to Cobb in CP for the years 1794 and 1795

857 “Young Babbett” was presumably the son of Dr. Nathan Babbit, a physician in Norton. Dr. Daniel Parker was another Norton medico. See G. F. Clark, History of the Town of Norton (Boston, 1859), 370–71

858 Annals of Congress, Third Congress, 141.

859 Annals of Congress, Third Congress, 525.

860 Annals of Congress, Third Congress, 956.

861 See, for example, Annals of Congress, Third Congress, 980, 988, 1009, 1082, 1165, 1174.

862 Eustis to Cobb, Boston, 10 December 1794, in CP.

863 Eustis to Cobb, Boston, 4 December 1794, in CP.

864 The election returns are in the Massachusetts Archives. There are also frequent references to the election and to Cobb’s prospects in CP during the period from November, 1794, through February, 1795.

865 For the original purchase, see above, pp. 39–54. Jackson’s statement is in his letter to Knox dated Boston, 17 June 1792, KP, xxxi. 145. For Hichborn, see above, p. 150, note 4.

866 See Cobb’s application to the Committee, dated 3 March 1792, in the Eastern Land Papers, Box 8, in the Massachusetts Archives. There are frequent references to this purchase in CP. For the tour, see H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 26 October 1794, KP, xxxvi. 77, where Jackson reports that Knox’s gifts of “Bibles, Rum, Spelling books, Brandy, Primmers, Sugar and Tea” together with his and Cobb’s gallantry to the wives and daughters had made the Patent people very happy.

867 See the original deeds in BP and the example reproduced above facing page 102.

868 See, for example, H. Jackson to Knox, Boston, 21 August 1791, KP, xxix. 71, where Jackson comments on Cobb’s miserable situation and speaks of him as not having a sixpence or other resource with which to provide for his family.

869 The offer of the agency must have been tendered to Cobb as early as December, 1794. In a letter to Cobb dated Taunton, 3 December 1794, his friend Oliver Leonard speaks of being eager to start off on the land business and on 13 December he writes again requesting news of Maine. It seems clear that Cobb waited for the final outcome of the election before accepting. Both of Leonard’s letters are in CP.

870 There is another original of this agreement in BP and a copy in KP, xxxvii. 46.

871 James Swan (1754–1830), a Scotchman by birth, had come to America shortly before the Revolution, at the outbreak of which he joined the patriot cause. After the war he engaged in a variety of business concerns and in 1786 bought the Burnt Coat group of islands, including Swan’s Island, off the Maine coast. From 1787 to 1795 he was active in negotiating with the French government, in the latter year arranging for the commutation of the United States debt to France into American securities. He later returned to France, where he was imprisoned for debt, and remained in jail until his death. See H. C. Rice, “James Swan,” New England Quarterly, x. 464–486.

872 This must have been Colonel David Judson, of Washington, Connecticut. At least he is the only Connecticut colonel named Judson that I have been able to discover. He was a member of the Society of Cincinnati, and as such, might well have known Knox, Jackson and others concerned with the Maine lands. See F. B. Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, iii. 571–572.

873 Presumably Henry Jackson.

874 For William Shaw, see above, p. 62, note 8.

875 See the Columbian Centinel, 8 April 1795. Cobb’s communication appeared under the heading “Of Maine,” and read as follows: “A correspondent congratulates his fellow-citizens of this Commonwealth, on the prospect of the increasing wealth and population that is now taking place in that delightful, though too long neglected country, the District of Maine; and it is with great pleasure that he has been informed, that extensive designs, combined with capitals equal to the object, are in operation in that country, and directed particularly to the promotion of agricultural improvement; by which the small farmer, the poor but industrious part of society and others, will have the first great opportunity that has ever offered itself in the course of American settlements, and perhaps the best, by which they may inure to themselves and families an ample and independent establishment, and that too in a part of this continent which combines more agricultural and commercial advantages than any other of the United States, or perhaps of the world.”

876 On Cobb’s son’s difficulties, see Wilde to Cobb, Warren, 20 March 1795, in CP.

877 This was the first of a series of town meetings held to discuss Jay’s Treaty, the general contents of which had been made public the preceding month.

878 This draft is in BP, in a package of papers marked “Vouchers for 1795.”

879 This letter, which was probably never sent, appears on the same sheet as Cobb’s letter to Bingham of 24 May, below, p. 515.

