James Burd: Frontier Defender, 1726-1793 9781512818277

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PENNSYLVANIA UVES

JAMES BURD

PENNSYLVANIA

LIVES

( Volumes previously published)

JOHN WHITE GEARY

Soldier-Statesman 1819-1873 By Harry Martin Tinkcom JOHN and WILLIAM BARTRAM

Botanists and Explorers 1699-1777

1739-1823 By

Ernest Earnest JOHN ALFRED BRASHEAR

Scientist and Humanitarian 1840-1920 By Harriet A . Gaul and Ruby Eiseman

COLONEL JAMES BURD

JAMES Frontier

BURD Defender

1726-1793

By

U L Y LEE NIXON

t UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS PHILADELPHIA 1941

Copyright 1941 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS

Manufactured, in the United States of America

LONDON HUMPHREY

MILFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY

PRESS

FOREWORD THE Commonwealth of Pennsylvania spreads over a large, sprawling territory. On the east, her soil is washed by the waters of the Atlantic; on the north by one of the Great Lakes; and on the west by the Ohio. Geographic sectionalism has always been one of the most striking and recurring characteristics of this Commonwealth's history. And yet, Pennsylvania's history is the history of all these diversified regions—the eastern, the mountainous, and the western country. Frequently the careers of Pennsylvanians touched all of these sections. Those prominent individuals whose activities were confined to the eastern part of Pennsylvania were, quite properly, the first to have their biographies written. Those whose careers extended into other sections of the Commonwealth are at long last receiving merited recognition. This is particularly true in the case of individuals who played a prominent role in early western Pennsylvania history. The recent development of historical research in the Graduate School of the University of Pittsburgh has brought forth several worthy biographical studies. Among these is this life of James Burd. Although Colonel Burd was born in Scotland, and married into a prominent Philadelphia family, yet he early cast his lot with the frontier forces of western Pennsylvania. His letters and papers, though widely scattered, have fortunately been preserved in a number of different places. It was to these letters and documents that Lily Lee Nixon turned when she became interested in Burd's career. This biography is in some degree a good picture of the Pennsylvania frontier during the last half of the eighteenth century. Perhaps Colonel Burd played his greatest role in helping to drive the French out of western Pennsylvania, and opening up this region to Anglo-Americans. He found it difficult, as did many of his friends in eastern Pennsylvania, to make a V

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FOREWORD

choice on the eve of the Revolution. At first, he did not want the colonies to separate from the mother country. But as the struggle wore on, and the issues became more sharply defined, Burd put the welfare of his adopted country first. And, although he rendered valuable service during the war, yet one has the feeling that he would rather be remembered because of his activities before 1776, rather than by anything he did during or following the war. JOHN W .

University of Pittsburgh July, 1941

OLIVER

CONTENTS COLONEL JAMES BURD Frontispiece Attributed to Gilbert Stuart. Courtesy of Mrs. Dcruid Van Pelt Chapter

Page

I JAMES BURD IN S C O T L A N D

i

II M E R C H A N T IN PHILADELPHIA

6

III ROADBUILDER FOR BRADDOCK

21

MAP OF PENNSYLVANIA

2$

Drawing by Page Cory IV V VI

VII

ENGINEER: BUILDER OF FORTS

35

L O Y A L H A N N A A N D T H E FORBES CAMPAIGN

44

T H E MONONGAHELA A N D T H E REDSTONE COUNTRY

69

FORT PITT A N D A N INDIAN T R E A T Y

8j

VIII BURD A N D BOUQUET

96

IX F O R T A U G U S T A A N D P O N T I A C S CONSPIRACY X

FIGHTING FRANKLIN'S "OLD T I C K E T '

XI TINIAN

109 12j i)9

XII REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD

IJO

XIII INDEPENDENCE

161

XIV

175

T H E L A S T FRONTIER

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL N O T E

187

INDEX

191 vii

I

JAMES BURD IN SCOTLAND ON a cold, bleak day in late March, 1726, when the winds were sweeping over the Scottish moors and the new-born lambs were carefully tended in the warm folds, a son was born to Edward Burd and his wife, Jean Haliburton, at their manor, Ormiston, near Edinburgh. Christened James, he was the first-born of a family which in time included ten brothers and sisters. His mother was descended from Robert Bruce, Scotland's wellloved patriot. Her father, a merchant and Dean of the Guild, had been bailie and provost of Edinburgh. On the child's paternal side, his great grandfather had been a burgess of Edinburgh, his grandfather, James Burd, had been a writer to the signet, and his father, Edward Burd, was soon to become a burgess. James Burd was born during a turbulent period of his country's history. The Pretender, James Stuart, had been defeated in 1715 at Preston. The Schism Act and the Riot Act which followed had not been able to compel conformity either in church or in politics; the union of England and Scotland had been too recent. Disputes over the Hanoverian Succession had continued to cause trouble although George I had sat on the throne of Great Britain for twelve tempestuous years. "Scotland was seething with discontent" which was soon again to break forth into armed conflict. But despite all this disturbing influence, it is quite probable that James Burd had a very normal childhood: playing soldier with his brothers in his father's park around the mansion house, teasing his sisters and the tenant's children on the farm, "The Silver Latch," tramping through the heather and by the piles of peat on the moors, and on joyful holidays, watching the ships with their tall sails come and go from the harbor of Leith. Probably when a relative returned on one of these white-winged vessels from a far voyage to the Marianas (Ladrones) in the 1

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Pacific, James heard him speak of the island of Tinian (so called by the natives, and so beautiful that the Spaniards called it Buena Vista), and the pleasant, musical name remained hidden in his subconscious memory for many decades. We have more letters and original documents relating to the later life of James Burd than are usually found about anyone of like or greater prominence who lived two centuries ago, yet no paper relating to his childhood or to his youth remains. His life in Scotland is as hazy as the misty skies under which it was lived. Whether his training was received at Edinburgh University or at St. Andrews or at a smaller school, it was, for those days, quite liberal and thorough. He was a splendid penman; his vocabulary was large, and he expressed himself clearly and concisely, though like most of his contemporaries and some moderns, he had very changeable rules for grammar and spelling. He knew Latin, as quotations in his letters indicate. His son Edward, years later, wrote him from college, "If you have Telemachus without English send it." He could make telling references to ancient history, and Edward, sure of his father's understanding, wrote of buying Pufendorf's Law of Nature. Years later when sending a short estimate of the character of seventeen officers, Burd wrote of the educational qualifications of seven and the lack of them in one. By all this evidence, by his choice of friends, and by the estimate of his peers, we know James Burd was a fairly well-trained man. That, later, he could and did associate with the best-educated people in any community in which he found himself is indicative of his belief in education as an essential element in personality. That was as it should be for the grandson of a lord provost of Edinburgh. How early young James decided upon the life of a merchant we do not know. The British Empire at that time was expanding rapidly, largely through the efforts of those daring sea traders whose importance Queen Elizabeth had been quick to recognize. From some sailor who had been with Anson on his voyage around the world in H. M. S. Centurion in 1740-44, Burd may have heard of adventures in far places and the op-

IN SCOTLAND

3

portunities for trading with the inhabitants, before the Reverend Richard Walter wrote in 1748 of that famous voyage. Be that as it may, young Burd was given a thorough knowledge of ledgers, journals, and account books as shown by those bookkeeping records of his early business venture kept so carefully in the American Philosophical Society's library. Besides trade, adventure, and glory for his country, there may have been a more urgent reason w h y Burd decided to leave Scotland in 1746. Six years before his birth, a son was born to James Stuart, the Pretender for the throne of Great Britain. Tales of Bonnie Prince Charlie must often have thrilled the youthful heart of James Burd. When news arrived in Edinburgh in 1745 that the young prince had landed on the coast of northern Scotland and had called for support of the clans in his coming fight for the crown, what decision did the nineteenyear-old Burd make? Did he support the A c t of Settlement which gave the crown, after Queen Anne's death, to the Protestant descendant of James I, or did he rally to the royal house of Stuart? W e have no proof of which party he espoused. Prince Charlie received his greatest support in the Highlands. Burd is not a Highland but a border name. The merchants and the few Scottish Episcopalians were supporters of the Hanoverian King; the Presbyterians and other non-juring groups usually supported the Stuarts. Burd was a Presbyterian, and tradition has it that his family was friendly to the Stuarts. A f t e r Prince Charlie entered Edinburgh and held court in the Castle, it would seem that the young, adventurous Burd should have to enter the conflict on one side or the other. That entrance would account for his later extensive knowledge of military affairs. Hugh Mercer, a Scot of the same age and always a staunch friend, fought for the Bonnie Prince at Culloden, and it may well be that Burd was at his side in that fateful battle. If so, there was certainly sufficient reason w h y he should want to leave his homeland. T h e Duke of Cumberland, stationed at Fort Augusta in the summer of 1746, was making it very unsafe for the followers of the defeated Prince.

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Whether there was time for a hurried family conference about the best method of assisting the young man to escape from the Duke's troops to a place where he could start life afresh, or whether he had to flee by night from one loyal wearer of the cockade to another friend of the "King over the Water," we do not know. A large city is a safe place in which to hide and it is also a mecca for merchants. At any rate we know, from his receipted board bill, that at least by the middle of September 1746 Burd was in London; in fact, by another receipt he seems to have been away from Edinburgh as early as August, just four months after Culloden was fought. On the other hand, if Burd took no part in the rebellion or if he fought on the side of the existing government, he could have leisurely planned his business affiliations before going to London. There is strong probability that such was the case and that Walter Sterling, an energetic and thrifty young Scottish merchant and sea captain, was his chosen partner. At least by June 4, 1747, Burd turned over to Sterling in London ¿400 sterling in drafts, cash, and goods to be placed to Burd's credit. James's father and his uncle, John Haliburton, had supplied most of the money. Probably it was they who sent the "three packs of linen cloth," the half of which made up more than ¿ 2 2 of the /400. This account with Sterling would indicate that Burd was planning an extensive trip. W e are not surprised to find, therefore, that a few days later he made his will, leaving everything to his father. In this will he says his father is of Knightsrig in the Shire of Middle Lothian. Years later a brother wrote Burd that his father had sold Knightsrig. He seems to have returned to Ormiston, the family seat. T o leave Great Britain would require all of Burd's courage. Perhaps no people, not even the English, revere the past and cherish the continuity of the clan as do the Scots. Up to this time the lonely youth must have hoped to see soon again Auld Reekie and Princes Street; to worship in St. Giles' and saunter past the John Knox House; to have the distant view of Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags. If he left Great Britain, he might

IN SCOTLAND

5

never see London again. It had sheltered him. The old Tower had not swallowed him. Doubtless he liked Westminster Abbey, especially the old Chapter House where the Commons first held a separate meeting, and Westminster Hall where Charles I, that bravest and most misguided Stuart, had his trial. As Burd walked down Pall Mall to the old Piccadilly House, and especially as he walked past No. 10 Downing Street, so recently made the home of the prime minister, he must have concluded that if young Downing could return to England and prosper, after deciding he did not like America or the West Indies, he, James Burd, might do the same. It need not be an irrevocable change, this attempt to make one's way in the colonies. And so of all Great Britain's colonies, America was Burd's choice. It is quite probable, after making all decisions and arrangements possible, paying his bills and getting those precious receipts, that he bade his few countrymen and his English acquaintances farewell and set off for Bristol by way of Bath. As the stage coach rumbled through the beautiful Somerset country and mounted those lovely hills surrounding Bath, Burd must have regretted his final decision. At least he doubtless managed to stay a few days at the famous old spa—old before the Romans came. As he walked across the lovely Avon on Poultney Bridge or climbed to Beechen Cliff and Combe Down, he may have passed Clive, Wolfe, or even William Pitt. Not one of the four could foresee his vital work in the Seven Years' War. Passing by the fashionable Queen Square, he may have seen Beau Nash driving in state to one of his famous Assemblies. Tales of those joyous social gatherings probably returned to Burd's mind the following year. Indeed, he must have stepped, that day, rather reluctantly into the stage for the final trip through the West Country to Bristol. W e hope some friend waved good-bye and wished him God-speed as he boarded the small sailing vessel, taking with him, as was the custom, provisions to supplement the ship's fare. And so the record of James Burd comes out of the mist and dimness of Scotland and England into a richly documented existence in America.

II

MERCHANT IN PHILADELPHIA where Burd's ship probably docked sometime in September 1747, was a town of about fourteen thousand population. Accustomed as he was to the sternness of Presbyterian Edinburgh and to the gaiety and excitement of metropolitan London, the peace and quiet of the Quaker town must have been quite disconcerting. Only along Water or Front Street was there a great bustle or stir. Beyond Fifth Street, now the beginning of Independence Square, began that great, dense, Penn's forest which Burd was soon not only to know so well but also to help conquer for civilization. In 1747, however, eyes were turned east, not west. So Water Street was the home of. those great merchants whose ships made Philadelphia the center of commerce and trade in the American colonies.

PHILADELPHIA,

For a time, while Burd became acquainted with his new surroundings, he may have stayed at the Golden Fleece on Dock Street, but by September 20 he was comfortably settled at the home of Mrs. Janet Welch where he stayed many months. As he strolled about the town those first days, he took cognizance of his future competitors. Some of the other merchants, many of whom became his close friends, were John Swift, James Benezet, William and David Mcllvaine, Thomas White, Neat & Smith, Alexander Leith, Hamilton, Wallace & Co., James Trotter, and Charles Willing. Perhaps, for diversion, James Trotter, who later belonged to the Luna Club with Burd, asked him to go to hear the Reverend George Whitefield, who was then in Philadelphia and whose sermons were causing so much interest and comment. By the last of September Burd had rented a store and had made his first sale. Much merchandise was imported from London for him by Captain Tiffin of the Lydia. Burd put a modest advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette stating that he would 6

MERCHANT IN PHILADELPHIA

7

sell at his store "opposite to Mr. John Bringhurst's in Front Street, very cheap, for ready money only: Oznabrigs, garlix, tandems, cambricks, muslin, lawns, calicoes, chints, nicannies, dysoockfoys, long clothes, China taffities, romals, bandanoes, China handkerchiefs, new silk romals, cherryderries, ginghams, tammies, florettas, serpentines, Cullodens, callimancoes, ditto varicated, camblettees, damasks, strip'd montees, brocaded Britain, everlasting, allapeens, broad cloths, bearskins, beaver, knapt mockfeabay, forest cloth, white and strip'd flannel, kerseys, half thicks, rugs, blankets, tea, china, gunpowder, shot and bar lead, nails, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, castor and felt hats, with variety of cutlary, ironmongery, and other goods too tedious to mention. Pittsburgh has a large department store whose motto is "Everything under the Sun." Almost two hundred years ago it seems that Burd could have used the same slogan! Our curiosity is aroused by the names. What were cherryderries? And what took the name of the recent battle of Culloden? Having determined upon his lodging and business location, Burd, no doubt, turned his attention to a church home. His London friends wrote teasing letters about his becoming a Quaker, but the young Scot probably hunted up the Presbyterian meeting-house on old High Street that first lonely Sunday. There he doubtless sat in the pew reserved for strangers while the Reverend Robert Cross gave his lengthy discourse. But the affable, handsome young gentleman, so recently arrived from the mother country and belonging to such a prominent family would be welcomed heartily, especially by the young folks. Probably his eyes often strayed to Pew jo where sat Edward Shippen and William Allen with their respective families. In turn, dainty little Sarah Shippen must have regarded the tall stranger with demure but fascinated eyes. Perhaps James Trotter, a member of this First Presbyterian Church and a young merchant on Front Street, introduced the aristocratic newcomer to Mr. Shippen and his daughter. Undoubtedly the members, Peter Chevalier, Adam Farquhar, William

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BURD

Blair, William Rush, Alexander Hamilton, and many others of the congregation made him welcome. That first winter Burd spent in Philadelphia was a very busy one. H o w eagerly he counted stock, made invoices, itemized bills, and kept careful account of all transactions in his expensive vellum and hand-tooled ledger, sale book, and other record books! As he adjusted his freshly powdered wig, dipped his quill pen into the ink, and made those splendid letters and scrolls for each new customer's account, his daydreams began to take definite shape. He probably wore some of the finery he had intended to sell, for he was determined to appear at his best. In December he had John Cartringer make him a bearskin coat and a velvet cap. So fortified for the cold weather, he probably rented a sleigh and took Sally Shippen for a ride. It was for her Christmas gift, no doubt, that on December 2, he paid £ 1 for a mocking bird. She was evidently seeing the young Scot quite frequently, for by the middle of February Burd bought from the goldsmith, Michael Cario, for ¿ 2 7 , a threestoned rose diamond ring. Moving swiftly (in fact, just two days later), he purchased from Moses Cox for ¿ 1 9 0 a small plantation of about nine acres with house and building, fronting on Passyunk Road and about four miles from the city. In April he paid ¿ 2 5 for a horse, and sometime later paid ¿ 4 5 for the making of a "chair" or chaise. He now evidently thought himself in a position to marry the only daughter of a former mayor of Philadelphia, a man who was a very prosperous merchant. Family tradition has said that James Burd and Sarah Shippen eloped. There seems no reason why they should have done so, and there are several reasons why the marriage would be welcome to the father of the bride. Indeed, it must have seemed that James Burd was a very suitable husband for Sarah Shippen. Besides, years later, Burd's son wrote about his "mother's bride's maid." W h y the marriage entry of these two Presbyterians is found in the records of Christ Church, a Church of England edifice, is not easily understood. In fact, we may se-

M E R C H A N T IN PHILADELPHIA

Ç

riously question whether the license for May 14, 1748, was that of James Burd and Sarah Shippen as has usually been so considered. There is no record of first names and the misspelling of the surnames (a mistake often made, but hardly in a legal and sacred transaction) is Bird and Shippy. Indeed, there is good cause to think that the wedding of the seventeen-year-old Sarah Shippen to the young Scot may have taken place in March. If the service were solemnized by an Anglican clergyman it must have been because the motherless Sarah had been a protégée of Mrs. John Jekyell, granddaughter of the famous Edward Shippen, who had been the first mayor of Philadelphia. In 1748 Mrs. Jekyell was preeminent in fashion and beauty, "the then leading lady of the town." Her marriage record, 1734, is in Christ Church. She was the arbiter of early Philadelphia society not only on account of her beauty and her own family background, but also because her brother-in-law, Sir Joseph Jekyell, had been Secretary to Queen Anne. She would sponsor the debut and marriage of the daughter of a close relative. This relative was the second Edward Shippen to hold the city's highest office. B y this marriage Burd allied himself with three of the most important families in the province of Pennsylvania—the Shippens, the Willings, and the Aliens. (He later became a cousin by marriage of his contemporary and rival, William Byrd III, of Virginia, who f o r a time resided in Philadelphia.) These three families were strong supporters of the proprietary party and were, therefore, opposed by the growing republican party, headed by Benjamin Franklin. Hence the marriage of Burd to the dainty but dependable Sarah Shippen greatly helped his advance in provincial affairs; by the same token, it speeded his later decline as independence drew near. T h e canny Scot had chosen more wisely than he knew. Of gentle breeding and fine education, the city belle assisted him in the social life of Philadelphia and later made one of the best wives a frontiersman ever had. Many of her letters to her husband, children, and parents have been preserved. She bore

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James Burd eleven children, eight of whom lived to maturity; she managed his indentured servants, slaves, and plantation when he was on campaigns; she received supplies for him and forwarded them wherever he was; she ordered his regimentals; she sent him frontier dainties such as gingerbread and pickles whenever possible; and finally she wrote him cheerful letters with the salutation "Dear Mr. Burd" and the complimentary ending " Y o u r ever affectionate and dutiful wife." But in 1748, Burd and his bride were happy in their new home and in the social life of Philadelphia. In the small twostory brick house with "the draw-well, good garden, and small but valuable orchard" they welcomed their many friends and in turn probably spent many nights in Philadelphia after a ball or amateur theatrical performance. Perhaps too, remembering Beau Nash's Assembly at Bath, Burd suggested a similar social gathering for staid Philadelphia. A t least, in 1748-49, Burd's name was one of fifty-nine on the original subscription list for the first Philadelphia Assembly, a social function to be held weekly. T h e next year he was one of the four directors. Almost every year since that date, the Assembly dance has been held at least once or twice a year. Just as at first, to be on the list today assures the social standing of a Philadelphian. Perhaps the principal difference which nearly t w o hundred years have made is in one rule which Burd helped to enforce; whereas in 174950, the couples must depart promptly at midnight, they now just begin to arrive at that time! A t the first Assembly, one sees the eager, virile Burd standing by the ballroom door while his charming wife gracefully enters the room—perhaps walking sideways through the entrance lest her wide hoops impede her progress. As the t w o danced the stately minuet, the scarletcoated, powdered-wigged newcomer must have been followed b y many admiring or envious eyes, for the provincial still accorded any native of Great Britain a kind of rank and a great respect. A f e w months later Burd was probably instrumental in founding the St. Andrews Society of Philadelphia, since he was

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made vice-president from an original membership of twentyfive. It was a club for "Scotsmen born or the sons of Scotsmen," and the society planned, partly by a system of forfeits for broken rules, to give aid to charity and to the relief of the indigent. James Trotter was the first secretary. Franklin's partner, David Hall (from whom Burd had just bought the Laws of the Province, Rogers' Dictionary, and the Almanack) was a charter member. This society had a splendid history. James Hamilton, soon to be governor, joined the second year, and Hugh Mercer some years later. Burd was also becoming very important at the First Presbyterian Church. In September 1748 Pew 39 was built for him. A t a meeting of the committee, December 18, 1749, Burd was elected a member of that committee and appointed to collect money for the ensuing year. He himself subscribed a year, and seems to have attended the committee meetings quite regularly until 1752, when he moved from the city. A t his last meeting a green velvet cover for the pulpit and a cushion of the same with silk fringe was ordered. W h a t did the neighboring Quakers think? A l l these dances, club meetings, social activities, church meetings, the remodeling and equipping of his "plantation," even theatrical performances, must have detracted too much from Burd's business. And because of his youth he could hardly assume many heavy responsibilities with assurance of success. Y e t assume them he did; though besides Walter Sterling, he now had Edward Shippen for business support. In May 1748 Burd had moved his store from that of Janet W e l c h to one "lately possessed by George Mifflin on Carpenter's Wharf." From that time on he advertised steadily in the Pennsylvania Gazette, and imported goods on many different ships. He made another change, perhaps not for the better, in extending credit to his customers. That his business was growing is evidenced b y the fact that his younger brother, John, came over and was indentured to James Burd, January 23, 1749. B y June 1, 1749, Burd's young brother-in-law, Joseph Shippen, was also assisting

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JAMES BURD

in the store. His "Waste Book" (Day Book) is almost a copy of that of Burd. Shippen wanted this younger son to have two years' business training before he went to college. These three young men, James Burd, his brother, and his brother-in-law, must have had high hopes for the expanding business, and not even the more cautious sea captain, Walter Sterling, nor the more experienced merchant, Edward Shippen, could make James Burd see that there might be breakers ahead. By the beginning of 1750, Burd was concerned with various plans and ventures involving many hundreds of pounds sterling. One of the largest was in connection with the snow Charming Sally. Edward Shippen, formerly of Boston, had many relatives living in Massachusetts, some of whom were the Bowdoins, the Greenoughs, and the Blairs, and some in Maryland. Perhaps through him Sterling and Burd had business with one George Michelson, then of Maryland, who had contracted with Stout and Carter for the building of a snow, a type of vessel much in use at that time. Michelson broke his contract, which had a penalty of /200. Burd, doubtless backed by Sterling at least, took over the contract. He probably called the snow Charming Sally for his little daughter, who had her mother's name. When completed, the vessel was 54 feet keel and 21 x/i beam, of 131 tons, and cost nearly / 7 0 0 without the furnishings, long boat, and yawl. It probably made the first trip in 1750, carrying a cargo worth ¿ 5 2 3 . Besides corn, wheat, flour, pipe staves, beeswax, and wine, there is some indication that slaves may have been carried. Burd purchased one male slave for himself in 1751 for /40. Robert Phillips was made commander of the Sally. Interesting receipts are found for furniture, including the making of a black walnut table for £ 2 - $ and a looking glass purchased for / 3 ; the pilot's receipt for / 5 - 1 5 for his work in bringing the vessel from Cape Henlopen to Philadelphia and for the men employed on the ship. One receipt was signed with the wife's mark. Did that sailor not return? Besides the Charming Sally, other vessels were used for large

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assignments by Burd and the different men who helped finance his ventures. In the Pennsylvania Gazette for July 5, 1750, we find this advertisement: "For London, directly, The Ship Macclesfield, Alex Stupart, Commander, for freight or passage apply to James Burd or the said commander on board Hamilton's Wharf." Burd and Sterling put on board for this trip wood and wine to the value of ¿279. On William White's shallop, Burd shipped much household furniture to be delivered at Duck Creek and forwarded to Mr. Thomas Fayerweather at Fredcrick, Md. This man was another Boston relative of Edward Shippcn. There is a letter which would indicate that Burd and John Swift were in partnership for some transaction, since Hill and Lamar of Madeira wrote to "Burd and Swift, Merchants." This John Swift sent a consignment to Jamaica with Burd when he went to that island in 1751, on the sloop Charming Nancy. In all, merchandise worth a thousand pounds was entrusted to his care on this voyage. This was a disastrous trip. One of the terrific hurricanes which that island sometimes suffers wrecked his investments in that colony. Years later he wrote of the experience as one of the worst of his life. Sterling, who was then at Philadelphia, heard of the hurricane before Burd's return. N o doubt Sarah Burd heard also, and the anxiety which she felt was to be a foretaste of future worries for her husband's safety. Another calamitous venture was connected with the brigantine Sea Horse. William Molineau of Boston had a half-interest in that undertaking, and Walter Sterling and James Burd each had a fourth interest. George Michelson was the first commander. The invoice shows that £ 5,942 worth of all kinds of merchandise were sent on a voyage to the Bay of Honduras to purchase logwood which was then to be taken to London. But the Sea Horse was badly damaged in a storm, the merchandise probably ruined, and the captain, Robert Phillips, formerly of the snow Sally, washed overboard. The letter to Burd from the junior officer, James Gibbons, is a most pathetic one. B y January 1751, Burd had received his share of the insurance, which doubtless did not by any means cover his loss. Sea voy-

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BURD

ages in those days were rightly called ventures: the tiny sailing vessels, lack of scientific knowledge of weather conditions, the privateers and the pirates made any voyage a perilous one. W e hear much of the early colonists who made fortunes from the various types of shipping projects and from the famous triangular trade which the N e w Englanders found so profitable; we hear little of those who went down to the sea in ships and met there, or in far places, little but disaster. Burd seemed to be in the latter group. At his store, Burd's sales were now not increasing greatly, payments due him were delayed, his absence from the city was a detriment to his business, and the many projects on hand simultaneously made the care and attention given to each insufficient for its success. B y August 1751, it was evident to the partners that a settlement must be made. An advertisement was inserted in the Gazette by Burd's attorney demanding speedy payments of all debts due him. In November, Walter Sterling wrote from Philadelphia to William Strahan of London that "the trade of those with whom I have been chiefly concerned has been so much overdone that many bad debts and delay of payment must be the consequence which cannot fail to produce much trouble and much loss." Later, while Burd was in Jamaica, Captain Sterling wrote of affairs "connected with Mr. Burd, being much scattered so as not to be wound up for several months, and I doubt many bad debts by him contracted for our joint acct as well as a large deficiency for himself, though by what does plainly appear there's little doubt of my being a great sufferer." After the partnership was dissolved Edward Shippen wrote that Burd owed Sterling ¿ 1 , 1 0 0 , but that the Captain was giving him nine years in which to pay and charging him no interest. That was certainly a marvelous example of the clannishness of the Scots! Being eight years older than young Burd, Sterling may have felt some responsibility for the debacle. Later, after Burd had gone to the frontier. Sterling wrote him a letter about some unfinished business and wished him success in his "country schemes." As for the Cap-

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tain, he soon returned to the navy, was knighted for his service, and finally rose to be commodore. Meantime Burd's family life, as well as his business affairs, was undergoing much change. He evidently did not live at his place on Passyunk Road for long. He probably found it inconvenient to be so far from his work, and very lonely for his wife. It was offered for public sale November 15, 1751, at William Gray's inn, the Sign of the Wagon, in Market Street. Burd had moved to Walnut Street and from there sold wine and salt. This property was owned by the Shippen heirs and was also soon offered for sale. After that Burd lived on Fifth Street in a house which he may have owned, for he still owned land between Third and Fourth Streets by the beginning of 1752. He now had two children. The second child, Edward, had been named for the two grandfathers. It is doubtful whether the financially distressed merchant received any help from his father in Scotland; the father-in-law, however, assisted him, it may be, too much. In letters, Edward Shippen expressed his opinion at this time about Burd. T o his own son he wrote: If Mr. Burd had taken my advice, I won't presume to say, he should have had success, but then if he had failed in the world, I believe he would not have been in Debt, and then not have brought an intolerable burthen upon my shoulders. T o an acquaintance Shippen wrote, "my daughter is married to a gentleman of Sobriety and Industry, but has been unfortunate in his mercantile affairs." Edward Shippen's father had been the first mayor of Philadelphia, and he himself had also held that position. A member of a prominent well-to-do family, he had been trained as a merchant by James Logan, Penn's chief agent, had later been in the firm of Logan & Shippen, and since 1749 had been engaged in the fur trade as a member of the firm of Shippen & Lawrence. Although the profits realized in general trade during this period were often enormous, that received from the fur trade probably exceeded all other types of merchandise.

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But the frontier was being pushed back rapidly; Lancaster, sixty miles f r o m Philadelphia, was n o w the largest inland city in the American colonies. Shippen doubtless felt that one member of the firm must be nearer the source of supply, and since L a w r e n c e was much interested in local politics, it seemed best for Shippen to make the change. T h e r e was also probably a more urgent reason. E d w a r d Shippen's first wife, the mother of Sarah Burd, had died w h e n Sarah was only five years old. A f t e r being a w i d o w e r twelve years, Shippen married in August 1747, a w i d o w recently from London, b y the name of M a r y G r a y . She seems to have been a very estimable lady, and Shippen's three children b y his first w i f e loved and respected her greatly—each naming a daughter for her. Perhaps his daughter Sarah, just seventeen, was not pleased at first, and that may have been one reason w h y James Burd, w h o arrived from England just after the marriage, appealed so strongly to her. Her o w n marriage would remove her from the restrictions imposed b y this one. But on the whole the y o u n g folks stood b y their father in this second marriage, especially w h e n the people turned against it. W h a t irregularity there was in the sacrament of this marriage of Edward Shippen and M a r y G r a y w e do not k n o w , but on January 4, 1750, Shippen wrote his son Joseph, then at college in N e w Jersey, that the grand j u r y was threatening to indict " y o u r mammy and m e " on account of it. A s thirty-nine lashes and imprisonment were the threatened punishment, Mrs. Shippen had gone back to her father. But the harassed husband said he would see her every day and wanted his son to write a c o m f o r t i n g letter to her. His letter further states that Mr. Burd w o u l d be grieved w h e n he returned from Maryland

with

"Cousin Fayerweather," f o r Burd had given his opinion that the marriage was legal. W h a t e v e r the outcome of this scandal, the lady in question would probably feel a chilling atmosphere in Philadelphia society. It is also quite possible, despite the lenient terms of Sterling and the assistance of Shippen, that the law might be used b y some less kind creditor to place Burd in a debtor's gaol. T h e

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public-spirited Robert Morris was to have that fate years later. So for the growth of his business and for family reasons, Edward Shippen, whose eldest son Edward, Jr., had finished the study of law at the Inner Temple in London and could now represent him in Philadelphia, decided to move to Lancaster and to send Burd to a farther frontier. In fact, Shippen saw his daughter's family established in the spring of 1752 in their new home before he himself moved to Lancaster. N o record of that journey remains. But a young Quaker, George Fisher, founder of Middletown on the banks of the Susquehanna, went out from Philadelphia to the frontier that same spring—in fact the same month. This Friend yearned after the pomp and vanity of the world, and his family had decided to send him away from temptation. Might not the Burds and the Fishers, supervised by the indefatigable Edward Shippen, have traveled together? W e know that it took the George Fisher party five days to travel from Philadelphia to a point on the Swatara just beyond the Susquehanna. He had three heavy Conestoga wagons each drawn by six horses and loaded with the necessary supplies of food, provender, farming and building implements. C. H. Hutchinson, a descendant of George Fisher, in his Chronicles of Middletovm describes the roads, if such w e can call them, obstructed with stumps of trees, with deep mires, and with that rough improvement, a stretch of "corduroy." Most streams had to be forded, and after a rain the heavy Conestoga wagons sank deep into the thick mud. Though the Fishers stayed near the wide-flowing Susquehanna, the Burds ferried over and pushed on for miles through the thickly timbered country. T h e young mother gathered her t w o babies closer to her side as the night fell and the wild scream of the panther broke the awful silence. Would they never reach their new home? It was to be a large plantation of several hundred acres which Shippen had acquired for a "nest-egg." He planned to raise all the horses which would be needed for his traders on their arduous journeys to the Indian country. T h e energetic father now purchased cows, horses, oxen, sheep, and

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BURD

poultry, and ordered ¿ 1 4 worth of corn—enough, he hoped, for a year's bread supply. After planting the garden with the help of a servant, Shippen returned to Philadelphia to prepare for his own removal to Lancaster. Was this assistance what Burd needed? W e wonder. Debt and lack of money haunted him most of his life, just as the excessive kindness and the managing habit of the father-in-law shadowed him most of those years. Except in Burd's military role, where Shippen really admitted he could not advise, he did not allow Burd, as the frontier put it, to paddle his own canoe. Of course it was too often Shippen's canoe. Shippensburg, named for Edward Shippen, was a very small settlement when the Burds arrived. The first families had come to the vicinity in 1730, but the Penns had not acquired title from the Iroquois until 1736. The very next year Edward Shippen received a patent for 908 acres in the Kittochtinny Valley, and in a few months had a tract of 1,312 acres. He seems to have laid out the town in 1749. Quitrents were paid him, for he gave no deeds until 1763. Most of the first dwellings were of the usual tiny log-cabin type, but since Shippen by 1755 had at least one stone house thirty feet square for fur storage, perhaps the Burds had better than a cabin. At least, they did not have to depend entirely on furniture hewn from logs and saplings. They probably stayed for a time with the Widow Piper, whose tavern is still standing at the corner of King and Queen Streets. It was to her and her son, John, that Burd later rented his plantation. Most of the settlers were Presbyterians from Ulster. Their names were more Scottish than Burd's. They had stores, a church three miles out in the country, and Fort Franklin, which was entirely inadequate for their protection. This change in the mode of living for Burd and his wife was in all probability the greatest and the hardest of all their lives. Worried with debt and the knowledge of failure, the young couple who had always been accustomed to the best comforts of their age were now separated from all friends and were living with their two babies on the raw frontier with savage Indians

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on all sides. Formerly they had seen only the Indian leaders who frequently visited James Logan, Lynford Lardner, and other agents of the Penns. The Quakers had had little trouble with the aborigines; the young Penns, however, were not Quakers, and recent events were casting threatening shadows. Eagerly the young couple read their letters delivered by some trader or frontiersman returning from Philadelphia with supplies. Mary Shippen, who must have been allowed to return to her husband, wrote her stepdaughter that she was sending the glass, pictures, and china, that the tea chest was not yet finished, and that the coral was at the silversmith's. Later Mr. Shippen's letter minutely directed Burd how to make a hotbed which he must start on the eleventh or twelfth of February! News came that Johnny Burd was back in Philadelphia; that Cousin Fayerweather and Mr. Shippen's brother, "Gentleman Jo," were both in serious financial difficulties; and next year—and this was news—that Walter Sterling had, on one of his trips to America, eloped with Dolly Willing, Sarah's cousin! This act caused the usual gossip and was never forgiven by the lady's father. Her beloved brother Thomas, in Europe at the time, did forgive her. Edward Shippen did not sympathize with Mr. Willing, but said he rather liked Sterling and thought the marriage must be accepted. If his own daughter had also eloped, surely some allusion to the similar case would have been made. At least this elopement gave the Burds something about which to talk at those monotonous meals where few friends ever added cheer and where the fare was corn bread, venison, and bear meat. They could not foresee a time only twenty years later when Burd, living at another plantation, his own beloved Tinian, on another frontier, wrote of a business trip: I went through Shippensburgh which is become a Neat flourishing Place. I stoped all night at Mr. Rippy's—a most excellent Tavern—next morning I just called at Mrs. Pyppers and asked her and Amy how they were—my next stage on Return Home was at another good Tavern vizt. (Didingtons) late R. Dunnings alias Mr. Millers—where I had a most Ex-

JAMES BURD cellent Repast of as fine Oysters as I ever eat and not a few neither, fresh from Baltimore—upon my arrival at Carlisle, I told Mr. Yeates, Col. Francis and the Rest of the Gent™ of this they wished they had partaked with me—it made their mouths "" ' " 11 i >rised you and Barrons—but now all is covered with Plantations. From 1752 until the spring of 1756, James Burd lived at Shippensburg, and a busy man he must have been. He had woodchoppers and grubbers busy transforming the forest into fields; he built a barn and probably added twenty feet to the house, with a chimney seven feet wide containing an oven; he probably had charge of a sawmill and a gristmill; he did errands for Richard Peters, secretary to the governor; and he was still "Merchant" to Mr. Shippen. On September 25, 1754, he wrote that he had just returned from Aughwich (Shirleyburg) where he had got the "original contract of Hockly, Trent, and. Croghan" and promised to keep it until Shippen's son arrived. He had also heard startling news. Mr. Croghan desired Burd to acquaint his honor, the governor, that an Indian had brought the rumor that the French and Indians intended striking at the "back inhabitants." This intelligence again changed the trend of Burd's life and supplied a driving force for the next ten years.

