EASTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE - 1762-1764

1762

Feb 10 - The second Livingston’s Patent, in Herkimer and Montgomery counties, is granted to Philip Livingston and others. 

Mar 4 - Utica businessman Talcott Camp is born in Durham, Connecticut, to merchant Elnathan Camp and Eunice Talcott Camp.

May 11 - The 10,000-acre Anaquassacook Patent, in Washington County, is granted to R. J. F. & W. Schermerhorn and others. The 10,000-acre Schermerhorn Patent in Washington County is granted to Ryer Schermerhorn. 

May 18 - The 23,000 acre Bradshaw Patent in Washington County, is granted to James Bradshaw. The county’s 26,000-acre Kingsbury Patent is granted to Bradshaw and others. 

May 22 - The 23,000-acre Queensbury Patent, in Warren County is granted to Daniel Prindle and others. 

Jun 4 - Captain Donald Campbell gives a ball in Detroit for King George III’s birthday. Campbell will write to William Johnson in New York, mentions encountering Johnson’s lady friend Angelique Cuillerier, who asked to be remembered to him.

Jun 17 - Iroquois, Delaware, Shawnee and Miami chiefs begin meeting with William Johnson, Pennsylvania governor James Hamilton and various member of the Penn family at Easton, to try and settle long-standing Indian land claims. 

Jun 27 - Iroquois chiefs meet with self-styled Delaware prophet Teedyscung. 

Jun 28 - Pennsylvania proprietors meet with Teedyscung, who emerges shaken, announces he’s been convinced that his charges of land fraud are unfounded. His Quaker backers have been thwarted. The council breaks off. Delaware Indians at Lancaster had refused his personally-donated gifts. He hands Bouquet a letter from Johnson, reporting that Amherst has ordered a drastic reduction in aid to the tribes, only direct payment for furs brought to English posts. 

December - William Johnson receives word from George Croghan, at Fort Pitt, who threatens to resign if Amherst doesn’t liberalize his attitude toward the Indians. 

Dec 8 - Sir William Johnson writes from Johnson Hall to General Sir Jeffery Amherst in New York City, trying to alert the commander to the dangers brewing in the northwest, gives the letter to his Mohawk messenger Oughnour (Daniel) to deliver.

Dec 15 - The approximate date (or in 1763 - records destroyed) trapper Nicholas Stoner is born to German immigrant Henry Stoner and Catharine Barnes Stoner, in Maryland.

Indians - The French send message belts among the Iroquois Six Nations, warning of the land hunger of the British settlers.

State - Charles Webb does a survey of the Minisink Patent. He mentions a Reeve's Sawmill. ** Samuel Kirkland enrolls as a sophomore in the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock’s colonial boarding school in Lebanon, Connecticut, during the fall. ** Future general and senator Philip Schuyler builds a mansion in Albany. ** The third serious famine since 1758 causes some starvation among the Oneida Indians. 

1763 

January - Tenant farmer Christopher Johnson, father of Indian agent Sir William Johnson, dies in County Meath, Ireland, at the age of 79.

February - Reverend Eleazar Wheelock praises Mohawk young man Joseph Brant, a student at his Indian school in Connecticut. 

Feb 10 - France signs the Treaty of Paris. The French and Indian War (Seven Years War) ends. 

Apr 8 - Sir William Johnson writes to his subordinate George Croghan at Fort Pitt, that their superior Sir Jeffrey Amherst has chosen to ignore Johnson’s suggestions to provide frontier Indians with their accustomed ammunition and other necessities.

Apr 19 - Pennsylvanian Delaware chief Teedyuscung is murdered, burned to death in his house, probably by land interest agents. 

Apr 30 - Croghan receives Johnson’s letter. 

May - Mohawk Joseph Brant receives a letter at Connecticut’s Wheelock School for Iroquois boys, from his sister Molly Brant Johnson, advising him of unrest in the Mohawk Valley and suggesting he return home. Heeding the advice of Molly’s husband, Sir William Johnson, and with his sister acceding, Joseph delays his return until the end of the school year at the urging of Wheelock. 

May 12 - Several warrior representatives from each of the Onondaga, Cayuga and Mohawk nations arrive at William Johnson’s home along the Mohawk to commiserate with him on the death of his father Christopher in Ireland. 

May 19 - More Iroquois, including the Senecas, appear at Johnson’s home, repeat ceremonies of mourning. 

June - Six young Tuscarora Indian warriors, villagers from Oquaga, arrive at Johnson Hall to commiserate with Sir William. They perform their own rites to help Sir William deal with his grief. ** With the Mohawk sachem Abraham representing him Johnson commiserates with the tribe over the death of Red Head a few days earlier. The following day rituals are performed, followed by ten days of ceremonies. 