880 There is a copy of this letter, differing slightly in phrasing, in CP.

881 I have been unable to discover a person to fill all the particulars of this bill.

882 See the Centinel for 11 April 1795. In this issue, Cobb answers his previous communication, again under the heading “Of Maine.” His “puff” reads as follows: “Mr. Russell. It was with great pleasure I observed in your last Wednesday’s Centinel, the information given by a correspondent on the subject of the District of Maine, and as one of his fellow citizens, I sincerely reciprocate his congratulations. If any thing can rouse the torpidity of the capitalists, or dart one single ray through the thick cloud of deception that has so long hung over this devoted district, it will be those operations that your correspondent has mentioned, and as a well-wisher to the prosperity, happiness and wealth of this State, I hope that the enterprizers, whomsoever they may be, whether natives or foreigners, may meet with more if possible than their ample returns. It has long been a matter of surprise, and especially with strangers and foreigners who have visited this country, that the people of the State were so little acquainted with the value and advantages of the District, and more especially when they observe such swarms of emigrants annually issuing from this Commonwealth to people an interior wilderness, which cannot bear a comparison, when we combine the salubrity of climate, fertility of soil, and the immense commercial wealth and advantage of this District—indeed it may be truly said, that these good people who thus emigrate really bury their talents in a napkin, and I believe no better reason can be assigned for it, than what we daily see in life, that the child will always prefer the cake in a neighbour’s house, to that of its own, although its own is much better. Cereptune, Boston, April, 1795.” I can find no newspaper reference to the “dogs” having “smoak’d” Cobb’s scheme.

883 Cobb’s daughter Eunice had married Samuel S. Wilde (1771–1855) distinguished member of the Massachusetts bar. Wilde was born in Taunton, and after graduation from Dartmouth in 1789, he returned to Taunton to practice law. In 1792 he went to Waldoborough, Maine, and in 1794 to Warren, Maine, where he remained until his removal to Hallowell, Maine, in 1799. From that time, until the separation of Maine from Massachusetts, he was one of the ablest lawyers down east. He was a representative to the General Court, a presidential elector, and a delegate to the Hartford Convention. In 1815 he was appointed judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, a position which he held until 1851. In 1820 he moved back to Massachusetts after the separation of Maine. See W. Willis, History of the Law, the Courts, and the Lawyers of Maine, 173–178.

884 Knox’s mother-in-law.

885 Knox’s eldest son.

886 For Nathan Jones, see Bangor Historical Magazine, vi. 71–72.

887 G. E. Street, Mount Desert, 107. The surveyor was John Jones.

888 For the early history of Gouldsborough, see Bangor Historical Magazine, vii. 67–71, and Historical Researches of Gouldsborough, Maine (Gouldsborough, 1904), passim.

889 A copy of this Resolve, dated 14 February 1792, is in BP.

890 See Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790, Maine, 9.

891 This purchase included sections B, D, and F as marked on the map reproduced opposite this page. Shaw’s bond to Jackson for this purchase, dated 22 February 1792, is in BP.

892 See Shaw’s deed dated 12 July 1796 in BP. This purchase included sections A and C and lots in sections D and E as marked on the map.

893 Jackson had been down east with Madame Leval. See above, pp. 113–115. Knox, in addition to his knowledge of the Waldo Patent, had helped negotiate a treaty with the Penobscot Indians in the 1780’s. See above, p. 37.

894 There is a copy of this letter, differing slightly as to phrasing and punctuation, in CP.

895 For the location of these rivers and townships, see the map facing page 16. Township No. 4 is incorrectly marked as No. 6 on this map.

896 The present towns of Cherryfield and Deblois.

897 The township at the forks of Union River is the present Waltham. No. 7, the future Ellsworth, was owned in large part by Leonard Jarvis, and No. 8, below Waltham, had been conditionally sold to Madame de Leval, now Madame van Berckel.

898 Phineas Bruce. See above, p. 115, note 6.

899 This letter and those of Cobb’s which follow should be read in conjunction with his diary for the first year of his agency printed in Bangor Historical Magazine, v. 49–57, 69–76, 116–120, and 134–139. I have been unable to locate the original of this diary and presume that it was burned along with much of the other material belonging to the Bangor Historical Society in 1911. The editor of the diary as printed in BHM has made a serious error in placing the entries for the spring of 1796 before the entries for the summer of 1795. The diary should start at Gouldsborough on 5 July 1795, BHM, v. 56, where the editor says the entries are missing from 19 June to 5 July. It should then go through to the end as printed and then start at the beginning and go through 19 June 1796. Parts of this diary have been printed with the same errors in Historical Researches of Gouldsborough, Maine, 29–55.

900 This name is one of Knox’s illegible scrawls. I have been unable to identify the person referred to.

901 There is a copy of this letter differing in phrasing and order of paragraphs, in CP.

902 Oliver Leonard, a friend of Cobb’s in Taunton, came to Maine in 1796 and settled in Orrington, where he became one of the town’s leading citizens. See W. Willis, History of the Law, Courts, and the Lawyers of Maine, 159–163.