Ill ROADBUILDER FOR BRADDOCK THE peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 had settled few questions between France and England, particularly those relating to America. Portents of coming conflict could be seen daily along the Canadian border or on the western frontier. The great Mississippi Valley was in dispute. In 1749 Celeron made his famous trip down the Ohio, planting the leaden plates of France at strategic points. That same year the English, supported mostly by Virginia colonists whose eyes were on new trade routes, formed the Ohio Company. The Marquis Duquesne, who became governor of Canada in 1752, had no intention, however, of allowing those English people to settle on the land between the Kiskiminetas and the Kanawha. Claiming that to be French territory, Duquesne, in 1753, sent out one thousand Frenchmen to build forts in the Ohio country. The English, on the other hand, took a characteristic method of acquiring the same land. In 1753 Christopher Gist, who worked for the Ohio Company and had explored the Ohio region, established near what is now Mt. Braddock, Pennsylvania, as Alfred Procter James points out, "the first English-speaking, trans-Appalachian, farm-group settlement." Thomas Cresap and the Indian Nemacolin had also built a trading post at the mouth of the Redstone on the Monongahela. Individual Englishmen had built lonely cabins in the vicinity. Dinwiddie, the energetic Scottish governor of Virginia, was determined to foil every attempt of Duquesne, the French governor of Canada. Washington was, therefore, hastily dispatched to give the officers of the French forts formal notice to withdraw. Returning from the dangerous trip in January 1754, he was soon sent with a body of troops to reinforce William Trent who, in February, had gone to the forks of the Ohio to erect an English fort. While these stirring events were happening, Burd had been initiated into frontier life, and now had his finger on the pulse 21

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of international affairs in the Indians' land. From Carlisle, on the last day of April, he wrote his father-in-law that Ensign Ward, on the 17th of that month, had been driven from the Virginia fort at the mouth of the Monongahela. George Croghan's Indian runners probably told Burd of the surrender of Washington at Great Meadows soon after that event. The knowledge that the French had driven both Trent and Washington back across the Alleghenies must have made the young Scot fear for the effect upon the Indian allies of the English. That England, not waiting for a formal declaration of the Seven Years' War, had sent General Braddock to take Fort Duquesne was undoubtedly welcome news to James Burd. Braddock reached Virginia in February 1755. A few days later Sir John St. Clair, his deputy quartermaster-general who had arrived earlier, asked Governor Morris of Pennsylvania "to open a communication" between the settlements and the head of the Youghiogheny or a place nearer to the French forts. St. Clair indicated that the success of the expedition was contingent upon the work of Pennsylvania in two particulars: ". . . no general will advance with an army without having a Communication open to the Provinces in his Rear, both for the Security of his Retreat and to facilitate the Transport of Provisions, the supply of which we must Depend on your Province." The Pennsylvania Assembly was slow to assume an additional expense, and it was almost a month before Governor Morris replied that he had ordered the country between Carlisle and the Turkey Foot to be reconnoitered "by persons best acquainted with those parts, with whom I sent a Draughtsman, and if it be possible to make a Road that W a y I will recommend it to the Assembly to enable me to do it." Meanwhile William Allen, the wealthiest of Philadelphia merchants, was trying to purchase Braddock's supplies from the "bread basket" of the colonies, and James Burd was one of his agents. Burd wrote Shippen about getting the farmers' proposals in writing for Mr. Allen. T w o years in the country had enabled Burd to acquire the farmer's point of view—that he

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should sell flour for cash at the time of sale, because he could spare neither time nor horses to travel miles to the paymaster. This attitude of the farmers was the crux of much of both Braddock's and Forbes's troubles. Had Burd's suggestion that the province hire wagons to go directly to the mill for the flour been followed, much time and dissension might have been saved. On March 11 Burd wrote that he had been all over the country hunting contracts for flour, and that he had met the commissary, who told him that he need not trouble himself— that was the commissary's job! W e here get a glimpse of Burd's touchy temper as he ungrammatically continued: I shall always be ready to serve Mr. Allen or you but Governments and Commissarys I have nothing to do them. . . . Its no doubt every one's duty not to impose the government but nevertheless they are not obliged by to ruin themselves to serve them.

as to with upon duty

Again he voiced the agrarian viewpoint when he wrote that whereas the Indian trader did not consider the killing of horses and other risks, the farmer who had anything to lose would be more prudent and would object to hauling over hazardous roads. T h e persons whom Governor Morris appointed on March 12, 1755, to survey the roads were George Croghan, William Buchanan, John Armstrong, James Burd, and Adam Hoops. It is likely that Allen's influence had much to do with Burd's appointment. He had asked Burd to deliver an important letter to Captain Clark at Wills Creek. It is also very probable that Burd was the draftsman mentioned b y Morris to Braddock, for he later presented Shippen with a draft of the road which started at Shippen's stone house "at the back branch" just out of Shippensburg. One wonders what were the thoughts of Sarah Burd, surrounded b y her four little children, as she watched her husband ride away on a long western journey to accomplish his first governmental assignment. Burd, too, must have been anxious for his family, but the feeling of youth in the blood, and youth in the promising spring weather, probably banished most of his fears. Led b y Indian scouts and fol-

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lowed by the patient pack horses, the five men pursued an old Indian trail and traders' path. How the party managed to travel as fast as they did is a mystery. They had left Carlisle on the 29th of March; the date of their departure from Shippensburg is not given, but they reached the waters of the "Yohiogian" on the nth of April, just fourteen days after leaving Carlisle. There was already a rough wagon road as far as the Conococheague Creek where Chambersburg now stands. The commissioners surveyed a road, therefore, from a place called McDowell's Mill, about twenty miles west of Shippensburg, in Franklin County. They followed Raystown Creek part of the way. With one eye on trade and the other on their Virginia rivals, the commissioners tried to keep the road near the heart of their province—as near as was consistent with the topography of the land and with the location of the intended terminus. On arriving at a point eighteen miles from the Three Forks of the Youghiogheny, or Turkey Foot, as it was called, (now Confluence) the commissioners feared to go farther, because they heard of the proximity of large scouting parties of French and Indians. From that point they ran the survey southward to Fort Cumberland at Wills Creek, and thus really made surveys for two roads. The reception given these Pennsylvania commissioners on the 16th of April by Sir John St. Clair at Cumberland was not cordial, although exceptionally warm. He swore and stormed like "a lion rampant." He said that the work should have been started upon receipt of his January letter, that it was now too late, that "the want of this road, and the provisions promised by the Pennsylvanians, has retarded the expedition, which may cost them their lives, because of the fresh numbers of French which are like to be suddenly poured into the country. . . ." Threatening that he would march his army into Cumberland County and compel the inhabitants to do the work, he so frightened the commissioners that they took the liberty to write the representatives of their county to inquire what provision the Assembly had made about the road, and to urge immediate

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action. Braddock himself was much more temperate, though quite as insistent as his subordinate. From Frederick, Maryland, he wrote Governor Morris on the 24th of April that he could not "with Safety" proceed farther than Fort Cumberland until the road was at least near completion. Knowing the trouble Morris was having with his pacifist Assembly, Braddock added that if that body would not bear the expense, Morris was to proceed with the road anyway, and he, Braddock, would charge it to the public account. St. Clair's threats, however, had the desired effect upon the Assembly. That erstwhile stubborn body immediately supplied Richard Peters, secretary of the province, with two hundred pounds which he sent to John Armstrong, and each commissioner was later paid seven pounds ten shillings and expenses for twenty-five days' service. Leaving the angry St. Clair, the commissioners turned back to Pennsylvania, and James Burd arrived home at Shippensburg on the 27th of April. T w o days later he received the Governor's orders to start building the roads, and he replied on the same day. He first gave an account of the surveying of the roads, sent the drafts thereof, and furnished an account of the disbursement. He told the Governor he would start the work on Monday, May 1, and that supplies would be gathered by James Wright and John Smith. Burd then wrote advertisements for workmen and sent some to Mr. Shippen to be distributed from Lancaster. He also wrote that gentleman that he had engaged "James Blair to carry on my Business at home. He oversees and works along with Thomas and Jacob." So again Sally Burd was to be left alone with her children in the tiny frontier village. A longing for some of the comforts of Philadelphia is implied in the request sent by her husband, "Sally prays Mammy for a little tea and sugar, the first opportunity." The commissioners must have had more difficulties in getting men and supplies than they had anticipated. The work did not commence until the 6th of May and then with only ten or fifteen men. B y the 15th, however, seventy were employed. Burd was left in full charge of the actual work. Buchanan and

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Hoops had private affairs to keep them busy; Armstrong was preoccupied with his duties as deputy surveyor, and Croghan had charge of the contingent of Indians who were to assist Braddock. T h e Governor sent Secretary Peters to the front to see how the project was progressing. Peters wrote Morris that Burd was not the best man for the task, but was a good man and well disposed. Peters became more enthusiastic about Burd as time passed. On May 20 an important meeting was held at the Sugar Cabins in Aughwick. Besides Peters, three commissioners were present—John Armstrong, Buchanan, and Burd. Joseph Armstrong and John Smith were also present. The minutes of this meeting contain a summary of what had already been done and of what supplies were needed for the continuance of the work. Peters was to report to Braddock as well as to Morris. Besides the overseers and wagoners, 108 men were on the payroll. T h e road had been made thirty-eight miles beyond Shippensburg. It had been made thirty feet wide, but since it required sixty men a day to make one mile that width, it was now proposed to make it twenty feet, and, in stony or marshy places, only ten feet. T h e urgent need of more workmen was stressed. This need was to be supplied by issuing advertisements, by applying to Braddock for the use of some of his men, or, if necessary, by compulsory measures on the part of the Governor. N o workman would be compelled to serve more than t w o weeks, or to enlist in the army. More supplies were ordered, and the requisition of an armed escort was considered. Three days later Governor Morris replied to Peters' report of this meeting. He wrote that he had ordered more advertisements to be printed in English and in "Dutch." T h e new laborers were to report to Shippen at Lancaster and then to follow the road to Burd's party. Peters was given authority to do what was necessary, and in just a week's time better results were noticeable. By the 26th, 120 were working in companies of twelve or fifteen. A commissary was established. Instead of purchasing silk laces and scarlet cloaks, Burd was now ordering more shovels, picks, blankets, wagons, food, and forage. T h e

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price of wagons was fixed at twelve shillings sixpence per day, whiskey at two shillings sixpence per gallon, and bacon at sixpence per pound. By the end of the month, therefore, the prospects seemed much brighter for Burd and hence for Braddock's army. Whereas Peters had written on the 17th that "at the rate they go on, & Mr. Burd does his best, they will not finish this Six months, seven miles being only cut in ten days," Morris now wrote on the 26th of May that the road would reach the forks of the Youghiogheny in a month at the most. The next day Peters, who had just talked with Braddock, wrote Burd that the general and St. Clair "mightily approve" of the work done. The Secretary added, "It is a road of the utmost consequence, as he expects his provisions by this road, and has ordered a magazine of stores to be laid in at Shippensburg, and to be carried to him in July through this road." Burd was not to attempt the "road to the camp" at this time but to expedite the main road, because Braddock "would not march one foot to the northwest, until you came up to him, and assured him of a good wagonroad to the Yhioagany." Had Braddock stuck to this resolve, the outcome of his expedition might have been very different. Burd received this agreeable news when he was "lying in the Gap of the Sideling Hill." One of this Scot's best qualities was that he always showed his appreciation of a compliment, and he always gave one when possible. So he wrote Peters, "It gives me infinite Pleasure that what I have done has met with approbation," and "After calling the Morning Roll, I mentioned to them the Satisfaction they had already given, and recommended to them to continue in their Duty." Burd, however, like any public servant, was not free from criticism. He sarcastically wrote to his father-in-law, "I observe a little reflection upon me by one of our Immaginary Solomons." After thanking Peters for his approval, Burd turned to a report of his progress. Burd had started to cut the mountain road May 27, and he

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wrote that he intended making it in such a manner that good horses could haul sixteen hundredweight over it. His description of the turns in this road—"built with a large Swipe for the Waggons"—reminds one of a similar feature of modern roads. He now had 150 men, all in good spirits but "anxious to have arms." In fact, he told Peters that they would not be willing to pass Raystown (Bedford) unless they had arms or the General's cover. B y the 12th of June, the morale of the men must have been low. N o arms had come. T h e weary woodcutters were not only fearful of the lurking, unseen foe, but they were also actually in need of food. As Burd lay out under the dense pines, with not even the friendly stars for comfort, he must have questioned the fate that had left him at the head of two hundred defenseless, hungry men, who must ever press forward, farther from homes and civilization, into an unknown land inhabited only by enemies. Some of the men had not the consolation of sufficient work: enough digging tools were lacking to hinder the construction of the ford of the Juniata. Perhaps the knowledge that Braddock and all his army had marched from Wills Creek strengthened the hearts of the crew, but for Burd the news added the fear that his road would not be finished in time for its intended use. By the 17 th of June, Burd knew that the "Quaking Assembly," as Morris wittily put it, found the furnishing of arms inconsistent with their principles of non-resistance. He heard, however, that Braddock had remembered his promise and had sent Captain H o g g with one hundred men to act as a guard or cover to the road builders, who were now working in t w o groups, five miles apart. Delivered from one dilemma, Burd was yet confronted with a greater. He wrote Peters from Queen Aliquippa's little village, close to Raystown where his advance crew now was, that he had only three days' provisions for his own t w o hundred men, yet he expected the addition of Captain Hogg's one hundred soldiers that night. It is hardly probable that the old queen assisted him. Her friendship for Washington, after his visit in 1753, at her more distant home, had

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not aided her tribe. Burd was forced to plead with Peters not to send additional workmen until more provisions arrived. His express rider, galloping along the new road, must often have met one from Peters. The young engineer had vital news to report: that Captain Hogg's men had arrived with only two days' provisions and that Braddock expected Burd to entertain them, which he was doing until he received instructions. Burd himself hastily departed for the Conococheague in quest of wagons to carry provisions to his camp. With the aid of his father-in-law, Burd must have advanced considerable money, for Peters later wrote: . . . and so you have had more trouble and are likely to have the weight of all upon you, I am instructed to tell you that all reasonable expenses will be paid, and all moneys or victuals, or necessaries advanced, will be honorably allowed for. Public faith will not admit of any one doubting this. Before the question of food supply was settled, another difficulty arose. The wagoners, hearing that Braddock paid better wages than the commissioners were giving, refused to work unless that disparity was removed. It is likely that the strikers won because, as Peters wrote, "the work must be finished at all events, and if one price is objected to another must be fixed on, so that there be no obstruction to the work." Peters expressed these generous views after Braddock had written to Morris on June 30 reiterating the importance of the project and begging him to use all dispatch in having the road finished to the Turkey Foot of the Youghiogheny. The General wrote that people near Fort Cumberland had been attacked by the Indians, and that the army would therefore depend chiefly upon the province of Pennsylvania "where the Road will be secure from Insults or attacks of that kind." One wonders why Braddock expected the northern route to be less subject to Indian attacks than the southern. Burd knew better. The activity of the French agents was showing results. He must have been worried for his family, since several people had recently been murdered near Shippensburg, and more than a dozen were missing. The

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back settlers were terrified. In fact, by the 9th of July, the road builders themselves, then in the heart of the mountain region, were being molested. While taking a message to the wagoners, a man was killed and scalped, and a boy was captured. Burd led a party of a dozen men against the Indians, but with no result. T h e storehouse, though guarded all night, was attacked. Thirty of his crew left because they had no firearms. T h e y could not even hunt their horses without a guard, and fourteen of Captain Hogg's guard deserted while Burd was riding back in desperation to Chambers' Mills in search of wagons. T h e road and all trails were watched by the hidden foe in order to cut off Burd's provisions, of which he had only enough for three days' rations. It will be remembered that the commissioners, when surveying the roads, went only within eighteen miles of the Turkey Foot. As Braddock moved on into the wilderness, he became very anxious about the exact place where Burd's road should intersect his. Several letters pertaining to this subject were exchanged b y Braddock, Morris, Peters, and Burd. Finally Morris gave Burd the authority to make the decision and notify the General immediately thereafter. From his camp on top of the Alleghenies Burd, on the 17th, not vet knowing of Braddock's tragic defeat on the 9th, wrote Morris of his tentative plans. T h e road was now completed to within fifteen miles of the farthest point west that the surveyors had reached. George Croghan, w h o knew the land, had remarked at the time of surveying that a fine road could be made the remainder of the way. He had promised to be with Burd to pilot him that short distance which had not been blazed. But Croghan had not come, and none of Burd's men knew the ground. A s soon, however, as Burd got over the mountain and came upon waters of the Ohio, he intended sending a party of men to select the exact place of intersection, take the information to the General, and then blaze the trail back to Burd. Considering their position, it seems incredible that the road builders did not fare the same as Braddock's army. Burd wrote that the Indians were bothering

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them, that the men needed arms, and that "Before this Relief came to Us we have lived 6 days upon Bread and Water." Later the same day, perhaps just a few minutes after Burd had written the letter to Morris, he received word from Governor James Innes, who was at Fort Cumberland, telling of Braddock's defeat and desiring Burd to retreat immediately. What a fearfully long and dreadful night Burd's people must have spent and what a sickening sense of futility Burd must have had! Early the next morning, Wednesday, the i8th of July, Burd and Captain Hogg started for Wills Creek, which they reached at noon on Sunday. All their tools and provisions were lost or destroyed. They tried to drive the cattle with them but lost them on the way, for the men would not go after them. Burd reported to Sir John St. Clair at Fort Cumberland, but that gentleman referred him to Colonel Dunbar. Burd offered to open a road from Raystown to Cumberland in three weeks' time, but Dunbar, anxious to get back to Philadelphia, said the troops could use what road there was while the wagons could go by way of Winchester. Burd then offered to build a fort at Raystown to close his new road and protect the back inhabitants. Again Dunbar refused. He asked Burd to dine with him, and talked of the defeat which had so sapped his courage. Burd got back to Shippensburg on the 24th of July and the next day wrote the account of his actions to Morris. George Donehoo, in his history of Pennsylvania, believed that if Burd's plans had been carried out, particularly in relation to the building of a fort at Raystown, the lives of hundreds of frontier settlers would have been saved, besides thousands of pounds of money. The fort had to be built later at a great expense, while Dunbar with his fifteen hundred men could easily and safely have supervised it at this time. Frontiersmen would have doubled his number in any effort against the enemy. The French, with all their Indian allies, numbered only eleven hundred effective men at Fort Duquesne, and they greatly feared an attack by Dunbar. From this time on, thinking all Englishmen cowards, the Indians

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BRADDOCK

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flocked to the French standard and began such fearful raids on the Cumberland Valley that, whereas at this time it had three thousand men fit to bear arms, a year later it had not, except for garrisons, a hundred. Donehoo's opinion may be correct: Braddock's defeat and Dunbar's retreat were t w o of the greatest disasters in the history of Pennsylvania, and both of these could have been avoided with such a man as James Burd in command. He was thoroughly familiar with the situation and could have successfully met with it. W h a t Burd had accomplished, however, was a signal victory in itself. He had cut away the sturdy timber, hewn the hard rock without the aid of dynamite, found a suitable grade over such mountainous heights as Sideling Hill, and made a good wagon road through sixty-five miles of wilderness country. W i t h a crew of men which was constantly changing in personnel, and at best was never larger than two hundred in number, Burd had done this work in a little more than two months' time. It cost the province about three thousand pounds, an amount that, it must be admitted, the province was very slow in paying. Although the road was never used for its primary purpose, it was the first Pennsylvania road to the West and, after being used part of the w a y by the victorious army of Forbes, it became the route over which many pioneers traveled toward the Ohio. In the later territorial dispute with Virginia, Burd's Road was instrumental in binding the Monongahela country and the Pittsburgh district to Pennsylvania. T h e James Burd who went back to Shippensburg on July 24, 1755, had become well and favorably known throughout the whole province. A man not yet thirty years of age, he had conducted this enterprise in such a manner as to receive the approval of all contemporary officials and to carve for himself a niche in the affairs of Pennsylvania. For the next twenty years little of importance transpired in which he was not consulted or in which he did not actually participate. But if, as Macaulay

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says, excepting only the alphabet and the printing press, those things which abridge distance have done most for civilization, then Burd's road building during the Braddock campaign was not the least of his accomplishments.

IV

ENGINEER: BUILDER OF FORTS his first assignment in public affairs, James Burd returned to the management of the plantation and to the trading of merchandise for the firm of Shippen & Lawrence. He had, however, to finish the accounts for the construction of the road to the West. Once again Burd fought for the fair treatment of the farmers and workmen whom he had employed. T h e commissioners had wanted the men to get their pay at different, convenient stations. The Assembly seemed to expect them to go to Philadelphia for it, which trip and time spent would have taken two-thirds of the money due them. Such methods, wrote Burd to Governor Morris, would put an end to "Publick Faith in the Province." Quite bluntly he reminded Morris that although there were other commissioners appointed, yet he, Burd, had both to advance money and to hear the Governor's complaints. Evidently that gentleman had voiced the opinion of the penurious Assembly. As late as October 12, 1755, Burd was explaining thus: AFTER

The expense amounts higher than Expectation ( f o r which w e are greatly concerned) yet we hope their will be allowances made for the many disadvantages we labored under, which could neither be forseen, nor avoided, and which tended not only to Retard the Business, but likewise increase the Expense. In a copy of a letter, which f o r some reason was never sent, Burd reminded Morris that the commissioners had as much provisions at the time of the retreat after Braddock's defeat as would have completed the road, "all which Provisions with Spiritts, Tools, 8ctc. was lost and destroyed in our Retreat to a Considerable Value which can't be placed to the Expense of the Road already cutt." But in the face of greater danger, money troubles took second place. The Indians from the west were creeping nearer and nearer the settlements, destroying one lonely cabin after 3$

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another, until the country was a scene of burning homes and scalped bodies. Fearing for the safety of his family, Burd had removed it to Lancaster, under the solicitous care of Mr. Shippen. But after the massacre of the inhabitants at the Great Cove (McConnellsburg, Fulton County) Edward Shippen sent his wife and Mrs. Burd with her children back to Philadelphia. Even Lancaster was not a safe place; a watch of sixty men was on guard every night. Back at Shippensburg, Burd, with one hundred men, hurriedly started the building of Fort Morris, since Fort Franklin was entirely inadequate. Back settlers were crowding in, five or six families to a house, bccause they were momentarily expecting an attack from the French and Indians. Dropping this work for a more urgent need, Burd headed a relief expedition of forty men for the assistance of George Croghan, reported in dire distress. The provincial Assembly, now lacking some of its Quaker element and confronted with insistent demands for protection, finally made appropriations and devised methods for the defense of the frontier. A chain of forts was planned on the Blue Mountains between the Delaware and the Susquehanna. On December 17th, Shippen wrote Burd that Franklin and Mr. Hamilton were inspecting this line of defense, and that Shippen and Governor Morris would come to Shippensburg to inspect Fort Morris, at which Burd was yet working. They arrived before January 10, 1756, and went on to Carlisle to await Burd and George Croghan, both of whom were at Aughwick collecting all the friendly Indians who, it was feared, would be few. At this meeting at Carlisle, one of the most momentous decisions of Burd's life was probably made—that of entering the provincial army. Morris gave instructions and a captain's commission to Burd on the 17th. He was to lay out Fort Granville and then go with Captain Patterson to a river called Manitango where he was to lay out Pomfret Castle. Leaving Patterson to finish that fort, Burd was to return to Fort Granville. Croghan wrote him at the latter fort on February 6th, and Burd seems to have stayed there until March and completed the fort. (In a few

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months this ill-fated post, after suffering from lack of food and supplies, was attacked by a party of French and Indians and burned to the ground. With one exception, every member of the post was captured or killed.) On April 24, Burd was commissioned a major, and a few weeks later was finishing the fortifications at McKee's store above Harris' ferry. He had taken orders from Benjamin Franklin, but had now been assigned to Lieutenant Colonel Clapham's regiment, the Third Battalion, known later as the Augusta Regiment. Of the twentyfive companies ordered by the Assembly to be raised, nine were placed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Conrad Weiser, eight under Lieutenant Colonel Clapham, and eight under Colonel John Armstrong. Clapham's regiment was sent to the upper Susquehanna where the West Branch came in. This branch has its beginning within fifty miles of Fort Duquesne, interlocking with some tributaries of the Allegheny. The Susquehanna and its different branches, therefore, offered easy entrance into the English settlements for the French and allied Indians. Fort Augusta, built near the junction, was considered not only one of the most important strongholds but beyond question the most important trading post in the province, since the upper Susquehanna had its source in the heart of the Six Nations' country. The different companies of the Third Battalion advanced separately and slowly up the Susquehanna, followed by the provisions in cumbersome bateaux. The journey from Philadelphia to Fort Augusta in those days was considered far more difficult and dangerous than the many times longer distance from Philadelphia to Quebec. Major Burd stayed behind and was kept busy forwarding the provisions and enlisting new recruits. He finally arrived, June 4, 1756, at Augusta with the last division. (Did this name remind him of the military post not far from Inverness?) By this time Burd was evidently pleased with military life, for his friends in Philadelphia thought of trying to get him a commission in the Royal American Regiment which was then being raised. This they planned, thinking

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the provincial service would be eliminated when Lord Loudoun arrived. Burd sent word by his brother-in-law, Captain Joseph Shippen, that he would gladly accept such a commission if it could be obtained. Joseph, a great chum of Burd's, wanted to get into the same company even if he could not have a commission. But the provincial force was not dropped, and Burd stayed at Augusta many long months. Augusta was Burd's headquarters, one should say. He was constantly on the move doing various kinds of work: caring for the influential Shekellemy and the other friendly Indians; giving protection where the settlers most needed it; taking provisions to impoverished Fort Granville after being deterred for days by creeks too high for horses and loads; taking to Augusta 120 horseloads of flour, after an eleven-day trip to find a mill with enough water to grind the wheat, and arriving when the fort had only two barrels of flour remaining; drilling soldiers out of raw recruits; building bateaux and rescuing barrels of rum from icy streams where the bateaux had overturned; sleeping eight or nine December nights in the woods; meeting the Governor at Carlisle; piling precious tallow on high ground and placing a wall of saplings and brush around to preserve it from the wolves; hunting for strong, fresh horses; and always striving to enlist more men for His Majesty's service. Burd had, indeed, become a true frontier leader. Although England had declared war in May 1755, the fact was not published in America until July 1756. That year Lieutenant-Governor Morris of Pennsylvania appointed Edward Shippen one of the four commissioners who were to act as paymasters for war supplies in conjunction with Robert Leake, Commissary General of His Majesty's forces in North America. The Shippen family was to early Pennsylvania what the Lee family was to Virginia or the Adams family was and continues to be to Massachusetts. So Burd, the only son-in-law of Edward Shippen, had now an even greater chance of preferment. Clapham, his colonel, was an erratic, blustering man who did not work amicably with the civil authorities. Burd supported

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his superior officer and thereby greatly endangered his own standing with those gentlemen. The influence of the best Philadelphia families, however, counteracted that difficulty. When Colonel Clapham departed, October 8, 1756, for Philadelphia, presumably for a short leave, Burd was left in command; and when Clapham by April 24, 1757, resigned, Major Burd became the commanding officer of the Third Battalion. Almost as soon as Major Burd assumed charge, he was harassed by serious troubles, particularly by the lack of food. He wrote that officers and soldiers had been for three weeks on an allowance of one pound of flour per day, and sarcastically added, "I think the last flour that Came Up must have Come at too Great an Expense to the Province." This scarcity came in the dead of winter—the coldest winter, Burd thought, in seven years. Although Fort Augusta was years in the making, there were some separate officers' quarters even by February 1757. Listen to Burd's whimsical description of the climate and of what was likely the second-best dwelling: Captain Shippen and I sleep in your room upstairs, which I think is the coldest climate I ever was in, theres a gentle gale comes often down the West Branch over the Wall of the Fort that I sometimes expect will sever your upper Story from your under, it's really a charming place for any Person that loves the free Air there has been no possibility of plaistering of it, otherwise I should have stopt 10,000 million of air holes of no trifling size. The next sentence tells of the tendency to sickness among the soldiers. It is interesting to note that Burd does not attribute the disease to exposure but to lack of proper diet—"this I impute to our living these three months past entirely upon Salt Beef without the least assistance of vegetables or anything else except one pound of Flour per man for officers 8c Soldiers per day." T o Colonel Armstrong, Burd described these sickly men —"their teeth ready to drop out of their mouths and their flesh as black as a Coal." John Armstrong was having his own troubles, many of which

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he discussed with his brother officer. It is true he had been thanked by the province for the destruction of the Kittanning Indians, but he was not getting along with the commissioners. He wrote confidentially to Burd, "It seems to me as if the devil had got possession of Bennie Franklin." T o which Major Burd replied, "I don't know what can be the matter with B—F cum multas alias, but I think there is some Infatuation somewhere Amongst us. God only knows how Affairs will terminate. I hope Lord Loudoun will be able to put us to Rights." The army was still being neglected by the spring of 1757, for Colonel Bouquet of the Royal Americans wrote of his disgust in not getting suitable quarters in Philadelphia for the King's soldiers. Times were certainly out of joint and precedents were being broken, because, for the first time since the Charter was given, the Assembly sat not only all Saturday afternoon but even Sunday morning! N o post was properly defended. Governor Denny, the governor of Pennsylvania since August 1756, had withdrawn three companies from Lieutenant Colonel Weiser's battalion to reinforce Major Burd at Augusta. B y fall more men had been taken, so that Weiser wrote Richard Peters, "For God's sake, dear Sire, beg the Governor, press it upon him in my behalf, and in behalf of this distrest inhabitants, to order my men back from fort Augusta." But Burd needed all the reinforcements he could get. It was reported that eight hundred French and Indians were marching upon Augusta from Fort Duquesne. Captain James Patterson was sent up the West Branch of the Susquehanna in search of intelligence of the enemy at "Shinglaclamasche," a former Indian stronghold, and found it deserted. This discovery gave great relief to Burd, yet he did not know whether the attack had been given up or merely postponed. T o aid Burd in getting supplies, Lord Loudoun insisted that a good road be made from Harris' ferry to Augusta, and Burd was desperately planning for its defense. N o heartening news arrived. In Europe it was said the Duke had been defeated, and certainly Prague had not yet been taken. Byng was hanged in March,

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and Pitt was dismissed in April. British interests seemed to have reached their nadir in 1757. It was about this time that Burd made his famous "Proposal for Protection" calling for concentration of forces, enlistment for life, offensive action in summer, and, since that was the active season, the use of green uniforms for purposes of camouflage. Some of these suggestions were adopted by the province. Enlistments, however, were scarce. John Harris tried to get recruits for Burd, and Captain Lloyd wrote, "Men are extreem Scarce on account of the Harvest and the damn'd Privateers." Many scouting parties were needed. For reconnoitering purposes and also because he hoped to find a water connection between the West Branch of the Susquehanna and the Ohio, Burd sent parties west. Governor Denny approved of this action, and in October 1757, while Edward Shippen and the other commissioners were building stockades and houses for the W y oming Indians, Denny asked Burd to send ranging parties to the East. During this time Major Burd was not only busy, but by the record of his Augusta Journal, he must have kept everyone under him busy. He was a sincere believer in the division of labor. Whether he was quelling incipient mutiny or welcoming Indian chiefs with their hungry retinues, his groups of men were each doing such diversified work as baking, gathering pine knots, building a cistern for pork, making ax handles, cutting turf, sinking wells, planting garden, making coffins, or sowing turnip seed. And always Burd was planning to have sufficient of the three essentials of frontier diet—flour, salt, and rum. Of course, sickness among the soldiers retarded the work. Captain Lloyd wrote, "I am extremely sorry to hear of the [state] of your hospital, and believe nothing will be more effectual in preventing disorders in the garrison than the plenty of vegetables which your care has furnished them." Smallpox, scurvy, and the bloody flux were all prevalent at some season. Yet the work went forward, and in September 1757 Secretary Peters wrote Burd: ". . . you give great satisfaction to the governor

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and every one else. If a new regulation is made, throwing the three battalions into two regiments; one will, I think, be in your power." In view of this hint and praise, it is not surprising to hear of Colonel Weiser's resignation and of Burd's commission as Lieutenant-Colonel, given January 2, 1758. Not quite two years before, he had entered the service as captain. The next month, February, his new duties sent him on a tour of inspection among the eastern forts, going from the Susquehanna to the Delaware. In three weeks' time he visited about fifteen posts, at which were stationed approximately thirteen hundred men. Augusta had more than twice the number of any other fort. He ordered and reviewed target practice everywhere, and "sett them the Example myself by wheeling round and firing by the word of Command. I shott a bullott into the Centre of the mark the size of a Dollar—distance 100 yards." He received promises of compliance when he told the men of prominence that the government had taken over the Indian trade and that, thereafter, no individual person was to deal with the Indians. Colonel Burd had now been away from his family more than two years. His furloughs were few, though sometimes rather lengthy owing to the necessity of his going to Philadelphia and owing to the dilatory habits of Governor Denny. He had been forced to remain at Augusta for the first Christmas, but the second had been spent with his family, which had returned to Lancaster. How he enjoyed eating "good minced Pyes" baked by his mother-in-law! During the interim between his visits, Mrs. Burd nursed Allen and Polly through the smallpox and presented her husband with the fifth child, little Jean, who later married the son of Burd's companion-in-arms, Captain Patterson. Burd had held a captain's and a major's commission simultaneously; but for a time had only received recompense from the commissioners for one, since he could "discharge but one duty in a day!" N o doubt a double compensation had been needed, particularly since the pay days among provincial soldiers were so irregular. Colonel Clapham had received ¿ 3 65

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per annum, and it is likely that this amount was given to Colonel Burd. His wife must have been a good manager, since his small sums to be invested were sent through her hands. With great eagerness the young couple planned to reduce the debt owed to Captain Sterling. Sarah Burd was the true helpmate of a frontier defender.

V

LOYAL HANNA AND THE FORBES CAMPAIGN BY the spring of 1758, events had a more promising aspect f o r England than in the previous year. Pitt's return to power had its effect. A Highland Scot had been sent to blot out Braddock's failure and retrieve the Ohio country from the French. Forbes landed in N e w York and immediately began negotiations to win the Indians, particularly the Cherokee nation, to his cause. Arriving in Philadelphia, he wrote Loudoun, "necessity will turn me a Cherokee." In March, Governor Denny wrote Abercromby, the head of all English forces in America, that Delaware Indians arriving at Fort Augusta had said they were messengers of good news. T h e Munsee and Mohicans promised to keep their young men at home. And from Winchester news came to Colonel Burd that the Virginians hoped that about t w o thousand Creeks and Cherokees would soon start the elevenhundred-mile trip to attack the French at Fort Duquesne. Yet b y April, John Armstrong was sending under Major Mercer all the men he could spare to the vicinity of Shippensburg, f o r ten persons had recently been carried away from Y o r k County. T h e money bill was, as usual, slow in passing the Assembly, though finally that body, being thoroughly frightened by raids upon Carlisle and Lancaster, appropriated a half-million dollars and twenty-seven hundred men f o r the Forbes expedition. General Stanwix, relieved by Forbes, had left Carlisle for Albany. Colonel Armstrong went to Philadelphia to be present at the consultations of Forbes and Sir John St. Clair. Richard Peters, secretary of the province, thought Burd also should have been present. It was Sir John, the quartermaster-general in this expedition as well as in that of Braddock, who induced Forbes to start west through Pennsylvania rather than through V i r ginia. Probably he remembered that the middle colony had a 44

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larger food supply and more wagons than had the southern colony. On May 2, Edward Shippen wrote Colonel Burd that he expected at his home that night, Sir John, Thomas Willing, and his sister, Anne. Anne, or Nancy as she was usually called, was the Philadelphia girl with whom Colonel Bouquet, with his vaunted cosmopolitan sensibilities, had fallen in love. Although his ardent courtship finally failed, there was perhaps at this time a special reason for the fair Nancy visiting her cousin, Sarah Shippen Burd, since by the 21st of May at least, Colonel Bouquet was in Lancaster. Meanwhile Colonel Burd was preparing for the coming campaign. He was busy with reports, returns, muster rolls, supplies, and orders for the nine officers of the eastern forts. On April 9, from Hunter's Fort above Harris', he wrote each of these men as follows: As I am Commanded to hold my Battalion in Readiness to take the Field by the first day of May next. This is therefore to order you to have your Company fill'd up to fifty-three Men compleated with Cloathing & to be ready to March upon my first Notice to you. Orders to move, however, did not come to Burd until the twelfth of May, when Governor Denny, with the consent of Forbes, ordered him to Carlisle. Joseph Shippen forwarded him the orders from Philadelphia. Captain Shippen had just been made brigade major of the provincial troops, while Edward Shippen, Jr., the future chief justice of Pennsylvania, had been made clerk of the mayor's court and of the common council. Thus from his brothers-in-law Burd often got inside information quickly. On the 16th (May?) Burd wrote that Sir John ordered him to conference either in York or Lancaster, and May 21, Bouquet wrote Burd to meet him at Harris' where the troops were being ferried over the Susquehanna. So leaving the men least able for duty at the forts, and putting dependable Levi Trump in charge of Augusta, Burd began his march, May 24, with two hundred men. Part of his final instructions to Trump is significant:

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I would recommend to you particularly to Guard against Drunkedness and Surprise, the former will Necessarily Expose you to the latter, and therefore it behooves you to be particular in your Command on this head. General Forbes, yet in Philadelphia making his careful and minute plans, was still gravely concerned about what part the Indians would play in the ensuing campaign. Colonel William Byrd had arrived at Winchester, Virginia, with the discontented southern Cherokees. Forbes wrote Stanwix, May 29: So I have ordered all the Virginia and Pennsylvania troops to march that way, armed or not, or with or without Cloathes etc. This I hope will amuse them some time, as I must erect a Deposite and Fort at Raes Town, and open the communication betwixt that and Fort Cumberland as also to open the road across the Allegheny Mountain towards the Yohageny. On the 7th of June, Forbes wrote to Abercromby of his plans for the neutrality of the western Delawares and Shawnee. He was terribly handicapped by the fact that neither Sir William Johnson nor Edmund Atkins, Indian commissioners of respective departments, had come to him or sent him advice on a matter in which he confessed total ignorance. Forbes arranged, however, with Governor Denny to have the Moravian missionary, Christian Frederick Post, undertake to get the Ohio Indians to resume their friendship for the English. Post set out on his momentous mission July 15, 1758. Colonel James Burd, who had left Augusta May 24, arrived at Carlisle before the end of the month, and his troops received pay there. Bouquet, in reporting to Forbes, again spelled the Colonel's name "Bird." One must mention here that people then confused Colonel William Byrd of Virginia with his contemporary and brother officer in the campaign, Colonel James Burd of Pennsylvania. People so confuse them today. But when the English Byrd and the Scottish Burd are both dropped for the aerial Bird, the most careful historian is likely to become lost in the hazy flight. It was to Colonel James Burd, however, that Thomas Penn,

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one of the proprietaries, sent his hearty thanks for Burd's good conduct at Augusta. With that news came, May 31, orders for Burd to go to Lancaster. Yet Bouquet was worried about Augusta, fearing Burd's substitute was not fitted for the post which the Quakers deemed the key to the province. This order must have been countermanded, for Burd was in camp at Fort Loudoun on June 10. Forbes had not yet left Philadelphia, although his advance troops had reached Fort Cumberland on the one road and Raystown on the other. Every forty miles his men stored a large supply of provisions under sufficient protection. This plan detached a considerable number of his soldiers; nevertheless, Forbes intended to travel lightly and to have food and a retreat in case of final failure. He left Philadelphia June 30, arriving at Carlisle, the point of mobilization, on July 4, a very sick man. But by that time Bouquet and Burd were at Raystown. Colonel Burd was busy giving as well as taking orders. He had the nine eastern garrisons, besides Augusta, to supervise. His quill pen must have been in almost constant use, and his express riders continuously coming and going. Sending warning of a threatened attack on Augusta; ordering the French deserters who had enlisted to be sent to Lancaster gaol; ordering old roads to be repaired and new ones to be built; sending Forbes's request to friendly Indians that they wear a broad yellow band around their heads for purposes of recognition—all these duties were part of Burd's daily routine. One order was connected with the Braddock campaign and Burd's first work. At that time Burd had written, though he had not sent the letter, that all the tools and provisions of the roadbuilders had been lost or destroyed in their retreat. He probably meant lost to the colony for the time. Bouquet wrote Forbes that he had sent a party to search for the "tools buried by Captain Burd after the defeat." In that dark hour the young leader evidently had not lost faith in a future conquest. At this time, Burd himself wrote to Lieutenant Humphrys, probably the head of the party, "Bring with you all the tools you can find, which are burried

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on T o p of the Allegheny Mountain; particularly the Falling Axes." The bearer of the letter was to show the hiding place. Obviously, some of Burd's regiment had been his roadbuilders three years before. Colonel Bouquet and Colonel Burd, his assistant, were always in advance building the lines of communication and erecting breastworks and fortifications. The road they made to Raystown for Forbes had, in the main, followed the one made in 1755 by Burd. From Raystown, it was expected by St. Clair and the Virginians that the army would drop to Cumberland and follow Braddock's road. Commercial rivalry between the two colonies was behind the rather bitter contest which ensued. Suffice it to say that Colonel Burd, who was constantly with Bouquet and who had more knowledge of the obstacles to be overcome, very probably brought sufficient proof to convert that European to the Pennsylvania route. Bouquet, in turn, convinced the impartial Forbes. These reasons Forbes explained to Abercromby, July 25, when he wrote that the Pennsylvania route "will facilitate our matters much by shortening the march at least seventy miles—besides the advantage of having no rivers to pass, as we will keep the Yeogheny upon our left." And on August 11 Forbes gave him a reason (less known today)—that the enemy was not expecting them the new way whereas every pass and defile of Braddock's route was watched and a batis de Bois had been placed where, of necessity, the English must have passed. None of these reasons, however, weighed with the two Virginia colonels, Washington and Byrd; but, although letters had been exchanged, these men had not arrived at Raystown by August 16. Meantime, by the above date, the army at Raystown consisted of above 2,500 men, while 1,400 more were employed cutting and clearing the road between that base of supplies and Loyal Hanna. This stretch was the hardest of the old Indian trading path. Dense underbrush blocked the rangers. Supplies were slow in coming. Wagon horses were too weak, for want of forage, to go fast. Pack horses—the eternal pack horses, as Bouquet called

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them—were galled by the poorly built packsaddles, seven hundred of which were so badly constructed as to be useless until restuffed. Evidently profiteering was practised in 1758. Forbes could get roads built; but he could not get sufficient supplies, nor could he control the weather. Rain retarded progress again and again. Roads became impassable. But the steady, unhurried pace of the "Head of Iron" (Forbes) had two good effects: it impressed the friendly Indians, and it gave Post time to treat with the unfriendly ones. That apostle of brotherly love had taken an indirect northern route to Fort Duquesne, passing through Augusta, July 25, where lie rested and had his horse shod. Then continuing on his circuitous trip, he arrived at his destination, August 24. A f t e r three dangerous days of parley, he started back to Philadelphia, accompanied by many chiefs and by proofs of renewed friendship. On August 23, while Post was cementing peace with the Shawnee, Forbes wrote Governor Sharpe, ". . . my new Road is quite ready the length of Laurclridge, and I have sent to take post on the other Side of it, from whence it is all good to the Ohio." On the same day Bouquet gave marching orders and minute instructions to Burd. He was to march from Ravstown j that day toward Loyal Hanna with the Royal Americans, six companies of the Highland Battalion, his own division—the Second Battalion of Pennsylvanians—and one division of artillery. A f t e r the engineer had selected the site, Burd was to erect the fort, hospital, ovens, a storehouse 120 by 25 feet to be covered with shingles made on the spot, and other buildings. He was to get "sea coal" or make charcoal. Great precautions were to be taken. N o gun was to be fired, no drums beaten, and the sentries were to be changed every hour. Burd was to keep a journal and to send a report every two days to Bouquet. Y e t that officer's growing faith in his subordinate's ability is seen in this sentence: "I give you the above instructions by w a y of memorandum and you are at Liberty to make any alterations that your Judgment and the Circumstances may direct." In view of what later happened, another sentence is

