where, after obtaining the assistance of Nathan Beman, a young man, for a guide, and waited the return of Capt. Phelps from the fort, &c., a select body, amounting to only eighty-three men, assaulted on the morning of the 10th of May, the fortress of Ticonderoga, and captured it without the loss of a man.

A large quantity of ordnance and military stores were obtained by this exploit. The officers and forty-seven were privates taken prisoners.

that one Sharper, a negro man first mentioned to him about being governor. and that he informed the negroes, if they would elect him, he would treat them to the amount of $20, and it had cost him $25, but declared that no regular officer or soldier had spoken to him on the subject; that there was no scheme or plot, and that he had done it as a matter of sport, and intended no injury to the country, but had the curiosity of seeing an election; that he had been informed the negroes chose a governor annually, and thought he would set up for it. He stated that he got his $25 by going in a vessel on the lakes, where he had certain perquisites of his own.

The committee made many other enquiries of Gov. Skeen and his servants, together with the captain, (Delaplace). And ex-Governor Cuff stated that he had been advised to resign his office to Skeen's negro by some of his black friends and some of the regulars, and that he appointed him without an election as some of them declared they would not have a tory for a governor. On Friday night after the election, the negroes had a dance and entertainment at Mr. Knox's, in Hartford, at an expence of 50s., which was paid by others, and Gov. Skeen's negroes were not allowed to pay any thing. This bill was paid by Majors French and Dermet; which facts were stated to the Governor and Council by Jesse Root, Esq., Chairman, May 22, 1776.

* Joseph Allen, the father of Col. Ethan Allen, was born in Coventry, in this State, and when young he married Mary Baker, of Roxbury, then a society of Woodbury, Connecticut, at which place they resided until the birth of their two eldest children, of which Ethan is supposed to be one of them. Joseph Allen then removed his family to Litchfield, from Litchfield he again removed to Cornwall or Salisbury, from which place several of the sons with Ethan emigrated to Vermont, in the early part of the settlement of that territory.

Capt. Seth Warner, (afterwards Col. Warner) was the third in command in the taking of Ticonderoga, though he did not cross the Lake and reach Ticonderoga until after Col. Allen, with his 83 men were in full possession of it. Col. Allen sent Capt. Warner with a detachment of men to take Crown Point, who were met at Crown Point by Capt. Remember Baker with his company, and united with Capt. Warner in taking the post.

Col. Allen, and Captains Warner and Baker were all born at Roxbury, then a society in Woodbury. After the close of the war, Col. Warner returned to his farm in Roxbury, on which he remained until his death. He was interred at Roxbury, over whose remains was erected a marble table, on which is inscribed a short history of his valorous deeds in the revolution.

This, the first offensive military operation of the revolutionary war, was of great importance to the colonies. Besides furnishing a large supply of arms, it opened to them the entrance into Canada.

The honor of the first conquest, made by the colonies, belongs chiefly to Connecticut. She also had to sustain the burthen of maintaining her acquisition, although the captured posts were within the jurisdiction of the colony of New York. One thousand men, under the command of Col. Hinman, were sent from Connecticut, in the summer of 1775, to garrison the forts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point.

NOTE. The following is an account of moneys advanced and paid out of the public Treasury of Connecticut, for the benefit and defence of the colonies in the year 1775 to Nov. 18th, 1775.

To the militia marched in the Lexington alarm, £7,824 6 6; in reducing and securing the fortresses at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, £1,511 5 0; raising, and advanced for wages to the eight regiments, £49,330 4 5; for supplying said troops with stores and provisions, £56,951 8 2; for equipping said troops with arms, accoutrements, and ammunition, £1,213 4 8; for supplying the battalion of riflemen on their march, £297 9 0; fitting out two armed vessels, £1,415 0 0; for raising troops for defence of the sea coast, mounting cannon, and erecting the battery at New London, £930 8 6; for procuring powder, lead, flints, three thousand stands of arms, &c., £7,563 19 7; to supply loss of blankets and arms at Bunker Hill, £204 9 7; to non-commissioned officers and soldiers of militia for special attendance on military discipline, per order of Assembly, October, 1774, £5,152 4 0; to expense of the special session of the Assembly, &c., £2,216 19 8; for post riders and expreses, £345 3 5; for various services, transportation, &c., £2,094 18 10. Total amount, £137,051 1 5.

NOTE. When the news of the Lexington alarm reached Gen. Putnam, he was ploughing in his field. So anxious was he for the fight, that he stopped his team and left them in the unfinished furrow, without even taking off the yoke from his oxen, went to his house, bid farewell to his wife, mounted his horse and started for Lexington and Boston.

