xt7ftt4fnf1p https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7ftt4fnf1p/data/mets.xml Siebert, Wilbur Henry, 1866-1961. 1919  books b92e277s5682009 English F.J. Heer Printing Co. : Columbus, Ohio Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. American loyalists --Kentucky. Kentucky --History --To 1792. The Tory proprietors of Kentucky lands. text The Tory proprietors of Kentucky lands. 1919 2009 true xt7ftt4fnf1p section xt7ftt4fnf1p 
    
    
    
    
   The Tory Proprietors

of

Kentucky Lands

By

PROFESSOR WILBUR H. SIEBERT

(Ohio State University)

Reprinted from Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXVIII, No. I, January, 1919 Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio The F. j. HUer Printing Co. 1919 
    
   THE TORY PROPRIETORS OF KENTUCKY LANDS.

by wilbur h. siebert. Professor of European History, Ohio State University.

From the days of its earliest settlement down through the1 American Revolution, the Kentucky country was the scene of proprietary projects or hostile activities by Loyalists, several of whom were first connected with Fort Pitt and afterward with the British post at Detroit. It is needless to say that the hostile activities included more or less successful efforts at instigating Indian depredations against the Kentucky pioneers, and contemplated almost from the beginning Tory leadership for tribal contingents of sufficient size and bloodthirstiness to accomplish effectually the single but protracted task of freeing a favorite hunting ground from occupation by alien intruders and settlers, as viewed by the Indians, or of ridding the back country of dangerous rebels, as viewed by the resentless partisans of the crown. Such Tory leadership, we shall see further on, was to be provided, with serious consequences and even graver dangers for the colonists, after the flight of a group of Loyalist conspirators from Fort Pitt to Detroit in the spring of 1778.

The proprietary projects of these Loyalists began in July, 1773, with the survey of four thousand acres of land directly opposite to the Falls of the Ohio by Captain Thomas Bullitt for Dr. John Connolly, a resident near Fort Pitt, who had previously been a surgeon's mate with the British forces, and was now in a fair way to be rewarded for his past     and future   services by this substantial grant. Connolly's object was to found a town at the Falls, and to that^end Captain Bullitt laid out a town plat in August. On the tentFTof the following December, Governor Dunmore of Virginia issued a patent to Connolly for""this land.1

t-^1 Proceedings, American Antiquarian Society, Oct., 1909, 5, 29; R. T. Durrett, Filson Club Publications No. 8: The Centenary of Louisville, (Louisville, Ky., 1893), 23, 24, 26, 27, 131-133.

(3) 
   4 Ohio Arch, and Hist. Society Publications.

In less than two months thereafter Dunmore was employing the recipient of this patent, who was captain commandant of militia on the upper Ohio, to seize Fort Pitt and make it the judicial seat of a new county (West Augusta), in total disregard of Pennsylvania's prior authority in that region. Connolly also carried on aggressions against the neighboring Indians, but did not neglect to join with his colleague, Col. John Campbell, who had also received an extensive grant at the Falls, in adver-tisirig lots for sale in their prospective town in April, 1774. In the following June the deputy superintendent of Indian affairs at Fort Pitt, Capt. Alexander McKee, was recompensed for his services in the French and Indian War by a grant of two thousand acres, which was surveyed for him by James Douglas on the south branch of Elkhorn Creek. It was probably about the same time that Simon Girty, who was associated with these men as interpreter to the Six Nations, secured three tracts of three hundred acres each, all in the Kentucky country.-

Connolly was soon instructed by his patron to promote the royal interests among the tribesmen.   Accordingly, in June, 1775, he met with the Delaware and Mingo chiefs and won them over, if we may credit hk. Narrative.   He also asserts that he entered into a secret compact with a group of his friends, most of whom were militia officers and magistrates of West Augusta County, in support of the king, on condition that he should procure authority to raise men.   It was in this season also that Connolly'5 and Campbell sent a few men to occupy their lands at the Falls I of the Ohio, these persons being instructed by Capt. Bullitt that they were to pay no attention to the title of the Transylvania i Company, which had been secured by unauthorized purchase from the Indians.   This was in keeping with Governor Dun-more's proclamation of the previous March, declaring the Company's purchase to be contrary to the regulations of the king and

aW. H. Siebert, "The Tories of the Upper Ohio" in Biennial Re-'fiort. Archives and History, W. Va., 1911-1014,  (Charleston, W. Va., 1914), 38; Thwaites and Kellogg, eds., Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, (Madison, Wis., 1912) 184; Filson Club Publications No. 8, 28;