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ironic: "If any difficulty should occur to you, Consult Major Grant, whose Experience and perfect knowledge of the service, you may rely intirely upon." This same advice is given in another letter. Three days later, August 26, Colonel Burd was at Fort Dewart beyond the Shawnee Cabins. From there he wrote Bouquet of the arrival of troops and wagons and that the engineer had found a fine site nine miles beyond Loyal Hanna. But the same day Bouquet wrote him not to go farther than Loyal Hanna without the General's orders, since the army might not be able to send him supplies. He told Burd, however, to send a detachment of three hundred to reconnoiter the post proposed by the engineer. Another detachment was to open the road for his wagons through Laurel Hill. Bouquet had ordered all of Sir John St. Clair's men to rejoin him and to start cutting the road up to Burd. Thus it would seem that two groups of men were working on the road between Bedford and Laurel Hill, with Sir John St. Clair's group at the front. One can hardly believe that the French scouts had not yet found the English. But when one remembers that conservative estimates of the entire number of Indians who lived north of Mexico even when Columbus landed are less than the present total population of Pittsburgh, one can realize that at this time the vast wooded stretches of the Alleghenies could have a scanty number of red men. At any rate, Bouquet hoped that Burd's advance party would pass unnoticed; they were not even allowed to speak, could have no horses, and were to build fires carefully, if absolutely necessary, in the deep woods. Bouquet reproved Burd for not having sent Rhor, the engineer, back to Raystown, saying it had caused him to lose five or six more days. Three days later he wrote again, saying that one of his letters to Burd had been intercepted. This might explain why Burd did not obey Bouquet's order; at least it gives the first intimation that the French probably knew of Forbes's plans. St. Clair was informed that Burd had reached Edmund's Swamp, rather than Fort Dewart, with the artillery on the 26th

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and was curious to know when Burd would reach him at "Kickony Pawlings." The irascible St. Clair was in a predicament. He said he could not go to camp at the Ridge as he wished because it was full of laurel! Trouble had made him quite gentle. Instead of storming like a lion rampant as in his earliest meeting with Burd, he tamely wrote, "I shall keep working on the Hill all this day, and if after you come up, you choose to see the descent of the Hill, I shall accompany you." By the next day these two men had doubtless met, for Burd camped on the Quimahony that night. He wrote Bouquet twice on the 28th —the second letter after receiving Bouquet's orders written on the 26th. There was a scarcity of pack horses and live cattle, and Burd was having to displace Virginia troops, unfit for lack of shoes, with Pennsylvania troops; yet he intended marching in the morning with four companies of the Royal Americans, five companies of the Highlanders, and the artillery, leaving the rest with Sir John for roadwork. At the foot of the mountain he would leave the artillery and proceed to Loyal Hanna. From there he himself would go with Major Grant to view Rhor's site, leaving there a captain and fifty men with necessary directions. Burd also reported that Captain Pearis had been in sight of Fort Duquesne, but could not take a prisoner. They had yet no definite news of the French strength. This same day Forbes wrote Peters from Shippensburg, "Everything that depended upon the troops has succeeded to admiration. . . ." But, he added, all now depended on the country inhabitants furnishing wagons. On the 30th Burd was still at Quimahony, writing the second time about the disgraceful quarrel between Colonel Stephen of Virginia and the crusty, irascible Sir John St. Clair. T h e next day he reached the "Clear Fields," where he was detained by rains and feared further loss of time on account of the trouble between these two men. Mutiny among officers could not be handled in quite the same manner as mutiny among the men. Back in Raystown on the same day, Bouquet was confronting mutiny for more pay and victuals. The court-martial

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ordered the guilty ones to receive six hundred lashes on their bare backs with a "Catt of Nine Tales." One received one thousand lashes and was drummed out of camp! Just the same, Bouquet gave the provincial soldiers the desired increase in rations, rather than the King's allowance. When Forbes arrived he did the same and so wrote Abercromby, whose advice he asked, adding, ". . . they are at present in great good humour works stoutly upon the roads without repining and very little desertion." The officers' quarrel, however, kept Burd from going to Rhor's site, although he had viewed part of the road with Major Grant and that gentleman was now sent instead, since, as Burd wrote dryly, "Differences between Col. Stephen and Sir John Can't easily be accomodated." On September i Colonel Burd campcd at Clear Fields, and on the 3rd he had reached his destination on the Loyal Hanna with his force of about 2,500 men. A busy time it must have been for the Colonel. Besides supervising the construction work, he wrote at least three letters that day—one to Lieutenant Colonel Lloyd and another to Captain Wetherholt with instructions for their work, and one to Bouquet, in which he wrote that he could say "very little yet about this Place, but shall soon be acquainted with it." Doubtless Bouquet's letter of the first had reached Burd by that evening. If so, the woods resounded with the unaccustomed roar of the artillery and with the shouts of happy, excited men. Bouquet had sent the glorious news of the capture of Louisburg and had ordered a fire of all artillery and musketry! The tide in the affairs of the English was coming in, and silence and repression among Burd's troops were to be a thing of the past. Moreover, Burd received a plan of Fort Duquesne from an Indian. The size of its garrison, however, was still a mooted question. Bouquet gave elaborate instructions to Burd in this letter of the first. He was to stay at Loyal Hanna until the artillery and wagons reached him. Then he was to send a thousand men to the advance post which Forbes had approved. Leaving enough men at the camp to guard the artillery and wagons, he was to divide the remaining troops into

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f o u r parties to cut nine miles of wagon road between L o y a l Hanna and the new post. W h i l e this was being done, Burd was to make an entrenched camp at the " N e w Deposit" f o r t w o thousand men. T h e wagons were then to be brought up, unloaded, and sent back to R a y s t o w n , where the General was daily expected. T h e country inhabitants had failed to supply the General with all the wagons needed. On September 6 Burd w r o t e of the scarcity of provisions. On that same day Forbes, not realizing the danger, wrote a very optimistic letter to Pitt f r o m Fort Loudoun, where he had arrived. T h a t the danger was really great is discovered from Burd's entry in his letter book on the 13th: . . . I found myself here a f e w days ago Commanding T h r e e Thousand men, with only one days provision—and Col. Bouquet had neither Horses nor waggons to supply me f r o m R a y s T o w n , and I am Really of Opinion if Our province does not Immediately Interest themselves in Supplying this A r m y . . . the Expedition will be at an end—and w e shamefully obliged to Return. Bouquet arrived at L o y a l Hanna on September 7. During the three or f o u r davs that Colonel Burd had been there alone, a good start at ridding the ground of trees and laying foundations f o r buildings had doubtless been made. T h e troops had started to w o r k on Rhor's first selection, but "upon R e c o n noitring W e found a v e r y fine Piece of Ground, naturally strong, being high and havin[g] the Creek on the one Side and a fine Spring

[on the] other just under our W o r k s . "

Those w h o have stood on the site of Fort Ligonier will agree that Burd's description is good and will understand w h y the first site was evacuated. Bouquet's order of August 23 had been v e r y explicit. Just w h y those orders to take charge of the post at L o y a l Hanna had been given to Colonel Burd instead of to Major Grant, as was Bouquet's intention three days before, is not clear. It is true that Burd had been given another promotion. H e n o w held the highest commission—that

of

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colonel—that a colony ever gave before the Revolution. But the provincial commission of colonel would not equal in importance any granted by the King of England, no matter how inferior that one might be. Probably Grant, who was a great favorite of General Forbes, had pleaded for a more spectacular assignment. That he early had a scheme in his head is evident from Forbes's letter of September 23. In connection with this plan, Bouquet, on September 7, called into his tent Major Lewis and Colonel Burd, told them of Grant's proposal, and asked their advice on the plan. Bouquet did not write his superior officer what opinion had been expressed. The inference, however, is that the officers consulted approved. At any rate, Grant marched on the 9th, taking Major Lewis along. Bouquet followed on the 10th, coming up with Grant at the advanced post, and watched him leave on the morning of the i ith for Fort Duquesne. Grant's tragic dénouement on the hill above that post followed on the 14th. It would be interesting to have the reactions of true frontier soldiers of that time to this defeat. Bouquet had had two years' experience in this country; Grant even less. One wonders how Washington or Burd would have behaved on this scouting trip. Bouquet, who relied so much upon his European background, acknowledged, when writing Amherst of this defeat, that "The Provincials appear to have done well and their good men are better in this war than the regular troops." On September 23, Bouquet was back at Raystown meeting Forbes, who had arrived on the 15th. Thus Colonel Burd was trusted to erect and defend, even in the face of Grant's defeat, the most advanced post. The one ten miles ahead had been withdrawn after that catastrophe. Forbes, evidently not expecting Bouquet, wrote him that day regarding this most talked-of event. He said he could not make much out of the officer's description . . . only that my friend Grant had most certainly lost the tra mort tone, and, by his thirst of fame, brought on his own

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perdition, and run a great risque of ours, which was far wide of the promises he made me at Carlisle, when soliciting to command a party, which I would not agree to. . . . The above letter is better known than the following one, in which it would seem that Forbes blamed Bouquet as much as Grant for the latter's defeat. In writing to Abercromby he said: You will see by Col. Bouquet's letter that he endeavours all in his power to apoligize for this rash attempt, which was in every article directly contrary to my own opinion and my orders . . . the rashness and ambition of some people brings great mischief and distress upon their friends . . . That Forbes depended greatly upon Grant's good sense is found in a letter to his superior, "and now that Major Grant is gone I have no mortal belonging to my Command that I can either trust with a letter, or argue seriously about Army proceedings, Frank Halkett alone excepted who is most diligent . . ." A week later, from Raystown, Forbes again wrote Abercromby about Grant, adding the postscript, "I hope in God you will lose no time in endeavouring to get back Maj r Grant from Montreal, As he was my only slight anchor, and support . . ." Major Grant lived to become a brigadier general and to give a life's service to Great Britain. He did good work for that country during the Revolution. He was in the battle of Long Island and probably had something to do with arranging the exchange of Colonel Burd's son who was captured by the British in that engagement. If Forbes did not give him the full blame, and his own country honored him, it seems hardly fair that America should remember him only as a rash fellow who exceeded his orders. In view of the fact that Burd had heard those verbal orders given to Grant by Bouquet, who later asked Burd to repeat them, and in view of the fact that Burd's conduct at the battle of Loyal Hanna was doubtless greatly influenced by Grant's defeat, Burd's account of the instructions to Grant takes on greater interest. Burd wrote William Allen on the 13th that

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Grant had marched "to reconnoitre with orders to act agreeable to Circumstances . . ." On the 16th, upon inquiry from Bouquet, Burd wrote a rather full account of the orders: The eight hundred men were to march as secretly as possible, keeping "always small Parties of the best Woodsmen" ahead. If no Indians were to be found lying around their fires outside the fort, Grant was to conclude he had been discovered and "his Scheme must be at an End." If Indians were lying around their fires, he was to go to the top of the hill and lie there "keeping a perfect Silence" until midnight, then the troops were to creep up to each fire. For this midnight sortie the men were to have on "clean white shirts . . . to distinguish one another." There was to be no firing except at embrasures in case cannon were fired and then only a few rounds just before retreat. As soon as Grant judged the business done he was to beat a retreat. The troops were to "retreat Instantly" to the drums left with the major on the top of the hill. Although Grant departed from these vague instructions, it is quite likely Bouquet received little consolation from this written account of his orders. That the fourth English defeat in the Ohio country had a very serious aspect, no one could deny. Counteracting the capture of Frontenac in Canada a few days previous, the disaster had only one redeeming feature for the English—it instilled a spirit of revenge in the troops. All were eager for battle. Yet even in such times jealousy among the provincials was ever present. Colonel Burd, some of whose own troops had been in the affair, received the following condolence from Daniel Clark: "Sorry your battalion behaved so poorly in the late skirmish. Storys derive their birth from Capt. Dagworthy who without exception says the Pennsylvanians ran at the first fire." A little later, John Armstrong gave Peters the germ truth: "The Virginians are much chagrin'd at the Opening of the Road thro' this Government & Colonel Washington has been a good deal Sanguine & Obstinate upon the Occasion . . ."

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Besides the jealousies among the colonies as reflected among their troops at the front, the campaign leaders were yet harassed with the old problem of getting supplies. While Bouquet was visiting the posts and seeing Grant off, he was planning with Burd how to save the expedition from collapse due to this cause. Sir John St. Clair was sent back to Philadelphia to urge action, and Burd, using his political influence, wrote William Allen: "Bouquet and I hope you will get the Assembly to pass a law to oblige every Person without exception who has a Waggon to make one Trip with Provisions to the Army under Penalty of Thirty pounds— They to provide Forage and to be paid as the law directs." What Allen did we do not know, but that the irascible Sir John must have bungled things in connection with his work is evident, for sometime later the sick Forbes wrote: ". . . the Qr. Mr. Genl. is beyond the power of man either to change or amend. And the immense confusion of Waggons and roads are intirely Sir John's creating who by a certain dexterity has you in fresh Dilemnas every day . . ." Yet Sir John was capable, and the greatness of Forbes is seen in a later letter to the same Abercromby, ". . . we are every way so much mended in the Qr. Mr. Generals Department that I beg leave to retract my reflections upon that Branch." Alone at least since September 22, Colonel Burd was having numerous troubles. Dissension among the troops and officers was probably the most dangerous. Some time previous he had written Bouquet, who seems to have started the subject: I am sorry to observe the Dimunition of the Troops of the Province of Pennsylvania, but am much more so, at the paultry Behavior of some of the Officers, and I can't help taking Notice that their Self sufficient Opinion of themselves only tends to expose their Folly, and it is with Regret that I see them too wise to be taught. On the 29th, apropos of the above, Burd again wrote Bouquet:

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I appointed a Court of the Line to enquire into the Reasons of Col. Hamilton's confining Captain Ward & the Ensigns Pollock & Armstrong & enclosed You have the Report of the Court. Col. Hamilton is confined to his Tent under two Sentinels and Lieut. Lauchry to the Redoubt No. 1. and they both shall remain untill I hear from you. Besides trouble with his own men, Burd was being harassed by Indians. They had recently killed one man, carried off another, and taken a number of horses. Lieutenant Colonel Dagworthy went out with one party and Captain Ward with another, yet neither took any prisoners. Nature, too, seemed determined to hinder the whole Forbes campaign. It had been a rainy year. Burd wrote that before he left Augusta in May it had rained for fourteen consecutive days. Forbes had been told that October and November were fine months, yet he wrote in disgust of the effect of the continual autumn rains on the roads. Burd was hindered by this constant precipitation in supporting his parties. He had to send tools to Colonel Armstrong at Stony Creek, and he had sent Lieutenant Colonel Lloyd with four hundred men to cut the road to the former advance post. The rain also greatly hindered the erecting of the buildings and the digging of the entrenchments. Army routine, nevertheless, was kept up in much the same way, no doubt, as Burd had done at Augusta. Reveille was sounded at break of day. Then all hands went to work, except a reconnoitering party which also brought in the wagon horses. Breakfast followed—a hearty one if the camp were not on short rations through the carelessness or penuriousness of the leaders in the East. All parties, closely guarded, returned to work until dinner at one o'clock. After a short rest, work was resumed until sunset, when the troops gathered in parade. After supper the tired men surrounded campfires, and games and stories peculiar to military life occupied their time. In Colonel Burd's tent the pine knot burned late at night, while his driving quill pen wrote endless letters, orders, and journal entries. Interruptions to his rest must have been fre-

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quent, as belated wagoners, dejected pack-horse drivers, and breathless post riders stopped to report. Some evenings, however, were doubtless spent with brother officers playing cards and drinking the inevitable liquor. On October 6, or shortly after, it is likely that Lieutenant Colonel Dagworthy with several other officers of the Maryland and North Carolina troops went back to Raystown. Burd wrote that much as he disliked allowing it, he had to let these men go since their troops were in such need of clothing. Loyal Hanna (Ligonier) even in October would seem chilly to Southerners. It is not likely they were all back by the twelfth. Bouquet, so far as we know, had not been at Loyal Hanna since September 22, nor had he written recently to Burd. On October 12, however, he wrote from Stony Creek, east of Laurel Hill, "I defferred answering your Several Letters in Expectation of joining you every day. The Rains, broken Roads, and Several other contingent Causes have kept me back, Tomorrow I hope to dine w h you, but don't retard dinner for me." Bouquet had the second division of artillery with him, while the third had just left Raystown, so we know Burd had only the original first division with which he started to Loyal Hanna. By the morning of October 12, the fortifications of Loyal Hanna had been in the process of building less than six weeks. Bouquet, as before intimated, had not been there for about three weeks, and was on the other side of the mountain, not only unable to give assistance, but needing help from Burd in case of attack. Forty miles to the west was the French Fort Duquesne. The English had yet no proof of its strength. George Croghan, however, estimated the enemy to be four thousand, and Forbes, thinking of supplies, perhaps, said that even twelve hundred could harm his army. It is likely that Burd, knowing Croghan so well, believed his estimate to be correct and governed his actions accordingly when, at eleven that morning, the French and Indians attacked Loyal Hanna. W e have several brief accounts by Colonel Burd of this

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attack. It started with the firing of a few guns to the southwest. T w o parties were sent out to surround the enemy, "but Instantly the firing Encreased." Then a party of five hundred men was sent out by the Colonel. The attack was so strong that these men were forced back to camp and "Immediately a Regular Attack ensued" with great fury. In his journal and in his letter to his wife, Colonel Burd said the engagement lasted until three in the afternoon. The main attack, he wrote Bouquet, lasted two hours. N o details were given in this letter, only the statement: "But we had the pleasure to do that Honor to his Majesty's arms, to Keep his Camp at Loyal Hannon." This dispatch was written in the evening after Bouquet's longexpected letter had arrived. His superior officer had asked for one hundred axes to be sent him. Burd not only complied, but he also sent off, at eight o'clock that night, two hundred soldiers under Lieutenant Colonel Lloyd to reinforce Bouquet, should he be attacked at Stony Creek. Burd did this although he expected another attack on his own camp, and, in fact, two attacks were made while he was writing to Bouquet. At eleven that evening another attack was made. All troops slept that night under arms. Burd noted in his journal that Lieutenant Carey returned that evening with his small party bringing clothing for the Virginia regiment. Every reinforcement, no matter how small, must have been very welcome. At eleven next morning, October 13, an express from Bouquet arrived saying he was at Fort Dudgeon and wanted to know if the situation was such that he could get into the camp at Loyal Hanna. Burd replied that he thought it safe to come with his three hundred men. Bouquet received this letter the same afternoon. At ten that night he wrote Forbes he would start in two hours to join Burd, although he could then hear cannon shots in the mountains. Bouquet was short of provisions and wrote that the two hundred men Burd had sent had not eaten for two days until that moment, when provisions had come from Stony Creek. He added, "Without this cursed

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rain we would have arrived in time with the artillery and 200 men, and I believe it would have made a difference." But at twelve that night he wrote Burd that, having discovered a party of Indians on the east side of Laurel Hill, he was taking the whole force back to Stony Creek. He was still there on the 16th and had been joined by Washington, who had spent July and August at Fort Cumberland. Fuller accounts of this battle at Loyal Hanna differ. Colonel Burd thought the French were twelve hundred strong with two hundred Indian allies. Forbes wrote Peters that there were nine hundred French and the two hundred Indians. The only available French accounts with any particulars, both written by Montcalm, do not give the number of the French. Forbes said that Burd had fifteen hundred not counting the sick. Other details also differ. Burd thought Captain de Ligneris of Fort Duquesne had sent M. de Vetri in command. Montcalm says it was Captain Aubry who attacked and gained a considerable advantage. Burd says the English lost sixty-two men and five officers killed, wounded, and missing; Montcalm says the English lost one hundred and fifty men killed, wounded, and missing. Montcalm says the French had only two men killed and seven wounded; Burd says the French were busy ail night carrying off their killed and wounded, and writes in his journal of burying seven French soldiers and taking one prisoner. Since Montcalm has the date and location of battle wrong, it is probable much else is wrong also. Three things, at least, that he recorded were correct: the Indians had since gone off to hunt, the Louisiana detachment at Duquesne had gone home, and the commanding officer was Aubry. Bouquet made complimentary remarks in his letter of the 13th to Burd: "I am very easy about you, the Post is Strong and in good hands . . ." Yet he implied in his letter to Forbes that had he been there things would have gone better. In a later letter he called the affair a humiliating defeat. Ten years in Pennsylvania had doubtless made Burd seem a provincial.

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Bouquet gave his estimate of colonials in a letter to his sweetheart, Anne Willing. As a reason why he should not forswear a military for a civilian life in Philadelphia, he wrote: How could I brook the supercilious look and the surly pride of the Humble Quaker? or the insulting rudeness of an Assemblyman, who, picked up from a dunghill thinks himself raised to a Being of a Superior nature? How submit to the insolent Rusticity of the Free Pennsylvania Boor, who knows no distinction among mankind, and from a vile Slavery in his native country takes his newly acquired Liberty for a right to run into all the Excesses of Licentiousness and Arrogance. One is not surprised that Anne refused Bouquet, and married one of the men at whom he railed. N o r yet is one surprised that this soldier of fortune should become a naturalized citizen in this home of the "Pennsylvania Boor" in order to be in a position to receive well-earned promotion from the King. Again on the 16th, Bouquet sent a compliment—that Forbes had fired a feu de joye for Burd's "affair." He was sorry no prisoner had been taken. He must not have received Burd's letter of the 14th which enclosed the deposition of the French prisoner, who died that day. From that paper, Forbes got his idea of the strength of the enemy, and from Bouquet's description, he received his main idea of the engagement. At this time it is unlikely that Forbes had ever seen his former countryman, Colonel Burd. John Armstrong had gone to Philadelphia to meet General Forbes, but Burd had stayed at his post, Fort Augusta. W e have three long letters written by Forbes about the attack on Loyal Hanna. Alike in facts, they give varying interpretations of the action. The letter to the secretary of Pennsylvania, Richard Peters, puts the affray in a fair light. Forbes was diplomatic. He knew he was writing about a prominent man of the colony. He finished the description with, " I fancy they will not visit soon again, and it has put all the Waggoners in such spirits, that a single waggon will go now with-

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out one escorte . . ." The letter to William Pitt was condemnatory of the defense. After pointing out that Burd had the greater number of men and that the French had no cannon he wrote: I was extreamly angry to find our people had not pursued and attacked their rear in their retreat, from which we might have made reprizalls, but as our troops were mostly provincials, I was obliged to attribute it to their ignorance, for to do justice I must commend the spirit of some of the provincialls, particularly the Maryland troops . . . This letter probably expresses, as honestly as possible, Forbes's opinion. The third one was to Abercromby, his immediate superior. After that officer's terrible defeat at Ticonderoga, it would have been tactless for Forbes to report a victory. After giving the facts he wrote sarcastically: I send you enclosed the list of killed etc in this great action of which (I beg youl keep my secret) I must make the best, but I am apt to believe that the Enemy were not so strong as call'd, and that we had above 1500 effective men within our breastwork exclusive of sick and yet neither made one sortie or followed them half a yard, but shamefully allowed them to bury the few they had killed. Carry off their wounded with some prisoners, and all our horses . . . Forbes then added that because the rains and lack of provisions had depressed everyone's spirits he "puffed up everything and ordered a General Feu de Joye," but he hoped soon to make a real feu de joye for Abercromby's success! Colonel Burd had taken no chances. He had done nothing spectacular. He was stationed at the outpost, and he held it against a long attack whose potential strength he did not know. Losing less than a score in killed, he erased the previous defeat. Without holding a brief for Burd, one must admit that after four defeats, his was the only important English victory over the French in the Ohio country. Burd, as well as the Indians, had watched the failure of Ensign Ward, of Captain

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Washington, of General Braddock, and of Major Grant. Another French victory might well have marked the end of English hopes for the Ohio country. Bouquet notwithstanding, it was an English victory, and was so considered by the Indians. It is the irony of fate that these four men who were defeated have received far more publicity for their failure than Burd has received for his success. Bouquet, perhaps on account of his splendid victory at Bushy Run five years later, has been the outstanding character in this campaign. By October 20, he had come to Loyal Hanna. Perhaps Burd breathed a sigh of relief. At least he would have more time to devote to the nine eastern forts, whose commanders looked to him for orders. All hands, however, were kept busy getting quarters ready for the whole army, the last division of which left Raystown on October 23. It now seemed probable that the army would go into winter quarters at Loyal Hanna. By the last of October Forbes was at Stony Creek and arrived at Loyal Hanna soon after. The sick General was now further pestered with the making of a momentous decision—to attack Duquesne or to go into winter quarters. On November 7 Christian Frederick Post arrived from Easton on his second trip. Forbes, disappointed with the assistance of the Cherokees under Colonel William Byrd of Virginia, was still counting greatly on the neutrality of the Ohio Indians, influenced by the saintly Post. In this he was not disappointed. Post left on the 9th, carrying Forbes's message of that date. The soldiers, perhaps Burd among them, wondered how Post managed without sword or gun. On November 12 occurred the affair in which Washington was nearly killed. Forbes said that when two hundred of the enemy attacked the cattle guard, he sent a party of five hundred to the rescue. These were commanded by Colonel Mercer. Then he sent Washington with five hundred more. From a misunderstanding and the gathering dusk, the two English parties fired on each other, killing two officers and thirty-eight privates. Forbes's greater casualty list was one he could wish "sunk for a little" as he had wished Burd's to be. One encoqr-

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aging thing for the English came out of this unfortunate encounter—the capture of a prisoner who told about the reduced strength of Fort Duquesne. The General decided to attack. When Forbes and the main body of the army moved forward toward Fort Duquesne from Loyal Hanna, Colonel Burd was left with the rear guard in charge of that post. What a keen disappointment this was to the active young officer is seen in his letter of November 20 to Bouquet: I have a most disaggreable Command here I wish it was Consistent with the Service that I could be ordered forward to Join you, it is certainly as unfortunate a Circumstance as has happened to me during my life, yett I will do my duty here, or anywhere else, to the utmost of my Faculty . . . Doubtless Bouquet answered this request sooner, but at least on December 1 he wrote from the "Late Fort Duquesne" that no officer of the first or second battalion was to go farther than Loyal Hanna without the General's permission. John Armstrong evidently had that permission. The day before Burd had sought release from Loyal Hanna, General Forbes wrote a long letter directly to him about the desertion of Carpenter, the Cherokee chief. The Cherokees had been from the beginning of the campaign the bane of Forbes's existence. N o w the last of them had departed, taking arms and horses which had been supplied by the English. Colonel William Byrd of Virginia had not been able to induce them to remain, and Forbes feared for the back inhabitants of the southern colonies. He therefore ordered Colonel James Burd to send to Raystown full directions for the commanders at Winchester, Cumberland, and Loudoun. The garrisons of these forts were to attempt to secure the arms from the deserting Cherokees. Brigade Major Francis Halkett wrote from Forbes's advance post, ordering Colonel Burd to detach two hundred of his best men and send them forward to the place the army was about to leave. This site was twenty-two miles beyond Loyal Hanna and fortified with "Foqr Redoubts," T o Burd,

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then, fell the task of keeping open the line of communication and of supplying Forbes with food. The world knows what happened at the forks of the Ohio on November 25, 1758. Bouquet wrote William Allen that afternoon, "After God, the success of this expedition is entirely due to the General . . ." The next day, Forbes renamed the fort in honor of the man who had sent him out and probably envisioned the teeming city of today. The lack of climax in the long struggle for the acquisition of this strategic point was sensibly reviewed by Edward Shippen, Jr. The reduction of the fort by driving the French away, though it will not make such an eclat in the world as obtaining it by regular siege or a pitched battle would have done, is nevertheless equally beneficial in its consequences, and General Forbes* prudence and good conduct will establish his character with thinking people, as effectually as if he had obtained his conquest through blood and slaughter. . . . The French, however, would hardly have evacuated Fort Duquesne, had their Indian allies stood by them. That these aborigines decided to go hunting was largely due to four factors: first, since the base of supplies at Frontenac had been captured, the French could not supply the Indians with the usual gifts; hence the primeval hunt was necessary for sustenance. Second, the slow, relentless progress of Forbes, supported by his fortified line of communication, must have seemed as inevitable as death to the savage, inured only to the short, hasty raid. Third, the character of Christian Frederick Post, embodying the traits of the religion he professed, helped win the red man's neutrality, for the promises of the Easton treaty seemed valid when delivered by him. Lastly, the severe check received from the provincials under Colonel Burd at Loyal Hanna quenched the ardor of the braves. On December 2 Burd wrote Governor Denny of the happy outcome of the expedition. Saying he would return with the General and Bouquet, he asked that instructions about recruiting his battalion be sent him on his march. T w o days later he

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wrote his wife he would go to Philadelphia with the General, but that he and Bouquet would be stationed at Lancaster, "which you may be sure is very agreeable to me." Burd was expecting the General every minute, and by the 8th, when Post arrived from Logstown, Forbes was at Ligonier too sick to receive him. The next three weeks were surely trying times. Colonel Mercer had been left at Fort Pitt, more soldiers would be left to garrison Loyal Hanna, but the other provincials hoped to be back at their homes for Christmas. Forbes, being a soldier, must have been chagrined that his illness should retard the restless men; being a physician also, he must have realized this Christmas would be his last. Success was poor consolation for the lonely man. Colonel Burd, on the other hand, dreamed of spending the happy day with his wife and children. As days passed this hope failed. On the 25th, nevertheless, the men made the best of it and enjoyed a "frolic"—except Post, another lonely soul, who spent the day in the woods. T w o days later, Forbes was again able to travel in his litter. One wonders whether he might have changed his opinion about his countryman's defense of Loyal Hanna as he had changed his mind about the touchy Sir John. Probably Burd sometimes rode by his side as they retraced the long trail. The last day of the old year was spent resting at Raystown. In a f e w days the troops reached Shippensburg where, on the fifth, Israel Pemberton from Philadelphia met the General. Strange that this Quaker should come out to meet a victorious army. Arriving at Lancaster, it is probable that Forbes stayed with Edward Shippen. N o doubt the bell of the near-by church rang a thankful greeting. In the welcoming crowd were Sarah Shippen Burd and her little flock. Colonel Burd was home again. Doubtless most of the provincials had been disbanded or given leave of absence at Carlisle or Lancaster. The Highlanders supported their chief as he started on his last march. Little record is found of Forbes's arrival in Philadelphia or of

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his last days. His iron will held out until winter was almost over. Colonel Burd went down for the funeral on March 15th. He may have been one of the six officers who carried the body, preceded by the riderless horse, in the long procession to Christ Church. The interment within the chancel of that church was followed by a last discharge of guns. As Burd walked out to the street, past the great Shippen house where Governor Denny now lived, and on to the London Coffee House, his thoughts must have reverted to his own future. He was still young—just thirty-three.

VI

THE MONONGAHELA AND THE REDSTONE COUNTRY the Forbes campaign, Burd's troops were widely scattered and he, under the direction of Colonel Henry Bouquet of the Royal Americans, was constantly engaged at Philadelphia and Lancaster gathering supplies and recruits f o r the 1759 campaign. This was tedious work. Exorbitant prices f o r supplies were asked, and many persons refused to sell since they had not yet been paid for the previous year's services. During Braddock's campaign, currency had been plentiful. Benjamin Franklin had been able to collect wagons easily b y paying cash. During the Forbes campaign, currency had been scarcer and supplies were correspondingly harder to procure. In 1759, however, lack of cash almost ruined the campaign. Threats of seizure of forage with payment later, which were actually carried out in some cases, and threats of impressing soldiers angered the colonists. That Burd was earnestly attending to his duties is evident from the content of letters addressed to him. Bouquet wrote him that "you have the General's thanks for your indefatigable Industry in forwarding every branch of the service in your country." Burd was disturbed, however, by the discouraging reports about the men of his battalion that came from Major Thomas Lloyd at L i gonier and from Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Mercer at Pittsburgh. L l o y d wrote, perhaps with exaggeration, that the "graveyard" had most of Colonel Burd's men. According to Mercer, those stationed at Pittsburgh had fared almost as badly. Exhausted by the hard campaign and unaided by sufficient medical care, the soldiers had not been able to withstand disease. An epidemic of measles had broken out in the early spring. Scurvy, that dread disease caused by improper diet, had also taken a heavy toll. A flood on the Allegheny AFTER

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and Monongahela rivers had left the floor of the temporary fort at the "Point" covered with water. Added to all these troubles was the scarcity of food. The garrison at Fort Pitt had been without meat since the 7th of May, and on the 25th, when Captain Morgan was finally able to bring supplies, there was not one pound of any food left in the storehouse. Mercer, himself a surgeon, felt deeply the soldiers' desperate need of medical aid and proper food. The situation in which the British garrisons of the western forts found themselves in the spring and early summer of 1759 was quite precarious. France had by no means given up hope of recovering Fort Duquesne; Wolfe had not yet made his decisive stroke. Constant rumors of the concentration of troops and supplies at Venango came creeping into English outposts; stealthy attacks made with increasing boldness by the Indian allies of the French upon the English lines of communication were becoming almost daily occurrences. A small party under Lieutenant Hughes was attacked within hearing distance of Fort Bedford, and four men were killed before the party was reinforced from the garrison. Captain Morgan, on his urgent trip with supplies for Fort Pitt, was attacked at Turtle Creek. Five men were killed, but he brought the wounded and the much-needed supplies safely into the fort. An attack with a more serious result brought gloom to all the English troops. Colonel William Byrd III had sent Virginia troops from Winchester to reinforce Ligonier. On May 23 Major Lloyd wrote of the defeat just four miles from Ligonier of one hundred of these Virginians under Captain Bullit. This officer had a convoy of provisions. Thirty-six men were killed or missing; all his wagon horses, fifty in number, were killed or taken; and, worst of all, most of the provisions were carried off to the French forts on the English pack horses. The loss of these fifty horses was a blow to the English out of all proportion to the fact, for the lives of the garrisons at Ligonier and Fort Pitt were seriously jeopardized by this depletion of transportation facilities. This attack upon the Virginia convoy had other dis-

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astrous effects. Even George Croghan was afraid to leave Bedford without a large escort; he waited two weeks before he could start for Pittsburgh to hold an Indian conference. He wrote Captain Horatio Gates that if another escort were attacked, the western posts would have to be abandoned. The farmers had now even a better reason for not supplying horses and wagons. Yet despite the danger and the positive rejection of the money bill by the Assembly so that the people had to await payment until money came from England, Burd wrote on the last of May that he had just sent forward twenty-two wagons and that thirty more would start within a week. Meanwhile, he had received word of the pressing need for troops to the westward. From Carlisle Colonel John Armstrong wrote that conditions made it expedient that Burd's new recruits be sent forward, and from Philadelphia Bouquet sent the General's marching orders for four companies from Lancaster. The fear of an attack upon Fort Pitt and the danger of the starvation of its garrison caused military men to plan a quicker and easier means of transportation: a serviceable route from Virginia over which supplies from that colony and Maryland could be sent to Fort Pitt. The plans of the military men were soon endorsed by the business men of Virginia. The Ohio Company, ten years earlier, had planned a trade route to the junction of the three rivers. Late in July 1759, Major Tulleken of the Royal Americans wrote General Stanwix that a Mr. Finnie, "a man of substance" and of "some interest in his Province" although nominally "head sutler" to the Virginia regiment, had proposed such a road. It was apparent that a new route would help Virginia trade and that it would also save His Majesty many pounds sterling. In fact, after the road had finally been determined, Bouquet made with the Virginians a very advantageous contract to which a penalty of five hundred pounds was attached. This contract called for the delivery at Fort Pitt of six hundred bushels of fine salt at twenty-two shillings per bushel, Virginia money. Salt from

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Carlisle would have cost the government, according to Bouquet, three pounds per bushel for carriage alone. During the winter of 1758-59 Captain Joseph Shippen and Captain Harry Gordon had explored the Monongahela region. Captain Gordon was the engineer who had designed Fort Ligonier and who later planned Fort Pitt. He was consulted about the projected road from Virginia, and on July 5 he made the following report: The Road to Redstone Creek turns off at the great Rock five Miles Westward of the great Meadows—but the Indian Path from the great Rock is to be kept—and that comes upon the Mononghela two Miles above Redstone Creek—where it comes upon the River there is a Ridge upon which is the Remains of an Indian Retrenchment of a circular Form and below is a Creek where a Saw Mill can be made—upon the Point of the Ridge above to the River is a large Tree which I blazed. Captain Gordon suggested that a post be erected on this ridge, and he thought that "two Artificer Companies of Virginia" could make the road and post in a short time. Since the road led from Virginia, the logical man to build it was Colonel William Byrd of that colony. In 1758 he had constructed Fort Chiswell near the forks of the roads from Philadelphia and Richmond, and had built a fort on the Holston River, now in Tennessee. Colonel Bouquet thought Byrd was the man for the enterprise; on July 13 he wrote Hugh Mercer at Fort Pitt that the Virginians were to have set out on the n t h of July, part of them to clear the road to Redstone Creek, the remainder to proceed to Bedford. Byrd received the order to march to Redstone from General Stanwix and replied that although he had no tools to open the road and build the fort, he intended to march not part but all of his five hundred men to the creek because smallpox had broken out among his force. Stanwix stated that he approved the plan unless Major Tulleken, who was stationed at Fort Bedford, should need the Virginians' reinforcement. Tulleken was quite certain that the strength of the enemy was six or seven hun-

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dred French with eight or nine hundred Indians, that they had ten pieces of cannon, two of which were twelve-pounders, and that the immediate objective of this force was either Fort Pitt or Fort Ligonier. For these reasons Tulleken sent a request to Byrd to march to Bedford at once and leave his baggage to follow. Tulleken intended to join the Virginians upon their arrival and to go with them to reinforce Fort Ligonier. Hugh Mercer had written for more troops at Fort Pitt and said that an escort of five hundred men was needed to go safely to that outpost. George Croghan, still at Pittsburgh after a satisfactory Indian conference, wrote Stanwix that spies told of preparations at Venango for an immediate attack. Such was the anxiety that by July 18 Tulleken feared it might be too late to relieve the garrison at Fort Pitt; by the 21st, however, he knew that an immediate assault had been abandoned, because Colonel Prideaux had drawn the French to Niagara, where he was planning to attack the foit with the help of Sir William Johnson and his Iroquois. On the day this intelligence came William Byrd arrived at Bedford with the five hundred Virginians. These troops were now divided to form two escorts going west, and Byrd left with the first division for Fort Ligonier. There seems to have been no more discussion about the Virginia Byrd opening the road to the Monongahela at Redstone and building the post there. During the remainder of the campaign of 1759 he was stationed at Ligonier or at Pittsburgh; his men were kept busy repairing the Forbes Road and aiding in building Fort Pitt. Both his wife and his mother wrote him at Pittsburgh, begging him to come home, but he seems not to have gone back to beautiful Westover that year even for a short visit. Meanwhile James Burd of Pennsylvania had been busy at Lancaster in a dreary round of purchasing supplies, arming and drilling troops, and sending them to Carlisle, whence Bouquet wrote him that he would "forward them up the Country to form your Batt. as you desired." There was, nevertheless, a

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pleasant compensation. Burd was able to see much of his family, and he and his father-in-law, Edward Shippen, doubtless entertained many of the men prominent in military and political circles. Toward the end of June Bouquet wrote Burd that he would "perhaps have the Pleasure to see you again at Lancaster to meet the General." Was it just General Stanwix that Bouquet expected to meet, or did he hope to dance the stately minuet with Anne Willing of Philadelphia at the home of her cousin, Sally Shippen Burd? In July Burd said good-bye to these social gatherings and left with his troops to join Bouquet at Bedford. On account of the grave danger of starvation, it had finally been decided to reopen the Braddock Road, thus providing two land routes over which provisions could be sent to Fort Pitt, where four or five hundred friendly Indians, besides the garrison, made it impossible to maintain any magazine. Bouquet was skeptical whether the advantages of this route would outweigh the necessity of maintaining troops at Cumberland for escorts, and he felt that the Virginians rather than the Pennsylvanians should furnish these guards. Shortly after it had been decided to reopen the Braddock Road, the Virginia group again insisted upon the construction of a new road from the Braddock Road to the Monongahela River at Redstone Creek. Lieutenant Colonel George Mercer of Virginia wrote Bouquet that in 1754 he had commanded a "Working Party" that had opened a road from Gist's plantation to within three or four miles of that creek. He thought the road could be easily repaired, for he had not had to build a single bridge. B y this route, according to George Mercer, thirty or thirty-five miles of land carriage could be saved, and by November Pittsburgh could have enough supplies. Colonel Adam Stephen of Virginia also wrote Stanwix recommending the road. The Virginia business men presented their case in favor of the route. Finally, on the 22 nd of August, two days after the Braddock Road had been opened to Pittsburgh by the Virginians under Finnie, Bouquet wrote Stanwix that he

