Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution, Part 1

Author: Dawson, Henry B. (Henry Barton), 1821-1889. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Morrisania, New York City : [s.n.]
Number of Pages: 592

USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 1

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.

Gc 974.701 W52d 1757849

REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01145 0746

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015

https://archive.org/details/westchestercount00daws 0

WESTCHESTER-COUNTY. NEW YORK.

DURING

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

HENRY B. DAWSON,

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ETC.

178.3

...

MORRISANIA, NEW YORK CITY:

1886.

1.080

-Kimy BDanjon 1

851.94; .505

MAR 2 3 :73

DASCO, HENRY PARTON, 1821-1889, Westchester county, Nor York, during the Ancicon revolution. Now Voris citr, 1905. vip.12, Clap. Estet. (port. ) fold.maps. 29cm.

"Chly 250 copies pointed, in this form, each cory of which is imbored and signed coy the author, No. 192".

65-1971

3CT 05

SAMUEL L. M. BARLOW, EsQ., VE TET CITY OF NEW YORK AND GLEN COVE, LONG ISLAND, FOR A MEMORIAL OF THAT Dast WHICH HE WILL REMEMBER

AND WHICH OTHERS CAN NEVER FORGET, THIS WORK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED BY ITS AUTHOR.

MORRISAMIS. NEW YORK CITY, Augzsa TE. 2556.

PREFATORY NOTE.

The history of the County of Westchester, in New York, during the period commencing with the Spring of 177 % and closing with the early Winter of 1783, contains more of general interest than can be found in The history of any other County in the United States, during the same period, that of Suffolk, in Massachu- suits and that of New York, in New York, not excepted.

No one who has hitherto pretended to speak or to write of the grand old agricultural County of West- chester, a- a County, during the revolutionary era, has done more than to mention, with more or less of precision as ! particularity, the movements of two adverse Armies over her highways and her cultivated fields, one of them from Kingsbridge to the White Plains, the other from the Sound to the same objective point ; the skirmish which has been dignified with the name of a Battle, which ensued ; the ridiculous military spectacle of the two antagonistic Armies retreating from the White Plains, in opposite directions, and in the presence of each .. ther ; the half dozen military raids, sometimes from one of the belligerents and sometimes from the other, to whom the unarmed and entirely defenceless and previously plundered farmers were subsequently harassed and plundered. again and again; the denouement of a very serious defection and plot, the latter discovered within that County ; the union of the allied forees of France and the United States, previous to that eele- brated movement to the Southward which resulted in the capture of Lord Cornwallis and his command ; and the escort duty which was performed by a Troop of Westchester-county Cavalry, when General Washington and Governor Clinton and their respective suites entered the City of New York, the closing military move- ment of the War of the American Revolution. All these have been told, over and over again, with more or I. .. of precision and particularity, and with mechanical uniformity of order and general statements; but all these various writers, from Gordon and Ramsey to the younger Bolton and Ridpath, have successively and uniformly belittled the history of that community of industrious and peaceful and prosperous and conservative farmers, who occupied what was known, geographically, as the County of Westchester, during the ten years which are now under consideration, a history which consisted, in truth, of vastly more than a series of mili- tary movements and the providential detection of a military defection and plot; and it has consequently been left to other hands and to other pens, to do, with greater labor and less satisfaction, what should have been done, many years since, while the material was more abundant aud more procurable, and while some, at least, of the actors in that great drama were here, to afford their more intelligent assistance.

An attempt has been made, in this work, to do a small portion of what has been, thus, hitherto, neglected; and if we shall have succeeded in the little which we have earnestly and laboriously attempted to do, the reader will find, therein, a brief, but honestly told, record of those influences, obtruded from beyond the County itself, without invitation from and in known opposition to the inclinations of those who were within the County, which, during the earlier revolutionary era, transformed a well-cultivated and highly productive agricultural region into one over which, without the baleful assistance of a foreign eneiny, were spread, by fellow -colonists and fellow-subjects, the siekening evidenees of obtruded and unwelcome partisan bitterness atul relentlessness, presented in the devastation and waste and desolation which, everywhere throughout the County, then prevailed-of those influences, wielded by those who are unduly elaimed to have been patriotic atil virtuous, which carried with them, into the quiet and peaceful homesteads of agricultural Westeltester- wutty, perseention and outrage and barbarisin, such as the world has seldom seen, since the restraining po ors of Christianity has prevailed over those who, if left to themselves, as in the instances of those of si !!: we write, would have been only ruthless barbarians, notwithstanding the habiliments of civilization in who h they sometimes appeared. We have endeavored to trace those evil influences, back, to their origin, 214 forward, as far as we have been able to go, to their final sad results; and, in more than one instance, we have seen those who controlled and wielded those influences, climb over the shattered remains of what, before, had been intelligent and industrious and contented families, and peaceful and plentifully-supplied howes, and productive farins, from the scenes of plunder and devastation and general ruin, of misery and hopelessness and see, in which they had been the principal actors, to those high places of honor and emolu- ment and power to which they had aspired and for the attainment of which they had not hesitated to bring all that wretchedness and ruin on others, to which we have alluded.

