 History of Bradford
Township
Transcribed and Contributed by Nancy
Piper
Gazetteer of Orange County, Vt.,
1762-1888 Compiled and Published by Hamilton Child The Syracuse Journal Company,
Printers and Binders, Syracuse NY June, 1888 , Page
167-170
To detail the circumstances,
etc., which led to the granting of the charter under which the titles to
the land now comprising the township of Bradford are held, one must go back
to the very beginning of settlements in this section.
The first settler within the limits of the
present town was one John Osmer, or Hosmer. He located upon the north
side of Wait’s river at its confluence with the Connecticut, in 1765.
During the succeeding five years he was followed by others, so that in 1770
the land-holders amounted to thirty. The locality took to itself the name
of “Wait’s River Town” or “Waitstown.” These settlers
had the character of squatters or adventurers, as they had no valid or legal
title to the land, simply holding it by a system of “pitches” among
themselves. By this time, however (1770), it was deemed expedient by them
to seek for some legal title to their lands, and to have the section between
Newbury and Fairlee constituted a township.
For this purpose they jointly commissioned
Samuel Sleeper, one of their number, to go to New York, and agree,
if practicable, with one William Smith, an influential man of that
city, to obtain for them a royal charter, with a distinct understanding between
them and him, that on his procuring the desired charter, he should give them
a good title to the lands they had begun to cultivate, one hundred acres
to each, and that he and such proprietors as he should engage with him, should
hold as their own all the rest of the township.
That this was accordingly done is manifest
from the following extract from the original charter of Moore Town, granting
to the persons therein named thirty thousand acres on the west bank of the
Connecticut, as therein set forth, viz.:
“Charter of Moore Town, subsequently
called Bradford, by King George the Third, May 3d, 1770. “George the
Third, by the grace of God, of Great Britian, France and Ireland, King, defender
of the faith, and so forth: To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting,
WHEREAS our loving subject, William Smith of our city of New York,
Esquire, by his humble petition in behalf of his associates presented unto
our trusty and well beloved Cadwallader Colden, Esquire, our Lieutenant Governor
and Commander in Chief of our Province of New York and the territories depending
thereon in America, and read in our council for our said province, on the
twenty-eighth day of March now last past, did set forth that on the Seventh
day of November which was in the year of our Lord One Thousand seven hundred
and sixty-six, a petition was preferred to our late trusty and well beloved
Sir Henry Moore, Baronet, then our Captain General and Governor in Chief
of our said Province, in the name of John French and his associates,
praying a grant of certain lands on the west side of Connecticut river. That
our said late Captain General and Governor in Chief was advised by our Council
to Grant the prayer of the said petition, and that a Warrant issued the same
day to the Surveyor General of a survey thereof – That the said John
French is since deceased, and that the petitioner and his associates
are the persons intended to be chiefly benefitted by that application –
That the tract which they desire to take up contains as it is supposed, about
Thirty Thousand Acres, to the southward of a tract of land commonly called
or known by the name of Newberry, and adjoining the same, and was granted
under the province of New Hampshire – That there are divers persons
settled within the limits of the said tract of land, amounting in all to
Thirty families, to whom the petitioner and his associates intend to convey,
after a Patent is issued, Three Thousand Acres, to wit, to the head of each
family One Hundred Acres, in such manner as to secure to them the parts they
have respectively cultivated – and therefore the petitioner did humbly
pay that the lands aforesaid might be granted to him and his associates as
tenants in common in fee, agreeable to the directions and upon the terms
of our Royal Instructions. Which petition having been referred to a Committee
of our Council for our said province, our said Council did afterwards on
the same Twenty-eighth day of March, in pursuance of the report of the said
Committee humbly advise and consent that our said Lieutenant Governor and
Commander in Chief as aforesaid, should, by our Letters Patent, grant to
the said William Smith and his associates and their heirs, the land described
in said petition according to the prayer thereof, under the quit rent provisos,
limitations and restrictions, presented by our Royal Instructions, and that
the said lands should by the said Letters of Patent be erected into a township,
by the name of Moore Town, with the privileges usually granted to other Townships
within our said Province. In pursuance thereof and in obedience to our said
Royal Instructions, our Commissioners appointed for setting out all lands
to be grated within our said Province have set out for the said petitioner
William Smith, and for his associates, to wit: - James Robertson,
Richard Maitland, William Sherreff, Golsbrow Banyar, Andrew Anderson, Jonathan
Mallet, Peter Van Brugh Livingston, Charles McEvers, Hugh Gaine, Francis
Stevens, William Bruce, Thomas William Moore, Samuel Ver Planck, Richard
Yates, Abraham Mortier, Abraham Lynsen, Abraham Lott, Hamilton Young, Garret
Noel, Ebenezer Hazzard, John Alsop, Thomas James, Thomas Smith and Samuel
Smith, All that certain tract or parcel of land lying and being on the
west side of Connecticut River in the County of Gloucester, within our province
of New York, Beginning on the west bank of said river at a white pine tree
blazed and marked for the Northeast corner of a tract of land known by the
name of Fairlee, and run thence north, sixty-one degrees west, five hundred
and ninety chains, then north thirty-two degrees east, five hundred and twenty
chains; then south fifty-nine degrees east, five hundred chains, to the said
river, then down said river, as it winds and turns to the place where this
tract began; containing Twenty-five Thousand Acres of land and the usual
allowance for highways. And in setting out the said for the profitable and
unprofitable acres, and have taken care that the length thereof doth not
extend along the banks of any river otherwise than is conformable to our
said Royal Instructions, as by a Certificate thereof under their hands, bearing
date the Seventh day of April now last past, and entered on roeord in our
Secretary’s Office for our said province may more fully appear; which
said tract of land, set out aforesaid according to our said Royal Instructions,
we being willing to grant to the said petitioner and his associates, their
heirs and assigns forever, with the several privileges and powers hereinafter
mentioned.”
