History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals., Part 7

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell and Co.
Number of Pages: 703

USA > New York > Queens County > History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals. > Part 7

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In November 1747 an account was rendered by Lieu- tenant James Thorn of Colonel Hicks's regiment for Queens county "for forty-four days of service of himself and men in the fort at Schenectady," £113 95. 6d.

In June 1749 a public thanksgiving was appointed in the colony " for the late glorious peace;" which, however, does not appear to have proved glorious or permanent.

After the declaration of war in 1755 a regiment was enlisted in New York city and its vicinity, which, under the command of Colonel William Cockroft, joined Gen-

In 1756 Captains Thomas Williams and Potter raised companies in Suffolk and Queens counties, and joined the British forces near Lake George. In March 1757 it was stated that " to the French and Indian war Queens county sends thirty-eight men; Suffolk thirty-eight; Kings eight. It must be remembered that at that time the population of this island was a large proportion of that of the whole colony; and when, in the years 1758-60, provincial troops were called for to assist the regular forces in their oper- ations against the French, the quota of New York was 1680, of which the allotment of Long Island was about one fourth, or 657. Of these 300 were assigned to Queens, 289 to Suffolk, and 68 to Kings. In the attempt to reduce Fort Ticonderoga, in 1758, and in the expedition of Col- onel Bradstreet immediately afterward against Fort Frontenac, there were from Long Island, Lieutenant Col- onel Isaac Corsa, Major Nathaniel Woodhull, Captains Elias Hand, Richard Hewlett, and Daniel Wright, and Lieutenants Ephraim Morse and Dow Ditmars, with many soldiers. In the attack on Fort Frontenac Colonel Corsa with his Long Island men did efficient service. He volunteered to erect a battery, which he did, under the fire of the enemy, during the night of August 26th; and on the morning of the 27th the cannonade from this battery compelled an immediate surrender.

At the reduction of Fort Niagara in 1759 there were several hundred soldiers from Long Island, a portion of whom were commanded by Captain Ephraim Morse, who had been promoted; George Dunbar and Roeloff Duryea were his lieutenants. Honorable mention is made of the services of Captain Morse and his command in this cam- paign. On the 6th of November in that year a public celebration of the victories of the British and colonial arms was held at Jamaica. Captain Morse was engaged in the campaign of 1760, with Roeloff Duryea and Abraham Remsen as his lieutenants. They were at the surrender of Montreal, in the autumn of that year, which completed the conquest of Canada. In addition to the officers already mentioned the names of the following are preserved: Captains Petrus Stuyvesant and Daniel Wright; Lieutenants Daniel Wright, William Alges, David Jones, Morris Smith, James Cassidy, Isaac Seaman, Joseph Bedell, Michael Weeks, Edward Burk and John Dean; Sergeants John Allison, Joseph Cassidy, James Palmer, Samuel Brown, Nicholas Wilson, Timothy Hill, Simeon Smith, George Dunbar, James Marr and Cornelius Turner; Corporals Daniel Southard, Cooper Brooks, John Halton, John Larabee, Isaac Totten, James Brown, Jere- miah Finch, John Walters and Matthew Robins, and drummer Benjamin Agens.

During the war privateers occasionally made their ap-

. 31

THE FRENCH WAR PERIOD-BRITISH OPPRESSION.

pearance on the coast, to prey upon the commerce of New York and New England. Mr. Onderdonk records among his gleanings from the Postboy the following: "October 25th 1755 .- Captain Wentworth, of Flushing, being at St. Thomas, mustered as many New Yorkers as he could find (twenty-four hands in all) and in his new ves- sel, indifferently mounted with great guns, put to sea in pursuit of a French privateer cruising off the harbor and chasing New York vessels, but the privateer thought fit to disappear."

From time to time during the war troops were billeted on the inhabitants of the island or quartered among them; and their presence was not agreeable to the people, who feared the influence on their youth of soldiers who were uncontrolled by the restraints of public opinion. From the Assembly journal it appears that the sheriff from time to time presented bills for "lodging and victualling " these troops. These bills appear to have been paid to the sheriff, and the money to have been distributed among the people on whom the troops were billeted. In some cases the people petitioned the Assembly for relief from the burdens which the billeting of soldiers imposed on them.

French prisoners also were brought hither and billeted on the inhabitants in different parts of the island, and many bills were rendered for the entertainment of these. It is said that the officers and men thus billeted passed their time and relieved the tedium of their imprisonment by hunting the game with which the island abounded, and engaging in other sports. When the treatment of these prisoners is contrasted with that of the prisoners in New York, or in the prison ships at the Wallabout during the Revolution, or with that of the Union prisoners at the south during the late civil war, the descendants of those early settlers of the island have no reason to blush because of the inhumanity of their ances- tors.

Prisoners-if they may be so termed-of another class were sent here during this war. When, in 1713, the prov- ince of Nova Scotia was acquired by Great Britain the French inhabitants, who were simple, quiet people, strongly attached to their ancient customs and religion, were permitted to retain their possessions on taking the oath of allegiance to the English government. This oath was not well kept, and on the breaking out of war it was deemed expedient to expatriate these people, who under the guise of neutrality gave aid to the enemy. Accord- ingly they were dispossessed of their houses, separated, and sent to widely distant regions. They were known here as the "neutral French," and were distributed among the people in different parts of the island. From the Assembly journal of July Ist 1756 it appears that " the justices of Kings, Queens and Suffolk counties are empowered to bind out the neutral French from Nova Scotia who are distributed in said counties." It also appears that in November of the same year "bills were paid by order of the general Assembly for supporting the neutral French, brought here in May last and sent to the j of the colony, and even in 1787 more than one-fifth of magistrates."

