stated on the 25th of October following. He occupied the position of first judge of Windham county during the years 1786, 1794, 1795, and 1801, and presided as chief justice in the Supreme court of the state from 1789 to 1793. In his "Descriptive Sketch of Vermont," Dr. John A. Graham observes of Judge Knight :-" He was bred to the law; is a gentleman of great abilities; and has rendered many essential services to his fellow-citizens, but, I am sorry to add, they have by no means been recompensed as they ought to be. To Mr. Knight that celebrated line of Pope may truly be applied,

"An honest man 's the noblest work of God.'"*

LUKE KNOWLTON.

LUKE KNOWLTON was born in Shrewsbury, Worcester county, Massachusetts, and was married to Sarah Holland, who bore him three sons and four daughters. He removed to Newfane in the year 1772, where he lived until the time of his death, which occurred on the 12th of December, 1810, at the age of seventy-three years. The third charter of the township of Newfane was granted by the government of New York on the 11th of May, 1772, to Walter Franklin and twenty others, most of whom were inhabitants of New York city. On the day following, the charter was conveyed to Luke Knowlton and John Taylor, of Worcester county, Massachusetts. The town was organized on the 17th of May, 1774, and on that occasion Knowlton was chosen town-clerk, and held that post for sixteen years. He was town representative in the General Assembly of Vermont in the years 1784, 1788, and 1789; a member of the Council from 1790 to 1800, inclusive; a member of the constitutional convention in 1793; and a judge of the court of Windham county from 1787 to 1793.

In his "Letters from Vermont," John Andrew Graham refers to Mr. Knowlton in a very complimentary manner, in connection with a few remarks relative to Newfane. "This town," the writer observes, "owes its consequence in a great,

*The Rangers, i. 92, 93. N. Y. Gazette, Monday, April 10th, 1775. Graham's Letters, pp. 109, 110. Laws of N. Y., 1777-1783, Holt's ed., p. 47. Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv. 1022.

measure to Mr. Luke Knowlton, a leading character, and a man of great ambition and enterprise, of few words, but possessed of the keenest perception, and an almost intuitive knowledge of human nature, of which he is a perfect judge. This gentleman, owing to the particular method in which he has transacted business, has obtained the appellation of Saint Luke. Young Mr. Knowlton is a practitioner at the bar. He is modest, ingenuous, and master of abilities that give a fair promise of his becoming a most valuable citizen. Saint Luke is the owner of much the best and most elegant buildings in the place." Calvin Knowlton, the young man referred to in this extract, and a son of Luke Knowlton, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1788, and was educated in the law. He adorned his profession by his learning and ability, and his worth was acknowledged by all who knew him. He died on the 20th of January, 1800, aged thirty-nine years.

On the 12th of September, 1780, Luke Knowlton was furnished by Gov. George Clinton with an introductory letter to the New York delegates in Congress, and soon after visited Philadelphia for the purpose of urging upon Congress the necessity of settling the controversy between New York and Vermont. The result of his mission has been stated in another place. Previous to the year 1784, Mr. Knowlton gave in his adherence to the government of Vermont, and became a citizen of that state. In the division of the $30,000 which New York received from Vermont, on the accession of the latter state to the Union, Mr. Knowlton received $249.53, on account of the losses he had sustained, by being obliged to give up lands which he had held under a New York title.

It is much to be regretted that so little is known of the life of a man of the ability of Luke Knowlton. The Hon. Paul. H. Knowlton, who resides at the village of Knowlton, in the township of Broome, C. E., and is a member of the Legislative Council of Canada, possesses no records of family biography relating to his enterprising and intelligent grandfather.+

* See ante, pp. 381, 382.

+ Thompson's Vt., Part III. p. 126. Graham's Descriptive Sketch of Vt., 1797, p. 103. Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv. 1024.

An account of the conduct of Luke Knowlton during the time in which the British in Canada were endeavoring to obtain possession of Vermont, and of the suspicions which this conduct excited, is given in the sketch of the life of SAMUEL WELLS.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF JOSEPH LORD.

