Daily stories of Pennsylvania

by Frederic Antes Godcharles

The Council of Safety of Connecticut learned of the determination to send a large armed force against their settlement at Wyoming, and Governor Trumbull wrote to the President of Congress, November 11, 1775, complaining of this invasion.

Congress adopted a resolution requesting both States to prevent hostilities. But the Assembly did not welcome this interference, especially as they had received a letter from Colonel Samuel Hunter, lieutenant for Northumberland County, dated Sunbury, November 20, 1775, acquainting the House that two of the Magistrates and Sheriff William Cooke had an interview with Colonel Zebulon Butler and some of the principal men among the Connecticut settlers at Wyoming. They read the late Resolves of the Pennsylvania Assembly to them, and inquired whether they would peaceably submit themselves to the laws of Pennsylvania. They answered that they despised the laws of that Province and never would submit unless compelled by force.

Two days later, November 25, Governor John Penn wrote to Judge Plunket and his associate Justices as follows:

“I have just now received a message from the Assembly, founded on a letter addressed to them from the county of Northumberland, respecting the Connecticut settlers at Wyoming, requesting me to give orders for a due execution of the laws of this Province in the counties of Northumberland and Northampton. In consequence thereof, I do most cheerfully order you to use your utmost diligence and activity in putting the laws of this Province in execution throughout the County of Northumberland; and you may depend on the faith of the House, and my concurrence with them, that every proper and necessary expense that may be incurred on the occasion will be defrayed.”

After the failure of the expedition to Squire Vincent’s the New Englanders in Wyoming managed, by the aid of spies, and in other ways, to keep themselves informed as to the movements of the Pennamites.

There are letters extant which reveal the activities in and about Sunbury which were written there and sent to Colonel Butler and others in authority at Wyoming. One such letter advised Colonel Butler that the Pennamites were surely going to march against Wyoming, and would not be stopped even by Congress.

It was the purpose of Colonel Plunket to recruit all the troops which could be raised along the West Branch settlements at Fort Augusta, and then form a junction with the troops which were to be raised in Northampton County, at Fishing Creek, about a mile and a half above the present borough of Bloomsburg.

The Connecticut delegates in Congress presented a memorial in that body on December 18, 1775, in which they complained bitterly of the threatened invasion, and advised Congress that the troops had begun to march December 11. This was accompanied by depositions from inhabitants, tending to strengthen their statements about the number of the invading forces and their intentions.

During the continuance of the first Pennamite War from 1769 to 1771, every expedition against Wyoming was of a civil character. There were no direct military maneuvers. The Sheriff of Northampton County, of which county Wyoming was then a part, was the chief officer on duty, merely supported by the military commanders, with their several companies; the burnished musket, the glittering bayonet, the four-pounder, the whole martial array being simply an appurtenant to a peace officer while he should serve a civil process.

The same policy was again pursued. Colonel Plunket and his large force and fine equipment, were the mere accompaniments of the Sheriff, whose business to Wyoming was to arrest two or three individuals on civil writs.