John Grout
THE second son and third child of John Grout, who was the father of fourteen children, was born at Lunenburgh, Massachusetts, on the 13th of June, 1731. There he probably resided until he was thirty-five or thirty-six years old. The first intimation relative to any intention on the part of Grout to remove from Lunenburgh, is found in a letter signed by one James Putnam, dated at Worcester, Mass., September 3d, 1766, and written, as would appear from its contents, to some person resident on the New Hampshire Grants. In this letter Putnam says:— "Grout is desirous of settling in that part of the world where you live," and, in reference to his qualifications, adds, "he seems to have a peculiar natural talent for doing business at law and in courts." Grout did not change his abode immediately, for by a receipt dated April 22d, 1768, it appears that he was at that time, at Lunenburgh. It is probable that he soon after removed to the "Grants," and this opinion is strengthened by the fact, that he was at Charlestown, New Hampshire, in the following August. Before leaving the home of his nativity, he had married, and in the rapid increase of his family, had already shown a laudable desire to emulate his father. His advent was not hailed at Windsor, the place he had chosen for his new
* Journal of N. Y. Prov. Cong., i. 339, 340, 343, 347, 365, 627, 629, 630, 639: ii. 119, 120, 178, 179, 183, 184. Am. Arch., Fourth Series, vol. v. cols. 341, 355, 390, 865-867, 991. Letter from the Rev. Canon Micajah Townsend, dated Clarenceville, C. E., July 1st, 1856.
REDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES OF JOHN GROUT. 651
abode, with that enthusiasm which is so grateful to the voluntary exile. On the contrary, the inhabitants of the little town regarded his coming as an unfortunate occurrence. Scarcely was he settled, when Nathan Stone, the justice of the peace, received a notice from Zedekiah Stone and Joseph Wait, the overseers of the poor, in which they stated that complaint had been made to them "by the principal inhabitants" of Windsor, that "John Grout and his wife, and family of five or six children" who had lately arrived, were "likely to become chargeable to the town." On this account, and to gratify the pauper-hating people of Windsor, the overseers prayed that a warrant might be issued for the removal of said Grout and his family.
Their prayer was granted, and Benjamin Wait and Ezra Gilbert were authorized to command the immediate exodus of the penniless lawyer and his dependents. Information of the course which the town authorities intended to pursue having been given to Grout, he, on the 22d of April, 1769, endeavored to obtain a stay of proceedings from the officers who had been sent to remove him. To this end, he gave a written promise, that if permitted to remain a few days longer, he would, at the end of the specified time, be ready with his family, "at nine of the clock in the forenoon" at his "dwelling-house in Windsor," "to be carried out of town." In case this request should be granted, he declared "on honor, and as a lawyer," that no harm should come of it, either to the town or its officers. It is probable that the days of grace were given, and it would also appear that when these had passed, he had made some arrangements for remaining in Windsor. He was there on the 27th of May following, and from a deposition made on the 31st of the same month, by Simeon Olcott, an officer of that town, it seemed that there was at that time, "not any copy of a warrant of any kind" in his hands against Grout, issued at the instance of Windsor people. On the 5th of June following, Elijah Grout, a younger brother, testified to a similar statement. Grout next appeared at Chester, of which place he was a resident in February, 1770. The events previously recorded, in which he had acted so prominent a part, happened during the summer of that year, and probably afforded sufficient exercise for the restless disposition of the unfortunate Grout.* About this period his son, "a lad of thirteen years of age," ran away from the paternal roof, and the
* Sec ante, pp. 161-168.
652 HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
notice of this event which Grout published in the papers, and requested "all printers on the continent" to copy, was headed in staring capitals "Stop Thief! Stop Thief!" Notwithstanding the disrepute in which he was held by many, he obtained some business, and it appears on the 8th of March, 1771, he supplanted Thomas Chandler, one of the most influential men in Chester, as the attorney and land agent of Cornelius Vandenbergh, of the city of New York.
Grout endeavored to obtain an impartial execution of the laws relative to the cutting of ship-timber, and was diligent in informing John Wentworth, the surveyor-general, of the shortcomings of his deputies. His zeal does not appear to have met with the reward it deserved. In a bond dated the 17th of April, 1773, given to Daniel Whipple, the sheriff of Cumberland county, Grout, in answer to a citation, agreed to appear in the city of New York on the third Tuesday of that month, to "answer to Richard Morris in a plea of trespass." From accompanying circumstances, it would seem that the trespass with which he was charged was the destruction of his Majesty's masting trees. He was not unfrequently sent with dispatches to distant places, and was always careful to execute his commissions with fidelity. On the occasion of a riot in Putney, early in the year 1772, he bore the intelligence of the disturbance to the city of New York. In the letter which he carried on this occasion to Governor Tryon, dated the 29th of January, Judge Lord, the writer, after detailing a narrative of the tumult, referred to Grout in these words: — "I have yet to crave your Excellency's patience and leave to recommend to your Excellency's favour Mr. John Grout, attorney-at-law, who hath suffered much by persons enemical to this government, and to him, on account of his firm attachment to it, and endeavours to maintain good order and justice therein. Truth itself obliges me to say, that his practice as an attorney in this county, has always entitled him to the good opinion of the court and the best gentlemen in the county, as I apprehend, although riotous persons and parties, friends to New Hampshire and enemies to good order, have given him much trouble, which he has borne with great magnanimity, and strove in a legal and dispassionate way to overcome. Your Excellency, being perfectly humane, will delight in protecting him." This extract represents Grout in a different aspect from that in which he has previously appeared. He was, it would seem, a warm sup‑
UNSTEADY SENTIMENTS OF GROUT. 653
porter of the claims of New York to the "Grants," and on this account was shabbily treated by those who adhered to the New Hampshire faction. An unhappy disposition, and a turn for pettifogging, were not the best equipments with which to meet this opposition, and yet these were the weapons which Grout appears to have brought to the combat.
Previous to the commencement of the Revolution, Grout expressed sentiments in opposition to the acts of the British ministry, and at a meeting held in Chester on the 10th of October, 1774, was chosen by the patriotic citizens of that town a member of a committee, who were directed to join with the general committee of Cumberland county, in preparing a report condemnatory of the late acts of Parliament, to be sent to the New York committee of correspondence. His patriotism appears, however, to have been of short duration. A letter attributed to him, written from the "South-east part of Cheshire county, March 10th, 1775," contains the most violent and obscene expressions relative to the "damned Whigs." Still, his views cannot be determined by this production, for, although the first impression which one would derive from its perusal, is that the writer, whoever he might have been, was a vile blackguard, destitute of principle, and unscrupulous in the expression of his opinions, yet a more careful examination suggests the idea that the communication might have been intended as an allegorical declaration of sentiments in favor of a revolutionary movement. This notion is supported by the closing paragraphs of the letter, which are in these words:—
"Be assured, Sir, that our Honored Master Beelzebub waited upon me yesterday, and Commanded me to write to you and Inform you, that it is his Royal will and pleasure, that you play Hell with the Court that shall set at Westminster next week.
"From your Friend and Brother,
"Apollyon.
"To the Faithful and Dearly beloved
"Dr. Jones —————
"P.S. Please to read this Epistle to all the Faithful Brethren and salute them, Charles Phelps and Doctor Harvey in particular, with a kiss of love."
