USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Plymouth > The Tories of Chippeny hill, Connecticut; a brief account of the Loyalists of Bristol, Plymouth and Harwinton, who founded St. Matthew's church in East Plymouth in 1791 > Part 4
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"From the time that the present unhappy misunder- standing between Great Britain and the Colonies began, I freely confess I never could reconcile my opinion to the necessity or lawfulness of taking up arms against Great Britain. Having spoken somewhat freely on the subject, I was attacked by a mob of about forty men, very much abused, my life threatened and nearly taken away, by which mob I was obliged to sign a paper containing many falsehoods. May 20, 1776, my wife deceased in full hope of future happiness. . The winter preceding this trial had been a time of distress
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with us .* . I had now concluded to live peacable and give no offence, neither by word nor deed. I had thought of entering into a voluntary confinement with- in the limits of my farm, and of making proposals of that nature, when I was carried before the Committee and by them ordered to suffer imprisonment during their pleasure not exceeding five months. When I had remained there about fourteen days, the authority of New Haven dismissed me. [Waterbury was in New Haven County.] Finding my life uneasy, and, as I had reason to apprehend, in great danger, I thought it my safest method to flee to Long Island, which I accord- ingly did."t
"But having a desire to see my friends and children, and being under engagement of marriage with her [ Esther Adams ] who is my wife, the banns of marriage having been before published, I returned, and was mar- ried. Having a mind to remove my wife and family to Long Island, as a place of safety, I went there the second time, to prepare matters accordingly. When there, I accepted a captain's warrant for the King's service in Colonel Fanning's regiment.ft
"I returned to Connecticut, when I was taken and be- trayed by Joseph Smith, and was brought before the authority of Waterbury. They refused to have any-
*According to the Northbury parish records, a child of Moses Dunbar died early in the year, 1776.
t On July 17, 1776, Moses Dunbar sold to Ebenezer Cook, for five pounds, the same half acre that he bought of Thankful Bachelor, for ten pounds. On June 25, he sold 30 acres, also in Waterbury .-- Waterbury Land Records.
tt Act of Conn. General Assembly, Session lasting from Oct.
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thing to do with the matter. I was carried before Justice Strong and Justice Whitman of Farmington, and by them committed to Hartford, where the Superior Court was then sitting. I was tried on Thursday, 23d of January, 1777, for High Treason against the State of Connecticut, by an act passed in October last, for enlisting men for General Howe, and for having a cap- tain's commission for that purpose. I was adjudged guilty and on the Saturday following was brought to the bar of the court and received sentence of death. The time of my suffering was afterward fixed to be the 19th day of March, 1777.
The indictment of Dunbar in abbreviated form was as follows :
"The jurors for the Governor and Company of the State of Connecticut present that one Moses Dunbar of Farmington, not having the fear of God before his eyes and being seduced by the instigation of the Devil, on or about the 10th day of November last past, and also on or about the 1st day of January, instant, did go from said Farmington to the city of New York to hold traitorous correspondence with the British troops and navy, and did join himself to the British Army and enter their service and pay, and did engage to levy war against this State, and did procure and persuade one John Adams [Dunbar's second wife's
10th to Nov. 7, 1776. "If any person, shall knowingly aid an enemy at open war against this State, by joining their armies, or by enlisting, or procuring, or perswading others to enlist for that purpose, etc., every person so offending, and being thereof convicted shall suffer death."
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name was Adams] of said Farmington and divers others to enlist for the purpose of levying war against this State, etc."
The Connecticut Courant of Jan. 27, 1777, published the following :
"At the adjourned Superior Court held in this place last week, Moses Dunbar of Waterbury was convicted of having a captain's commission from General Howe and of enlisting men to serve in the ministerial army. Sentenced to suffer death but the time of his execution is not fixed upon. At the same time Rev. Mr. Nichols of Waterbury was tried for treasonable practice against the United States and was acquitted."
