Bennington

BREAKENRIDGE, James

Vermont Historical Magazine, No XI, October 1867, p 173

James BREAKENRIDGE came to Bennington [Bennington County, Vermont] in the 
fall of 1761, and settled in the northwesterly part of the town, being the 
owner by purchase of several rights of land. He was of Protestant Irish 
descent, and there afterwards settled about him the families of HENDERSON, 
HENRY, and one or two others of the same ancestry, which gave to the 
neighborhood the name of "the Irish corner," and which it has ever since 
retained. Mr. BREAKENRIDGE was a man of quiet and peaceable disposition and 
habits, though his property being covered by the old patent of Walloomsack, 
necessarily placed him in a belligerent attitude towards the New York 
claimants. Although indicted as a rioter and outlawed with [Ethan] ALLEN, 
[Seth] WARNER, and others by the New York government, he does not appear to 
have ever taken any part in their active proceedings.

He [James BREAKENRIDGE] was sent to England by a convention of the settlers 
with Jehiel HAWLEY of Arlington [Bennington County, Vermont], as his 
associate in 1772, to ask relief from the crown against the New York 
claimants and government, but the ministry were too much absorbed with their 
project of taxing America to give their attention to the matter. Mr. 
BREAKENRIDGE was chosen Lieutenant of the first military company formed in 
Bennington in 1761, and is therefore frequently designated in the records of 
the town by that title. He was a man of exemplary moral and religious 
character; he [James BREAKENRIDGE] died 16 April 1783, aged sixty-two, and 
has left numerous descendants. [Extracted from a section on the history of 
Bennington.]

Submitted by Cathy Kubly