“Pittsburg is at least probably within the charter limits of this Province,” wrote John Penn, governor of Pennsylvania, to Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia. There was a minor border war going on between the two colonies, and Penn was trying to reach a settlement. The problem was that the western parts of many of the colonies were not very well-defined; hence, different colonies laid claim to the same areas: New Hampshire and New York squabbled over what is now Vermont; there was friction between Pennsylvania and Connecticut (I haven’t figured that one out yet, since they didn’t share a border — at least, not on the map); and in early 1774, things were getting pretty heated in western Pennsylvania.
Lord Dunmore sent a man named John Conolly to establish Virginia’s authority in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area. Governor Penn sent Arthur St. Clair to deal with the situation. Conolly called for the people to organize as a militia (which, if they would recognize his authority, would enable him to carry out his plans). St. Clair had him arrested. Some of the locals, however, gathered all the same — with their guns. St. Clair wrote that they marched through town and then to Fort Pitt, “where a cask of rum was produced on the parade, and the head knocked out. This was a very effectual way of recruiting.” When St. Clair and some other Pennsylvania officials tried to get them to disperse, “they replied they had been invited there, but came with peaceable intentions, and would go home again without molesting any one; on which we left them; however, towards night, their peaceable disposition forsook them, and I should probably have felt their resentment had I not got intimation of their design. I thought it most prudent to keep out of their way.” (That last part was well put.)
Conolly didn’t stay in jail for long, but Lord Dunmore was outraged that the Pennsylvanians had dared to arrest someone who was acting under his authority. He wrote to governor Penn in March:
I do insist upon the most ample reparation being made for so great an insult on the authority of his Majesty’s Government of Virginia; and no less can possibly be admitted than the dismission of the clerk (St. Clair) of Westmoreland county, who had the audacity, without any authority, to commit [i.e. imprison] a Magistrate in the legal discharge of his trust, unless he (St. Clair) can prevail, by proper submission, on Mr. Conolly, to demand his pardon of me.
Penn was somewhat more diplomatic, but still firm, in his reply:
You must excuse my not complying with your Lordship’s requisition of stripping him [St. Clair], on this occasion of his offices and livelihood, which you will allow me to think not only unreasonable, but somewhat dictatorial.
Some people, governor Penn included, called for a temporary boundary line to be agreed upon — a sort of truce — while the two colonies worked at getting the King to settle the matter with an official survey. But there was more than one hothead involved, and the conflict went on even while the troubles between the colonies and Britain continued to grow.
Sources
American Archives, Series 4, Volume 1, pages 254-55, 260, 267.