A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 38

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

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He received a commission as lieutenant- colonel in De Lancey's corps of Loyalists. In August he was in command of a detachment and had turned the village church of which the Rev. Benjamin Tallmadge, father of Major Tallmadge, of Revolutionary fame, was then the pastor, into a fort and barracks, while the surrounding country was overrun by the usual gangs of ruthless marauders which generally accompanied such inferior commands of the Royalists. Hearing of this, General Parsons

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determined to try and dispossess the enemy and sailed from Black Rock Harbor, Connecti- cut, with a considerable force and a six- pounder cannon, his flotilla including a sloop and six whaleboats. Landing at Crane Neck, he marched to Setauket, surrounded the church and demanded its surrender. The proposition was submitted by Hewlett to his men, but they were unanimous in their desire to fight it out. Then Hewlett said, in his usual impetuous way, "I will stick to you as long as there is a man left." Soon the assault was begun and continued for some three hours, much gallant- ry being displayed on both sides and the church steadily holding fast in spite of the musket shots and the balls from the brass six-pounder. Then word was brought to Parsons that some British ships were in the neighborhood, and fearing his retreat might be cut off, he re- treated to his boats, carrying away a few of Hewlett's horses, and reached Black Rock in safety. Hewlett was highly praised in the British reports for his share in the affray. It is noted by all who chronicle this fight that Zachariah Green, one of Parsons's soldiers, afterward, in 1797, became pastor of the very church he had on this occasion so zealously tried to storm and destroy.

Green was born at Stanford, Conn., in 1760, and appears to have been a regular dare- devil. He entered the Continental service at the outbreak of hostilities, was engaged on the fortifications of Dorchester Heights, fought at White Plains and in several other engage- ments. At White Marsh he was severely wounded in the shoulder. "This," quaintly observes the good Dr. Prime, "was probably the cause of his changing his course of life." He studied at Dartmouth, was licensed to preach in 1785, and became minister of Setau- ket September 27, 1797.

During the continuance of the British oc- cupation Hewlett seems to have been kept busy on Long Island in military work, and his treatment of the Whigs was often marked by gross cruelty, while he certainly permitted his command at times, as in the raid on South-

old in 1778, to degenerate into little better than an organized band of robbers. When the evacuation took place he was rewarded with a pension, and, settling in St. John, New Brunswick, began there a new and very dif- ferent career, becoming Mayor of that city. His son Thomas, as pronounced a Tory as himself, was killed in 1780 at Hanging Rock, North Carolina, by some Patriot skirmishers. Thomas was at that time a captain in the New York Loyal Volunteers.

In John Rapalye we meet a Loyalist of an- other stamp, equally determined and outspoken, but less headstrong, a man of peace, but with all the courage of a hero. The name is the old- est in Brooklyn, and tradition long presented the name of Sarah de Rapalje as that of the first white child born on Long Island. The date given for that event was June 9, 1625, in which year her parents, Joris Jansen de Rapalye and Catalyntje Trico, resided in Al- bany, and there seems no doubt that her birth took place there. So the tradition has long been abandoned by the Brooklyn antiquaries.

Joris Jansen de Rapalje came to America from Rochelle, in France, in 1623. He was a Huguenot, and crossed the Atlantic in com- pany with many other Rochelle Protestants to escape religious persecution, or rather to es- cape from its continuance. From him descend- ed all of that name on Long Island, a name that is virtually a part of the history of Brook- lyn. John Rapalje, the great-great-grandson of this pioneer, owned, when the Revolutionary War broke out, a valuable tract of land of some 160 acres. This property extended along the shore north from the ferry and some dis- tance up what is now Fulton street, his house being at the junction of the present lines of Fulton and Front streets with a garden run- ning back to the river. He was long recog- nized as one of the most influential men in the place, and was chosen to a seat in the Provincial Assembly. He was a man of wide, liberal views, of unblemished character, and possessed of many grand qualities. All this is gathered from the writings of the Whigs, to-

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whom the name of Tory was a synonym for all that men generally hold unworthy. He adhered to the Loyalist cause steadfastly and outspokenly, and his influence was so dreaded by the Patriots that, in one of the raids made with a view of wheeling the British sympa- thizers into line with the Continental ideas, he was arrested and sent into exile in New Jersey.