And on Monday, March 17 of the same year :
"Thursday last the Superior Court ended their ses- sions in this place. During the session the infamous Elisha Wadsworth was convicted of treasonable prac- tices against the State for attempting to rescue Moses Dunbar, under sentence of death; said Wadsworth was ordered to pay a fine of forty pounds, to suffer one year's imprisonment, and pay costs of prosecution. [With the aid of a knife brought by Wadsworth, Dun- bar cleared himself of his irons, knocked down the guard, and escaped from the jail, but was recaptured. ] Next Wednesday is the day appointed for the execution of Moses Dunbar. A sermon will be preached at the Gaol to the prisoner by Rev. Mr. Jarvis of Middletown. A sermon will also be preached in the North Meeting House to the spectators by Rev. Mr. Strong of this town."
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Dunbar's biography continues :
"Which tremendous and awful day now draws near, when I must appear before the Searcher of hearts to give an account of all the deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil. I shall soon be delivered from all the pains and troubles of this wicked mortal state, and shall be answerable to All-Seeing God, who is infinitely just, and knoweth all things as they are. I am fully persuaded that I depart in a state of peace with God and my own conscience. I have but little doubt of my future happiness, through the merits of Jesus Christ. I have sincerely repented of all my sins, examined my heart, prayed earnestly to God for mercy, for the gracious pardon of my manifold and heinous sins, I resign myself wholly to the disposal of my Heavenly Father, submitting to His Divine Will. From the bottom of my heart I forgive all enemies and earnestly pray God to forgive them all. Some part of Th- S-'s evidence was false, but I heartily for- give him, and likewise earnestly beg forgiveness of all persons whom I have injured or offended. Since my sentence I have been visited by sundry worthy ministers of the gospel, who have discoursed and prayed with me, among whom are the Rev. William Short of Hartford. The Rev. William Viets of Simsbury, my fellow prisoner on account of preaching in favor of the British govern- ment, has been indefatigable in affording every possible assistance to prepare me for my terrible exit. He ad- ministered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to me the Sunday before I was put to death. To those gentle- men, as well as all others who have shewed me kindness I give my most sincere thanks. I die in the profession
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and communion of the Church of England. Of my po- litical sentence I leave the readers of these lines to judge. Perhaps it is neither reasonable nor proper that I should declare them in my present situation. I cannot take the last farewell of my countrymen without de- siring them to show kindness to my poor widow and chil- dren, not reflecting on them the manner of my death. Now I have given you a narrative of all things material concerning my life with that veracity which you are to expect from one who is going to leave the world and appear before the God of truth. My last advice to you is that you, above all others, confess your sins and pre- pare yourselves, with God's assistance, for your future and Eternal state. You will all shortly be as near Eter- nity as I now am, and will view both worlds in the light which I do now view them. You will then view all wordly things to be but shadows and vapours and vani- ty of vanities, and the things of the Spiritual world to be of importance beyond all description. You will then be sensible that the pleasures of a good conscience, and the happiness of the near prospect of Heaven, will outweigh all the pleasures and honours of this wicked world.
"God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on me, and receive my spirit. "Amen and Amen. "Moses Dunbar.
"Hartford, March 18th, A. D., 1777."
The Rev. Dr. Strong's discourse, with the Dunbar tragedy as its theme, is in part as follows :
"The occasion of our being collected here to worship
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God is one of the most solemn that can be conceived. This day is appointed to close the life of an unhappy person who is condemned for conspiring against his country and all its privileges. He hath been judged by men in righteousness, the sentence of death pronounced, the day of execution come; an event indeed awful and affecting to every mind of humanity or religion. Though justice to our country and reverence for its laws forbids anything that would impede a full execu- tion of them, there is room for prayer to Almighty God that this day's business may be blessed for our good, and that the unhappy criminal may receive the forgive- ness of his sins from God, though he cannot have for- giveness from the State, consistent with public safety.
"For reasons, we must in charity hope, honest to him- self, he refuses to be present at this solemnity ; my dis- course therefore will not be calculated, as hath been usual on such occasions, for a dying creature who is to appear immediately before the Great Judge: but to assist my hearers in making an improvement of the event for their own benefit. . . . I will conclude with some observations suggested by the occasion of the day.