Three days after the date of this letter, the courts were broken up at Westminster, and on that occasion, Dr. Reuben Jones, of Rockingham, and Dr. Solomon Harvey, of Dummerston, were prominent leaders among the Whigs.
654 HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
On the 12th of April, 1775, Grout, who had been imprisoned for debt, received "his liberty" from Benjamin Archer, under-keeper of the jail at Westminster. Previous to this, he had satisfied certain judgments which had been obtained against him. His escape from this Scylla of confinement did not enable him to avoid the Charybdis of the people's hate. Having been denounced by John Chandler, and Thomas Chandler Jr., of Chester, as an enemy to his country, he, according to his own statements, was threatened by some with death, and by others with tortures "at the hands of the Green Mountain Boys." In this emergency, he declared his innocence of the crime charged against him, and wrote to Col. John Hazeltine, the chairman of the Cumberland county committee of correspondence, and to the chairman of the Walpole committee of inspection, for protection. He also made known his situation to the Rev. Samuel Whiting, of Chester, and begged him to use his influence "with these mad people," and thus save the county from becoming "an Aceldama or field of blood." In the latter part of the month of May, while confined to his bed by a fever, a party of men entered his dwelling, headed by Thomas Chandler Jr., and endeavored to drag him out of doors, but were prevented by the efforts and entreaties of his wife and his "good neighbours." On the following morning they renewed the attempt, and, having taken him about half a mile from his house, threatened to strangle him, but were induced to desist from executing this design. Having, through the efforts of his friends, regained his liberty, he claimed protection from the county committee. The chairman of that body thereupon ordered Chandler to desist from all attempts to injure Grout, which order Chandler promised to obey.
Though freed in this manner, from the annoyances to which his suspicious conduct had subjected him, he could not resist the temptation of disturbing the peace of the county. To effect this end, he commenced an epistolary attack upon the chairman of the committee of correspondence, Col. John Hazeltine. In a letter to this gentleman written from the "County of Hampshire, Province of Masstts. July 10th, 1775," Grout accused him of presiding over the deliberations of a body of men whose acts were tyrannical, and whose conduct was contrary to every principle of right. He further declared, that it was for this cause "that a great many of the best people in the county of Cumberland who are substantial friends to
"MEMORIAL AND PETITION." 655
the Liberties of the people and the Sacred Rights of Mankind, and who are even willing to seal their Love of their Country with their Blood in Defence of it, Groan under the weight of the Oppressions of that Lawless Banditti of men, who having first put a stop to the Course of Civil Justice under the assumed name of sons of Liberty, are destroying not only the Semblance, but even the substance and shadow of Liberty itself." In this style he continued through a long communication, to abuse the officers of Cumberland county, who in this time of emergency were directing their best efforts to secure to the people their rights, and to defend them from the machinations of Loyalists and Tories.
Later in the year, he addressed a "Memorial and Petition" to the "men that are assembled at Westminster in the County of Cumberland, who call themselves a County Congress." In this remarkable production he accused the representatives of the people of usurpation and oppression; pictured their temporary government as a despotism; and branded their chairman as a tyrant. After detailing a few instances, in which they had been obliged for the good of the community, to exercise dictatorial powers, he continued in this strain:— "You proceeded on other business equally Infamous and Rascally, and then, like the Rump Parliament, adjourned yourselves. But your Sovereign, Col. Hazeltine, thinking good to call you together before the time you was adjourned to, did do it, and you met on the 15th of August Last, and Proceeded to business. And why should you not? The King, by the Constitution, has a Right to call, adjourn, prorogue and dissolve parliaments. King HAZELTINE did Right in calling you together before the Time you had adjourned yourself to. This was to Let you Know he was your King, and it was no more than duty to Obey your Prince. Indeed, it must be confessed it was a rascally Trick in you ever to adjourn yourselves, for that was an Infringement of your King Hazeltine's Prerogative, for the King by his Prerogative has the sole Right of adjourning Parliaments." The closing paragraphs of this memorial, although abounding in bombast and fustian, are sufficiently curious to warrant their presentation in this connection. "As for myself," wrote this conceited but witty poltroon, "I belong to another order of men, who will neither Joyn with you, nor Oppose you. For why should I run with the Wind? Surely, if I should, it will outrun me. Or why should I fight with the wind? Surely,
656 HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT
there is not so much substance in the Skull of it, as that I could beat its Brains out with a Beetle. Surely, I will content myself with bearing your Blow, and will Say, Whoo-Raugh, Whoo-Raugh to your mighty Rushing. After a mighty wind comes a calm.
"Your petitioner most humbly prays, that you would be graciously pleased to annihilate yourselves, and Return into your Primitive Nothingness, unless the Good People of the County shall please to employ you about something.
"But, oh, mighty Chaos, if you will not condescend to grant this petition, I have another to make, which I beg of you not to deny me, which is this, that your almighty Nothingships would be pleased to Honour your Petitioner, who heartily Despises you, by making him first General and Commander-in-Chief of all your despisers, that so he may be at the head of nine-tenths of the good people of this county. And your Petitioner as in Duty bound shall ever pray."
In the fall of the same year, he was brought before the committee of Chester, on a charge which had been preferred against him of speaking disrespectfully of the Continental Congress and the county committee. A quarrel having arisen among the members in respect to the manner in which the trial should be conducted, Grout refused to make any defence, and remained wholly inactive during the proceedings. By a portion of the committee, he was adjudged to be an enemy to his country. From this decision he appealed to the county committee. The subject came before them on the 29th of November, but they refused to sustain the appeal, and ordered him to withdraw it. At another meeting held on the 24th of July, 1776, a complaint was exhibited by John Chandler against Grout. The members being unwilling to act upon it, referred it, at first, to the Chester committee, but by a subsequent vote recalled the reference and resolved to receive Grout's answer at their session in the following November. On the 8th of that month, a complaint against Thomas Chandler, Jr., was presented by Grout, to the county committee, accusing him of maltreatment. "After maturely deliberating upon the case," the committee ordered Chandler to pay to Grout "the sum of Six Pence, York Currency." The costs of the investigation were divided equally between them, and both were "Reprimanded by the Chairman in presence of the whole Board." Grout suffered on other occasions from the patriotism or maliciousness
TRAGIC FATE. 657
of the Chandlers, and through their influence and that of others connected with them, he was taken prisoner at Charlestown, New Hampshire, on the 27th of December, 1776. On the 2d of June, 1777, he was a resident of Chester, but soon after removed to Montreal, where he assumed his true character, that of a British subject, and is said to have become "a distinguished lawyer."*
He resided in Canada during the remainder of the war, and probably for several years after its close. His end was as tragic as his life had been turbulent and unhappy. With a large sum of money in his possession, which he had collected for some person residing in one of the states, he left Canada for the purpose of conveying it to the owner, and was never afterwards heard of. For a long time it was supposed that he had been drowned in crossing Lake Champlain. Many years after his sudden disappearance, a man was convicted of some crime punishable by death. Previous to his execution he acknowledged his guilt, and, in detailing the dark transactions of his life, confessed that he had murdered John Grout for the purpose of obtaining the money which he carried. He also described the place where he had buried the body. A search having been instituted, human bones were found at the spot he had designated.