It was while he was in this enforced seclu- sion, and because of it, that his wife nearly succeeded in bringing to an unhappy conclu- sion the cause of the struggling republic. She had suffered much indignity and in- sult at the hands of the Whigs, and it is said that some of the soldiers in the line of defenses, while practicing with artil- lery, aimed a cannon at her home and sent a bullet into its walls. Such things did not tend to improve her natural disposition, how- ever sweet and Christian-like it may have been, although as long as she could not help herself she was contented with nourishing a spirit of revenge. Finally her opportunity came, and she fully arose to it. After the battle of Brooklyn, her home being within the Conti- nental lines, her property was in more jeopardy than ever, and so she continued to lie quiet and wait. From her windows, on the after- noon of the retreat, she could see by the hun- dreds of boats gathering around the ferry from all quarters that some important movement was on foot; but it was not until 8 o'clock, when the first detachment of the retreating forces marched past her house to the shore, that she grasped the situation and realized its full im- port. Now came her opportunity. Knowing the importance of the British being at once apprised of the retreat, and aware that she would be detected and arrested if seen out of doors, she told the circumstances to a negro slave and sent him out to reach the British camp and impart the information to the first British officer he should meet. The negro made his way in safety out of the American lines ; but, as fortune would have it, he entered the British lines at a point held by Hessian

troops. These worthies, of course, could not understand his talk, and, thinking him merely a petty thief, retained him all night under guard instead of haling him before some one who could understand his jargon. In the morn- ing, when matters were cleared up, it was too late for his information to be of any use. The retreat had passed into history. On what a slight thread do the histories and fortunes of nations often hang !

During the British occupation of Long Island Rapalye returned to Brooklyn, and probably heard with equanimity that on Octo- ber 27, 1779, a decree of attainder and con- fiscation was passed against him by Congress. In October, 1783, when the end of the conflict was in sight, knowing that there was little use in his trying, like so many others, to make an arrangement with the victors, he went to England and settled in the old town of Nor- wich. The British government seems to have recompensed him, to a certain extent, for the loss he sustained by his loyalty, and he died at Kensington, London, January 12, 1802. When he left Long Island he carried with him the deeds of his estate and a large number of public papers, including, it is said, the early town records of Brooklyn. In course of time these papers came into possession of his grand- daughter, Mrs. Weldon, of Norwich. In 1810, accompanied by her husband, that lady came to this country, bringing with her the old papers with the view of instituting proceedings for the recovery of her grandfather's property, which, on July 13, 1784, had been sold by the Commissioners of Forfeited Estates to Com- fort and Joshua Sands for $12,430 in state scrip. Mrs. Weldon placed her case in the hands of Aaron Burr and B. D. Ogden, but after a thorough inquiry they advised her against pressing the matter, as the Act of At- tainder barred all chance of success. So she gathered up her papers and departed, and the Brooklyn records once more passed over the sea. Many eminent lawyers have regretted that a writ of replevin had not been secured, by which the municipality could have claimed

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and won possession of documents belonging to it which should never have become private property, but around 1810 people were not so thoroughly appreciative of the value of such records.

David Mathews, Mayor of New York City during the troublesome years between 1776 and 1784, was a noted and prominent figure in the ranks of the confirmed Tories. He was the grandson of Colonel Peter Mathews, who came to America in the suite of Governor Fletcher in 1692. This pioneer had a son Vincent, who married Catalina, daughter of Mayor Abeel, of Albany, and their children · were David (the Mayor) Fletcher, James and a daughter. All the family except the Mayor were Whigs, or at least were indifferent as to the outcome of the great events then passing. Mathews was appointed Mayor on the resig- nation of Whitehead Hicks, of Flushing, in February, 1776, and the appointment was con- firmed by Governor Tryon on board the Duch- ess of Gordon, a frigate in New York harbor. Most of his time for a while from that on seems to have been spent at his country home at Flatbush, and the deck of the vessel on which the then nominal Governor of New York kept up his dignity as the representative of King George. Probably Mathews could be more fittingly described as a plotter than a Mayor, and it seems reasonably certain that every scheme evolved between in the early part of 1776 to undermine the strength of the Con- tinental forces was either planned in his coun- try home, or if conceived elsewhere was there studied out and prepared for being put in ope- ration. Chief of these was what is called the Hickey plot to capture General Washington. Says Field :

