Court-House and Jail, which being refused several times, about nine o’clock at night a party assembled in order to disperse the rioters; these proceeded with the Sheriff and some Magistrates to the Court-House where proclamation was again made by the Sheriff for the rioters to disperse, and sundry attempts were made to get in, without using fire-arms, but this proving ineffectual, three guns were fired over the door in hopes the rioters would be intimidated and retire; but so determined were they in their undertaking, that the fire was immediately returned from the Court-House, by which one of the Magistrates was slightly wounded, and another person shot through his clothes. The Magistrates seeing the imminent danger they were in, so well exerted themselves, that they forced the front door, and after a very smart engagement, wherein one of the rioteis was killed, and many persons on both sides wounded, the Court-House was cleared, and proper measures taken to preserve the peace for that night. The next morning all was tumult and disorder; the Judges, however, opened the Court at the usual hour, and adjourned till three o’clock in the afternoon; but by this time, the body of rioters beginning to assemble in large parties from New-Hampshire, and places adjacent, and particularly from Ben-ninglon, in the neighbouring County of Albany, with a hostile appearance, and the Court foreseeing no probability of being able to proceed to business, adjourned till next June term. The body of rioters, which soon amounted to upwards of five hundred, surrounded the Court-House, took the Judges, the Justices, the Sheriff, the Clerk, and as many more of their friends as they could find, into close custody, and sent parties out, who were daily returning with more prisoners; the roads and passages were guarded with armed men, who indiscriminately laid hold of all passengers against whom any of the party intimated the least suspicion; and the mob, stimulated by their leaders to the utmost fury and revenge, breathed nothing but blood and slaughter against the unfortunate persons in their power. The only thing which suspended their fate was a difference of opinion as to the manner of destroying them. And from the violence and inhumanity of the disposition apparent in the rioters, it is greatly to be feared that some of the worthy men in confinement will fall a sacrifice to the brutal fury of a band of ruffians, before timely aid can be brought to their assistance.

TO THE WORTHY INHABITANTS OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK.

New-York, March 23, 1775.

Permit a stranger expelled from his habitation, and inhumanly abused by an insolent and persecuting rabble, who have long dealt destruction around them with impunity, to submit his unmerited sufferings to your compassionate attention. Seized, like the vilest malefactor, without the shadow of offence; condemned by a mock tribunal; severely and ignominiously beaten; stripped of his whole substance; compelled to abandon his wife and children in a distant County to the care of Providence; and plunged into want and distress, he has no place of refuge but in this hospitable City. It is his only consolation, amidst the most painful reflections, to flatter himself, that when this unhappy case is made publick, he will not only receive from Government the protection due to an innocent and much injured subject, but will partake of that benevolence from individuals for which the citizens of New-York are justly celebrated. He wishes to make no comment on the circumstances related in the following deposition; they admit of no aggravation.

BENJAMIN HOUGH.

City of NEW-YORK, ss.

Benjamin Hough, one of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the County of Charlotte, being duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, deposeth and saith: That on or about the 26th day of January last past, about eight o’clock in the morning, this deponent being at some distance from his dwelling-house, but in view thereof, observed three persons stop at his door, and enter his said house, this deponent’s whole family (except a child of about six years of age) being absent; that immediately thereafter this deponent was attacked by about thirty persons, a number of whom were armed with firelocks, swords, and hatchets; that upon their approach this deponent attempted to get into his house to secure his arms and stand upon his defence; but that this deponent observing that Winthorp Hoyt, of Bennington, one of the three persons this deponent had observed going into his house, stood at the threshold of this deponent’s door, with this deponent’s sword and pistol in his hands, he, this deponent, found it would be to no purpose either to attempt to escape or to make resistance; that thereupon Peleg Sunderland, of the said County of Charlotte, came up to this deponent with a hatchet in his hand, and slapping this deponent on the shoulder, told him he was his prisoner; that he, the said Peleg Sunderland, and the other persons who were with him, forced this deponent into a sleigh, and carried him about fifty miles to the southward of this deponent’s place of residence, to a place by them called Sunderland, where they kept this deponent until the 30th clay of the said month of January in close confinement, part of the time bound, and always under a strong guard, with drawn swords. That Sylvanus Brown, James Meed, Samuel Campbell, one Dwinels, one Powers, Stephen Meed, one Booley, and one Lymen, were among the persons who so seized and detained this deponent; and with respect to the rest of them, they were either strangers to this deponent, or he cannot recollect their names at present; that while they had this deponent so in custody at Sunderland, some of the said rioters informed this deponent that he could not have his trial till the Monday following, because they intended to send for Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, who were then at Bennington, and who are two of the principal ringleaders of the Bennington mob. That on the said 30th day of January, the said rioters appointed a Court for the trial of this deponent, which consisted of the following persons, to wit: The said Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, Robert Cochran, Peleg Sunderland, James Meed, Gideon Warren, and Jesse Sawyer, and they being seated, ordered this deponent to be brought before them; that he was accordingly brought before them as a prisoner, guarded by persons with drawn swords; that thereupon the said Ethan Alien laid the three following accusations to the charge of this deponent, to wit:

1st. That this deponent had complained to the Government of New-York of their (the said rioters) mobbing and injuring Benjamin Spencer, Esq., and other persons.

2d. That the deponent had dissuaded and discouraged the people from joining the mob in their proceedings; and,

3d. That the deponent had taken a commission of the peace under the Government of New-York, and exercised his office as a Magistrate for the County of Charlotte; alleging that this deponent well knew that they (the mob) did not allow of any Magistrate there.

And that after the said accusations were so made, the said Ethan Allen told the deponent that he was at liberty to plead for himself, if he had any thing to say; that this deponent then demanded of him, the said Ethan Allen, and the rest of his pretended Judges, whether he, this deponent, had ever done injustice to any man in the execution of his office as a Magistrate? To which they answered, that they could not charge him with any injustice in the execution of his office, nor had they any complaint of that kind to make against him; Warner, in particular, declaring that he would as willingly have him for a Magistrate as any man whatever; but that they would not, under their present circumstances, suffer any Magistrate at all. That the deponent then asked the said pretended Judges, whether they could accuse this deponent of busying himself or intermeddling with respect to titles of lands? To which the said Ethan Allen answered in the negative; and that they had not heard, nor did they pretend to charge him with any thing of that kind; that the deponent then added, that with respect to their three charges against him, he admitted them to be true; that he had made such complaint to the Government of New-York of the proceedings of the said rioters against the said Benjamin Spencer and others: that he had used his endeavours to dissuade people from joining the said rioters in their proceedings; and that he has accepted a commission from the said Government for, and exercised the office of, a Magistrate for the said County of Charlotte; and that all this he had a good right to do, and looked upon as his duty. That after some further argumentation, the said pretended Judges withdrew to another house to consider of their judgment, and in