"R. T. Durrett, Filson Club Publications No. 12: Bryanfs Station (Louisville, Ky., 1897), 30, n., Ill, n.; Second Report, Bureau of Archies, Ont. (1904) Pt. II, 1282. 
   The Tory Proprietors of Kentucky Lands. 5

therefore illegal.'1 If Connolly could have carried out his project for this settlement, we may be sure that it would have resulted in the establishment of a Tory outpost at the Falls.3

Either before, or perhaps after, the inception of Connolly and Campbell's settlement, Joseph Browster, a Tory of Westmoreland County. Pa., went to Kentucky and, according to his widow's testimony in 1788, purchased a thousand acres of improved land. As he intended to remove to his new estate, he sold his farm in Pennsylvania and, while journeying to the West with his family, was attacked and forced to take refuge at St. Vincent. From this French village, or some other point, Browster attempted to go to Detroit, but was killed en route by his Indian guide. His family remained at St. Vincent for three years, and was then conducted to the British post by savages. In support of her testimony, which was given before the British commissioners for the settlement of Loyalist claims, Mrs. Browster produced a brief letter from Dr. Connolly to the effect that at one time he had suffered imprisonment with Joseph Browster, and that the latter had been murdered by Indians while on his way to Detroit.4

Late in May, 1775, the House of Delegates of the Transylvania Company held its session at Boonesborough. One of the delegates from Harrodsburg was the Rev. John Lythe of the Anglican church, who conducted a religious service on Sunday, the twenty-seventh, under an ancient elm in the hollow where the House had been assembling.   Here, in the presence of Epis-

j copalians and Dissenters alike, the customary prayers for the king and royal family of England were recited for the only

{ time, so far as known, on Kentucky soil. Within the week following the news of the battle of Lexington was brought to Boonesborough and its three sister settlements on the south side of the Kentucky River, evoking at once the undivided sympathy

3 Biennial Report, Archives and History, W. Va., 1911-1914, 38; G. W. Ranck, Filson Club Publications No. 16: Boonesborough (Louisville, Ky., 1901), 180-183; Proceedings, American Antiquarian Society, Oct., 1909, 15.

"""   "  *_ 'Second Report, Bureau of Archives, Ont. (1904), Pt. I, 477. 
   6 Ohio Arch, and Hist. Society Publications.

of the colonists, including their frontier missionary, for the revolutionists/1

When, therefore, one of Dunmore's emissaries, Dr. John F. D. Smyth, rode into Boonesborough on June 8, he found conditions anything but favorable to imparting his true business even to his host, Judge Richard Henderson, the head of the Transylvania Company, but explained that he was gathering material for a book of travels. With more frankness, however, the observant gleaner recorded in his notes that these woodsmen were too proud and insolent "to be styled servants even of His Majesty". During his sojourn of several weeks Smyth visited the Shawnee and other Ohio Indians with the purpose of securing their cooperation with the Loyalists in stamping out rebellion in the Wesf

About the time that Smyth left the Kentucky Valley, Connolly disbanded the garrison under his command, and went to see Dunmore at Norfolk, Va. The latter sent him on to Boston, Mass., to submit his plans to Gen. Gage, for they involved securing the necessary aid of the Canadian and Indian forces that might be supplied by Detroit, as also of the garrison from Kas-kasia on the Illinois, the Ohio tribes, a battalion of Loyalists and some independent companies to be raised by Connolly in western Pennsylvania, and the militia of Augusta County, Va. With these forces at his disposal and a suitable commission, Connolly proposed to destroy Forts Pitt and Fincastle, penetrate Virginia, and form a junction with Dunmore at Alexandria, thereby splitting the colonies in twain and giving the preponderance to the royal cause in the South. After a prolonged stay in Boston, which did not escape the knowledge of Washington's staff in the neighboring town of Cambridge, Connolly returned to Virginia, and received a warrant as lieutenant colonel commandant from Dunmore. Then, in company with Smyth and Allen Cameron, he started, November 13, on his overland journey for Detroit.   Surely, his plans were prospering.7

"Filson Club Publications No. 16, 28, 30, 31. 6 Ibid., 32, 33.

