THE RECORDS OF DEEDS FOR THE DISTRICT OF WEST AUGUSTA, VIRGINIA, FOR THE COURT HELD AT FORT DUNMORE (PITTSBURGH), 1775 - 1776: COPIED AS RECORDED Edited by Boyd Crumrine, of Washington, Pa. Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 1905 V. THE RECORDS OF DEEDS FOR THE DISTRICT OF WEST AUGUSTA, VIRGINIA, FOR THE COURT HELD AT FORT DUNMORE (PITTSBURGH, PA.), I775-I776; COPIED CONSECUTIVELY AS RECORDED. EDITED BY BOYD CRUMRINE, OF WASHINGTON, PA. INTRODUCTION. The following pages present a literal transcript of the original manuscript volume, in paste-board covers, in which were recorded by John Madison, the Clerk of the Court held for the District of West Augusta at Fort Dunmore, in 1775 and 1776, the contracts, deeds, and mortgages, proved, or acknowledged, before said Court and ordered to be recorded. The record of the first deed recorded was "examined" and the deed delivered to Bernard Gratz, the grantee thereof, on May 28, I 775. Towards the end of the book, however, are found copied a number of instruments relating to real estate, the records of which are not shown to have been "examined" and attested by the Clerk. Why this was is not known. No similar book, containing the records of deeds, etc., proved or acknowledged before the Court for Yohogania County, has been found. When that Court was organized and held its first day's session, to wit, on December 23, I776, Virginia as well as Pennsylvania had become an independent State in the newly-formed United States of America; and one of the matters of business done on that day was to choose and appoint unanimously Dorsey Pentecost as the Clerk of Court, and to demand "the Records and Papers from John Madison, Junior, Deputy Clerk of East Augusta, in whose custody they are, which he peremptorily refused, notwithstanding he confessed he had seen an act of assembly directing him so to do," and to order " that a Process be issued to apprehend the said John Madison, and forthwith bring him before the Court to answer the above misdemeanor" (See Vol. II. of these ANNALS, pp. 79, 8i). 237 238 ANNALS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM. This John Madison, Jr., was the son and deputy of John Madison, who had been appointed Clerk of the County Court of Augusta County when that court was first organized at Staunton, Va., to wit, on De- cember 9, I745, (Peyton's History of Augusta County, p. 32), and he had been sworn in as Deputy Clerk at the last term of the Court held at Fort Dunmore, to wit, on August 20, 1776, the next session being held at Augusta Town (now Washington, Pa.), on September 17, I776, (Vol. I. of these ANNALS, p. 565). John Madison, the Clerk, was a cousin of the father of James Madison, who became President of the United States, and was the father of Rev. James Madison, long the distinguished head of William and Mary College, and the first Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Virginia. (Peyton's History of Augusta County, p. 345). INDIAN TITLES. To make the transcripts of the conveyances by George Croghan and others contained in the records following more intelligible, as well as to throw light upon entries made of transactions before the Court for the District of West Augusta, copies are presented of two old In- dian conveyances made at the great Treaty with the Six Nations held at Fort Stanwix, now Rome, Oneida County, New York. The French and Indian War had terminated in 1763, resulting in the ending of the French Occupation of the Monongahela and Ohio Valleys. The same year had occurred and ended Pontiac's Conspir- acy, and a general peace with the Indians followed until Dunmore's War in 1774, the pioneers being disturbed only by sporadic Indian raids and depredations. The Indians, however, still claimed the lands upon the waters of the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio Rivers as their own. These Indians, called by the French the Iro- quois, formed a confederacy, named by the English "the Six Nations, " composed of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Senecas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras, and had their Council House, or seat of government, in the valleys of western New York. It was chiefly to establish certain boundaries limiting their exclusive rights on the East, that the Treaty at Fort Stanwix had been brought about. The congress was opened on October 24, 1768. There were pres- ent Sir William Johnson, Baronet, his Majesty's Superintendent of Indian Affairs; William Franklin, Esq., Governor of New Jersey; Frederick Smith, Chief Justice of New Jersey; Thomas Walker, RECORDS OF DEEDS FOR WEST AUGUSTA, VIRGINIA. 