THE second son and third child of John Grout, who was the father of fourteen children, was born at Lunenburgh, Massachusetts, on the 13th of June, 1731. There he probably resided until he was thirty-five or thirty-six years old. The first intimation relative to any intention on the part of Grout to remove from Lunenburgh, is found in a letter signed by one James Putnam, dated at Worcester, Mass., September 3d, 1766, and written, as would appear from its contents, to some person resident on the New Hampshire Grants. In this letter Putnam says:— "Grout is desirous of settling in that part of the world where you live," and, in reference to his qualifications, adds, "he seems to have a peculiar natural talent for doing business at law and in courts." Grout did not change his abode immediately, for by a receipt dated April 22d, 1768, it appears that he was at that time, at Lunenburgh. It is probable that he soon after removed to the "Grants," and this opinion is strengthened by the fact, that he was at Charlestown, New Hampshire, in the following August. Before leaving the home of his nativity, he had married, and in the rapid increase of his family, had already shown a laudable desire to emulate his father. His advent was not hailed at Windsor, the place he had chosen for his new
* Journal of N. Y. Prov. Cong., i. 339, 340, 343, 347, 365, 627, 629, 630, 639: ii. 119, 120, 178, 179, 183, 184. Am. Arch., Fourth Series, vol. v. cols. 341, 355, 390, 865-867, 991. Letter from the Rev. Canon Micajah Townsend, dated Clarenceville, C. E., July 1st, 1856.
REDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES OF JOHN GROUT. 651
abode, with that enthusiasm which is so grateful to the voluntary exile. On the contrary, the inhabitants of the little town regarded his coming as an unfortunate occurrence. Scarcely was he settled, when Nathan Stone, the justice of the peace, received a notice from Zedekiah Stone and Joseph Wait, the overseers of the poor, in which they stated that complaint had been made to them "by the principal inhabitants" of Windsor, that "John Grout and his wife, and family of five or six children" who had lately arrived, were "likely to become chargeable to the town." On this account, and to gratify the pauper-hating people of Windsor, the overseers prayed that a warrant might be issued for the removal of said Grout and his family.
Their prayer was granted, and Benjamin Wait and Ezra Gilbert were authorized to command the immediate exodus of the penniless lawyer and his dependents. Information of the course which the town authorities intended to pursue having been given to Grout, he, on the 22d of April, 1769, endeavored to obtain a stay of proceedings from the officers who had been sent to remove him. To this end, he gave a written promise, that if permitted to remain a few days longer, he would, at the end of the specified time, be ready with his family, "at nine of the clock in the forenoon" at his "dwelling-house in Windsor," "to be carried out of town." In case this request should be granted, he declared "on honor, and as a lawyer," that no harm should come of it, either to the town or its officers. It is probable that the days of grace were given, and it would also appear that when these had passed, he had made some arrangements for remaining in Windsor. He was there on the 27th of May following, and from a deposition made on the 31st of the same month, by Simeon Olcott, an officer of that town, it seemed that there was at that time, "not any copy of a warrant of any kind" in his hands against Grout, issued at the instance of Windsor people. On the 5th of June following, Elijah Grout, a younger brother, testified to a similar statement. Grout next appeared at Chester, of which place he was a resident in February, 1770. The events previously recorded, in which he had acted so prominent a part, happened during the summer of that year, and probably afforded sufficient exercise for the restless disposition of the unfortunate Grout.* About this period his son, "a lad of thirteen years of age," ran away from the paternal roof, and the
* Sec ante, pp. 161-168.
652 HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
notice of this event which Grout published in the papers, and requested "all printers on the continent" to copy, was headed in staring capitals "Stop Thief! Stop Thief!" Notwithstanding the disrepute in which he was held by many, he obtained some business, and it appears on the 8th of March, 1771, he supplanted Thomas Chandler, one of the most influential men in Chester, as the attorney and land agent of Cornelius Vandenbergh, of the city of New York.
Grout endeavored to obtain an impartial execution of the laws relative to the cutting of ship-timber, and was diligent in informing John Wentworth, the surveyor-general, of the shortcomings of his deputies. His zeal does not appear to have met with the reward it deserved. In a bond dated the 17th of April, 1773, given to Daniel Whipple, the sheriff of Cumberland county, Grout, in answer to a citation, agreed to appear in the city of New York on the third Tuesday of that month, to "answer to Richard Morris in a plea of trespass." From accompanying circumstances, it would seem that the trespass with which he was charged was the destruction of his Majesty's masting trees. He was not unfrequently sent with dispatches to distant places, and was always careful to execute his commissions with fidelity. On the occasion of a riot in Putney, early in the year 1772, he bore the intelligence of the disturbance to the city of New York. In the letter which he carried on this occasion to Governor Tryon, dated the 29th of January, Judge Lord, the writer, after detailing a narrative of the tumult, referred to Grout in these words: — "I have yet to crave your Excellency's patience and leave to recommend to your Excellency's favour Mr. John Grout, attorney-at-law, who hath suffered much by persons enemical to this government, and to him, on account of his firm attachment to it, and endeavours to maintain good order and justice therein. Truth itself obliges me to say, that his practice as an attorney in this county, has always entitled him to the good opinion of the court and the best gentlemen in the county, as I apprehend, although riotous persons and parties, friends to New Hampshire and enemies to good order, have given him much trouble, which he has borne with great magnanimity, and strove in a legal and dispassionate way to overcome. Your Excellency, being perfectly humane, will delight in protecting him." This extract represents Grout in a different aspect from that in which he has previously appeared. He was, it would seem, a warm sup‑
UNSTEADY SENTIMENTS OF GROUT. 653
porter of the claims of New York to the "Grants," and on this account was shabbily treated by those who adhered to the New Hampshire faction. An unhappy disposition, and a turn for pettifogging, were not the best equipments with which to meet this opposition, and yet these were the weapons which Grout appears to have brought to the combat.
Previous to the commencement of the Revolution, Grout expressed sentiments in opposition to the acts of the British ministry, and at a meeting held in Chester on the 10th of October, 1774, was chosen by the patriotic citizens of that town a member of a committee, who were directed to join with the general committee of Cumberland county, in preparing a report condemnatory of the late acts of Parliament, to be sent to the New York committee of correspondence. His patriotism appears, however, to have been of short duration. A letter attributed to him, written from the "South-east part of Cheshire county, March 10th, 1775," contains the most violent and obscene expressions relative to the "damned Whigs." Still, his views cannot be determined by this production, for, although the first impression which one would derive from its perusal, is that the writer, whoever he might have been, was a vile blackguard, destitute of principle, and unscrupulous in the expression of his opinions, yet a more careful examination suggests the idea that the communication might have been intended as an allegorical declaration of sentiments in favor of a revolutionary movement. This notion is supported by the closing paragraphs of the letter, which are in these words:—
"Be assured, Sir, that our Honored Master Beelzebub waited upon me yesterday, and Commanded me to write to you and Inform you, that it is his Royal will and pleasure, that you play Hell with the Court that shall set at Westminster next week.
"From your Friend and Brother,
"Apollyon.
"To the Faithful and Dearly beloved
"Dr. Jones —————
"P.S. Please to read this Epistle to all the Faithful Brethren and salute them, Charles Phelps and Doctor Harvey in particular, with a kiss of love."