903 The bracketed phrase appears in the copy only.

904 The bracketed word appears in the copy only.

905 Cobb presumably refers here to the Massachusetts policy of granting 100 acres to any settler who had been on ungranted Maine lands before 1 January 1784. The set as to pay five Spanish milled dollars to the owner of the land. See Resolve of 26 March 1788.

906 These three townships were on the westernmost border of the Lottery Lands. Today, No. 26 is Amherst, No. 38 Greenfield, and No. 32 is still unincorporated.

907 Mandeville was a friend of Park Holland’s and associated with him in exploring the possibilities of speculating in Maine lands. See Cobb’s diary, Bangor Historical Magazine, v. 118.

908 KP, xxxviii. 4. There is a copy of this letter in CP.

909 Montpelier was the name given Knox’s house at Thomaston (St. George’s).

910 Dr. Ebenezer Hunt, Jr., was active in Northampton local affairs. See J. R. Trumbull, History of Northampton (Northampton, 1902), passim. His wife and Cobb’s wife were sisters.

911 See below, p. 546, note 7.

912 La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt. See above, p. 3.

913 Samuel Henshaw was a friend and contemporary of Dr. Hunt’s in Northampton. See J. R. Trumbull, History of Northampton, ii, 524–576, passim. There is a letter from him to Cobb dated Northampton, 28 January 1794 in CP.

914 Duck-trap is the present town of Lincolnville, between Camden and Belfast.

915 James Swan. See above, p. 503, note 7.

916 Squire Barrett may have been a resident of Northampton, Massachusetts, as was Dr. Hunt. I have not been able to locate him there.

917 There is a copy of this letter, differing in phrasing and paragraph order, in CP.

918 This was Theodore Jones, who developed a thriving lumber business on Union River. See Bangor Historical Magazine, vi. 72.

919 For the route of this road, see the map facing page 862.

920 This road would have followed roughly the present Maine Route 9 from Eddington to Calais.

921 See the preceding letter.

922 KP, xxxviii. 34. There is an almost identical copy of this letter in CP.

923 KP, xxxviii. 37.

924 This was Isaac Parker, one of the leading lawyers in eastern Maine and later a representative in Congress. See W. Willis, History of the Law, the Courts, and the Lawyers of Maine, 132–136.

925 Dr. Rasten was Dr. Thomas Ruston of Philadelphia. See Heads of Families, First Census, Pennsylvania, 226. He had purchased all the land not granted in Townships Nos. 4, 5, and 6 east of Union River—some 46,084 acres—for £4606. See Eastern Lands, Deeds, ii, 40–42, in Massachusetts Archives.

926 The gentleman referred to was Alexander Baring. See below, Chapter X.

927 This was the future Eddington. Jonathan Eddy and associates had been granted some 9,000 acres of land on the Penobscot in recognition of their services in the Revolutionary War. See Resolve of 29 June 1785.

928 The present town of Amherst.

929 The future Bangor.

930 In his diary, Cobb speaks of Mr. Tillinghast as a young trader. Bangor Historical Magazine, v. 137. He was presumably a member of the family of Nicholas Tillinghast of Taunton and had probably come down east with Cobb. See Emery, Taunton, 547–548.

931 Briois de Beaumez was Talleyran d’s companion on his expedition to the United States in 1794–1795. See P. D. Evans, “Deux Émigrés en Amérique, Talleyrand et Beaumez,” La Revolution Françoise, lxxix. 52–58.

932 When he got around to writing his book, Liancourt’s impressions of Maine were anything but favorable. See above, p. 3.

933 This was the Reverend Jonathan Huse of Methuen. See C. Eaton, Annals of Warren (Hallowell, 1851), 244–245.

934 On Bingham’s connection with Pennsylvania turnpikes, see M. L. Brown, “William Bingham, Eighteenth Century Magnate,” Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., lxi. 410–411.

935 Jacob Townsley was one of the leading citizens of Steuben. He had married the widow of Francis Shaw, Jr., son of the original grantee of Gouldsborough. See Bangor Historical Magazine, vii. 91.

936 Meletiah Jordan, one of the first settlers in what is now Ellsworth. See Bangor Historical Magazine, iv. 66–72.

937 I believe this was Captain Samuel Hull, for whom Hull’s Cove was named. See G. E. Street, Mount Desert, 164.

938 For the Morancy mill, see L. A. C. Johnson, Sullivan and Sorrento Since 1760 (Ellsworth, 1953), 29.

939 Similar letters went out to Phineas Bruce at Machias, Stephen Jones at Machias, and Daniel Wass at Columbia. There are copies of these three letters in CP.

