Revolutionary War Damage Estimates, 1783, Upper & Lower Smithfield

The treasure trove of 18th century records on the Pennsylvania frontier published by the PA State Archives include this 1783 compilation of damages sustained by the residents of Upper and Lower Smithfield, in then Bucks County, from the soldiers and adherents of Great Britain during the Revolutionary War. The period of time covered by the estimate is 1775 through 1782; the township assessors are not named.  

John Emmons, David Vanauken, George Sallady, Cornelius Dewitt, Elijah Middagh, Simeon Westfal [Westfall], Joseph Shawers.

Joseph Cole, Joseph Ridder [Rider], Zachariah Shenkins, James Vanauken, Esq., Henry Peterson, Abraham Decker, James Shimers [Shimer], Lewis Meid, William McCarty, John McCarty, John Conklin, Israel Wells, Peter Quick, Morgan Deshay, George Heatter [Heater], William Halbert [Holbert]  

 .

 James Rosencrans Osterhoud, Ephraim Ferguson, Thomas Quick, Benjamin Hains [Haines?], James Wells, Benjamin Cartright [Courtright], John Emmons, John Taylor, Elias Decker, Cornelius Decker, John Rosencrans, Andrew Dingman [Jr.], Samuel Decker, John [Johannes Sr. or Jr.?] Vanetten [Van Etten]

  .