Three days after the date of this letter, the courts were broken up at Westminster, and on that occasion, Dr. Reuben Jones, of Rockingham, and Dr. Solomon Harvey, of Dummerston, were prominent leaders among the Whigs.
654 HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
On the 12th of April, 1775, Grout, who had been imprisoned for debt, received "his liberty" from Benjamin Archer, under-keeper of the jail at Westminster. Previous to this, he had satisfied certain judgments which had been obtained against him. His escape from this Scylla of confinement did not enable him to avoid the Charybdis of the people's hate. Having been denounced by John Chandler, and Thomas Chandler Jr., of Chester, as an enemy to his country, he, according to his own statements, was threatened by some with death, and by others with tortures "at the hands of the Green Mountain Boys." In this emergency, he declared his innocence of the crime charged against him, and wrote to Col. John Hazeltine, the chairman of the Cumberland county committee of correspondence, and to the chairman of the Walpole committee of inspection, for protection. He also made known his situation to the Rev. Samuel Whiting, of Chester, and begged him to use his influence "with these mad people," and thus save the county from becoming "an Aceldama or field of blood." In the latter part of the month of May, while confined to his bed by a fever, a party of men entered his dwelling, headed by Thomas Chandler Jr., and endeavored to drag him out of doors, but were prevented by the efforts and entreaties of his wife and his "good neighbours." On the following morning they renewed the attempt, and, having taken him about half a mile from his house, threatened to strangle him, but were induced to desist from executing this design. Having, through the efforts of his friends, regained his liberty, he claimed protection from the county committee. The chairman of that body thereupon ordered Chandler to desist from all attempts to injure Grout, which order Chandler promised to obey.
Though freed in this manner, from the annoyances to which his suspicious conduct had subjected him, he could not resist the temptation of disturbing the peace of the county. To effect this end, he commenced an epistolary attack upon the chairman of the committee of correspondence, Col. John Hazeltine. In a letter to this gentleman written from the "County of Hampshire, Province of Masstts. July 10th, 1775," Grout accused him of presiding over the deliberations of a body of men whose acts were tyrannical, and whose conduct was contrary to every principle of right. He further declared, that it was for this cause "that a great many of the best people in the county of Cumberland who are substantial friends to
"MEMORIAL AND PETITION." 655
the Liberties of the people and the Sacred Rights of Mankind, and who are even willing to seal their Love of their Country with their Blood in Defence of it, Groan under the weight of the Oppressions of that Lawless Banditti of men, who having first put a stop to the Course of Civil Justice under the assumed name of sons of Liberty, are destroying not only the Semblance, but even the substance and shadow of Liberty itself." In this style he continued through a long communication, to abuse the officers of Cumberland county, who in this time of emergency were directing their best efforts to secure to the people their rights, and to defend them from the machinations of Loyalists and Tories.
Later in the year, he addressed a "Memorial and Petition" to the "men that are assembled at Westminster in the County of Cumberland, who call themselves a County Congress." In this remarkable production he accused the representatives of the people of usurpation and oppression; pictured their temporary government as a despotism; and branded their chairman as a tyrant. After detailing a few instances, in which they had been obliged for the good of the community, to exercise dictatorial powers, he continued in this strain:— "You proceeded on other business equally Infamous and Rascally, and then, like the Rump Parliament, adjourned yourselves. But your Sovereign, Col. Hazeltine, thinking good to call you together before the time you was adjourned to, did do it, and you met on the 15th of August Last, and Proceeded to business. And why should you not? The King, by the Constitution, has a Right to call, adjourn, prorogue and dissolve parliaments. King HAZELTINE did Right in calling you together before the Time you had adjourned yourself to. This was to Let you Know he was your King, and it was no more than duty to Obey your Prince. Indeed, it must be confessed it was a rascally Trick in you ever to adjourn yourselves, for that was an Infringement of your King Hazeltine's Prerogative, for the King by his Prerogative has the sole Right of adjourning Parliaments." The closing paragraphs of this memorial, although abounding in bombast and fustian, are sufficiently curious to warrant their presentation in this connection. "As for myself," wrote this conceited but witty poltroon, "I belong to another order of men, who will neither Joyn with you, nor Oppose you. For why should I run with the Wind? Surely, if I should, it will outrun me. Or why should I fight with the wind? Surely,
656 HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT
there is not so much substance in the Skull of it, as that I could beat its Brains out with a Beetle. Surely, I will content myself with bearing your Blow, and will Say, Whoo-Raugh, Whoo-Raugh to your mighty Rushing. After a mighty wind comes a calm.
"Your petitioner most humbly prays, that you would be graciously pleased to annihilate yourselves, and Return into your Primitive Nothingness, unless the Good People of the County shall please to employ you about something.
"But, oh, mighty Chaos, if you will not condescend to grant this petition, I have another to make, which I beg of you not to deny me, which is this, that your almighty Nothingships would be pleased to Honour your Petitioner, who heartily Despises you, by making him first General and Commander-in-Chief of all your despisers, that so he may be at the head of nine-tenths of the good people of this county. And your Petitioner as in Duty bound shall ever pray."
In the fall of the same year, he was brought before the committee of Chester, on a charge which had been preferred against him of speaking disrespectfully of the Continental Congress and the county committee. A quarrel having arisen among the members in respect to the manner in which the trial should be conducted, Grout refused to make any defence, and remained wholly inactive during the proceedings. By a portion of the committee, he was adjudged to be an enemy to his country. From this decision he appealed to the county committee. The subject came before them on the 29th of November, but they refused to sustain the appeal, and ordered him to withdraw it. At another meeting held on the 24th of July, 1776, a complaint was exhibited by John Chandler against Grout. The members being unwilling to act upon it, referred it, at first, to the Chester committee, but by a subsequent vote recalled the reference and resolved to receive Grout's answer at their session in the following November. On the 8th of that month, a complaint against Thomas Chandler, Jr., was presented by Grout, to the county committee, accusing him of maltreatment. "After maturely deliberating upon the case," the committee ordered Chandler to pay to Grout "the sum of Six Pence, York Currency." The costs of the investigation were divided equally between them, and both were "Reprimanded by the Chairman in presence of the whole Board." Grout suffered on other occasions from the patriotism or maliciousness
TRAGIC FATE. 657
of the Chandlers, and through their influence and that of others connected with them, he was taken prisoner at Charlestown, New Hampshire, on the 27th of December, 1776. On the 2d of June, 1777, he was a resident of Chester, but soon after removed to Montreal, where he assumed his true character, that of a British subject, and is said to have become "a distinguished lawyer."*
He resided in Canada during the remainder of the war, and probably for several years after its close. His end was as tragic as his life had been turbulent and unhappy. With a large sum of money in his possession, which he had collected for some person residing in one of the states, he left Canada for the purpose of conveying it to the owner, and was never afterwards heard of. For a long time it was supposed that he had been drowned in crossing Lake Champlain. Many years after his sudden disappearance, a man was convicted of some crime punishable by death. Previous to his execution he acknowledged his guilt, and, in detailing the dark transactions of his life, confessed that he had murdered John Grout for the purpose of obtaining the money which he carried. He also described the place where he had buried the body. A search having been instituted, human bones were found at the spot he had designated.
