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RELATIONS BETWEEN 
 
 THE VERMONT SEPARATISTS 
 
 AND GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
 1789-1791 
 
 CONT^BlftED BV 
 SfWBfeMIS 
 
 REPKIMtU KKUM I'HK 
 
 l^mcricau historical ^nim 
 
 Vol. XXI., No. 3 APRIL 1916 
 
ys% 
 
[Reprinted from The American Historical Review, Vol. XXI., No. 3, April, 1916 ] 
 
 DOCUMENTS 
 
 Relations between the Vermont Separatists and Great Britain, 
 
 1789-1791 
 
 The intrigues of the Vermont Separatists savor of the type of 
 conspiracy so prominent in the \^'est before the acquisition of Louisi- 
 ana. In fact, the geographical positions of Vermont and of the 
 Kentucky country were in one respect very similar. Both regions 
 were so situated that it was easier for the inhabitants to float their 
 products out by means of inland navigation systems through the 
 northeastern and southwestern frontiers, respectively, than to send 
 them out over the difficult land routes to the harbors of the eastern 
 coast states. The position of Vermont in this respect closely re- 
 sembles the relation of the Kentucky and Tennessee settlements 
 to the closure of the Mississippi navigation, and was productive of 
 much the same results ; for while the Western citizens of the Ohio 
 Valley were demanding the free navigation of the river, and while 
 their delegations to the Virginia ratifying convention hesitated to 
 consent to the adoption of a new Constitution that would give con- 
 trol of navigation and commerce to a remote central governmenv 
 that had not been over-careful of their rights to the New Orleans 
 outlet, a strong party in the Sovereign State of Vermont was against 
 joining the Union, and favored an alliance with Great Britain, or 
 even return to British rule. 
 
 That Vermont was to a great degree dependent on the Cham- 
 plain system appealed to many men in that state as a strong argu- 
 ment for seeking the protection of Great Britain rather than joining 
 the new Union and accepting a part of its debt. Forming a nat- 
 ural highway from points almost as far south as the head of navi- 
 gation of the Hudson, the Champlain system offered easy com- 
 munication between Quebec and northwestern New England, to- 
 gether with those adjacent counties of New York, extending as far 
 as Lake Ontario, which were claimed by Vermont under the old 
 New Hampshire grants. Other things being equal, it was less 
 laborious and cheaper for the inhabitants of this country to send 
 out their produce and to receive their importations by way of Lake 
 Champlain and tlj,e Sorel River than to carry them to and fro over 
 the rough roads to the Atlantic Coast. If commercial concessions 
 
 (547) 
 
548 Documents 
 
 were offered or to be had, the temptation for a Canadian connec- 
 tion was all the stronger. 
 
 The Allen brothers, Ethan, Ira, and Levi, were the most active 
 and versatile of the separatist party, and their negotiations with 
 Canadian and English officials form a story that is yet to be treated. 
 The documents on which it must be founded, and from which a 
 selection is here presented, are preserved among the Colonial Office 
 Papers in the British Public Record Office. Transcripts of most 
 of them are in the Canadian Archives at Ottawa, series Q. The 
 references below, to one or other of these repositories, merely indi- 
 cate the one in which the present inquirer found a particular docu- 
 ment.^ 
 
 Immediately after the preliminary articles of peace had become 
 known, several " persons of influence " from Vermont visited Gen- 
 eral Haldimand at Quebec, at different times. They represented 
 their state as being strongly opposed to joining the Confederation, 
 even though Congress complied with the condition, which had been 
 advanced, that the new state should be exempt from any part of 
 the debt of the United States contracted before the date of admis- 
 sion. They encouraged the settlement of royalists, and candidly 
 and confidentially told Haldimand that Vermont must either become 
 annexed to Canada or become mistress of it, as it was the only chan- 
 nel by which their produce could be marketed. They assured him 
 that they preferred annexation. Haldimand, who, unlike some 
 later Canadian governors, lacked initiative for petty intrigue, told 
 them plainly that he could not interfere, and that he had positive 
 orders to do everything possible to conciliate the affections of the 
 subjects of the United States and those of Great Britain.- WUien 
 Lord Sydney, then directing colonial affairs, received this news, he 
 commented on it as extraordinary, but thought that it would not 
 be consistent with the treaty to interfere "openly" in the disputes 
 of the people of Vermont, though it would "be difficult to refuse 
 to take them under our protection should they deterrnine to become 
 subjects of Great Britain ". Haldimand must use his discretion, 
 but should take no step without first notifying the home govern- 
 ment.^ 
 
 Through the year 1784 little was heard at Quebec from the 
 
 1 The contributor being in Europe at the time of the final preparation of this 
 material for the press, some of the annotations have been added, without ability 
 to consult him, by the managing editor. 
 
 2 Haldimand to North, Quebec, October 24, 1783, Canadian Archives, Q. 
 22: 85. 
 
 3 Sydney to Haldimand, Whitehall, April 8, 1784, Can. Arch., Q. 23: 55. 
 Sydney was home secretary from December, 1783, to June, 1789. 
 