THE SPIRIT OF THE YEAR 1774.

THE great object in the year 1774, by those who supposed war with the mother country was inevitable, was to form public opinion in favor of war with Great Britain; to do which, it became necessary to inform the people of their just rights, by

The following scraps of Historical Facts are inserted for preservation.

In December, 1774, Gen. Timothy Ruggles, of Hardwick, in Massachusetts, who was one of the leaders of the royalists, boldly espoused the cause of the King, by forming an association of tories in that and other colonies, under a constitution or compact, of six articles, to which, the signatures of such as united in said association were subscribed, which was openly published in the newspapers in Boston, Hartford, and other places.

1st. That they would on all occasions with their lives and fortunes, stand by and assist each other, in defence of life, liberty and property, when attacked or endangered by any body of men, riotously assembled under any pretence or authority not warranted by the laws of the land.

2d. To mutually support each other in the free exercise of their undoubted rights to liberty, in eating, drinking, buying, selling, (Tea) communing and acting, what, with, whom and as they pleased, consistent with the laws of God and the King.

3d. That they would not acknowledge or submit to the pretended authority of any Congresses, committees of correspondence, or other unconstitutional assemblies of men, but to oppose the forcible exercise of all such authority at the risk of their lives.

4th. That they would to the utmost of their power, promote and encourage, when called, and enforce obedience to the rightful authority of King George the 3d, and of his laws.

5th. That when the person or property of any so associated should be invaded by any committees, mobs or unlawful assemblies, that notice being given, would forthwith repair properly

holding town meetings, for the discussion of their greivances and their rights. A large majority of the yeoman of Connecticut became greatly excited, exasperated and patriotic, by holding

armed, to the person on whom such invasion or threatening should be, and to the utmost of their power defend such person and his property, and if need be, to oppose and repel force with force.

6th. That if any of such associates should be unjustly or unlawfully injured in his person or property by such assemblies, the others should unitedly demand, and if in their power, compel such offenders to make full reparation for such injury, and if all other means of security should fail, to have recourse to the natural laws of retaliation.

Several letters from England were received, stating that the King had issued his proclamation, and prohibited the exportation of either arms or ammunition from Great Britain to the colonies, and had ordered two men-of-war to the Texel, in Holland, to prevent the transportation of those articles in English bottoms to America.

In December, 1774, a letter from Connecticut to a gentleman in New York, gave the information that the towns of Newtown and Ridgefield had protested against the proceedings of the Grand Continental Congress, and that other towns were expected to follow the example.

In the latter part of January, 1775, a gentleman of Hartford went to New York, to procure a town stock of powder, where he purchased it, and on his return with it, through the town of Stamford, a customhouse officer seized it. When the news reached Hartford, thirty respectable men immediately went to Stamford to recover the powder, which they effected.

Feb. 1775. At a meeting of the committees of observation of the towns in Litchfield county, at Litchfield, Feb. 22d, to consider and advise upon the most effectual method of carrying into execution the continental association, according to the true spirit thereof; to cultivate that union and harmony which so happily

town meetings. I therefore insert in this work, a few of the doings of several towns in this State, shewing the manner of forming public opinion on the subject.

At a legal meeting, held at New Haven, on the 23d day of May, 1774, Daniel Lyman, Esq., Moderator.

Voted, That we will to the utmost of our abilities, assert and

subsisted among them, and which the dark and insidious foes of their peace and liberty, by every base and treacherous device, were endeavoring to weaken and confound. They passed several resolutions, expressing their views upon the subject of their meeting; among which they strongly recommended to the people of the county that they should treat all persons who should endeavor by any means or ways to sow the seeds of discord, with that utter contempt that such criminals justly deserved; and that all who should transgress the rules of the association; that the people of the county should be governed by the great line of conduct marked by the Continental Congress, by withdrawing all communion from such persons, as being inimical to the rights of human nature; and resolved to adopt the mode of proceeding agreed upon by the counties of Hartford and New Haven, in regard to persons accused of violating the articles of said association.

By request of the students of Yale College, the exhibitions of the seminary were to be discontinued during the unfavorable aspect of the affairs of the colonies; and the senior class appointed a committee to wait upon the authority of college with a petition for a private commencement.

The House of Representatives of the colony of Connecticut voted an address of thanks to the House of Assembly of the important island of Jamaica, for their kind and seasonable mediation, by their petition and remonstrance to his Majesty in favor of the colonies. The Speaker was directed to write to the Assembly of said island and enclose a copy of their resolution, and of the one passed May, 1773, as to appointing a committee of correspondence, inviting them to come into that method of communicating such intelligence as should be of public importance, and immediately affecting the inhabitants of the British colonies and islands in America.