Genealogy Richard Remmé, The Hague, Netherlands » Samuel Avery (1731-1806)

Personal data Samuel Avery 

• He was born on October 17, 1731 in Groton, New London, Connecticut, USA.
• He died in the year 1806 in Owego, Tioga County, NY, he was 74 years old.
• This information was last updated on December 4, 2022.

Household of Samuel Avery

He is married to Sybil Noyes.

They got married in the year 1760 at Groton, New London, Connecticut, USA, he was 28 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Sybil Noyes Avery  1761-1830 

Notes about Samuel Avery

1.  Samuel was educated to be a lawyer, and soon after his marriage he removed to Vermont where he expected to acquire a large quantity of land.  An article by Pliny H. White, of Coventry, Vermont in the Burlington "Free Press" gave this account (from the Avery source):

     "There are three Avery's Gores in the State, one each in Addison, Essex, and Franklin Counties.  In the former days there
     were three others, and perhaps more, but they have ceased to exist. Samuel Avery, whose name they bear, was in 1782,
     and at least two years later, a deputy Sheriff for cumberland county, and keeper of the jail at Westminster.  There is still
     on file in the Secretary of State's office, an account of his services in connection with the trial of Timothy Church, the
     Phelpses, and other Cumberland men, who were indicted for riotous resistance to the authorities of Vermont.  Avery
     continued to live at Westminster till 1799, and perhaps longer.

     Many years previous to 1780, Avery and his associates had bought of Col. Henry Lydius, two townships, one of 28,000
     acres lying north of Otter Creek, and the other of 24,000 acres, adjoining and south of Otter Creek.  Lydius was an Indian
     trader and a land speculator at Albany, N. Y., who, in 1732 had what purported to be deed executed by certain Mohawk
     Indians, conveying tow immense tracts of land, one o fwhich extended 60 miles from the mouth of Otter Creek and was
     24 miles wide.  He divided this into 35 townships, of about 26 squares in each, and sold several of them.  In 1744, he
     procured from Gov. Shirley, of Massachusetts, a paper confirming, in the name of the King of England, the title acquired
     from the Indians.  The State of New York, however, wholly ignored the title of Lydius, and granted the same land to other
     persons. (See "Halls Early History of Vermont, Appendix 8).

     In 1780, Avery petitioned the Legislature of Vermont for a confirmation of his title to the lands purchased of Lydius, but it
     appeared upon examination that they had already been granted by the State to other persons, and it was thus made
     impossible to comply with the petition.  He had previously entered a caveat against making such grants, but probably the
     caveat was not in season.  The next year the petition was renewed. It affirmed that Avery had been nearly 20 years
     trying to perfect his title; that he was 'forty days in the wilderness' without shelter, surveying them; that after the Lydius
     title was treated as void he was delayed seven years procuring a confirmation from New York, and then only succeded
     by paying fees to the amount of £800, and incurring other expenses amounting in all to about £2,000, which nearly
     eshausted all his resources, and what he probably thought would be the most influential with the Legislature, that he had
     ever been a fast friend of this and the United States, and, early and ever, publicly and privately, espoused the cause of
     thes New Hampshire Grants against the proceedings of New York.  The petition, however, did not avail; nor was it till 1789
     that he was able toprocure the passage of a resoultion granting him 52,000 acres of unlocated lands to be found therein,
     for such moderate fees as shall be deemed just and equitable.

     Avery could not locate his land, nor even a fourth part of it, in one body; and accordingly he located it in parcels wherever
     he could.  The largest parcel was in Orleans County, west of Newport, and contained 11,080 acres.  The next parcel in size
     was in Essex County, south of Norton, and contained 10,685 acres. It is mountainous land, and remains uninhabited to this
     day.  He located 9,723 acres in Franklin County, south of Montgomery; 8,744 acres in Addison County, east of Ripton; 5,970
     acres in Chittenden County, northeast of Kirby; and 1,318 acres in Windham County, between Athens and Grafton.  Some of
     these lands he lost by means of 'squatter sovereignty', and it is not likely that he ever received for them all anything like
     an adequate return for the time, labor, anxiety and cash which they cost.  The Gores in Essex and Franklin Counties still
     retain their original proportions, but all the others have been extinguished, partially or totally, by annexation to neighboring
     towns."

Avery source continues with this:

     "After the Revolutionary war, in the settlement between New York and Vermont, the State of Vermont appropriated $30,000
     for the benefit of the New York settlers.

     Taking these alphabetically, the first claim is that of Samuel Avery, who for a considerable time was a resident of Westminster,
     in the County of Cumberland. ; He appears to have been one of the favored inhabitants of the New Hampshire Grants, to whom
     patents were freely issued by the New York government.  His grants were of a late date, when it had become an object for the
     earlier city speculators to strengthen their interes in the territory, in order to overcome the formidable resistance of the
     settlers to their iniquitous claims.  One of Avery's claims was founded on a patent issued to him and twenty-three other
     associates for 24,000 acres, bearing date August 16, 1774.  On the 17th and 18th of the same month, these twenty-three
     associates conveyed their shares to him.  Another claim was for 28,000 acres patented to Humphrey Avery and twenty-seven
     others, September, 1774, all of whom, on the 29th of that month, conveyed their titles to him, thus vesting in him the whole
     52,000 acres, and showing very clearly that the grants were made for his benefit.  these tracts adjoined each other, and were
     in the easterly part of the present county of Addison.  These with a claim for 200 acres in Durham and 1,000 in another town,
     of which Samuel Avery was the grantee, made up the 53,200 acres, for which he was allowed the sum of $2,655.03.  These
     grants were made by Lieutenant-Governor Colden.

     About the year 1800, Mr. Avery emigrated to the Susquehanna Valley, near Tioga Point, now Athens, in Pennsylvania, and but
     a few miles south of the New York State line.  He was one of a committee to settle difficulties between Connecticut and
     Pennsylvania land companies in 1802.  Here he purchased a large quantity of land and began improvements, but was soon
     brought into litigation with those who had purchased of the heirs of William Penn.  This was a long and costly suit and finally
     terminated in the defeat of Avery, who not only lost the land, but his money also.  He now removed to near Owego, and made
     another purchase of land, the rise of which, coupled with an extensive law practice, soon brought him affluence.  He built an
     elegant mansion, and was at his death one of the most popular and wealthy men in that part of the State."

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