life. Like his brother, he was employed in the mission school at Stockbridge, where it is believed his labors were acceptable. He lived at Newington, near Farmington, in Connecticut, where it is supposed he died, about the year 1758. It is not known at what time Joanna, one of the sisters of Joseph and Martin, returned home. The other sister, Rebecca, who was about three years old at the time of her capture, resided among the Caughnawagas in Canada, until she was a maiden grown. On her return, she became the wife of Benjamin Ashley. In the year 1753, when Mr.-afterwards the Rev.-Gideon Hawley, of Marshpee, was employed with others, to visit the Indians at Onohoghgwage or Oquago, now the town of Windsor, in Broome county, New York, she accompanied the mission, and was regarded as a very good sort of woman, and an extraordinary interpreter in the Iroquois language." She resided at Onohoghgwage until the time of her death, which took place in August, 1757, and was buried at that place. She was much lamented by the Indians. Her Indian name was Wausaunia.*

SAMUEL KNIGHT

OCCUPIED a position of great influence and high respecta

Samuel Pinights

bility among the lawyers who practised at the bar of Cumberland county prior to the Revolution. His commission as an attorney-at-law in "his Majesty's courts of record" in that county, was dated the 23d of June, 1772. The only appointment which he held under the province of New York, was that of commissioner to administer oaths of office. This he received on the 18th of February, 1774. He was present at the affray which occurred at Westminster on the 13th of March, 1775. At the inquest which was held on the body of William French, who was shot on that occasion, he, with four others, was declared guilty of his death. The conduct of Mr. Knight imme

* Journals Gen. Court Mass. Bay, passim. MSS. in office Sec. State Mass.. Mass. Hist. Coll., iv. 57: x. 148. Biog. Mem. of Rev. John Williams, pp. 84, 118. Hist. West. Mass., i. 158. Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii. 1033-1046. Hoyt's Indian Wars,, pp. 195, 199.

diately after this event, is described in a foot-note to that most entertaining tale, by the Hon. Daniel P. Thompson, entitled "The Rangers; or the Tory's Daughter." The facts narrated in this foot-note rest on the authority of "an aged and distinguished early settler" of Vermont, and are given in his own words:"I have heard Judge Samuel Knight describe the trepidation that seized a portion of the community, when, after the massacre, and on the rising of the surrounding country, they came to learn the excited state of the populace. He related how he and another member of the bar (Stearns, I think, who was afterwards attorney-secretary of Nova Scotia) hurried down to the river, and finding there a boat (such as was used in those times for carrying seines or nets at the shad and salmon fishing-grounds, which were frequent on both sides the river, below the Great Falls), they paddled themselves across, and lay all day under a log in the pine forest opposite the town; and when night came, went to Parson Fessenden's, at Walpole, and obtained a horse; so that, by riding and tying, they got out of the country till the storm blew over, when Knight returned to Brattleborough."

From Westminster, Knight went to Boston, and thence to the city of New York, where he arrived on the 29th of March. On his return to Brattleborough in the course of the following summer, he resumed his professional duties, but does not appear to have taken any very active part in the struggle between Great Britain and the colonies. When Vermont was declared a separate and independent state, he strenuously favored the jurisdiction of New York on the "Grants," and strove to effect a reconciliation between the contending parties. In the supply bill passed by the Legislature of New York on the 4th of November, 1778, £60 were voted to him as a reimbursement of his " expences in attending upon the Legislature, on the business of quieting the disorders prevailing in the north-eastern parts of this state." Satisfied, at length, that New York would never be able to maintain her claim to the "Grants," he became an open supporter of the government of Vermont. He afterwards removed to Guilford, and in the year 1781 was appointed a justice of the peace. Owing to the discontent of some of the citizens of that portion of the state, who believed him to be infected not only with sentiments favorable to New York, but with Tory principles, he was suspended from office by the Council on the 12th of April of the same year. He was rein

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

Io Leph Lord,

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,