940 See above, pp. 59–61.

941 See his statement to Knox, below, p. 566.

942 For Holland’s survey of these mast townships, see above, p. 220. See also the map facing page 16.

943 Only the closing and signature of this letter are in Jackson’s hand. The rest is in that of a clerk in his office.

944 KP, xxxvii. 87.

945 On Bingham’s land speculations in New York, see M. L. Brown, “William Bingham, Eighteenth Century Magnate,” Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., lxi. 432–434.

946 These men were all leading New York business men and speculators. See J. S. Davis, Essays, i, passim. See also E. W. Spalding, New York in the Critical Period, 1783–1789, passim.

947 KP, xxxvii. 112.

948 KP, xxxvii. 117.

949 This letter is in BP. In it Knox reports having conversed with Nathan Dane on the subject of the “back tract,” and with Richard Harrison about the possibility of his buying into the concern.

950 For Bingham’s correspondence with the Barings during this period, see below, p. 592

951 KP, xxxvii. 140.

952 KP, xxxvii. 167.

953 Actually it was not until the following year, when the necessary appropriations were voted after a bitter struggle, that Jay’s Treaty was finally accepted without question.

954 Samuel Hodgdon of Pennsylvania served as Commissary-General of Military Stores from 1781 to 1784 and from 1791 to 1792 was Quartermaster of the United States Army. In each of these posts he was closely associated with Henry Knox. See F. B. Heitman, Historical Register of the Officers of the Continental Army, etc. (Washington, 1893), 223.

955 This was presumably the Philadelphia merchant George Meade. See Heads of Families, First Census, Pennsylvania, 225. Knox had countersigned some of Meade’s papers, and with Meade’s failure, was likely to be in serious difficulties. Bingham attributes Meade’s troubles to overspeculation in France. See Bingham to Knox, 17 July 1795, KP, xxxvii. 142.

956 This was Bingham’s summer residence on the Jersey coast. See M. L. Brown, “Mr. and Mrs. William Bingham of Philadelphia,” Pa. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., lxi. 301–305.

957 This is presumably a misprint for the 15th. See the preceding letter.

958 In 1795 John Jay, under the nom de plume of Curtius, had written a vindication of his treaty entitled Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, etc. (Philadelphia, 1795). In the same year Hamilton, writing as Camillus, had produced A Defense of the Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation (New York, 1795).

959 KP, xxxviii. i.

960 John Bonnet, one of Robert Morris’s European agents. In a letter to Knox dated Philadelphia, 20 August 1795, KP, xxxvii. 172, Bingham speaks of Bonnet as having made a large sale of land in Hamburg, where Dutch capital had then concentrated.

961 KP, xxxviii. 5.

962 This was the purchase of the Western Reserve by the Connecticut Land Company, a group of thirty-five speculators organized by Oliver Phelps. See R. A. Billington, Westward Expansion, 263–264.

963 KP, xxxviii. 17.

964 See Knox to Bingham, Boston, 31 August 1795, in BP, where Knox reports that Swan and Craigie want five- and six-cent land and that thus there is little hope of their buying into the Bingham speculation. There is a wealth of material on Andrew Craigie in Davis, Essays, passim.

965 KP, xxxviii. 21.

966 These two letters of Knox’s to Bingham are in BP.

967 This was the Treaty of Greenville, signed after Wayne’s victory at Fallen Timbers.

968 Louis-Marie, Vicomte de Noailles. See above, p. 309, note 2.

969 Webb was apparently a would-be speculator for whom Bingham had written letters of introduction to Knox and Cobb. Cobb speaks of him as an English priest, and Knox, after saying that he is not in love with him, wrote Bingham that Webb wanted to “preach without orders rather than buy land.” See Cobb’s Diary, Bangor Historical Magazine, v. 135, and Knox to Bingham, Boston, 4 September 1795, in BP. Mr. Corbin was possibly either Richard Corbin or his son Richard Corbin, Jr. See Writings of Washington (J. C. Fitzpatrick, editor), i. 35, note 74; xxvi. 236–237.

970 KP, xxxviii. 25.

971 KP, xxxviii. 29.

972 If the reading “20” is correct, this would be the present town of Mariaville.

973 For a discussion of Randolph’s resignation, see D. R. Anderson in American Secretaries of State and their Diplomacy, ii. 149–159.

974 On the Walker contract, see above, p. 157.

975 See below, pp. 598–601.

976 Van Berckel.

977 On the Baring transaction, see below, Chapter X.

978 This may refer to a loan which Greenleaf negotiated with the Amsterdam bankers Daniel Crommelin and Sons. See A. M. Sakolski, The Great American Land Bubble, 159.

