Charles Lee. His Peculiarities and Dogs. --Wash- ington at the Richmond Convention. War Speech Braggart.-Coercive Measures.-Expedition against the Military Magazine at Concord. - Battle of Lex- ington. The Cry of Blood through the Land.. Old Soldiers of the French War.- John Stark.- Israel Putnam. - Rising of the Yeomanry. Meas. ures of Lord Dunmore in Virginia. — Indignation of the Virginians. Hugh Mercer and the Friends of Liberty. Arrival of the News of Lexington at Enlisting of Troops in the East. - Camp at Boston. General Artemas Ward. Scheme to surprise Ti- conderoga. New Hampshire Grants. Ethan Al- len and the Green Mountain Boys. Benedict - Second Session of Congress. John Hancock.- Peti- tion to the King. Federal Union. - Military Measures. Debates about the Army. - Question as to Commander-in-chief. — Appointment of Wash- ington. Other Appointments. Letters of Wash- 468 476 goyne, and Clinton. - Proclamation of Gage. - Nature of the American Army. - Scornful Conduct of the British Officers. - Project of the Americans to seize upon Breed's Hill. - Putnam's Opinion of it. Sanctioned by Prescott. - Nocturnal March - Schuyler. Of Lee.-Tidings of Bunker's Hill. Military Councils. - Population of New York. The Johnson Family. - Governor Tryon. - Arrival 515 HE Washington family is of an ancient English stock, the genealogy of which has been traced up to the century immediately succeeding the Conquest. At that time it was in possession of landed estates and manorial privileges in the county of Durham, such as were enjoyed only by those, or their descendants, who had come over from Normandy with the Conqueror, or fought under his standard. When William the Conqueror laid waste the whole country north of the Humber, in punishment of the insurrection of the Northumbrians, he apportioned the estates among his followers, and advanced Normans and other foreigners to the principal ecclesiastical dignities. One of the most wealthy and important sees was that of Durham. Hither had been transported the bones of St. Cuthbert from their original shrine at Lindisfarne, when it was ravaged by the Danes. That saint, says Camden, was esteemed by princes and gentry a titular saint against the Scots.1 His shrine, therefore, had been held in peculiar reverence by the Saxons, and the see of Durham endowed with extraordinary privileges. William continued and increased those privileges. He needed a powerful adherent on this frontier to keep the restless Northumbrians in order, and check Scottish invasion; and no doubt considered an enlightened ecclesiastic, appointed by the crown, a safer depositary of such power than an hereditary noble. Having placed a noble and learned native of Loraine in the diocese, therefore, he erected it into a palatinate, over which the bishop, as Count Palatine, had temporal as well as spiritual jurisdiction. He built a strong castle for his protection, and to serve as a barrier against the Northern foe. He made him lord high admiral of the sea and waters adjoining his palatinate, lord warden of the marches, and conservator of the league between England and Scotland. Thenceforth, we are told, the prelates of Durham owned no earthly superior within their diocese, but continued for centuries to exercise every right attached to an independent sovereign.1 The bishop, as Count Palatine, lived in almost royal state and splendor. He had his lay chancellor, chamberlains, secretaries, steward, treasurer, master of the horse, and a host of minor offiStill he was under feudal obligations. All cers. 1 Camden, Brit. iv. 349. 2 Annals of Roger de Hovedon. Hutchinson's Durne vol. ii. Collectanea Curiosa, vol. ii. p. 83. |