Cresap had surveyed forty tracts of land, which were owned by Germans. This state of affairs became so critical that Provincial Council concluded to have Cresap arrested for the murder of Knowles Daunt.
On November 23, 1736, a warrant was placed in the hands of Sheriff Samuel Smith, who lived at Donegal. He called upon John Kelley, Benjamin Sterratt, Arthur Buchanan, Samuel Scott, David Priest, John Sterratt, John Galbraith, James, John and Alexander Mitchell, James Allison and nineteen others to assist him.
On the night of November 24, 1736, they surrounded Cresap’s house, in which he had a number of armed men, who fired upon Sheriff Smith and his party. Laughlin Malone, of Cresap’s party, was killed, and John Copper, of the Sheriff’s party, was wounded.
Finding that Cresap would not surrender, the Sheriff set his house on fire, when Cresap attempted to escape, but was overpowered and carried in triumph to Philadelphia and placed in prison.
Colonel Hall and Captain Higgenbotham came to Cresap’s fort with 300 men, and at different times marched through the valley in martial array. In January, 1737, a company attacked these Marylanders in Cresap’s fort, but were repulsed with the loss of eight men.
The Governor of Maryland offered £100 reward for the arrest of John Wright, Samuel Blunston, Sheriff Samuel Smith, John Ross, Michael Tanner, Joshua Minshal and Charles Jones. The last three persons were arrested and taken to Annapolis jail.
The Marylanders were finally driven back to their State, and all efforts to colonize that part of Pennsylvania with Marylanders was abandoned in 1738, and the Cresap invasions into Pennsylvania ceased.
Moravians Slaughtered in Indian Village of
Gnadenhutten, November 24, 1755