John Grout
THE second son and third child of John Grout, who was the father of fourteen children, was born at Lunenburgh, Massachusetts, on the 13th of June, 1731. There he probably resided until he was thirty-five or thirty-six years old. The first intimation relative to any intention on the part of Grout to remove from Lunenburgh, is found in a letter signed by one James Putnam, dated at Worcester, Mass., September 3d, 1766, and written, as would appear from its contents, to some person resident on the New Hampshire Grants. In this letter Putnam says:— "Grout is desirous of settling in that part of the world where you live," and, in reference to his qualifications, adds, "he seems to have a peculiar natural talent for doing business at law and in courts." Grout did not change his abode immediately, for by a receipt dated April 22d, 1768, it appears that he was at that time, at Lunenburgh. It is probable that he soon after removed to the "Grants," and this opinion is strengthened by the fact, that he was at Charlestown, New Hampshire, in the following August. Before leaving the home of his nativity, he had married, and in the rapid increase of his family, had already shown a laudable desire to emulate his father. His advent was not hailed at Windsor, the place he had chosen for his new
* Journal of N. Y. Prov. Cong., i. 339, 340, 343, 347, 365, 627, 629, 630, 639: ii. 119, 120, 178, 179, 183, 184. Am. Arch., Fourth Series, vol. v. cols. 341, 355, 390, 865-867, 991. Letter from the Rev. Canon Micajah Townsend, dated Clarenceville, C. E., July 1st, 1856.
REDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES OF JOHN GROUT. 651
abode, with that enthusiasm which is so grateful to the voluntary exile. On the contrary, the inhabitants of the little town regarded his coming as an unfortunate occurrence. Scarcely was he settled, when Nathan Stone, the justice of the peace, received a notice from Zedekiah Stone and Joseph Wait, the overseers of the poor, in which they stated that complaint had been made to them "by the principal inhabitants" of Windsor, that "John Grout and his wife, and family of five or six children" who had lately arrived, were "likely to become chargeable to the town." On this account, and to gratify the pauper-hating people of Windsor, the overseers prayed that a warrant might be issued for the removal of said Grout and his family.
Their prayer was granted, and Benjamin Wait and Ezra Gilbert were authorized to command the immediate exodus of the penniless lawyer and his dependents. Information of the course which the town authorities intended to pursue having been given to Grout, he, on the 22d of April, 1769, endeavored to obtain a stay of proceedings from the officers who had been sent to remove him. To this end, he gave a written promise, that if permitted to remain a few days longer, he would, at the end of the specified time, be ready with his family, "at nine of the clock in the forenoon" at his "dwelling-house in Windsor," "to be carried out of town." In case this request should be granted, he declared "on honor, and as a lawyer," that no harm should come of it, either to the town or its officers. It is probable that the days of grace were given, and it would also appear that when these had passed, he had made some arrangements for remaining in Windsor. He was there on the 27th of May following, and from a deposition made on the 31st of the same month, by Simeon Olcott, an officer of that town, it seemed that there was at that time, "not any copy of a warrant of any kind" in his hands against Grout, issued at the instance of Windsor people. On the 5th of June following, Elijah Grout, a younger brother, testified to a similar statement. Grout next appeared at Chester, of which place he was a resident in February, 1770. The events previously recorded, in which he had acted so prominent a part, happened during the summer of that year, and probably afforded sufficient exercise for the restless disposition of the unfortunate Grout.* About this period his son, "a lad of thirteen years of age," ran away from the paternal roof, and the
* Sec ante, pp. 161-168.
652 HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
notice of this event which Grout published in the papers, and requested "all printers on the continent" to copy, was headed in staring capitals "Stop Thief! Stop Thief!" Notwithstanding the disrepute in which he was held by many, he obtained some business, and it appears on the 8th of March, 1771, he supplanted Thomas Chandler, one of the most influential men in Chester, as the attorney and land agent of Cornelius Vandenbergh, of the city of New York.
Grout endeavored to obtain an impartial execution of the laws relative to the cutting of ship-timber, and was diligent in informing John Wentworth, the surveyor-general, of the shortcomings of his deputies. His zeal does not appear to have met with the reward it deserved. In a bond dated the 17th of April, 1773, given to Daniel Whipple, the sheriff of Cumberland county, Grout, in answer to a citation, agreed to appear in the city of New York on the third Tuesday of that month, to "answer to Richard Morris in a plea of trespass." From accompanying circumstances, it would seem that the trespass with which he was charged was the destruction of his Majesty's masting trees. He was not unfrequently sent with dispatches to distant places, and was always careful to execute his commissions with fidelity. On the occasion of a riot in Putney, early in the year 1772, he bore the intelligence of the disturbance to the city of New York. In the letter which he carried on this occasion to Governor Tryon, dated the 29th of January, Judge Lord, the writer, after detailing a narrative of the tumult, referred to Grout in these words: — "I have yet to crave your Excellency's patience and leave to recommend to your Excellency's favour Mr. John Grout, attorney-at-law, who hath suffered much by persons enemical to this government, and to him, on account of his firm attachment to it, and endeavours to maintain good order and justice therein. Truth itself obliges me to say, that his practice as an attorney in this county, has always entitled him to the good opinion of the court and the best gentlemen in the county, as I apprehend, although riotous persons and parties, friends to New Hampshire and enemies to good order, have given him much trouble, which he has borne with great magnanimity, and strove in a legal and dispassionate way to overcome. Your Excellency, being perfectly humane, will delight in protecting him." This extract represents Grout in a different aspect from that in which he has previously appeared. He was, it would seem, a warm sup‑
UNSTEADY SENTIMENTS OF GROUT. 653
porter of the claims of New York to the "Grants," and on this account was shabbily treated by those who adhered to the New Hampshire faction. An unhappy disposition, and a turn for pettifogging, were not the best equipments with which to meet this opposition, and yet these were the weapons which Grout appears to have brought to the combat.
Previous to the commencement of the Revolution, Grout expressed sentiments in opposition to the acts of the British ministry, and at a meeting held in Chester on the 10th of October, 1774, was chosen by the patriotic citizens of that town a member of a committee, who were directed to join with the general committee of Cumberland county, in preparing a report condemnatory of the late acts of Parliament, to be sent to the New York committee of correspondence. His patriotism appears, however, to have been of short duration. A letter attributed to him, written from the "South-east part of Cheshire county, March 10th, 1775," contains the most violent and obscene expressions relative to the "damned Whigs." Still, his views cannot be determined by this production, for, although the first impression which one would derive from its perusal, is that the writer, whoever he might have been, was a vile blackguard, destitute of principle, and unscrupulous in the expression of his opinions, yet a more careful examination suggests the idea that the communication might have been intended as an allegorical declaration of sentiments in favor of a revolutionary movement. This notion is supported by the closing paragraphs of the letter, which are in these words:—
"Be assured, Sir, that our Honored Master Beelzebub waited upon me yesterday, and Commanded me to write to you and Inform you, that it is his Royal will and pleasure, that you play Hell with the Court that shall set at Westminster next week.
"From your Friend and Brother,
"Apollyon.
"To the Faithful and Dearly beloved
"Dr. Jones —————
"P.S. Please to read this Epistle to all the Faithful Brethren and salute them, Charles Phelps and Doctor Harvey in particular, with a kiss of love."