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had sent Colonel James Burd at his own request to open the road to Redstone Creek and build storehouses and a stockade on the Monongahela, by which means there would be three communications with Pittsburgh and every province might send produce which way it chose. Just why James Burd of Pennsylvania had been chosen, rather than William Byrd of Virginia who had first been considered, or George Mercer, who had been over the road in 1754 and had fought with Washington at Fort Necessity, is not known. Urgent reasons for the construction of the road were advanced. T o Governor Francis Fauquier of Virginia, Bouquet wrote that Stanwix had ordered the road opened in order to render communication easier with Virginia. T o Edward Shippen of Lancaster, who with James Burd had spent the first half of the year in seeking supplies, Bouquet wrote of the new project and added that Burd had gone to Fort Cumberland, "being at last obliged to have recourse to Virginia to avoid the Impending Ruin of the Army." Bouquet was by this time friendly with many Pennsylvanians of prominence. They may have induced him to postpone the Virginia road as long as possible. James Burd, too, must have disliked the prospect of seeing Virginia drain the Ohio fur trade. He had, nevertheless, done all he could to get sufficient supplies in Pennsylvania, and he had too often been near starvation during his own frontier projects to risk it for those at Fort Pitt. It is probable, therefore, that Burd urged the building of this rival road, and it is not surprising that this important work was given to him at his own request. Burd took two men with him who knew the region: Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Shippen, who had been there the previous year with Captain Gordon, and Colonel Thomas Cresap, who with the Indian Nemacolin had marked and improved the early traders' path to the mouth of the Redstone. By the first of September Burd, with his party of two hundred men, had left Bedford and was in camp at Fort Cumberland. From all representations he would naturally have expected to find

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sufficient supplies at that point. In a letter written that day, however, he directed an officer of his battalion to bring with him all supplies, since he could expect nothing at Cumberland. That night seventeen men deserted and took two wagon horses with them. The autumn rainy season had begun, and with it Burd's troubles. For the present-day traveler, accustomed to the macadamized road over which the motor-driven vehicle swiftly carries provisions, it is hard to conceive of Burd's plodding cavalcade of pack horses and crude wagons as, on the 2nd of September, it moved slowly north from Cumberland. One hundred pack horses loaded with forage were sent directly to Pittsburgh. Fifty Burd sent back to Winchester to be loaded with oats, and forty went with him loaded with flour. Wagons followed. In all, he carried enough provisions for eighteen days. Bouquet wrote that fifty wagons were on the way with forage but that he was quite anxious to know what sort of road Burd would find. The road proved to be in such bad condition that Burd made only ten miles by the 5th of the month, and by the 7th he was encamped at Little Meadows. Not a single bridge over the fourteen or fifteen creeks crossed in the first ten-mile stretch had been repaired. Heavy rains made a swamp of the road in many places. Perhaps it was exposure to the inclement weather that caused Burd's usually splendid health to become impaired; he used quinine to combat a violent fever. The careers of James Burd and William Byrd, so strangely interlaced, were again parallel; for the Virginia Colonel, ordered by Stanwix to leave Ligonier and join him at Pittsburgh, arrived there at this time "very ill." Braddock's Road, as described by James Burd, was "not more than 10 feet wide and carries up every Hill almost without a turn and Hills almost perpendicular." Burd had started with a moderate load for each wagon—twelve hundredweight each. Yet he wrote Bouquet that the horses could not haul this amount, so that he took about fourteen hundredweight out of the four wagons "and loaded upon the officers horses & at the Hills I put 6 sold" to each Wagon to hoist them up;

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I hope to march from hence 12 miles today, if I make out this march I will be very happy at Night." The rains had made the road from Bedford to Cumberland so bad that Bouquet recalled his wagons and attempted to supply Burd by pack horse. As in the campaign of 1758, some profiteer had made ill-fitting packsaddles, with the result that three hundred horses had been lost on account of them. The farmers, knowing that their horses had been ruined by either the bad roads or the packsaddles, refused to furnish more horses; they even eluded confiscation by temporarily disabling the animals. Bucks County plantation owners retained their horses in this manner. Just when transportation facilities were breaking down and the roadbuilders were getting far from their base, another difficulty to the forwarding of supplies arose: George Mercer could not persuade the Virginians to accept paper money. He wrote to Bouquet on August 28 from Winchester: "Pray Sir be pleased if possible to send Me down some Gold or Dollars" for "it will have a strange Effect upon the Eyes, & Minds indeed, of the Farmers." These men were aware of the prices offered to the Pennsylvania farmers and, as usual, found comparisons odious; but specie was the all-important requisite. Said Mercer, "The old Misers take more Delight in telling over the Pieces of Gold or Silver, than twice the Quantity of Paper." There is another interesting item in this letter of George Mercer: "I have engaged two very good, honest, industrious young Merchts here, to go out to Pitsburg with about ¿500 of Indian Goods, their first Venture." Thus did Virginia strengthen her hold upon the upper Ohio fur trade. Meanwhile Burd was slowly pushing forward along the Braddock Road. On September 10 he passed Fort Necessity and on the 1 ith the lonely grave of General Braddock. From there the party marched to the site of Dunbar's camp which, as Burd wrote in his journal, was in a stony hollow, surrounded by hills, and commanded on all sides; "the worst chosen piece of ground for an encampment I ever saw." He said further: "Here we saw vast quantities of cannon-ball,

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musket-bullets, broken shells, and an immense destruction of powder, wagons, etc. Reconnoitered all the camp, and attempted to find the cannon and mortars, but could not discover them, although we dug a great many holes where stores had been buried, and concluded the French had carried them off." On the same day he wrote, " W e continued our march, and got to Guest's (Gist's) place; here we found a fine country." On the next day Burd's party turned away from the friendly open spaces of Gist's plantation and started on its first objective—the opening of a new road from the Braddock Road to the Monongahela. Whereas Braddock had taken a northnortheast course, Burd took a north-northwest course following some old blazes that he supposed had been made by Colonel Washington. After a few miles the party crossed Redstone Creek and cut the road along a ridge in a west-northwest direction. The following day James Kenny, a Quaker trader, wrote in his journal, "I met Col. Burd of Penna & a party with wagons & pack-horses going to y" mouth of Redstone Creek to build some storehouses in order to have y" carriage on this road to go from thence down y 6 Monongahela to Pittsburgh, old Cressap being their pilot." A day later Kenny wrote that he had "met a man going with liquor to Redstone, also a small party of soldiers with some bullocks." These were probably the last supplies to reach Burd from either Fort Cumberland or Fort Pitt for many a long day. The gratitude and good intentions of Virginia seemed to be expressed in words rather than in deeds. Governor Fauquier had written Bouquet, "This Colony has certainly great Obligations to Gen 1 Stanwix for the Advantages he has procured to it by opening the Roads to Pittsburgh, & I sincerely hope his army will immediately and daily receive the Benefit he expects by being well supplyed with provisions from our back Settlements." Remembering, perhaps with gloomy foreboding, how starvation had almost conquered his roadbuilders of 1755 and how unfavorable this section of the country had been to the

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English cause, Burd cautiously and steadily pushed forward. Even on Sunday the men worked before and after the regular sermon by Dr. Alison, the chaplain. After leaving Gist's plantation Burd encamped six miles to the west where he had crossed the Redstone. There some mail reached the party, and from there Joseph Shippen replied to a letter from his father, who had informed him that a daughter had been born to Colonel Burd's wife at Lancaster. The letter to Burd containing the news had not yet reached him, although the event had occurred fifteen days earlier. Each day put the party farther from human contact. Soon the camp was moved to Coal Run. Of this place Burd wrote, "This run is entirely paved in the bottom with fine stone-coal, and the hill on the south of it is a rock of the finest coal I ever saw. I burned about a bushel of it on my fire." Burd has been given credit for the first mention of coal in western Pennsylvania. Although he has not received enough credit for what he did do, this particular honor he may not deserve. On April 24 of this same year Hugh Mercer wrote that excellent coal, and limestone also, had recently been found on the Monongahela nearly opposite Pittsburgh. During August of 1758, however, Colonel Burd and Sir John St. Clair had returned from a reconnaissance on the Allegheny Mountain where they had found coal "which appears as good as any in England." Chaplain Bay did not confide to his journal which man found it on the mountain but did state that Sir John "brought [it] from thence." On the 23rd of September Burd reached the Monongahela. He had cut a new road sixteen and one-quarter miles and sixteen perches long. He made camp at the mouth of Nemacolin's (now Dunlap's) Creek one mile above the mouth of the Redstone rather than at the junction of that creek with the Monongahela. The reason for the change he explained to Engineer Harry Gordon: You may remember last winter you blazed the trees on the •point of a hill and then you went up another which Colonel

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Shippen informs me you called the Rich Hill and on which you saw an old Indian Fort. At the point of this hill I am building next the river. I determined upon this last place for two reasons. One was that just by the other place you blazed there was a very deep gully which I could not command by so small works, another was that Col. Shippen told me the place where we now are you preferred and indeed it is a very fine place. T o Stanwix Burd wrote that the site, fifty yards from the river, commanded both it and the creek and was "not Commanded by any thing." Burd had expected to find supplies awaiting him at the Redstone, but although the river was in good shape for bateaux none had arrived. There were no nails for the construction of the fort, no oats for the worn-out horses, and, worst of all, no food for the men. Burd had only eight bullocks left, and for three days had been able to allow only one-half pound of flour per man, officers included, and that flour was spoiled. On September 25 the usually good-natured colonel sent a blistering indictment of the commissary department to Bouquet. In his bitterness he wrote that the Virginians evidently intended to starve him. But, hungry or not, the crew of more than two hundred men made the woods ring with the sound of ax and saw. On September 30 Burd wrote Stanwix, I have kep't the People Constantly employed on the works since my arrivall altho we have been for eight days past upon the allowance of one pound of Beaf and half a pound of flour per man a day and this day we begin upon a pound of Beaf, not haveing one ounce of flour left 8c only three bullocks I am therefore obliged to give over working untill I Receive some supplys. This same day Bouquet replied to Burd's caustic letter of the 25th. After reporting to him the strict orders he had given George Mercer to send supplies and stating that he had begged General Stanwix to send a bateau to meet him, he wrote, "I am sorry to my Soul of your cruel situation, reproaching myself to have trusted to any Body but myself

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the Care of y o u r subsistence." Bouquet was really frightened; he knew hunters could not supply enough deer to eke out the meager rations. H e wrote G e o r g e Mercer of the probable fatal consequences of delay in sending Burd supplies. Mercer had several reasons f o r the delay. First, whereas the rainy season had retarded Burd in August, a drought n o w made it difficult to furnish him with supplies, f o r the streams were too dry to turn the mill wheels f o r the grinding of flour. Second, according to Mercer, the indolence of the drivers and wagoners was to blame, and

finally,

Joseph Galbraith, the

commissary at Cumberland, w h o had orders to inspect all cattle and buy only those of a certain size, caused delay b y refusing to obey Mercer's orders to send all cattle on to the Redstone. Galbraith refused because he feared that inspection at the Redstone would be ineffectual, since the troops there would take anything rather than starve. Thus the weather and such human characteristics as obstinacy, honesty, and carelessness threatened ruin to the expedition. Burd did not starve, but he seems to have had short rations f o r many weeks, since as late as October 25 Bouquet wrote that to prevent any future lack of provisions Burd was to stop any convoy to Pittsburgh and take all the flour necessary. T h a t his party was thirsty as well as hungry is evident f r o m General Stanwix's letter to Burd in which he wrote that he had "sent vj o u 2 bbls. of rum,1 was I to send y o u all I have it would not wet the whiskers of your party." H e added, " W h e n y o u have finished y o u r w o r k I shall be glad to kiss y o u r hand at Pittsburgh." Burd was so f a r along with the w o r k that it seemed time to give the post a designation. H e often headed his letters " C a m p at the mouth of Nemocalling's Creek." Bouquet wrote him to give the post a shorter name. In a letter to Stanwix, Burd asked him to name the fort, saying, " T h e Creek it's upon is rather too much of the Indian." Soon afterward, letters came addressed to Burd's Fort or to Fort Burd, and it is probable that Stanwix chose the name. T h e earlier Indian fortification on the site, however, had often been referred to as Redstone

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Old Fort, and this name was frequently used by early settlers for the post. On the 8th of October Burd wrote Stanwix that he had received all requisitions except the hinges for the gates. Colonel Joseph Shippen thus described the post: The curtain 97V2 feet, the flank 16, the faces of the Bastions 30 feet, a ditch between the bastions 24 feet wide and opposite the faces 12 feet, the log house for a magazine and to contain the women and children 39 feet square, a gate 6 feet wide and 8 high, and a drawbridge—feet wide. Burd, who had constructed several forts, wrote George Mercer that he thought "this post to be infinitely the best on either the Communications, and it will really be a great pity if it is not properly supported." The building of the road and the fort was by no means all of this Redstone enterprise. Stanwix heartily endorsed Burd's suggestion to build a bridge at the Little Crossing of the Youghiogheny and two small houses, one for a small force of men and one for stores, at the Great Crossing. Since neither men nor tools could be spared from Bedford or Cumberland, Burd was ordered to carry out his suggestion himself and later to leave a sergeant and ten men in charge. He also built a "flat" or boat at the Great Crossing. Then he was instructed, if he could manage it, to explore the upper Monongahela in order to find how far it was navigable and how short the portage was between it and the Potomac. An exploration of the Youghiogheny was also scheduled. Burd sent Colonel Shippen, a good draftsman, on these journeys, and a sketch map of the region was drawn up. By the end of October the fort was almost finished and the work at the Little and the Great crossings had so far progressed that Burd made plans for his early departure. Captain Richard Pearis, who had escorted the much-needed supplies and had then begun the construction of the bridge, was put in charge of twenty-five men to garrison the new fort. Food was still scarce, and Burd, knowing the supply of am-

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munition was almost exhausted by the hunters, wrote George Mercer, "I must beg that this garrison and that at the crossings may be immediately and constantly supplied with provisions." Ensign Duffield was left with the main body of Burd's men to finish the work at the crossings and was given orders to march later to Pittsburgh. By Saturday evening, November 3, 1759, all these plans had been made and the fort itself was finished. Knowing that the recent fall of Quebec had freed the garrison from danger of attacks instigated by the French, Burd decided to leave for Pittsburgh. Sunday morning dawned cold and snowy. Dr. Alison preached his last sermon in the fort and then set off for Philadelphia. The men were given a day of rest, and doubtless went down to shout farewell to Colonel Burd as he stepped into a canoe and disappeared down the stream. There must have been a happy excitement at Fort Pitt when the sentinels sighted Burd's canoe rounding the bend of the Monongahela. N o doubt the officers went down to the water's edge to greet him. It was rather an outstanding reception committee—General Stanwix, who was soon to lose his life at sea while returning to England; Colonel Bouquet, the Swiss soldier of fortune, who was later to distinguish himself at Bushy Run; Colonel William Byrd III of Virginia, soon to retire to Westover and to remain loyal to England during the Revolution; and Major Horatio Gates, who later won fame at Saratoga and disgrace at Camden. This was probably Burd's first visit to Fort Pitt. It was to become a familiar place to him during the next f e w years. He had a house near the "Point." He probably welcomed many new settlers and aided many traders who came by way of the land-water route that he had so thoroughly pioneered and protected. James Kenny, the Quaker trader, described the influx of people to the region and stated that on "y* South Branch of Pottomack people are in droves along y* road, going to Pittsburgh, some with flour & some with com oats

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cheese &c." Settlers meant food and food meant the of Fort Pitt and the English interests in the Ohio councondition that had been a major objective of Colonel Burd.

VII

FORT PITT AND AN INDIAN TREATY AT the beginning of the year 1760 Colonel Burd was at his home in Lancaster studying the military and political situation and planning for the new year. The Seven Years' W a r was dragging on in Europe; here in America, one of the lands for which France and England were contending, the war must surely be fought to a definite conclusion. Quebec had fallen to W o l f e , but Murray had great difficulty in holding it, since Amherst had not yet conquered all Canada. Hence Burd asked for and received his old strategic post, Fort Augusta, on the upper Susquehanna. W o r d soon arrived from Governor Hamilton that the provincial forces were to be reduced to 150 men, half of whom Burd was to have at Augusta. T h e Colonel hastened to Carlisle, the military center of the state, and busied himself disbanding the remaining troops of the 1759 campaign and selecting those to be retained in the service. O n February 8, Burd left Carlisle with two companies and arrived that evening at Harris Ferry. Floating ice cakes made the Susquehanna so treacherous that he dared not risk taking his men over, yet he and Colonel Hugh Mercer determined to cross that evening. Of the venture, Burd wrote in his journal, "I fell in the river twice and Colonel Mercer once." Fortunately the home of his hospitable old friend, John Harris, w a s close by. The warm greetings and the blazing logs heaped higjh on the open hearth prevented the two Colonels sufferings ill effects from their dangerous exposure. The conversation must have veered to the native land of these two officers, botth of whom had left Scotland shortly after Culloden was fouight. Mercer could give first-hand information concerning the; manly beauty of Bonnie Prince Charlie; Mrs. Harris and h e r daughters, however, doubtless showed curiosity about his 8i

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rescuer, Flora McDonald, who later came to this country and saw her husband and son defeated by the compatriots of Burd and Mercer at Moore's Creek Bridge, "The Second Battle of Culloden." But fortunately for Colonel Mercer, at least, the cheerful group could not foresee the future, and no doubt a delightful evening passed all too quickly. Four days elapsed before Colonel Burd was able to get his troops across the river; even then one man was drowned in the attempt. N o w began the long, hazardous tramp up the Susquehanna trail—a journey that Burd had taken many times since his first trip almost four years earlier. Weary pack horses laden with the usual important frontier staples, flour, salt, and rum, plodded behind the trudging soldiers. Arriving on February 15 at Fort Augusta, which had been his intermittent home for the preceding four years, the Colonel wrote in his journal that he found "little stores, no tools, and everything much out of order." Because of the monotonous routine of garrison life in a frontier trading post, many succeeding entries in this journal of Burd's are repetitions of the laconic phrase, "Nothing material." When the spring sent renewed life into the towering forests, and the lovely Susquehanna again flowed free in its widening course, orders for another campaign arrived. It would hardly be an exciting one. In Pennsylvania the military operations would doubtless be entirely defensive—to conserve what had already been taken from the French and, what would be difficult under those circumstances, to pacify the Indians. There were to be only two Pennsylvania regiments—one commanded by Colonel Burd and the other by Colonel Hugh Mercer. Burd was designated senior officer of all the provincial forces of Pennsylvania, and after recruiting men for the service he was ordered to escort the new leader, Brigadier General Monckton, who had arrived in Philadelphia on May 6, to Fort Pitt. Rumor had it that Detroit was the final objective. Burd would have been quite happy had Colonel Joseph

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Shippen, his faithful friend and brother-in-law, been with him as in former campaigns. But quelling a mutiny at Fort Bedford had disgusted that young officer, and he had left the service for a venture in trade and travel. William Allen, the foremost merchant of Philadelphia, had invited Shippen, his young relative, to accompany his eldest son, John, on a Mediterranean cruise. With them sailed Benjamin West, twentyone years old, already a portrait painter, and destined to become the historical painter for George III. The young men left during April in the Jenny-Sally, which was loaded with sugar from the West Indies. Leghorn was the destination, and five hundred Leghorn hats comprised one type of merchandise which the young men were to bring home to Philadelphia. It is not unlikely that Burd, who had been a merchant, who had traveled to the West Indies, who knew Piccadilly, and had been born near Edinburgh, often wished to exchange the monotony of his life for the companionship of the three gay-hearted young men, the fun-loving John Allen, the poetical Joseph Shippen, and the artistic Benjamin West, as they journeyed to Spain, Italy, and the mother country. Perhaps such wandering thoughts made it hard for Burd to resist accepting the tempting offer of a position as assistant to Adam Hoops, the contractor who sold the material to the army. With such a change of occupation in mind Burd again debated taking the Shippen plantation and the large stone house in Shippensburg. But when both his father-in-law and William Allen strongly advised him to remain in the army, Burd, thinking of his family and realizing that the war contractors might soon have little need for assistants, whereas the provincial forces would long need a leader, curbed his restlessness and wrote Colonel Bouquet of the Royal Americans that he would leave for Lancaster on March 6. Burd's days in Lancaster were spent as in so many previous springs—in recruiting and equipping his battalion; his evenings were filled with conferences, bookkeeping, and the entertainment of prominent guests. No doubt he greeted Stanwix, who

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was going east to sail for England, and also welcomed Monckton, who had been wounded at Quebec but was to take Stanwix' place. Burd and his new commander set out together for Carlisle. That the two officers were congenial is evidenced by the fact that they dined and spent their evenings together, even before Burd's battalion left Carlisle on June 13. Colonel Bouquet, who was becoming accustomed to frontier campaigns, had preceded the General to Carlisle and from there had taken four companies of the Royal Americans to Pittsburgh. Monckton arrived in Pittsburgh on June 29, and on Sunday, July 6, Colonel Burd came. The next day Bouquet, with five hundred of the Virginians and Royal Americans, left for Presque Isle. Colonel Hugh Mercer, who had been recalled from Fort Augusta, followed on the ninth with one hundred and fifty Pennsylvanians. For nearly four months General Monckton and the senior Colonel stayed at Fort Pitt. The journal which Burd kept at that point was far different from the Augusta journal of the same year. Every day but one he wrote in his terse, soldierly fashion about some important occurrence: of the fairly regular express service of James Innes and of John Meech; of the arrival of Captain Patterson with 153 pack horses from Presque Isle; or of some orders from the general to "press all" equine animals—so great was the need of supplies. The one exception was on the 14th of August when Burd's only entry was "nothing extraordinary." Yet an important Indian conference was in session, and pack horses laden with flour and forage from over the mountains, bateaux of corn from up the Monongahela, and wagons of tools and artillery stores kept coming every day. Horses and men rested and then started off to the north for Venango and Presque Isle or in the opposite direction for Fort Burd. Herds of animals plodded over the trails. Indeed Pittsburgh's modern Herr's Island seemed forecast: "This morning Capt. McKenzie & 50 men marched for Viningo, with 30 bullocks, 30 sheep, 30 hogs and 30 horses."

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Besides his usual work as commander of the Pennsylvania Battalion, Burd had been appointed assistant deputy quartermaster-general by Monckton. The commission was dated back to May 1, and for this additional duty the Colonel was given in sterling seven shillings and sixpence per day. Sir John St. Clair, with his irascible temper, returned to Fort Pitt toward the close of July. Evidently Burd's patience had succumbed before the onslaught of this superior officer, for the Colonel wrote that the General had made peace between the two and that they both lived with Monckton. Perhaps the fact that Sir John had been quite ill made him more amenable to reason. Major Gates, also at Fort Pitt, wrote that if the baronet persevered in drinking moderately he would for some time disappoint his executors. On a Monday morning as the sun reached its summer solstice, Colonel Burd started out to find how many people, since Forbes's conquest just twenty months previously, had decided to live at the junction of the three rivers: Today numbered the Houses at Pittsburg, and made a Return of the number of People—men, women, & children—that do not belong to the Army. Number of houses 146 " " Unfinish'd houses . . . 19 " Hutts 36 201 Number of Men 88 " Women 29 " Male Children . . . . 14 " Female _i8 149 N.B.—The above houses Exclusive of those in the Fort; in the Fort five long barracks and a long casimitt. Perhaps during this survey of real estate Burd decided on a choice site for himself; at any rate he built a house on the hill outside the fort before January 1762, when James Kenny went to it during the flood. At that time it was used for a schoolhouse. By the summer of 1763 the house was gone, for

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in Ecuyer's Orderly Book mention is made of the people needing an armed guard while repairing fences near where Burd's house "stood." Burd claimed—no one could yet own—the tract of land at least until the close of 1769. The fourteen boys and the eighteen girls all so carefully listed—the Johns and Roberts, the Sallies and Phoebes—would make the ideal group, in size at least, for a classroom. But even by the next year only twenty pupils were attending, so that the schoolmaster assumed religious duties as well as those for which he was hired at sixty pounds yearly. As Colonel Burd wrote down the names of those children that lovely June day, it may well be that a certain plan was born in his mind. He may have built his house with the intention of using it himself during the summer campaign, and then for the children's schoolhouse during the winter. Colonel Burd now had six children of his own in Lancaster. Family letters often mentioned the studies of the older children. He was a firm believer in education, and although this first census was not taken for school purposes, it is quite likely that a school followed as a result. The names of those earliest inhabitants of the present busy "Workshop of the World" are intensely interesting. There was William Trent of the old firm of Hockly, Trent, and Croghan. He had built the original English fortification for the Ohio Company, which during his absence in 1754 had been taken and demolished by the French before they built Fort Duquesne. There was Edward Ward whose name is also indelibly connected with the earliest fort. There was John McClure, uncle of Major Ebenezer Denny, Pittsburgh's first Mayor. These last two names are borne today by some of Pittsburgh's most representative citizens. There was Lazarus Lowery, the Indian trader, for whose scalp the governor of Canada authorized the commandant at Detroit to offer an exceptionally large price, because of Lowery's detrimental, antiFrench influence with the Indians. And there was John Lang-

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dale, who, with Josiah Davenport and Robert Burchan, was commissioned by the government under an act for preventing abuses in the Indian trade. Having come to Fort Pitt in 1760, Langdale, during an enforced absence due to illness, caused Monckton and Burd much trouble when he made several accusations against James Kenny and Josiah Davenport. Meantime the fortifications which were to constitute Fort Pitt were gradually assuming formidable shape. Captain Harry Gordon, the chief engineer, was busy during the late summer of 1760 building a "bomb proof," one hundred eighty feet long and twenty-four feet broad. He often had the shipwright, Jehu Eyre, and his men, though hired to build bateaux, working on this "bomb proof." T h e Indian conference was due, and one never knew what the outcome might be; therefore the men worked from sunrise to sunset and often on Sundays. Materials for the workers and food supplies arrived daily; yet neither magazine nor commissary was ever too full. Hundreds of visiting Indians made that impossible. In fact, hunting and fishing were not only pastimes but also a most desirable means of replenishing the larder. W h a t fish stories those early Pittsburghers had to tell! O n August 2 someone caught a catfish four feet long and ten and one-half inches across the eyes. A f e w days later, one was caught weighing ninety-four and one-half pounds. T h e conference with the western Indians was the climax of the year's campaign around Fort Pitt. Many Indians arrived on August 5 and guns were fired "for j o y , " although the sessions did not begin until the 12th. By that date many tribes had sent their representatives. T h e Six Nations sent four chiefs, the Delawares four, the Shawnee two, and the W y a n dots two. Besides these and other chiefs, there were 367 warriors, 266 women, and 295 children. T h e Ottawas and Potawatomies were the only tribes which did not bring along their families. This horde of nearly a thousand Indians with some captive whites encamped on the north side of the Allegheny

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River. Doubtless the 149 white inhabitants of Pittsburgh appreciated to the fullest extent the value of the fort and its garrison. The scene at the junction of the three rivers that hot August day must have been one about which artists dream. General Monckton in his scarlet uniform, sword, and laced hat, was surrounded by Sir John St. Clair, Colonel Burd, Captain Richard Mather of the Royal Americans, Captain Harry Gordon, the engineer, several other captains, George Croghan, the deputy agent for Indian affairs, and Captain Andrew Montour who acted as interpreter. The many Indian chiefs with their colorful feather headdress, their splendid bronze bodies adorned with curious, tawdry ornaments, were surrounded by their stately, imperturbable, warriors. Close by stood the alert soldiers, and in the background the motley crowd of women and children pressed closer. Roaming among that dusky throng were to be found, no doubt, most of those boys whom Colonel Burd had named in his census. Monckton opened the conference by reading the speech of welcome from the commander of all His Majesty's troops in America, Jeffrey Amherst. The skeptical red men heard, "I do assure all The Indian Nations, that His Majesty has not sent me to deprive any of you of your Lands and Property"; Chief Touisgourawa of the Six Nations made the response and gave a wampum belt. So began the long, tedious battle of wits which lasted several days. King Beaver, Teedyuscung, Sonnequehana, and Kethecomey all took part. Finally the principal warrior of the Delawares spoke words which must have made Colonel Burd and George Croghan, the two frontiersmen with the most experience in Indian affairs, feel light of heart. Said he, "You have Often desired to see some of your Flesh & Blood, we now Open our Hands and deliver you some of them; don't press us on that Head, God will Direct us, and you will see them all as we are now Brethren again; let us not enter into any more Disputes." Afterwards seven prisoners were delivered to General Monckton. According to one

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account of this important gathering of tribes, twenty-two prisoners were finally returned to their white brothers. Progressing slowly but steadily, the conference closed on August 18, but other smaller meetings were necessary before Colonel Burd could write in his journal, "Finished the treaty with intire pure [peace?] and satisfaction." Presents of coats, gold- and silver-laced hats, ruffled shirts, kettles, and rum were given to the Indians. These diverse gifts cost the government about two hundred pounds. The agenda for most Indian conferences were very numerous and very similar. Volweiler in his book, George Croghan and the Westward Movement, mentions six of them. First, grants of land where the English could erect forts; second, the release of English prisoners; third, intelligence to be gained of what was happening in the wilderness; fourth, the safety of person and property—for instance, much time was taken in dealing with suitable punishment for the ubiquitous horse thief; fifth, provisions must be furnished to the numerous Indians who came for the conference; lastly, the resumption of trade, upon which the Indians were becoming more and more dependent. The 1760 conference, the largest up to this time ever held at Fort Pitt, probably dealt with all these subjects. But the most important decision reached at this conference was the acknowledgment by the various western tribes of the overlordship of the Six Nations. In Richard Peters' answer to a letter from General Monckton relative to this suzerainty, Peters summarized the expected results thus: "The ready manner in which all Tribes of western Indians have acknowledged that the Ohio lands belong to the Six Nations will cut off abundance of trouble and dispute." Carl Van Doren, in his introduction to Indian Treaties Printed by Benjamin Franklin, stresses the fact that the chiefs of the Six Nations did strive for a peaceful settlement of disputes, not only with "Brother Onas" but also with later white leaders. News trickled into the fort slowly but inevitably. In the

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evenings as the General and his staff sat by the gently flowing Monongahela they discussed the latest dispatches about the war in Europe and on the other American fronts—news of Amherst, of Bouquet, and of Burd's "namesake" gone on his attempt to relieve hapless Fort Loudoun in Virginia. News came also in the scanty old newspapers and in private letters from loved ones. Queer news—the cider had turned sour; the man's wife having run away with a neighboring miller, everything was put out of her husband's head. Sad news—Sally Burd wrote her husband of the death of their baby, Anne. Glorious news—Montreal was taken and Amherst was in possession of all Canada! On October 2 that victory was celebrated at Fort Pitt, almost a month after the event occurred, by the firing of guns and "three dozen sky rockets at night." As the staff gathered around the card game under the sputtering pine knot, each man saw visions of the "settlements" in the blazing fire. Monckton hurried plans for the end of the campaign. He decided to leave most of the Pennsylvania troops at Fort Pitt and to place Sir John St. Clair in command until Bouquet should return from Presque Isle. Monday morning, October 27, General Monckton, Colonel Burd, and Major Gates left Fort Pitt for the East. Little did they dream of a solemn event which had happened in England two days earlier—the death of George II. The accession of his grandson, young George III, foreshadowed a vast change in the lives of these three men and for the country for which they were fighting; but at this time they thought only of riding toward the settlements and the old established order. They spent a night each at Bushy Run, Ligonier, Stony Creek, Bedford, Juniata Ferry, Fort Loudoun, Carlisle, and "Six Blocks at the Bare" (between the Susquehanna and Lancaster), arriving at Lancaster at eleven o'clock in the morning of November 4. At noon Burd dined his fellow travelers at his home; later he and Mr. Shippen conveyed them over Conestoga Creek and saw them start on their way to Philadelphia. The Colonel returned home to await further orders.

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Once again Burd was casting about for a more advantageous position. N o w the war seemed practically finished. The question seemed to be: to remain in the service or to leave. Burd must have applied for advancement in the quartermaster department, for he asked Bouquet for a "certificate" or recommendation. Bouquet, always somewhat of an enigma in his relationship to Burd, sent a rather ambiguous reply. The result seems to have been nothing, and on December 5 Burd again received from Governor Hamilton the command at Fort Augusta. At that, he was perhaps fortunate. Provincial forces were reduced. Colonel Hugh Mercer, two months later, wrote from Fredericksburg, Virginia: "All prospect from the Pennsylvania service failing I determined to start the practice of Physick here." With the Christmas season nearing, Colonel Burd bade farewell to his wife and little flock and again rode off for the Susquehanna trail.

Vili

BURD AND BOUQUET THE world war of the middle eighteenth century was now practically ended, although the treaty was not signed until 1763. Pitt's genius had triumphed. Clive had won Plassey in India in 1757; Forbes had entered Fort Duquesne in 1758; Wolfe had captured Quebec in 1759; and when Amherst took Montreal on September 8, 1760, the knell of French hopes for the North American Continent was struck. The American colonists now knew the British flag which floated over them was a symbol of a very powerful nation. Indeed Trevelyan, the great English historian, thinks it quite possible that Britain was held at this time in "higher esteem by the nations of the world than ever before or since." The American Indians, however, with the exception of the Iroquois, were extremely disappointed at the outcome of the war and, after a short period of stunned quiet, returned to their depredations with added fury. Yet Colonel Burd during this first period found those Indians around Fort Augusta rather peaceable, and he received no complaints from the Indian agent. Consequently he returned on the 8th of January to Lancaster where his wife was awaiting the birth of Margaret, their seventh child. During the absence from his post, the Colonel may have gone to Philadelphia for the wedding of his wife's cousin, the socially prominent Mollie Willing, to the young widower, Colonel William Byrd III of Westover, Virginia. In this marriage the two provincial colonels whose similar names were continually confusing their commanding officers (and later the historians!) were allied more intimately. Then, too, Colonel William Byrd's bride was a sister of the fair Nancy Ann with whom Colonel Bouquet had long been smitten. In fact, a very close alliance existed between many of the political, military, and social leaders of the colonies. B y the middle of March the bustle of a new campaign had 9«

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started. Pitt had written rather secretively of a certain expedition soon to be undertaken. When the rumor that Spain planned a war the next year was confirmed, Pitt wished to make the first attack. Consequently Amherst, in charge of the North American campaign, began to increase his forces. He had to depend more on the provincials f o r the w a r on the North American continent, if he were to send more regulars to the islands of the West Indies. It was planned to raise three hundred additional men in Pennsylvania and to put them under the command of Colonel Burd, who was given by Governor Hamilton the commission of captain along with his colonelcy. He was ordered to go to Philadelphia April 2, and on the 6th of that month he received General Monckton's orders to take five companies of Pennsylvania Provincials to Fort Pitt, where Bouquet with his Royal Americans was stationed. Civil officers were to aid in impressing wagons and supplies. Although Burd wrote from Carlisle, May 26, that he would likely join Bouquet at Fort Pitt by the end of June, on account of the difficulty of getting the recruits and provisions it was the last of July before he arrived. Colonel Bouquet had for some time wanted a leave of absence to attend to private affairs. He and Anne Willing's brother had purchased a large farm in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, and Bouquet himself owned Walnut Hill, a plantation near Charles T o w n in the Carolinas. T h e agent f o r this latter estate was causing much trouble and Bouquet wanted to inspect his investment. Then he doubtless wanted to see all his influential friends, including the fair N a n c y , about the proposed act to naturalize foreign officers of the Royal Americans. Such a legislative act would make Bouquet eligible to receive gifts of land in America, and he seemed to have acquired the prevalent form of speculation—acquisition of land. Bouquet sent his request f o r leave of absence to his superior officer, Monckton, J u l y 5. That gentleman, referring to the expected arrival of Colonel Burd, whom he had learned to know so well the previous year, wrote, "the command will

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devolve on him." It is highly probable that this choice of substitutes did not suit Bouquet. Since the battle of Loyal Hanna there had been too many instances pointing toward Bouquet's disregard for or jealousy of Burd. It is true that the situation at Fort Pitt was so dangerous, both from fear of the Indians and from the excessive desertion among the troops, that Bouquet wrote, before knowing the name of his substitute, that he had no intention of leaving while conditions were so critical. Yet he used a rather lame excuse for eliminating Burd. The soldier of fortune wrote General Monckton, October 5: Col. Burd's Batalion of Pennsylvania Troops having been reduced and himself continued in that Service only as Captain of the Company stationed at Fort Augusta and having no other commission this year, I know it is a doubt with our Captains whether he is to take Rank from his former commission. I have mentioned to none of them your orders to me, to leave the command with him if I had gone down, which order shall be obeyed in case I should be permitted to leave this Post, But I thought it would not be improper to inform you of that circumstance. W h y had Bouquet not mentioned this order when the Royal American captains were speculating about the new commander? Who in Pennsylvania was better fitted than Colonel Burd to take the post? Despairing of advancement, Armstrong and Hugh Mercer had left the service, and in any case Burd had been senior officer while Mercer yet served. Did Colonel Bouquet forego his leave because he disliked to see Burd in charge, or were conditions really so dangerous that he felt it his duty to remain? For he stayed at Fort Pitt. Certainly the Indians were menacing all people outside the fort. Plots were discovered. Sergeant McDonald at Fort Burd wrote of depredations. A messenger had been killed near that fort, his letters and clothes taken, and the wolves and ravens had left for the searching party only the few bones and a f e w torn papers. Horses were stolen by the Shawnee, who had

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not yet returned any prisoners. Bouquet planned to stop any trade with the Indians so that their need of powder might bring them to terms. Assisted by the French, the Cherokees who had massacred the garrison of Fort Loudoun in Virginia the previous year, despite Colonel William Byrd's attempt to save it, were still on the warpath. The tribes missed the generous gifts of the French. The English, even Sir William Johnson, had not enough trinkets and guns to suffice them. As the new Indian policy of Sir Jeffrey Amherst became effective, the lack of gifts or bribes became a serious hindrance to prospective treaties. These gifts had become indispensable to the Indians; indeed, their economic dependence upon the white race was now almost complete. As one chief said, in talking to Captain Trent about the Indian race, the English seemed to want "to cut them off the face of the Earth." N o longer able to live as their ancestors had done, the Indians expected either the French or English to aid them. The French had employed a smith to mend the guns and hatchets of the braves and a doctor to tend the tribe's sick; they expected the English to do the same. Meanwhile the traders had become quite disgruntled. Many new restrictions had been placed upon their movements. On August 24, Monckton wrote from N e w York that regulations would not allow traders to go where they chose, that passes and licenses were to be given by the post commanders, who could make what restrictions they thought necessary, and that these commanders would be held responsible for the actions of the sutlers. The truculent Indians and the restive traders seemed to have incited an intractable quality among the troops. Or was this a cause rather than the effect? Individual desertion was frequent, but an extensive plot for desertion among the troops was also discovered. The ringleader was executed and six others concerned were punished. Sickness during July and August attacked the loyal and disloyal alike. George Mercer

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and other Virginians sent pessimistic letters about the difficulties w h i c h Colonel William B y r d and Colonel A d a m Stephen were having with the Indians of western Virginia, w h o w e r e under the supervision of French leaders. So ominous became the rebellious mood of the Fort Pitt troops that Bouquet did not attempt t o force the provincials to go to the farther posts but when necessary sent the R o y a l Americans to the lake forts. Indeed short-term enlistments, bounty jumping, and lack of definite military agreements between province and royal authority caused the officials, especially those in charge of the provincial troops, v e r y grave concern. Several months later Colonel Burd wrote of this campaign, " F o r m y o w n part I would not wish my Enemy to be in the Situation I was this Last Fall at Pitsburg, w i t h T r o o p s whose terms w e r e Expired b y Publik Proclamation and yett not suffered to leave the Post, nor a n y w a y s subject to Discipline." L a c k of honesty as well as lack of discipline bothered the officers. Pittsburgh had its first big robbery when Bouquet had £ 1,000 and valuable papers stolen from his room. A f t e r diligent search and the offer of $200 reward, the money was recovered. Other financial affairs kept Bouquet busy.