1 Proceedings, American  Antiquarian Society,  Oct.,   1909, 17-19;

^ Biennial Report, Archives and History, W. Va,, 1911-1914, 29, 40.

 
   The Tory Proprietors of Kentucky Lands. 7

Since his departure from Fort Pitt, however, the success which Connolly believed himself to have attained in his conference with the Mingo and Delaware chiefs had been counteracted for a time by the mission in July, 1775, of Dr. Thomas Walker and Capt. James Woods to the Shawnee, Wyandot, Ottawa, Delaware and Mingo towns. At the instance of the West Augusta committee of correspondence, these tribes, together with the Senecas, were invited to meet with the commissioners of Congress at Pittsburgh in the autumn. There a treaty of peace and neutrality was signed between the Western Indians and the new American nation.8 Thus, a considerable part of the forces on which Connolly counted for the execution of his comprehensive plan was eliminated for an indefinite period.

This was despite the efforts of the British commandant at Detroit who, on learning that the council was to be held, hastened to summon the savages from Upper Sandusky and its vicinity in order to urge them not to attend, but join him until the subjugation of the colonists by the king's army and navy when, he added, we shall "have their plantations to ourselves". Not content with this direct appeal to a limited number of tribesmen, the Detroit officer had the chief of the Wyandots dispatch a delegation of his own braves, together with a few Ottawas, to the Shawnee villages of Chief Cornstalk to persuade them that the proposed treaty would not protect them from an early attack by the whites. Cornstalk reported this incident to the commissioners of Congress at Pittsburgh, as well as its sequel, namely, that several of the visiting Indians, accompanied by two young Shawnee guides, proceeded thence to the Kentucky River. It became known later that this spying party included the son of "Capt." Pluggy, the Mohawk leader of a band of miscreants living on the upper Olentangy, and that they fired on three persons near Boonesborough, December 23, 1775."

By this time greater misfortune had overtaken Connolly and his companions: they were now in jail at Frederick Town, having been arrested near Hager's Town more than a month before.

5 Biennial Report, Archives and History, W. Va., 1911-1914, 40. "Thwaites and Kellogg, eds., Revolution on the Upper Ohio (Madison, Wis.), 100, 102, 143; Filson Club Publications No. 16, 45, 46. 
   I

8 Ohio Arch, and Hist. Society Publications.

The local committee of safety had learned from an American officer, just returned from Cambridge, Mass., of the conspirator's recent visit to Boston, and had secured conclusive evidence against the trio through the discovery of a copy of Connolly's "proposals". Thereupon they had reported their capture to Congress, and were ordered to send their prisoners under guard to Philadelphia. To the great chagrin of the committee, however, Smyth escaped on the night before the date set for the departure of the culprits, which was December 29. He carried with him letters from Connolly to his wife and Capt. McKee at Fort Pitt, Capt. Lord at Kaskasia, and Capt. Lernoult at Detroit. The letters to the two latter besought them to "push down the Mississippi and join Lord Dunmore." But on January 12, 1776, Smyth was retaken by a party from Fort Pitt, after he had succeeded in crossing the Allegheny Mountains in the depth of winter. As he still had the letters on his person, he was conducted to Philadelphia, where he shared the imprisonment of his two colleagues.10

The failure of these Tory leaders to reach Detroit did not prevent the authorities there from seeking to undermine the neutrality of the Western tribes.   In May, 1776, information was being circulated as far away as in southeastern, Virginia that the Wyandot, Ottawa, and other Indians had recently been at Detroit, where they had received presents; and the militia officer imparting this news said that they would probably be trouble-j some during the summer.   In fact, their depredations in Ken-] tucky continued throughout the year, becoming so ominous as ) to cause the abandonment of McClelland's Station, the last fort J north of the Kentucky River, at the end of December.11