TJie Vermont Separatists and Great Britain 549 
 
 Vermont separatists, and a formal demand by Governor Chittenden 
 for the delivery of the British posts at Pointe-au-Fer and Dutch- 
 man's Point was refused. It was supposed that they were turning 
 their attention more to Congress.* The matter of connections with 
 Canada had not been forgotten, however ; for Ira Allen turned up 
 in Quebec in the spring of 1785 with a commission from the gover- 
 nor of Vermont'* to negotiate for free trade between that state and 
 the British provinces. Hamilton, then acting governor, sent Allen 
 back with an indefinite answer." The governor's council declined 
 to interfere on the ground that a royal order-in-council regulated all 
 commerce. The request was forwarded to Whitehall.^ 
 
 A memorial for free commercial privileges with Canada, with 
 the same freedom as to the trade with the British West Indies and 
 England in British vessels, was presented by Ira Allen to Dorches- 
 ter late in 1786, and met with partial success. The governor's 
 council, or " Council of State ", this time saw fit to open up a trade 
 by way of Lake Champlain, with the " neighboring states " to the 
 province of Quebec. Free importation of lumber, naval stores, 
 hemp, flax, grain, provisions, livestock, and all products grown in 
 those states was allowed, and all British products excepting furs 
 and peltries might be exported into them from Canada without 
 payment of duties.* The ministry afterward confirmed the action 
 of the Canadian authorities, allowing Dorchester to direct the pas- 
 sage of such laws as were deemed expedient for regulating trade 
 with Vermont, but not by this means to permit the importation of 
 foreign goods, or the exportation of furs. A commercial treaty, 
 which Allen had petitioned for, was impossible, said Lord Sydney.^ 
 
 While Ira Allen had been negotiating for commercial privileges, 
 his brother Levi had endeavored to secure a contract for supplying 
 the British navy with masts, at prices paid at Portsmouth, N. H., 
 
 * Chittenden to Haldimand, Arlington, Vt., April 15, 1784, Can. Arch., Q. 23: 
 78. Haldimand to North, Quebec, May 12, 1784, Can. Arch., Q. 23: 161. 
 
 6 Act by the state of Vermont for the purpose of opening up free trade to 
 and through the province of Quebec, with a resolution to appoint Ira Allen. Major 
 Joseph Fay, and Hon. Jonas Fay commissioners for that purpose. Rutland, Vt., 
 October 29, 1784. The act is in Slade, Vermont Slate Papers, p. 496; both 
 act and resolution are in Records of the Governor and Council of the State of 
 Vermont, HI. 397-398. The Council, October 26, 1786, substituted Levi Allen 
 for Joseph Fay, resigned ; ibid.. 399. 
 
 6 Hamilton to Sydney, Quebec, April 7, 1785, Can. Arch., Q. 24: 282. Ira 
 Allen's report. June 7, 1785, to the General Assembly, is in Records of Governor 
 and Council, 111. 398. 
 
 " Extract from the minutes of the Council of State, Quebec, March 24, 28, 
 1785, Can. Arch.. Q. 24: 450. 
 
 8 Memorial of Levi Allen, November 22, 1786, Can. Arch., Q. 28: 7. Procla- 
 mation of Dorchester, .'\pril 18, 1787, in Records of Governor and Council, 111. 
 402. Ordinance of governor and council of Canada. April 30, 1787, ibid.. III. 403. 
 Dorchester to Sydney, Quebec, June 18, 1787, Can. Arch., Q. 28: 4. 
 
 9 Sydney to Dorchester, Whitehall, September 14, 1787, Can. Arch., Q. 28: 28. 
 
550 Documents 
 
 before the war.'" This offer, transmitted to the British naval 
 authorities, does not appear to have had any further consequences.^^ 
 Another petition from Vermont was brought to Quebec by Levi 
 Allen late in 1787, asking permission to export produce from Can- 
 ada in British bottoms on the same terms as those enjoyed by 
 British subjects. There is no record of this request being granted. ^^ 
 The next summer his brother Ethan presented to Dorchester a long 
 memorial, dated at Quebec, which is notable for the way in which 
 this hero of Ticonderoga chaffered for British trading concessions 
 and for supplies of arms in case of a rebellion against Congress, 
 and indicated the willingness of Vermont to come under British 
 dominion again. It is interesting to observe that this was pre- 
 sented to the governor of Canada within a few months from the 
 time when Wilkinson forwarded a similar communication to the 
 Spanish governor at New Orleans, for similar purposes, and with a 
 similar though perhaps more selfish motive. ^^ Ethan Allen asserted 
 that Vermont had 15,000 men, and would resist aggression on the 
 jiart of the United States and any attempts to subjugate it. 
 
 Vermont is locally situated to the waters of Lake Champlain, which 
 connect with those of the St. Lawrence, and contiguous to the Province 
 of Quebec, where they must be dependent for trade, business and inter- 
 course, which naturally incline them to the British interest — in the time 
 of General Haldimand's command, could Great Britain have afforded 
 Vermont protection, they would have readily yielded up their independ- 
 ence and have become a Province of Great Britain, and should the 
 United States attempt a conquest of them, they would, I presume, do 
 the same, should the British policy harmonize with it. For the leading 
 men in Vermont are not sentimentally attached to a republican form of 
 government, yet from political principles are determined to maintain 
 their present mode of it, till they can have a better, and expect to be able 
 to do it, at least, so long as the United States will be able to maintain 
 theirs, or until they can on principles of mutual interest and advantage 
 return to the British government, without war or annoyance from the 
 United States." 
 
 Sydney acted with caution, upon receiving from Dorchester a 
 copy of this letter, and replied that nothing could be done until the 
 
 10 Levi Allen to Dorchester, Quebec, July 2, 1787, Can. Arch., Q. 28: 107, and 
 Public Record Office, C. 0. 42 : 11, f. 87. 
 
