The charter of James I., in 1620, to the Plymouth Company, covered the territory extending from the
Atlantic to the
Pacific and lying between lat. 40° and 46°
N. Connecticut purchased a part of this territory of the Plymouth Company in 1631, with the boundary the same on the west and lat. 41° on the south.
This sale was confirmed by Charles II.
in 1662.
The grant of Charles II.
to
Penn extended to lat. 42° N. Thus the
Connecticut grant overlapped that of
Pennsylvania one degree.
In 1753 an association called the Susquehanna Company was formed, and, with the consent of the Connecticut Assembly, applied to the crown for leave to plant a new colony west of the
Delaware.
It was granted, and the company sent agents to the convention at
Albany in 1754, who succeeded in obtaining from representatives of the Six Nations the cession of a tract of land on the eastern branch of the
Susquehanna River—the beautiful valley of
Wyoming.
The proprietaries of
Pennsylvania claimed that this land was within the limits of their charter.
Prior occupancy by the
Dutch and the settlement of boundaries had created an exception in favor of New York and
New Jersey; but all the country west of the
Delaware within the same parallel of latitude with
Connecticut was still claimed by that colony as a part of its domain.
The
French and Indian War prevented any attempt at settlement until August, 1762, when 105 settlers came from
Connecticut into the
Wyoming Valley, but, owing to the lateness of the season, soon returned.
Coming back early in May, 1763, they settled in the same valley.
Proclamations were issued by
Pennsylvania and writs of ejectment were placed in the hands of the sheriff of
Northampton county.
In the autumn of 1763 a war-party of the Six Nations descended the
Susquehanna and murdered
Teedyuscung, the beloved old chief of the Delawares, and charged the crime upon the
Connecticut settlers.
The
Delawares believed the tale, and at noon on Oct. 14 they attacked and massacred thirty of the settlers in the fields.
Men, women, and children fled to the mountains, from which they saw their homes plundered and burned and their cattle taken away.
They made their way back to
Connecticut.
The settlement was broken up. Meanwhile
Pennsylvania took possession of the
Wyoming Valley and built a fortified trading-house there.
Another
Connecticut association, called the “Delaware Company,” had begun a settlement on the
Delaware River (1767). In 1769 forty pioneers of the Susquehanna Company went there to assert their rights, and civil war prevailed there for some time (see
Pennymite and Yankee War). In 1771 the Assembly of Connecticut proposed to make an effort to adjust all the difficulties, but the governor of
Pennsylvania refused to enter into any negotiation.
The Connecticut Assembly then made out a case and sent it to
England for adjudication.
It was submitted to the ablest lawyers in the realm, and was decided in favor of the Susquehanna Company.
The decision was unheeded by
Governor Penn.
The
Connecticut settlers, reinforced from time to time, persisted, and organized an independent government by town-meetings, as in
Connecticut.
In 1774 they united seven towns into one,
Westmoreland, and attached it to
Litchfield county, Conn. This desultory strife continued with loss of life and much suffering until the struggle was suspended by the war of the Revolution.
These were the settlers that were killed and scattered in the fearful
Wyoming massacre by the Tories and Indians in 1778.
In 1779 and 1780 they again returned and occupied the valley.
In the meanwhile the titles of the Penns had passed to the
State, and although the struggle was kept up after the Revolution, negotiations were more direct.
Pennsylvania finally confirmed the title of the
Connecticut settlers on their payment of a nominal sum for their land, and compensated the
Pennsylvania claimants with other lands and with money.
The
Examination of the Connecticut claim to lands in Pennsylvania, written by
William Smith, was published in
Philadelphia in 1774, and
[
486]
A plea in vindication of the Connecticut title to the contested lands West of the province of New York, written by
Benjamin Trumbull, was published in New Haven in the same year.
The Continental Congress, to whom the dispute was referred, decided in favor of
Pennsylvania in 1781.
The cession of her western lands by
Connecticut to the general government of the
United States ended all controversy.
See
Connecticut;
Pennymite and Yankee War.
