The April 14, 1775 Petition of Cadwallader Colden Jr and Peter & Walter DuBois

I obtained a copy of the April 14, 1775 petition (see prior post) courtesy of Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site Collections, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. It does not appear to be in the handwriting of Cadwallader Colden or Peter DuBois, but the document appears to be contemporary.

The writing is very much in the verbose, almost legalistic, style of Colden.

It starts with...

"Whereas a Number of Persons did on the 7th Day of April Instant meet at the Town of the Paltz in this County, and did then and there assume to themselves the Stile and Title of Committee elected by the Inhabitants of the several Precincts and Districts of this County with Authority when collectively assembled to ellect[sic] and appoint Deputies to meet in Provincial Convention at the City of New York for the Purpose of nominating electing and appointing Delegates to meet those from other Provinces on this Continent subject to the Dominion of his Britanic Majesty our liege Sovereign at the City of Philadephia on the 10th Day of May..."

The final lines are the exact opposite of the "Association" that will be signed by rebels in the next few weeks...

“We do therefore hereby publicly protest against … all Manner of Proceedings Acts and Deeds of any illegal Congress whatsoever and we do hereby declare that we will not pay any Obedience to any of their Resolutions or illegal Mandates …”

The letter is signed by Cadwallader, Walter, and Peter, but it is evident that the signatures are not in their handwriting. The signature below is from a personal note from Colden to Peter on New Year's Eve 1768, inviting him to dine.

April 1775 in the Precinct of Hanover, Ulster County, New York

April 2025 marks the start of "250th anniversary" celebrations in the United States.

For most people, the celebrations will start and end on July 4, 2026. But for students of the birth of the United States, the military struggle for independence began with the shots at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775 and ended with evacuation of British troops from Manhattan on November 25, 1783. It was a long eight years. [see my 2023 article on the long centennial celebration from 1875 to 1883.]

Prior to April 19, 1775, frustrations over British rule had been expressed in the form of protests with limited violence.  The rebels created lists of grievances, vandalized tea imports, and burned a few royal appointees in effigy. That all changed with the skirmishes in Massachusetts.

In April 1775, the colony of New York decided to send representatives to the next Continental Congress which would commence in May. Those representatives would be selected by delegates sent from each of the counties. Ulster county residents (the county where the namesake of this blog resided) gathered in New Paltz and selected George Clinton, Levi Pawling, and Charles DeWitt as their delegates.

Clinton was a close neighbor of Joel Campbell, living in the hamlet of Little Britain. He would be elected the State's first governor in 1777. Levi Pawling may have been known to Joel. In 1776, many of the Hanover militia (of which Joel was a member) would be led by Pawling down to New York to fight in the Battle for New York.

Many Ulster residents were not pleased with this extra-legal election of representatives. They were led by Cadwallader Colden Jr. who authored a rebuke along with the Dubois brothers, Peter and Walter. [I have written much about these three in my blogs.]

The New York Provincial Convention convened on April 20th in New York City. George Clinton was among the group selected to represent the Province of New York at the Continental Congress.  They adjourned on the 22nd with no knowledge of what had happened on the 19th in Lexington.

On April 29th, the City of New York issued their "Articles of Association." The document, which was intended to be signed, committed the signer to acknowledge and abide by the decisions of the Continental Congress and the New York Provincial Convention. Other jurisdictions soon followed by circulating similar petitions. Reuben Campbell (brother of Joel) signed the New Paltz Articles. Joel's name is not found on any preserved copies of the Articles, but he also does not appear on lists of those who refused to sign.

May 1775 would bring more winds of war to the Hudson Valley.  Coming soon....