PREFATORY NOTE.

We have endeavored to present a complete history of the political as well as of the military affairs of Westchester county, freon the organization of the first political body, the Committee of Fifty-one, in the City of New York, by whom, in May, 1774, the first attempt was made to draw the farmers of Westchester-county into the vortex of revolutionary politics, until, early in December, 1776, the remarkable spectacle was pre- sented to the world of two antagonistic Armies turning their backs on each other and retreating, in opposite directions, without the slightest attempt at pursuit, by either-circumstances over which we could not exer- cise any control having prevented a continuation of the narrative to the close of the War of the Revolution, as we originally designed to have done, we could do no more than that-and, whatever may have been the measure of our success, in the work which we have undertaken to do. as far as we have done it, we have been actuated, in all which we have written, by nothing else than by an earnest desire to ascertain the exact truth of every subject to which we have directed the reader's attention ; to present the truth, thus ascertained, faithfully and fearlessly ; and, as far as our strength and resources and ability should permit, to present to the descendants of those farmers of Westchester-county of whom we were particularly writing, something which, in the absence of anything better fitted for that purpose, should serve as a memorial of the sufferings to which their ancestors were subjected, by their own countrymen more than by those of foreign countries and quite as much while an armed foe was unknown throughout the Colouy as while the tramp of opposing Armies was heard throughout the County. Notwithstanding all its defects, therefore, we trust the volume which contains the results of our prolonged and earnest labor, and which is, now, laid before the reader, will be accepted as our humble offering to the memory of those farmers and farmers' wives and farmers' children, residents of the County of Westchester, during the era of persecution and outrage and lawless violence, 1774-'83, and during the era of War and its barbarous accompaniments, 1776-'83, who were subjected to and who endured the outrages and barbarities of which we have made mention ; and if, at the same time, it shall serve as a contribution to the general history of the County, the measure of our satisfaction will have been completed.

In the prosecution of our authorial labors, we have generally depended on the resources of our own work-library ; but we have been favored with loans of half a dozen volumes which were not on our shelves, by Colonel J. Thomas Scharf, LL. D., of Baltimore, and Smith Williamson, Esq., of this City ; and the files of local Newspapers, in the Library of the New York Historical Society, have, also, been usefully resorted to-for the use of all these, our sincere thanks are due, and, hereby, tendered. Messrs. William and Robert Kelby, of the New York Historical Society, have kindly made examinations and copies of papers for us, when we were unable to do so for ourself: our valued friends, Hon. J. O. Dykman and Hon. Lewis C. Platt, of the White Plains, and William Heathcote De Lancey, Esq., of the City of New York, have given their valuable assistance in determining and describing localities, in Westchester and Pelham and in the vicinity of the White Plains, which were the scenes of military operations described in our narrative : to the Rev. E. Elwards Beardsley, D.D., LL.D., of New Haven, we are indebted for the use of trustworthy material. concerning the raid on East Chester aud West Chester, by banditti from Connecticut, which, but for his kindness and assistance, we would have been obliged to have used at second hand and in untrustworthy Grins: our valued friend, Edward F. de Lancey, Esq., has been unwearied in answering our many questions and in affording us the benefits of his valuable suggestions and advice, for the improvement of our work : and our very dear friend, Professor Charles J. Little, LL.D., of the Syracuse University, has. also, employed bis ripe scholarship and acute critical abilities in suggesting changes and additions where such changes and oMitiuns were desirable, in the presentation of the results of our studies or for the further instruction of the reader-to each and every one of these, we return our most grateful acknowledgments. There is one other shot we cannot forget, in this connection, our very dear friend and family physician. R. Heber Bedell, M.D., 14 Tremont, in this City, without whose untiring watchfulness of our very delicate health, with find - bless- ing on his labors, during the many months of feebleness and pain with which we have been afflicted, while riad yrd in the preparation of this work and until this time, we could not possibly have completed so much uit what we lind undertaken to do: to him, for that almost filial attention to our health and comfort, during « hat ha- been the most trying labor of our authorial life, we gladly record our very great obligations and · ut le site.It gratitude.