Three days after the date of this letter, the courts were broken up at Westminster, and on that occasion, Dr. Reuben Jones, of Rockingham, and Dr. Solomon Harvey, of Dummerston, were prominent leaders among the Whigs.
654 HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
On the 12th of April, 1775, Grout, who had been imprisoned for debt, received "his liberty" from Benjamin Archer, under-keeper of the jail at Westminster. Previous to this, he had satisfied certain judgments which had been obtained against him. His escape from this Scylla of confinement did not enable him to avoid the Charybdis of the people's hate. Having been denounced by John Chandler, and Thomas Chandler Jr., of Chester, as an enemy to his country, he, according to his own statements, was threatened by some with death, and by others with tortures "at the hands of the Green Mountain Boys." In this emergency, he declared his innocence of the crime charged against him, and wrote to Col. John Hazeltine, the chairman of the Cumberland county committee of correspondence, and to the chairman of the Walpole committee of inspection, for protection. He also made known his situation to the Rev. Samuel Whiting, of Chester, and begged him to use his influence "with these mad people," and thus save the county from becoming "an Aceldama or field of blood." In the latter part of the month of May, while confined to his bed by a fever, a party of men entered his dwelling, headed by Thomas Chandler Jr., and endeavored to drag him out of doors, but were prevented by the efforts and entreaties of his wife and his "good neighbours." On the following morning they renewed the attempt, and, having taken him about half a mile from his house, threatened to strangle him, but were induced to desist from executing this design. Having, through the efforts of his friends, regained his liberty, he claimed protection from the county committee. The chairman of that body thereupon ordered Chandler to desist from all attempts to injure Grout, which order Chandler promised to obey.
Though freed in this manner, from the annoyances to which his suspicious conduct had subjected him, he could not resist the temptation of disturbing the peace of the county. To effect this end, he commenced an epistolary attack upon the chairman of the committee of correspondence, Col. John Hazeltine. In a letter to this gentleman written from the "County of Hampshire, Province of Masstts. July 10th, 1775," Grout accused him of presiding over the deliberations of a body of men whose acts were tyrannical, and whose conduct was contrary to every principle of right. He further declared, that it was for this cause "that a great many of the best people in the county of Cumberland who are substantial friends to
"MEMORIAL AND PETITION." 655
the Liberties of the people and the Sacred Rights of Mankind, and who are even willing to seal their Love of their Country with their Blood in Defence of it, Groan under the weight of the Oppressions of that Lawless Banditti of men, who having first put a stop to the Course of Civil Justice under the assumed name of sons of Liberty, are destroying not only the Semblance, but even the substance and shadow of Liberty itself." In this style he continued through a long communication, to abuse the officers of Cumberland county, who in this time of emergency were directing their best efforts to secure to the people their rights, and to defend them from the machinations of Loyalists and Tories.
Later in the year, he addressed a "Memorial and Petition" to the "men that are assembled at Westminster in the County of Cumberland, who call themselves a County Congress." In this remarkable production he accused the representatives of the people of usurpation and oppression; pictured their temporary government as a despotism; and branded their chairman as a tyrant. After detailing a few instances, in which they had been obliged for the good of the community, to exercise dictatorial powers, he continued in this strain:— "You proceeded on other business equally Infamous and Rascally, and then, like the Rump Parliament, adjourned yourselves. But your Sovereign, Col. Hazeltine, thinking good to call you together before the time you was adjourned to, did do it, and you met on the 15th of August Last, and Proceeded to business. And why should you not? The King, by the Constitution, has a Right to call, adjourn, prorogue and dissolve parliaments. King HAZELTINE did Right in calling you together before the Time you had adjourned yourself to. This was to Let you Know he was your King, and it was no more than duty to Obey your Prince. Indeed, it must be confessed it was a rascally Trick in you ever to adjourn yourselves, for that was an Infringement of your King Hazeltine's Prerogative, for the King by his Prerogative has the sole Right of adjourning Parliaments." The closing paragraphs of this memorial, although abounding in bombast and fustian, are sufficiently curious to warrant their presentation in this connection. "As for myself," wrote this conceited but witty poltroon, "I belong to another order of men, who will neither Joyn with you, nor Oppose you. For why should I run with the Wind? Surely, if I should, it will outrun me. Or why should I fight with the wind? Surely,
656 HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT
there is not so much substance in the Skull of it, as that I could beat its Brains out with a Beetle. Surely, I will content myself with bearing your Blow, and will Say, Whoo-Raugh, Whoo-Raugh to your mighty Rushing. After a mighty wind comes a calm.
"Your petitioner most humbly prays, that you would be graciously pleased to annihilate yourselves, and Return into your Primitive Nothingness, unless the Good People of the County shall please to employ you about something.
"But, oh, mighty Chaos, if you will not condescend to grant this petition, I have another to make, which I beg of you not to deny me, which is this, that your almighty Nothingships would be pleased to Honour your Petitioner, who heartily Despises you, by making him first General and Commander-in-Chief of all your despisers, that so he may be at the head of nine-tenths of the good people of this county. And your Petitioner as in Duty bound shall ever pray."
In the fall of the same year, he was brought before the committee of Chester, on a charge which had been preferred against him of speaking disrespectfully of the Continental Congress and the county committee. A quarrel having arisen among the members in respect to the manner in which the trial should be conducted, Grout refused to make any defence, and remained wholly inactive during the proceedings. By a portion of the committee, he was adjudged to be an enemy to his country. From this decision he appealed to the county committee. The subject came before them on the 29th of November, but they refused to sustain the appeal, and ordered him to withdraw it. At another meeting held on the 24th of July, 1776, a complaint was exhibited by John Chandler against Grout. The members being unwilling to act upon it, referred it, at first, to the Chester committee, but by a subsequent vote recalled the reference and resolved to receive Grout's answer at their session in the following November. On the 8th of that month, a complaint against Thomas Chandler, Jr., was presented by Grout, to the county committee, accusing him of maltreatment. "After maturely deliberating upon the case," the committee ordered Chandler to pay to Grout "the sum of Six Pence, York Currency." The costs of the investigation were divided equally between them, and both were "Reprimanded by the Chairman in presence of the whole Board." Grout suffered on other occasions from the patriotism or maliciousness
TRAGIC FATE. 657
of the Chandlers, and through their influence and that of others connected with them, he was taken prisoner at Charlestown, New Hampshire, on the 27th of December, 1776. On the 2d of June, 1777, he was a resident of Chester, but soon after removed to Montreal, where he assumed his true character, that of a British subject, and is said to have become "a distinguished lawyer."*
He resided in Canada during the remainder of the war, and probably for several years after its close. His end was as tragic as his life had been turbulent and unhappy. With a large sum of money in his possession, which he had collected for some person residing in one of the states, he left Canada for the purpose of conveying it to the owner, and was never afterwards heard of. For a long time it was supposed that he had been drowned in crossing Lake Champlain. Many years after his sudden disappearance, a man was convicted of some crime punishable by death. Previous to his execution he acknowledged his guilt, and, in detailing the dark transactions of his life, confessed that he had murdered John Grout for the purpose of obtaining the money which he carried. He also described the place where he had buried the body. A search having been instituted, human bones were found at the spot he had designated.