The petitions which the inhabitants of "Transylvania" presented to the Virginia Convention in May and June, 1776, show that the people wanted steps taken both "to prevent the inroads of Savages" and also to keep their outlying district from becom-

10Proceedings, American Antiquarian Society, Oct., 1909, 19-22; Biennial Report, Archives and History, W. Va., 1911-1914, 40, 41.

u Revolution on the Upper Ohio, 175, n. 0, 177, n. 11, 187, 188; J. G. M. Ramsay, Annals of Tennessee, (Philadelphia, 1853), 148, 149; Filson Club Publications No. 16, 49-52, 54; 
   The Tory Proprietors of Kentucky Lands.

9

ing the refuge of Loyalists.   They could see no hope of protection in a proprietary government that was without an organized militia.   They regarded as illegal the king's proclamation excluding settlers from the region they had entered, and denounced the ministerial policy which would delay the erection of "West Fin-castle" into a new county of Virginia.   The observance of such'j restrictions, the petitioners pointed out, would bring it to pass i that "this immense and fertile country would afford a safe/ asylum to those whose principles are inimical to American lib-] erty."   These arguments produced the desired result, Kentucky County being one of three new divisions created by act of December 7, 1776." 12

Whatever advantages a separate county organization may have secured to the inhabitants of the new district, certain conditions were developing to the northward from which no such device could shield their remote part of the frontier. One of these conditions was the increase in size and daring of the war-bands, as at Boonesborough, April 24, 1777, when "the big fort" was actually attacked for the first time, by a party numbering from fifty to one hundred warriors, and again early in July, when it was besieged for two days and nights by two hundred Indians. Another of the menacing conditions was the fact that Lieut. Governor Henry Hamilton at Detroit received definite permission from Governor-General Haldimand at Quebec in June, 1777, to employ savages against the Americans. A third condition was fully revealed late in September when the Shawnee chief, Cornstalk, told Capt. Matthew Arbuckle at Fort Randolph (Point Pleasant) of the warlike disposition of the Indians, including his own nation, adding that although he was himself opposed to joining the war on the side of the British, he could only "run with the stream". This admission convinced Arbuckle that all of the Shawnees had gone over to the enemy, and he therefore detained Cornstalk and two of his braves as hostages. Shortly after the chief's son had come to visit his father, a member of the garrison, was murdered by lurking Indians, where-

"J. R. Robertson, ed., Filson Club Publications No. 37 (Louisville, Ky    1914), 38, 39; Hening's Statutes, IX, 257; Filson Club Publications No. 16, 43, 54. 
            .i-i-^ijii

10

Ohio Arch, and Hist. Society Publications.

upon the soldiers became infuriated and avenged themselves upon the four Shawnees. Governor Patrick Henry fancied this unjustifiable deed to be "the work of Tories", who had taken this method to embroil the backwoodsmen in strife with the Indians and so keep them from going to the aid of Washington.13

Governor Henry was correct at least in this, that the murder of the hostages would bring on hostilities with their tribe. Indeed, such hostilities had resulted nearly a fortnight before the Governor had expressed his opinion in the surrender of Daniel Boone and his camp of salt-makers at the Lower Blue Licks on February 7 and 8, 1778. But for us the interesting thing about the expedition which gained this success is that it was undertaken on the initiative of the Detroit authorities, who sent two French Canadians to engage four or five score of the Shawnees in an attempt to seize Boonesborough. Several of Boone's contemporaries were so dissatisfied with his action in persuading the other salt-makers to surrender peaceably after his own capture, that they charged him later with being a Loyalist and a traitor. The Shawnees took their captives to Little Chillicothe on the Little Miami, and then part of the tribe started for Detroit, March 10, in company with eleven of the whites, including Boone. At the Northern post the famous Kentuckian was presented with a horse and trappings by Hamilton, while his companions were sold for ranson-money. It was on this horse that Boone escaped from his captors in the following June, bringing intelligence of a new expedition which the Shawnees had in contemplation.14

This proposed foray was to be directed against Boonesborough, in order to avenge the tribe for an unsuccessful attack upon Donnelly's Fort on the Greenbriar River, from which one

"Revolution on the Upper Ohio, 236, 237, n. 80, 242, n. 85, 247; Biennial Report, Archives and History, W. Va., 1911-1914, 41, 42; Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 149, 150, 157-163, 169, 175-177, 205, 207, 208; R. G. Thwaites, Withers's Chronicles of Border Warfare (Cincinnati, 1917), 173, n., 209, 211-214, 236, 266; Filson Club Publications No. 16, 56-61.

" Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 205, 207, 208, 252, n. 7, 283, n. 42; Withers' Chronicles of Border Warfare, 265-267; Filson Club Publications No. 16, 64-69, 104. 105. 
   The Tory Proprietors of Kentucky Lands.

11

of their war parties had returned on June 15. It was not until after Clark's capture of Vincennes, however, that steps were taken to carry out the expedition. But again, as in the previous February, the movement was organized by French Canadians under orders from Detroit. These Canadians, who belonged to Lhe Detroit militia, were led by Lieut. Antoine De Quincire, and assisted Chief Black Fish in assembling a force of almost four hundred and fifty Indians, mostly Shawnees, whom they supplied with a stock of ammunition and the English and French flags that were intended so to impress the inhabitants of Boonesborough that they would capitulate at once. On arriving at the fort, September 7, 1778, a messenger was sent forward to announce that Governor Hamilton had entrusted letters to his representatives with the Indian army for Capt. Boone, and to ask a parley for the consideration of their contents. This was granted and on the following evening, after Boone had told Black Fish that the garrison would defend themselves to the last man, De Quindre reopened negotiations and succeeded in getting the principal men of the fort to sign a treaty on the tenth, renouncing allegiance to the United States and renewing their fealty to the king, on condition (hat the Indians would withdraw at once. This was evidently all in accordance with the plan of Hamilton, who believed from what Boone had told him at Detroit that the Kentucky settlers were already in a starving and nearly naked condition, and were withot the prospect of relief from Congress. "Their dilemma", he wrote to Sir Guy Carleton, April 25, 1778, "will probably induce them to trust to the savages, who have shown so much humanity to their prisoners, and come to this place before winter." But the Lieut. Governor's plan to convert the garrison into Loyalists, and thus open the way for their reception at Detroit was, according to the evidence, doomed to failure from the start. The fort had but two score effective defenders, and Boone had used stratagem in the hope of ridding the place of a foe eleven times as numerous. After the signing of the treaty, however, the redmen tried to detain the whites during the ceremony of handshaking; but the latter tore themselves away and ran back into their stronghold, which was then assailed repeatedly, though unsuccessfully.   As a final means of 
   12

Ohio Arch, and Hist. Society Publications.

capturing the place, the Indians dug a tunnel from the bank of the Kentucky River to a distance of about forty yards, or two-thirds of the way from the stream. But their scheme was frustrated by successive rainstorms, which caused sections of the mine to cave in. Altogether the garrison had withstood investment for nine days and nights, when the Indian army broke into detachments for the purpose of pillaging and ravaging about other stations.15

Shortly after this siege Boone was tried by court martial at Logan's Station on the charge of making treasonable attempts to aid the British in favoring the peace treaty at Boonesborough, in surrendering the salt-makers on the Lower Blue Licks, and on still another count. His immediate accuser was Col. Richard Callaway; but he cleared himself by explaining that these acts were deceptions and stratagems dictated by military necessity, and practiced for the advantage of the settlers. That his conduct was not deemed reprehensible by his superior officers is shown by his promotion a little later to the rank of major.1"

If the year 1778 was marked by Lieut. Governor Hamilton's policy of detailing French-Canadians to organize and accompany Indian expeditions against Kentucky, the next two years were characterized by an astonishing increase in the population of that country and the employment of border Loyalists, who held large landed interests south of the Ohio, to lead the war bands thither. This change in leadership was made possible by the flight of Capt. Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott, Simon Girty, and several others from Fort Pitt on the night of March 28, 1778, the fugitives arriving at Detroit about two months later. Becoming deeply involved in a Tory plot at the former post, their machinations had been discovered and suppressed in the previous summer. At Detroit, Girty was appointed interpreter in the secret service, Elliott, captain in the Indian department, and McKee, deputy agent for Indian affairs. In the following August, they were joined by James Girty, who came in

"Filson Club Publications No. 16, (58-104; Withers's Chronicles of Bolder Warfare, 2G8-270; Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 283, 284; Filson Club Publications No. 27, 44, 45.