979 See above, p. 373.

980 I have not found the letter in which Bingham reiterates Jackson’s offer, though the letter printed immediately below clearly indicates that he did so. There are no copies of letters to the Barings in BP, and none of the eleven from Bingham to Baring in BaP written in 1795 covers this precise point. Throughout the year, however, Bingham kept up a regular correspondence with the Barings on such matters as his Dutch loan, American politics, American land speculations, and his Mainelands. See Bingham to Barings, 30 March, 5 and 12 May, 1 and 30 June, 14 and 24 July, 17 and 22 August, and 4 and 7 November 1795, in BaP.

981 On Bingham’s Dutch loans, see M. L. Brown, “William Bingham, Eighteenth-Century Magnate,” Pa. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., lxi. 407–409.

982 KP, xxxviii. 50.

983 Yet when he came to write his book, Liancourt spoke most unfavorably of the District of Maine. See above, p. 3.

984 John Codman and his brother Stephen were leading Boston merchants. See C. C. Wolcott, The Codmans of Charlestown and Boston, 1637–1929 (Brookline, 1930), 13–24. There is a portrait of John Codman in this volume facing page 13.

985 Cobb’s movements during November, 1795, can be followed in his diary, Bangor Historical Magazine, v. 137–139.

986 This was, I believe, the letter dated 29 October 1795 printed immediately below. The fact that this letter is found in CP rather than KP supports this belief.

987 This was presumably the letter from Bingham to Baring in BaP dated Philadelphia, 15 December 1795. In it Bingham welcomes Baring to America, urges him to talk freely with General Cobb in Boston, does a little puffing of the Maine lands in a none too subtle way, and closes with the following explanation of why the lands in Maine have hitherto been so unpopular: “The errors and prejudices that have prevailed on the subject he [Cobb] has attributed to their true cause—viz., the state of society formerly existing on the sea shore, where by the great profits of lumbering and fishing the lower classes of people who are usually employed in these pursuits have possessed the means of leading a life of comparative indolence which in that order of the community is usually accompanied by debauchery and dissipation. Hence the reputation of the country was injured by the apparent poverty of these people, which necessarily arose from their profligate and idle course of life.”

988 This indicates that Cobb made a trip to Philadelphia early in December, possibly because he had not received Knox’s letter urging him to remain in Boston.

989 For Alexander Baring, see R.W. Hidy, The House of Baring in American Trade and Finance, 45–48.

990 See H. W. and I. Law, The Book of the Beresford Hopes, 273–274.

991 For Baring’s instructions, see J. and F. Baring and Co. to Alexander Baring, London, August, 1795, and J. W. Hope to Francis Baring, Hanover Square, 7 August 1795, both in BaP.

992 For John Williams Hope, see above, p. 344, note 7.

993 See a letter from Baring to his father in BaP dated Boston, 11 December 1795, which also reports his arrival in Boston and may be one of those referred to. It consists for the most part of accounts of such Boston merchants as the Codmans, Stephen Higginson, Thomas Russell, and others. There is also some interesting material on American commercial activities, especially the trade with India.

994 General James Gunn was United States Senator from Georgia and one of the leading speculators in the Georgia back lands.

995 For the Georgia speculation, see C. H. Haskins, The Yazoo Land Companies. See also A. M. Sakolski, Great American Land Bubble, 124–146.

996 The House of Baring had a good many dealings with the Philadelphia merchant Alexander Foster. See, for example, A. Baring to F. Baring, Philadelphia, 20 April 1796, in BaP. Baring spells this merchant’s name “Forster” throughout. This Forster may have been a member of that family. On the other hand, the Boston Directory for 1796 lists both William and Joseph Foster as merchants and it may have been one of them.

997 Captain Charles Williamson, agent for the Pulteney Purchase in western New York.

998 There are no enclosures with this letter in BaP.

999 For a more detailed account of the Codmans’ business affairs, see A. Baring to F. Baring, Boston, 11 December 1795, in BaP.

1000 Christopher Gore apparently made quite a hit with Baring. When Gore went to England a short time after this, as a member of one of the commissions set up by Jay’s Treaty, Baring wrote him a letter of recommendation to his father. See A. Baring to F. Baring, Philadelphia, 5 May 1796, in BaP.

1001 Probably Charles Vaughan, who had married Fanny Apthorp of Boston, and who, though in residence on the Kennebec, was frequently in the city. See R. H. Gardiner, Early Recollections, 120–121.

1002 The treaty with the Indians was negotiated the following year and the lands subsequently put on sale.

1003 Possibly Moses Haskill and James Lloyd, Jr., listed as retailer and merchant, respectively, in the Boston Directory for 1796. I have not been able to discover just what their relationship with the Barings was.

1004 For these lands, see S. Livermore, Early American Land Companies, 177–187.

1005 For Thomas Law and his speculations in Washington real estate, see W. B. Bryan, A History of the National Capital, i. 244–247.