"The plot undoubtedly had its inception on board of the Asia, was matured at Flatbush, the residence of Mayor Matthews, and relied for its principal sustainers and adherents upon the Loyalists of Long Island. The nightly return of Matthews to his residence, not more than four or five miles from the landing place of boats from the Asia, and his daily return to

the city, made him the fittest organ of com- munication between the Governor and the Loy- alists. The conspiracy failed to accomplish anything except to increase the rigors of the surveillance over the Long Island Loyalists, who felt its influence for many months subse- quently."

Mathews was arrested and held in close custody in Connecticut for some time. There was really no evidence discovered against him in connection with the plot, although suspi- cious circumstances were plentiful. He was subsequently released and resumed his office of Mayor, an office which was merely a nom- inal one even during the British occupation. In 1782 Mathews was appointed Registrar of the Court of Admiralty. On the conclusion of the war he retired to Canada, where he be- came President of Council of the island of Cape Breton, and so passes out of our history.

A much more important, more honorable and lovable figure among the Loyalists was the sturdy old Lieutenant Governor, Cadwallader Colden, whose home, Springhill, Flushing, was for many years the real gubernatorial mansion of the colony; in fact, for the fifteen years which preceded the Revolution he was regarded as the most conspicuous representa- tive of the royal authority. His career has been sketched in a previous chapter, but the story of his family may here be referred to, showing, as it does, that while most of them continued to hold Loyalist views, others were really indifferent about the matter; but the third generation developed into devoted Amer- ican citizens. This was generally the case all around, so far as the writer's research has dis- covered, except in the case of a few ultra To- ries, whose descendants even at the present day have a sentimental loyalty for the British throne, just as the British Jacobites have, or pretend to have, for the living descendants of "the auld Stuarts."

Regarding Colden's family, Thompson, in his "History of Long Island," gives the fol- lowing details: "He had five sons and five daughters, a part of whom only survived him.

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His daughter Elizabeth married Peter de Lan- cey ; Jane married Dr. William Farquhar ; and Alice married Colonel William Willett. Three of Governor Colden's sons, Alexander, Cad- wallader and David, were successively Sur- veyor Generals and prominent men in the col- ony. His son David, to whom he bequeathed the farm at Springhill, becoming a warm and active Loyalist in the Revolution, lost his estate by forfeiture and retired to England in 1784, where he died July Io of the same year. He was bred to the profession of physic, which, however, he never practiced. He was fond of retirement, was much devoted to scientific pursuits, and his correspondence with learned men in Europe and America is to be found in the publications of the time. His wife was Ann, daughter of John Willett, of Flushing. She died at Coldenham, Orange county, in August, 1785. They had one son and three daughters. Their daughter Mary married the late Jonah Ogden Hoffman, Esq .; Eliza- beth married Edward W. Laight; and Catlı- erine married the late Thomas Cooper."

Alexander Colden seems to have made his peace with the Federal Government. He ap- pears to have resided at Coldenham and in 1742 opened the first store in that village, and in 1752 was one of the company who received a renewal of the Newburgh patent from Gov- ernor Clinton.

Cadwallader D. Colden, only son of David Colden and grandson of the Lieutenant Gov- ernor, was the next man of the family to be- was born at Springhill April 4, 1769, and was educated at Jamaica. In 1784 he accompanied his father to England, but returned to New York in about a year. He then engaged in the study of law, was admited to the bar and en- tered upon practice in Poughkeepsie in 1791. In 1793 he married Maria, daughter of Bishop Provost, of New York, and three years later settled in New York City, of which he became district attorney. He rapidly rose at the bar until he held the most prominent position in

the profession in the city, especially in connec- tion with commercial matters.