 Henry Barnet, Henry Lawall, Peter Trexler, Commissioners of Northampton County

~~~~~

Pennsylvania Archives, Series 1, Vol. 9, Samuel Hazard, 1854.

HathiTrust edition.

Google eBook edition.

  
  

The Minisink Subscribers to the 1810 "Fifty-Three Sermons on the Heidelbergh Catechism"

The New York Public Library's rare copy of the 1810 English language translation of the Dutch edition of Fifty Three Sermons on the Heidelbergh Catechism, by the Rev. John Vanderkemp, is notable for the bound in Subscriber pages featuring a list of well-to-do patrons who underwrote the cost of publication, often in return for a discount. Typically this would be the first print run as delivered to the subscribers - subsequent runs would lack these pages further reducing the cost.  The list of subscribers, a virtual Who's Who of the Dutch Reformed Church in America in 1810, is fascinating for its helpful bracketing of community place names or congregations & heads of families in the Minisink Valley from a period when other records are scarce.  New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania tax and census records offer additional details of subscribers' residence during this time period.  

Surnames variants of the Clove, Flatbrook, Mehakkemack, Menissing, Shappanack and Walpeck families include:  Bennet, Carmer, Carpenter, Cole, Cuddebeck, Depuis, Ennes, Force, Gomar, Hoornbeek, Lambert, Little, Middagh, Neerpass, Quick, Rosencrans, Rowles, Swartwout, Titsworth, Van Aken, Van Bunschooten, Van Campen, Van Gorden, Van Neste, Van Nimwegen, Van Noy, Van Vliet, Vredenburg, Westbrook and Westfall.

James Bennet, Mehakkemack	Wm Titsworth, Clove
Benj. Carpenter, Mehakkemack	Revd. Elias Van Bunschooten, Clove
Benj. Cuddebeck, Mehakkemack	James Van Vliet, Mehakkemack
William Cuddebeck, Mehakkemack	Joseph Van Noy, Mehakkemack
Martin Cole, Mehakkemack	Garrit Van Aken, Mehakkemack
James Carmer, Shappanack	James Van Aken, Mehakkemack
Benjamin Depuis, Menissing	Evert Van Aken, Mehakkemack
Joseph Ennes, Esq. Menissing	Joseph Van Gorden, Mehakkemack
Revd. James G. Force, Walpeck	James Van Gorden, Mehakkemack
Elias Gomar, Mehakkemack	Martin Van Gorden, Mehakkemack
Peter Gomar, Mehakkemack	Joseph Van Aken, Mehakkemack
Benj.  Hoornbeek, Mehakkemack	Daniel Vredenburg, Mehakkemack
S. Lambert,    Mehakkemack	Herman Van Nimwegen, Mehakkemack
Wm. Little,   Mehakkemack	Peter Van Neste, Esq. Flatbrook
Levi Middagh, Mehakkemack	Abm. Van Campen, Esq. Shappanack
Simon Middagh, Mehakkemack	John D. Westbrook, Menissing
David Morrow, Mehakkemack	John I Westbrook, Menissing
Jacob Quick, Mehakkemack	Severin Westbrook, Menissing
Simon Rosecrans, Shappanack	Wm Westbrook, Menissing
Wm. M. Rowles, Mehakkemack	Abm. Westfall, Menissing
Peter Swartwout, Mehakkemack	George D. Westfall, Mehakkemack
	Daniel B. Westfall, Mehakkemack

The 1780 Account of the Battle of Conashaugh

While searching NJ, NY, & PA historical newspapers for the term Minisink using the long s form, literally Minifink, the following brief gem turned up.  In our local history the so called Battle of Conashaugh looms large but for a nation-a-birthing it appeared as barely a footnote, a 104 word paragraph woven into the dramatic events of the time. 

The New Jersey Gazette, May 3, 1780, Vol III, Issue 123, Page 3, Trenton, New Jersey: 

(c) NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.

Transcription:

Trenton, May 3
We are obliged to the gentleman who sent us the following:
...
About the 17th ult.* a party of Indians were discovered at Minisink, in Pennsylvania, and on Thursday following some of the Jersey militia passed the Delaware and engaged them; a severe conflict ensued, which ended in a total defeat of the Indians.  They left their commanding officer dead on the field, and by the orderly book and papers found on him, he appears to be one Daily, (a whiteman) formerly of Somerset county.  We had Captain Westbrook, a Lieutenant, and one private killed, in the engagement; - the Indians left behind them fix blankets, two watch-coats, several packs, and a quantity of provisions.

*Ultimo (often abbreviated ult.): Ultimo or Ultimo Mense is a Latin term/phrase that refers to an occurrence from last month. 

The Pennsylvania Evening Post of May 5 and The Pennsylvania Packet of May 6 both carried the same paragraph, datelined Trenton, May 3.  Neither the Lt. nor the Pvt. were graced with a surname but a letter published by the Pennsylvania Archives supplies the details of the engagement, places the action within the landscape and names the dead. The author of the letter, John VanCampen, was then Northampton County Councillor elect to the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania.  He addressed President Reed of that council:

Lower Smithfield, April the 24th, 1780.

Hon'd Sir,