1006 I am unable to explain the reference to the “bills on Bourne.”

1007 Oliver Phelps, who had been one of the leading speculators in lands in western New York in the 1780’s.

1008 Nathaniel Gorham of Charlestown had been Phelps’s partner in the western New York purchase.

1009 Elizabeth Willing-, sister of Mrs. Bingham. See above, p. 376.

1010 The 12th Article of Jay’s Treaty allowed American ships of under 70 tons to trade with the British West Indies provided the United States agreed to prohibit exports that would compete with West Indian produce. The Senate cut this article out of the treaty.

1011 For an account of Cobb’s week with Baring in Boston, see the former’s diary, Bangor Historical Magazine, v. 49.

1012 There is a slightly different copy of this letter in CP.

1013 Colonel William Smith. The copy in CP speaks of “Colonel” Smith.

1014 Patrick Jeffrey was the Boston agent for a British mercantile house and the husband of Madame Hayley. He had purchased the Governor Hutchinson house in Milton. See G. L. Kittredge, The Old Farmer and His Almanac, 12–14.

1015 See Cobb’s diary, Bangor Historical Magazine, v. 50.

1016 With Duer’s bankruptcy, Nicholas Fish of New York got a court order attaching his property. In the meantime Duer had disposed of the notes Bingham had given him to various of his creditors, among them Daniel Ludlow, a prominent New York banker. When Bingham, unsure of his legal position, refused to pay, Ludlow finally brought suit. See Ludlow vs. Bingham, 4 Dallas, 46–63.

1017 On this Trenton business, see above, pp. 168–170.

1018 Royal Flint had been promised the residuary profits on 100,000 acres of the Maine lands at the time he first acted for Duer and Knox. Apparently Melancton Smith purchased Flint’s rights and must have later paid off the mortgage to Robinson and Cruger, for on 10 March 1810 Bingham’s trustees settled with Melancton Smith’s heirs by paying them $12,000. The pertinent documents on this affair, including Flint’s assignment to Smith, Bingham’s promise to Flint, and the settlement of 1810, are in BP.

1019 LeRoy and Bayard were the New York correspondents for the House of Baring.

1020 Willing and Francis were the Philadelphia correspondents for the House of Baring.

1021 Daniel Ludlow (1750–1814), was a member of a distinguished New York family and a leading banker in the city. See above, p. 619, note 2.

1022 This must have been Henry Baring, who later married Bingham’s second daughter Maria. I have found no other reference to his being in Philadelphia at this time.

1023 This refers to the payment of the notes given Duer at the time of the purchase of his pre-emption rights. When Duer failed, these notes were attached by his creditors, but because of various legal ambiguities, Bingham refused to pay.

1024 M. M. Hays was a Boston merchant and a close friend of Cobb’s. He handled much of Cobb’s financial affairs in Boston for him. The draft Cobb mentions here, dated 30 December 1795 in favor of Hays, is in a package of papers in BP labeled “Vouchers for 1796.”

1025 For Morris’s report, see above, pp. 188–205.

1026 There is a detailed memorandum of Knox’s in BP which was enclosed with this letter reviewing the whole Walker-LaRoche-Leval involvement in Trenton.

1027 On Nicholas Hubbard, see above, p. 351.

1028 This was probably Theodore, the second son of General Benjamin Lincoln.

1029 KP, xxxviii. 98.

1030 KP, xxxviii. 99.

1031 See Cobb’s diary, Bangor Historical Magazine, v. 51–53.

1032 KP, xxxviii. 103.

1033 If the mint could have been abolished merely by failure to appropriate for it, Jay’s Treaty, though already ratified by the Senate, could be, in effect, defeated by similar means.

1034 KP, xxxviii. 107.

1035 On 18 January 1796 Bingham wrote Baring urging him to make a decision one way or another. He pointed out that Cobb was anxious to return to his family and that he, Bingham, might lose the chance to sell his property to other buyers if he delayed too long. He summed up his case by emphasizing the superior location of the Maine lands, the low price at which they were offered, the convulsed state of Europe, which threatened the security of property there, the fact that Massachusetts, having stopped sales of land in Maine, would not be a competitor, and finally the fact that the lands were already in the process of being settled. This letter is in BaP.

1036 For Van Berckel’s attempts to interest Baring in his wife’s contract with Bingham, see below, pp. 648–649.

1037 This letter has been taken out of its chronological order and placed here as by far the best account of Baring’s purchase.

1038 The letter referred to, which is in BaP, announces the successful completion of the purchase. Since most of the material in it is repeated in this letter, it has not been printed.

1039 There are no copies of these letters in BaP. The earliest is a copy of a letter from the House of Baring to Alexander dated London, 21 April 1796, which acknowledges receipt of his letter of 26 February and which approves all that has been done.