THE second son and third child of John Grout, who was the father of fourteen children, was born at Lunenburgh, Massachusetts, on the 13th of June, 1731. There he probably resided until he was thirty-five or thirty-six years old. The first intimation relative to any intention on the part of Grout to remove from Lunenburgh, is found in a letter signed by one James Putnam, dated at Worcester, Mass., September 3d, 1766, and written, as would appear from its contents, to some person resident on the New Hampshire Grants. In this letter Putnam says:— "Grout is desirous of settling in that part of the world where you live," and, in reference to his qualifications, adds, "he seems to have a peculiar natural talent for doing business at law and in courts." Grout did not change his abode immediately, for by a receipt dated April 22d, 1768, it appears that he was at that time, at Lunenburgh. It is probable that he soon after removed to the "Grants," and this opinion is strengthened by the fact, that he was at Charlestown, New Hampshire, in the following August. Before leaving the home of his nativity, he had married, and in the rapid increase of his family, had already shown a laudable desire to emulate his father. His advent was not hailed at Windsor, the place he had chosen for his new
* Journal of N. Y. Prov. Cong., i. 339, 340, 343, 347, 365, 627, 629, 630, 639: ii. 119, 120, 178, 179, 183, 184. Am. Arch., Fourth Series, vol. v. cols. 341, 355, 390, 865-867, 991. Letter from the Rev. Canon Micajah Townsend, dated Clarenceville, C. E., July 1st, 1856.
REDUCED CIRCUMSTANCES OF JOHN GROUT. 651
abode, with that enthusiasm which is so grateful to the voluntary exile. On the contrary, the inhabitants of the little town regarded his coming as an unfortunate occurrence. Scarcely was he settled, when Nathan Stone, the justice of the peace, received a notice from Zedekiah Stone and Joseph Wait, the overseers of the poor, in which they stated that complaint had been made to them "by the principal inhabitants" of Windsor, that "John Grout and his wife, and family of five or six children" who had lately arrived, were "likely to become chargeable to the town." On this account, and to gratify the pauper-hating people of Windsor, the overseers prayed that a warrant might be issued for the removal of said Grout and his family.
Their prayer was granted, and Benjamin Wait and Ezra Gilbert were authorized to command the immediate exodus of the penniless lawyer and his dependents. Information of the course which the town authorities intended to pursue having been given to Grout, he, on the 22d of April, 1769, endeavored to obtain a stay of proceedings from the officers who had been sent to remove him. To this end, he gave a written promise, that if permitted to remain a few days longer, he would, at the end of the specified time, be ready with his family, "at nine of the clock in the forenoon" at his "dwelling-house in Windsor," "to be carried out of town." In case this request should be granted, he declared "on honor, and as a lawyer," that no harm should come of it, either to the town or its officers. It is probable that the days of grace were given, and it would also appear that when these had passed, he had made some arrangements for remaining in Windsor. He was there on the 27th of May following, and from a deposition made on the 31st of the same month, by Simeon Olcott, an officer of that town, it seemed that there was at that time, "not any copy of a warrant of any kind" in his hands against Grout, issued at the instance of Windsor people. On the 5th of June following, Elijah Grout, a younger brother, testified to a similar statement. Grout next appeared at Chester, of which place he was a resident in February, 1770. The events previously recorded, in which he had acted so prominent a part, happened during the summer of that year, and probably afforded sufficient exercise for the restless disposition of the unfortunate Grout.* About this period his son, "a lad of thirteen years of age," ran away from the paternal roof, and the
* Sec ante, pp. 161-168.
652 HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
notice of this event which Grout published in the papers, and requested "all printers on the continent" to copy, was headed in staring capitals "Stop Thief! Stop Thief!" Notwithstanding the disrepute in which he was held by many, he obtained some business, and it appears on the 8th of March, 1771, he supplanted Thomas Chandler, one of the most influential men in Chester, as the attorney and land agent of Cornelius Vandenbergh, of the city of New York.
Grout endeavored to obtain an impartial execution of the laws relative to the cutting of ship-timber, and was diligent in informing John Wentworth, the surveyor-general, of the shortcomings of his deputies. His zeal does not appear to have met with the reward it deserved. In a bond dated the 17th of April, 1773, given to Daniel Whipple, the sheriff of Cumberland county, Grout, in answer to a citation, agreed to appear in the city of New York on the third Tuesday of that month, to "answer to Richard Morris in a plea of trespass." From accompanying circumstances, it would seem that the trespass with which he was charged was the destruction of his Majesty's masting trees. He was not unfrequently sent with dispatches to distant places, and was always careful to execute his commissions with fidelity. On the occasion of a riot in Putney, early in the year 1772, he bore the intelligence of the disturbance to the city of New York. In the letter which he carried on this occasion to Governor Tryon, dated the 29th of January, Judge Lord, the writer, after detailing a narrative of the tumult, referred to Grout in these words: — "I have yet to crave your Excellency's patience and leave to recommend to your Excellency's favour Mr. John Grout, attorney-at-law, who hath suffered much by persons enemical to this government, and to him, on account of his firm attachment to it, and endeavours to maintain good order and justice therein. Truth itself obliges me to say, that his practice as an attorney in this county, has always entitled him to the good opinion of the court and the best gentlemen in the county, as I apprehend, although riotous persons and parties, friends to New Hampshire and enemies to good order, have given him much trouble, which he has borne with great magnanimity, and strove in a legal and dispassionate way to overcome. Your Excellency, being perfectly humane, will delight in protecting him." This extract represents Grout in a different aspect from that in which he has previously appeared. He was, it would seem, a warm sup‑
UNSTEADY SENTIMENTS OF GROUT. 653
porter of the claims of New York to the "Grants," and on this account was shabbily treated by those who adhered to the New Hampshire faction. An unhappy disposition, and a turn for pettifogging, were not the best equipments with which to meet this opposition, and yet these were the weapons which Grout appears to have brought to the combat.
Previous to the commencement of the Revolution, Grout expressed sentiments in opposition to the acts of the British ministry, and at a meeting held in Chester on the 10th of October, 1774, was chosen by the patriotic citizens of that town a member of a committee, who were directed to join with the general committee of Cumberland county, in preparing a report condemnatory of the late acts of Parliament, to be sent to the New York committee of correspondence. His patriotism appears, however, to have been of short duration. A letter attributed to him, written from the "South-east part of Cheshire county, March 10th, 1775," contains the most violent and obscene expressions relative to the "damned Whigs." Still, his views cannot be determined by this production, for, although the first impression which one would derive from its perusal, is that the writer, whoever he might have been, was a vile blackguard, destitute of principle, and unscrupulous in the expression of his opinions, yet a more careful examination suggests the idea that the communication might have been intended as an allegorical declaration of sentiments in favor of a revolutionary movement. This notion is supported by the closing paragraphs of the letter, which are in these words:—
"Be assured, Sir, that our Honored Master Beelzebub waited upon me yesterday, and Commanded me to write to you and Inform you, that it is his Royal will and pleasure, that you play Hell with the Court that shall set at Westminster next week.
"From your Friend and Brother,
"Apollyon.
"To the Faithful and Dearly beloved
"Dr. Jones —————
"P.S. Please to read this Epistle to all the Faithful Brethren and salute them, Charles Phelps and Doctor Harvey in particular, with a kiss of love."
