MEMORANDUM, 11th April, 1774.

A few days ago the Governor received the following Letter from Jonathan Trumbull, Esquire, Governor of Connecticut, viz:

Lebanon, 24th March, 1774.

SIR: I received your letter of the 24th February last. It is with pleasure I observe, "that you will do every thing in your power to avoid contentions and disorders among his Majesty's subjects." A great number of people possessed of, and settled on, a part of the lands of the Colony of Connecticut, at or near a place called Wyoming, lying west of the river Delaware, within the boundaries and descriptions of our Royal charter, made their application to our Assembly for protection and government. In consequence thereof the town of Westmoreland was made, constituted and annexed to our county of Litchfield, thereby forbearing the exercise of our jurisdiction over a great number of others who have more recently entered under grants from the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, and claim other parts of the lands belonging to Connecticut. It is not to be doubted that your power and influence may prevent the attempts of others to settle under your claim, and the disagreeable consequences which may follow the want on your part of a similar forbearance towards the people of Westmoreland, until a legal and constitutional decision of the point in question may be obtained, which both you and Mr. Wilmot, solicitor of the Proprietaries, have acquainted us they will never decline.

It is the duty of our Governor and Company, in faithfulness to the trust reposed in them, to assert and support the rights of this Government and its inhabitants. They do not look upon themselves chargeable with any fault for their exercise of jurisdiction over the people who inhabit land they have good reason to think themselves entitled to by legal purchase from the Aboriginal true proprietors thereof, and hold the primary possession of under the right of preemption, for the benefit, and within the limits of this Colony.

I am to acquaint you that several gentlemen from hence, by virtue of an Act of our Assembly, are employed and instructed to ascertain the latitudes of certain places at and beyond Delaware river. They design to set out the 18th of next month for that purpose.

I am, sir, with truth and regard, your obedient humble servant,

JONATHAN TRUMBULL.

Honorable John Penn, Esquire.

The said Letter being taken into consideration, the Governor, with the advice of the Council, wrote a letter in answer thereto, in the words following, viz:

Philadelphia, 11th April, 1774.

SIR: I have your letter of 24th March last by the post. My sentiments of exercising the jurisdiction of this Government, in every part thereof, and the impropriety of extending your jurisdiction within our bounds, before you have laid your claim before his Majesty, are so plainly expressed in the several letters I have wrote you, and in those which passed between your Commissioners and me, that they need not be repeated; and I cannot but think it strange that you should persist in attempting to support a possession gained from the people of this Province in a course of absolute hostility, before your Government had any claim to lands within the bounds of this Province. It appears to me that your taking the latitudes at or beyond Delaware, within the bounds of this Province, is premature, and that no act of your Assembly can authorize such a proceeding. I therefore cannot concur in that step, but, on the contrary, must protest againt it, and desire it may not be done, lest it should produce effects which may be injurious to the public peace.

I am, with due regard, your most obedient and humble servant, JOHN PENN.

To The Honorable Jonathan Trumbull, Esquire, Governor and Commander-in-chief of the Colony of Connecticut, Lebanon.

At a Council held at Philadelphia, on Wednesday, April, 1774

Present, The Honorable John Penn, Esquire, Governor, Richard Peters, James Tilghman, Andrew Allen, Edward Shippen, Jun., Esquires.

The Governor laid before the Board a Letter which he received this morning by George Wilson, Esq., express, from William Crawford, Esq., President of the Court of Westmoreland county, with several papers enclosed, relative to the disturbances created, and still continued, by the people of Virginia within that county, which were severally read, and are as follows, viz:

Westmoreland County, April 8th, 1774.

SIR: As some very extraordinary occurrences have lately happened in this county, it is necessary to write an account of them to you. That which I now give is at the request, and with the approbation of all the Magistrates that are at present attending the court. A few weeks ago Mr. Conolly went to Staunton, and was sworn as a Justice of the Peace for Augusta county, in which it is pretended that the country about Pittsburg is included. He had before this brought from Williamsburg commissions of the peace for several gentlemen in this part of the Province, but none of them, I believe, have been accepted of. A number of new militia officers have been lately appointed by Lord Dunmore. Several musters of the militia have been held, and much confusion has been occasioned by them. I am informed that the militia is composed of men without character and without fortune, and who would be equally averse to the regular administration of justice under the Colony of Virginia, as they are to that under the Province of Pennsylvania. The disturbances which they have produced at Pittsburg have been particularly alarming to the inhabitants. Mr. Conolly is constantly surrounded with a body of armed men. He boasts of the countenance of the Governor of Virginia, and forcibly obstructs the execution of legal process, whether from the Court or from single Magistrates. A Deputy Sheriff has come from Augusta county, and I am told has writs in his hands against Captain St. Clair and the Sheriff for the arrest and confinement of Mr. Conolly. The Sheriff was last week arrested at Pittsburg for serving a writ on one of the inhabitants there, but was, after some time, discharged. On Monday last one of Conolly's people grossly insulted Mr. Mackay, and was confined by him in order to be sent to jail. The rest of the party hearing it immediately came to Mr. Mackay's house and proceeded to the most violent outrages. Mrs. Mackay was wounded in the arm with a cutlass; the Magistrates, and those who came to their assistance, were treated with much abuse, and the prisoner was rescued.

Some days before the meeting of the court, a report was spread that the militia officers, at the head of their several companies, would come to Mr. Manna's, use the Court ill, and interrupt the administration of justice. On Wednesday, while the court was adjourned, they came to the court house and paraded before it. Centinels were placed at the door, and Mr. Conolly went into the house. One of the Magistrates was hindered by the militia from going into it till permission was first obtained from their commander. Mr. Conolly sent a message to the Magistrates informing them that he wanted to communicate something to them, and would wait on them for that purpose. They received him in a private room. He read to them the enclosed paper, together with a copy of a letter to you, which Lord Dunmore had transmitted to him, enclosed in a letter to himself, which was written in the same angry and undignified style. The Magistrates gave the enclosed answer to what he read, and he soon afterwards departed with his men. Their number was about one hundred and eighty or two hundred. On their return to Pittsburg some of them seized Mr. Elliott., of the Bullock Penn, and threatened to put him in the stocks for something which they deemed an affront offered to their commander. Since their return, a certain Edward Thompson, and a young man who keeper store for Mr. Spear, have been arrested by them; and Mr Conolly, who in person seized the young man, would not allow him time even to lock up the store. In other parts of the country, particularly those adjoining the river Monongahela, the Magistrates have been frequently insulted in the most indecent and violent manner, and are apprehensive that unless they are speedily and vigorously supported by