"Filson Club Publications No. 16, 104, 105. 
   The Tory Proprietors of Kentucky Lands.

13

from the Shawnee village of Old Chillicothe, and was made interpreter to the Shawnees. Nine months later George Girty appeared, bringing a party of deserters from Kaskasia, and was likewise appointed an interpreter.17 For the next seventeen months these Loyalists were permitted to direct their poorly aided efforts to restoring the king's authority in the Pittsburgh region. Then, having failed in that quarter, they turned their ' attention to the Kentucky domain, which was now beginning to attract thousands of immigrants from the older settlements, including those of the upper Ohio.

Contemporary mention of this westward migration throws considerable light on its magnitude and character.]CEarly in Au^j gust, 1779, Col. Daniel Brodhead wrote from Fort Pitt that the I inhabitants were so intent on removing to Kentucky that there would be few volunteers. In March, 1780, Col. Richard Campbell of the Ninth Virginia Regiment recommended to Washington the removal of his men from Pittsburgh, because they were constantly deserting to share in the settlement of the Kentucky lands. In the following May, Brodhead informed the Rev. John Heckewelder that by fall "the settlements of Kentucky" would be able to turn out fifteen thousand men, and that the villainous Shawnees and their allies would soon find troublesome neighbors j in that quarter."/ Despite this exodus, Col. Brodhead was convinced by disclosures of new Tory activities in his neighborhood that there was still "a great number of disaffected inhabitants on this side, of the mountain who wish for nothing more than a fair opportunity to submit to the British government." Still, one must believe that not a few of these Loyalists, who were unable to keep their plans hidden, took advantage of the westward migration to go to Kentucky. That such was the case is indicated by a visitor to that region, who wrote to Col. George Morgan late in 1780: "Should the English go there and offer them protection from the Indians, the greatest part will join".18

"Biennial Report, Archives and History, W. Va., 1911-1914, 42-45, 47; Kellogg, ed., Frontier Retreat on the Upper Ohio, (Madison, Wis., 1917), 299, n. 1.

18 Frontier Retreat on the Upper Ohio, 21, 22, 41, 149, 163, 164, 168, 176, 277. 
   14 Ohio Arch, and Hist. Society Publications.

It was early in this period of movement to the new country, namely, in the latter part of May, 1779, that John Bowman, lieutenant of Kentucky County, undertook an offensive at the head of more than two hundred and fifty volunteers against the Shawnee town of Little Chillicothe on the Little Miami. After beginning the attack the whites, who were partly from Bowman's district and partly from the upper valleys, were thrown into general disorder by the false report that Simon Girty and one hundred Shawnees were hastening from Piqua to the relief of the place. However, they soon recovered themselves, defeated the enemy which numbered less than half their own strngth, burned most of the village and crops, and carried off a great quantity of plunder.1"

The first expedition actually conducted by the Girtys against Kentucky, so far as recorded, took place in the following autumn, when James and George advanced with about one hundred and seventy Wyandot warriors from LTpper Sandusky down the valley of the Little Miami to the spot where Cincinnati now stands. Here, on^October 4, they discovered Col. David Rogers' flotilla of five boats ascending the Ohio with a large store of goods and ammunition from St. Louis. Some fifty of Rogers' men landed at once to attack the foe, but were quickly driven back to their barges, most of which the Indians succeeded in boarding. Only one, which was defended by thirteen soldiers, managed to escape. About forty of the wdiites were killed, while a rich supply of booty and a few prisoners fell into the hands of the victors.20 Thenceforth, the savages became very troublesome and small skirmishes became so common, according to Col. George Rogers Clark, as to receive little notice.

