the more especially as they will exhibit the general organization of towns in Connecticut, the number and kind of officers chosen, and show the pure Democracy that prevailed in their system of Government. At that time the Assembly met twice a year. Delegates held their commissions only six months, so cautious were the people of intrusting power. Each town elected one or two members, according to their population.

Before we proceed to copy the votes, it may be proper to say-that every town in the colony kept, and we presume still keeps, a regular record of its elections, orders, votes, etc. While most of the valuable papers in the settlement were destroyed, by singular good fortune the volume of Westmoreland Records was saved, and is in a state of excellent preservation. The neat manner in which they were kept, the generally fine, liberal and patriotic spirit they breathe, reflect the highest honour on the ancient people. Bearing the "image and superscription" of the fathers of Wyoming, we shall quote them freely, both as curious from their antiquity, and interesting as reflecting the impress of those whose history our labours record.

"At a town meeting legally warned and held for Westmoreland, March ye 1st, 1774, for choosing town officers, etc., Zebulon Butler, Esq., was chosen moderator for the work of the day. Major Ezekiel Pierce was chosen town clerk.

"March ye 1st. Voted that this meeting is adjourned until tomorrow morning at this place, at eight of the clock, in ye forenoon. "March ye 2d, 1774, this meeting is opened and held by adjournment. Voted, that ye town of Westmoreland be divided in the following manner into districts-that is to say, that ye town of Wilkesbarre, be one entire district, and known by the name of Wilkesbarre district: And that ye town of Hanover, and all the land south of Wilkesbarre, and west on Susquehanna river, and east on the Lehigh, be one district, by ye name of Hanover district. And that Plymouth, with all ye land west of Susquehanna river, south and west to the town line, be one district, by ye name of Plymouth district and that Kingston, with ye land west to ye town line, be one district, by ye name of Kingston district: and that Pittston be one district, by ye name of Pittston district and that Exeter, Providence, and all the lands west and north to ye town line, be one district, by ye name of ye North District: and that Lackaway settlement and Blooming Grove, and Sheolah, to be one district, and to be called by ye name of ye Lackaway district: and that Coshutunk,

and all ye settlements on Delaware, be one district, and joined to ye other districts, and known by ye name of ye east district.

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SELECT MEN.

Christopher Avery, Nathaniel Landon, Samuel Ransom, Isaac Tripp, Esq., Caleb Bates, Lazarus Stewart, Silas Parke, were chosen Selectmen, for ye year ensuing. Isaac Tripp, Esq., refused to accept. John Jenkins was chosen Selectman in ye room of Esq. Tripp. "Captain Stewart refused to accept. Rosewell Franklin was chosen Selectman in ye room of Captain Stewart.

TOWN TREASURER.

"Zebulon Butler, Esq., was chosen Town Treasurer.

CONSTABLES AND COLLECTORS OF RATES.

"Asa Stevens, Timothy Smith,* Jonathan Haskel, Asaph Whittlesy, Noah Adams, Phineas Clark, William Smith, were chosen Constables and Collectors of Rates.

SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS.

"Anderson Dana, Daniel Gore, Elisha Swift, Thomas Stoddart, Thomas Bennet, Perrin Ross, Rufus Lawrence, Samuel Ransom, Jonathan Parker, Isaac Baldwin, Zavan Tracy, Elijah Witter, John Ainsley, William Hibbard, James Lastley, John Dewit, John Jenkins, jr., Aaron Thomas, Anthony Chimer, Abraham Russ, Benjamin Vancampin, Benjamin Harvey, were chosen Surveyors of Highways.

FENCE VIEWERS.

"John Abbott, William Warner, Ezekiel Pierce, William Buck, Nathan Denison, Esq., Thomas Stoddart, Frederick Eveland, John Baker, Charles Gaylord, Samuel Slaughter, Abraham Harding, Captain Parrish, John Jamison, John Gardner, were chosen Fence Viewers, for ye year ensuing.

LISTERS.

"Anderson Dana, Daniel Gore, Elisha Swift, Eliphalet Follet, Perrin Ross, Nathan Wade, Jeremiah Blanchard, Zavan Tracy, Uriah Chapman, Gideon Baldwin, Silas Gore, Moses Thomas, Emanuel Consawler, John Jenkins and Phineas Clark, were chosen Listers, for ye year ensuing.

*This gentleman was sportively called "old-head," because of the ability displayed in inducing Connecticut to establish the town of Westmoreland.

LEATHER SEALERS.

"Elisha Swift, Ebenezer Hibbard, and Captain Silas Parke, were chosen Leather Sealers ye year ensuing.

GRAND JURORS.

"Jabez Sills, James Stark, William Buck, Elias Church, Phineas Nash, Thomas Heath, Barnabas Cary, Lemuel Harding, Hezekiah Bingham, John Franklin, Timothy Keys, were chosen Grand Jurors ye year ensuing.

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TYTHING MEN.

Philip Weeks, Elihu Williams, Luke Swetland, Justice Gaylord, James Brown, Isaac Parrish, Timothy Hopkins, were chosen Tything men.

SEALERS OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

"Jabez Sills, Captain Obadiah Gore, Captain Silas Parke, Captain Lazarus Stewart, were chosen Sealers of Weights and Measures.

KEY-KEEPERS.

"Daniel Gore, Jabez Fish, Timothy Pierce, Uriah Stevens, Thomas Heath, Jeremiah Blanchard, Jonathan Haskel, Zipron Hibbard, were chosen Key Keepers." Thus was the town organized by the designation of one hundred officers.