But his ambition lay in another direction than his profession, and the highest aspirations of his life were for a political career. He early won the friendship of De Witt Clinton, and through the influence of that great states- man speedily found an honored place in public affairs. 'At the same time he lost no opportu- nity in personally exerting himself to add to his popularity among the people, and this led him, among other exploits, to raise a regiment of volunteers in the War of 1812 and to be active in the work of preparing the city to meet the expected invasion of the British at that time, although probably he cared as little for military matters as he cared for astronomy. In 1818 he was elected by Clinton's influence a member of Assembly, and that same influ- ence, in the same year, landed him in the chair of the Mayor of New York, which he con- tinued to occupy until 1821. It was, however, only a step toward the goal of his ambition, the Governor's seat at Albany; and another step thitherward was taken in 1824, when he was chosen a State Senator. He supported Clinton in all public measures and projects, and was particularly outspoken in advocacy of the latter's canal policy. In 1827 he retired from the Senate, and seemed somehow to lose his grip on the situation. So, much against his own desire, he retired to private life, a sadly disappointed man.

come really prominent in public affairs. He . sonry, in which, as in politics, he had been a

In 1829 he publicly renounced Freema- prominent figure for many years, and in which, as in politics, he missed the goal of his ambi- tion, the Grand Mastership of the State, when it seemed within his grasp. In 1829 the fa- mous anti-Masonic movement over the disap- pearance of William Morgan was just reaching its height, and he probably hoped to win a new lease of political influence by casting in his lot with the "anti-Masons," even then showing signs of becoming a prodigious power in State and also in national politics. Certainly he was

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welcomed into his new fold, and his skillfully written letter of renunciation was circulated by thousands, reaching every hamlet in the State. But even this produced no lasting effect on his fortunes, and he fell back into obscurity, in which he remained until his death at Jersey City, in 1834.

He was a man of more than ordinary abil- ity, endowed with much of the literary taste of his grandfather, was a reputable citizen in all respects and fulfilled every duty imposed upon him with marked fidelity and usefulness. He never could be described as brilliant, nor could he be called a mere figurehead. He won many powerful friends and he exerted for a series of years a potent degree of influence in the councils of his political party ; but there was an air of insincerity about everything he did which prevented his friends or the people becoming enthusiastic in his behalf at any point, and so in the merciless kaleidoscope of political life he went down into obscurity, un- wept, unhonored and unsung. He was the last of his race to acquire any prominence in local or State affairs.

We may now turn again from civil to mili- tary life and recall the once well-known name of Isaac Corsa, for many years a prominent merchant in New York City. His firm, Corsa & Bull, was so long prominent that the estab- lishment it occupied near Peck Slip became a landmark. John Austin Stevens, in his volume on "Colonial Records of the New York Cham- ber of Commerce," writes: "He (Corsa) was a distinguished officer in the old French War. He received his commission as captain on the 25th of September, 1775. He led a detach- ment of Queens county men as colonel at the capture of Fort Frontenac (Kingston), Au- gust, 1758, and on the night of the 25th .of August volunteered to erect a battery under the enemy's fire. Here he was slightly wound- ed. The next day the fort surrendered, under the fire. On the breaking out of the Revolu- tion he clung to the crown, and on the 12th of August, 1776, was arrested by order of General Washington and sent prisoner to Nor-

wich and Middletown. He was released on his parole and promised to return when sent for the following December. He married Sarah Franklin in April, 1758. She was the sister of Walter Franklin, a wealthy New York merchant, who resided at Maspeth. After his death Colonel Corsa occupied the mansion. Colonel Corsa died at Flushing, 3d May, 1807, in the eightieth year of his age. He is said to have been small in stature and juvenile in appearance, though an intrepid officer. His only child, Maria Franklin, was married to John I. Staples."

One of the most violent and unscrupulous, and in many respects most depraved, of the Long Island Tories was Colonel William Ax- tell, of Melrose Hall, Flatbush. He claimed descent from an officer in Cromwell's army who was beheaded by Charles II; but if so

his descendants must have entertained very dif- ferent notions respecting the monarchical insti- tution, for William Axtell saw, or pretended to see, no blot on the royal escutcheon.