Three days after the date of this letter, the courts were broken up at Westminster, and on that occasion, Dr. Reuben Jones, of Rockingham, and Dr. Solomon Harvey, of Dummerston, were prominent leaders among the Whigs.
654 HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
On the 12th of April, 1775, Grout, who had been imprisoned for debt, received "his liberty" from Benjamin Archer, under-keeper of the jail at Westminster. Previous to this, he had satisfied certain judgments which had been obtained against him. His escape from this Scylla of confinement did not enable him to avoid the Charybdis of the people's hate. Having been denounced by John Chandler, and Thomas Chandler Jr., of Chester, as an enemy to his country, he, according to his own statements, was threatened by some with death, and by others with tortures "at the hands of the Green Mountain Boys." In this emergency, he declared his innocence of the crime charged against him, and wrote to Col. John Hazeltine, the chairman of the Cumberland county committee of correspondence, and to the chairman of the Walpole committee of inspection, for protection. He also made known his situation to the Rev. Samuel Whiting, of Chester, and begged him to use his influence "with these mad people," and thus save the county from becoming "an Aceldama or field of blood." In the latter part of the month of May, while confined to his bed by a fever, a party of men entered his dwelling, headed by Thomas Chandler Jr., and endeavored to drag him out of doors, but were prevented by the efforts and entreaties of his wife and his "good neighbours." On the following morning they renewed the attempt, and, having taken him about half a mile from his house, threatened to strangle him, but were induced to desist from executing this design. Having, through the efforts of his friends, regained his liberty, he claimed protection from the county committee. The chairman of that body thereupon ordered Chandler to desist from all attempts to injure Grout, which order Chandler promised to obey.
Though freed in this manner, from the annoyances to which his suspicious conduct had subjected him, he could not resist the temptation of disturbing the peace of the county. To effect this end, he commenced an epistolary attack upon the chairman of the committee of correspondence, Col. John Hazeltine. In a letter to this gentleman written from the "County of Hampshire, Province of Masstts. July 10th, 1775," Grout accused him of presiding over the deliberations of a body of men whose acts were tyrannical, and whose conduct was contrary to every principle of right. He further declared, that it was for this cause "that a great many of the best people in the county of Cumberland who are substantial friends to
"MEMORIAL AND PETITION." 655
the Liberties of the people and the Sacred Rights of Mankind, and who are even willing to seal their Love of their Country with their Blood in Defence of it, Groan under the weight of the Oppressions of that Lawless Banditti of men, who having first put a stop to the Course of Civil Justice under the assumed name of sons of Liberty, are destroying not only the Semblance, but even the substance and shadow of Liberty itself." In this style he continued through a long communication, to abuse the officers of Cumberland county, who in this time of emergency were directing their best efforts to secure to the people their rights, and to defend them from the machinations of Loyalists and Tories.
Later in the year, he addressed a "Memorial and Petition" to the "men that are assembled at Westminster in the County of Cumberland, who call themselves a County Congress." In this remarkable production he accused the representatives of the people of usurpation and oppression; pictured their temporary government as a despotism; and branded their chairman as a tyrant. After detailing a few instances, in which they had been obliged for the good of the community, to exercise dictatorial powers, he continued in this strain:— "You proceeded on other business equally Infamous and Rascally, and then, like the Rump Parliament, adjourned yourselves. But your Sovereign, Col. Hazeltine, thinking good to call you together before the time you was adjourned to, did do it, and you met on the 15th of August Last, and Proceeded to business. And why should you not? The King, by the Constitution, has a Right to call, adjourn, prorogue and dissolve parliaments. King HAZELTINE did Right in calling you together before the Time you had adjourned yourself to. This was to Let you Know he was your King, and it was no more than duty to Obey your Prince. Indeed, it must be confessed it was a rascally Trick in you ever to adjourn yourselves, for that was an Infringement of your King Hazeltine's Prerogative, for the King by his Prerogative has the sole Right of adjourning Parliaments." The closing paragraphs of this memorial, although abounding in bombast and fustian, are sufficiently curious to warrant their presentation in this connection. "As for myself," wrote this conceited but witty poltroon, "I belong to another order of men, who will neither Joyn with you, nor Oppose you. For why should I run with the Wind? Surely, if I should, it will outrun me. Or why should I fight with the wind? Surely,
656 HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT
there is not so much substance in the Skull of it, as that I could beat its Brains out with a Beetle. Surely, I will content myself with bearing your Blow, and will Say, Whoo-Raugh, Whoo-Raugh to your mighty Rushing. After a mighty wind comes a calm.
"Your petitioner most humbly prays, that you would be graciously pleased to annihilate yourselves, and Return into your Primitive Nothingness, unless the Good People of the County shall please to employ you about something.
"But, oh, mighty Chaos, if you will not condescend to grant this petition, I have another to make, which I beg of you not to deny me, which is this, that your almighty Nothingships would be pleased to Honour your Petitioner, who heartily Despises you, by making him first General and Commander-in-Chief of all your despisers, that so he may be at the head of nine-tenths of the good people of this county. And your Petitioner as in Duty bound shall ever pray."
In the fall of the same year, he was brought before the committee of Chester, on a charge which had been preferred against him of speaking disrespectfully of the Continental Congress and the county committee. A quarrel having arisen among the members in respect to the manner in which the trial should be conducted, Grout refused to make any defence, and remained wholly inactive during the proceedings. By a portion of the committee, he was adjudged to be an enemy to his country. From this decision he appealed to the county committee. The subject came before them on the 29th of November, but they refused to sustain the appeal, and ordered him to withdraw it. At another meeting held on the 24th of July, 1776, a complaint was exhibited by John Chandler against Grout. The members being unwilling to act upon it, referred it, at first, to the Chester committee, but by a subsequent vote recalled the reference and resolved to receive Grout's answer at their session in the following November. On the 8th of that month, a complaint against Thomas Chandler, Jr., was presented by Grout, to the county committee, accusing him of maltreatment. "After maturely deliberating upon the case," the committee ordered Chandler to pay to Grout "the sum of Six Pence, York Currency." The costs of the investigation were divided equally between them, and both were "Reprimanded by the Chairman in presence of the whole Board." Grout suffered on other occasions from the patriotism or maliciousness
TRAGIC FATE. 657
of the Chandlers, and through their influence and that of others connected with them, he was taken prisoner at Charlestown, New Hampshire, on the 27th of December, 1776. On the 2d of June, 1777, he was a resident of Chester, but soon after removed to Montreal, where he assumed his true character, that of a British subject, and is said to have become "a distinguished lawyer."*
He resided in Canada during the remainder of the war, and probably for several years after its close. His end was as tragic as his life had been turbulent and unhappy. With a large sum of money in his possession, which he had collected for some person residing in one of the states, he left Canada for the purpose of conveying it to the owner, and was never afterwards heard of. For a long time it was supposed that he had been drowned in crossing Lake Champlain. Many years after his sudden disappearance, a man was convicted of some crime punishable by death. Previous to his execution he acknowledged his guilt, and, in detailing the dark transactions of his life, confessed that he had murdered John Grout for the purpose of obtaining the money which he carried. He also described the place where he had buried the body. A search having been instituted, human bones were found at the spot he had designated.
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