JOSEPH LORD

677

66

OF Putney, by commissions dated the 16th of July, 1766, was appointed second judge of the Inferior court of Common Pleas, and a justice of the peace for Cumberland county. These commissions were renewed on two subsequent occasions, and he was continued in office until the commencement of the Revolution. He was also appointed by a writ of dedimus potestatem, a commissioner to swear all officers" chosen in that county, and held the office until the 14th of April, 1772. Respecting his abilities, there are no means of deciding; but of his uprightness and candor, as a man and as a judicial officer, there can be no doubt. A few months previous to the time for appointing judges in the year 1772, Mr. Lord was desirous of withdrawing from the service of the province. In his letter to Governor Tryon, dated the 29th of January, he declared his reasons for wishing to retire, in these words:-"I, being now arrived at the sixty-eighth year of my age, and attended with the infirmities common to advancing years, such as great deafness, loss of memory, dimness of sight, and at times, a paralytic tremor in my hands, &c., which disqualifies me for the full, free, and perfect discharge of the offices of second judge of the Inferior court of Common Pleas, and justice of the peace, which I have sustained in the county for several years last past-and having a desire to retire from public business and spend the remainder of my days in a calm retirement therefrom, and concern myself in nothing else, but doing good to my numerous family and neighbors, and praying for the KING, your Excellency, and all others the King's officers, and prepare for a glorious IMMORTALITY-therefore humbly entreat your Excellency to appoint some other person to said offices in my room and stead."

Having been informed that his colleague had tendered his resignation, Judge Chandler wrote to Governor Tryon, begging him to continue Judge Lord in office in the next commission, and suggesting the propriety of rewarding him for his past services-especially for his efforts in quelling a disturbance in which the inhabitants of Windsor had been engaged-by granting to him some of the "unappropriated lands" in the province,

which the late Gov. Benning Wentworth had conveyed to himself, the title to which, by a subsequent resolve of the present Governor and the Council of New Hampshire, had been declared void. Previous to this time, the court had been constituted with three judges. A fourth was added in the next commission, and Judge Lord was continued, but with the understanding that he was to take only "as little share of the burden. of the office" upon himself as should be agreeable to him. "His Excellency," wrote Governor Tryon, in a letter dated the 3d of April, 1772, "desirous of retaining in office the most respectable persons in the county, could not think of appointing any person in your stead." The little that is known of this worthy magistrate is so favorable, that a natural regret arises at the absence of the data which might supply the details of his life, character, and services.*

WILLIAM PATERSON.

Wm Baterson

THE prominency of the

part borne by this individual in the affray at

Westminster, has given his name a notoriety. Of the man himself little is known. William Paterson is said to have been of Irish and Scotch descent, and is supposed to have been born in Ireland. Following in the train of his friend, Crean Brush, he removed to Westminster in the year 1772 or 1773, and in October of the latter year received from the Council of Appointment of the province of New York the shrievalty of Cumberland county, which office he held until the authority of Great Britain ceased to be recognized on the "Grants." Of the manner in which he conducted at the "Westminster Massacre," an account has already been given.† In his history of the "American Loyalists," Mr. Sabine, in closing a sketch of the events of March 13th, observes of Paterson :-"That he was very much in fault, in the transactions which connect his name with the sad deeds here briefly considered, hardly admits of a

*Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv. 757–759, 765, 766

† See ante, p. 218.

doubt, and appears as well from the statements of the Loyalists, as from the report of the Whig committee." After suffering imprisonment in the Court-house at Westminster, until Sunday, the 19th of March, he, with several of his friends, was placed in charge of a body of the Whigs, who guarded him to Northampton, where he was again placed in confinement. How long he remained at Northampton does not appear, but he did not obtain a final discharge until the 22d of November following. It would be pleasant, could we tear aside the veil of oblivion which shrouds his history in obscurity, or explore the recesses in which are buried those little data, which, were they all gathered, would reveal more fully the transactions of his life. But the veil appears impenetrable to mortal eyes, and the very locality of the recesses we would explore is yet to be determined.

CHARLES PHELPS,

SON of Nathaniel Phelps, was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, on the 15th of August, 1717, and was educated in the

Charles Philps

profession of the law. He married Dorothy, a daughter of Hezekiah Root, of the same place, on the 24th of April, 1740, and afterwards removed to Hadley, where he resided for many years. In the charter of Marlborough, which town was the third on the New Hampshire Grants granted by Gov. Benning Wentworth, his name appears as one of the original grantees. This charter, which was dated the 29th of April, 1751, was renewed on the 21st of September, 1761, and again renewed on the 17th of April, 1764. On the last occasion, power was given to Charles Phelps to call town meetings, and the name of New Marlborough was substituted for that of Marlborough. But the prefix, although used by the Phelps family for a time, was never received with favor. In the year 1764, Mr. Phelps, with his family, removed to Marlborough, for the purpose of commencing a settlement on the lands which he held from New Hampshire. On learning that the King, by an Order in Council dated the 20th of July, 1764, had established "the