MORRISANIA, NEW YORK CITY, August 16, 1586.

HENRY B. DAWSON.

WESTCHESTER-COUNTY, NEW YORK.

DURING

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

During the entire period extending from the first settlement which was made by Europeans, within that portion of New Netherland which, subsequent to the tir-t of November, 1683, was known as the "COUNTY "OF WESTCHESTER," in New York, until within the memory of living men, the inhabitants of that portion of the country, with rare exceptions, were either cul- tivators of its soil or employed in other occupations which were, then, necessary for the comfort and well-being of such a purely agricultural community.1

1 " The Inhabitants indeed live all upon their own ; but are generally "poor."-Ree. John Bartow to the Venerable Society, "WESTCHESTER IN "NEW YORK PROVINCE, 4th Nov., 1702."

" The people of this County, having generally land of their own, al- "though they dont want, few or none of them innch abound. '-Colonel Cale', Heathcote to the Venerable Society, "MANOR OF SCARSDALE, NOv. "9, 1705."

In 1711, Rev. John Bartow wrote to the Venerable Society, from West- che-ter, which was, then, the County-seat and principal Village : "The "Inhabitants of our Parish live scattered and dispersed up and down in " the Woods, so that many cannot repair constantly to the Church, by "reason of their great distance from it." Quoted by Mr. Bolton, History of Westchester County, Second edition, i., 340. The " Parish " referred to, Included, then, the more recent Towns of Westchester, West Farms, Morrisarda, Kingsbridge, Yonkers, East Chester, Pelham, and New Rochelle.

see also, the letters of Rer. Robert Jenney to the Venerable Society, "BYF, Dec. 15, 1722 ;" live. John Burtow to the Bishop of London, " WEST- "CHESTER, IN THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK, IN AMERICA, July 19, 121;" I.e. R bert Jenney to the same," AT RYE, IN THE PROVINCE OF NEW "YORK, July 18, 1724 ;" Fer. Deter Stouppe to the Venerable Society, "New ROCHELLE, Dec. 11, 1797 :" Rec. James Wetmore to the same, " 1.Fr, February 20, 1727-28 ;"' etc.

"Asthe people of this Country are all farmers, they are dispersed up " ab-t down the Country ; and even in Towns every one has a plott of at * ** **: ton acres, which distances his neighbor from him."-Ber. Thomas " as: " to the Venerable Society, " WESTCHESTER, Nov. 5, 1729."

the sims, letter of Hier. James Wetmore to the Venerable Society, " RYE, "M t.h ., 178 ;" The Parish of Rye to the same, " PROVINCE OF NEW "Fax, Barnes, March 6, 1744 ;" Ree. Joseph Lampoon to the same, " NET ANFLY, IN THE PARISH OF RYE, February 10, 1746-47;" Rev. Flereare Willing to the time, "STAMFORD IN CONNECTICUT, IN NEW ENG- "JANE, March 25, 1Ml ;" Rer. Harry Monro to the same, " PHILIPS- "if HAN, February 1, IT06;" Rec. Eppuretus Turnsend to the sims, "SALEN, WESTCHESTER COUNTY, March 25, 1771 ; " etc.

In I>11. Rev. Tunuthy Dwight, President of Vale-college, 148501 through Westchester-county, and wrote, of the Town of Eastchester, ex-

A very large proportion of those farmers, however, especially during the earlier Colonial period, was not composed of owners, in fee-simple, of the soil which they cultivated, that having been held, in such in- stances, on Leases from the Lords of the several Manors into which the County was largely divided ; ? but those Leases were generally for long terms of years, on easy terms of rental, with liberal provisions for renewals; and those who held them were seldom disturbed in their continued and quiet possession of their respective properties.3

cept "a small scattered Village," "the rest of the Township is covered "with plantations"-Trarels, ili., 480-and, of the Town of Mamaroneck, "it is. wholly a collection of plantations; and can scarcely be said to "contain eren a handet. It is et, however, with a number of good houses "and excellent farms."-Ibut, ilt., 467 .- Of the County, as a whole, he wrote thus: "It is universally settled, so far as the nature of the " ground will admit ; and is almost merely a collection of Farms." -- Tid, iii., 449.