239 Esq., Commissioner for' the Colony of Virginia; Richard Peters and James Tilghman, Esqrs., for the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania; George Croghan, Daniel Claus, and Guy Johnson, Esqrs., Deputy In- dian Agents, as well as many others of the whites, attracted by inter- est or curiosity; and on November 5, 1768, after full conference and extended discussion, at least three grants by the Six Nations already executed were delivered; one to Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, the proprietaries of Pennsylvania; one to William Trent, in trust for the Indian Traders whose goods had been carried off by the Indians from Logstown (below Pittsburgh) in I763, and one to George Croghan, for himself absolutely. By the cession to the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, the Six Nations granted a large tract of country lying within the general boundary of Pennsylvania and' contained within the following limits, to wit: "Beginning in the said Boundary Line, on the East side of the East Branch of the River Susquehanna, at a place called Owegy, and running with the said Boundary Line down the said Branch on the East side thereof, till it comes opposite the mouth of a Creek called by the Indians Awandae, and across the River and up the said Creek on the South side thereof, and along the Range of Hills called Burnett's Hills by the English, and by the Indians , on the north side of them, to the head of a Creek which runs into the West Branch of Susquehanna, which Creek is by the Indians called Tiad- aghton, and down the said Creek on the south side thereof, to the said West Branch of Susquehanna; then, crossing the said River and run- ning up the same on the south side thereof, the several Courses thereof, to the Fork of, the same River, which lies nearest to a place on the River Ohio [Allegheny] called Kittanning, and from the said Fork, by a strait line to Kittanning aforesaid, and then down the said River Ohio [Allegheny], by the several Courses thereof, to where the western Bounds of the said Province of Pennsylvania crosses the same River; and then, with the said Western Bounds to the South Bound- ary thereof; and with the south Boundary aforesaid, to the East side of the Allegheny Hills, and with the same Hills, on the East side of them, to the West Line of a Tract of Land purchased by the said Proprietaries from the Six Nation Indians, and confirmed by their Deed bearing date the twenty-third Day of October, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight; and then with the Northern Bounds of that Tract to the River Susquehanna, and crossing the River Susque- 240 ANNALS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM. hanna, to the Northern Boundary line of another TIract of Iand pur- chased from the Indians by Deed bearing Date the twenty-second Day of August, one thousand seven hundred and forty-nine; and then, with that Northern Boundary Line to the River Delaware, at the North Side of the mouth of a Creek called Lechawacsein; then up the said River Delaware, on the West Side thereof, to the Intersection of it by an East Line, to be drawn from Owegy aforesaid, to the said River Delaware; and then, with that East Line to the Beginning, at Owegy aforesaid." The grant from which this quotation is made seems to have been dated November 5, 1768: See I Olden Time, p. 401; also, IX Col. Records, p. 554. But two other grants had already been executed, the first being that to William Trent, in trust for the Indian traders, dated November 3, 1768, here given in full, our copy having been made from the dupicate original parchment deed now or lately hang- ing in the State House at Philadelphia. THE SIX NATIONS TO WILLIAM TRENT, IN TRUST. TO ALL PEOPLE To whom these Presents shall come, Greeting: Know ye That We, Abraham, a Mohawk Chief; Sennghois, a Oneida Chief; Saguarisera, a Tuscarora Chief; Chenaugheata, Chief of the Onondaga Council; Tagaaia a Cayuga Chief, & Gaustarax a Seneca Chief; Chiefs and Sachems of the Six United Nations, and being and effectually representing all the Tribes of the Six United Nations, send Greeting: WHEREAS, Robert Callender, David Franks, Joseph Simon, Levy Andrew Levy, Philip Boyle, John Baynton, Samuel Wharton, George Morgan, Joseph Spear, Thomas Smallman, Samuel Wharton, Admin- istrator of John Welch, deceased, Edmund Moran, Evan Shelby, Samuel Postlethwait, John Gibson, Richard Winston, Dennis Crohon, William Thompson, Abraham Mitchel, James Dundas, Thomas Dun- das, and John Ormsby, in and by their several and respective letters or Powers of Attorney duly signed, sealed, and delivered by them and now produced, interpreted and explained to us, have constituted, nominated and appointed William Trent, of the County of Cumber- land and Province of Pennsylvania, Merchant, their lawful Attorney and Agent to ask, Sollicit, demand and receive from the Sachems, Councellors, and Warriors of the said Six United Nations, a Grant of a Tract of Land as a Compensation, Satisfaction, or Retribution for RECORDS OF DEEDS FOR WEST AUGUSTA, VIRGINIA.