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Vermont/New York Boundry History

• Vermont was first settled by people from Massachusetts, who built Fort Dummer, near the site of Brattleborough, in 1724. Many other settlers soon followed from Connecticut, and some of the towns were chartered by, and recognized government by, Massachusetts. But both New York and New Hampshire soon laid claim to the whole region, and neither would acknowledge the right of the other to jurisdiction.

  New York obtained a decision of the King in her favor in 1764, and endeavored to get the settlers to pay again for their land. The people of Vermont resisted the authority of New York. They organized militia and remained to all intents independent of both New York and New Hampshire during the remainder of the colonial period. In 1776 the Vermont settlers petitioned the Continental Congress, then in session at Philadelphia, to admit them into the confederacy as a separate State. New York demurred, and the petition was denied.

  However, on January 15, 1777, the settlers declared themselves independent, and laid claim to the territory westward to the Hudson River, north of Lansingburgh, and along the western shore of Lake Champlain. They framed a State constitution, and although Congress could not recognize Vermont, because of the opposition of New York to its admittance to the confederacy, the Vermonters stalwartly resisted British influence during the Revolution. By an act of Congress, passed August 20, 1781, Vermont was required to recede from its claim. The settlers nevertheless persisted, and, finally, in 1789, New York agreed to recognize the separation of Vermont. By agreement entered into between the two on October 7, 1790, New York surrendered all her claim to jurisdiction to the present territory, and Vermont paid $30,000 to certain persons who had been deprived of lands granted by New York. On March 4, 1791, the State of Vermont was admitted to the Union. The boundary line between New York and Vermont was run by Robert Yates, Robert R. Livingston, John Lansing, Jr., Julian C. Verplanck, Simeon deWitt, Egbert Benson, Richard Sill and Melancthon Smith, on the part of New York, and Isaac Tichenor, Stephen R. Bradley, Nathaniel Chipman, Elijah Paine, Ira Allen, Stephen Jacob, and Israel Smith, on the part of Vermont. The final line was established on June 8, 1812.

• Read more about it! . . .

  Each of these sections has different books on the same region:
  

• Geographic
  
• Genealogy
  
• Colonial
• Native American
• Hiking/Maps/Nature

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