We have resorted. also, to our own recollections of Westchester- county, which extend far beyond that day when the quiet and the morais of the County were first disturbed by the rash of a train of railrox.l- cars and the screeching of a locomotive, within its territory.

" In the Antimon of 1769, it was stated in the Assembly that the Manors of Philipseborough and Cortiandt, exclusive of all other portions of the County, contained "one-third of the people in the County ;" but the minaber of Freeholders was somewhat increased, during the later Colonial period, as it was the practice of the greater number of the Proprietors to sell the fre-simple, whenever it was applied for .- Ebrard F. Je Lancey to Heury B. Deurcon.

3 An instance of the permanence of occupation, by tenants on the Manors, is seen in the case of the Anjevines, thus referred to by MEr. Bolton : " Filer the Heathcotes and De Landeys, the Anjevines bell the large farm," [m Scarsdale, ] "hearing their name, now owned by Mexamler M. Bruen, M. D., for four Generations."-History of West- chester County, second edition, i., 231.

Although the Manors of Livingston and Rensselaerwyck and the Scott and Idenbeim and Duanesburg and Clark and Kortright and Harden- burg and Desbrosses and Living ton and Montgomery and Armstrong andd Banyar and Hunter and Overing and Lewis and Verplanck and other Patents were not in Westchester-county, the relations of landlord alid tenant were the same, unless in the rentals, in all ; and they were the same as those which generally prevailed on the Manors at1 . ther large estates, in Westchester-county. The student who shall desire to learn more on that subject of American fondaliom, as it existed before and since the American Revolution, may find very much which will be useful to him, in the Report on the D'Jienvies existing betusen the Proprie

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

With the exception of the frequently seen Grist- mills and Sawmills and an occasional Fallinginill, 1 the aggregate amount of whose manufactured pro- duets did not generally exceed the demands of the several neighborhoods in which they were respec- tively situated, there were no Manufactories of any kind, within the County; and those who owned and ran the Mills to which we have referred, when those' Mills were not owned and managed in the interest of: the Lords of the Manors in which they were respec- tively seated,2 more frequently than otherwise, were also ocenpants and cultivators of adjacent farms. The Blacksmiths and the Wheelwrights, the Masons and the Carpenters, the Tailors and the Shoemakers, the Storekeepers on the roadside and the Tavernkeepers on the corners, all of them reasonably regarded as peculiarly necessary portions of every rural eommu- uity, were, very often, in this, also farmers on a smaller scale.3 The Market-sloops which, then, made their periodical trips between the many land- ing-places, on the North-river or on the Sound, and the neighboring City, affording the only means, unless those which were supplied by teams, for the transpor- tation of passengers and freight, which the County then possessed, were generally owned, wholly or in part, by well-to-do farmers living in the vicinity of the landing-places from which they respectively sailed ; and, not unfrequently, those Sloops were nav- igated by younger members of their owners' families or by the young sons of some of their neighbors, of whom one, in every instance, discharged the double duty of " Captain " and Marketman.+ Even the little Villages which were, then, scattered over the County, some of them made famous in the history of the world because of notable events which have occurred near them, were inhabited, principally, by those aged or more thau usually wealthy people-the greater por- tion of them also cultivators as well as owners of neighboring farms-whose more abundant means en- abled them to spend their days, more agreeably than on their own farms, in the enjoyment of the greater social privileges afforded in a country village life.3 In

tors of certain Leasehold Estates and their Tenants, presented to the Ass mbly of New York, in 1846, and reproduced, with an introductory Note, in The Writing and speeches of Samuel J. Tildes, edited by John Bigelow, i., 1st.

1 The notorious Captain Cornelius Steenrod was the proprietor of more than one Fulling-till, in Cortlandt Manor, at the opening of the War of the Revolution.

" The ob! Mill, on the Pocantico, near the ancient Manor house of the Philipses, is a notable example of a Manorial Mill, continued until our own duty.

3" Their employment is husbandry, even Innkeepers, Shopkeepers, smiths, and Shoemakers hint excepted ; so that we pray, pay, and " wait ton, for everything done in this Country."-Ree. Thomas Stan- hard to the Venerable Society, " WESTCHESTER, NOV. 5, 1729."

Within the period of our own recollection, this primitive combination of occupations was widely continned ; and every one who is acquainted with the County, now, can readily call to mind more than one instance still existing.

