now the town of Bennington,
several families of settlers from Hardwick, Mass., in all numbering
about twenty souls.

But there had been an earlier survey of the territory along Walloomscoik
Creek under the old Dutch patent and in 1765 Captain Campbell, under
instructions from the New York colony, attempted to resurvey this old
grant. He came to the land of Samuel Robinson who, with his neighbors,
drove the Yorkers off. For this Robinson and two others were carried to
Albany where they were confined in the jail for some weeks and afterward
fined for "rioting." At once the settlers, who had increased greatly
since '61, saw that they must present their case before the King if they
would have justice rendered them; so Captain Robinson went to England to
represent their side of the matter. Unfortunately he died there before
completing his work.

On the part of the governors of New Hampshire and New York it was merely
a land speculation, and both officials were after the fees accruing from
granting the lands; whereas the settlers who had gone upon the farms,
and established their families and risked their little all in the
undertaking, bore the brunt of the fight. The speculators and the men
they desired to place on the farms of the New Hampshire grantees,
hovered along the Twenty-Mile Line, and occasionally made sorties upon
the more unprotected farmers, despite the fact that the King had
instructed the Governor of New York to make no further grants until the
rights of the controversy should be plainly established. This settled
determination of the New York authorities to drive them out convinced
the men of the Grants that they must combine to defend their homes and
when, early in July, 1771, news came from Albany that Sheriff Ten Eyck
with a large party of armed men was intending to march to James
Breckenridge's farm and seize it in the name of the New York government,
the people of Bennington in town-meeting assembled determined to defend
their townsman's rights.

Sheriff Ten Eyck started from Albany on the 18th of July with more than
300 men and at once the settlers began to gather near the threatened
farmstead. 'Siah Bolderwood having no farm of his own, was sent through
the country raising men and guns for the defense of the Breckenridge
place. On his way back he had stopped for Enoch Harding and learning
that the boy had gone hunting before daybreak, the ranger followed him,
arriving at the deer-lick in time to rend