I hope my last by Mr. Mixer is Come to hand informing you of the Incursion of the Indians at the house of Manuel Gunsaleyes [Gonsalez]. herewith inform your honour of their later attempts. James McCarte [McCarty] with his family was Removed to the Jersey, on the 20th Instant his Sons went to their home to feed the Cattle, Discovered signs of Indians, Returned to the Jersey Immediately & acquainted Major [Samuel] Westbrook and Captain [Peter] Westbrook the signs they had Discovered, they Sent Immediately for some of their best men & Croos'd the River that night, about sun rise the morning following Discovered the Indians Nigh the Barn and began the attack ; the number of the Enemy is supposed to be about fourteen ; the Major Received no Damage with his party  the Indians retreated to the woods ; the major was Reinforced by Capt. [Johannes] Vannatten [Van Etten], with three of his sons & son in Law, Pursued the Indians by the Blood, & about two miles Came up with them. As it is without Doubt three of them was wounded, Renewed the attack, Drove the Indians in a few minutes, they Ran to the edge of a thick wood ; Captain Vannatten maintained his Ground with his few men, the Major with his men also, Captain Westbrook's men left him at the first fire from the Enemy in the woods, which was the ruin of the whole; but the ground maintained for some time & the retreat secured by the Major & Vannatten ; Kill'd & missing on the part of the Major & Vannatten: Captain Westbrook missing, not yet found, Benjamin Ennis [Ennes] kill'd, son in law to Capt. Vannatten, Richard Rosekrans kill'd and two more wounded. Of the Enemy Kill'd, two found, one an officer, appearing by his Dress, found in his pocket a Regular Journal from the first of March until the 16th Inst., as appears by his Journal there is three hundred & Ninety marched from Niagagari [Niagara] , divided into Different parties, the Officer was a White man.

Respective Sir,
I'm now under Difficulties of mind, what the Event will be God only knows, the people are Determined to Evacuate the Country, as there appears no prospect of Relief by the millitia.

I am Sir, with Due Respect,
Your Most Huble servt.,
John VanCampen

P. S. The said McCartee, where the attack began, is about two miles Below Wells' ferry [Milford], on the Banks of Delaware.

Capt. Vannatten lives in Delaware Township, one mile Below McCartee's.  
Directed. To his Excellency, Joseph Reed, President of the Executive Council, Philadelphia.


The map pushpin indicates the historic McCarty House, c 1740, just south of the Raymondskill Creek gorge and north of the Conashaugh Creek gorge.


View Minisink Valley Genealogy in a larger map

 19th Century Accounts

The Rev. Joseph F. Tuttle, in an address before the gathering at the 1853 celebration of the Sussex Centennial held in Newton would quote, without embellishment, from the original newspaper account of the action.

The First Sussex Centennary, 1853.

In 1879 a melodramatic account, "Conneshaugh Battle:  A Sad Incident of Early History in the Lower Delaware" by W. [William] H.[Harrison] Layton, appeared in The Evening Gazette, mistakenly setting the action in the year 1776, inflating the number of dead to "18 or 19 having been killed at the scene of the struggle," and elevating the description of the action from a skirmish into a battle.

"Conneshaugh Battle..."

In 1886, seven years after The Evening Gazette article appeared, and one hundred and six years after the events of 1780, Alfred Mathews would interview a handful of informants and publish their version of the alleged thirteen militiamen killed in action in his volume, History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania.  Within a few paragraphs he also transcribes the full text of the VanCampen letter:  It will be noticed, he writes, that it disagrees in details with the account already given, but in the main supports it.

The difference between three and thirteen men killed is considerable.  Three men were noted in the contemporary press, named in full by VanCampen, and in the 19th century Revolutionary War Pension Files affidavits, while no trace is found of Mathews' informants' additional and nameless ten militia men.   

Mathews further claims "the dead were taken up and buried in the old Minisink burying ground," though Pvt Barnardus Swartwood in his pension Affidavit of 1832 stated: The said Benjamin Ennis was the brother in law of this deponent and the deponent saith he helped to carry the said Benjamin Ennis after he was killed to the Fort above mentioned [Lt. Ennes' father-in-law, Johannes Van Etten's fortified home on the Conashaugh].

Mathew's History, p 94.

So what actually occurred during the action of 1780 along the narrow creek gorges and steep hillsides in Pike County Pennsylvania to account for the fluctuating number of dead, the claimed evidence of a mass burial of militiamen at the old Minisink Village burying ground?  Time - only time passing - for the late 19th century folklore, contradicted by the primary source evidence detailing the deaths of only three men in the spring of 1780, is not history but legend.

May they, Capt. Peter Westbrook, Lt. Benjamin Ennes and Pvt. Richard Rosencrance, rest in Peace.

Pennsylvania Settlers of the Minisink 1740 - 1751

The Bucks County Warrant Registers found at the Pennsylvania State Archives record an interesting overview of the colonial landowners on the West side of the Delaware River in present day Pike or Monroe Counties. These documents often named neighboring grant holders and additional lands held as well as features within the landscape. 

Note the Warrant Registers frequently refer to the location with the place name Minisink, Minisinks, or Minesincks, citing the original application and warrant, but this would rarely carry over onto the survey. The State's surveys were sometimes commissioned many years after the grant of land and may refer to the township and county of the later period. Present day townships may be jotted in the corner or noted on the reverse of the survey and are also found in the compilation of surveys in the Township Warrantee Maps.

Surname variants may appear on the Application, the Warrant and the Survey. Patentees which differ refer to a later sale or heir to the tract. Acreage listed in the Warrant may differ slightly after the more precise survey was conducted.