 11 Sydney to Dorchester, November 8, 1787, Can. Arch., Q. 28: 143. 
 
 12 Major Skene to his father, Quebec, December 16, 1787, Can. Arch., Q. 36: 
 48 1. But the privileges accorded by the ordinance of April 30, 1787, were en- 
 larged by one of April 14, 1788, of which the text is in the Vermont Records, III. 
 405-406. 
 
 13 The date of Allen's letter to Dorchester is July 16, 1788; that of Wilkinson 
 to Miro is dated February 12, 1789. Gayarre, History of Louisiana, III. 223-240. 
 
 "Ethan Allen to Dorchester, Quebec, July 16, 178S, Can. Arch., Q. 36:448. 
 This is calendared by Mr. Brymner, in the Report on the Archives for 1890, who 
 makes liberal quotations, pp. 210-211. 
 
The Vermont Separatists and Great Britain 551 
 
 reassembling of the ministry.'"' Impatient at this delay, the ener- 
 getic Aliens determined upon a bolder stroke ; they resolved that one 
 of them should go to England in person, and there confer directly 
 with the ministry. The story of Levi's voyage to England and of 
 his relations with the Cabinet, the adventures of his ship, and his 
 vain attempt to prevent Vermont from joining the Union, are de- 
 scribed in the letters printed below. The first is a formal memorial 
 to the Secretary of State for the Home Department. The second 
 is a reference of the memorial to the Committee of the Privy 
 Council for Trade and Plantations. The report of the committee, 
 made at a time when the Nootka Sound question bade fair to 
 result in war between Spain and Great Britain, and when the min- 
 istry was doubtful as to the attitude of the United States, has 
 already been printed in this Review by Professor Frederick J. 
 Turner.'" The committee considered an identical policy to be in 
 many ways applicable to Vermont and Kentucky. A British in- 
 terest should be fostered for commercial and political reasons in 
 Kentucky ; the same interest might be enhanced in Vermont by giving 
 the inhabitants liberal commercial facilities, though the committee 
 did not presume to say whether the hostility of the States ought to 
 be invited by the negotiation of an actual treaty with Vermont, 
 which was recognized by the treaty of 1783 to be within Amer- 
 ican boundaries. 
 
 Allen was kept waiting in London while the business of the 
 Nootka imbroglio proceeded. Grenville soon received information 
 from his informal agent in New York, Major George Beckwith, 
 that the United States would not go to war over the question of the 
 posts, even should Spain and Britain come to grips. This assur- 
 ance came from Alexander Hamilton, and enabled the Duke of 
 Leeds, the secretary for Foreign AfTairs, to discount the veiled 
 threats of Gouverneur Morris, who was at the same time in Lon- 
 don as the personal agent of Washington, inquiring as to the dis- 
 position of the ministry regarding fulfillment of the stipulations of 
 the treaty of 1783.'" For this reason it was not necessary to hold 
 out to Allen any favors much greater than those already granted by 
 
 15 Sydney to Dorchester, Whitehall, September 5, 1788, Can. Arch., Q. 38: i, 
 10 " English Policy toward .'\mcrica, 1790-1791". American Historical Re- 
 view, VIII. 78-86, report of April 17, 1790. Cf. (same article, part I.), id., VII. 
 707. 
 
 17 See Beckwith to Grenville, New York, April 7, 1790, Public Record Oflfice, 
 F. O. 4 : 12. Grenville to Dorchester, June 6, 1790, Can. Arch., Q. 44: 161. For 
 Morris's mission, see American Stale Papers, Foreign Relations, I., and J. Sparks, 
 Life and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. II., ch. I. See also Manning, 
 "Nootka Sound Contrpversy ", in American Historical Association Report, 1906, 
 pp. 417 ff. 
 
552 Documents 
 
 the Canadian government, nor to accept the possibility of an alliance 
 with the " Vermontese ". The whole intrigue, if it may be called 
 such, was extinguished automatically by the confederation of Ver- 
 mont to the United States. 
 
 Our third document, Levi Allen to Dundas, August 9, 1791, 
 runs parallel to, and supplements, a letter which Colonel Simcoe 
 wrote to the same official a week before, August 2, after conversa- 
 tion with Allen, and w.hich has been printed in the Report of the 
 Canadian Archives for 1889.^* The fourth document is of addi- 
 tional interest in that, like passages in the third and sixth, it shows 
 relations hitherto unknown between Simcoe and General Elijah 
 Clarke, the Georgia backwoodsman, in the period between the 
 latter's first disappointment over President Washington's Creek 
 treaty of 1790, on the one hand, and his relations with Genet in 
 1793 and trans-Oconee outbreak of 1794." The fifth and sixth 
 documents relate the story of Allen's final disappointment, in a 
 manner to supplement the account which Allen gave Simcoe in a 
 letter dated November 19, 1791, and printed in the Canadian Ar- 
 chives Report for 1889.^° 
 
 The Unionist party gave the governor of Canada considerable 
 anxiety for the safety of the British posts in that state. In 1791 
 he gave orders to the officers there that any attack must be repelled, 
 and noted with concern the erection of the custom-house at Alburgh, 
 which Levi Allen feared would take fire."^ The aggressive atti- 
 tude of the Unionists toward the British posts was the subject of 
 representations by Hammond, the British minister at Philadelphia, 
 to Jefferson, who took some steps to quiet apprehensions.^- Dor- 
 chester's nervousness over the Vermont posts added to his pertur- 
 bation in 1794, when he made the famous hostile speech to the 
 Indians and ordered Governor Simcoe, of Upper Canada, to build 
 the Miami Fort on American soil, near the present city of Toledo."^ 
 
 Ira Allen made a voyage to Europe in 1796, visited England, 
 and petitioned the government for leave to cut a canal between 
 Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River.-^ While in France 
 
 IS p. 53. Colonel John Graves Simcoe had long since been listed for appoint- 
 ment as the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, though his commission 
 was not issued till September 12, 1791. Read's Simcoe, p. 127. 
 