By a deed from the before named William
Smith, to Samuel Sleeper, dated August 14, 1770, and recorded
in the office of the clerk of Gloucester county, subsequently Orange, December
31, 1770, it appears that the twenty-four grantees who were associated with
the said William Smith, whose names are given in the above extract
from the royal grant or charter, did , on the 30th and 31st days of May in
that year, by a certain “Indenture of Lease and Release,” convey
and confirm to him, the said Smith, all their rights and titles to the lands,
and everything pertaining thereto in the said Moore Town, - and that, in
accordance with a request from, and agreement with, the settlers on the said
tract, made in writing, before the royal charter was obtained, and with a
view to secure to them their respective rights, the said Smith did, August
14, 1770, by an “Indenture of Lease and Release,” convey and confirm
to Samuel Sleeper all his right and title to certain tracts or sections of
land which are particularly described, lying along on the Connecticut river,
eight in number, not adjoining each other, but in alternate sections, and
reaching back from said river about one mile and a half, on an average, the
same to contain in the whole three thousand acres, more or
less.
In the unsettled state of land titles New
Hampshire made some grants here, and much contention among the settlers,
lasting through a series of years, was the result. Taken to the legislature,
that body appointed Israel Smith, Esq., of Thetford, Alexander
Harvey, Esq., of Barnet, and James Whitelaw, Esq., of Ryegate,
January 25, 1791, a committee to regulate the difficulty and deed the lands
to the settlers. This committee, having failed to settle all matters of
difficulty among the inhabitants, especially among those on the Hazen tract,
further legislation was demanded, and an act, entitled, “An act for
the purpose of quieting the settlers on a certain tract of land in the western
part of Bradford,” was passed by the General Assembly at Rutland,
November 6, 1792. In accordance with this legislative enactment the settlers
who before had no legal claims to the lands they occupied, were quieted,
and valid titles to lots unoccupied were given to those who were wishing
to possess them, and the general settlement of the township was accomplished.
The original name of the town was, beyond
doubt, given it in honor of Sir Henry Moore, Baronet, from 1765 to 1769,
captain-general and governor-in-chief in and over the province of New York.
But in accordance with the request of its inhabitants to the General Assembly
of Vermont, it was changed, October 23, 1788 as follows: --
“It is hereby enacted by the General
Assembly of the State of Vermont, that the name of the Township of Moretown,
in the County of Orange, be forever hereafter known by the name of Bradford:
-- And that it is hereby provided that whenever an advertisement respecting
said township shall be published within three years from the passing of this
act, it shall be called Bradford, heretofore known by the name of Moretown,
in Orange county.”
This town was for a while called Salem,
as appears from a deed given, and a road survey made and recorded, in 1786.
The first name of all, however was Waits River Town, or Waitstown, at which
place a petition signed by Samuel Hale, John Peters, and others, May
21, 1770, was dated.
The town was organized May 4, 1773. The
first town meeting of which any record has been preserved, was held at the
house of Samuel McDuffee, at which the following list of officers
was elected:
-
John Peters, moderator;
-
Stephen McConnell, clerk;
-
Benjamin Jenkins, treasurer;
-
Jesse McFarland, Lieut. Jacob
Fowler, and Hezekiah Silloway, surveyors of highways;
-
Hezekiah Silloway, constable;
-
Amos Davis, collector;
-
Samuel Gault and Amos Davis,
tithing men.
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