MySource:Quolla6/Baxter, 1913:16-18

1653. A spirit of disaffection was spreading amongst the English on Long Island. They were in a measure excluded from the government, Stuyvesant being anxious to employ only the Dutch settlers. Gravesend, under the influence of Baxter and Hubbard, was now foremost in opposing the Provincial government.

During the summer of this year (1653), the numerous losses which the Long Island colonists had suffered from Indians and pirates induced them to take some measures for their safety, and Stuyvesant was forced to call a popular convention at New Amsterdam, Nov. 23, 1653. It was held in the City Hall. Four Dutch and four English towns were represented in this convention by ten Dutch and nine English delegates. Baxter and Hubbard were the delegates from Gravesend. A remonstrance to the States-General was drawn up, Dec. 1, 1653, by George Baxter, and adopted by the convention. It grouped the grievances of the people under six heads: 1, "Our apprehension of the establishment of an arbitrary government amongst us; 2, The protection afforded by government against the Indians is grossly inadequate; 3, Officers and Magistrates are appointed without the nomination and consent of the people, and contrary to the laws of the Netherlands; 4, Long-forgotten orders and decrees of the Director and council are raked up for the confusion and punishment of persons who could not be supposed to know them; 5, Promised grants, on the faith of which large tracts of land had been improved, have been withheld; 6, Immense estates have been granted to favorites, whereby sundry villages and towns have suffered detriment." Though drawn up by Baxter, it was signed by every delegate. At this time England and Holland were at war. The convention received no satisfaction from Stuyvesant, who promptly turned them out of doors. They had sat four days. Baxter and Hubbard were dismissed from the magistracy. 1654. Baxter retired into New England. A Mr. Baxter is mentioned as being a planter in Connecticut in that year. It was probably George Baxter. ' Early in 1655 Baxter returned, and on March 9, 1655, Baxter, Hubbard and Groves raised the English flag and claimed Long Island for the Republic of England. George Baxter read this declaration: " We, as individuals of the English nation, here present, do for divers reasons and motives, claim and assume to ourselves, as free-born English subjects, the laws of our nation, the Republic of England, over the place as to our persons and property, in love and harmony, according to the general peace between the two states in this country. God Almighty preserve the Republic of England, the Lord Protector, and also the continuance of peace between the two countries. Amen."

Nov. 14, 1654. Thomas Pell purchased a tract of land from the Sachem Wampage and some other Indians. It was called Westchester by the English, and Oestdorp by the Dutch, and was twelve miles from Fort Amsterdam. In 1655 George Baxter, who had had some difficulty with the Dutch (probably the flag-raising), came from Gravesend with some English families, and started a settlement undera claim hostile to the Dutch (Pell's claim). They were joined by some other Englishmen. It was not long in reaching Stuyvesant's knowledge. March 6, 1656. An expedition was sent from Manhattan by Stuyvesant, led by Capt. Frederick de Coninck, Capt. Lieut. Brian Newton and Cornelius Tienhoven, in the ship " Weigh-scales." They went up Westchester Creek, and succeeded in arresting the English thieves, as Stuyvesant called them, to the number of twenty-three. They left several at Westchester to guard the women and children. These twenty- three were kept in the hold of the "Weigh-scales" for thirteen days and fed on mouldy provisions. They were then taken to Fort Amsterdam, and imprisoned in the dungeons of Fort Amsterdam, at which bitter complaints were made. Gov. Stuyvesant was a tyrant of the middle ages kind, and honestly believed that any one who differed from him must be wrong. Baxter and Hubbard were arrested, whether at Westchester or Gravesend, it is hard to tell, and were also confined in Fort Amsterdam for a year. At the intercession of the Gravesend magistrates, and Sir Henry Moody, Stuyvesant then released Hubbard and transferred Baxter to the debtors' room in the Court House. A few weeks later he escaped to Gravesend, and went from thence into New England. He had been found guilty of adhering to the English in 1654, and was declared guilty of high treason. His property was seized and forfeited; among the rest his house and lot on Pearl Street, between Whitehall and State Streets. Dec. 27, 1658. Order to the magistrates of Gravesend to sell all the property there belonging to George Baxter. In Colonial papers, April 22, 1658, there is a petition of Nathaniel Brewster, William Washburne and George Baxter on behalf of several inhabitants of Fairfield and Long Island in New England, to be referred to a Committee for Foreign Plantations, for their report. On May 6, 1658, this petition was re-committed to the same committee to speak with Major Bowne and Capt. Willoughby thereon. This was George Baxter, Commissioner of the Dutch. This record is from Interregnum Entry Book, Vol. CVI, pp. 573-600. Baxter Memorial.

Long Island in New England was the eastern half of the Island which was settled by English from Massachusetts; the western part was claimed by the Dutch. After the Restoration, which occurred May, 1660, George Baxter returned to England, where he with John Scott and Samuel Maverick were called before the Committee of Foreign Plantations to give an account of the title of England to the Colony of New Netherland. 1663. Capt. George Baxter brought the Royal Charter of King Charles II to the General Court of Commissioners of Rhode Island, assembled for the last time under the Parliamentary patent. He received twenty-five pounds for bringing and reading the same. 1664. George Baxter returned to New Amsterdam with the English fleet and presented a claim of 1275 guilders to the Company for the indemnification of his losses. He also attached the five stone houses of the Company. It is not recorded if he received anything. "Brodhead's History" says: "He arranged his affairs, and some time after, removed to Nevis in the West Indies." If so, he must have returned and settled in Westchester County, for in the Westchester Deeds Book, Jan.' 4, 1677, the names of George Baxter and John Richbell are signed as witnesses to a deed of Robert Pennoyer to Ann Richbell.