No

doubt Burd assisted him in removing the magazine from Fort Burd, in supplying V e n a n g o and L e Boeuf w i t h a year's provisions, and in closing the public accounts. T h e Indian agent, John Langdale, was ill, and Burd offered his services to Josiah Davenport, the new agent, in the taking of inventory. D u r i n g all this sickness and confusion, this fear and hatred, there was y e t time for intellectual conversation and for n e w and friendly contacts. T h e Quaker trader, James K e n n y , and the first American botanist of any repute, the recently arrived John Bartram, walked in the evening sunset upon Grant's Hill and d o w n along the shore of the beautiful A l l e g h e n y River discussing the native herbs and

flowers.

Perhaps the

melancholy D o c t o r Millen and the energetic Captain G o r d o n discussed with Burd developments in the medical profession and in the field of engineering—particularly those problems

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pertaining to the construction of forts about which Burd was now quite experienced. And, of course, each man exchanged the news of the world found in his precious letters received from the settlements. Burd probably received much correspondence about those troops which remained at Fort Augusta. Indeed, during the absence of her husband, Mrs. Burd assisted in supplying that post. Lieutenant Graydon of that garrison applied to her at Lancaster. One of her letters mentions beef, bullocks, reams of paper, scarlet cloth for the facing of regimentals, and a piece of "Holland" for shirts. At the close of the businesslike letter, she wrote of sending an invoice of goods. Hints of peace and possible terms were among the news from the east, and Edward Shippen, thinking of his son-in-law's future, wrote, "I hear nothing as yet of the Governor and Assembly's determination as to Fort Augusta, but imagine they will not let it drop." Burd was getting almost as uneasy as his troops. He probably built his house outside the fort at this time and perhaps, not finding the companionship of Bouquet as congenial as that of General Monckton the previous year, he made his quarters there. Fort Pitt was not yet finished, but it now had two long barracks for soldiers, i8ox 20 feet, and two barracks 100 feet long for officers. The latter barracks were now plastered and each officer's room was fairly comfortable. Another building 160 feet long had a chimney large enough to serve four rooms which were used for kitchens! The buildings and enclosure covered eighteen acres and had a moat leading from the Allegheny River which entirely surrounded this enclosure. About four acres of land outside the fort were planted in gardens. An orchard, too, was set out and perhaps, through the influence of John Bartram and the English members of the garrison, flowers and shrubs were planted. Time seemed endless while the garrison worked at the unfinished fort and longed for another Indian treaty and the return of prisoners. Bouquet and Burd discussed new lines of communication, for

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Bouquet wrote Monclcton about a new route to the Ohio by the West Branch of the Susquehanna through a short portage to creeks of the Allegheny. Several years earlier, 1757, Burd had sent from Fort Augusta a detachment to find such a connection, and in 1762 he was ordered by Governor Hamilton, impelled by the importunate Philadelphia merchants, to try again. A t that time Burd wrote, "This has been a favorite scheme of mine for a long time." Yet Bouquet in 1761 told Monckton that Indians had told him of the route. B y October, although no treaty had yet been made with the Cherokees to the South, one was signed at Detroit with the western Indians. Bouquet wrote that the "Treaty has succeeded to the utmost of our Wishes" and that "a separate Confederacy is made between the Shawnese, Delawares, W y andots, and other western Indians offensive and defensive in which we are included: The Petticoat is taken from the Delawares and they are now Men." With the signing of the treaty and the return of prisoners, Bouquet gave, December 2, 1761, marching orders to Burd. Kenny, the trader, recorded that in a short time Pittsburgh had few soldiers remaining at the fort and that the minister was teaching school in Colonel Burd's house! That officer had marched his now cheerful troops to Carlisle, disbanded many, then had hurried to Fort Augusta, arriving December 28. Finding conditions under Lieutenant Graydon satisfactory, he returned to his family at Lancaster, and wrote to the Governor from that place on February 2, 1762. Meanwhile trouble with Spain was brewing. The Bourbon family which ruled both Spain and France resented Pitt's attempt to make his country mistress of the seas. Because of the seeming impossibility of raising new armies, the majority of the British Cabinet had stood for conciliation with Spain rather than for war. Pitt, intent on further conquest, but without support despite his glorious leadership, resigned in October and Lord Bute formed a new ministry. But this group was not strong enough to deter Spain from attempting an

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alliance with the defiant Choiseul, leader of the French government. T h e appeasement policy of Lord Bute was therefore dropped, and with peace not yet made with France, Great Britain on January 2, 1762, declared war on Spain. Lord Egremont, who had replaced Pitt as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, asked for eighteen hundred men as the quota which Pennsylvania should give the mother country for this additional military campaign. Colonel Joseph Shippen, having left Benjamin West in Italy and having acquired some old-world experience, had now returned home and accepted the position of secretary of the province of Pennsylvania. T o him Colonel Burd wrote relative to the extravagant demands of the Earl of Egremont, saying that even if the province granted his request, the eighteen hundred men simply could not be raised. In regard to the report that the provincials were to garrison from Bedford to Lake Superior, Burd wrote that it was difficult even "to march our Troops from the Inhabitants for no sooner they Receive their Bounty but they desert, if they can keep out of the w a y until the T r o o p are march'd they are Safe." He also questioned the length of the term of enlistment, saying if it were only for six months the time would be consumed in marching to and returning from the posts. Burd had always been opposed to short enlistments, distrusting the "Summer Soldier" as did Washington later in the Revolution. Remembering his own difficulties at Fort Pitt in the previous campaign, Burd made the pertinent observation that whoever commanded should have his positive orders before leaving Philadelphia. It was distressingly hard to get troops from the English colonists to fight the French and the Indians; to fight the people of Spain it was impossible. T h a t country had not encroached upon the colonist's claims as had the French. Indeed, her possessions in the W e s t Indies, despite the navigation laws of both countries, had been a source of trade and of the well-loved Spanish dollar. General Amherst, in charge of all North American forces, was determined to give every aid to the Earl of Albemarle,

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who headed the expedition sent by England against the West Indies, for he was a close friend of Amherst and guardian of his illegitimate son, Jeffrey. The General, however, had poor success. So hard was it to get recruits that he allowed the enlistment of Indians to fill the quota. A strange order from the man who had suggested to Bouquet to try exterminating the Indians by inoculation with smallpox! Bouquet had welcomed the suggestion, but thought the Spanish system of using bloodhounds would be more efficacious! Ironic that now the Spaniard was to be hunted by the Indians. With this extraordinary aid Massachusetts almost completed her quota. But Pennsylvania, mindful of her illicit trade under the British policy of "salutary neglect," and angered by the recent general embargo which Amherst had laid upon all the colonies, absolutely refused to raise troops for either the provincial or the regular services. Colonel Burd's prediction was true. Coming events were already casting their shadows; the Stamp Act Congress was to meet in New York three years later. Being loyal Englishmen, even though not ready to assist the mother country in this campaign, the Pennsylvanians were highly elated to hear that Lord Albemarle had succeeded in taking Havana on August 14. Colonel Burd probably heard from his younger brother, Gilbert, who may have taken part in the assault on Morro Castle. Although Lord Barrington had wanted to get this young man into the Dragoons, a letter from Burd's father in Edinburgh, written November 4, said Gilbert was Fifth Lieutenant and Assistant Quartermaster General in the 9th Regiment of Foot and was greatly in Lord Albemarle's favor. This favor, however, did not act as a charm against mosquito bites, for Gilbert died in Havana the following year of yellow fever. In Scotland, he had served his apprenticeship with a "writer to his Majesty's Signet," but found law practice so slow a method of obtaining a competency that, as he pithily put it, "by the time I had made genteel bread, I would want teeth to eat it." Colonel Burd was to miss his

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brother's lengthy letters descriptive of men and times in the homeland and in distant places. The Spanish war failing to make much change in the life of the Pennsylvania colonist, Colonel Burd seems to have had during the earlier part of the year no other work than supervising the post at Augusta and the smaller forts yet manned by provincials. Furthermore Augusta, although probably still the most important trading post, was, since the defeat of the French, not the vastly important military post it had been, since the Iroquois to the North were traditionally friendly. The various Indian tribes, however, even the Iroquois or Six Nations, were showing increasing uneasiness concerning the continued occupancy by the English of the western lands. Time and again the solemn promises of many British commanders and leaders had been given the Indians that, as soon as the French were driven out of the Ohio Valley, the English would retire east of the Allegheny Mountains. In the early summer of 1762, Shingas and Beaver, two powerful Delaware chiefs from the west, asked for a conference with Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania to discuss the return of prisoners. Hamilton had long been wanting to see these chiefs, so he sent Christian Frederick Post to escort them to Lancaster. When they arrived, August 12, many other Indians had assembled to participate in a conference. After days of speeches, Governor Hamilton succeeded in having all Indian claims to land on the Delaware River canceled. The English, on the other hand, promised to respect the Wyoming Valley of central Pennsylvania as a reserved land for the Shawnee tribe. The early disregard of this pledge by the white race was to bring it untold tragedy. Decision on the main question, the English settlement on the Ohio, was evaded. The reason given for this postponement was that Great Britain was still at war with France. As to the delivery of prisoners, Beaver declared he had already delivered seventy-four prisoners to Fort Pitt and would deliver the remaining English prisoners to that post as soon as word could be sent to the tribes. One Oneida

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chief sarcastically warned Governor Hamilton to guard the returned prisoners so that they should not escape and flee back to their captors as his wife had fled back to him. Hamilton announced he would send representatives to Fort Pitt to receive, October 2, all prisoners yet in the hands of the western Indians. Thus at Lancaster one of the most important Indian conferences ever held in Pennsylvania came to a successful conclusion. Colonel Joseph Shippen wrote Colonel Burd, September 9, that the Governor and commissioners had unanimously chosen Burd to receive the prisoners at Pittsburgh. Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton's commission, dated September 25, also named Josiah Davenport, the Indian agent at Pittsburgh. A long letter of instructions to Burd accompanied the commission. A letter was also sent to King Beaver and to chiefs of the western Indians saying that they would know Burd and Davenport were the Governor's emissaries by the lesser seal of Pennsylvania and by the belt of wampum which had been entrusted to them. T o the Indians who returned prisoners, goods to the amount of £ 500 were to be given, not as ransom but as a reward to those who traveled a long distance! A like sum of money was allowed the commissioners for expenses in traveling and for assisting the recovered prisoners who were to be returned to their families or brought back to Philadelphia. One order is significant. The commissioners were to recover, if possible, horses stolen from the Indians and return them to their Indian owners. That order shows a "horse of another color" from the usual tales which place all blame on the aborigine. Burd was told he need not stay longer than three weeks at Fort Pitt unless prisoners were "coming in fast"; Davenport was to attend to the work remaining. Not the least of Burd's orders was to act as informer to the government on the temper, politics, and methods of the Indians. A suggestive postscript was added by Hamilton to his letter to Colonel Burd: " M y humble Service to Colonel Bouquet, to whom I would have wrote, if I had not been much out

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of order, to request his countenance and Assistance to you in this Affair." Although Colonel Burd did not reach Fort Pitt until the 7th of October, despite the fact the treaty called for the 2nd, he seems to have been much too early. On the 10th, he wrote that the Indians would be slow in arriving at Pittsburgh, for the Shawnee had sickness in their towns and the Indian delegates had not all returned from the convention to their tribes. For the fourth successive autumn James Burd found himself at the forks of the Ohio. In 1759 he was welcomed by General Stanwix after he had opened the new road from Braddock's road to the Monongahela and had there built a fort; in 1760, he stayed several months with General Monckton at the junction of the two rivers and returned east with him after an important Indian conference was concluded; in 1761, he, with his provincials, had spent four tiresome months at the "Point" with the Royal Americans under Bouquet; the brief visit in 1762 was in all probability the last which Colonel Burd made to Fort Pitt. Little is known of what happened. Perhaps in some future time some of the Colonel's notes or his journal of this period will come to light. He must have been very busy, for he asked James Kenny, the Quaker trader, to copy the Governor's commission and instructions. George Croghan sent Alexander McKee to the lower Shawnee Town with a message to the Indians about returning the prisoners. By the 10th of November, Kenny wrote that the Colonel was about out of patience and had received no further word from the Governor or any from the Indians. Burd was desperately anxious to get home, for the stork was hovering over the Burd home and in fact on the third had added another daughter to the flock. By the 17th a message from the Governor had arrived, and Kenny noted that Bouquet had "agreed to let Colonel Burd and Davenport act as directed by the Governor"; and on the 20th the two colonels left Fort Pitt together to go to Philadelphia. T o Bouquet this trip was filled with gloomy repining; the

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reiteration of the phrase "it might have been" must have accompanied the hoof-beats of the plodding horses. For the long friendship and correspondence with the fair Nancy had been broken, and she was now the wife of young Tench Francis who had recently arrived from England. Colonel Bouquet seems to have neglected Miss Willing except for infrequent letters filled with derogatory remarks about the colonists, and Nancy Ann Willing had remembered she was one of them. Her marriage had so depressed Bouquet that his friend and brother officer, Ourry, stationed at Bedford, feared for his health and wrote daily letters urging Bouquet to struggle against his disappointment. N o doubt he soon succeeded in transferring his affection though he seems never to have married. But at this time no town had the attraction for him that Lancaster had for the anxious Scot who rode with Bouquet. For Colonel Burd, after making a verbal report to Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, and securing knowledge of the military and political situation in Philadelphia from his two brothers-in-law, Joseph and Edward Shippen, found that he could get back to his family for Christmas or by New Year's at the latest. Another year, another campaign? T h e annual question.

IX

FORT AUGUSTA AND PONTIACS CONSPIRACY THE year 1763 was a decisive, crucial year for a great part of the world, but particularly for the North American continent. T h e definitive treaty ending the Seven Years' W a r was signed in Paris on February 10, 1763. By its terms France lost every foot of her vast mainland empire in the new world. T h e Indian tribes attached to France had been in dire straits since the fall of Quebec. T h e generous gifts of the French had ceased. Even the Iroquois, under the paternalism of Sir William Johnson's civil rule, were restive; Amherst's harsh military rule affected all Indians. N o change in English policy, although it had been promised, followed the treaty. True, the Board of Trade issued in June the basis of the Proclamation of 1763, which was finally promulgated in October; but even if Pontiac had had the patience to wait for this decision, he probably would have been completely disappointed in the results. Though the home government in London planned for the pacification of the Indians b y controlling the movements of settlers and fur traders, the colonists planned otherwise. That very Proclamation Line was one of the causes of our break with the mother country, and most certainly the lack of regard for one of the principles it later defined—that no white man settle west of the Appalachian Mountains—was the chief cause of the general Indian war which soon broke out against the English. Solemn warnings by the Indians about trespassing on their land had been given again and again; the belt was being passed among widely scattered tribes; ominous war paint was being applied. In late February as Davenport, who had assisted Burd in collecting prisoners, started east with the last of these pitiful refugees of previous wars with the western Indians, these same tribes were listening to the dusky emissaries from that splendid leader of the American aborigines, Pontiac. 109

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Within a month Burd was back at his old post, Fort Augusta, writing news of import to the Governor but adding the curious postscript, "it snows very hard here today"—May 19. T h e real message concerned the now famous W y o m i n g Valley in eastern Pennsylvania. T e n or twelve N e w England families had already settled there, wrote Burd, and more were daily expected. This was the valley which the English, in the Lancaster Treaty of the previous year, had promised to respect as land reserved for the Shawnee tribe. Connecticut had always claimed this part of Pennsylvania, and the Susquehanna and the Delaware land companies had induced Connecticut settlers to come regardless of the fact that the province of Pennsylvania as well as the Indian race most certainly would object to their presence. This plantation or settlement was one more proof to the aborigines that their rights were not to be respected. Governor Hamilton's reply, June 2, to Colonel Burd's message stressed the necessity for the removal of the W y o m i n g Valley settlers. Sir William Johnson had informed the King, and His Majesty had written Amherst and the governor of Connecticut of his displeasure. Governor Hamilton wrote that he had chosen Colonel Burd to have charge of this dismissal. And as I have a very good opinion of your prudence and discretion, in the conduct of anything committed to your care, I earnestly desire that you will, with Mr. Thomas McKee, (who, from his knowledge of the Indians, may be useful to you,) repair forthwith to W y o m i n g , and pursue the instructions herein enclosed. A f t e r saying he appointed both men justices of the peace, the Governor further wrote Burd, "Be pleased to advance or take up, on my credit, as much money as you shall judge necessary for the hire and substance of such persons as you shall employ on this occasion, which I shall cheerfully pay, upon its being made known to me." This letter, written June 2, was addressed to Burd at Lancaster. Just where he was when he received it is not clear, but he was traveling quickly. On June 7, Lieutenant Hunter, in

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charge at Augusta, wrote Burd that he was expecting an attack from the Indians any moment and that Fort Pitt had been attacked. (This referred to the murder of Colonel Clapham and two men at the sawmill near the fort.) Hunter had doubled the guards but he had only twenty-five men! One can hardly believe the provincial authorities could have felt so secure or have been so negligent as to allow this important outpost to be thus weakened. Hunter's note reached Colonel Burd the next day, June 8, seven miles above Harris Ferry. He hastily wrote the Governor that although he, with Thomas McKee, was just leaving to do the Governor's bidding in the Wyoming Valley, he would now try to get volunteers and "through ourselves into the Defence of the place"—Fort Augusta. Burd sent a message with a "white belt of seven rows" to the Six Nations, Delawares, and Munsee upon the Northeast and West branches of the Susquehanna. He told the Indians that he and McKee were to remove the white settlers at Wyoming and had started to that valley when news came to Augusta that "Our Fort at the Sun Setting" was taken by Indians and that report said Augusta was to be attacked. This Burd could not understand, since they had "so lately brightened the chain of friendship." Burd asked the cause of the trouble and the future intentions of the Indians. Their reply sent on June 21, with a "string of three rows" is a masterpiece of concise, diplomatic evasion. First, they were glad Burd had told them of his intended action and the reason for postponing his plans. They then wrote: "I am glad you let me know what you know. This gladness I feel at my Heart, and Nutimus, Tepascowan, & W a w pauay do the same, and if anything happens, we will let you know as two Brothers ought to do." This reply could do little to allay the growing fears of the English officials. Burd seems to have sent this speech to the Indians on his own initiative and anticipated Hamilton's orders of June 13 when he asked Burd to do this exact thing and sent him a belt and speech of his own, by Colonel Shippen. According to a letter he wrote the Colonel, the Governor greatly approved of Burd's

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Indian messages. He insisted that Burd deny the red men powder, since, "if the war goes on they must get in it and then our ammunition would be turned against us." He also wrote that he did not expect Burd to go to Wyoming if there were "any probability of danger which I apprehend there is at present." Due to this immediate danger Hamilton sent word that ninety men were to reinforce Burd's small force at Augusta. The Governor's confidence in the commander's ability had again been plainly expressed, " M y Knowledge of your care and prudence in the Execution of anything committed to you makes it unnecessary to say anything further . . ." Soon Burd received welcome news from his brother-in-law, Colonel Joseph Shippen, written the day after the Governor's letter which promised Burd aid. Colonel Shippen had been chosen to give this assistance, had hurried to Lancaster, and was enlisting volunteers. Sarah Shippen Burd had moved from one crisis to another that spring—the baby's illness and death, her husband ordered on the dangerous Wyoming mission and now in momentary danger of a mass attack on his fort, and finally her younger brother ordered to march off to his assistance. She doubtless seized the opportunity to send her soldier husband precious newspapers and delicious cakes, pickles, and other frontier dainties. She had little time to plan. In a few days Colonel Shippen was at Hunter's Mill forwarding supplies to Fort Augusta, using bateaux before the river got too low for transportation. The powder was covered with new blankets. Other necessary articles were hurriedly gathered together. The grindstone of John Harris was commandeered. How the men must have labored those long June days as expresses brought report of one lost outpost after another! On May 7 Pontiac had made his first assault upon the English, but Detroit, due to the timely precautions of Major Gladwin, had not fallen. Yet Sandusky, Michilimackinac, Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, and Venango had all fallen by the end of June and "the Express from Pittsburgh says Indians keep about the Fort in the Woods & have killed one Man on Grant's Hill & that of the eight expresses

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sent to Venango, four were killed, two wounded, and two returned." Those brave express riders! Artists and authors have not given them the proper place in our national history. Meantime Colonel Bouquet had left Philadelphia and was in camp, July 3, at Carlisle. Most of the British forces had returned home but some, in very poor shape, were just arriving from Havana. As news of the dire distress of the frontier forts crept in, Amherst sent Bouquet all the troops fit for service and left it to Bouquet's discretion whether or not he should go to Fort Pitt. Later he was ordered to go, the intention being to push on from there to Venango and Le Boeuf. Soon there was no necessity for that move; the problem was to get to Bedford, Ligonier, and Fort Pitt before they, too, fell to Pontiac's braves. T o get enough volunteers and supplies was the chief concern for Colonel Bouquet as it had been for Colonels Burd and Shippen. Early in July Hamilton convoked the Assembly. Despite the attitude of the Quakers, it finally voted to raise and equip a force of seven hundred men, composed of frontier farmers, for purposes of defense until the harvests were gathered. These men were never to do garrison duty or go on the offensive. A n other problem arose at this time—that of unified or divided command. Presque Isle, Le Boeuf, Venango, Pitt, Ligonier, and Bedford were all officered by Royal Americans under command of Colonel Bouquet; Fort Augusta, Fort Hunter, and some smaller eastern forts were still manned by provincials under Colonel Burd. On July 19, Lieutenant Colonel James Robertson wrote Bouquet that all his arguments to induce the Governor and commissioners of Pennsylvania to place the provincials under the command of Bouquet were of no avail. "I never saw any men so determined in the right as these men are in their absurdly wrong resolve." Bouquet was not surprised to hear the decision, though Amherst doubtless was. W h a t Colonel Burd thought does not appear. He remained, as formerly, senior colonel of provincial troops in Pennsylvania and took his orders from Governor Hamilton. Fort Augusta was now better prepared for attack, and Sir

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William Johnson was endeavoring to keep the Six Nations w h o were such close neighbors of the garrison out of Pontiac's conspiracy. Hence all eyes followed Colonel Bouquet and his band of five hundred determined men as they started west to the Ohio to succor the garrison of Fort Pitt together with the f e w inhabitants of the little t o w n clustering around it. Francis Parkman has given for all time the marvelous story of this expedition. Bedford was reached July 25 and Ligonier August 2. Fort Pitt under Captain E c u y e r had been surrounded b y Indians since May 27. It was doubtful whether Bouquet could get there safely and in time. T h e Indians, fearful of his carefully planned march as they had been of Forbes's expedition five years before, decided on a desperate but entirely different move. T h e y attacked Bouquet when he was within twenty-five miles of Fort Pitt at a place called Bushy Run. T h e conflict which followed extended into the second day and was finally w o n b y the English, due to the fine use of strategy b y Bouquet. T h i s battle did more to break the power of the Indians in Pennsylvania than any previous attempt had done. But what about the situation at the northern outpost on the upper Susquehanna? During the hot days of July, Burd drilled his men, fortified his post, and was ever on the watch f o r a surprise attack from Pontiac's gathering forces. A l l over the province suspense gripped the heart of the frontiersmen, and terror the heart of the loved ones left behind in safer settlements. James Young, again Burd's commissary-general and paymaster as in 1756 and 1758, and through all his staunch friend, wrote him, "I have been very uneasy about y o u and am extreamly glad y o u are n o w in so fine a w a y of Defence, m y uneasiness has not been less for the trouble of mind poor Mrs. Burd has been under." T h e n he wrote of what was the main topic of conversation throughout the province. "I long much to k n o w h o w Col. Bouquet succeeds in his march as it is of as much consequence as Braddock's march was." T h a t last reference must have sent Burd's thoughts traveling back to a day nine years before when during other sweltering July weather

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he urged his men to their utmost endeavor in road building in order to get supplies to Braddock, only to hear that the General had been ambushed by the Indians. Unhappy memory. Bouquet must not fail. The danger to Fort Augusta seemed to worry the settlers, the Quakers, and the business men about as much as did the danger to Fort Pitt. In reply to Hamilton's letter of June 22, Thomas Penn wrote from London that he would expect the report of Colonel Burd, and later he wrote, "I do not like the behavior of the Indians to Col. Bird, but if all they want is to be assured that we have not any intention to settle their Lands, but leave them all their fine hunting Country I hope Peace may be restored." The proprietaries saw eye to eye with the Crown on the restriction of settlement. All kinds of rumors, some true, some false, drifted up to the lonely northern garrison which was making desperate preparation to withstand attack. Burd noted some of these rumors and movements in his journal, and his daily memoranda help us form a mental picture of this outpost of civilization. Houses clustering around the fort were ordered torn down; all the women, with what buckets and vessels they could gather, were trained to repair at the first alarm to the well within the fort; the trading house was torn down, the materials brought within the fort, and further trade with the Indians was refused. Any child, woman, or man was forbidden to go to the garden for vegetables unless by order of an officer. Despite the great danger and for fear of a greater one, river transportation was kept unobstructed, and by August 11 the Colonel had sent down under close guard, in the province bateau, the last goods of the commissioners. Four days before, a fearful rumor circulated. "Andrew Montour arrived here today from the West Branch & informs me that Pitsburg and Ligonier are taken by the Indians; that the Indians are very Numerous at Pitsburg and that they have viewed Colonel Bouquet and the army every day on their march since they left Carlisle, and are determined to attack them." Philadelphia seems not to have had the news of

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Bouquet's victory until August 24. N o mention is made in Burd's Fort Augusta journal of that signal victory which would bring the northern fort great relief until in the entry for August 31. It seems safe to assume, however, that the stirring news arrived by August 20, for Colonel Burd left the fort that Saturday and started for Lancaster in order to purchase shoes and supplies for the soldiers. Colonel Shippen, again in Philadelphia, wrote to Burd August 25, that the Governor gave him permission to come to that city, and added a cheerful comment on the "news of Col. Bouquet's victory over the army of savages. The Bells rung here almost all last night on this occasion." Bouquet's victory greatly eased the tension, and Gladwin was still holding Detroit; yet the situation at Fort Augusta was precarious, due largely to the Connecticut settlers in the W y oming Valley and to the various groups of Indians living in villages far up the West Branch of the Susquehanna. Many of these Indians were Delawares and it had been Teedyuscung, their chief until his death in April, who had led in the fight for the Wyoming Valley. On September 7, Sir William Johnson held council with the Six Nations. This attempt at pacification did not deter the Indians from the terrible ambuscade at Devil's Hole, N e w York, a week later. As a result, several forays by volunteer parties drawn from Pennsylvania frontiersmen tried, with poor success, to destroy these Indian villages. Colonel Armstrong, who had been so successful in defeating the Kittanning Indians a few years before, now advanced with three hundred volunteers but found the Indians gone. After destroying their crops, his band returned to Fort Augusta in, ironically enough, a half-starved condition. At that very time in far-off Detroit Pontiac began his suit for peace. The elimination of the Connecticut settlers as a source of danger to Fort Augusta and Pennsylvania frontiersmen is a story not so quickly told. A review of the whole situation is imperative before one can grasp the ramifications of this subject. When, some years earlier, Connecticut business men finally realized to what splendidly fertile land their colony had a claim,

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regardless of the Penns' overlapping claim, they formed t w o companies to exploit this land. T h e first surveyors from the Susquehanna Company came to the W y o m i n g Valley just before Braddock's defeat. N o settlement followed that blow. In 1760 the other company, the Delaware, made the first settlement of Connecticut people on the Delaware River at a place called Cushietunk; the Susquehanna Company later settled on the river for which it was named. From the first, and continually until his death, Teedyuscung complained of broken faith on the part of the white man. Governor Hamilton sent Gordon Lewis and three Northampton County officials to view and report on these unwelcome settlers. Again in 1761, he issued a proclamation against all migrants from that colony. In England, Penn was attacking the legal angle. A t the treaty of Easton in 1762, Penn's government and Sir William Johnson had promised to reserve the famous valley for the Delaware tribe. Sir William sent his report of this treaty, which would abolish the Connecticut settlements, to the Board of Trade. He made the recommendation, as Julian Boyd points out, "which brought the affairs of the Susquehanna Company into the realm of imperial procedure." T h e Board took favorable action and by June 1763, an Order in Council had been issued which required Pennsylvania and Connecticut to settle the disputed ownership by a joint commission. T h e Board of Trade was moving only to protect the rights of the Indians, but happily for the proprietaries, their earnest wish was also fulfilled by the Board's action. On June 15, therefore, the young King, George III, sitting in St. James's palace, put his signature to a letter to Governor Hamilton authorizing him "to constitute and appoint a proper person to be a commissioner on the part of the Province of Pennsylvania with full power to act in Concert with a commissioner in like manner to be appointed by the Governor and Company of Connecticut." These t w o men, representatives of t w o of the most important of the thirteen colonies, were to meet in the W y o m i n g Valley, and order in the name of the King all the settlers to leave—to the end that "our good subjects, the

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Six Nations of Indians and their allies, the Delawares," might repossess their land and not "be disquieted and aggrieved" at the whites. This document, so vastly important to Indian and to white man, to the thrifty Connecticut stockholder and to the brave one hundred men, each of whom had been given ten square miles in that lovely valley, was started after some delay across the Atlantic to be delivered to Acting Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania. Meantime Colonel Burd had come down the Susquehanna and started east, spending some time in Lancaster purchasing supplies and again enjoying the comforts of civilization, home, and family. Since the Governor had gladly granted permission, the Colonel went to Philadelphia and gave a full account to Hamilton of conditions on the northern frontier. Nine years before, the young, inexperienced merchant, James Burd, had fulfilled his first public services during this Governor's earlier term of office. With more experience he had faithfully executed orders for his successors, Governor Morris and Governor Denny; now since 1759 he had again been serving Governor Hamilton. The two men had much to discuss. Before his return to Lancaster, Burd went up to Northampton where he probably looked after the interests of his friend and former patron, William Allen, who was then in England. He found the inhabitants in great fear of an Indian attack. The church service that Sunday morning was interrupted by terror-stricken people, and James Reads, the minister in charge, was urged by Colonel Burd to form a company for defense. Leaving the lonely village that Sunday, October 8, he later wrote from Lancaster, October 17, of Northampton's precarious position, telling Hamilton the town had only four guns, three unfit for use, and that the enemy was within four miles. It was now plain to all that the danger of Northampton and neighboring districts from the Indians was definitely increased by the fact that the Connecticut people had settled on land reserved for the Indians; it was also clear to all Pennsylvanians that if any white people settled in that valley it should be they.

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The people of Lancaster County, therefore, determined to send a party of volunteers made up of frontiersmen to attack the Indians and to destroy the crops of the N e w Englanders. Major Clayton, whom Burd previously had recommended highly for promotion, was chosen to lead them. With eighty men he left Harris Ferry and arrived at Fort Augusta near the middle of October. During the absence of Colonel Burd, Captain Grayden was in charge of that fort. He wrote Burd that Clayton asked him for twenty men to augment his force of eighty. Grayden had hesitated, but after Clayton said the Governor wished it and that Burd had orders to follow, he consented. (But the force at Fort Augusta was thus so reduced that Grayden could not send an escort to meet Burd at Hunter's Fort.) Clayton's men left the junction of the two branches of the Susquehanna on the 15th. It was that very day that the Indians rushed down upon the Connecticut settlers and massacred them. Just that bald fact is known. When Clayton's men arrived they buried the dead and then completed the devastation of houses and crops. N o attempt to find the Indians seems to have been made, and the frontiersmen had safely returned to Lancaster County by October 27. Meantime a packet from England had arrived, and the message from George III concerning these same Connecticut settlers was opened by Governor Hamilton. He must have fumed. What disturbance these people from Connecticut were causing! Well, Hamilton knew no better man to send on the King's mission than Colonel Burd. Certainly no man in Pennsylvania had had as much experience in defending his country against the Indians; surely he could handle this embarrassing situation better than any other. If only Fort Augusta had not been in such danger in the early summer, Burd would already have done just what the King ordered, for Hamilton had thus directed him on June 2, thirteen days before this document had been signed by George III. N o w , however, the settlement was a mutual affair between the two colonies, and the Crown had issued the ultimatum. Pursuant to this command and knowing

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nothing of the Indian massacre five days before, Hamilton on October 20 put the Great Seal of Pennsylvania to a commission f o r Colonel Burd which in part said: . . . "judging you fitly and duely qualified in your Loyalty, Fidelity, Resolution and Ability, I have, by and with the advice of the Council, nominated, constituted and appointed, and by these presents do constitute and appoint you, the said Colonel James Burd, to be Commissioner on the part of this Province of Pennsylvania." For the colony of Connecticut, Major David Baldwin was appointed by its legislature to meet and work in unison with Colonel Burd. T h e very next day after making out the commission, news of the massacre came to Hamilton. Colonel Joseph Shippen, the Governor's secretary, wrote immediately to Burd that it would now be unnecessary for him to go to Wyoming. In connection with the whole protracted Wyoming Valley affair, the words of Shakespeare seem doubly true—"The time is out of joint." Everything happened too soon or too late. In 1763, the prestige of the King was still great. Had Burd and Baldwin met and proclaimed the king's commands, using also the authority of the local governments, the settlers might have left peaceably, and Connecticut would thus have set a precedent which might have hindered future migrations, thereby making impossible the "Pennamite Wars" and the final terrible massacre of 1778. Meanwhile Colonel Burd was at Lancaster. In acknowledging the receipt of the Governor's commission he wrote, October 27, that he would set out for Augusta the next day, and wait f o r the Connecticut Commissioner at Harris Ferry. Hamilton had received the extract of Sir William Johnson's letter sent b y Amherst, who had added his sharp criticism of Pennsylvania's part in the defense against the Indians. Sir William now feared an attack by the Ottawa Confederacy on Detroit and Niagara, simultaneous with an attack by the Delawares on Fort Pitt and Fort Augusta. Yet the Assembly was planning to reduce the garrison at Augusta by twenty men! By November 5, Colonel Burd wrote from Harris Ferry that he had been impatiently

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waiting since October 28 for an escort up the river, but was busy loading the bateau and hiring men to take up the provisions. The inconvenience of the lack of swift and reliable means of communication is again realized when we learn that apparently Burd had not yet received Hamilton's countermand of his commission, yet the Colonel knew it was now unnecessary. Burd wrote, "The Connecticut Commissioner has not yet arrived nor do I expect him. Major Clayton returned says he has acquainted you of the unhappy fate of the N e w England people. Presume anything done by Commissioners not needed now. If so I await your command." Obedience by intuition, one might say. The return of Clayton with the twenty men of Burd's garrison gave the necessary escort, and Burd was ready by November 6 to start again for Fort Augusta, where he arrived on the 9th. The final thread in the tangled skein of the Wyoming Valley affair during 1763 is found in the letter of Thomas Fitch, governor of Connecticut, to the Board of Trade. Connecticut had done her part. Major Baldwin had gone to Philadelphia despite the fearful rumors heard on the way. There he had been told by Governor Hamilton that there was nothing now to be done, and had been advised to proceed no farther. This advice was one of the last official acts of Hamilton during his second term of office. John Penn, grandson of William, had returned from England in the capacity of governor for the proprietaries and was so acclaimed by the populace of Philadelphia on the last day of October. Many extravagant and flowery letters and addresses were received by the young man. Colonel Burd, doubtless depressed for the loss of his old superior, yet loyal to the proprietary family, expressed his welcome in his concise, soldierly fashion. "In the name of the officers of the Garrison, I congratulate your Honor upon your Safe arrival to your government." Then quickly to deplorable business: "The small-pox has been brought to this place, I believe, by the Volunteer parties, there is sundry of the soldiers down in them, and a great number of the Garrison has never had them, so that I expect they will be infected. I have no

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medicine and therefore Nature must do the W h o l e ! " T h e following month, December, Burd wrote Penn saying he was glad to hear blankets, medicine, and a surgeon were "allowed." He highly recommended a surgeon of his company, Lieutenant Thomas Wiggins, who had attended Burd's family in Lancaster, f o r the position. So with Indians without and smallpox within, the garrison gloomily settled down for another long, dangerous winter. Little holiday spirit was noticeable. With wistful thoughts of his family at Lancaster, Colonel Burd undoubtedly felt as little enthusiasm over Christmas Day as did Lieutenant Wiggins, who duly noted in the Fort Augusta journal f o r Sunday, December 25, "Nothing extraordinary. Pleasant weather."