Tory leadership had proved so successful in this first instance in Kentucky annals, that it is not surprising to find it being again employed in the following summer. Lieut. Governor Hamilton had surrendered to Clark at Vincennes, February 25, 1780, and been taken to Virginia as a prisoner. Hence, Major A. S. De Peyster had been transferred from the British

,B Withers' Chronicles of Border Warfare, 271-273. "C. W. Butlerfield, History of the Girtys (Cincinnati, 1893), 113; Frontier Retreat on the Upper Ohio, 17, 79-94, 105, 123. 
   The Tory Proprietors of Kentucky Lands.

15

post at Michilimacinac to Detroit. He was eager to regain what his predecessor had lost, and to that end dispatched a body of troops and Indians to the Illinois, while seeking to engage the attention of Clark and the Kentuckians by an expedition to the Falls of the Ohio (Louisville). He placed Capt. Henry Bird, a Virginia Loyalist, in command of the latter enterprise, with the three Girtys as aides. On leaving Detroit, Capt. Bird's force consisted of one hundred and fifty Canadians and Loyalists and one hundred tribesmen from the Upper Lakes, carrying two field-pieces; but they were joined on the Miami by Capt. McKee and six hundred Indians. When the savages learned on the march that Clark was in command at the Falls, they refused to try a battle with him, and insisted on being led against the forts up the Licking. Although mutinous, they were wise, for the sound of their cannon was alone sufficient to secure the immediate surrender of Ruddle's Station, with its three hundred inmates, on June 22. After killing all the cattle at this place, the Indians and their allies marched five miles farther to Martin's Station where, with equal ease, they gained fifty more prisoners. A famine now ensued and terminated an invasion that might, except for the self-imposed loss of the animals at Ruddle's, have uprooted the Kentucky settlements. As it was, Bird and his white contingent, together with Capt. Isaac Ruddle's company as prisoners, were constrained to return to their boats; by means of which they descended the Licking to the Ohio, and thence passed up the Great Miami on their way to Detroit. Here Ruddle and his men remained in captivity until November 3, 1782. The Indians, with their share of the prisoners, crossed the Ohio River, and proceeded in small parties to their several villages.21

The readiness with which the occupants of the two stations on the Licking surrendered is explicable by reason of the superior strength of the attacking force, supported, as it was, by the two cannon which Capt. Bird had brought from Detroit; but there were those of the time who attributed the double disaster to

21 Frontier Retreat on the Upper Ohio* 192; Withers' Chronicles of Border Warfare, 254, n. 285, 286, 294-299; Filson Club Publications No. 16, 118, 119; ibid. iVo. 27, 168. 
   ,      -, -------   ......?    -   -nuiir t",t~iinrtPwnrtfnBIrtmHi'!   nnmifim     .....

16 Ohio Arch, and Hist. Society Publications.

widespread disaffection among the settlers, many of whom refused to volunteer for offensive operations, choosing rather to remove "into the interior" than take part in the common defense against the-Loyalists and Indians.22

Meantime, in May, 1779, the General Assembly of Virginia

( passed an act concerning escheats and forfeitures, by which the already sequestered estates of Britons and Loyalists were to be condemned by escheators and sold. A year later it was rep-! resented to the Assembly that there were crtain lands within the county of Kentucky, "formerly belonging to British subjects, not yet sold under the Law of Escheats and Forfeitures, which might at a future day be a valuable fund for the maintenance and education of youth." In accordance with this suggestion, therefore, the Assembly now enacted a law vesting eight thousand acres of these forfeited lands in a board of thirteen trustees "as a free donation from the Commonwealth for the purpose of a public school or Seminary of Learning," to be erected in Kentucky County "as soon as the circumstances of the county and the state of the funds" would admit. This grant comprised, as it happened, the two thousand acres of Alexander McKee on the south branch of Elkhorn Creek in thelnewly created county of Fayette, besides two other surveys of three thousand acres each, one near Lexington formerly belonging to Henry Collins, and the other, called the Military Survey, at the mouth of Har-

^ rod's Creek in Jefferson County, lately the property of Robert McKenzie.23

Thus far Dr. John Connolly's survey of two thousand acres opposite to the Falls of the Ohio had escaped forfeitur