"First. It learns us to love and revere our country, to obey its laws, to devote ourselves to its service, and abhór every practice which hath any tendency to in- crease the public calamities. Had the unhappy person who is soon to be executed done this, he might now have been prosperous, beloved, and respected. Now he is covered with infamy, bound in chains, surrounded with the instruments of horror and death. From his fate let us learn the danger of encouraging a traitorous dis-
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position, and secretly attempting practices against our country : the mercy of men cannot pardon them, for darkness will not cover them, hell will not hide them.
"Secondly. The melancholy spectacle which is soon to be exhibited hath drawn together a vast concourse of people who are doubtless influenced by various motives to be spectators of so awful a scene. Some by true seriousness, and many to gratify a vain curiosity. Curiosity is but a poor motive for collecting on such an occasion. Such awful exhibitions are designed that others may see and fear. Death is there! justice and judgment are there, the power of government, dis- played in its most awful form, is there.
"One reason why it is necessary the unhappy person should thus die is that others may be fortified against temptation by the spectacle of horror and the bitter consequences of transgression.
"Above all things, learn that we must die. Realize the importance of being prepared to leave the world- how it feels to be within a few minutes of eternity! of the bar of God! of the solemn sentence which determines a state of happiness or misery forever.
"With regard to the dying criminal, while you acquiesce in the necessity of his fate, give him your prayers. Though public safety forbids him pardon from the state, he may be pardoned by God Almighty.
God grant that the awful scene may do us good-con- firm us in holiness and virtue, in the love of God and our country-that it may guard us against temptation, and make us careful to live in all good conscience towards God and men-that we may finally lay down these
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tabernacles of flesh in peace, trusting in the Savior's merits, and be received to the holy presence of God.
"To Him who rules all things according to His own pleasure and wisdom, who saves the world by his blood, and sanctifies the ungodly, be praise, glory, and do- minion, forever and ever, Amen."
Dunbar's parting words of affection and guidance for his children are worthy of quotation :
"MY CHILDREN. Remember your Creator in the days of your youth. Learn your Creed, the Lord's prayer, and the ten commandments and catechism, and go to church as often as you can, and prepare your- selves as soon as you are of a proper age to worthily partake of the Lord's Supper. I charge you all, never to leave the Church. Read the Bible. Love the Saviour wherever you may be. I am now in Hartford jail con- demned to death for high treason against the State of Connecticut. I was thirty years last June, the 14th. God bless you. Remember your Father and Mother and be dutiful to your present mother."
The following incident is a curious one and note- worthy from a psychic standpoint.
"I see," said Isaiah Dunbar, in his home on Town Hill in Northbury parish, "I see-," (yet he saw not, for the eyes had been dark many a long day. ) "I see a sky and a man there. It is Moses Dunbar hanging!" His brothers laughed and said, "It is not so." But they inquired even as to the hour, and it was so, as he had said.
The excerpts which follow give some slight idea of the difference of opinion upon the Dunbar matter.
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From the Connecticut Courant, Monday, March 24:
"Last Wednesday Moses Dunbar, who for some time had been under the sentence of death in this place for High Treason, was executed agreeable to the sentence. A prodigious concourse of people were spectators on the occasion."
From Jones' History of New York during the Revolu- tionary War, written between 1783 and 1788. Vol. 1, page 175.
"Early in 1777 a Captain Dunbar was taken up at Hartford in Connecticut, for enlisting men in his Maj- esty's service; his commission and orders from Gen. Howe were in his pocket. He was confined in prison. There happened to be no existing law in the Colony which made such an offence punishable with death. A law was therefore made on purpose; upon which ex post facto law he was indicted and tried for treason condemned, and ordered for execution.
"No less than four expresses, at four different times, were sent to General Howe between the condemnation and the execution, to each of which the most faithful promises were made, that an application of such a serious nature should be made to the Governor of Connecticut as should insure his discharge.
"No application was ever made and while the General was lolling in the arms of his mistress and sporting his cash at the faro bank, the poor unhappy Loyalist was executed. This is a fact and the General knows it. His word, his honor, and his humanity were all sported away in this affair. Dunbar had a young wife, big with child.