X

FIGHTING FRANKLIN'S "OLD TICKET" the first days of 1764, Colonel James Burd made an important decision. He was now thirty-eight years old—an advanced age for those days. He had a wife and six children to support. He had never been quite satisfied with his position, or rather, he had hoped for advancement. At one time he had wanted to get into the Royal American Regiment, which change would have placed him directly under the Home rather than the Provincial authority. When his old friend of Assembly and Luna Club days, Lynford Lardner, had returned to England in 1762, Burd, in the hope of some suitable position, had asked him to present his case to the proprietary family. In 1763 he had talked of quitting the service, but the Shippens had urged him not even to mention it until all Indian alarms had ceased. Conditions had now become better and he had to plan for his family. Washington had quit years before and had gone to a plantation; Colonel Hugh Mercer had left to practise medicinc; Armstrong to engage in business. Burd's good health had been affected. Sudden acute attacks of rheumatism, the result, it was thought, of many days of exposure and nights spent sleeping on the ground, caused much discomfort. T w o of his brothers had died in the service of their king. His wife feared the same fate for him and was pleading with him to leave and get a position which would enable him to be at home and to give his children a father's care. All these motives and considerations with probably many others made Colonel Burd send his resignation to Governor Penn during January 1764. He was not completely relieved until July. While Burd had been aiding Mr. Allen he had acquired claim to some land in Northampton and had built a home and drilled for water in what is now Allentown. After the Wyoming affair, DURING

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that location as a permanent home was definitely dropped. The Colonel wrote, ". . . if there was a peace with the Indians tomorrow I would not expose my Family in the best Frontier place in the Province was I to have it as a gift, I entertain the same Sentiments of those faithless Barbarians as you do." In 1760, he had been willing to go to Shippensburg, and wrote Mr. Shippen, "The more I think of my Shippensburg Scheme the better I like it, and if it would suit your conveniency, and that it was your pleasure to give us the stone house and a plantation round it, we should certainly do very well." That location was now thought too dangerous, and besides, his father-inlaw decided to keep the Shippensburg tract intact for all his children. Burd now wrote him that he had £ 1,000 and asked him to see about the "Gillilyn place" between Lancaster and Philadelphia. Quite optimistic about an early purchase, Burd wrote Joseph Shippen that he hoped to be settled in May "where the roof may be low and our chear homely; yet we will expect to see our friends, amongst which number you are not in the Rear." A plantation in Chester County was supposed to have been acquired, but the purchase seems not to have been consummated. Granted leave by Governor Penn to go to Philadelphia to settle his private affairs, Burd seems not to have left until after February 23, 1764. The reunited family must have had many happy days before death took Allen, his second son and perhaps the brightest and most promising of his children. Not yet ten years of age, he could read Latin, German, and Greek, and was a good "arithmetician." Colonel Burd's father in Scotland had written that James Burd was the only son left to him; that son now must also write that he had only one son, Edward, who, though only thirteen, was attending college in Philadelphia. B y the middle of August Burd had not yet purchased a plantation but was living in Lancaster. During the years when the Colonel was in service it is probable that his family stayed at least some of the time at Edward Shippen's home, a large brick mansion on the site now occupied by the Young Worn-

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en's Christian Association. But now a change was made. Robert Fulton Sr. had moved to an adjacent plantation where Robert Jr. of steamboat fame was later born. Fulton rented his brick house on the northeast corner of Penn Square, where the Fulton Bank Building now stands, to Colonel Burd. Fulton's receipt for ¿45, a year's rent, is still preserved. The former soldier became justice of the peace and, from his new strategic location, was delving deeply into politics, helping, of course, the proprietary party. To that end he corresponded frequently with Samuel Purviance, a merchant of Philadelphia, and with him planned to loosen the control of the Quakers and of Benjamin Franklin. Perhaps Burd held the frontier view against the Quaker fur merchants expressed in the rude lines: The German bleeds and bears the furs Of Quaker lords and savage curs The Hibernian frets with new disaster And kicks to fling his broad-brimmed master. He might also have enjoyed the caricature which about this time showed Franklin saying: Fight dog, fight bear, you're all my friends, By you I shall attain my ends; For I can never be content Till I have got the Government; But if from this attempt I fall Then let the Devil take you all. Pennsylvania politics had an early birth and seems to have suckled on an ugly brew. Politics, however, could not fill all of Burd's time. Free of a great responsibility which he had long borne, Burd must have enjoyed his leisure and the admiration and fellowship of his townsmen. Yet he was restless. He thought again of engaging in trade, but believed it too precarious on account of the recent restrictive acts of Parliament. " A farm is a sure thing," he wrote, but he was not to find one to suit him for two years. Having finished his splendidly kept Augusta records—the bold,

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clear writing in the Quartermaster's Ledger ended in July 1764 —Burd for a year helped Edward Shippen keep his docket book. Although Colonel Burd and Dennis McCormick, who was the agent in charge of the Augusta trade, had agreed about their accounts, we find that John Gibson of Philadelphia wrote Burd that he still owed the province £ 34. Burd denied knowing of any debt. After consulting McCormick, the affair must have been settled favorably to Burd, for he soon had the provincial assignment of warning squatters away from the Penn's Manor near the Blue Rock. As for Dennis McCormick, at his death years later Burd was found to be co-administrator with the widow. This clerk, then, could hardly have been the one who had previously accused Burd of selling liquor to the Indians. Burd had written that he was much vexed to be "eternally plagued in this manner . . especially since "it is an accusation of the highest breach of trust for me to break a well-known law of the Government whose bread I daily eat." In this country such a law has frequently been followed more in the breach than in the observance! But Burd seems to have proved himself innocent of the charge. The months slipped quickly by and the Christmas season approached. The Colonel sent to his son, Neddy, his mare, bridle, and bags with loving instructions to "ride down" from Philadelphia carefully and only in the daytime, and to bring a pound of citron for Mother's minced pies. Christmas dinner was to be at "Daddy and Mammy Shippen's" home at the corner of North Lime and East Orange Streets just past St. James' Episcopal Church. In this home Burd's eldest child, Sally, named for her mother and almost sixteen, spent much time. A certain young man named Jasper Yeates after meeting her there described her to his sister: She is a most agreeable young lady, tho' permitted to see very little company. She has a tolerable share of beauty and a great deal of good sense,—very affable,—sings well, 8c plays on the harpsicord; and I am told, is not unskilled in the more humble domestic accomplishments. You may naturally imagine from

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this description, that I enjoy no small pleasure from her company. Perhaps Jasper Yeates was a guest that festive day when the stately Shippen house resounded with song and laughter. As they walked down the hill toward Penn Square, James Burd and his wife must have felt content that Christmas night and had high hopes for the N e w Year. On January 4, 1765, James, Junior, arrived. The father was doubtless highly elated with his namesake and seems to have taken umbrage too quickly at some phrase which fourteenyear-old Edward had written about the new baby, so that the boy apologized, "Dear Papa, how could you criticize upon my expressions. I mistook the name of my Brother, and thought he merited the appellation of Rosy being so sweet a child." Another addition to Burd's family made a larger income imperative if his capital was not entirely to disappear. He had only the rent from his house in Northampton, and had not yet decided upon a plantation. Rather as a transitory measure until that decision was made, Burd again became a merchant, opening a grocery and wine shop in April 1765. In his clear handwriting we find the names of most of Lancaster County's representative citizens of that period—Reverend Thomas Barton, Mathias Slough, William Atlee, John Harris, Dr. Robert Boyd, Captain John Schlosser, George Hoofnagle, John Wilkins, and many others. Members of his old regiment bought from him, as did members of the 60th or Royal American Regiment, which was stationed at Lancaster that spring. It is likely that wine and rum were in great demand by these soldiers. In the Pennsylvania Gazette for September 5, 1765, is found the following advertisement: T o be sold by James Burd, In Lancaster, Wholesale or Retail, Madeira Wine, Teneriffe Ditto, Malaga Ditto, Jamaica Spirits, Antigua Rum, Philadelphia Ditto, Brandy, Coffee, double refined Loaf Sugar, single and lump ditto, and Muscovado Sugar. As likewise a Negroe Man, has had the Small Pox about 30 years of Age, fit for Country Business; he drives a

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Wagon well, and is a very handy Fellow, and might be very serviceable at an Iron Works. Whoever inclines to purchase said negroe, may have Time to pay the Money, giving Security, and paying Interest. It is doubtful whether Burd spent sufficient time in the planning for and management of this store. His mind was elsewhere. As in Philadelphia, he had too many interests. Yet in respect to the political arguments which were carried on around its counters, it was a typical and successful store for that period! For Colonel Burd now paid close attention to Lancaster's political life, striving continually and in every way to counteract Franklin's rising power and to enhance the prestige of the Penns, yet also to acquire for the frontier larger representation in the Assembly. The age-old struggle between the outposts of civilization and older conservative communities was being reénacted. The three original counties of Pennsylvania had twenty-six men in the Assembly, while the five frontier counties had only ten representatives to press their manifold needs. After the "Paxton Affair" the proprietary party with its various adhering groups and Franklin's following of liberals and radicals came to a definite schism. Governor John Penn's action, or rather lack of action, during that disgraceful turbulence made Franklin come out openly for the elimination of the proprietary government. In its place he wished to see a royal government. But the aristocracy, the clergy, and the wealthier group in Philadelphia, other friends of the proprietaries, and those who were their officials or hoped to be, wanted no change in the government. In this group were Burd and most of his friends. So Franklin and his lieutenant, Joseph Galloway, with their "Old Ticket" were bitterly opposed by Burd and most of Lancaster County which had been angered by Franklin's remarks about "the Christian white savages of Peckstang and Donegal." Franklin's party was defeated and, though its indomitable leader was later to acquire almost full power, for the time at least, Burd's influence in the frontier country was

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greatly heightened. Early in 1766 William Allen congratulated Burd and Adam Kuhne for aiding in the preservation of the charter privileges, saying the unhappy contention was now over since the petition for a change of government had been rejected by the King. (Owing to the Stamp Act and other unfavorable legislation it was really never presented.) In 1765, during this controversy, Burd was made a Deputy Prothonotary of Lancaster County, and he stood for and in the autumn was elected chief burgess of the county seat. His son Ned wrote his sister Sarah, "Beg you will congratulate Papa in my name that his interest was so good in the Borough, as to be elected its chief magistrate." For one who had been able to spend so little time in the town, this election to its highest office by the people of Lancaster speaks well for Burd. Yet by the manner in which his military career in the Revolution was affected by these contacts and political disputes with Franklin, it might have been better had Colonel Burd never entered politics. In civic affairs Burd was also taking an active part. He was one of five signers of a report presented to the judges of the court saying, "Agreeable to an order of Court to us the Subscribers directed We have Viewed and having found the same Necessary Have Laid out a Publick Road." After his efficient handling of Braddock's Road and of the one built to the Monongahela River in 1759, Burd's advice on this project would be that of an authority. T w o years earlier the Colonel had been a charter member of the Juliana Library Association of Lancaster, the third public library opened in the American colonies. He was probably a director of the company at this time and must have shown continued interest in it, for in 1783 the General Assembly, in an act to reestablish the society, appointed him one of the directors. Mr. Penn and his wife frequently sent books to the library, and several years later, in appreciation, the directors voted that the picture of the Lady Juliana be drawn by Benjamin West and that it be hung in the library. It may be assumed that Burd assisted in the establishment of

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a Presbyterian church in Lancaster, since he was listed as one of the distinguished laymen of the Carlisle Presbytery. Lancaster Presbyterians had gone to the old Pequea Church, but in 1763 one was organized within the town. The congregation first met in the Court House. James Hamilton deeded to them a lot on Orange Street and one on Lime Street, and Edward Shippen was made one of the original trustees. The present followers of Calvin may be shocked to know that money for the church edifice was raised by a lottery. Philadelphia seems to have initiated the idea, and William Allen sent Edward Shippen tickets to be sold. Shippen returned twenty of them, the numbers running from 2291 to 2310, because a certain Dr. Thompson refused to pay for them. The Assembly finally passed an act allowing suit for unpaid money due on this lottery. Shippen seems also to have helped in the establishment of Lancaster's first Anglican Church, St. James', and rests now in its cemetery. One feels certain Burd must have aided in establishing his own type of church, since, like his father-inlaw, he later helped in the spread of Christianity regardless of denomination. Meantime the Shippen family seem to have been worried about Burd's financial status. The future chief justice of Pennsylvania wrote his father, Edward Shippen, that Burd was quite self-willed and was spending his capital, so the two brothers-inlaw would now assume the responsibility of assisting Burd as their father had so often done. The elder man did not quickly withdraw his aid, however, but soon after this date gave Burd a large supply of lumber to be used in the erection of the new home. After two years of indecision over various sites Colonel Burd bought, August 4, 1766, at sheriffs sale two tracts of land below Harris Ferry. This property was in Paxtang Township, now in Dauphin County, but then still in Lancaster County. Some months later Edward Shippen described the purchase in a letter to Richard Peters

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My son-in-law bought at Vendue last Summer 500 Acres of Patented Land which belonged to Clinton's Estate, fronting the River Sasquehannah for £900 with a new Saw Mill on it, but the Stream of water not very Constant. On which Mr. Burd can make 30 Acres of Choice Meadowing; and there is a very good Log House, and a large Log Barn 50 x 30 feet 2 stories high, the latter must have cost the Owner Sixty pounds at least; but Some say he had a great bargain of it, being a Choice Plantation, lying 26 miles off, 8c but 2 miles from Middletown . . . The Burds left Lancaster in the autumn of 1766 and came to Middletown on the Susquehanna—a point two miles below the plantation. They were doubtless welcomed by their old friend George Fisher, who had come out fifteen years before when the Burds first went to Shippensburg. Middletown, the village which Fisher laid out near the mouth of the Swatara, was in 1766 an important little community. It lay halfway between Lancaster and Carlisle and had several inns and taverns for the convenience of the stagecoach travelers and those like the Burds who were moving to the frontier. Perhaps the Burds first stayed at the fine new log inn at the corner of Spring and Main Streets. (This building, remodeled, is today the home of a descendant of the first George Fisher.) Later they moved into a small village house while Burd was busy supervising the construction of his plantation house. This new house seems to have been attached to the large log house already on the premises, so we can hardly give Burd the credit for the original choice of the site, which for peaceful beauty of location could hardly be surpassed and perhaps not equaled in the colonies. On the edge of a level upland it looks out over a narrow stretch of valley to the broad-spreading Susquehanna beyond. Buena Vista the Spaniards would say; but the natives of the Marianas in the Pacific had one word for a place of unsurpassed views—Tinian. Burd, like every Britisher, had to have a name for his home, and probably for the aforesaid reason he called his plantation Tinian. Large oak trees

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shaded a lane which led down to the river. Benches were placed under these trees, and tradition tells us that the five daughters of the Burd family with their young gallants strolled so frequently to the water's edge that the passage was later called Lovers' Lane. A f t e r the silk-raising fever reached the country, mulberry trees were planted around the house. Enormous black cherry trees later lined the road leading toward Middletown. A well with a windlass and a large stone trough refreshed the weary. The log house was reconditioned, and a fine stone house which had a garret, cellar, and the usual big chimneys of that day was attached to the front. T h e strong iron gratings at the cellar windows, intact to this day, gave the basis for the tradition that Burd used the cellar for a jail. Perhaps f o r a short time the justice of the peace did consign some runaway slave or recalcitrant frontiersman to its gloomy depths. That Burd intended to conduct a plantation of the large Southern type— the kind which must keep a large amount of supplies on hand— is suggested by the store room with 588 feet of shelves. There was also an office f o r Colonel Burd. T h e kitchen seems to have been separate from the house. Perhaps the window glass was made at Stiegel's Manheim works, erected near Lancaster in 1765. A t least the Colonel's lady would have some goblets and decanters of the brilliant colors and bell-like resonance designed b y the famous "baron." Some prized pieces of furniture had been made in Philadelphia at Plunkett Fleeson's shop, " T h e Sign of the Easy Chair," f o r the Burds' first home on Passyunk Road; perhaps some came from England, but many were made by the building contractor whose itemized and receipted bill found in the archives at Harrisburg is most interesting. There was a high post bed and five plain ones, a tea table and other tables, a large double writing desk and three dough trays, and, to make the homestead in that part of the country complete, a bird box f o r the friendly martins. T h e method of paying for much of the material used for construction of the house and even f o r the labor was the old one

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of barter. John Annis, the contractor, was given, April 30, 1767, a pipe of Teneriffe wine worth £ 30 from Burd's store. As work progressed he received Madeira and Malaga—yet the house was and still is straight and true of line! Wine sold Henry Rennick helped pay for the boarding of the contractor and his helpers, and for the mason, Robert Moore. Indeed this method of barter was followed in part in the stocking of the plantation and made a "going out of business" sale at his Lancaster store unnecessary. Craft Cost of that town took wine to the amount of / 2 2 in payment for a wagon. Dennis McCormick, who had already drunk his wine, paid part of his bill with two cows worth ¿ 4 each, while that brilliant German and former "redemptioner," George Frey, sold Burd twenty-three sheep for an amount of wine not stated in the bond. T w o years later, despite the fact that there was already the large log barn which was on the site when Burd purchased it, he erected another, the "best barn in these parts." So we find the previous merchant, the former army officer, now at the age of forty-one a country gentleman—considered by all odds the most aristocratic station in life in the eighteenth century— and busy directing his negro slaves, his indentured "Dutch" servants, and his "bound" boys and girls. Little of the five hundred acres had been cleared. The men were kept busy felling the huge trees and grubbing out the tenacious roots. Then followed the draining of swamps, the planting of orchards and grain, the collecting of precious seeds and sprouts from friends, the purchase of dogs, black-eyed rabbits, and silver pigeons for the children. W e realize Burd's British ancestry when we find him writing for certain flower seeds and for honeysuckle, sweet briar, balsam roots, and tulips; and from the fact that he begged his father-in-law not to sell a certain mare which had proved difficult to handle to a rascally farmer who would whip her to death and "break her heart." Burd offered to take her and to lend his own horse to Mr. Shippen. Like a true Britisher Burd loved flowers and animals. Since Burd had only enough money to purchase the land

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with the few log buildings, money for the new buildings and for equipping the plantation was as usual borrowed from the Shippens. One is likely to censure Burd severely for this weakness, this continued use of borrowed money. It does seem to have been his worst fault. He had, however, the excuse of good expectations from his father's estate. Edward Burd Sr. had died early in 1765, leaving Colonel Burd not only the oldest but the only male heir. He had two young sisters, born after he left Scotland, the children of a deceased married sister, and his mother yet living. She, the daughter of George Haliburton, a former Lord Mayor of Edinburgh, had her rights by the marriage contract, and the sisters were left portions. But Burd had every reason to expect quite a sum after ordering his "factor" or agent to sell in 1767. The estate, which lay between the lands of Lord Morton and of Lord Lauderdale, near Edinburgh, consisted of three farms exclusive of the mansion garden, two parks consisting of fifteen acres, and a tenement of houses and stables in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh. But the elder Burd, an attorney, had been heavily in debt and had some years previously sold one estate, Knightsrig, and had lost ¿800 due to a friend's defaulting his bond. The factor cheated, withheld the money, and died without settlement. It seems that Burd received nothing during his lifetime and that his son Edward in later years gave most of the remaining estate to the two maiden aunts. But at the time Burd was borrowing to establish Tinian and to make it a well-stocked plantation, he had high hopes of quickly repaying his debts. Burd was not able, however, to put his full time to equipping his plantation. He had been too faithful and valuable a public servant for that. As he had been drawn into the boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Connecticut, so now he was asked to assist in the settlement of the boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland—though the work assigned him in the latter settlement was slight in comparison to that given him in the former. This dispute, too, was one of long standing, but agreement between the two proprietary families,

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the Penns and the Baltimores, had been reached some time previous, and the two surveyors, Jeremiah Dixon and Charles Mason, had been working for some years on the line which still bears their names. Sir William Johnson had now prevailed upon the Indians to allow the surveyors to extend the line "to its limits to the Westward." Several Indians were coming down the Susquehanna to be with the surveyors as they ran the line. In furthering Johnson's request Penn wrote Edward Shippen of Lancaster, "I am to desire you would request Colonel Burd to see they [the Indians] are taken proper Care of when they come to Harris's, and that no insults be offered them . . . for if they should have any reason to be offended the whole business may fail . . ." Mr. Shippen added that they must not be treated as Paxton treated them the year before. The minutes of the Commissioners, June 22, 1767, for running the line show consternation at the report they received from Colonel Burd—which report was confirmed by one from George Croghan. Eight Mohawks had come to Harris's from Johnson Castle to attend the surveyors. That was expected. But from 100 to 150 more braves were assembling for the same purpose! The expense for such an unnecessarily large number of Indian guests was disturbing, but the Commissioners feared that a much more serious trouble might follow. Hence Colonel Burd and Thomas McKee were authorized to keep these warriors at home by presenting them with gifts, the value of which was not to exceed £ 100. Hugh Crawford was to remain with the Indians as long as they stayed with the surveyors, in order to interpret and care for them. For this he was to be given ten shillings per day. Because of the necessity for haste, the Pennsylvania Commissioners had given these instructions without consulting Maryland. Hugh Crawford must have been selected previously, by Burd, for Jere Dixon replied to a letter of Burd's, written before the Commissioners' instructions had been given, that according to Burd's instructions he had lodged the Indians by themselves under the care of Mr. Crawford. John Harris also had several messages about the Indians for Burd. The most

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insistent request of the Red Man was for paint. Harris wrote they were "always dunning Mr. Crawford & me abt It 8c wee tell them you'l produce it." Was Burd again, as in his merchant days in Philadelphia, to deal with such frivolous things as cosmetics? And his choice of paint did not suit the Indians, for Harris wrote that they did not want red lead, with which they said the whites painted their houses; they wanted good vermilion! Harris added that he could not keep these braves from drinking since they were "Sir William's Pets," and he thought they would drink during the whole march. It is probable that, until late autumn at least, Burd had to spend much time on affairs connected with the Indians and the Mason and Dixon Line. On September 26 he sent Joseph Shippen, Mr. Penn's "cashier," a statement and balance, and he wrote that the Indians would soon be going home. Since Messrs. Mason and Dixon would doubtless send them in Burd's care, as was done before, he wanted the Governor's instructions, for "They are Troublesome, Expensive people & I shall be afraid of giving them umbrage on the one hand, and on the other of leading the Governor into charge without his Honors Directions." Surely no one would be more glad to see the last of these Indians than Colonel Burd's wife, who, worried with the illness of her whole family including her husband, had also to worry about the frontier dangers in what should have been a safe and peaceful location. Tinian was far from completion by the close of 1767. Sarah Burd must have been keenly disappointed to know that the stork, which was to make its tenth visit in January, must deliver its precious cargo to a house in the little village of Middletown rather than to their own beautiful home. The imminent arrival of a baby and the probable small quarters in Middletown seemed to make another disappointment necessary—the marriage outside the home of the family's eldest child. Jasper Yeates could wait no longer for the attractive girl who played the harpsichord for him in her grandfather's home in Lancaster. He was studying in Philadelphia for his M.A. degree, and during his

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Christmas vacation the couple were married, December 30, 1767, in Lancaster by the rector of St. James' Episcopal Church. They both had the approval and best wishes of parents and relatives. The groom was a quiet, conservative young man of an old respected family. Sarah Shippen Burd could not help contrasting her daughter's marriage with her own less than a score of years before, when a motherless girl of seventeen married a gay young merchant recently arrived from across the water. Yet that marriage had been happy; her daughter had a greater chance for that same happiness. During the few comparatively quiet years between Pontiac's Rebellion and the oncoming Revolution, Colonel Burd was rather busy as a peace officer. Sometimes his assistance was needed by the constable to return runaway servants and slaves. It is interesting to note, however, the number of cases in which a white man had injured an Indian. Early the next year one John Mitcheltree had so threatened the Indian Killbuck that for fear of another resultant Indian war Colonel Burd was ordered to bind the said Mitcheltree over to the Quarter Sessions Court under / 4 0 0 bail. Another white man, Thomas French, had stolen a horse from an Indian; Burd was to get French and make him settle. Perhaps the most serious criminal case with which Burd had to deal was that of the German, Frederick Stump. This man had killed without provocation four Indian men and two women in his own house, and the next day had gone fourteen miles up the creek and there killed and burned in their cabin an Indian woman, two girls, and a child! Again, and certainly with a more justifiable reason, there was the haunting fear of an Indian war as a result. John Penn had called on several justices of the peace to assist the sheriff in the capture of this Stump. He was soon apprehended. But the next event in this hideous affair shows the lawless spirit rampant on the frontier. A mob of seventy or eighty armed men broke into the Carlisle gaol and carried Stump away in triumph. Although the Assembly appropriated the sum of ¿3,000 to pay for expenses accruing in his recapture, he was never again arrested. That race

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prejudice was a serious evil was soon again demonstrated, and upon Burd's own plantation. This time the minority group under persecution was the Negro rather than the Indian race. Some white wagoners had evidently found a night's shelter at Burd's plantation. They found diversion in teasing and provoking James Derry, one of Colonel Burd's slaves. During the fight which ensued the slave killed Henry Corson, one of the wagoners. From testimony at the inquest it seemed that the deceased man started the fight, yet the Negro slave was tried and convicted of murder. Unless Governor John Penn changed the date, he was executed less than two months after the crime was committed. The provincial treasurer was to reimburse Colonel Burd to the amount of / 9 0 , the valuation of this slave. Since leaving the monotonous routine of army life in a frontier post, Burd had now had four years of a varied unsettled life in town and village. The dream of many years was now about to be fulfilled. He was moving his family onto his own well-stocked plantation—his beautiful Tinian.

XI

TINIAN BY April of 1768, at least not long after, the new house was ready for the happy Burd family, and quite likely a house wanning took place. T o the guests Tinian must have seemed a fine, new homestead—in all probability the largest for many miles around, unless it were the home of John Harris, ten miles away. The Colonel and his lady must have had a vast content and happiness in the sharing of the new home with their guests, and must have danced the stately minuet with almost as much enjoyment as though they were treading the Assembly dances of twenty years ago. As the days passed, guests from near and far were welcomed. Some were more cordially received than others. There was a visit from Joseph Galloway, whom the family had welcomed for the sake of Joseph Shippen, who in September had married Galloway's sister Jane. Galloway, still an ally of Franklin, was a recent political enemy. But most visitors would bring pure pleasure to this hospitable host and hostess. For the next two or three years the management of the plantation must have taken most of Burd's time: draining more swamps; grubbing out more tree trunks; planting more seeds— fifty quarts of red clover seed at one time; planting asparagus so that in later years Burd could say he had it four inches long by April 5 and enough to cut every morning; planting hops for beer and bread; planting buckwheat for hot cakes for breakfast; planting flax so that soon Mrs. Burd could write, "when I get some of ours heckled shall send a twist or two"; planting more orchards—pear, apple, apricot, and peach trees; setting pear grafts and quince grafts; and purchasing more animals. Mrs. Burd in 1774 again wrote, "Have just salted up four Beefs of our own raising, & have ten Hogs in the Pen, which we intend to kill in about a week." Yes, not only was the plantation owner busy, but also his wife, who superintended the preparation of '39

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all food and clothing for an establishment of at least fifteen souls. From letters we can piece out an interesting view of the family life. Without the two eldest children who were in Philadelphia (Mrs. Jasper Yeates and Edward) and without the three children who had died, the big house must have seemed fairly empty on school days. There was Mary, past sixteen now and busying herself in the accomplishments which a young lady of those days must have, and there was the baby, Joseph, keeping someone busy watching his toddling steps. The other three, Jean, Peggy, and little four-year-old Jamy, went "to school about a mile off. Jamy desires to go and has for some days & likes to read his lesson but this day he has plaid Truant but promises to go tomorrow," Colonel Burd's namesake thus showed quite early that independence which in later years made it difficult for father and son to understand each other. With these three Burd children went Polly and Herbert. The former was a "bound" child and probably the latter was also. Not long after this jocular letter Burd wrote two others to his father-in-law in Lancaster from which stark terror peers out. His wife was very ill. She would not allow him to send for the doctor, but he was writing without her knowledge. The second letter was following in case this one miscarried. No phones, no nurses, no hospitals, no serums were at Burd's call. But a strong constitution and a family doctor saved Sarah Burd, and soon her husband's letters were about electioneering for the lower side of the county as against the town of Lancaster! By mail and newspaper this frontier home kept in contact, as close as possible, with the outside world. Letters arrived from relatives in Scotland and from friends in England; from Samuel Purviance of Philadelphia about politics; from friends of Assembly days about more frivolous things. No doubt Burd heard, tardily of course, that Beau Nash of the Assembly had died and that the city of Bath in England was not so gay as formerly. But Burd also heard of more intimate, troublesome affairs. A tenant, probably at Northampton, was in arrears with his rent.

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Acknowledging Burd's forbearance, he yet wanted an abatement for repairs. The indentures of two Dutch servants failed to come. Letters came from Colonel Shippen and from Dr. Morgan about bounty lands for which they and Burd were eligible, but for which they were unable to acquire titles. A letter arrived concerning the whereabouts of an apprentice lad whom Burd, years before, had taken to Jamaica and had there signed over his indenture, at the lad's request, to a silversmith. His mother had not heard from him. Yes, the frontier knew of tragedy directly and by tardy and often incomplete communication. The lure of free land to the squatter again made trouble for Colonel Burd. The part of the Proclamation Act of 1763 which referred to the pernicious habit of these people could not be enforced. The Fort Pitt garrison had removed the settlers from the Redstone country (east of the Monongahela River) but they had returned. The Redstone had become the lodestone for those land-hungry people. Finally, on February 3, 1768, the punishment for these squatters, except in George Croghan's settlement or along the road to Fort Pitt, was made death without benefit of clergy. A few weeks later a commission was appointed to distribute the proclamation and explain the necessity for these squatters to move. Neville Craig in The Olden Time mentions Burd as the first of five commissioners named by Governor Penn for this purpose, but neither the Colonial Records nor the original records of the Minutes of the Provincial Council give Burd's name. Could it be that Craig had access to a second copy of the original minutes—a more perfect one? Carbon copies were unknown at that time. Craig might make the mistake of omission but hardly of addition. Although no one was more likely to be appointed, this writer has found no record that Burd went at this time or later to the fort which he himself had built in the Redstone country. Later in the spring his brother-in-law, Joseph Shippen, and John Allen went to Fort Pitt to try to pacify the Indians. The trouble from squatters in this district, however, was finally settled by the

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Treaty of Fort Stanwix, November 1768. By this treaty all lands south of Kittanning, east of the Allegheny River, and south of the Ohio were ceded to the Penns. Neither the proprietaries nor any other white men, however, had acquired land in the Wyoming Valley east of the Susquehanna, yet the New Englanders were again settling there. Colonel Turbett Francis, then on his way to Fort Augusta, wrote Burd from John Harris' place: "If you could lay hold of them with propriety, I fancy it would be of service . . ." The irony of this appeal from the military to the civil officer must not have escaped Burd; certainly his civil office and public affairs took much of his time. By the beginning of the decade of the seventies the family at Tinian was well established in the community life, and the leadership of Colonel Burd in various matters was very evident. Dr. Thomas Barton, rector of St. James' Episcopal Church of Lancaster, seems to have called frequently for his help. Once this clergyman asked Burd to accompany him to the funeral of one who never attended church and whose grown children were not baptized. What minister has not been in such a predicament? Again, Dr. Barton called upon Burd to support and gather subscriptions for the proposed Pennsylvania Magazine. The publisher was from Aberdeen and honest! Besides seeking help, Dr. Barton sometimes gave the Colonel help. He sent an ear of Smyrna wheat which was supposed to yield 100 bushels to the acre. He gave advice, upon Burd's request, about the dissension within the new congregation at Middletown. A staunch Presbyterian, there seems to have been little that was narrow or illiberal about Burd's religious views. Certainly in the records of St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Middletown under date of February 10, 1773, there was a document in which James Burd and James Crouch each agree to pay £ 3 for a year for the support of a minister, Reverend Trangott Frederick Illing, who was to preach in that church every third Sunday "in English and Dutch," for, as Burd wrote, "there was a good understanding subsisting between us and our German Brethren belonging to said church."

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Burd had probably gone to the Paxton Presbyterian Church where his compatriot, Reverend John Elder, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, vigorously preached his Calvinistic doctrine. But in 1767 Burd had been invited to lay the cornerstone for St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Middletown. (In it were placed a German Bible, Luther's Shorter Catechism, three wafers, a half-pint bottle of wine, and some Pennsylvania currency.) Quite likely in very inclement weather, Burd took his family to this church. About the time its pulpit became vacant, the Church of England, through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, had sent the German, Reverend Trangott Illing, to the frontier. The dual arrangement between the German Lutherans and the English inhabitants was then made with this minister, and Burd became for some years a member of the English congregation. But one doubts whether the Bishop of London would have recognized the service! Mrs. Burd wrote her daughter, Sally Yeates, that they now had church at Middletown, and it must have been of this service that she later wrote her daughter, " W e were at church yesterday—after church we stayed to hear the organ & there I received your last letter by Dr. Adams and read it there & you may think what attention I paid to the music or anything else." In those days, the dissemination of news after church services was barely second in importance to the spreading of the gospel during the service. On June 29, 1774, Governor John Penn wrote a letter to Burd and James Crouch in which he said that Mr. Illing had given him a petition which they had signed in behalf of four families of German Lutherans and fifteen families of English, all members of the Church of England, who desired eight acres of land between Harris's and Carlisle. Penn greatly approved of Burd's efforts to help and assure "Divine Service according to the Episcopal Church of England." Colonel Burd certainly put religion above denominationalism. The friendship between the Burd and Harris families was very close. John Harris, his wife, his daughter and her future husband, William Maclay, were invited to Tinian for Christ-

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mas dinner in 1770. T h e y accepted, weather permitting. It probably permitted, for Burd later wrote that they had guests and a goose for Christmas. Another time Mrs. Burd wrote Sally that they had been invited by Joshua Elder and John Harris Jr. to a dance and a fox hunt at the Harris homestead. They were unable to go and heard that very few ladies attended. The Thanksgiving season of 1771 at Tinian was a very gay, happy time. The Burd's second daughter, Mary, was married November 28 to Peter Grubb of Hopewell Forge. A man much older than his eighteen-year-old bride, he was already, through his large holdings at Cornwall, a very prominent and well-to-do member of the community. The day of this first wedding at Tinian was one to be long remembered. Brother Ned did not get home for the occasion but heard all about the merry time— that even his Grandfather Shippen had danced the Cobbler's Jig! So auspicious a beginning for the couple led to a tragic outcome. After the birth of the second child the young wife died, leaving the children to be cared for by Mrs. Burd, whose last child, Elizabeth, had been born not long before. Peter Grubb's violent death some years later left the children orphans. These grandchildren, however, were not the first. In J u l y 1772, a son was born to Sally Yeates. The proud father, Jasper Yeates, and the great-grandfather, Edward Shippen, celebrated by going trout fishing near Hopewell Forge. Perhaps Edward Burd joined them, for he was now free from his apprenticeship with his uncle, Edward Shippen, and was an attorney, as had been his Scottish grandfather whose name he bore. Through the friendship of Mr. Allen he had been given the prosecution for the crown in Northumberland County. So Burd now had his three oldest children well settled in life and was beginning to enjoy his grandchildren. At this time Joseph and Edward Shippen Jr. must have made many loans to Colonel Burd. He bought Rice Island in the Susquehanna; he had to care for bound children; and he had his son purchase another indentured servant from a Dutch ship. The mgn cost nearly £ 20, the indenture paper cost 4s 6d, and

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as was the custom, he was given 7s 6d earnest money. Mrs. Burd also had a spinner—whether by purchase or by hiring does not appear. This was during the period of the non-importation acts when the colonists were trying to become more self-sufficient in retaliation for the Townshend Acts and other prohibitive laws. Many spinners and weavers were attracted to America by promise of high wages. Of course Burd had great hopes for a large quantity of produce for market. T o this end he was one of many farmers who on November 10, 1770, signed a petition from Lancaster County which asked Governor Penn that a road which was then under construction from the "back country" to Philadelphia be confirmed as a King's Highway. It was shorter and on better ground. The signers seemed to disguise the hope of improvement and convenience for themselves and instead implied its necessity for the metropolis lest trade be diverted from Philadelphia—a result to be prevented if possible. If only Colonel Burd could have realized from his patrimony he might have been solvent, but the latest news from his mother in Scotland was to the effect that the person to whom Burd had sent his power of attorney had pocketed not only all his money but all of his sisters' as well. Burd hoped bail would save him from loss of money, but the lost time was exasperating. Besides, the sisters whom Burd had never seen had heard he was wealthy and asked him to relinquish his claim. They had only the interest on ¿400; to these young girls a brother who had married the only daughter of the "Lord Mayor" of Philadelphia and who now owned an estate of five hundred acres must have seemed quite mercenary to insist upon his share of their father's diminished estate. It is no wonder, then, that Colonel Burd, like his brother officers, was still hoping for a large grant of land. In 1755, Burd, as well as the other commissioners for the Braddock Road, had acquired about five hundred acres of land near the forks of the Juniata. These "Turkey Bottom" lands had been surveyed by a certain Richard Tea for ¿ 7 4s about a decade

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later. The Empire had planned in the Proclamation of 1763 to give land not reserved for Indians to officers who qualified. In 1767, Franklin received a grant of twenty thousand acres in Nova Scotia; in 1768, George Croghan received ten thousand acres in N e w York; and in 1769 Sir Jeffrey Amherst was granted twenty thousand acres in the same colony. In May 1765, Burd and other officers of the French and Indian W a r petitioned the proprietaries for a grant upon reasonable terms of thirty or forty thousand acres at the forks of the Susquehanna. The officers on their part were to send settlers immediately to the tract and thus protect the older settlements. But after purchasing the land from the Indians the proprietors offered only preemption rights to these officers, and insisted upon purchase money and quitrents. Depressed by this pronouncement, Dr. John Morgan and Colonel Joseph Shippen wrote Burd in July 1769, that since the terms of the Susquehanna land grants seemed to them "utterly impossible" they had, after the recent purchase at Fort Stanwix, applied for eighty thousand acres "over the Allegheny Mountains." The Board of Property finally granted fifty thousand acres to officers provided they settle a family on every three hundred acres within a two-year period, pay the whole sum of the purchase money before a patent for any part of the land could be made out, and have no knowledge of the location of the tract until after the Land Office was opened. The officer's committee, consisting of Barton, Burd, Joseph Shippen, Robert Callender, John Morgan, David Jamison, and others, at a meeting at Mr. Slough's in Lancaster, March 14, 1769, decided to relinquish this grant. They wrote: This Committee having maturely deliberated on the terms of the grant and considered the impracticability of performing the same, concluded that on account of the many who refused to proceed, they had no certainty of being able to pay so large a sum as the purchase money will amount to, nor being able to make an actual settlement of the lands within the limited time; therefore the Committee voted to relinquish the Grant

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and return the balance of money to those who had contributed. With no prospect of grants with suitable terms in their own province on account of the proprietors, the Pennsylvania officers turned to Virginia, where there were crown lands. Early in 1774, Dr. Barton wrote Colonel Burd that he had received from Virginia a copy of an Order in Council dated December 16, 1773, which said the land office was now open to military claimants, and that Lord Dunmore had agreed to grant patents to those officers who personally appeared. Captain Thompson had gone down the Ohio the previous summer, and had surveyed and preempted large tracts of desirable land. It was understood that those of the rank of colonel could claim five thousand acres. W e smile at the payment of $24 worth of trinkets by the Dutch to the savage Indians for the island of Manhattan. We may perhaps better appreciate the low money value of land on any frontier when we notice that 150 years later, 1774, Edward Shippen Jr. offered to pay Colonel Burd's expenses for the return trip to Williamsburg, Virginia, the fees involved, and a suit of broadcloth with linen for shirts, for half of Colonel Burd's rights—in other words for 2,500 acres of choice land. It seemed that Burd did not accept, although the new suit was doubtless a temptation, and he may have felt like changing his mind when discouraging news arrived. In March the word came from Dr. John Morgan, who had gone to Virginia, that besides their personal appearance the officers must have certificates signed by the general who commanded the expeditions against the French and Indians or by the commander-in-chief, and also a certificate from the governor saying that Pennsylvania had not already given the officers land. That was impossible. Dr. Morgan and his companions told the Virginia authorities that Forbes, Stanwix, and Bouquet were dead; that Monckton was in England; that General Haldimand, who was the heir and executor of Bouquet's papers and estate, was unacquainted with the services of the Pennsylvania officers; and finally, Morgan told the Virginians that,

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since the province had all been granted to the proprietaries, its government had no crown land to give anyone. Lord Dunmore, however, was adamant—only a letter from Haldimand and the personal appearance of the petitioners could be considered. At the first mention of General Haldimand, Colonel Armstrong had written to that Swiss officer, presenting not only his own case but also that of the two other Pennsylvania colonels, Hugh Mercer and James Burd. In his reply Haldimand, although acknowledging the justice of the application for lands on the part of the officers, refused to grant their requests on the grounds that it was not proper for him so to do. When his refusal was related to Dunmore that nobleman replied that the only other recourse was appeal "home." Of this further hurdle, Colonel Joseph Shippen wrote Burd, As to an application home, after the Disappointment we have already met with, I am of the opinion it can have no other effect than to involve us in further Trouble and Expence— and as I am unwilling to risque anything more on such uncertainty, I am determined to remain as contented as I can, under the Trouble, Loss of Money & Time I have hitherto experienced in this Ohio Bubble. It was years, however, before Burd ceased following this expensive land mirage. Mention is made of it frequently in letters to and from the Colonel. By 1779 Burd was quite optimistic about the growing value and therefore quite disturbed about the safety of his claim, because the land lay in "Kentuck" (then claimed by Virginia), and it was in this section that Daniel Boone and his followers were settling. In 1783, Edward wrote him that Dr. Morgan wanted him to certify the names and rank of officers who Burd knew were entitled to land. He was to be particularly careful of Colonel Hugh Mercer's regiment, for that gallant gentleman had died in the Revolution, and Burd was also asked to give an account of money received by him from the officers to further the procurement of these lands. B y 1785, Burd, now as pessimistic as was Joseph Shippen, wrote that he would sell his rights—"the purchaser running the Risque

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whether he at a future day obtains a title or not from the G o v ernment of Virginia." Edward replied that his father would do well if he could get £ 100 for these land rights as he was convinced they would "never be worth a farthing." T h e reason f o r this devaluation was the gradual transfer of western land claims b y the various states to the "United States in Congress assembled." This was done upon the insistence of Congress and those states which had definite western limits to their boundaries. Virginia had already acquiesced and had completed her cession b y March of the previous year. Burd at last fully realized that there were now no crown lands and that under the Articles of Confederation he could hardly expect recompense in any state for aid given Great Britain in our French and Indian W a r . France was now our friend, and Great Britain was our recent enemy, defeated by French aid. And so the Pennsylvania officers were again disappointed in their claims for land, and Burd's Ohio Bubble burst as had the Mississippi Bubble more than three score years before. In order to show Burd's embarrassing financial situation and his peculiar interest in the then popular method of enlarging one's income, the Ohio land claims have been followed to their delusive conclusion, thereby passing over Burd's reaction to the Revolutionary period. N o w , just when Burd's life as a country gentleman seemed well established at Tinian and he could proudly watch his family as they one by one should take their place in the world, the shrill sound of the life and drum corps again called him back to a military life.