 10 .Stevens, History of Georgia, II. 404 ff. 
 
 20 P. 56. 
 
 21 J3orchester to Lieut.-Col. Buckeridge, January 17, 1791, Can. Arch., Q. 
 50: 113. See p. 557, post, and note 40. 
 
 'ii American State Papers, For. Re!., I. 461-463, correspondence between 
 Randolph and Hammond relative to the speech of Lord Dorchester. Also Dor- 
 chester to Dundas, Quebec, September 20, 1794, Can. Arch.. Q. 70:64. 
 
 23 Dorchester to Hammond, Quebec, February 17. 1794, Can. Arch., Q. 67 : 105. 
 
 24 Ira .Allen to Portland, London, -August 15, 1796, Can. .Arch., Q. 77: 339. 
 
The Vermont Separatists and Great Britain 553 
 
 he purchased 20,000 stand of arms for the Vermont militia, though 
 the Canadian officials noted that the Vermont militia was legally 
 required to furnish its own arms.-^ Allen's shipment was captured 
 by a British warship, it being suspected that they were for the aid 
 of a revolution of the French inhabitants of Lower Canada. The 
 proceedings and correspondence relative to Allen's connection with 
 this plot against British authority are printed in part in the Report 
 on the Canadian Archives for 1891,"" and in his Olive Branch. 
 
 S. F. Bemis. 
 
 I. Memorial of Levi Allen, May 4, 1789.-" 
 
 To the Right Honhle Lord Sydney, 
 Principal Secretary of State. 
 
 The Representative and Memorial of Levi Allen in behalf of the In- 
 habitants of the New Hampshire Grants, known by the name of Vermont 
 
 Humbly sheweth. 
 
 That your Memorialist is authorized by Commission under the Great 
 Seal of Vermont, pursuant to an Act of the General Assembly thereof, 
 to negotiate a Commercial and Friendly Intercourse between Vermont 
 and His Majesty's Dominions.-'* 
 
 In the first place, your Memorialist begs leave to represent to your 
 Lordship that during the late unhappy Troubles in America, great num- 
 bers of His Majesty's faithful subjects from the provinces of New Eng- 
 land, New York and New Jersey retired into the District of Vermont 
 in order to avoid being driven into arms against their Sovereign, by the 
 Revolters; these Loyal Emigrants, joining with those in Vermont who 
 adhered to their allegiance, made at least three-fourths of the Inhabi- 
 tants of that District, and those of the Inhabitants, who in the beginning 
 of the frenzy which unhappily prevailed in America, even for a time 
 opposed to His Majesty's Government, soon saw their error and would 
 have been happy to have been permitted to have returned to their Al- 
 legiance long before the end of the war. for which purpose Overtures 
 were made to the Commander-in-chief in Canada early in 1788. this 
 would still be their greatest wish could it be practicable, but being in 
 doubt with respect to its practicability, this part of their wish is not 
 comprehended in the Commission with which your Memorialist is 
 charged. The locality of Vermont, as well as the Disposition of its 
 Inhabitants, renders its connection with Canada the most natural as well 
 as the most advantageous of any, as the waters of Lake Champlain are 
 the principal means by which they can export their produce, or receive 
 their manufactures they stand in need of from this Country, on this 
 account they earnestly hoped to have been incorporated as an appendage 
 
 2a Burlington Mercury. Dcccmlicr i, 17136, in Prescott's letter to Portland, 
 Quebec. December 17, 1796, Can. Arch., Q. 78: i.-ji, 159, 160. 
 
 28 Pp. 63-64, 81-84, of first part. Records. III. 413-41S. 
 
 2' Public Record Office, F. O. 4, vol. 7, and C. O. 42: 12. f, 409. 
 
 28 Levi .'Mien seems to have had no other public authority than his commission 
 under the act of 1784, which conferred powers for exercise in Quebec solely. See 
 his letter to his brother Ira. London, June :;5, 1789, printed in the Vermont His- 
 torical Magazine, T. 572-573. and in Records. III. 409. 
 
 AM. HIST. REV.. VOI.. XXI. 36. 
 
554 Documents 
 
 to the Province of Quebec, but those hopes were defeated by the bound- 
 ary line of the United States as settled by the late Peace. 
 
 Your Memorialist begs leave further to represent to Your Lordship 
 that the number of the Inhabitants of Vermont is computed to be one 
 Hundred and Sixty Thousand Souls,-^ and the Country is daily increas- 
 ing by a rapid Population ; their vicinity to Canada and particularly the 
 bordering of Lake Champlain, the principal entrance to that Province 
 from the South, canot fail. Your Memorialist humbly apprehends, to 
 render their Friendship and Commerce useful and acceptable, and as 
 they are for the most part people who were (and continue to be) loyally 
 disposed, and after being driven on that account into this place of Re- 
 treat were finally cut off from His Majesty's Dominions and Government 
 sorely against their wishes, would willingly hope that they might be con- 
 sidered in some degree worthy of His Majesty's Royal Benevolence and 
 Regards. 
 