1040 Baring was, of course, wrong on this point. Cobb had been thoroughly briefed on the reasons for Baring’s visit to this country.

1041 In his letter of 26 February 1796 in BaP Baring makes the following comment on Bingham:

“He is not generally well liked, being rather too high and proud for this country, where but very little will do.… he is undoubtedly the richest man in this country and his affairs are not embarassed or likely to become so by further speculations. He is a timid and cautious man. His property cannot be short of £4 or 500/M sterling, his expences annually about £5,000 sterling. The house he lives in with ground around it is estimated worth near £50/M sterling.”

Baring voices the same sentiments in a letter to his father dated Philadelphia, 5 May 1796, in which he says of Bingham:

“…his manners are a little too aristocratic for this country but they will do for us. He has very great confidence in me and I can now make him do what I please.”

1042 This memorial of twenty-nine manuscript pages—Bingham spoke of “prolix communications in writing”—is in BaP. In it, as he points out in this letter, Baring reviewed all the considerations confronting a would-be speculator in American lands. He treats these considerations under three heads: first, the disadvantages which a foreign purchaser faces; second, the problem of choosing the best lands from among those at market; and third, the question of price. In general Baring attempted to make all the disadvantages appear as serious as possible.

1043 In his reply to the memorial, wrongly dated 1 February 1796 in BaP, Bingham attempted to answer Baring’s objections one by one.

1044 In the memorial, Baring offered two shillings sterling per acre for 500,000 acres.

1045 This was the “back tract,” the terms of the contract for which had not yet been carried out.

1046 These were the purchases from William Shaw. See above, pp. 523–524.

1047 See below, pp. 672–674.

1048 There exists in BaP one copy of a small printed map of Maine, but it is not the copy Baring refers to, for it does not have the additional drawings mentioned. The map in BaP may be one of those printed for Major William Jackson while he was in England.

1049 There is in BP a copy of the Lottery Book, the original of which is in the Massachusetts Archives. This book contains the material Baring refers to.

1050 Nicholas Hubbard of Amsterdam was thoroughly conversant with American land speculation and must have made his information available to the Hopes. He also, presumably, gave them a copy of Morris’s report on the Kennebec, with which they were certainly familiar before Alexander came to this country.

1051 This statement is obviously absurd. Duer never went to Maine with Madame de Leval at all, and Henry Jackson, who did go, was anything but attracted to the Frenchwoman. In addition, the French paid a good price for their lands and there was no need of throwing in any “favors.”

1052 For Van Berckel, see above, p. 170, note 6. It was his father who was Dutch Minister; he himself was never more than “Resident.”

1053 For another description of Van Berckel’s efforts to realize something on his contract, see below, pp. 793–794.

1054 This date is in error. The “back tract” contract was signed on 18 April 1792.

1055 Baring never actually did insist on the deeds being raised. The settling duty problem dragged on for years and was not finally adjusted until 1807. See below, pp. 1212–1222.

1056 This was John Bernard’s half of the island. He had mortgaged it to Thomas Russell of Boston, who was apparently acting for Lane and Frazer of London, with whom he had close commercial contacts. See G. E. Street, Mount Desert, 132, note. For Russell’s connections with Frazer, see A. Baring to F. Baring, Boston, 11 December 1795, in BaP.

1057 This presumably refers to the reservation of the two mast townships in the “back tract.” Although Holland had surveyed them, they were apparently never claimed by the state.

1058 This may refer to Cyrus Swan. If so, it is an overly enthusiastic account of Swan’s nibble. See below, pp. 727–728.

1059 There is no mention in his Travels of Liancourt’s having been east of the Penobscot in the summer of 1795. For Talleyrand’s visit to the Union River region, see “Talleyrand in America,” AHA Report, 1941, ii. 75–77.

1060 The present Steuben, Milbridge, Harrington, and Addison.

1061 This is the first mention of John Richards, later to play a very important part in the Maine speculation. In his letter to Hope and Company dated Philadelphia, 26 February 1796, in BaP, Baring speaks of having “fallen in with a character” who would be a perfect person to represent the European concern as an agent in Maine. He describes Richards, then twenty-eight years old, as the eldest son of a John Richards, a respectable gentleman in Hampshire at Hambleton near Portsmouth, and later in a letter to his father dated 5 May 1796 in BaP, he speaks of having lived with Richards for three months and of being daily more impressed with his talents.

1062 Charles Williamson, in the development of his model town of Bath, New York, had laid out a race track, hoping to attract settlers thereby. See P. D. Evans, “The Pulteney Purchase,” New York State Hist. Ass’n Quarterly Journal, iii. 89.