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On the day of execution the High Sheriff (by orders no doubt ) compelled her to ride in the cart and attend the execution of her husband. This over she left Hartford, and went to Middletown, about sixteen miles down the river, where a number of Loyalists lived and where several British subjects were living on parole. Her case being stated, a subscription was undertaken for her com- fort and relief. No sooner was this hospitable act known to the Committee at Middletown than they sent for the poor woman and ordered her out of the town ; declaring at the same time that if she should thereafter be found in that town she should be sent instantly to jail.
"(Note. The chairman of the Committee at this time was Titus Hosmer, Esq., a lawyer of note, one of the Council of the State, a rigid presbyterian, a zealous re- publican, and a flaming rebel. He was afterwards a delegate in Congress, and commissioned by them as Judge of the Admiralty for the four New England Colonies ).
"The unhappy wretch was obliged to leave the town in consequence of this inhuman order, and had it not been for the hospitality of a worthy loyal family who kindly took her under their roof, she would in all probability have been delivered in the open fields. A striking in- stance this of American lenity, which the rebels during the war proclaimed to the world with so much éclat."
This advertisement appeared in the Connecticut Courant for May 5, 12, 19, 26, and June 2, 1777. The most advertised pamphlet printed during the year.
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Just published, and to be sold by the printer hereof, Price One Shilling
The Reasons and Designs of public Punishments ;
A SERMON
Delivered before the People who were collected to the
EXECUTION
of
MOSES DUNBAR
Who was condemned for HIGH TREASON against the State of Connecticut, and executed March 19th, A. D. 1777.
By NATHAN STRONG
Pastor of the first Church in Hartford.
Bloody and deceitful Men shall not live out half their Days.
. The execution caused a great gloom among the Chippeny Hill folk. They had with them the infant Moses, who was baptised at New Cambridge after the father's death. They had also the wife and the or- phaned children left in her keeping. Impulsive Chaun- cey Jerome, he of the athletic frame who tore himself away from the mob and the apple tree on Fall Moun- tain, and who was a brother of the first wife, married the widow and took her to Nova Scotia until after the war.
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Years afterward she pointed out the spot on Gallows Hill near which Trinity College now stands, where her husband was hung. The story of the arch-traitor swept throughout the State and was told and retold for many years by the family fireside. In one family on Town Hill, Plymouth, where the Dunbar brothers lived, chil- dren were afraid at night to pass the cupboard in which Dr. Strong's pamphlet was known to rest and this was only sixty years ago!
I have failed to find any of the old inhabitants of Plymouth, either Dunbars or their friends, who have aught to say of Moses Dunbar, or remember him, other than as one that should not be remembered.
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CHAPTER VIII
THE WANING OF TORYISM
T HE execution of Moses Dunbar in March 1777, did much to dampen the ardor of the loyalist cause in Connecticut. But the raid on Danbury and the drunken debauch of Tryon's men, followed by the consignment of the town to flames, in April of the same year, injured it still more, and, in fact, hastened a crisis. Dr. Strong's sermon had been published and very widely read. Washington had withdrawn from New York and was encamped for the winter at Morristown, New Jersey, and while the best men of Connecticut were away with the army, the Tories guided the British to Dan- bury; but escaped the destruction that followed, by marking a white cross upon their doors; and they re- mained comfortable in their houses, while old men and women, and children gathering what scanty clothing they could, and shunning the soldiers, ran, crawled, or were carried upon their beds, into lonely lanes, damp pastures and leafless woods. Feeling ran to fever heat. Sympathizers of England were arrested on the spot.
The excitement was not long in making itself felt on Chippeny Hill. "Last Friday," says a volunteer corre- spondent to the Connecticut Courant, "fifteen prisoners taken to Danbury were brought to this town and deliv- ered to the care of the Committee. Same day seven- teen tories belonging to New Cambridge, a society in
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Farmington, were taken up and committed to gaol in this place. They are a pack of fellows who were connected with the late Moses Dunbar, whose infamous end is well known; some of them had actually engaged to serve under him in the ministerial army. The gentle- men, by whose authority they were apprehended, gave them free liberty to go over to the enemy, but they rather chose to accept of their present confinement, where they remain for trial at the next Superior Court for High Treason against the State."