 The Produce of Vermont consists in Lumber, Naval Stores, Corn 
 and Grain of all sorts, Pot and Pearl Ashes, pig and bar Iron, Cattle 
 and Provisions of all kinds, Horses and Mules, Hemp, Flax, Tallow, 
 Bees wax and Honey, with many more articles, which the Inhabitants 
 early wish to be permitted to send to or through the Canadian market, 
 and to receive in exchange such Goods and Manufactures as they have 
 occasion for. In the same manner and subject to the same duties, Imports 
 and Drawbacks as if said District had been part and parcel of His 
 Majesty's Province of Quebec. 
 
 Your Memorialist therefore humbly prays that your Lordship would 
 be favorably pleased to take this Memorial into Consideration, and that 
 such free License and Permission may be granted in the Premises, as 
 shall on mature deliberation be found meet. 
 
 And your Memorialist will pray for and in behalf of 
 
 The Inhabitants of Vermont, 
 
 Levi Allen 
 London, May 4, 1789, N 4 Bridge Row, near Ranelagh 
 
 II. Grenville to the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council 
 FOR Trade and Plantations.^" 
 
 The Lords of the Committee for Trade and Plantations; 
 
 My Lords, 
 
 I have the honor of enclosing to your Lordships herewith a Memorial 
 delivered to me this day (addressed to my Predecessor in Office) by Mr. 
 Levi Allen in behalf of the Inhabitants of Vermont, setting forth that he 
 has been appointed under the Great Seal of that State pursuant to an 
 Act of the General Assembly to Negotiate a Commercial and friendly in- 
 tercourse between the said State and His Majesty's Dominions, and 
 proposing certain arrangements in consequence, and I have received His 
 Majesty's Commands, to desire that Your Lordships will take Mr. Allen's 
 proposals into your consideration and acquaint me for His Majesty's in- 
 formation what steps may in Your Lordships' opinion be taken therein. 
 
 29 The census of 1790 gave a total population of 85.425. 
 
 30 Public Record Office. F. O. 4. vol. 7. The date may be presumed to have 
 been June 13. 1789- Grenville succeeded Sydney as home secretary on June 5. 
 
The VcDnoni Separatists and Great Britain 555 
 
 I enclose a Copy of the Minutes of the Legislature of the State of 
 Vermont, and of the Commission before mentioned."^ 
 
 III. Levi Allen to Henry Dundas, Ranelagh, August 9, 1791.22 
 
 Sir; 
 
 Since I left Vermont in Janry 1789 the Principal men of Governor 
 Chittenden and Aliens Party, Instructed me in addition to the business 
 of the Commercial Treaty I was Honor'd with from Vermont, to assure 
 the British Court that Vermont was from local situation as well as from 
 inclination firmly attached to them, and that whenever Vermont should 
 find it necessary to join Britain or join Congress, they would positively 
 join the former. Indeed Vermont at that time viz. the principal men 
 of Chittenden's and Allen's party was clear for joining Great Britain 
 immediately; in order to which my surviving Brother, Ira Allen, and 
 myself waited on Lord Dorchester at Quebec, about two months before 
 my departure for England, and gave a written proposal for that purpose. 
 
 After my arrival in London more than twelve months passed without 
 the least Probability of success ; of which I informed my brother Ira, 
 with much reluctance, after receiving several letters from him full of 
 complaints for my unpardonable neglect in not acquainting him with 
 what was doing, and what probability there was of anything being done 
 at the British Court. ^^ .\ short time after, just as I was preparing to 
 embark for America, Col. Simcoe took me by the hand and brought 
 forward the business of Vermont in a very satisfactory manner, of which 
 I lost no time in acquainting Governor Chitenden and Ira Allen at the 
 same time acquainting them I should set out for Liverpool in a few 
 weeks to charter and load a ship with all possible dispatch for William 
 Henry.^-* and they would not fail to have a proper cargo prepared at 
 William Henry for the English market on the ship's arrival. Many un- 
 avoidable Procrastinations took place in the course of chartering and 
 loading the ship at Liverpool, amongst which the obstructions thrown in 
 my way by the Merchants in this country who supply Canada were not 
 the least, our seamen were impressed^^ and a second crew mostly ran 
 away, the latter was owing to some imprudence of the Captain. The 
 contrary winds Prevented getting out of the harbor for a long time, and 
 to complete the unfortunate scene, was drove by a heavy gale of wind 
 from the Banks of Newfoundland within sight of the Azores or Westerly 
 Islands, neither the captain or mate had ever been up the St. Lawrence, 
 and all appeared much afraid to venture, and as a clause in the Charter 
 Party left it optional with the Captain to stop at Quebec he found it 
 unsafe to proceed to William Henry. The captain being an obstinate 
 timmed man, declared if I insisted on his again attempting the St. 
 
 •'" A marginal note here says that these inclosures were not found. 
 
 32 Can. Arch.. Q. 54: 698, and C. O. 42 : 85 ; summarized in Report for 1890, 
 second part. p. 306. Dundas succeeded Grenville as home secretary on June 8, 
 1791. Grenville on that day becomins foreign secretary. 
 
 33 Grenville meanwhile wrote Dorchester of the importance of having th» 
 friendship of Vermont in the event of alarm from the United States. This 
 friendship had been strengthened, he said, by the encouragement already given. 
 For this reason he had encouraged Levi Allen. Grenville to Dorchester. White- 
 hall, May 6, 1790, Can. Arch., Q. 44 : 87. 
 
 3< At the head of Lake George. 
 
 3'" A general press for the Nootka Sound armament occurred on the night of 
 May 4. 1790. 
 
