History Space: The origins of Burlington

On Feb. 21, 2015, the city of Burlington has plans to throw a party to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Burlington as Vermont's first city. It was also in June of that same year that Albert L. Catlin, Burlington's first mayor, is recorded as mentioning Burlington's potential to become "the Queen City of New England" in one of his first speeches.

Although 1865 was, clearly, a very important year in Burlington history, the story of Burlington begins much earlier, precisely on June 7, 1763. It was on that day that a document that would play a major role in the founding of Burlington (and, along with other similar documents, with the founding of the state of Vermont) was signed and sealed.

This framed Burlington grant document, yellowed with age and visibly fragile, rests behind a beautiful hand-decorated Victorian door of a bank vault installed in the basement of the Fletcher Free Library's Carnegie building. This very official looking manuscript begins with a greeting from King George III of England (who at the time was only in the third year of a reign that lasted from 1760-1820 and which, most notably to students of American history, included the loss of the American colonies) to the "Province of New Hampshire."

It starts with King George II

The physical boundary of "New Hampshire", by the way, has a lot to do with the ultimate creation of the state of Vermont. George III's grandfather, King George II, placed the eastern edge of "New York" (and the western edge of "New Hampshire") about 20 miles east of and parallel to the Hudson River (pretty much where the boundary of New York state is today). George III, however, decreed that the eastern edge of New York was now the Connecticut River, which resulted in New York gaining half of present-day Connecticut and Massachusetts and all of what would eventually become Vermont, making all previous settler's claims to land invalid. Even though George III had stipulated that the change should not be applicable to settlers already in place, New York courts ruled that settlers would have to buy their land again, this time from New Yorkers.

MORE HISTORY OF FLETCHER FREE LIBRARY:

Andrew Carnegie's Burlington connection

It's easy to understand how this might make a strong personality like Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, who wanted freedom from New York and their property edicts, quite popular beginning in the late 1760s.

Back to Burlington. The document that is in possession of the Fletcher Free Library grants permission to one Benning Wentworth, at the time the colonial governor of the province of New Hampshire, the right to grant a township described as:

"Beginning at the southerly or south-westerly side of French or Onion River so-called at the mouth of said River until it comes to a place that is Ten Miles upon a strait (sic) line from the mouth of the river aforesaid then runs upon a line perpendicular the aforesaid ten mile line southerly so far as that a Line to Lake Champlain parallel to this Ten Mile line aforesaid will within the line of the shores of the said Lake contains six miles square. And that the same be, and Hereby is incorporated into a Township by the name of Burlington."

Benning Wentworth (1696-1770) was the royal governor of New Hampshire from 1741-1766. He was a Harvard grad, and the son of John Wentworth, who was the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts Colony. Beginning with Bennington (named after himself) in 1749, Wentworth became very wealthy using his authority as governor to grant (sell) large tracts of land (which became towns) in what would eventually become Vermont to land speculators, reserving two prime 500 acre tracts for himself in each land transaction.

Wentworth continued this lucrative business for the duration of his governorship (Burlington was granted just three years from the end of his term as governor) in spite of claims on the territory and complaints to the Crown by the province of New York, followed by a royal decree ordering him stop making land grants in contested areas. Benning Wentworth named many of these towns to honor rich and powerful people, and that may account for the naming of the town of Burlington, which may have been named for Edward Burling, a wealthy New Yorker who was the grantee of the town of Colchester, or for Richard Boyle, the third earl of Burlington, a town in Yorkshire, England that is now known as Bridlington!

Some of the other future Vermont towns granted and named by Benning Wentworth include Bolton, Windsor, Bristol, Colchester, Tunbridge, Woodstock, Shelburne, Addison and Stowe.

Earliest map of Burlington

Another historical gem that resides at the Fletcher Free Library is an original hand-drawn map from 1810 drafted by Chittenden County surveyor John Johnson from a survey taken by William Coit, a brother-in-law of Levi Allen (Ethan and Ira's brother) and the first surveyor or Burlington, in 1790. This is one of the earliest detailed maps of Burlington, and shows the actual property boundaries for many of the original grantors named in Wentworth's 1763 grant document, including John Birdsell, Joseph Udell, Abraham Van Wyck, Zebulon Frost, John Willis, and Solomon Seaman.

It is interesting to note that neither Ira Allen (who owned, along with his wife Jerusha, more than 20,000 acres of land, seven mills, two forges, and a ferry across the Winooski River by 1790), or his famous brother, Ethan Allen (who is said to have purchased 150 acres along the Winooski in 1778) are listed anywhere on the map. It is very easy to spot, however, on what was apparently prime farmland at the time, a 500-acre plot along the river, right at the Williston town line and opposite property marked "Canoe Place" that is owned by "His Excellency Benning Wentworth." Benning Wentworth's property, not surprisingly, is Number 1 on the map.

Robert J. Resnik is outreach and reference librarian at Burlington's Fletcher Free Library.