New Hampshire Grants

The territory of what is now Vermont was first permanently settled by European settlers when William Dummer, acting governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, ordered the construction of a fort roughly where Brattleboro is located.

Since the Massachusetts boundary extended to a point 20 miles (32 km) east of the Hudson River, Wentworth assumed the area west of the Connecticut belonged to New Hampshire.

In March 1764, Wentworth released a statement to the effect that the resolution of jurisdictional dispute required a royal verdict, which he was certain would be made in his favor.

New York interpreted the decision as invalidating Wentworth's grants entirely—to the great dismay of area residents—and subsequently divided the territory into four counties, Albany, Charlotte, Cumberland and Gloucester.

In 1770, the New York Supreme Court declared all of Wentworth's grants invalid, thereby asserting the province's de jure control over the region.

While the resistance faded, so did New York's desire to assert its claim on the land around the Upper Connecticut, as a more pressing issue—revolution—moved to center stage.

In January 1775 Committees of Safety from over twenty towns in the New Hampshire Grants area met in Manchester to discuss the need for local self-governance independent from New York.

[1] Some former Green Mountain Boys companies served in the American Revolutionary War, including in the effort to capture Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775, and the invasion of Canada later that year.

Ethan Allen and his then subordinate, Seth Warner, induced the Continental Congress at Philadelphia to create a Green Mountain ranger regiment.

Just as Haldimand offered generous terms for reunion in 1781, the main British army surrendered at Yorktown, and it was clear that the United States would achieve independence.

Following the Revolutionary War, Vermont was excluded (primarily due to objections from New York) from the loose confederation established among the 13 former colonies.