556 Documents 
 
 Lawrence he positively would go no farther than Quebec, which would 
 by no means answer my purpose, and the wind still continuing unfavorable 
 we stood for Georgia.^'^ After arrival I wrote Governor Chittenden and 
 Ira Allen, the misfortune met with, and that I should pay them a visit as 
 soon as the ship was loaded for England, but having to dispose of and 
 purchase a cargo in a place where I had little acquaintance and less 
 Friends, and none I could depend upon, the Captain proving to be an 
 obstinate ignorant miserly Brute I deemed it improper to intrust him 
 with the cargo, a dispute arising about demurrage which could not be 
 settled with him, and some bills I had been favored with leave to draw 
 in England would shortly become due, and my credit forever ruined as a 
 Merchant, or a man of Honour, if the same were not Punctually Paid; 
 In this disagreeable situation I again wrote Governor Chittenden and 
 my Brother, and returned in the ship, Having previously taken two long 
 tours into the back-woods of Georgia to see Genl Clarke, he being absent 
 the first, for the particulars of which I refer you to Col. Simcoe, who 
 has Clarke's letter.^" 
 
 I shall always be doubly happy to serve this country, for in doing 
 so I shall serve Vermont, whose interests on a proper establishment will 
 be forever mutual, and of course Perminant, the rulers and inhabitants 
 of Canada and Vermont ought to keep up a friendly connection, and I am 
 sorry to have occasion to observe it is not the case at Present, through 
 some little foolish Prejudices that exist between them. Soon after my 
 leaving Vermont my brother Ethan Allen died,^^ and before the end of 
 the year, through some private outrages of Congress and New York, 
 and by means of two hundred and thirty votes of Chittenden's Party not 
 arriving in time, the opposition very unexpectedly to Chittenden's Fn>;;di 
 got Mr. Robinson in Governor, which the other and far the strongest 
 Party, had not the least suspicion of.^'' Chittenden had been Governor, 
 and chosen annually from the commencement of the State to that day. 
 During Robinson's reign overtures were made to federal Congress, to 
 admit Vermont into the federal Union. In October Chittenden was 
 again elected Governor by a large majority of votes. Congress finding 
 their friend Robinson, was out of office, and that Vermont was negotiat- 
 ing as a Sovereign State a commercial treaty, with Great Britain in 
 January 1791 Passed a decree allowing Vermont to join the Union and 
 send three members to Congress, and at the same time giving the same 
 liberty to Kentucky, and probably for similar reasons and immediately 
 after Passed a decree to establish a Customs House on Lake Champlain at 
 45° N. Lat. for the Purpose of making the Vermonters pay the same duty 
 
 36 The difficulties of autumnal navigation into the St. Lawrence are illus- 
 trated, under date of October 16 in the next year, 1791, by the following passage 
 from Mrs. Simcoe's diary : " It will be so late before we come into the River St. 
 Lawrence that the pilots will prob.ibly have quitted the Isle of Bic [their station 
 108 miles below Quebec]. . . . and the master of the Triton cannot carry her up 
 without a pilot. In this case we must return to the Gulph, and the season being 
 too severe to keep in a northern latitude, we must steer for Barbadoes." The 
 Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto, 191 1), p. 46. 
 
 37 An examination of the papers in the Canadian Archives has failed to throw 
 any light on the subject of these "tours". Apparently the letter spoken of has 
 not been preserved. A letter of Levi Allen'to his wife, an e-xtract from which 
 is printed in the Vermont Historical Magazine, I, 573, is dated Savannah, No- 
 vember 29, 1790. 
 
 38 Ethan Allen died February 13, 1789. 
 
 39 Moses Robinson was elected governor October 9, 1789. 
 
TJie Vermont Separatists and Great Britain 557 
 
 on goods through Canada as those that come up the Hudson River ; which 
 customs house soon after built will probably suffer desolution by accidental 
 fire as there are many very careless people in Vermont, who often set the 
 woods on fire to facilitate catching their game.*" Since the passing of the 
 aforesaid decrees in Congress there has been no stated session of the gen- 
 eral assembly of Vermont (nor any special one called that I have any in- 
 formation of) till the meeting of the general assembly which shall be on 
 the second Teusday of October next; before which time I will be there 
 (the King of Terrors only shall prevent) and make no doubt that the 
 Profer of Congress will be rejected by the Legislature of Vermont. 
 Vermont have annually for many years chosen three representatives for 
 Congress, but they never attended. As to the Proclamation given out 
 by Governor Chittenden to the inhabitants of Alburg to convene for 
 the purpose of choosing town office, etc., it is a matter that the law directs 
 on organizing a new town, wdiich is the case with Alburg.''^ As to that 
 part which mentions to choose some proper person to represent them in 
 Congress, I cannot positively see what necessity there was for it, but it 
 may be a form of word used upon those occasions, as all the original 
 parts of Vermont have for some time and do still vote for members of 
 Congress, as before observed. Whatever is done or is doing in Vermont 
 I shall give you the minutest information of, after my arrival there, and 
 if matters work as I firmly believe, and most sincerely wish, for the 
 good of Great Britain, Canada, and Vermont, shall Probably be here 
 agai;i in a very short time and be able to silense the little invectives pri- 
 vately and liberally thrown out against Vermont. 
 