Click on the link to see the Register page or Survey.  Highlighted names will open a link to the Family Search Warrants 1734 - 1769 in the Pennsylvania Probate Records. The remaining warrants can be found on Ancestry.com (subscription) under Pennsylvania Land Warrants & Applications. Tract, actual warrant descriptions and place names as cited are in italics, the present day township as found on the Warrantee maps are in parentheses ( ):

10 April 1740, Register, John Van Campen, 100 acres,  Survey.  Note additional settlers on this Register page include:  John Van Etten (1750), Gilbert Vangarder (1750), Gilbert Vancamp (1750), Cornelius Vanakin (1750.)

2 October 1742, Register, Lenor ( ?) Cuykendall, 188 acres, Survey. Land situate below Walpack Ferry in Smithfield Township. 

24 May 1742,  Register, Samuel DePue, 100 acres, Survey, Minisink, situate on the Bushkill (Lehman Twp.) Note additional Minisink settlers on this Register page include:  Samuel DePuey [DePue] (1738), Moses DePue (1743), Andrew Dingman, (1744 - Delaware Twp), Christopher Denmark (1745 - Delaware Twp.)

30 Nov 1744  Register, Simon Westfall,  Survey  to Cornelius DeWytt [DeWitt] in right of Simon Westfall,122 acres, (Milford/Westfall Twp.)

12 June 1749 Register, Cornelius Dewytt, [Dewitt], 100 acres, Survey, Smithfield, (Westfall Twp.)

Westfall Township Warrantee Map for Cornelius DeWytt [DeWitt] tract of 1749.

4  Mar 1750  Register, Peter Robeson [Robinson], Survey 118 acres, Flemings Valley, Remmonds [Raymondskill] Creek, Minisinks. Peter Robinson,  adjoining Brewer Dacker [Broer Decker] and Guisbard [Guisbert or Gilbert] Van Camp (Dingman Twp).

11 Mar 1750  Register, Tunis Middagg, [Middaugh], Survey 91 acres, Upper Smithfield (Milford/Westfall Twp.)

11 Mar 1750  Register, Thomas Quick, Survey 103 acres, above the Minesinks (Milford Twp.)

11 Mar 1750  Register,  John Williams, Survey 63 acres, Upper Smithfield (Lehman Twp)

13 Dec 1750  Register, James McCarty, Survey, 50 acres, at the Minesincks (Milford Twp.)

20 Dec 1750  Register, Anthony Bunscotta, Survey, 45 acres, Minisink (Lehman Twp.)

20 Dec 1750  Register, Henry J Cortrach [Cortright], Survey, 12 acres, Upper Smithfield (Dingman Twp.)

20 Dec 1750  Register, Brewer [Broer] Decker, 100 acres, multiple surveys, Minisincks (Lehman/Delaware Twp.)

20 Dec 1750  Register, Andrew Dingman, 30 acres, Survey,  Minisincks (Delaware Twp.) 

20 Dec 1750  Register, Herman Rosencrans, Survey, 62 acres, Minisinks (Westfall Township)

21 May 1751 Register, Garret Brink, Survey, 54 acres, Brinks Creek, at the Minesinks (Delaware Twp.)         

The PA State Archives' Warrantees of Land in the Several Counties of the State of Pennsylvania, 1730-1898, edited by William Henry Egle, 1898, also lists Bucks County Warrants, arranged by first initial of the surname (variants), then date.

Each of the Surveys cited in this article can be found on the Warrantee Maps, present day townships:

Pike County Township Warrantee maps, Pennsylvania Historic & Museum Commission 

• Blooming Grove, Delaware, Dingman, Greene, Lackawaxen (North), Lackawaxen (South), Lehman, Milford, Palmyra, Porter, Shohola, Westfall.

Wayne County Township Warrantee maps, Pennsylvania Historic & Museum Commission 

• Berlin,  Buckingham, Canaan, Cherry Ridge, Clinton, Damascus, Dreher, Dyberry, Lake, Lebanon, Lehigh, Manchester, Mount Pleasant, Oregon, Palmyra, Paupack, Preston, Salem, Scott, South Canaan, Sterling, Texas.

Monroe County Township Warrantee maps, Pennsylvania Historic & Museum Commission

• Coolbaugh A  Index,  Coolbaugh B   Map

Bucks County was one of the original Pennsylvania counties formed on 10 March 1682; Northampton Co set off from Bucks County 14 October 1751; Wayne Co set off from Northampton Co 21 May 1798; Pike Co set off from Wayne Co 26 March 1814; Monroe Co set off from Pike and Northampton Counties 1 April 1836.

 See also MVG's collection Historical Maps of the Minisink 1755 - 1875.

UPDATE:  An automated, fully-word-searchable transcription of the Northampton County Warrant Register, transcribed by volunteer Marie Robinson, is now available online.

An excerpt from the quite useful Land Records Guide of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania:

 "...During William Penn’s proprietorship, much of the land settlement was never recorded formally so squatting on land was common practice. Land that had been settled under this policy was considered improved land. All other lands vacant were considered unimproved lands. In order to regulate the settling of their lands and to retrieve payment from squatters who settled before 1754, the Penns [heirs of William] further updated the application system, which consisted of a series of documents including application, warrant, survey, and patent...."

Disputes over Warrants may be found in Minutes of the Board of Property and Other References to Land in Pennsylvania including Proprietary (Old) Rights; Pennsylvania Archives, Vol II, Harrisburg, 1894.

1766 Applications for Warrant

Identified place names:
Deckers Creek - present day Hornsbeck Creek
Remmonds or Rimmonds Creek - present day Raymondskill Creek
Swartwood Creek or Swartwoods Mill Creek - present day Toms Creek

Unidentified place names:
Brink's Creek - ?

UPDATE:  Pennsylvania Residents have FREE access to PA Land Records on Ancestry providing they also have a free Ancestry account: Click the PA State Portal page for more information.