XII

REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD the settlement at the close of the Seven Years' War, 1763, a cunning French statesman advised Great Britain to take the island of Martinique rather than Canada since, if she did not, the American colonists would soon become self-sufficient and get out of hand. Great Britain, although scorning the advice, yet took cognizance of the prophetic warning. For administrative purposes as well as for the increase of revenue so badly needed, she imposed various prohibitive laws and tightened old trade restrictions; hence ten tempestuous years of bickering and quarreling ensued, to be followed by nearly that long a period of open warfare. Of the multiplicity of causes of the American Revolution which our historians like to stress, several affected Colonel Burd directly and to a great extent. As he reentered civilian life in 1764, Great Britain began to depart from her ancient policy of "salutary neglect" regarding her stringent commercial laws; that year Grenville had the general currency laws passed which forbade the colonists to print paper money; and in 1765 the notorious Stamp Act was passed. One of the reasons Burd gave for not reentering trade upon leaving the army was the "precarious" situation in which merchants found themselves through the enforcement of various navigation acts. He must have fully sympathized with his former competitors in Philadelphia when those merchants signed, the first in any city, the Non-Importation Resolutions; after he did open a store in 1767, Burd appreciated more fully the position they had taken. It seemed to him that we, as Britishers, were being restricted entirely too much. The Stamp Act was rescinded just before Burd bought Tinian, but Townshend in 1767 put duties on many articles which were needed in the building of a homestead. Since, therefore, Britain's restrictive measures had been so closely brought home to him, Burd doubtless heartily agreed to the Virginia 150 DURING

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Resolves which had been introduced in 1769 into the House of Burgesses by his former companion-at-arms, George Washington; agreed also to the forming of associations to see that no more goods were brought in which would be taxed. Yet that meant no Madeira wine and no India tea, and Burd loved both; but again he, as a frontiersman particularly, did not find it easy to get the cash to pay for necessities, to say nothing of these luxuries. Cut off from trade with the Spanish and French West Indies, how was one to get money to send to England? As Burd rode about his plantation, he must have mulled over these problems, getting more angry as additional inciting news came by pamphlet, by newspaper, and by the Circular Letters which were initiated by Massachusetts. When news came from Boston of the punishment meted out to that city—punishment which seemed out of all proportion to the crime—one can imagine how Burd's choler must have risen. This Boston Port Bill, although it was only a potential threat to Colonel Burd, was more than he could endure without action. Finally, the passing of the Quebec Act seemed to endanger the free exercise of his religion and also to endanger his claims to western land—thus do spiritual and temporal affairs go hand in hand. As these various laws threatened to or actually did condition the accustomed order of his life, Burd felt keenly the principle that was at fault—namely that Parliament and the King's ministers were not treating the colonists as British subjects. He probably did not know of the great number of Englishmen at "home" who thought the same; nor did he know that the young Duke of Grafton, who had the second place in Chatham's cabinet, had been defeated by one vote in his effort to include tea with the other duties to be repealed. Later Grafton said, ". . . to lose America entirely would be a lesser evil than to hold her by a military force as a conquered country." On the other hand some of his old boyhood friends in Scotland and England had been helping to make the discriminating laws. They knew little and cared less for the peculiar problems of the colonists. Yes, Colonel Burd felt it was high time to protest.

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T o that end a meeting at which Burd was chairman was held at Middletown on January 8, 1774, almost eight months before the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia. Other meetings followed. Donations were accepted and plans made for getting food and supplies to the people of Boston when their port was closed on June 1. Colonel Burd wrote the resolutions which endorsed the position taken by the American colonists to oppose the restrictive and prohibitive laws passed by Parliament. As published in the Chronicles of Middletown they were: 1. That the acts of the Parliament of Great Britain in divesting us of the right to give and grant our money, and assuming such power to themselves, are unconstitutional, unjust and oppressive. 2. That it is an indispensable duty we owe to ourselves and posterity to oppose with decency and firmness every measure tending to deprive us of our just rights and privileges. 3. That a closer union of the Colonies, and their faithful adhering to such measures as a general Congress shall judge proper, are the most likely means to procure redress of American grievances, and settle the rights of the Colonies on a permanent basis. 4. That we will sincerely and heartily agree to, and abide by, the measures which shall be adopted by the members of the general Congress of the Colonies. 5. That a committee be appointed to confer with similar committees, relative to the present exigency of affairs. These resolutions were read by Elijah Wickersham the next day, June 9, to the Lancaster Committee which under the chairmanship of George Ross passed similar resolutions. Although the neighboring village of Hanover was the first community in Pennsylvania in which concerted action was taken by the Whigs, Middletown, led by Colonel Burd, passed, just four days later, the above-mentioned, challenging resolutions. B y Burd's efforts, therefore, Paxton Township had an organization already functioning when the First Continental Congress, meeting September 5, 1774, fully resolved to support Massachusetts, and requested that committees be formed in each county and town to see that all boycott orders were obeyed. By August

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1774 Colonel Burd was in a very excited state of mind, if a letter, so different from his usually cool, concise ones, can give us a true picture. He compared the colonists to the African slaves, the use of which some British writers were then beginning to condemn. If slavery were wrong—though Burd thought n o t — w h y did Great Britain try to make slaves of her own blood? T h e Colonel continued plans for resistance with renewed energy. On October 4, he had a township meeting at Harris's where "I got the former Resolves of this T w n . altered—by the assistance of Mr. Elder ie from sending our money to Phila. to be sent to our County Committee in Lancaster—agreeable to the mode of all the continent we are a preversc set of Folks in Paxton, and its vicinity." Here we have more than a hint of the dissension between the frontier and the metropolis, made more noticeable since Franklin was again at the helm in that city. Burd wrote that at this same meeting persons were chosen to attend the election in Lancaster Court House on December 15, 1774, to choose a Committee of Observation on the conduct of the people. A t this meeting Burd was elected from Paxton Township to this important Committee of Safety for Lancaster County. These men were in a serious mood, as shown by one of their first acts—the closing of Mr. Francis' dancing school, for the reason that the people had no time for such frivolity. John Nixon and other leaders of the Philadelphia Committee asked that a small group from the Lancaster Committee be sent down on January 23 to meet the Philadelphia Committee and the representatives from the other sections of Pennsylvania. All these delegates were to make up a general Provincial Convention. Burd wrote Edward Shippen that if he were chosen, his health would not permit him to go—that he could not yet put his coat on with ease. But on January 14, 1775, at a meeting held in Lancaster Court House, Edward Shippen, chairman, Burd, Peter Grubb, and six other men were chosen. From these eight men five were to go to Philadelphia. Burd was not one. Out of this and other conventions a Council of Safety for the province

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was formed with Benjamin Franklin its duly elected president. Colonel Burd must have spent much time in the saddle during the stirring spring days of 1775. Riding the twenty-six miles to Lancaster and back again through the heavy snows or the thick mud, and facing the sleet and wind of that level country, or taking the shorter trip to Harris Ferry, to Donegal, or to Middletown—all these trips were a task to one suffering from rheumatism. By the first of May the news of the battles of Lexington and Concord had perhaps reached Tinian. Burd would sorrowfully but definitely approve of the resistance offered to Gage's men. The minutemen were fighting for the rights of Englishmen. Just who in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, first decided to form companies of soldiers in order to resist the British government is not plain, but certain it is that the very day after the Second Continental Congress met, May 10, in Philadelphia, Colonel Burd, as chairman of a township committee meeting at the home of William Dickey, reported that he had four companies raised and that he needed arms. He applied to the county committee for powder and lead for each captain. Perhaps he got the supplies, for he was chairman, on May 22, of that county meeting also. This application for arms for his recruits was made about two months before Congress declared war. On June 16, the county committee met at the home of Adam Bugart in Lancaster. Burd was unanimously chosen chairman and the meeting was adjourned to the Court House, where it was in session two days. Small wonder that this session of the Lancaster committee was a protracted one. On June 16, after the members had settled down to the usual business of hearing reports about volunteers, their pressing need for money and arms, and the questionable T o r y actions of some of the county's citizens, loud rhythmic hoof beats were heard and an express rider came dashing up on a steaming horse. The hurried words of the messenger were finally understood by all—the Continental Congress had chosen George Washington as commander-in-chief of all our troops and had directed him to fight for the rights of Americans and

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for the liberties given us in our charters. John Hancock, the chairman, would commission Washington the next day, and the Viriginian was then to proceed to Massachusetts to aid that colony in resisting Gage. Upon hearing this news perhaps Colonel Burd felt a chill pass through his rugged frame which even the June heat could not dispel. What might Franklin and the radical Whigs in Philadelphia not do? Burd was now fighting and his son was planning to fight against the King—for what? Would the issue remain the rights of Englishmen? And George Washington had been chosen leader of the army—why was he chosen? It now seems almost heresy to question that wise decision of Congress. But then, to Burd how must it have appeared? Washington had been leader of the Virginia troops, Burd leader of the Pennsylvania troops; Washington was six years younger than Burd and had just about that much less military experience than the Pennsylvanian; Washington had left the army at the close of the Forbes Campaign, married a wealthy widow, and settled down on a plantation recently inherited from his brother; Burd had spent long winters at a frontier outpost, and long summers in campaigns against the enemy. With the exception of a few months spent in the Barbados, Washington had never been out of the North American colonies. During the long Forbes campaign, when the young Virginian had tried persistently but vainly to have the army take the route through his own colony, the muchtraveled Burd had matched wits with him and probably felt himself at least his peer. If someone out of service was to be taken, why not John Armstrong, who had successfully fought the Indians at Kittanning and had never lost to the French as had Washington at Great Meadows? Or why not take Hugh Mercer, who had fought well against the Indians here, and in Scotland against the Duke of Cumberland? Or where were the sturdy leaders of the New England soldiers whose chief port was the first battleground? General Artemas Ward, then in command around Boston, would have been a logical choice. Burd could hardly have known one of the chief reasons that

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caused John Adams to propose Washington, the Virginian, was that many N e w Englanders were jealous of Ward's command. T h e other reason, his wealth, Burd could fully appreciate, for it was a full year since Washington had addressed the Virginia House of Burgesses following the Boston Port Act, with the words: "I will raise one thousand men, subsist them at my own expense, and march myself at their head for the relief of Boston." Burd well knew there was little chance for him to achieve the chief post. His sun had set when Benjamin Franklin had returned from England in time to meet with the Second Continental Congress. Queer that one powerful friend can ofttimes make for oneself a more powerful enemy. When Burd's wealthy merchant friend, William Allen, had his famous controversy years before with Franklin, it was the beginning of an alignment which persisted up to this time. At one time these two men had been friends, but by 1762 Franklin had turned against the proprietary government, and therefore Allen had lost faith in him. Allen had been the recipient of many favors from the Penns, and his daughter had married young John Penn. For many reasons Allen resisted any attempt to throw out the famous charter; hence he violently opposed Franklin, the sponsor for the movement to acquire a royal government. In 1762 Allen had written of Franklin, One would fain hope his almost insatiable ambition is pretty near Satisfied by his parading about England & at the province's Expense for these five years past, which now appears in a different Light to our patriots than formerly especially, as he has already stayed near two years longer than they expected; a sample of which is their refusing to put the Second Sum received from the Crown into his Hands—a matter to which I did not a little contribute. Franklin might have forgiven Allen this interference, but when in 1764 Allen, Thomas Willing, and John Dickinson signed a petition to the Assembly asking that Franklin should not be sent as an assistant to our agent in Great Britain and gave seven rea-

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sons why he was not a suitable person, that was doubtless more than Franklin could forget. Burd had openly assisted Allen and his party defeat the "Old Ticket" of Franklin, "that Disturber of Peace," "that grand Incendiary," as Allen had described him. By marriage Burd was related to both the Aliens and the Willings, and by conviction he supported the proprietary party and the charter. No, with Franklin in power, there was little hope of Burd receiving a prominent position in the army. It may have been very shortly after Burd's return to Tinian from the two-day Lancaster meeting where he heard news of Washington's leadership that his eldest son volunteered for a Pennsylvania rifle battalion. The Berks County Committee had given him a lieutenancy. The young attorney, twenty-four years of age, was now drilling his troops and soon followed Washington to Cambridge. On July 20, 1775, Colonel Burd and his family doubtless rode to Middletown to attend church. That day had been set weeks before by the Continental Congress for a day of fasting, prayer, and humiliation throughout all the colonies. The Reverend Trangott Frederick Illing, the German minister, so recently licensed by the Bishop of London to preach to the English and Germans in the "back parts of Pennsylvania," must have wondered what all the commotion was about and may have feared that for him at least there might be, because of the disturbed times and a strange country, too much fasting in a position which earned him less than £ 30 per annum. Burd, although feeling completely at home, must have felt as worried and confused as the rector. He, too, had plenty of financial difficulties. He could not supervise his plantation and servants when so much of his time was given to committees and to his battalion. His son Ned, who was just getting a foothold in a position which would have enabled him to help educate his younger brothers, was now also engaged in this rebellion. But listen! In broken English, the rector was praying for his gracious Majesty, George III. God grant the King would be gracious enough to give audience to Richard Penn, then on his way to England,

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and to concede the petition which the colonists had sent to him. All through the hot summer Colonel Burd was continually journeying from one section of the country to another, interviewing his captains and attempting to get supplies for his volunteers, many of whom had no arms. On the 3rd of August, he was again chairman of a county meeting, and on the 19th he was one of eight from Lancaster County who signed the Articles of Association. Possibly the Colonel told the other signers about the slow but steady progress his new recruits were showing, for on the previous Tuesday he had held a general review of his whole battalion. Bothered with the manifold duties of his military office, troubled with the activities of a committee chairman, with the problems of a plantation owner, with the impossibility of meeting his mounting expenses, inflicted with the grueling twinges of rheumatism, and worried for the safety of his son, we marvel that Colonel Burd did not break under the terrible humidity of that hot August weather. Or did he? Certainly without any warning we find his resignation, written August 24, 1775, and sent to the Committee of the Military Departments and to Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Murray. After thanking the committee for its confidence he wrote: As the Retention of our Invaluable Rights & Privileges depends (under our Gracious God) upon our unanimity of which I perceive a want—least I should stand in the way of that firm Union so especially necessary in the present criticall situation of Public Affairs—I beg leave to Resign my Commissions in the Military arrangements, as also my seat at your Board. Returning my grateful acknowledgements to all my Fellow Citizens that have done me that Honour to place me at both. Although the many difficulties with which Burd had to deal may have helped push him into his impulsive decision, none of them would cause that great lack of "firm Union" which he stressed in his resignation. A motive for Burd's action is implied by Edward Shippen of Lancaster in a letter by that astute old gentleman to Burd, " I suppose the slight you have received from

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those from whom you deserved due respect, is the reason of your resignation . . ." With the wisdom of age and perhaps with a circumspection due to the divided loyalties and disturbed condition of the times, Shippen advised Burd to say as little about the "affair" as possible. Yet Edward Shippen may have been entirely wrong in his supposition. It was about this time—late midsummer of 1775—that one first heard talk of "independency." Whereas, as Parrington says, the struggle had been between colonial self-government and absentee paternalism, now it was changing to "an open challenge of the monarchical principle." The frontier agrarians, in whose midst Burd lived, were the group most undivided in this challenge. Paxton Township had forgot Franklin's abusive reference of ten years ago and only thought of him as leader of the republican movement. Bungling in the laying of taxes by the proprietary party had caused too much outcry. Colbert's statement—"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing"—had not been exemplified. Much hissing was heard. Colonel Burd was not an Englishman. He had been born in a Scotland which was struggling against the encroachments of England. He was in his native land when Cumberland was hunting down his countrymen after the fateful battle of Culloden. During the next few weeks following his resignation this Scot must have searched his soul, probed his innermost desires and convictions, and during this temptation in the wilderness must have sorrowfully determined, despite his many loyalist friends, that he would take a firm stand with his adopted country. The people of Lancaster County were surprised and saddened to hear of Burd's resignation. Stories must have circulated; conjectured reasons must have arisen. But Whig and T o r y were not yet completely separated. They were all, in one body, to fight another year for the rights of Englishmen. Colonel Burd was Lancaster County's most distinguished soldier. Hence, on September 18, 177^, he was again elected and now commissioned

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Colonel of the Fourth Battalion of the Lancaster County Associators. Had he not been willing to travel to the end of the road even if the terminus were an independent nation, one is convinced that Burd would not a second time have accepted leadership. The day after his reelection, Burd wrote his son-in-law, Jasper Yeates, giving him no idea of an insult forgot, but rather the impression that there was again some probability of a "hearty union" taking place in the remote townships. Yeates was vastly pleased that the Colonel had again accepted military command and a committee seat, yet advised Burd not to sit in committee until after a new election—which he thought would probably take place soon. The breach was healed but the scar remained. Shortly after this decision, however, Yeates had the pleasure of sending from Lancaster Colonel Burd's new uniform (and a barrel of pippin apples) by a neighbor's wagon.

XIII

INDEPENDENCE ONE pictures a happy day some weeks after his reelection when Colonel Burd, resplendent in the epaulettes of his blue and buff uniform, rode in to greet his son who had safely returned from New England in time to take a case before the next session of the Lancaster Court. Edward Burd had acted as a volunteer long enough to show his good wishes for the cause. That there had been no action was, as he expressed it, not his fault, and he could not afford to ruin his practice. This volunteer service of Edward Burd was a sample of the short-term enlistment of the "summer soldier" which caused his father, other officers, and especially General Washington so much trouble. But as most of our forefathers did, Edward Burd went back to fight another time. How many of our people today would have the moral fiber to fight a longer time if they knew the government had no means of aiding their families in case of casualty and they themselves received no remuneration to send home? The associators or militia whom Colonel Burd was training received no pay except when in the field. The Assembly of Pennsylvania did resolve, however, that if any associator was called into actual service, leaving a family not able to maintain itself, the overseers of the poor were to assist the family. The associators were one type of military organization within the province of Pennsylvania. It corresponded to the militia in the other colonies except that all men composing the associator battalions were volunteers. The other type was the Continental organization. As part of this group the Pennsylvania Line took its orders directly from Congress, had longer enlistments, and more severe discipline. Anthony Wayne was placed in command of this body. Thomas Mifflin, made Brigadier General, was at the head of the militia. The Flying Camp was a small group recruited from the militia to join similar bands sent by 161

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the other colonies, and all to form a body which might quickly go to the assistance of Washington. While these military groups were yet in the making, in December 1775, Burd wrote, "We observe . . . that there is some Glimmering hopes of Reconciliation by Spring, which may God Grant." But a little later in the month he wrote, I notice there is good reason to believe Quebeck is taken— I wish with you that Dunmore was also taken, he is a restless, mischievous fellow. His late Proclamation for negroes & Servants to desert their masters & come to His Standard, or rather the Royal Standard is certainly a piece of villany beyond expression . . . This was another score against Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, and that nobleman, because of his refusal to facilitate the granting of claims to crown lands to Pennsylvania officers, was already held in very low esteem by Colonel Burd. After Dunmore's bombardment of Norfolk most people agreed with Burd. As to Quebec, Burd soon found the rumor of its capture to be false; the colonists received one of their worst defeats at that citadel, and the whole campaign, made doubly hard by the ravages of smallpox, collapsed in June 1776, with the result that Canada did not become a fourteenth colony in revolt. Meantime the King had refused to see Penn or grant the request of the colonists; in fact he called the united colonists rebels, and so on January 1, 1776, Washington first flew his flag which symbolized the union of the colonists in their military effort. More than a temporary union for military purposes was urged a few days later, January 9, by Thomas Paine in his Common Sense, a brilliantly written pamphlet which was bought by thousands throughout the colonies. A man who had had no success in any phase of his life in England was now able, after only a year in this country, to do more than any other to turn the people from allegiance to their King and from the whole monarchical principle. Yet he could not have done it if the King had not played into his hand by sending over mercenaries, a method of controlling the colonists which English historian?

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have generally denounced. Joseph Shippen, in decrying Paine's advocacy of independency, wrote, "Yet Congress may be driven to it by the King using foreign troops to reduce us." This sending of the Hessian soldiers was a grave mistake on the part of the King's ministry. The power of the regular legislative body of the province, the Assembly, was now steadily decreasing. More and more the extra-legal organizations were assuming the management of the rebellion, and under the radical Whigs were changing it into a revolutionary movement with independence the goal. With promise of better representation, most of the frontiersmen, particularly the predominant population of Scotch-Irish and Germans, were with the radical Whigs. As Dunaway says, Although opposed by moderate Whigs, such as Dickinson, Morris, Mifflin, and Wilson, by the whole body of Quakers, and by the conservatives and pacifists generally, the radicals proceeded to bring Pennsylvania into line for war and independence and to overthrow the proprietary government in the province. Thus we find division within division: the conservative mother country against her awakening colonies; the partly conservative Eastern section of those colonies against the definitely radical frontier; age against youth. Illustrative of this division, Edward Shippen wrote to Burd's son-in-law, The scheme of the convention was principally to get Andrew Allen & a few other good men removed from the Congress.— They have stood forth and dared to expose the designs of the cunning men of the East, and if they continue Members of Congress will prevent this province from falling into their favorite plan of Independency. Even with such conservative men Congress was fast traveling the road to independence. It had sent Silas Deane to France to seek aid; in March it had sent Franklin, Carroll, and Chase as envoys to Canada to attempt to bring that colony in with the united thirteen; in April it opened the ports of the American colonies to the commerce of the world, thus completely defying

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the age-old mercantile policy in which an imperial country reserves the commerce of its colonies for itself; finally, on May 10, Congress advised the colonies to eliminate the old forms of colonial governments and to make new state governments. Friday, May 17, was another day set aside for humiliation, fasting, and prayer, but no mention was made of "our rightful sovereign" as had been done on a similar day nine months before. In Philadelphia a conference of all provincial Committees of Correspondence was held on June 18. This revolutionary body recorded itself in favor of the independence which the seventyyear-old leader, Franklin, had been advocating since the middle of January, and it provided for a provincial convention which after July 1 took charge of Pennsylvania's government. Meanwhile the worst of the winter weather was over, and by the middle of March Colonel Burd was busy with his new battalion. On the 13th every individual private had voted to choose his officers—Colonel James Burd, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Murray, First Major Cornelius Cox, and Second Major Frederick Hummel. Seven companies were well organized and met for drill every Monday; two were not yet completed. Most of these men were farmers or farmers' sons. It was now good plowing weather and that would be followed by the busy planting season. Burd wrote that he had to travel fifty miles to get to all his companies. It is not strange then to find many of the inhabitants of upper Paxton Township signing a petition to have a new company, so that their soldiers need not cross the mountains for practice. Burd agreed to this reasonable request, providing that the officers, the committee, and the majority of the people approved. By changing the districts and places of rendezvous, it was planned to make training more convenient for the tired farmers. But this relaxation of the rules only produced further division. This time the two companies commanded by Captains Green and Rogers from the town of Hanover decided to withdraw, with the intention of forming the nucleus of a new battalion. Besides taking from Colonel Burd's command, these men planned to draw also from the Second Battalion com-

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manded by Colonel Curtis Grubb. On May 20, relative to this change, Burd sent a remonstrance "unanimously agreed upon" to the County Committee, and wrote to Edward Shippen of Lancaster that "to their judgment we mean to pay due respect." The preparation of the remonstrance took some time; the decision of the committee regarding it consumed more time; Burd had called a general review of the battalion for the 6th of June. Worried about his country and the outcome of his military plans, he wrote his father-in-law, Edward Shippen, "Public matters are in such a situation that I can Form no Judgment of them; therefore can say nothing, only, that I think our present Situation really deplorable." The day before his general review, he intimated that his own predicament was his immediate if not his chief worry: "I won't trouble you with Politics only my Situation is really disaggreable, the times Renders it such." The day of the review (of which we find no record) Edward Shippen of Lancaster, perhaps fearful of what a discouraged officer might again do, wrote Burd quoting from a letter from Edward Shippen Jr. of Philadelphia, "I think Colonel Burd is colonel of a Battalion, if so let him by no means give it up; it is Safest in these times, especially at that distance to have a military command." But the discouraged Colonel did not resign and the county committee upheld his protest, ordering all officers and privates back, since separation at that time, when they were likely to be called to service, would be dangerous for the cause. The political situation in the country was fast reaching its irresistible climax. On March 14, Congress said all Tories were to be disarmed; on June 25, it said all Tories were traitors. On June 16, William Franklin, royalist governor of New Jersey and son of Benjamin, was declared an enemy of his country and placed under arrest; and on June 26, the last royal governor, Maryland's well-loved Sir Robert Eden, set sail for England. On June 12, Thomas Jefferson had been chosen to prepare the Declaration of Independence. By the 29th of that month, nine colonies had directed their delegates in Congress to favor inde-

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pendence, but Pennsylvania was not one of them. For many reasons the middle colonies had moved more slowly toward separation from the mother country than had either the northern or southern group. B y June 24, the Pennsylvania Conference of Committees, the revolutionary organization planning a state government, voted to support Congress in any declaration of freedom for the united colonies which it might make. But what would Pennsylvania's representatives in Congress do? It was they who had the power—and they made the decision, J u l y 2. Robert Morris and John Dickinson, against independence, remained away from the fateful meeting, and James Wilson, a Scot, reconsidered his early opposition and voted for independence, thus making Pennsylvania by a three-to-two vote help the eleven other states make a new country. (Morris signed later and Rhode Island joined the twelve.) While history was being made by those brave immortals in Philadelphia, Colonel Burd, like more than half of his fellow citizens, was going sorrowfully and quietly about his regular duties. He had not wanted separation, yet he made the welfare of his adopted country the paramount consideration. The fact, however, that he had many friends among the Tories, more friends among the Philadelphia merchants, and the fact that he was one of the few who belonged to the so-called gentry class on the frontier, was bound to make Burd's immediate future very difficult and very insecure. The day independence was decided upon he had written Captain James Crouch about a certain Daniel Shelby who had been mustering soldiers without permission. A court-martial had sent him, a prisoner, to be examined by the Lancaster Committee. This Shelby had said that the English could easily take the country in six weeks' time, that he knew where there was plenty of ammunition, and that "Col. James Burd Will Not Sware to Be true to the Country." Thus did an ignorant and over zealous frontiersman sow the seeds of calumny. So far as the Lancaster Committee was concerned, Shelby's words had little effect. Its chairman sent to Burd, as to all other colonels, on July 6, a copy of the

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Resolves of Congress and the Declaration of Independence for "the regulation of your Conduct" and wrote, " W e doubt not your exerting yourself in carrying the Resolves of Congress & the Conference of Committees into execution." Among the rank and file of the soldiers, however, such rumors as Shelby's were having tremendous effect. Whereas less than four months before, Burd had been chosen Colonel by his company, now he was not even chosen one of the four delegates to represent the Fourth Battalion in the election held July 4, 1776, at Lancaster for the choice of two brigadier generals to command the Pennsylvania forces. Almost every battalion had sent its colonel as one of its four representatives. Colonel Burd, who had been the military leader of his province and who probably felt he deserved the position of brigadier general more than the successful candidate, Daniel Roberdeau, was now not considered a proper person to represent his own battalion. O r is there another interpretation of this choice of delegates? W i t h faith in Colonel Burd completely unshaken, the Lancaster Committee sent him orders about his quota in the Flying Camp, an organization upon which Washington had decided the previous month. Pennsylvania was to furnish six thousand men taken from its militia, and these soldiers were to give service until December 1. These orders were soon followed by more explicit ones from the Philadelphia Convention over the signature of Benjamin Franklin. T h e associators were to march to N e w Jersey as quickly as possible, and the non-associators were to be disarmed. A less drastic order must have followed, for on July 25 Burd wrote, I have last week sent off a Detachment of my Battalion of 4 officers and 80 men to join the Flying Camp to the 1st of November. This is thought to be our Quota of the present Demand of our Country, they are chiefly wealthy Farmers Sons & I Hope will give satisfaction. W h e n the battalion is required or a respectable part of it I shall march with them. Confidently written, but after three weeks the lack of arms and supplies seemed to present insurmountable obstacles. Burd had

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borrowed $500 from Captain Matthew Smith for purchasing equipment for the two additional companies which he sent to N e w Jersey about the middle of August under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Murray. Burd wrote William Atlee, the chairman of the Lancaster Committee, that he himself would take the next two companies, providing the committee could supply them with arms. Lancaster County was later famous for the splendid service it rendered in the manufacturing of rifles and other military supplies; but evidently the factories were not yet functioning to any great extent, and what arms were made went to the Continental troops rather than to the provincial ones. Joseph Sherer of Philadelphia, congratulating Burd for his equipment of two companies, wrote, ". . . and as for arms, here they are not to be had; not withstanding there is a great deal comes here, there is a demand for them to the continental troops, so that our troops belonging to the State, can have few or none . . ." It is strange that at this time Colonel James Burd should have more confusion with another similar name. Colonel William Byrd, who had remained loyal to the King, was taking no part in the conflict, but a Mark Bird of Berks County had become a colonel of a battalion of patriots. Wealthy from his forge, furnaces, and thousands of acres, he completely outfitted at his own expense three hundred men of his battalion with uniforms, tents, and provisions. Colonel Burd must have wished he were financially able to outfit a similar number of his battalion; such a power could have saved his military career. Along with the trying problems connected with his military role, Burd was, of course, having many other worries. It was now harvest. He had little time to supervise the care of grain, fruit, and vegetables, upon the conservation of which the lives of his family and servants depended. With the exception of Edward, the attorney, his older children were girls, so he had no son who could assist in the plantation work. As the harassed military officer and erstwhile merchant rode over his

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broad acres he must have marveled at the harm which could be caused b y weeds, insects, blight, droughts, rainy spells, wind, and hail. Could enough food be saved f o r his family's sustenance, to say nothing of any produce to be sent to Lancaster where it might be exchanged f o r clothing and other essentials? A s f o r the payment of his debts, Burd turned to something which would distract his mind f r o m them—but found trouble so much more serious that the dismal thought of debts seemed quite light in comparison. T h e scourge of the frontier, smallpox, probably brought down from Canada by some worn-out, sickly soldier, struck Burd's family with particular violence. Four-year-old Betsy, the baby of the family, came down with the dread disease at the same time that the N e g r o girl, Dinia, developed it. Eight-year-old Joseph followed and, almost in unison, t w o N e g r o boys. On the 1 ith day, Joseph was v e r y , v e r y ill. W a s he to be taken from his parents as was Allen, that other brilliant son, years before? Burd wrote, " M y poor w i f e is almost w o r n out with fatigue." W o r r y was perhaps a greater reason, though the care of five children ill at one time with smallpox would tax to the limit the strength of even brave Sally Shippen Burd. But her care had its reward; the children were spared. A new trouble developed that late summer of 1776. A s early as February, E d w a r d Burd had written f r o m Reading to his father about military activities there and the slight possibility of his being elected captain. B y J u l y his prospects had advanced and he wrote he might be chosen major and that f o r the second time he was determined to go, as " I have no notion of any man's refusing his service when his country calls him." Elected major in Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Lutz's Battalion of the Pennsylvania F l y i n g C a m p he had gone first to N e w Jersey, then to L o n g Island. Following the evacuation of Boston, H o w e had taken the fleeing loyalists to Halifax, and then, as soon as he was reinforced, had sailed f o r N e w Y o r k . Washington, f u l l y realizing his army's precarious position, had fortified himself on L o n g Island. T o make his plight worse, violent illness had broken out

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among his men and officers. General Nathanael Greene, in charge of the most prominent position, was in the hospital. Small wonder, then, that Howe, attacking on August 27, was able to thrust between the two parts of the Continental army and capture almost the whole of one force with its commander, General Sullivan. Among that contingent was Major Burd, who was in charge of the pickets stationed on the road leading to the narrows and suffered the first attack. It was not known for some time by his superior officers whether he was among the thousand captured or among the four hundred killed. General Hand wrote only that he was among the missing. So for three weeks Colonel Burd and his wife suffered, as only those who have had a similar experience can appreciate. Finally, about the middle of September, definite word came from two officers of Burd's quota in the Flying Camp that Major Burd had been captured. On November 7 word came from the son himself, written on board his prison ship. Before the Colonel was given this relief of mind, he had been taken ill. His father-in-law sent his cure for all ills—quinine, or Peruvian bark, as it was then called. Burd wrote that he had been "awfully sick" but that the bark had had "a powerful effect upon me." How long he was ill we do not know, but attacks were becoming more frequent and more severe. The news that his son was alive and well probably speeded his recovery more than the Peruvian bark. Meantime the news from Colonel Burd's troops in N e w Jersey had been consistently good. It was first thought that some of the quota would have to be drafted; but all had gone voluntarily and about thirty more than the allotted number had responded, which, as Captain John Murray wrote from Perth Amboy, did honor to Burd's battalion. The Middletown company had been especially fortunate in that it had not had the prevalent illness. For some reason these men of Burd's battalion, enlisted for service until November 1, were discharged from the Continental service on September 12 and sent back to their own county. This order was signed at Amboy by Brigadier General Daniel

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Roberdeau. One company at least remained, and Lieutenant Colonel Murray, in charge, was taken prisoner at Fort Washington. The distress and distrust of a civil war now existed in all of the older settlements where loyalist and patriot lived side by side. Burd's old friend, Thomas Barton, the Church of England clergyman of Lancaster, had been obliged to close St. James' Church "to avoid the fury of the populace who would not suffer the Liturgy to be used unless the Collects and Prayers for the King . . . were omitted." Since Dr. Barton could not take lightly his ordination vows, he was "confined to his house for two years by the rebels." Edward Shippen, who had become one of the leading members of St. James' Church, was under suspicion, and wrote Burd during early November that he did not expect to hold any government post longer than two weeks. Ingratitude, as we have before noted, was not one of Burd's faults; immediately he offered his father-in-law (and stepmothcrin-law!) sanctuary in his home. Shippen wrote, "Out of love for yourself and family it would be with the greatest reluctance we would accept of it." Meantime the outlook for the association of infant nations was very gloomy: Congress was having difficulty framing the Articles of Confederation; it had sent Franklin to France in the brave hope that his suave diplomacy might assist and direct Silas Deane and bring that country to attack its old efiemy, Great Britain, by giving assistance to her rebelling colonies; Fort Washington, with nearly three thousand of Washington's best troops, had surrendered, to be followed in a few days by the surrender of Fort Lee; General Washington, greatly disheartened, had written his brother, "I am wearied almost to death with the retrograde motion of things"; he was now retreating across the Jerseys, and persistent rumor had it that General William Howe would soon attack Philadelphia both by land and water. Pennsylvania was therefore asked to call out all the Associators of the city of Philadelphia and of several counties, and also part of the militia of the other counties. They

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were to march to N e w Jersey for six weeks' service. The president of council, Thomas Wharton, sent an order to Burd to collect his troops and "hold the battalion in perfect readiness to march at the shortest warning." During the month of November we have little record of Colonel Burd's routine activities. He was greatly saddened by the death of Sarah Yeates, a favorite grandchild. Always he must have been thinking of his son on the prison ship. When would he see his boy again? Returning from a tiring day with his troops, he attempted in the evening to supervise the storing of another winter's food supply for his family, and in his office he vainly sought to balance the debit and credit side of his ledger. As justice of the peace he had little to do; he could not even collect debts owed to himself. "I have not got one shilling in my office these 6 mo; neither can I get a farthing from my Tennants though 2 years rents almost due, but I thank God we can live and I hope for better times." By December 12, the day Congress hastily adjourned to meet in the more peaceful air of Baltimore, Burd was prepared to march his troops to the assistance of the beleaguered East. William Atlee of the Lancaster Committee congratulated him and wished he could send Burd the money required for equipment. After returning from a final "journey around" his battalion Burd called a rendezvous for Monday, December 16, at Middletown. He planned to march from there to join Washington. He seems to have had no inkling, despite his previous trouble and that of other military leaders of volunteer groups, of what might happen. But the blow fell. With the exception of a small company of thirty-three volunteers commanded by Captain Elder, only twelve men and six officers obeyed his command! " I put it to the vote of the eighteen if I should not march with them; it was carried against me that I should not." Neither did the officers want Burd to go to Lancaster to see General Mifflin, but for the good of the service to remain and use his influence to get the battalion to march. How can we account for this disobedience—this lack of

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patriotism among most of the men of the battalion? Burd himself in his final resignation sent to Brigadier General Mifflin, gave several possible reasons: T h e wide area, f o r t y to f i f t y miles long, from w h i c h the men were drawn, the fact that his battalion had already sent three companies to the F l y i n g Camp and that one remained there, that still another company was on duty with Captain John Murray, or, finally, it might be a dislike f o r the commander. T h e r e must, however, have been other, more general reasons f o r the men to remain away, since the members of Burd's battalion were certainly not the only men w h o refused to serve. O n Dccembcr 6, Philadelphia was filled with men f r o m the F l y i n g Camp determined to g o home, for, they said, to remain in the army with conditions as they were was a useless sacrifice. T h e privations they were forced to endure made them unfit for service. Such privations seemed harder to be endured at a time when certain Philadelphians were profiteering and engrossing supplies. T h e rendezvous had been called f o r December 16. By the 20th Burd must have given up all hope of more men arriving. Y e t he did not send in his resignation until the 27th. W h y ? For if he conquered a first hasty impulse, w h y did he succumb later? W a s there one final reason added to the already long list of legitimate reasons such as insubordination, trouble with shortterm enlistments, lack of promotion after more than t w e n t y years of public service, criticism and suspicion on account of his relatives and friends—the Shippens, Aliens, and Penns, most of w h o m were loyalists? Perhaps it was his age and health — f o r a rheumatic man of fifty could not anticipate a campaign with the zest of y o u t h — o r his critical financial situation, or that his large family would be left exposed to the dangers of the frontier. If there was a final straw w h i c h tipped the scale, was it not found in the letter from his son, M a j o r E d w a r d Burd, w h i c h arrived just before Burd sent his resignation. O r rather, the final cause may have been what was not found in the letter. It was written in Philadelphia, December 12, and was forwarded f r o m Lancaster. Edward wrote:

JAMES BURD 174 I am at last so fortunate as to be exchanged, though it happened not by intention, but accident. General Washington sent about ten or twelve prisoners to New York, and intended to name the persons who were to be sent in exchange; but Gen. Howe took the first Major, Captains, Lieutenants, etc; who happened to be on his list of prisoners, and sent them in exchange. I happened to be the first Major, and was therefore so lucky as to be returned. General Washington was surpprised to see me. However, he was so polite as to tell me that from the character I bore, he was satisfied with my being the person, though he did not like the mode, especially as I was in a Standing Regiment. I do not know what he could mean by that, as the time of our regiment will expire by the first of June next, and I am sure the men will not stay a day longer . . .

Of course Washington would rather have received in exchange someone who had enlisted for a longer period—that is obvious; yet, although there was a personal compliment for Edward Burd, there was no word of recognition sent to Colonel Burd, Washington's former comrade-in-arms. A friendly message received at this time from the Virginian might have erased much bitterness of spirit and kept Burd in the army. It might have. Yet he wrote General Mifflin that "I not only have Reason for this step, but a necessity for so doing." The necessity was lack of support from his troops. Burd's second resignation, never to be recalled, was sent to his commanding officer. Completely loyal, Burd wrote: "Least I should stand in the way, I thought proper to resign, offering at the same time my personal attendance, and to render any service acceptable, upon notice being given me of such being wanting." A letter to William Atlee of the Lancaster Committee of Safety offered similar aid —"any service in my power." But these two letters ended Colonel Burd's military career.

XIV

THE LAST FRONTIER THE weeks and months following Burd's resignation from the Pennsylvania militia must have been for him the saddest and gloomiest period of his whole life. Had he been right? Had his decision to quit really been necessary? Many a night he must have tossed in his high-posted bed reviewing in his mind every event leading up to the writing of his letter which eliminated him from the army just when he was so badly needed. Thomas Paine had written, "These are the times that try men's souls." Had Burd been weighed in the balance and found wanting? Washington had written, "If every nerve is not strained to recruit a new army I think the game is pretty nearly up." But of what use was an army without clothing, guns, and the necessary equipment? Even John Hancock, on January 18, 1777, still in Baltimore with Congress, wrote Robert Morris that affairs were never so critical as when Morris wrote, shortly after Burd's resignation, for in the coldest weather the troops were without clothing and blankets. For eight days Hancock had received no news, though Morris must have mentioned the battle at Trenton. Even this signal victory had not relieved the danger from want of supplies. That Burd not only had lack of support from the commissary department, but that he also had some dangerous enemies among the frontier radicals is evidenced by an incident which happened just after his resignation. Jasper Yeates had gone with his family to Tinian—perhaps not for an ordinary N e w Year's visit but to rally to the side of his father-in-law in case of emergency. At any rate a crowd gathered at Tinian one evening, attacked Burd, and threatened to carry him away under strong guard, no one knew where. T o allay a relative's worry, Burd wrote of this affair, "I have prudence, firmness and spirit to get the better of all my assailants. . . ." This fright to his family and added insult to Burd's temper was not good for his «75

176

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BURD

health except as it seemed to give further proof that his resignation had been necessary. Even in May, Burd was still in bad health, and in that month had another attack of what was probably malaria—"fever, profuse sweatings, shaking and a cold fit." Joseph Shippen had also been ill, and of him Burd wrote, " I am well acquainted with his disorder. Neither of us can expect anything but Temporary Relief." The work of supervising the plantation must have been a great relief to Burd that spring, and the property probably never looked better than in the summer of 1777. He had bought an island of nine acres from the proprietaries, and his son, Edward, who had come home from prison in poor health and therefore remained at Tinian more than a vear, helped Burd plan the crops. Edward received William Atlee's promise of two Hessian prisoners from the Lancaster camp. These men would work with the several slaves and indentured servants. Edward was raising hemp, selling it, and with the money buying at a cheap price the hemp which came down the Susquehanna and selling it for a handsome profit. Burd probably had a wharf at the river bank. The depreciation of the Continental currency may have entered into this business venture, for in planning to buy a home for his future bride, Edward Burd wrote that he hoped to buy it with "old money." But for the Burds, as for so many, the scarcity and advanced price of all necessities which must be purchased spelled debt or ruin. Burd's allotment assessed and collected for the army in 1778 was only four bushels of grain and four bushels of forage; yet only two in the township gave more. Burd could and did, however, help his countrymen in another way. The massacre by the Indians in 1763 of those Connecticut pioneers in the Wyoming Valley whom Burd, in the name of the King, was to remove, had not deterred more Connecticut settlers from coming to the fertile farmlands. Their young men had marched to the aid of Washington, whereupon the Six Nations and their T o r y friends had invaded the valley. When the small patriot force raised to oppose them was overcome, there followed a massacre by the

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Indians so terrible that it even greatly embarrassed the T o r y party in England. Families living in Northumberland fled. Burd, who had some log houses unoccupied on his plantation at Tinian —perhaps some were slave quarters—gladly gave these refugees shelter. N o doubt he fed the unfortunate people for many weeks. The Allegiance Act had been passed June 15, 1777, and James Burd and his son, Edward, both signed at Middletown. Edward Shippen Jr. and Joseph Shippen, Burd's brothers-in-law in Philadelphia, were ordered by Congress to be confined or placed under strict parole. This belief in or suspected leaning toward the loyalist party by Mrs. Burd's relatives (William Allen had sailed for England) made it hard for Burd in many exasperating ways. Was that why certain Middletown people stole his cherries—as many as twenty people a day breaking the limbs of the trees and each carrying away about half a bushel of the rare fruit? Some neighbors, whom Yeates called his antagonists, tried the common but dastardly trick of diverting water from his land. Yet no one of consequence questioned the patriotism of either Burd or his son. This is evidenced by the fact that in August 1778 the son, Edward, was appointed prothonotary and clerk of the Supreme Court. This appointment was largely due to the efforts of Thomas McKean, Chief Justice, who with his wife had just made a visit of several days at Tinian. (Before returning in their "chariott" to Philadelphia, McKean told Burd all about the new French alliance which had followed so swiftly after the brilliant victory of Saratoga, a battle in which the gallant Arnold had injured a leg and lost the credit of the victory to the bombastic Gates.) Edward Burd had spent much of his life in Philadelphia, entering college at twelve years of age and finishing his legal training in the office of his uncle, Edward Shippen. During all those years he lived in his uncle's home and had fallen in love with his first cousin, Elizabeth Shippen. With this new position as prothonotary he was able to offer marriage, and in December 1778 Edward Shippen wrote, "I gave my daughter Betsy to Neddy Burd last Thursday evening, and all is jollity and mirth.

