Details

Digitizer

• Adam Matthew Digital (Firm) [Browse]

Compiled/​Created

1795/03/01-1799/02/28.

Summary note

Description: The correspondence and other papers here cover Sargent's last years in the Northwest Territory and the first half year of his administration in the Mississippi Territory. The collection includes a copy, in the author's hand, of William Dunbar's Account of the Commencement and Progress of the First 18 Miles of the Line of Separation (1798), written while he was Spanish commissioner in the party drawing the boundary line between Mississippi and West Florida. Correspondence here include letters written by Daniel Clark, Jr., from New Orleans; those from John Heckewelder, related to plans for three Moravian Indian settlements in Ohio; Samuel Hodgdon from Philadelphia; Rev. John Murray, describing a conversation with President Adams about Sargent's handling of the Zachariah Cox affair; Senator James Ross, on a proposed settlement near Fort Steuben; William Shattuck, on the status of his Yazoo land holdings; and Benjamin Tallmadge, on Ohio Company finances. Letters related to the administration of the Northwest Territory were written by such officials as Judge Joseph Gilman (1), Thomas Goudy, Nathaniel Massie, Henry Vanderburgh, and Francois Vigo. The folder includes a number of letters and petitions related to the selection of a county seat for the proposed Adams County (July 1797). Letters referring to the organization and government of Wayne County (Detroit) and to the conflict between British and American settlers include a long series from the county recorder Peter Audrain. A letter from General Wilkinson (6 Mar. 1798), enclosing a report by Lt. Matthew Ernest, documents the rivalry between civil and military officers at Detroit. The collection also contains a number of letters from Mississippi, including letters from Daniel Clark; Zachariah Cox, complaining about his arrest and imprisonment at Natchez; Andrew Ellicott, American boundary commissioner; and Anthony Hutchins, Ellicott's political adversary. Among Sargent's own letters are two to General Wilkinson and one to his former mistress Mrs. Chapese.