" The juryobel recollections of members of our own family, extenling further back than our own, afford ample anthority for this statement.

3 "+ Even in Towns every one has a plott of at least ten acres, which

short, as was said in the beginning, there were few. among the residents of that portion of the country. during the later Colonial period, who were not either actual cultivators of the soil or in some way con- nected with or dependent on those who were thus employed.

With a more than usually productive Soil, not yet exhausted by a vicious system of cultivation; with a temperate Climate, which was not only conducive to healthfulness, in the inhabitants, but promotive of the best interests of the farmers, in the ripening and har- vesting of their erops ; with moderate Rentals for the properties held by those of them who were uot Free- holders ; and with Taxes which were only nominal in amount; too far removed from the frontier to be har- assed by the inroads of hostile Savages; and near enough to the not distant City to enjoy the great ad- vantages which it afforded, in a constant Market, at the highest price-, for all the surplus products of their farms which they should de-ire to sell, and, at the lowest prices, for whatever, of necessities or of luxu- ries, the products of this or of other countries, which they should desire to buy-in the enjoyment of all these, the farmers of Westchester-county, especially during the later Colonial period, were favored as few other purely agriculturists have been favored, then or since, in any part of the world.

With rare exceptions, these Westchester-county farmers were intelligent men, sufficiently educated for all the purposes of their business and of their recre- ation-even among the earlier of the several Towns, those farmers included, in their Westchester-county homes, men and women of culture, whose names, and characters, and abilities, as scholars and statesmen, in several instances, are matters of history, known throughout the world : " while the intelligence of those of later Colonial period- is seen in the multitude of ecclesia-tical and political papers, signed by large numbers of them, anl rarely disfigured by the "marks" of those signers which have always been apologetic of the illiteracy of those who have thus used them. There were very few among them, during the latter days of the Colony, who were not temperate, industrious, and prudent in the management of their farms and their business afair- ; they were commonly very mindful of their duties to their families and ot' those to their neighbors; and they were generally diligent in the discharge of at least their outward duties to God. During the period last referred to. not many among them were not in comfortable cir- cumstances: many of them were what is called " weil- " to-do:" some of them, particularly those who were members of the older families, in those days of simple habits, were considered wealthy. All of them were

" distances his neighbor from him."- Ber. Thomas Steward to the Ven- erubde society, " WESTCHESTER, NOV. 5, 1729"

Mes. Anne Hutchinson, of tulum, Adriaen Van der Dench, of Youkers, and Colonel Chleb Heathcote, of Mamaroneck, may be referred to, in this contsection.

3 :

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

noted for their open-handed hospitality ; but, among the older and more wealthy tamilas, whose field-, and barnyards, and granaries, and storerooms were generally teeming with all the comforts and thatty of the luxuries of life, the sturdy farmer and his tidy wife, his healthful children and his faithful tiegroes, vied in their efforts to secure to the acceptable guests of the family, a hearty welcome; to make the stay of those sojourners agreeable ; and, when the time for their departure had come, to induce them to regret the shortness of their visit. Where the necessaries atid comforts of life were so abundant atid so general- ly enjoyed, Pauperism was comparatively unknown; and where Pauperism and Intemperance were so unt- common, there was a minimum of Crime.'

Especially during the Colonial period, there was no Village, at the County-seat or elsewhere, within the County, which contained a population sufficiently nu- merous to supply the neighboring farmers, nor even its own inhabitants, with the current news of the day ; " nor was there any settlement, within the County, which possessed sufficient influence to lead the fash- ions of the wives and daughters of those farmers. There was not, therefore, nor could there have been, any eentral coterie or clique, with lofty pretentions and extended ambition, to prompt the County, in what should be said or done by its inhabitants, in support of or in opposition to any proposition, whether moral, or ecclesiastical, or politicai ; nor was there any influence, in any one or in any number, sufficient to associate and organize those farmers, for any purpose whatever. Every one was dependent on his own resources and on bis roadside or fireside chats with his neighbors, for whatever information he acquired concerning the passing events of that event- fitl period; he was dependent, mainly, on his own intelligence and his own intellectual powers, for whatever opinions he entertained, on any subject; and, except on some extraordinary occasions, he was

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution, Part 1

Author: Dawson, Henry B. (Henry Barton), 1821-1889. 4n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Morrisania, New York City : [s.n.] Number of Pages: 592

Author: Dawson, Henry B. (Henry Barton), 1821-1889. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Morrisania, New York City : [s.n.]
Number of Pages: 592