Charles De Fredenburgh: Plattsburgh's first settler

Plattsburgh was named by and for the Platt family, who arrived there in 1785. However, Count Charles De Fredenburgh was said to have arrived and settled years earlier in 1767. Historian David Glenn proposed the date may need to be revised in his book “ First Settlers of Clinton County” to be published later this year as we now know many new details of De Fredenburg’s incredible life and mysterious death. In this article, he gives a brief overview of the book.

De Fredenburg’s name, with locations and activities, has appeared in many letters, deeds, archives, articles and journals over the years. Many writers presented different spellings of his name, which are in italics herein as they wrote it.

The 1767 date probably came from early historian Palmer’s 1853 “History of Lake Champlain” where he stated that Fredenburgh, a German nobleman. In 1766, had received from the English Government a warrant for thirty thousand acres of land, lying on the river Saranac, moved on to the tract and built a house and saw-mill there. Palmer had conflated many needed steps. First, a Petition must establish applicants eligibility and request government’s consideration to grant the parcel. With all in order, it would be surveyed. Lastly, it would be sent to Council for review and if approved a Grant or King’s Mandamus could be given. Any unforeseen issue might halt the process. It would have been an affront to the crown to occupy the land before owning it.

Chevalier de Freudenberg wrote Sir William Johnson November 2nd 1765, to arrange a visit with him at his home on the Mohawk River and arrived later that month, where they may have discussed Lake Champlain lands. Johnson was the agent responsible for all of Albany County’s northern area of New York Province.

In September of 1766, Charles Fredenburgh travelled north from Albany with a survey party to set the border between New York and Quebec  Provinces at the north end of Lake Champlain. The party included Governor Moore of New York Province, Governor Carleton of Quebec, an astronomer and many others. This was most likely the first time Fredenburgh had seen the lands available on Lake Champlain’s shores and apparently decided then to attempt to purchase a significant holding in the area.

His first step to accomplish it was an August 1767 Petition by Charles  Friedenberg and associates for 20,000 acres at Cumberland Bay on the west side of Lake Champlain. The second step was January of 1768, when a Warrant of Survey was issued.

About thirty years old Count Charles De Fredenberg first appeared in British society in 1768. It was written he had been an army officer and was an English nobleman whose German ancestors had arrived 50 years earlier.

A year and a half later, De Fredenberg obtained ownership in January of 1769 when A Mandamus of the King was issued to grant to Charles de Fredenberg land on the west side of Lake Champlain, beginning opposite the island Valcour.

At that point, De Fredenburgh moved forward with plans for his property on Lake Champlain. He was also engaged to marry beautiful twenty-one-year-old London socialite Mabel Fienes in the fall. A disagreement arose and the marriage did not take place. Perhaps there were cultural differences or most likely she was unwilling to consider a frontier existence in the colonial wilderness. De Fredenburgh then announced his intention to leave England and go to America to look after his land.

He arrived in Montreal in October of 1769, where he spent the winter until May of 1770, when he left with a party of workmen, equipment, lumber and supplies, and headed for his Saranac River lands. Upon arrival, they began clearing land and building temporary huts for workmen then took a few of his men to a falls upriver where they began constructing a saw mill.

De Fredenburgh’s house was soon after erected on the north bank of the Saranac. Hired men of many trades, who came and went, cut lumber, raised barns for crops and animals, prepared fields, and otherwise turned the area into a proper 1770 Englishman’s private estate. His field hands harvested logs, trapped furs, hunted game, and raised crops. The nearby lake, river, and forest yielded a constant supply of food. Trips were made often to Montreal to conduct trade, for entertainment, to visit friends, or obtain religious services. After one such visit, De Fredenburgh returned with a wife.

Years passed by, his family grew, and their private estate and home became known for its taste and refinement. In 1775, the valley’s peaceful nature was drastically altered by the threat of war as colonials sent an army north down the lake to invade Quebec. In the early summer of 1776, the defeated army withdrew up the lake and the few settlers moved out of the valley, with most going north. As ardently loyal to the crown De Fredenburgh relocated his people to the safety of Montreal, where they spent the duration of the Revolution.

The State of New York declared De Fredenburgh’s property abandoned and forfeited in 1784 for loyalist sympathies, then shortly after granted it to the  Platt group. De Fredenburgh, now about 46 years old, soon returned to make a futile attempt at reclaiming some part of his lands. Defeated in the endeavor, he was said to have become surly and morose, a loner wandering in and out of the area, then finally disappearing entirely.

Years later, a skeleton was found near the site of his old saw mill. It was felt, upon examination at the time, it could have been De Fredenburgh and that he may have been murdered. But it could have simply been a workman who died working there or anyone. We will never really know what ultimately happened to Plattsburgh’s 1770 settler, Count Charles De Fredenburgh.

- This month’s Heritage Corner column was written by Historian David Glenn

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