What thoughts our seventeen friends of the Hill must have had as they awaited their fate at Hartford, we can not say. There is a poem, which, in view of later events, I surmise may have expressed their ideas. It is a parody entitled :
"The Pausing American Loyalist."
"To sign or not to sign? That is the question, Whether 'twere better for an honest man To sign, and so be safe; or to resolve, Betide what will, against associations, And, by retreating, shun them. To fly-I reck Not where; and by that flight, t'escape Feathers and tar, and thousand other ills That loyalty is heir to: "Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To fly-to want- To want? Perchance to starve: Ay there's the rub ! For in that chance of want, what ills may come To patriot rage, when I have left my all- Must give me pause :- There's the respect That makes us trim, and bow to men we hate.
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Who would bend to fools,
And truckle thus to mad, mob-chosen upstarts, But that the dread of something after flight (In that blest country, where, yet, no moneyless Poor wight can live) puzzles the will, And makes ten thousands rather sign-and eat Than fly-to starve on loyalty-
Thus dread of want makes rebels of us all."
The following quotation from the public records of Connecticut continues the history of the seventeen men from New Cambridge:
"On report of the committee appointed by this As- sembly to take into consideration the subject matter of the memorial of Nathl Jones, Simon Tuttle, Joel Tuttle, Nathaniel Matthews, John Matthews, Riverius Carrington, Lemuel Carrington, Zerubbabel Jerom junr, Chauncey Jerom, Ezra Dormer, Nehemiah Royce, George Beckwith, Abel Frisbee, Levi Frisbey, Jared Peck, and Abraham Waters, all of Farmington, shew- ing that they are imprisoned on suspicion of their being inimical to America; that they are ready and willing to join with their country and to do their utmost for its defense; and praying to be examined and set at liberty, as per said memorial on file, reporting that the said committee caused the authority &c of Farmington to be duly notifyed, that they convened the memorialists before them at the house of Mr. David Bull on the 22nd of May, instant, and examined them separately touch- ing their unfriendliness to the American States, and heard the evidences produced by the parties ; that they
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found said persons were committed for being highly inimical to the United States, and for refusing to assist in the defence of the country; that on examination it appeared that they had been much under the influence of one Nichols*, a designing church clergyman who has instilled into them principles opposite to the good of the States; that under the influence of such principles they had pursued a course of conduct tending to the ruin of the country and highly displeasing to those who are friends to the freedom and independence of the United States; that under various pretences they had refused to go in the expedition to Danbury ; that said Nathaniel Jones and Simon Tuttle have as they suppose each of them a son gone over to the enemy; that there was, however, no particular positive fact that suf- ficiently appeared to have been committed by them of an atrocious nature against the States, and that they !were indeed grossly ignorant of the true grounds of the present war with Great Britain; that they appeared to be penitent of their former conduct, professed them- selves convinced since the Danbury alarm that there was no such thing as remaining neuters; that the destruction made by the tories was matter of convic- tion to them; that since their imprisonment upon serious reflection they are convinced that the States are right in their claim, and that it is their duty to submit to authority, and that they will to the utmost of their power defend the country against the British army; and that the said committee think it advisable that the said persons be liberated from their imprison-
*Rev. James Nichols
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ment on their taking an oath of fidelity to the United States: RESOLVED by this Assembly, that the said persons be liberated from their said imprisonment on their taking an oath of fidelity to this State and paying costs, at £22 7 10; and that the keeper of the gaol in Hartford is hereby directed to liberate said persons accordingly."
Whatever were the feelings of those on Chippeny Hill, outward manifestations of their loyalty were per- emptorily checked.
"Thus dread of want makes rebels of us all."
Built after the War by the loyal churchmen of Bristol, Plymouth, and Harwinton.
ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH AT EAST PLYMOUTH
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CHAPTER IX EAST CHURCH
D ESPITE the submission in affairs political that followed the Danbury raid, the Church of Eng- land or, as Joseph Roberts wrote it, "the Chruch of Englon," lived on. Poor Joseph Roberts was not as learned as his fellows, but he was not afraid to stand up for his religion and his King. In the latter days of the Revolution, when the church record book at New Cambridge was devoid of entries, he inscribed in it this sentence.
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