April 11 and 12, the second town meeting in Westmoreland was held. Two hundred and six persons took the freeman's oath, as required by law. A tax was laid of one penny in the pound, "to purchase ammunition for the town's use, and other necessaries." Application to the Assembly was directed for a Court of Probate, and the establishment of a Regiment. Pounds already built, were pronounced lawful pounds. Roads heretofore established, were declared lawful highways, on which taxes might be laid out.

"Voted-That for ye present, ye tree that now stands northerly from Captain Butler's house, shall be ye Town Sign Post."

This matter of the legal sign post, is of weightier import than, without explanation, might be imagined. Newspapers in those days were little known, save in the larger cities. It had therefore been enacted, that a sign post be established in each town, on which notices of public meetings, public sales, stray animals taken up, etc., should be nailed or placed, to render them legal. It is proper to add, that, as an accompaniment of the sign post, which was also the legal whipping post, a pair of stocks was provided for a punishment of the guilty, and a warning to deter from crime. These (now abjured) monuments of civilization and law, were derived from

England, and brought over, nay, almost venerated by our Puritan fathers. The ancient pillory and wooden horse, first disappeared, the whipping post and stocks soon followed.*

A third town meeting was holden April 28, 1774.

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Captain Butler was chosen Moderator, for ye work of ye day.

Voted that Captain Zebulon Butler, Captain Timothy Smith, Mr. Christopher Avery, and Mr. John Jenkins, be appointed agents in behalf of this company of settlers, to attend the meeting of the General Assembly, to be holden at Hartford in May next, etc."

The same gentlemen were also appointed as agents to the Susquehanna Company, which was to assemble at Hartford, on the 24th of May.

It is presumed that, at this time the number of the members of Assembly Westmoreland would be entitled to, had not been designated. Thereafter two were, or might be elected for each session, during the continuance of the jurisdiction of Connecticut.

The John Jenkins named, was the elder, and father of Colonel John Jenkins, both distinguished patriots, who will appear frequently and honorably on our pages.

The fourth town meeting was held June 27, Zebulon Butler Moderator. Votes were passed "to form themselves into companies in a military way." Each district in Westmoreland to be a company. And Zebulon Butler, Esq., Major Ezekiel Pierce, and Mr. John Jenkins were appointed as a committee to repair to the several districts, and lead each company to a choice of officers, etc.

On the 30th of September, a fifth town meeting was held, Captain S. Fuller, moderator.

Captain Butler, and Mr. Joseph Sluman, were chosen representatives to the next Assembly, and these were the first persons admitted to the full participation of the rights of members, not as delegates from territories, having a power to debate, but not a right

* The reader of Hudibras will recollect that he several times became intimately acquainted with those instruments of punishment, or persuasives to repentance, for his lady finds him sitting in a posture which occasions her thus to address the knight :

"Quoth she, I grieve to see your leg

Stuck in a hole here like a peg,

And if I knew which way to do't

(Your honour safe) I'd let you out."

Willis, in his "on the right

This mode of punishment is rendered classical by its extreme antiquity. charming "Pencillings by the Way," describing the ruins of Pompeii, says, were several small prisons, in one of which was found the skeleton of a man, with his feet in iron stocks."

to vote; but voting on all questions that arose, uniting in making laws for the rest of the colony, as the other members made laws for Westmoreland, and from henceforth, Wyoming, or Westmoreland, (we shall use the terms as synonimous) was in all respects a part of Connecticut, as much so as Stonington, or Saybrook, Hartford, or New Haven.

The name of Joseph Sluman, occurs frequently in the old records. From his being often named on committees, and several times chosen member of Assembly, it would appear that he was trusted and honoured; but we cannot learn whence he came, what was his fate, or whether he left any family in Wyoming. It is most probable that his generous spirit led him into the thickest of the terrible conflict, that afterwards overwhelmed the Valley, and that fortune, life, and all remembrance of him were extinguished together.

The sixth town meeting in that year was held on the 17th of October.

Voted-That Lieut. Elijah Shoemaker, Mr. Solomon Johnson, Mr. John Jenkins, Captain Timothy Smith, and Mr. Douglass Davidson, be a committee to meet such gentlemen, as shall be appointed at or near Delaware, "to mark out a road from that river to the Susquehanna." Up to this time therefore, we may assert that no road existed from any part of the inhabited country to Wyoming. Bridle paths were the only avenues to the Valley, except that by the Susquehanna river, on which boats brought from below, at great cost, heavy articles of indispensable necessity.

The seventh town meeting was held November 22, from which, in a page or two, we shall copy some interesting votes.

The eighth and last town meeting called during 1774, was held the 6th of December, at which, among a variety of other things, it

was

"Voted-That Elisha Richards, Captain Ransom, Perrin Ross, Nathaniel Landon, Elisha Swift, Nathan Denison, Esq., Stephen Harding, John Jenkins, Anderson Dana, Obadiah Gore, jr., James Stark, Rosewell Franklin, Captain Stewart, Captain Parkes, and Uriah Chapman, were chosen School Committee, for the ensuing year.

It may be justly regarded equally honorable and extraordinary, that a people just commencing a settlement in a wilderness, wrestling with the yet rude and unbroken soil for bread, surrounded by so many extrinsic difficulties and causes of alarm, should be found so zealously adopting, and so steadily pursuing, measures to provide