Page:Annals of Augusta County.djvu/161

Rh royal Governor of Virginia, and his Lieutenant, Connoly, figure therein somewhat as comic actors, it seems to us, although at the time the business was considered serious enough. Viirginia. claimed, by virtue of her charter, all the territory between certain parallels of latitude, which included a part of western Pennsylvania about Pittsburg. Fort Pitt was abandoned as a military post in 1773, but the country was rapidly occupied by English settlers.

In January, 1774, Dr. John Connoly, a citizen of Virginia, but previously of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, appeared at Pittsburg and posted a notice of his appointment by Governor Dunmore as " Captain-Commandant of militia of Pittsburg and its dependencies," etc., etc.

Governor Penn, of Pennsylvania, wrote to Dunmore, demanding an explanation. At the same time he wrote to the Pennsylvania authorities at Pittsburg urging them to maintain the rights of that province, and ordering the arrest of Connoly. The "Captain-Commandant" was accordingly arrested and committed to jail, but he prevailed with the sheriff to give him leave of absence for a few days, and instead of returning to prison came to Virginia.

On March 15, 1774, Connoly presented himself before the court at Staunton, and qualified as a justice of the peace for Augusta county, and commandant at Pittsburg.

Dunmore replied to Penn on March 3d, insisting upon the rights of Virginia, and demanding reparation for the insult to 'Connoly. The least that would be accepted was the dismissal of Arthur St. Clair, the clerk who "had the audacity to commit a inagistrate acting in discharge of his duty." Governor Penn rejilied, and so the controversy continued.

Connoly returned to Pittsburg and gathered around him a body of armed men, a portion of the people claiming to be Virginians. He opened correspondence with the Pennsylvania magistrates, which proving unsatisfactory, he arrested three of them—Smith, Mackey and McFarland—and sent them to Staunton for trial. Upon arriving here they gave security and were discharged to find their way home.

The President of the Pennsylvania court informed Governor Penn of the arrest of his associates. He stated that Connoly, having at Staunton quahfied as a justice of the peace for Augusta