1063 These documents are printed below, pp. 734–743.

1064 From several oblique references in letters in BaP, I believe that Porter was one of the Barings’ correspondents at St. Petersburg.

1065 For further comments on American politics, see Baring’s letters to Hope and Company dated Philadelphia, 29 November 1796 and 10 January 1797, in BaP. In the former he reports on the election of the electors in November, 1796, and speaks of the outcome as still in doubt, though he believes Pinckney’s chances best. Jefferson, he admits, would “act well,” “though a man of no principle.” In general, Baring is favorably impressed with the orderliness of the election.

In the letter dated 10 January, which was not actually completed until February, Baring again summarizes his reasons for confidence in the American government, and after a thorough review of American land speculations and speculators, closes with an account of the casting of the electoral votes in February, 1797. In explaining the American election procedure, Baring exhibits a thorough understanding of it, especially where he explains why the New England electors were afraid to vote for Pinckney for fear he would beat out Adams.

1066 This was Fisher Ames’s famous speech urging the House of Representatives to carry Jay’s Treaty into effect.

1067 There is in BaP a copy of a letter from Jeremiah Wadsworth to John Linklaen, dated 30 January 1796[?], which outlines plans for settling a tract of land thirty miles square. This may have been one of the letters referred to.

1068 This is probably a reference to Williamson’s lobbying activities in the New York legislature, where he was urging the construction of roads. I do not believe he was ever a representative. See P. D. Evans, “The Pulteney Purchase,” New York State Hist. Ass’n Quarterly Journal, iii. 88.

1069 This is presumably a reference to the sale negotiated by John Bonnet, one of Robert Morris’s agents in Europe. See above, p. 575, note 3.

1070 This offer, dated 3 March 1796, is in BaP. In it James Wilson offers to sell close to 700,000 acres of Pennsylvania lands at prices ranging from $1.33 to $5.00 per acre.

1071 See James Cramond’s proposals dated 23 February 1795 in BP.

1072 This estimate of the profits made by Bingham on his sale to Baring is in BaP. In it Baring estimates the cost to Bingham, including the settling duties, interest, payments to Duer and for the individual purchases, at 21 ⅓ cents per acre. The payment of Knox’s share of the residuary profits would reduce the profit to 17 ⅓ cents per acre.

1073 The particular William Jackson letter referred to is not in BP.

1074 See Baring to Hope and Company, Philadelphia, 26 February 1796, in BaP.

1075 The idea of naming towns apparently caught the fancy of the English principals as well. They suggested an Adrianople, a Philipville or Philipsburg, and a Williamston, to be named for Adrian, Henry Philip, and John Williams Hope, respectively. See F. Baring [?] to A. Baring, London, 22 July 1796, in BaP.

1076 KP, xxxviii. 117.

1077 This was Morris’s purchase in western New York. For Jeremiah Wadsworth’s part in this speculation, see A. M. Sakolski, The Great American Land Bubble, 57–58.

1078 See the original deeds for the lands in BP. There were sixteen in all, the first eight for the Penobscot and the second eight for the Kennebec tract. Deeds number 1, 3, 5, and 7 had been received as each of the four payments of $30,000 had been made, the last having been completed in June, 1795. Deeds 2, 4, 6, and 8 were to be held in escrow until half the settling duties had been carried out.

1079 See the contract of 1 July 1791, printed above, pp. 47–53, especially Articles 7, 8, 9, and 10.

1080 See Bingham to Knox, Philadelphia, 10 February, 8 March, 11 March, and 2 April 1796, KP, xxxviii. 124, 162, 166; xxxix. 16, printed below, pp. 683, 716, 720, and 728.

1081 See, for example, Bingham to Knox, 2 March 1796, KP, xxxviii. 151.

1082 See copy of an agreement between Bingham and Thomas Mayne Willing and William Cramond, Philadelphia, 1 June 1797, in BP. By the temporary agreement of 1 May 1796, Bingham deeded the land to Thomas Willing, who immediately executed a deed of trust to Baring. See below, p. 796.

1083 See, for example, Jackson’s petition to the legislature on this subject, dated Boston, 24 February 1793, in BP. See above, pp. 244, 246, 249, 257.

1084 Thomas Mayne Willing was Bingham’s brother-in-law, the fourth child of Thomas Willing. See B. A. Konkle, Thomas Willing and the First American Financial System, 118. William Cramond was the senior partner of the Philadelphia firm of Philips Cramond. Baring discusses the problem of tenure frequently in his letters to his principals. See especially below, pp. 890–891.

1085 See Baring to Bingham, Philadelphia, 25 February, 28 March, and 3 May 1796, in BP.

1086 See Baring to Bingham, Philadelphia, 20 January 1797, in BP.

1087 See Baring to Hope and Company, Philadelphia, 31 January 1797, in BaP.