Notes

• The Winthrop Sargent papers include personal, business, and official correspondence; diaries (1786-1820); orderly books; lists of Ohio Company agents and sales; petitions; contracts; pamphlets; wills, tax slips, receipts, and other documents relating to the Sargent estate; weather records and agricultural notebooks; and plats and survey reports. Other papers relate to the St. Clair expedition against the Indians of which Sargent was adjutant general; Sargent's survey of the 5th Range, Northwest Territory; a trip from Marietta, Ohio, to Cahokia, IL., with Governor Arthur St. Clair; Sargent's plantations near Natchez, Miss.; the Congressional investigation of Sargent's administration of the Mississippi Territory and his dismissal; the Ohio Company; the early settlement and administration of the Northwest Territory; relations with the Spanish governments of Louisiana and West Florida; and military, business, and family matters. The bulk of the collection covers Sargent's public career from 1785-1801. Winthrop Sargent was born in Gloucester, Mass., on May 1, 1753, into a family of merchant-mariners that had been influential in Gloucester since the middle of the 17th century. He received his education at Harvard, then signed onto one of his father's ships and travelled widely in the West Indies and Europe. When he returned to Massachusetts, the Revolution had begun, and his vessel was seized by the British as it entered Boston harbour. Sargent escaped on a fishing boat and reached Gloucester safely. He immediately joined the patriot cause. Sargent served in the artillery for the duration of the war. He participated in the siege of Boston, went with the American army to New York, and, until 1778, took part in most of the battles fought by Washington's army - Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Monmouth. He spent the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge before he and Henry Knox, chief of artillery in the American army, were sent to Congress to plead for more food and clothing for the troops. After 1778, Sargent worked as an aide to Major General Robert Howe, spending most of the time on garrison duty. In 1783, Congress conferred on him the rank of major just as he was being mustered out of the army. Sargent's health was suffering after seven years of service, and he spent a good part of the next three years recuperating in Gloucester. In 1786, with the help of Henry Knox, Sargent was chosen to be one of the surveyors of the Northwest Territory. He spent the last half of 1786 as a surveyor in Ohio, drawing the 5th Range, but winter and the hostility of the Indians prevented him from finishing the job. Sargent was impressed with the Ohio country, and in 1787, he became secretary of the newly formed Ohio Company, a land-speculation organization of New England veterans and businessmen. He and the Reverend Manasseh Cutler lobbied Congress to secure the land grant, which passed late in 1787. Though Sargent withdrew from the Scioto River venture when it proved embarrassing, he was one of the most active members of the Ohio Company, selling a total of 157 shares. When Congress appointed General Arthur St. Clair governor of the Northwest Territory, the directors of the Ohio Company helped to get Sargent elected as secretary. Though the position was not a lucrative one, the secretary was empowered, under a law passed by Congress in 1789, to serve as acting governor in case of the governor's absence. In the spring of 1788, the first settlers of the Ohio Company went west and founded the town of Marietta. Sargent arrived a few weeks later and, within a year or so, became a well-established member of the community. In 1789, he married Rowena Tupper, the daughter of General Benjamin Tupper of Revolutionary War fame. Unfortunately, Sargent's wife died in childbirth a year later, along with the child. When Cincinnati became the seat of government in 1791, Sargent moved to that city and built a house and garden, where he could pursue his interest in horticulture. However, the Indians in the Northwest Territory did not recognize the settlers' claim on the land, and clashes between the two groups were frequent and bloody. After Colonel John Hardin's defeat at Kekionga in October 1790, Washington ordered St. Clair to launch another military expedition against the Indians. Sargent was appointed adjutant-general, and it fell to him to shape the undisciplined recruits into an effective fighting force. However, faced with a shortage of men and supplies, the laziness and inexperience of the recruits, friction between St. Clair and his second-in-command General Richard Butler, and poor weather conditions, the American forces were defeated in the Battle of the Wabash on November 4, 1791. Sargent himself was wounded twice. After the Wabash disaster, St. Clair travelled to Philadelphia to defend himself against charges of incompetence, leaving Sargent as acting governor. Sargent's responsibilities included: reorganizing the militia, providing for defence against Indian raids, cooperating with federal military forces in the area, and preserving law and order. He rigorously enforced the letter of the law and passed additional legislation to deal with specific frontier problems. As a result, his relations with the people of the territory were often strained. He had more success in settling conflicting land claims, establishing new counties, and setting up the basic institutions of government. When the British evacuated Detroit after Jay's Treaty, Sargent promptly extended civil jurisdiction to the Detroit area and established Wayne County. However, this action angered St. Clair, who had returned to the territory and who resented what he considered Sargent's usurpation of power. In 1798, Sargent was appointed governor of the Mississippi Territory, and he moved to Natchez, the seat of the territorial government. There he instituted many of the same strict policies he had adopted in Ohio, which again angered his constituents. His opponents launched a campaign against him, and anti-Sargent candidates were elected to the legislature and the Council. They objected to the harsh criminal code Sargent had implemented and accused him of lining his own pockets with tavern and marriage license fees. In 1801, Sargent - a Federalist - appealed to President Thomas Jefferson for reappointment, but he was replaced by Jeffersonian William C. C. Claiborne. That same year, Sargent published two pamphlets in his own defence, Papers in Relation to the Official Conduct of Governor Sargent and Political Intolerance, or the Violence of Party Spirit; Exemplified in a Recent Removal from Office. Shortly after his arrival in Natchez, Sargent had married Mary McIntosh Williams, and the couple had two sons, William Fitz-Winthrop Sargent and George Washington Sargent. They built a house called Gloster Place on Mrs. Sargent's plantation, and after his retirement from public office, Sargent supervised the work of the estate. He was an influential member of the community and a leader in the founding of the Bank of Mississippi, serving as one of its 13 superintendents for most of the rest of his life. A lifelong student of meteorology, botany, horticulture, geology, and archaeology, Sargent was a member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. Between 1793 and 1815, he published articles and papers on subjects such as forestry, earthquakes, and Indian antiquities. The Sargent's lived briefly in Cambridge, Mass., from 1816 to 1818 before returning to Natchez. When Sargent, plagued by gout, was told by his doctors that a change of climate might bring him relief, the family made plans to move to Philadelphia. In 1820, on a steamboat en route to New Orleans, Sargent died suddenly of "gout of the stomach." He was 67 years old.
• AMDigital Reference: Ms. N-877.

Original version

Reproduction of: Winthrop Sargent Papers and Correspondence, 1795- Feb 1799 3 Jan 1795-28 Feb 1799.

Location of originals

Massachusetts Historical Society

Copyright note

Massachusetts Historical Society

Source of description

Description based on online resource (viewed on April 12, 2017).

Statement on language in description

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