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M y youngest daughter is much solicited b y a certain General, on the same subject; whether this will take place or not, depends upon circumstances." Probably Colonel Burd and his w i f e went down to Philadelphia for the wedding in Christ Church, though grandfather Shippen did not go. H e wrote Burd, however, about Arnold's "laying close siege to Peggy Shippen" and seemed quite satisfied with the idea. Edward Burd wrote of his future brother-in-law that a lame leg, the result of Saratoga, seemed the only obstacle. Strange that a widower of thirty-seven with three children seemed so eligible for a belle of seventeen; a viewpoint which was a result of the times and of the splendid military reputation held by Arnold. Without his eldest son now gone to a home of his o w n , Burd seemed to be even more removed from the circle of important people and from the stir of momentous events. General Hand had visited at Tinian and later sent some early Indian corn seed which he thought Colonel Burd might like to propagate. Other guests frequently came. "Parson Montgomery" and his wife, Joshua Elder and his, the Harrises, and the Fishers. T a l k veered to the peripatetic Congress which, after one day only at Lancaster, had seemingly settled down for a lengthy stay in York, and was working constantly at the herculean task of keeping the states together and supplying Washington with men and equipment. T h e state Assembly, however, was at Lancaster. It, too, was busy with difficult problems, especially taxation. This was the period when Burd was quite optimistic about acquiring crown land in Virginia. H e certainly needed money badly for his taxes; his civil office as justice of the peace brought him very little. Partly because it seemed to bring closer some realization from his claims, but more on account of the type of campaign, Burd must have been intensely interested in the western victories in early 1779 of George Rogers Clark. Here was a brave y o u n g man with plenty of initiative. There was now not as great a likelihood of another Indian massacre. In 1780, Burd heard of Gates's flight from Camden. Doubtless he was not surprised and may have wondered w h y , in 1777, John Hancock

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had written Gates that Congress was asking him to reassume a former position with the compliment, "the State of the Army is by no means such as could be wished and in Point of Discipline and order has suffered much since you relinquished the Department of Adjutant General." It was too bad, though, that one of the older men who had fought in the Seven Years' W a r side by side with Burd should have so acted. Close upon Gates's defeat came the American victory of King's Mountain. So many men born among the gorse and heather had died—some in the patriot cause and others on the loyalist side. But with what mixed emotions must Burd have heard in early 1781 that the Pennsylvania Line had mutinied? They were starving. That was what his own regiment had feared. But if the early part of the year 1781 seemed dangerous for the Americans, it was fraught with more peril for the British, who were in newer and greater difficulties. Burd had a letter written November 1780 from his uncle, Thomas Haliburton, who had been in St. Eustatius, the West Indies, for many years. The Dutch had allowed the Americans to use that island and other ones for shipping, and England, fearing a treaty between the thirteen states and Holland, declared war on that country. Fighting now with the great countries of France, Spain, and Holland, while being on strained terms with Russia and the Baltic States, it seemed Great Britain could ill afford another costly defeat like the King's Mountain battle. Just before this battle of the southern highlands, the Americans received a crushing blow in the treacherous act of Benedict Arnold. Reams have been written about this traitor and some writers have attempted to show that his bride, the former Peggy Shippen, through her friendship for Major André, was largely responsible for her husband's act. T o most people, however, Peggy Shippen is the extremely young wife, innocent of any plots; André seems a gentleman who had to play in wartime that most difficult of all roles—a spy for his country; and Benedict Arnold appears as the brave but unprincipled general who, brooding over slights and non-promotion, in a melancholy

I 80

J A M E S BURD

mood deliberately planned to fall to the lowest depths of human behavior. Eternal vigilance is the price of rectitude as well as of liberty. For the Shippen and the Burd families, Arnold's action caused intense suffering; many people must have eyed everyone holding those names with suspicion. T h e Committee of Safety did not allow Mrs. Arnold to live with her father. Of this decision, Edward wrote Colonel Burd, "If she could have stayed, Mr. Shippen would not have wished her ever to be united to him again. It makes me melancholy every time I think of the matter. I cannot bear the idea of her reunion," to which Burd replied, " T h e affair of Mrs. Arnold gives us all great uneasiness." T h e treachery of Arnold, if anything, seemed to stiffen the backbone of other wavering citizens and on March 1, 1781, Congress functioned under the Articles of Confederation, a kind of constitution which attempted to bind the thirteen nations together. Maryland, however, as has been previously mentioned, insisted upon and succeeded in getting all western lands turned over to the central government. Burd could no longer expect with much hope of success any grant of land in "Kentuck." This additional disappointment may have been partly responsible for the stroke of paralysis which attacked Burd in August 1781, when he was only fifty-five years of age. It proved to be a slight attack, though six days after it he was yet unable to write. Before he was well enough to travel with her, Mrs. Burd was called to the bedside of her father, Edward Shippen of Lancaster. Death finally conquered that indomitable old man. Edward J r . and Joseph got to their father's home shortly before he died, and a codicil was added to the old gentleman's will, revoking a bequest of £ 500 in gold to his daughter, Sarah Burd, and leaving her only the equal share with her brothers in the Shippensburg lands. With the exception of manumission to a slave, Hannah, and a bequest to the sister-in-law who had kept house f o r him after the death of his second wife, all the remainder of the estate was left to the two sons. This was perhaps a fair division, for father and sons had helped Burd greatly,

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but the Colonel, weakened b y the stroke, must have been hurt b y the method employed and must have been almost as bewildered as a child in a strange country without the advice and assistance of that born manager, E d w a r d Shippen of Lancaster. A f t e r hearing of the codicil, it is unlikely that Burd wanted or received help f r o m E d w a r d J r . or Joseph Shippen. T h a t Colonel Burd was to live in a new country if not a strange one was now certain. T h e next month the news of the surrender of Cornvvallis arrived. Great Britain could not afford more men and money to fight her o w n children when she had real enemies on all sides. T h e r e followed months of patient planning b y our commissioners. Finally the preliminary articles of the definitive treaty were signed on the last day of N o v e m b e r 1782. Hearing the glorious news b y March of the following year, Jasper Yeates, w h o was to fill to a certain degree the place of M r . Shippen in Burd's remaining years, wrote him that our independence had been acknowledged b y the mother country. A s Burd looked out over the wide fields of Tinian where a f e w spots of verdant coloring were showing, looked far across and beyond the lovely Susquehanna, he must have wondered what semblance this new-born nation would have in its summer time. H e had done much to hold the land f o r the Anglo-Saxon race; he had helped to form this new country. W h e r e would its final borders be? W h a t had destiny in store f o r its people? W o u l d they really appreciate this blood-bought land? Meantime Burd's life was passing in an even tenor. H e had his dear Sally to give him love and companionship, and his y o u n g e r children f o r w h o m to plan. James J r . and Joseph had been attending the famous old school connected with the Paxton Presbyterian Church and taught b y that grand old man, Master Joseph Allen. H e was a surveyor as well as a master of Latin and mathematics, and f r o m him as well as f r o m Colonel Burd, James J r . learned the use of the chain. B y the last of 1783 he had completed M r . Allen's course and had secured a position. Little Betsy, the youngest of the family, was n o w riding to school daily with Joseph, w h o had finished bookkeeping

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and was reviewing his Latín. Burd, too, was more busy in his office than for many years. The end of hostilities made the work of a peace officer more plentiful. It was really a happy summer—that of 1783. In the spring young George Patterson had asked the hand of Jean Burd. The Colonel was delighted that the son of his old companion-in-arms should marry his daughter, and Jean accepted. The postman and wagoners were kept busy with messages and packages from Philadelphia. Jean doubtless visited her brother Edward in that city and completed her trousseau. Early in August she was married at Tinian with all the good wishes and blessings of her family. These seem to have been fulfilled, and hundreds of her descendants are living today. Another happy but uneventful year slipped quickly by, and then the blow fell. Sally Shippen Burd, after a short illness, died on September 17, 1784. Only fifty-three years of age, she had lived a full life. Her son Edward wrote, "She seemed to live only for her children and friends and would at any time sacrifice her own Satisfaction to their Enjoyment. Indeed her Benevolence was not confined to them, it was extensive and universal." Colonel Burd was inconsolable, saying that he would never know what comfort was again. He seemed in danger of following his wife, being ill for five weeks and probably threatened with another stroke. Burd's children rallied to his side and tried to divert his mind. The Pattersons, living near by, had him for dinner, and the Yeateses took him to Lancaster, where he had many old friends and where he even greatly enjoyed a play. He heard from his son Joseph, who was now attending Carlisle College, and from James Jr., who was busy surveying a large tract of land around Fort Pitt for Colonel Cunningham. These letters from James, the son who was so like his father that the two were either on splendid terms or in violent disagreement, were highly interesting. He had finished surveying twenty-three tracts, he wrote, and loved his work. With his companion he had killed a deer gnd taken three bee trees, the last of which had five gallons of

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good honey. There were no Indians around and nothing troubled them. N o Indians—what changes! Well, if a man must grow old, thought Burd, to have sons to carry on is a fine compensation. But he needed James at home. Burd was not able to be out in the extreme heat. The plantation was going badly. Ten acres of wheat on the river bottom had been entirely covered with mud when the Susquehanna overflowed. Burd had to ask his son Edward to pay the taxes that year. That hurt his pride, for he wrote that he knew he should, by nature, help, not oppress, his children. B y the next year, 1786, Burd's health was so bad that Jasper Yeates suggested for him a trip to the seaside, and his son Edward sent a draft of a will which Burd was to copy in his own hand. Before his wife had died Burd had insisted that Edward draw him a will. Another testament was now necessary. Since his daughter Margaret was soon to marry, Burd now set aside a sum, the interest of which was to be used for little Betsy until she married. T o Edward he gave the portrait of his mother and of grandfather Shippen and all of Burd's claim on land in Scotland. (No mention of his own portrait is made and no written record of it has been found. A silhouette of Burd and one of his wife are mentioned by a son.) With the exception of a sum equivalent to that paid for land already given Joseph and James, he divided the remainder equally among his seven children and the heirs of the deceased Mary Burd Grubb. That the estate was fast dwindling was evident. Jasper Yeates was lending him frequent sums, and by 1790 Burd owed him more than £ 600, the interest on which was constantly mounting. The rise in prices was particularly hard on the agrarian population; Burd and the other farmers could hardly foresee Hamilton's assumption policy or, with that hope, speculate as did Edward Shippen Jr. of Philadelphia, who was soon to be the Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. He wrote his brother in early 1787, "the old continental money I purchased for a very moderate price, being only at the rate of twenty-one shillings specie for a thousand dollars." Jasper Yeates supplied much of the money needed for the

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wedding of Margaret Burd to Jacob Hubley. (Was this the son of the Jacob Hubley who had been with Burd at Augusta in 1759?) Yeates hinted broadly that big weddings were "déclassé" and that Burd's situation would not allow one. At least the bride's dowry had to be scant. She would miss her mother's smile of encouragement, as Burd and little Betsy, the last of a big household, waved good-bye when she departed for her new home. Some time later Burd may have attended a much bigger wedding in the Lancaster Episcopal Church when his granddaughter, Mary Yeates, married Charles Smith, the son of Reverend William Smith, the provost of the College of Philadelphia. (Did Burd twit his son-in-law about big weddings being déclassé?) Born in Scotland in almost the same year as Burd, coming to Philadelphia at about the same time, and with very similar views regarding the Revolution and political affairs, Provost Smith and Colonel Burd must have had a lively conversation. At this time discussion of marriage was frequent. Lack of money seems the only reason why Edward worried over the report that Colonel Burd himself might remarry! In fact Dame Rumor had two choices for him. Both ladies in question were suitable except that one had dependent children. Mrs. Grayden had been Sarah Burd's bridesmaid. Mrs. Lea had not that honor. But Edward thought his father's "usual complasance to the Ladies may have been mistaken for a more particular attachment"! Soon after, however, fearing perhaps that Burd might make a choice, the son ordered a new wig for him, since his old one was "too rusty and he will not get another." That neither of the ladies or the new wig had any effect on Burd is evident from Yeates's later observation that Burd's life was as stale as a millpond. Yeates's life certainly was not stagnant. He had been one of the delegates for Lancaster County to the Pennsylvania Convention in 1787 which ratified the Constitution of the United States. In fact he, with Burd's old friend, Thomas McKean, and James Wilson, formed the most important committee of the

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convention. The tide of radicalism was fast receding; the disputes and riots between the Federalists and anti-Federalists were dying down. Finally enough states ratified the Constitution, and Burd soon heard that George Washington was elected the first president of the United States. Joseph Burd wrote from Philadelphia about Washington's triumphal procession through that city on his way to N e w York. What memories that news brought to Burd's mind—Braddock, Forbes, the dispute over the road to Fort Pitt, Loyal Hanna, the Flying Camp, and finally, his son as an exchanged prisoner standing before Washington. Burd's health was now so poor that his son felt he was "too infirm" to ride out at night to attend to "arbitrations," and James Jr. was back from Fort Pitt running the plantation. This arrangement suited neither father nor son, especially after the son's marriage, which for some reason did not please Colonel Burd. But what could please him now? The boys tried in many ways, coming to see him often. Joseph wrote, " 'Tis with infinite pleasure that I inform you that in all human probability you will see all your three sons at Tinian on the eighth day of Next May." Yes, everyone tried to help, but the Colonel was ill, and he missed his Sally. W e do not know the details of October 5, 1793. Let us hope Colonel Burd had returned from an easy ride over his beloved plantation of Tinian where the last of the corn was still in the shock and the winter wheat was showing green against the autumn golds; that he was sitting in an easy chair by the window, looking out over the broad Susquehanna to the distant hills.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE MANUSCRIPTS M O S T of the material for this book was found in unpublished letters, journals, documents, receipts, and account books. The Burd Papers in the General Register House, Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Bouquet Papers in the Manuscript Division of the Library of the British Museum were examined by the writer. Transcripts of the Bouquet Papers were more closely searched in this country. The Burd and Shippen Papers were used from the Pennsylvania State Library, the Library of Congress, and from the libraries of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the American Philosophical Society, and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Deeds and wills of the Burd and Shippen families found in Court Houses gave some data, as did the early church records kept in the library of the Presbyterian Historical Society. Many valuable letters and documents are still in the hands of descendants of Colonel Burd or of his father-in-law, Edward Shippen. The following kindly gave the writer information and permission to examine their materials: Miss May Burd of Sunbury, Pennsylvania; Mrs. W. Nelson Mayhew, Mr. Roland S. Morris, Mrs. Sara Tiers, and Mr. E. H. Hergesheimer, of Philadelphia; Miss Matilda Patterson of Pittsburgh; and Mr. Edward Shippen Thompson of Thompsontown, Pennsylvania. Other manuscripts pertaining to the period covered which were used are the Penn Papers, Yeates Papers, Norris of Fairhill Manuscripts, the Dreer Collection, and William Trent's Journal of 17 59, all in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Provincial Papers of Pennsylvania in the Pennsylvania State Library; the Chalmers Collection in the New York Public Library; and the Sir Walter Sterling Letters, some of which are in the Morgan Library of New York and others in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. PUBLISHED SOURCE MATERIAL

The Pennsylvania Archives, in which are printed several of Colonel Burd's military journals, and the Pennsylvania Colonial Records were of course searched with profit. T w o most .87

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BURD

valuable works of primary sources used are the Writings of General John Forbes, Relating To His Service in North America (1938), edited by Alfred Proctor James, and the Susquehanna Company Papers (four volumes, 1930-33), edited by Julian P. Boyd. In this latter work the introductions by the editor as well as the papers edited are of great worth. Several books from which material was gathered have been written or edited by descendants of Colonel Burd or by those with family connections. Among these are Thomas Balch, ed., Letters and Papers Relating Chiefly to the Provincial History of Pennsylvania With Some Notices of the Writer (1855); Lewis Burd Walker, ed., Burd Papers, Selections From Letters Written by Edward Burd 1763-1828; Lewis Burd Walker, ed., Extracts From Chief Justice Alleris Letter Book (1897); Edmund Hays Bell and Mary Hall Colwell, James Patterson of Conestoga Manor and Hts Descendants (1925). This last book has the longest sketch of Colonel Burd's life published to this time. Another book of source material, but not collected by a descendant, is by J. Bennett Nolan, Neddy Burd's Reading Letters (1927). SECONDARY SOURCES

For background, besides the various histories of Pennsylvania and of some of its counties, several books of early publication help: Francis Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe (two volumes, 1907); C. H. Hutchinson, The Chronicles of Middletown (1906); Rufus Wilmot Griswold, The Republican Court; or American Society in the Days of Washington (1864); John F. Watson, Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in the Olden Time (1905); William Riddle, The Story of Lancaster: Old and New (1917). Books of more recent publication which were valuable for certain periods are: Thomas Perkins Abernethy, Western Lands in the American Revolution (1937); Max Savelle, George Morgan, Colony Builder (1932); Albert T . Volwiler, George Croghan and the Westward Movement 1741-1782 (1926); Jonathan Rawson, 1776, A Day-by-Day Story (1927); C. Hale Sipe, Fort Ligonier and Its Times (1932); J. C. Long, Lord Jeffrey Amherst (1933); Carl Van Dören, Benjamin Franklin (1938).

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL

NOTE

NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS

T h e Pennsylvania Gazette printed dozens of advertisements of James Burd. It was invaluable for tracing his mercantile adventures. Neville B. Craig's monthly publication, Olden Times (two volumes, 1876) and the publications of many historical societies were of course used. Among the latter, the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography gave by far the most information. Others are: Massachusetts Historical Society Collections (for the Aspinwall Papers), Lancaster Historical Society Papers, the Mississippi Valley Historical Review Publications, the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, and the Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine.

INDEX Abercromby, General James, 44, 46, 48, 52, 55, 57, 63

Adams, John, 156 Aix-la-Chapelle, Treaty of, 21 Albemarle, Earl of (George Keppel), 103, 104 Alison, Reverend Hector, 79, 83 Allegiance Act, 177 Allen, John, 87, 141 Allen, Joseph, 181 Allen, William, merchant, 7, 22, 23, 55, 57, 66, 87, 118, 123, 129, 130, 144, I J6, IJ7, 177

Amherst, General Jeffery, 54, 8J, 92, 94I 9^197> 99> 1 0 3 - 1 0 4 , 1 0 9 , 1 1 0 , 1 1 3 , 120, 146

Bedford, see Fort Bedford Bird, Mark, 168 Blair, James, 26 Boone, Daniel, 148 Boston Port Act, IJI, IJ6 Bouquet, Colonel Henry, 40, 96, 104, 108, 113, 147; in Forbes Campaign, 4J, 46, 47, 48-J6, J 7 , 59, 6061, 62, 64, 65, 66, 67; in i-jsf campaign, 69, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75-77, 78, 80-81, 83; in i"]6o campaign, 87, 88, 94, 95; at Fort Pitt, 97-102, 106, 107; at Bushy Run, 114, 116 Boyd, Dr. Robert, 127 Braddock, General Edward, 22, 23, 27, 29; and Burd's Road, 26, 28,

André, Major John, 179 30, 31; campaign, 31-33, 35, 44, 47, Annis, John, 133 64, 69 Armstrong, Colonel John, 23, 26, 27, Braddock Road, 48; reopened, 74, 76-78 37. 39-4°. 44. 56« i8> 6 2 ' 65< 7l< 98> Buchanan, William, 23, 26, 27 116, 123, 148, 155 Bugart, Adam, 154 Armstrong, Joseph, 27 Army life and conditions, at Fort Bullit, Captain, 70 Augusta, 39, 41, 86, 121; in Forbes Burchan, Robert, 91 expedition, 51, J2; at Loyal Burd, Allen, 42, 124 Hanna, 58; at Fort Pitt, 69-70, 88, Burd, Edward (James's father), 1, 4, 104, 124, 134 100; at Redstone Creek, 80; during Burd, Edward (James's son), 2, 15, Revolution, 173 55, 124, 126, 129, 134, 140, 144,148, Arnold, Benedict, 177, 178, 179-180 149, 157, 161, 168, 169, 170, 173Articles of Association, ij8 174, 176, 177, 178, 180, 182, 183, Articles of Confederation, 149, 171, 180

Associators, militia group, 161, 167 Atkins, Edmund, 46 Atlee, William, 127, 168, 172, 174, l

7

6

Aubry, Captain Charles Philippe, 61 Baldwin, Major David, 120, 121 Baltimore family, boundary agreement, 135 Barton, Reverend Thomas, 1 2 7 , 1 4 2 , 146, 147, 171

Bartram, John, 100, 101 Bay, Chaplain, 79 Beaver, Delaware chief, 92, IOJ, 106 191

184

Burd, Elizabeth (Betsy); 144, 169, 181, 183

Burd, Gilbert, 104 Burd, James (James's grandfather), 1 Burd, Colonel James, ancestry, 1; education, 2; religion, 3, 7, 142143; marriage, 8-9; business ventures, 11-14, 127; removes to Shippensburg, 17-20; appointed road commissioner, 23; commissioned captain, 36; commissioned major, 37; at Fort Augusta, 3743, 8$-86, 95, 98, NO, 1 1 2 ,

113,

INDEX

IÇ2

Burd, Colonel James (Continued)

114-116, 121-122; makes "Proposal

for Protection," 41; commissioned lieutenant-colonel, 41; commissioned colonel, 53-54; constructs Ford Burd, 80-83; at Fort Pitt, 83, 88-94, 97-' OI >

106-107;

a

P"

pointed justice of peace, n o ; appointed Pennsylvania commissioner, 120; politics, 121, 125, 128129, 157; resigns from Army, 123; elected burgess of Lancaster, 129; purchases plantation, 130-134; removes to Tinian, 138; land claims, 145-149, 178; writes Colonial resolutions, 152; chairman Lancaster County Committee of Safety, 153, 154; elected to Pennsylvania Provincial Convention, 153; commissioned colonel of Associatori, 160; resigns from military, 174; estate, 183 Burd, James, Jr., 140, 181, 182, 183, 185

Burd, Jean, 42, 140, 182 Burd, John, 11, 12, 19 Burd, Joseph, 140, 169, 181, 182, 183, 185

Burd, Margaret (Peggy), 140, 183, 184

Burd, Mary, 140, 144 Burd, Sarah (Sally), see Yeates, Sarah Burd Burd, Sarah Shippen, 7, 8-10, 13, 16, 1 7 - 1 9 , 23, 26, 36, 42, 43, 45, 67, 74, 79,94, 101, 112, 114, 123, 136, 137,

'39. '4°. «43. «44. »45. '¿9. 181, 182

,8

°.

Burd's Road, 23, 24, 26-31, 33 Bushy Run, Battle of, 64, 83, 114 Bute, Earl of (John Stuart), 102,103 Byrd, Colonel William, III, 9, 46, 48, 64, 65, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 83, 96, 99,100, 168

Callender, Robert, 146 Canada, conflict in, 85, 94, 96, 162 Carey, Lieutenant John, 60 Cario, Michael, 8 Carlisle, 24, 36, 44, 46, 47, 73, 85, 88, 102, 1 1 3

Carpenter, Cherokee chief, 65

Celoron de Bienville, 21 Centurion (vessel), voyage of, 2 Charles Edward, pretender to throne of England, 3, 85 Charming Nancy (vessel), 13 Charming Sally (vessel), 12 Cherokee Indians, 44, 46, 64, 65, 99, 102

Christ Church, Philadelphia, 8-9, 68, 178

Clapham, Colonel William, 37, 38, 39. 4 J . 1 1 1 Clark, Captain, 23 Clark, Daniel, 56 Clark, George Rogers, 178 Clayton, Major, 119, 121 Clear Fields, encampment, 51, 52 Clive, Robert, 96 Coal, in western Pennsylvania, 79 Coal Run, 79 Confluence, see Turkey Foot Connecticut, land claims, n o , 116121, 176

Conococheague Creek, 24, 30 Continental Congress, 152, 154, 156, 161, 163, 164, 165, 166, 171, 172, 178, 180

Corson, Henry, 138 Cost, Craft, 133 Cox, Major Cornelius, 164 Cox, Moses, 8 Craig, Neville B., 141 Crawford, Hugh, 135-136 Creek Indians, 44 Cresap, Colonel Thomas, 21, 75, 78 Croghan, George, 20, 22, 23, 27, 31, 363, 164, 167, 171 Franklin, Governor William, 165 French, oppose English in Ohio Valley, 21-22, 32, 37, 44, $4-56, 59-66, 70, 73, 8$; at Fort Duquesne, 32; Indian policy, 99, 109; Spanish alliance, 102-103; American alliance, 177, 179 French and Indian War, disputed territory, 21; in Ohio Valley, 22, 37, 70, 73, 8j; Braddock's defeat, 31-33; Forbes Campaign, 44-66; end of, 109 Frey, George, 133 Fulton, Robert, Sr., 125 Fulton, Robert, Jr., 12J

INDEX Run, 114; and Wyoming Valley lands, ioj, 110-112, 116-121, 176; and Mason-Dixon survey, 135136; persecuted by whites, 137; and Redstone lands, 141-142 Innes, James, 88 Innes, Governor James, 32 Iroquois Indians, see Six Nations Jamison, David, 146 Jefferson, Thomas, I6J Jekyell, Mrs. John, 9 Jekyell, Sir Joseph, 9 Jenny-Sally (vessel), voyage of, 87 Johnson, Sir William, 46, 73, 99, 109, 110, 114, 116, 117, 120, 135 Juliana Library Association of Lancaster, 129 Kenny, James, 78, 83, 89, 91, 100, 102, 107 Kethecomey, Shawnee chief, 92 Killbuck, Delaware chief, 137 King's Mountain, Battle of, 179 Kuhne, Adam, 129 Lancaster, 36, 44, 67, 69, 71, 73, 74, 85, 87, 101, 112, 116, 118, 178; description, 16; Indian conference at, 105-106, n o ; Burd's life in, 124130; churches, 130; Revolutionary activities, 152, 153, 154 Lancaster County, expedition against Indians, 119; politics, 125, 128-129; roads, 145; Revolutionary activities, 153, 154, :j8, 167, 168; Associators, 160, 161, 164-165, 167 Langdale, John, 90, 100 Lardner, Lynford, 19, 123 Lawrence, Thomas, 16 Lea, Mrs., 184 Leake, Robert, 38 Lewis, Major Andrew, J4 Lewis, Gordon, 117 Ligneris, Captain François Marchand de, 61 Ligonier, see Fort Ligonier Little Crossing of Youghiogheny, bridge, 82

I95

Little Meadows, 76 Lloyd, Colonel Thomas, 41, 52, $8, 60, 69, 70 Logan, James, 15, 19 Logan & Shippen, merchants, 15 Logstown, 67 Loudoun, Lord John C., 38, 40, 44 Louisburg, capture of, 52 Lowery, Lazarus, 90 Loyal Hanna (Ligonier), 48, 49, yo, 51, 52-53, 58, 64, 65, 67; battle 55< 59~6+> 66- See also Fort Ligonier McClure, John, 90 McCormick, Dennis, 126, 133 McDonald, Sergeant, 98 McDonald, Flora, 86 McDowell's Mill, 24 McKean, Thomas, 177, 184 McKee, Alexander, 107 McKee, Thomas, n o , i n , 135 Maclay, William, 143 Maryland, provincial troops, 63; supplies from, 71; boundary survey, 134-136; and western lands, 180 Mason, Charles, 135, 136 Massachusetts, Revolutionary activities, 151, 152, 155 Mather, Captain Richard, 92 Meech, John, 88 Mercer, Colonel George, 74, 75, 77, 80, 81, 82, 83, 99 Mercer, Colonel Hugh, 3, 11, 41, 64, 67, 69, 70, 72, 73, 79, 85, 86, 88, 95, 98, 123, 148, 155 Michelson, George, 12, 13 Middletown, 17, 136, 142, 143, 152, 157, 172, 177; in 1761, 131; Chronicles, 152 Mifflin, General Thomas, 16:, 163, 172, 173, 174 Millen, Dr., 100 Mohawk Indians, 135 Mohican Indians, 44 Molineau, William, 13 Monckton, General Robert, 86, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 94, 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, 107, 147

196

INDEX

Monongahela River, road to, 71-72, 73, 74-80, 107; coal found on, 79; explored, 82 Montcalm, General Louis Joseph, Marquis de, 61 Montour, Captain Andrew, 92, 11 j Montreal, capture of, 94, 96 Moore, Robert, 133 Moore's Creek Bridge, Battle of, 86 Morgan, Captain, 70 Morgan, Dr. John, 141, 146, 147, 148 Morris, Robert, 163, 166, 175 Morris, Governor Robert Hunter, 17, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. 35. 36, 38, " 8 Mt. Braddock, Gist settlement, 21 Munsee Indians, 44, 111 Murray, General James, 85 Murray, Captain John, 170, 173 Murray, Colonel Thomas, 158, 164, 168, 171 Nemacolin, 21, 75 Nemacolin's (Dunlap's) Creek, camp, 79, 81 New Deposit, camp site, 53 Nixon, John, 153 Non-Importation Resolutions, 150 Northampton, in 1763, 118; Burd's claim, 123 Ohio Company, 21, 71, 90 Ohio Valley, land claims, 147-149 Ormiston, Scotland, Burd manor,

1. 4

Ottawa Indians, 91, 120 Ourry, Lieutenant Lewis, 108 Paine, Thomas, 162, 163, 175 Patterson, George, 182 Patterson, Captain James, 36, 40, 42, 88 Paxton Presbyterian Church, 143, 181 Paxton Township, 128, ij2,153, 159, 164 Pearis, Captain Richard, 51, 82 Pemberton, Israel, 67 Penn, Governor John, 121, 122, 123, 124, 128, 135, 137, 138, 141, 143, 14$, ij6

Penn, Richard, 157, 162 Penn, Thomas, 46, 115, 117, 129 Penn family, and Indians, 19; land interests, 117,135,142, 146; Burd's support of, 125, 128, 1J7; and William Allen, 156-157 Pennsylvania, road commissioners, 22-32, 35; forts authorized, 36; rivalry with Virginia over roads, 44, 48, 75; provincial troops, 52, 56, J7, 86, 88, 94, 97, 100, 103104, 113; and Connecticut settlers, 110, 117, 118-119; politics, 125, 128-129; a n d Maryland boundary, 134-136; land grants, 146; Council of Safety, 153; military groups, 161; Revolutionary activities, 163, 164, 166, 167, 171 Pennsylvania Assembly, 22, 24, 26, 29. 35- 36, 37. 4°. 44- 57. 7'. " 3 . 120, 128, 129, 130, 137, 156, 161, 163, 178 Pennsylvania Gazette, advertisements, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 127 Pennsylvania Line, 161, 179 Pennsylvania Magazine, 142 Peters, Richard, 20, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 40, 41, 44, 51, 56, 61, 62, 93. >3° Philadelphia, 44, 46, 69, 115, 118; in ¡141, 6; First Presbyterian Church, 7, 11; Assembly dance, 10; social life, 10-11; Revolutionary activities, 150, 153, 164 Phillips, Robert, 12, 13 Piper, John, 18 Piper, Widow, 18, 19 Pitt, William, 41, 44, 53, 63, 96, 97, 102 Pittsburgh, in 1760, 89-91, 92; in 1761, 100, 102. See also Fort Pitt Pomfret Castle, 36 Pontiac, Ottawa chief, 109, 112, 116 Pontiac's War, 112-116 Post, Christian Frederick, 46, 49, 64, 66, 67, 105 Potawatomi Indians, 91 Presbyterian Church, First, Philadelphia, 7, 11; Lancaster, 130; Paxton, 143, 181 Prideaux, Colonel John, 73

INDEX Proclamation of 17Í.3, 109, 141, Purviance, Samuel, 12J, 140 Quakers, 19, 113, 125 Quebec, 83, 8j, 96, 109, 162 Quebec Act, IJI Queen Aliquippa, 29 Quimahony, encampment, 51 Raystown (Bedford), 29, 46, 47, 48, 49. 5°. 5i. 53. 54. 55. 59. 64, 6$, 67. See also Fort Bedford Reads, Reverend James, 118 Redstone country, squatters, 141142 Redstone Creek, trading post, 21; road to, 71-72, 73, 74-80; fort at, 81-83 Redstone Old Fort, 21, 81-82 Rennick, Henry, 133 Revolutionary War, causes, IJO; events leading to, 150-154; military groups, 161; events of, 162, 165, 169-170, 171, 178-180; end of, 181 Rhor, Charles, engineer, 50; camp site, 51, 52, 53 Roberdeau, General Daniel, 167, 171 Robertson, Colonel James, 113 Rogers, Captain James, 164 Ross, George, 152 Royal American Regiment, 37, 40, 49, 51, 88, 97, 100, 107, 113, 123, IJ7 St. Andrews Society of Philadelphia, 10 St. Clair, Sir John, 22, 24, 26, 28, 32, 44, 45, 48, 50, 51, 57, 67, 79, 89, 92. 94 St. James' Episcopal Church (Lancaster), 130, 137, 142, 171 St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church (Middletown), 142, 143 Saratoga, Battle of, 83, 177 Schlosser, Captain John, 127 Scotland, events in, 1, 3-4 Sea Horse (vessel), 13 Second Battalion, Pennsylvania troops, 49 Seven Years' War, 22, 38, 85, 94,96,

I97

109, 150. See also French and Indian War Sharpe, Governor Horatio, 49 Shawnee Indians, 46, 49, 91, 98, 102, 105, 107, 110 Shekellemy, Iroquois chief, 38 Shelby, Daniel, 166 Sherer, Joseph, 168 Shingas, Delaware chief, 105 Shippen, Edward, first Mayor of Philadelphia, 9, 15 Shippen, Edward, of Lancaster, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16-20, 22, 23, 26, 27, 36, 38, 41, 45, 67, 74, 75, 94, 101, 124, 126, 130, 135, 144, 153, 158, 163, 165, 171, 178, 180, 181 Shippen, Edward, Jr., 17,45, 66, 108, 144, 147, 165, 177, 180, 181, 183 Shippen, Elizabeth, 177 Shippen, Colonel Joseph, 11, 12, 16, 38. 39. 45. 7*. 75. 79. 8°. 82, 87. 103, 106, 108, i n , 112, 116, 120, 124, 136, 139, 141, 144, 146, 148, 163, 176, 177, 180, 181 Shippen, Mary Gray, 16, 19 Shippen, Peggy, 178, 179, 180 Shippen, Sarah, see Burd, Sarah Shippen Shippen & Lawrence, merchants, 15, 35 Shippensburg, 28, 30, 36, 44, 67, 124; described, 18, 19 Six Nations (Iroquois), 37, 73, 9193, 96, 105, 109, i n , 114, 116, 118, .76 Slough, Mathias, 127, 146 Smith, Charles, 184 Smith, John, 26, 27 Smith, Captain Matthew, 168 Smith, Reverend William, 184 Sonnequehana, Wyandot chief, 92 Spain, in Seven Years' War, 97, 102104; American alliance, 179 Stamp Act, 150 Stanwix, General John, 44, 46, 69, 7'. 72. 73. 74. 75. 7 6 . 78. 80, 81, 82, 83. 87, 88, 107,147 Stephen, Colonel Adam, 51, 52, 74, 100 Stiegel, Henry William, glassworks, »3*

INDEX Sterling, Captain Walter, 4, 11, 12, 13, 14, 1 j , 16, 19, 4J Stony Creek, 59, 60,61,64 Stout and Carter, boatbuilders, 12 Strahan, William, 14 Stump, Frederick, 137 Sullivan, General John, 170 Susquehanna Land Company, 110, 117 Susquehanna River, 37, 85, 86, 102; Indian lands, 11, 116; settlement on, 117; land grants, 146 Swift, John, 6, 13 Tea, Richard, 14; Teedyuscung, Delaware chief, 92, 116, 117 Third Battalion, Pennsylvania troops, 37, 39 Thompson, Captain, 147 Tiffin, Captain, 6 Tinian, Burd estate, 19; description, 130-134, 136, 138; life at, 139-145, 149, 168, 17J-177. >78 Tinian (Buena Vista), island of, 2 Touisgourawa, Iroquois chief, 92 Townshend Acts, 14J, ijo Trade ocean, 12-14; West Indies, 87, 103, IJI Traders, restrictions on, 99 Travel, in 1752, 17 Trent, William, 21, 22, 90, 99 Trotter, James, 6, 7, 11 Trump, Levi, 45 Tulleken, Major John, 71, 72, 73 Turkey Foot (Confluence), 24, 30, 3« Venango, see Fort Venango Vetri, Captain —, 61 Virginia, opposes French, 21-22; rivalry with Pennsylvania over roads, 44, 48, $6, 75; provincial troops, 70, 73, 88; and road to Monongahela, 71-72,74,75,77,78,

80; crown lands, 147-149,162,178; Resolves, 151 Ward, General Artemas, 155, 156 Ward, Ensign Edward, 22, 63, 90 Washington, George, 21, 22, 29, 64, 78, 103, 123; in Forbes Campaign, 48, 54, 56, 61, 64; during Revolution, IJI, 154-156, IJ7, 161, 162, 167, 169, 171, 172, 174, 175, 176, 178; elected President, 185 Wayne, General Anthony, 161 Weiser, Colonel Conrad, 37, 40, 42 Welch, Mrs Janet, 6, 11 West, Benjamin, 87, 103, 129 West Indies, trade, 87, 103, 151; military significance, 97, 104 Wetherholt, Captain Nicholas, 52 Wharton, Thomas, 172 Whitefield, Reverend George, 6 Wickersham, Elijah, 152 Wiggins, Lieutenant Thomas, 122 Wilkins, John, 127 Willing, Anne (Nancy), 45, 62, 74, 96, 97, 108 Willing, Dolly, 19 Willing, Mollie, 96 Willing, Thomas, 19, 45, ij6 Wills Creek, see Fort Cumberland Wilson, James, 163, 166, 184 Winchester, 46, 6j, 76, 77 Wolfe, General James, 70, 8j, 96 Wright, James, 26 Wyandot Indians, 91, 102 Wyoming Valley, Indian lands, 41, IOJ, 110-112, 116-121, 142; settlement, 116-118, 142, 176 Yeates, Jasper, 20, 126, 127, 136, 144, 160, 175, 177, 181, 183, 184 Yeates, Mary, 184 Yeates, Sarah (Sally) Burd, 126, 129, 136, 140, 143, 144 Youghiogheny River, fortifications, 82-83 Young, James, 114