 I will venture to say that the People of Vermont have not the most 
 distant idea of allowing the State of New York to hold the lands lying 
 between Lake Champlain and Lake Ontario, as those lands were included 
 in the grant made to New Hampshire more than a century ago. As 
 there is a considerable party in Vermont who adhere strictly to the 
 Principles and Doctrines of the Church of England, I could Politically 
 as well as religiously wish that they might be encouraged, and if Gov- 
 ernment send out a Bishop to Canada he may have liberty to exer- 
 cise his functions in Vermont,''^ and if he be an unbigotcd .sociable man, 
 he may assist in the cement necessary between Canada and Vermont, and 
 I have reason to believe the latter will appropriate lands for his support, 
 as they have 360 acres in every six miles square in Vermont already 
 granted to the glebe of the Church of England, and the same amount 
 
 «> Act for admission approved February i8. 1791; for three representatives, 
 February 25; for custom-house at Alburgh, act of March 2, 1791. ch. 12. sec. 8. 
 Alburgh lay south of 45°, but was on land claimed under British authority as 
 Caldwell's Manor, and was within the district of the British military posts at 
 Dutchman's Point in North Hero, Vt.. and Pointe au Fer, N. Y. ; but this was 
 not known to Congress when it established the Vermont port of entry there. 
 Letter of Buckeridge. St. John's. May 8, 1791, Can. Arch., Q. 50: 146, and infor- 
 mation from " a member of the Senate " (plainly Rufus King) in Report for 
 1890, first part, p. 171. 
 
 <i For the history of the resulting disturbances, see Vermont Records, IV. 
 454-478- 
 
 *- Dr. Charles Inglis, the first colonial bishop of the Anglican church, was 
 consecrated bishop of Nova Scotia in 1787, with jurisdiction extending over Can- 
 ada. Though the appointment of a bishop of Quebec was under consideration 
 in this year 1791, as the ne.xt document shows, the first bishop of that diocese, 
 Dr. Jacob Mountain, was not consecrated till 1793. 
 
55^ Documents 
 
 granted to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
 Parts." 
 
 This much on the supposition that Vermont has not joined the federal 
 Union, and as to the other supposition, that they have joined, I do not 
 chose to intrude upon your time by writing on so disagreeable and im- 
 probable a subject. 
 
 You shall hear from me the truth the first Opportunity after my ar- 
 rival in Vermont. 
 
 I have the honor to subscribe myself in behalf of Vermont, 
 
 Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, 
 
 Levi Allen 
 
 IV. Extract of Letter from Simcoe to Dundas, London, August 12, 
 
 1791." 
 
 I beg to offer you the Copies of three Letters, the one from the late 
 General of Vermont, Ethan Allen, ■*•'' is now in my possession. In it, 
 Sir, you will find the substance of the Politicks which I have adopted 
 relative to Vermont. When Sir H. Clinton intrusted me with his plan 
 of operations which were prevented by the Death of Major Andre, I 
 was directed to make myself master by every inquiry within my power 
 of the nature of the Ground, and the Inhabitants in the vicinity of the 
 Upper Posts of Hudson's River. From that moment to the present 
 Hour I have been convinced of the importance of Vermont, and the 
 real good intentions of its Leaders to this Country. I think they may 
 be of the utmost utility in the present critical moment. 
 
 Another letter is to me from Elijah Clarke, a General of Georgia, 
 and who can neither write nor read. He took Augusta from us in the 
 last war. The third is from that active adventurer, Bowles. He had 
 served when a boy under my command. I inculcated to him peace, and 
 to settle a Boundary; and a system of colonization which I thought prac- 
 ticable and might eventually be of great utility to this Country. You 
 will perceive, to my surprize, he talks of visiting me in LIpper Canada.*^ 
 
 ■13 The foundation for this statement lies in the fact that, in each of a large 
 number of townships granted in Vermont by Governor Benning Wentworth of 
 New Hampshire, one allotment had been set aside " as a glebe for the Church of 
 England as by law established ", while another had been assigned to the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (and another to the first 
 settled minister personally). But an act of 1787 had authorized the selectmen of 
 each such town, save in the case of the few Episcopal ministers then actually 
 officiating, to use the lands for the town. Subsequent state legislation, of 1794 
 and 1805. and a decision of the United States Supreme Court in 1S15 (Pawlet v. 
 Clark, 9 Cranch 292) diverted the glebes entirely to secular uses; but the Society's 
 lands were secured to it in 1823. against similar legislation, by the decision of 
 the same court in the Society v. New Haven, 8 Wheaton 464. See also [Batchel- 
 der and Bailey]. The Documentary History of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
 in the Diocese of Vermont (New York, 1870), passim. 
 
 4-1 Can. Arch., Q. 278: 2S3. The rest of the letter is irrelevant to the imme- 
 diate subject of the part quoted. It will be found calendared in the Report on 
 the Canadian Archives for 1891, Upper Canada, p. 3. 
 
 ■15 This letter is not found as an enclosure. Neither have the other two docu- 
 ments mentioned below been found. As to Elijah Clarke, see the introduction 
 and note 19, above. The item respecting William Augustus Bowles is a new con- 
 tribution to the life of that picturesque adventurer. 
 
 46 As to William .\ugustus Bowles (1763-1807), see American Historical Re- 
 view, VIII. 70S, 726-734, where are letters from him showing his presence in Lon- 
 don in January. 1791. His presence there in that year is also shown in Authentic 
 
The Vermont Separatists and Great Britain 559 
 
 V. Rev. Samuel Peters to Grenville, Pimlico, November 19, 1791.*' 
 
 PiMLico, Novembr. 19th, 1791. 
 My Lord — 
 
 Last evening I receved a Letter from Levi Allen Esqr. dated at Bos- 
 ton New England the 15th of October 1791, which says, "this day at 12 
 O'clock at Noon I arrived here in a small sloop from Halifax and to 
 morrow morning I shall set off on Horseback to execute the Business I 
 have much at Heart". Mr. Allen adds, "I was charged four Guineas 
 duty at Falmouth ; and twenty eight Guineas for my passage in the 
 Grantham Packet to Halifax which with other Expenses on' the Road 
 from London to Falmouth and from Halifax to Boston, exhausted nearly 
 all my Cash, whereupon I called on Dr. A. A. Peters of this Town,''* 
 and gave him the signal of Lewis Alden and the Dr. Advanced me one 
 hundred Pounds Sterling for Lezvis Alden's Bill on you. HI carry the 
 two points in full Expectation, I shall not mind my Expenses and 
 Labours ". 
 
