Betty Clingman's folks moved from Worcester Co., MA to Windham Co., VT about 1774 and was wondering about motivations for the move, especially "Was it influenced by 'pro' or 'anti' war factions or any other hot political issues?" My people went to Windsor Co., VT from Hardwick, MA about a decade earlier, which makes me somewhat less of an ancestral Vermont latecomer. My own studies thus concern the Revolution in a different way. But I have never heard of any motive for migration into Vermont during the 1700s other than the desire for fresh, new, and cheap land. The scenario is twice complicated by New York. New York was a barrier to migration west from New England, as one complication. And New York radicalized western Vermonters much more than it did eastern Vermonters as the other complication -- and because of migration patterns, the radicals were often pre- radicalized before they got to Vermont. Betty and I are both ancestral southeastern Vermonters, thus our people were more relaxed than the others. Ethan Allen (who was a western Vermonter) was not our boy, and it is well to keep this in mind when the subject of Vermont history and politics comes up. If you look at a map of the eastern U.S., and limit the western boundary to what was ours in the 1700s, you will see that a Massachusetts family intent on migrating to fresh, new, cheap land didn't have many choices. They could move to New York, or to Pennsylvania, or north to Vermont, New Hampshire, or Maine. New York at the time was impossible. If your people had gone there, they would have wound up as tenant farmers toiling under one of the great landlords of the aristocracy. New York was out. It was a feudal society -- downright medieval. That left Pennsylvania versus the North. Pennsylvania was not enthusiastic about Puritans, and newcomers would have had to buy land from the Indians. The North (Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine), on the other hand, was a lot more user-friendly, especially Vermont. Puritans were OK. And in Vermont, there were no Indians to buy land from, thus no Indian complications of any sort. Vermont was truly available for settlement. Over top of this was a layer of land speculators trying to make money from immigration into the area. Some of these speculators would have been advertising down south for people to move to Vermont. Many New Englanders did go to Pennsylvania, but more went north. New York steered most migrants around itself to the north, the way a rock diverts a stream. The politics of eastern and western Vermont differed considerably, as western Vermonters had come from western New England and had more prior (and unpleasant) contact with New York than the eastern Vermonters, who came more from central New England. Degrees of opposition to New York governed much of Vermont politics, and the westerners were hot if not rabid on that subject while we easterners were more relaxed -- until New York adopted its new constitution near the beginning of the Revolution, which threatened to remake Vermont into its own feudal image. Prior to the Revolution, New York had kept the land ownership and local governance issues on the back burner, but with the Revolution that changed, which outraged the eastern Vermonters. During the Revolution, Loyalists in Vermont were treated just about as badly as most other places in the Colonies. Vermont's new (revolutionary) government was largely financed by money raised from the sale of land confiscated from Loyalists. Vermonters were just as "patriotic" as their Massachusetts fathers, although this was expressed differently because of New York's claims on Vermont's land. There were enough Loyalists around to make the seizure and sale of their farms lucrative for the new government in Vermont, but this was also true all over New England. If there were any Loyalists who went to Vermont thinking it might be a haven, they were badly mistaken. Oops. Just one more thing. There was another land boom, this one in Canada, after the Revolution in the 1790s and prior to the War of 1812. My very own Vermonters took advantage of this land boom by moving to Canada in 1803, signing loyalty oaths to England, and transforming themselves as if by magic into Loyalists. Some of mine even have their genealogies printed in a book of "Loyalist Ancestors," even though during the Revolution they were bona fide, genuine Patriot Rebels. What happened was: They lied. To the Canadians. To get that land up there. Kinda like lying about your age to get a Senior Discount at the bakery today. Be careful if you see your ancestral names printed among the Loyalists, at least if they were Vermonters. Ain't necessarily so. Lester Powers ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.