Fair Play men.

The authority of the Fair Play tribunal extended across the entire
territory from Lycoming Creek to the Great Island on the north side of
the West Branch of the Susquehanna. However, most of the disputed cases,
which can be verified by subsequent court reviews in either
Northumberland or Lycoming counties, seem to have involved land claims
in the area between Lycoming and Pine creeks. The tribunal accepted or
rejected claims for settlement in the area and decided boundary
questions and other controversies among settlers.[13] As to a specific
code of laws, there is none of record. However, the cases subsequently
reviewed in the established county courts refer to some of their regular
practices. For example, any man who left his improvement for six weeks
without leaving someone to continue it, lost his right to the
improvement;[14] any man who went into the army could count on the Fair
Play men (the tribunal) to protect his property;[15] any man who sought
land in the territory was obliged to obtain not only the approval of the
Fair Play men but also of his nearest potential neighbors;[16] and the
summary process of ejectment which the Fair Play men exercised was real
and certain and sometimes supported by the militia.[17]

The specific membership of the Fair Play tribunal is rather difficult to
ascertain due to its failure to keep minutes of its proceedings and the
absence of any recorded code. However, as indicated earlier,[18] the
existence of the tribunal between the years 1773 and 1778, and its
actual composition in 1775 and 1776, have already been established from
the review of its decisions by the Circuit Court of Lycoming County.
Assuming the principle of rotation from a contemporary description,
some eighteen settlers held the positions of authority during the years
noted.[19] The cases reviewed reveal the names of five of these
eighteen. Recognizing the limitations of our twenty-eight per cent
sampling, however, it is interesting to note that the three major
national stocks are represented in this restricted sample. Furthermore,
as was mentioned previously,[20] the Scotch-Irish settlers, being in the
majority, enjoyed the majority representation on the tribunal. An
analysis of leadership in the territory, to be developed more fully
later, leads one to conclude that the Scotch-Irish, in the main, were
the political leaders of the area.[21]

A diligent search of some sixty cases in the Court of