July - Twenty Tuscarora chiefs arrive at Johnson Hall to perform rites of condolence.

October - George III declares the boundary between the provinces of New York and Québec at 45° North. 

Nov 11 - The 10,000-acre Greenwich Patent, in Washington County, is granted to Donald Campbell. 

Dec 13 - New York's first tavern law mandates the licensing of Dutchess County taverns.

State - Guy Johnson, nephew of Indian agent William Johnson, marries his uncle’s daughter Polly. He builds a mansion at the future Johnstown. ** With the end of the French and Indian War Albany abandons its stockade. ** Samuel Fuller's St. George's Episcopal Church in Schenectady, begun in 1759, is completed. ** Sir William renews a proposal for an impartial boundary between colonists’ and Indians’ lands, claiming it will slow rampant land speculation. ** The fourth serious famine since 1758 causes some starvation among the Oneida Indians.

1764 

March - Early in the month a party of Iroquois warriors attack a group of 41 Delaware Indians on the north branch of the Susquehanna River, bring their captives to William Johnson. Among them is a young woman intended as a replacement for his late father Christopher.

Mar 13 - Ducnan Reid and others are granted the 47,450-acre Argyle Patent, in Washington County. 

Mar 24 - The first Schneider’s Patent, 10,000 acres in Rensselaer County, is granted to Hendrick Schneider. 

Apr 4 - Captain Henry Montour writes from the scene to his superior William Johnson describing his destruction of Indian villages in the Big Flats area. 

May 2 - A 26,000-acre Provincial Patent, in Orange County, totaling a thousand acres each is granted to William Cockroft and 25 other commissioned officers of the New York Infantry.

May 3 - The 2,000-acre Kempe’s Patent in Washington County, is granted to John Taylor Kempe. 

May 10 - Sir William Johnson, accompanied by young Joseph Brant, holds an Indian congress at Niagara. Senecas turn 14 English prisoners, along with some dserters and runaway slaves, over to Johnson. The Seneca promise to stop harassing the British. 

Jul 11 - The 5,000-acre Campbell’s Patent, in Essex County is granted to Allen Campbell.

Jul 25 - The 2,000–acre Stoughton Patent, in Essex County, is granted to John Stoughton and others. 

August - The western portion of the Senecas make peace with Sir William Johnson. 

Aug 7 - The 2,000–acre Kellet’s Patent, in Essex County, is granted to Roger Kellet. ** The 2,000-acre Kennedy’s Patent in Essex County is granted to John Kennedy. ** The 25,000-acre Salem Patent, in Washington County, is granted to Alexander and James Turner and others. ** The 3,000-acre Sutherland’s Patent, in Essex County, is granted to Nicholas Sutherland.

Aug 17 - The 8,000-acre Grant’s Patent, in Essex County, is granted to Robert Grant. 

Aug 23 - The 2,000-acre second Schneider’s Patent, in Washington County, is granted to George Schneider. The 2,000-acre Spornheyer’s Patent in Schoharie County, is granted to Ernst William Spornheyer and others.

September - A premature frost in central New York will cause a poor harvest the following year. 

Sep 5 - The 2,000-acre Sutherland’s Patent, in Washington County, is granted to Erick Sutherland. 

Sep 11 - Two 2,000-acre patents, in Washington County, are awarded to Thomas and Godfrey Menzies. 

Sep 23 - The 2,000-acre Munroe’s Patent in Washington County, is granted to Harry Munroe. 

Oct 24 - The 24,000–acre Artillery Patent, in Washington County, is awarded to Joseph Watson and others. 

Oct 30 - Sir William Johnson writes to the Lords of Trade, saying those who claim the difficulty of discovering the true limits of Indian lands, due to the tribes’ ignorance, display their own ignorance, the Indians knowing full well what they own.

French and Indian War - John Roberts, grandfather of canal engineer Nathan Roberts, is killed serving under Sir William Pepperal.

Indians – Early in the year the young Seneca Joseph Brant is encouraged to join the war parties sent out by Sir William Johnson to attack the Delaware Indians rebelling in the Chemung and Susquehanna valleys. Unfounded rumors spread that he had joined the Delawares against the English.


State - Nicholas Herkimer builds a home in Danube. ** Albany's First Presbyterian Church, on Gallows Hill, is completed. ** British general Edward Bradstreet sets out from Oswego to find and engage Chief Pontiac. ** The fourth serious famine since 1758 causes some starvation among the Oneida Indians.

© 2012 David Minor / Eagles Byte