He was born on the island of Jamaica, a member of a family possessing extensive land- ed interests ; but he seems to have sold all his property in that island before settling in New York in 1759. He appears to have been re- ceived with open arms by the local gentry in New York City, married into the De Peyster family, and became a member of the King's Council. In 1763 he purchased Melrose Hall, which continued to be his home until it was wrested from his possession by an act of for- feiture, which took effect as soon as the Brit- ish evacuated New York and the American flag was run up at the Battery.

The house, even in pre-Revolutionary days, was a notable one. It was built about 1749, in the style of an old English country man- sion, by a gentleman named Lane, and its sur- rounding grounds and flower gardens and am- ple lawn were alone sufficient to give it promi- nence in a neighborhood where such adorn- ments were neglected, and a kitchen garden was regarded as the embodiment of horticul- tural skill. But the interior was even more

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wonderful. Its large chambers and gilded halls, its luxurious furniture, and, above all, its abundance of secret chambers, dismal and roomy vaults and skillfully contrived hiding places, invested it with a degree of mystery in the minds of the simple people around it and gave rise to the usual routine of ghost stories so familiar a part of the history of most old English country mansions. Its first owner used it-probably built it-as a means of min- istering to his low and debauched tastes, and its walls often witnessed bacchanalian excesses and sensual orgies, while the air rang with

MELROSE HALL. 1883. From "Flatbush, Past and Present." By permission of the Flatbush Trust Company.

laughter and the wild shrieks of maudlin, dis- sipated, degraded pleasure-seekers. In Ax- tell's hands the morals of the place became more pure, but it remained a center of intrigue, a splendid place for secret meetings, and the ghost stories grew more vehement, and, ac- cording to the popular mind, more easily con- firmed. In its vaults many an ardent Patriot, it was averred, was confined until his spirit was broken and his life cast out ; many cruel- ties were inflicted upon those who were be- guiled into its mysterious chambers ; and the spirit of a young woman who had met her fate in one of its apartments was seen to wan-

der around at intervals and bemoan her un- timely end. So the stories used to run, and the Flatbush folks grew to believe in the ghost and to revel in the notion of having a haunted house in their midst.

In the measures adopted against the Whigs prior to the battle of Brooklyn, Colonel Axtell felt the heavy hand of successful rebellion and had to submit to many humiliations. But these he afterward repaid with a more than usually liberal measure of interest and continued to pay with equal liberality until the curtain was rung down upon British dominion over what by that time was the United States. But while the Whigs were supreme lie was made to feel that he was on the losing side, and the last act undertaken against an individual by the Conti- nental forces on Long Island prior to the de- feat was directed against him. A day or two before the battle of Brooklyn, when Flatbush was in the hands of the British, Axtell was jubilant and had gathered around him at din- ner a large party of red-coated officers. In the midst of the hilarity of the occasion a well- directed shell from one of the Continental bat- teries on a neighboring height plunged into the house. It created considerable consternation, naturally enough, but did no real damage, al- though it effectively reminded Axtell that he was not yet entirely rid of his persecutors, even although surrounded by one of the most magnificent armies which up to that time Great Britain had sent across a wide stretch of sea.

In 1778 Axtell raised a regiment of Colo- nial infantry, of which he was commissioned colonel. During the entire length of the Brit- ish occupation Axtell rode, it may be said, "rough-shod" over his former oppressors, and became more overbearing and cruel than ever rumor had imputed even to the most rampant of the Whigs. He showed the power of an iron hand without even the slightest pretext at cov- ering it with a silken glove. So obnoxious did he become that Captain Marriner, the Whig freebooter, once made a special descent on Flatbush with the avowed intention of cap- turing him and Mayor Mathews, as well as

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one or two others of like stamp. The descent might have been successful had it not been for the fact that Axtell and Mathews happened to be away from their homes on the night it was planned. However, Stiles, in his "His- tory of Kings County," very pertinently says that. "even if Colonel Axtell had been at home his capture would have been no easy task, for the house abounds in secret closets and out-of- the-way nooks where one could easily hide."

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 38

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188