 By various Letters from the States of America I have Information, 
 that Emigration and discontent still prevail, and my friends wish to 
 know by next January whether I am to go out Bishop of Canada, as 
 February and March are the months for moving their families on the 
 snow and Ice.^" 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I am with honour and esteem, 
 your Lordships 
 
 most obedient and most humble Servt. 
 
 Samuel Peters. 
 Right Honble. Lord Grenville. 
 
 VI. Levi Allen to [Dundas], Vermont, Onion River, November 27, 
 
 1791.5" 
 
 Sir 
 
 As the Courier from Canada from [for?] New York is Put in here 
 in a gale of wind, I take the liberty (tho' out of the channel proposed 
 through Governor Simcoe) to write you as the same will come sooner 
 to hand. 
 
 Memoirs of William Augustus Bowles, Esquire. Ambassador from the United 
 Nations of Creeks and Cherokees to the Court of London (London. 1791). and 
 in the Canadian Archive Report, for 1890, second part. p. 285. Bowles and his 
 party visited Quebec on the way. in July, 1790. See ibid., pp. xlii, 154-156 of 
 first part. 255-256 of second part. 
 
 •"Public Record Office. C. O. 42:88; Can. Arch., Q. 57:176. Dr. Samuel 
 Peters (1735-1826), the celebrated Tory parson and writer of Connecticut history, 
 was now living in London on a government pension of £200 per annum. P. R. 
 O., Treas. 50 : 7. The letter is endorsed as received the same day and transmitted 
 to Dundas in Lord Grenville's note of the same date. 
 
 48 Apparently Dr. Alexander Peters, a physician in Boston at this time. 
 
 <9 Simcoe, in a letter to Dundas. London, June 2, 1791. declaring it indis- 
 pensable that a bishop should be appointed for Upper Canada, states that he has 
 recommended Mr. Peters, late of Connecticut, as a proper person. Can. Arch., 
 Q. 278:228. In 1794 an irregular convention of Vermont Episcopalians elected 
 him bishop of Vermont, and he accepted the election, but was never consecrated. 
 See Doc. Hist, of the Prot. Episc. Ch. in Vt., pp. 25-46. 
 
 50 Can. Arch., Q. 54:721. and P. R. O.. C. O. 42:85. In Can. Arch., Q. 
 57: 194, and P. R.. O., C. O. 42: 88, there is a letter of the same purport to Dr. 
 Peters, signed "Lewis Alden " and dated at Alburgh, on the same day, November 
 27. 
 
5 6o Documents 
 
 I sailed on the Grantham, Capt. Bull the nth of September arrived 
 at Halifax in 27 days, the next mong. took a Passage in a httle fishing 
 sloop for Boston, where I arrived the sixth day, hot a horse and sadle, 
 etc., and in three days rode to Windsor in Vermont where the Legis- 
 lature of Vermont had a few days previously met, and much to my great 
 mortification [found] that there had been an a<ljourned session between 
 Oct. session 1790 and Oct. 1791, also a convention of deputies from each 
 town. Previous to said adjourned session, in which Vermont had fully 
 joined the United States.^^ I remained at the General Assembly to the 
 close thereof, twenty-one days. I think I may affirm without arrogance 
 that if I had got up the River St. Lawrence last year with the well- 
 chosen assortment of goods, Vermont would not have joined Congress, 
 in fact a majority of both Houses now confess they are sorry, and feel 
 themselves much hurt on hearing many advantages that would have ac- 
 crued to Vermont if they had remained Independent, and at the same 
 time on the other hand I made an estimate of the Probable Duties Ver- 
 mont would be obliged to pay annually, which had not been before prop- 
 erly stated. I made no mention of anything, only my own opinion and 
 what I had found would have been done in the course of negotiating 
 the commerce of Vermont. 
 
 The facts are a number wanted to go to Congress, and tho' but four 
 can go, yet 44, at least, expected to be appointed. Ethan Allen being 
 dead, and Ira Allen was silent on account of the land he owned, and 
 Caldwell first claimed,^- that Governor Chittenden thought it unpopular 
 to oppose the current, so that poor Vermont had not a man of any con- 
 siderable consequence to say a word for her real interest. 
 
 I shall in the course of the insuing winter go into the back parts of 
 Georgia, visit General Clark,''^ and communicate every information to 
 Governor Simcoe that may be advisable to him. The puff of wind being 
 abated the courier will not wait, nor give me time to write this out fairly. 
 
 I am Sir, your faithful Humble Servant, 
 
 Levi Allen. 
 
 51 Assembly session of January 10-27, '791 ; convention of January 6-10. 
 
 !■? Caldwell's Manor, a tract near 45° N. lat. and including Alburgh, claimed 
 by Caldwell under grant from the Canadian government, and, in part, by Ira 
 Allen under grant from that of Vermont. 
 
 =3 Elijah Clarke. 
 
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