The Oriskany Battle of
Oneida Hanyery and Mohawk Joseph Brant
End Notes
1. Hanyery may be one form of the German/Dutch patois of the Mohawk Valley for "John George" in English (the nickname for "George" apparently being "Ury" in German and "Yeary" in Dutch). In support of this interpretation is the fact that Hanyery was referred to as "Indian George" and "Capt. George" (Elmer 1848 3[1]:24; Hough 1861 1:40).
His name was also written in English as Hans Jurie and John Jury (Special Committee Report 1889:222; Hough 1861 2:348). For a time in the late 1780s, Hanyery was called "Ojistalale" or Grasshopper, a name he bore in his role as counselor to a young sachem of the Wolf clan (Hough 1861 1:222).
Hanyery has often been called "Doxstader" but he never signed documents that way and the name was not applied to him during his lifetime. The surname Doxstader, possibly derived from a baptismal sponsor (Faux 1987:32,35), was taken up by his children and apparently applied to Hanyery retrospectively.
2. There are vague but persistent indications of Oneida presence and proprietary interest to this area. For example, Dean Snow suggests an Oneida village existed near the upper Mohawk village from about 1615 to 1635 (1995 1:294-97). The first Palatine Germans in the Mohawk purchased land in the same area from "Caquayadighe," a person Paul Wallace tentatively identified as "Aquoyiota" (variously rendered), an Oneida known to Conrad Weiser and Sir William Johnson (1945:34,162).
3. Oriska was located in the problematic Oriskany Patent of 1705, issued to five prominent men of the New York colonial government including influential Peter Schuyler of Albany. Far west of any other grant for many years, the patent specified a ridiculous quitrent of ten shillings and contained no clause requiring the patentees to settle or improve the land. In 1756, the Lords of Trade recommended to New York Governor Hardy "that he present the facts to the Council and Assembly with a view to securing a law vacating such patents as the...Oriskany because their fraudulent grants were one of the principal causes of the decline of the English interests with the Indians. Governor Hardy did not attempt to obtain this legislation" (Higgins 1976:84).
One reason Sir William insisted the Line of Property (1768) had to begin west of present Rome was to comprehend (and thus retain) the Oriskany Patent within English territory. Even though title to the Oriskany Patent was questionable, it continued intact as a legal fiction from British into U.S. jurisdictions. In 1784, New York State empowered itself to assume ownership of the Oriskany Patent as an act of confiscating Tory property (Penrose 1985:77).
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