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43.VERMONT LOYALISTS JOSEPH FAY Very fine content war date A.L.S., "Jos Fay - acting as Clerk to sd. Court", 1p. legal folio, Dorset, [Vt.], June 25, 1778, a true copy of a judgment banishing a loyalist to the British lines by an official "State of Vermont" court of commissioners that included Green Mountain Boys Ethan Allan, Nathan Clark, Reuben Harmon, Joseph Bradley together with Joseph Fay. The verdict reads, in most part: "...At a Court of Commissioners Holden at Dorset...Present Nathan Clark, Ethan Allen, Reuben Harmon, Joseph Fay, and Joseph Bradley Esqrs...Prisoners under Examination, William Lammon, Asa Baldwin, William Underhill Samuel Koon & Samuel Barloe...taken under consideration the above prisoner and strictly examined their Cases, with the Evidence and every Attending Circumstance do judge & order that Asa Baldwin be Banished & transported within the Enemies Lines on the southern Coast of America, & Each & any one of the other above named prisoners to be discharged...to stand Committed until this judgment be complied with...". According to an 1867 biography in the Vermont Historical Magazine, Asa Baldwin settled in Dorset, Vermont in the late 1760s and became the first town clerk in that place. An outspoken Loyalist, Baldwin was soon arrested by the Committee of Safety and imprisoned in Bennington. Another (and lamentably un-footnoted) genealogical biography retells a story that in the late summer of 1777, Baldwin brazenly rode over (on his best horse) to the British lines to visit Burgoyne and declare his allegiance. After enjoying an evening of lavish entertainment with Burgoyne, he awoke to find his horse confiscated "....Surely a loyal subject will be glad to give a good horse to the King" Burgoyne assumed. The biography notes that he did ultimately renounce his loyalism and returned to Dorset, holding several town offices following the war. Baldwin's 1867 biography reports that on December 12, 1777, he was cleared of "whatever they may have said or acted relative to the disputes between Great Britain and this country". He was released and his property restored. Interestingly, this is where the biography ends, and there is no mention of a second arrest and banishment from Vermont that is documented here. Apparently Mr. Baldwin didn't know how to keep his mouth shut! Expected folds with partial separation, a few lightly toned spots, else fine. $500-700

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November 28, 2007 11:00 AM EST
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