ILL-JUDGED PERSECUTION OF NOAH SABIN.

695 talents the son refused to accede, but for what reason is not known. In the year 1768, at the age of fifty-four, he removed to Putney, and at the first election of town officers, held on the 8th of May, 1770, was chosen town-clerk. On the 14th of April, 1772, he was appointed judge of the Inferior court of Common Pleas of Cumberland county, and justice of the peace. Previous to the affray at Westminster on the 13th of March, 1775, Judge Sabin opposed in every practicable manner the attempts of the people to interfere with the management of the courts. His extreme conscientiousness led him to adopt this course, for he knew that he had received a commission from the Crown, and felt that his oath of office bound him, at the least, not to offer resistance to the government of the mother country. After being taken prisoner on this occasion, he was confined in the Court-house at Westminster for a few days, was then carried to Northampton, and afterwards to New York city, where he was imprisoned. It is said that he was subsequently tried, and upon being honorably acquitted, was supplied by Governor Tryon with clothing and ample means to return home. He was absent more than a year.

Regarded as a Tory in principle, and as a secret favorer of the cause of Great Britain, he was for a time subjected to many annoyances. Soon after his return, William Moore, Daniel Jewett, and Moses Johnson, committee men of Putney, accompanied by a party of their friends, armed with swords, went to his house, ordered him to mount his horse, and follow them. Obeying their commands, he was conducted to Westminster, where he was placed in the jail. Many were the threats used to intimidate him during this transaction. His imprisonment, however, lasted but a day. In the evening, the door of his cell was opened; and he was allowed to return home. On his death-bed, Moore, who had been the principal actor on this occasion, sent for Judge Sabin, confessed with tears the abuses of which he had been guilty, and besought forgiveness. On being assured that his request was granted-" Now," said he, "I can die in peace." Fearing that Judge Sabin might be in communication with the enemy, he was confined to his farm by an order of the committee of safety, passed in the year 1776, and permission was given to any one to shoot him, whenever he should be found beyond its limits. So bitter was the hatred towards him at this time, that one of his neighbors, a man zealous for the liberty of the colonies, and for the destruction

of their foes, watched for him with a loaded rifle, as he afterwards acknowledged, in the woods adjoining the Judge's house, prepared to shoot the despised Loyalist, should he venture beyond the prescribed lines. But this treatment, though it might tend to suppress the outward manifestation of his principles, did not avail at once to change them. A certain Solomon Willard, who had been a soldier under Governor Tryon at the time of the burning of Norwalk, having returned to Vermont at the close of the war, had again taken up his residence in the state. Although a Tory at heart, yet he submitted to the existing laws, and acted like an American citizen. In his conversations with this man, it is said that Judge Sabin often declared that the British troops had not treated the rebels with half the severity they deserved, and expressed his opinion, that every place refusing to acknowledge the authority of the Crown should have suffered the fate of Norwalk.

The prejudices against him springing from these causes, affected the minds even of the members of the church at Putney. Not being an original member, he was refused the privi lege of occoasional communion with them. This fact appears by the annexed extract from the church records :

"Putney, Dec. 7, 1778. The church met and took under consideration the request of Noah Sabin, Esqr., of occasional communion with this church, and came to the following vote, that it was best, all things considered, not to receive him at present. "J. GOODHUE, Moderator."

He was afterwards on the 29th of April, 1781, admitted by vote to full communion, and was known as a "most stable, consistent, and useful member."

In 1781 he was elected judge of probate for Windham county, but on the 12th of April, in the same year, was suspended from office in order to satisfy the complaints of many who believed him to be dangerous as a Loyalist. He was reinstated on the 25th of October following, and it is believed continued in office until the year 1801. Judge Sabin was a man of uncommon powers of mind. He was cool and considerate in his purposes, and sound and discriminating in his judgment. His counsels were often sought and were generally safely followed. For the period in which he lived his education was superior. It is asserted with confidence that when the charter for Putney was

obtained, he was the only person in the town possessed of sufficient skill to decipher the peculiar chirography in which the instrument was written. In his religious character he was upright, sincere, and conscientiously true to his professions. It might be said of him that he was remarkably active as a Christian, for it is well known that when the people were destitute of a minister, the duty of conducting the exercises of their religious assemblies usually devolved on him. Although at the first strongly attached to the Crown, and for some time after the commencement of the Revolution undecided as to the course he should take in the struggle between the colonies and the mother country, his sympathies were subsequently enlisted on the side of the former, and no truer patriot was to be found than he. Upon retiring from office and active life, the remainder of his days was marked by acts of piety towards God and beneficence to mankind. He died on the 10th of March, 1811, at the advanced age of ninety-six years.*

SON of Noah Sabin,

NOAH SABIN JR.,

was born at Reho- Noah Sabin Juns

both, Massachusetts,

on the 20th of April,

1750, and removed

with his father to Putney, when he was about eighteen years old. He held the office of register of probate for Windham county, from 1791 to 1801, and from the latter year until 1808 was judge of probate, in which station he succeeded his father. He was early elected a justice of the peace, and filled the office for nearly half a century. He represented the town of Putney in the General Assembly during the years 1782, 1783, 1784, 1785, and 1787. His death occurred at Putney on the 5th of December, 1827, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. From an obituary notice, written soon after his decease, the following passages are taken :

* MS. Letter from Rev. A. Foster of Putney, April 5th, 1852. Doc. Hist. N Y., iv. 1022. See ante, pp. 398, 399.

"Judge Sabin was a man of sound mind, of a placid temper, and manifested upon all occasions that urbanity of deportment which commanded the love and respect of his acquaintance. He was an early settler of the town [of Putney], and ever took an active interest in its civil and religious concerns. He was inore than forty-seven years a magistrate, and sustained for many years the office of judge of probate, and other offices, with honor to himself, and with usefulness to the public. He discharged the duties of office with such firmness and fidelity as to escape with a much less share of censure than is common in like cases.

"As a Christian, he appeared humble and unostentatious, steady and uniform in his principles and practice. He seemed always to lore religion, and to be governed by a sacred regard for its doctrines and duties. It appeared to be his stay in the closing scenes of life. He was resigned to the will of God and ready to depart at His bidding. He was willing to be absent from the body, and to go to be present with the Lord."

PAUL SPOONER

Paul Spooner

WAS for many years actively engaged in

advancing the inte

rests of Vermont, and

enjoyed the fullest confidence of the people of that state. He was a member of the Council from 1778 to 1782, when he was chosen lieutenant-governor of the state. In this position he was continued until the year 1786. He was a judge of the Supreme court in 1779, 1780, and from 1782 to 1788. During the years 1781 and 1782 he served as judge and register of probate for Windsor county. In the year 1779 he was the town-clerk of Hartland in Windsor county, and having subsequently removed to Hardwick, in Caledonia, county, was chosen the first clerk of that town in 1795. During the years 1797, 1798, and 1799, he represented the citizens of Hardwick in the General Assembly of the state. Of the respect with which the

* Brattleborough Messenger, December 21st, 1827, vok vi. No. 47.

early officers of Vermont were treated, the following incident affords a good example. On one occasion the Rev. Elisha Hutchinson, the first minister of Pomfret, Vermont, was preaching a sermon at Hartland, in a private house, when Mr. Spooner entered the room. Pausing in the midst of his discourse, the reverend minister informed his audience that he had "got about half through" his sermon, but as Governor Spooner had come to hear it, he would begin it again. Then turning to a woman who sat near him, he said, "My good woman, get out of that chair and let Governor Spooner have a seat, if you please!" Mr. Spooner was accommodated, and Mr. Hutchinson repeated the first part of his sermon, much to the edification, it is supposed, of those who had already heard it.*

JONATHAN STEARNS.

66

PRIOR to the Revolution, Jonathan Stearns was engaged in the practice of the law in the eastern portion of the New Hampshire Grants, and was generally regarded as a man of ability. In an account presented at New York on the 5th of May, 1775, by some of the officers of the court, it was stated that he was in the unhappy event that happened between the posse of the county of Cumberland and a body of rioters," at Westminster, on the 13th of March previous. In company with Samuel Knight, who was also a lawyer of that county, "he happily escaped the fury of the mob and went immediately to Boston." On his arrival in that city, "General Gage advised him to repair to New York with the utmost expedition, to give information to government of the state of the county." He reached New York on the 29th of March, and having presented an account of the affray, of which he had been a partial witness, was reimbursed the expenses of his journey, to the amount of £7 188. He subsequently removed to Nova Scotia, and was attorney-secretary of that province.t

* Deming's Cat, Vt. Officers, p. 75, et passim.

+ Council Minutes, in office Sec. State N. Y., 1765-1783, xxvi. 435. The Rangers, by D. P. Thompson, ii. 93. See ante, p. 674.