CHAPTER VI.

BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION-PREVALENCE OF TORY- ISM-INDEPENDENT SPIRIT IN SUFFOLK.

E have mentioned the fact that on Long Island the first protest against taxation without representation was made. It was in 1691 that the first permanent assembly of representatives of the people was estab- lished, and this was the first step in the direction of a free government in the colony of New York. The colonial governors had possessed very large- almost absolute-power, and that power had sometimes been arbitrarily exercised. The people's money had been used at the discretion of the governors, and, it was believed, had often been misapplied and embezzled. On application, in 1706, to Queen Anne the Assembly was authorized to appoint a treasurer to receive and disburse all money which was raised under its authority, and it accordingly " assumed general control of all the finances by making specific appropriations." In 1711 the Assem- bly denied the right of the council (which was claimed) to alter revenue bills, asserting that the power of the council flowed from the pleasure of the prince, personified by the commission of the governor, but that the power of the Assembly, in relation to taxes, flowed from the choice of the people, who could not be divested of their money without their consent.

From this time forward an almost constant struggle was going on between the crown, through its representa- tives-the governors-on one side, and the people, through their representatives-the Assembly-on the other. The governors sought to vex and coerce the Assembly into compliance with their demands, or to punish what they considered contumacy and contempt by frequent proro- gations and dissolutions. Under the absurd pretext that the colony had been planted and sustained in its infancy by the mother country, the right of almost ab- solute control over it afterward was claimed. The con- flict continued, with the result of constantly calling the attention of the people to the subject and leading them to investigate the principles which lie at the foundation of just government and the sources whence the powers of so-called rulers are derived. They thus came to know and appreciate the value of their rights, and thus was nurtured and developed the spirit of resistance to the ex- ercise of a power which they had come to believe had no just foundation. This conflict between the spirit of liberty and the encroachments of arbitrary power cul- minated in the resistance, on the part of the colonies, to the oppressive acts of the crown and Parliament of Great Britain that inaugurated the Revolution.

It must be remembered that during all this conflict the inhabitants of Long Island constituted a large proportion the tax of the State was assessed to the counties of Kings,

GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

Queens and Suffolk. Their resistance to the encroach- ments of regal power was as uncompromising as that of the people of other regions; though, by the force of cir- cumstances, many were loyalists during the Revolutionary struggle. Because of their well known conservative character the Dutch on the western end of the island were averse to engaging in a rebellion in which it required no extraordinary prescience to enable them to predict immediate serious consequences, and probable ultimate failure. They desired, as they had always, to pursue the even tenor of their way and make the best of the circum- stances by which they were surrounded, rather than to seek a change the result of which appeared to them doubtful. A different people inhabited Suffolk county. They were the descendants of the original Puritans, in whom resistance to oppression was almost an instinct; and, had circumstances permitted, they would have been rebels with as great unanimity as were the New Eng- landers. In Queens county the loyal sentiment was always largely in the ascendant, though, had circumstances favored, the rebel feeling would have become dominant here. It must be remembered that Long Island had about 300 miles of vulnerable coast, which could not have been successfully defended against a marine force. Thompson says:

" Motives of personal safety and the preservation of their property would necessarily induce many either to remain inactive or join with the ranks of the opposition. Others, and those not inconsiderable in number, were de- sirous for the opportunity of rioting upon the property of their neighbors, thereby benefitting themselves without the liability of punishment; and it so happened that more frequent and daring outrages upon persons and property were practiced by our own citizens than by many who had come 3,000 miles to force our submission to the tyranny of a foreign master. The engagement of the 27th of August 1776 was followed by an abandonment of Long Island to the enemy; and the town and county committees in many instances, either through fear or necessity, were induced to repudiate all legislative authority exercised by the provincial and legislative Congresses. The inhabi- tants who continued on the island were compelled to subscribe to the oath of fidelity to the king. £ General Howe had, immediately on landing at Gravesend, issued a proclamation promising security of person and property to those who should remain peaceably upon their farms. The island became therefore at once a conquered territory, forts being erected and garrisons established in different places. Martial law prevailed, the army became a sanc- tuary for criminals of every grade, and means the most despicable were resorted to for increasing the numerical force of the enemy. Those inhabitants who had thereto- fore taken an active part as officers of militia and com- mitteemen deemed it most imprudent to remain, and con- sequently took refuge within the American lines, leaving the greater part of their property exposed to the ravages of an unprincipled foe. The British commanders were exorbitant and exactious, requiring the more peaceable and unoffending inhabitants to perform every species of personal service; to labor on the forts, to go with their teams on foraging parties, and transporting cannon, am- munition, provisions and baggage from one place to another at the option of every petty officer. The enemy took possession of the best rooms in their houses, and obliged the owners to provide them accommodations and support for men and horses. The property of those who

had fled from their homes, and especially those engaged in the American service, was particularly the object of rapine, and in many instances the damages were immense. Woods and fences were lavishly used for fuel, and in any other way which served the purposes of those stationed in the neighborhood, as well as for the garrisons of Brook- lyn and New York. Churches and places for religious worship were desecrated for any objects which suited the convenience of the army, except those of the Episcopal- ians, which were, it seems, scrupulously regarded, doubt- less in pursuance of governmental instructions, their members (upon Long Island) being in general in the interest of England.

" When the British army invaded Long Island, in 1776, many persons who belonged to the island and had joined the British forces on Staten Island landed with the in- vading army. Those royalists were ordered to wear red rags in their hats, as badges of friendship, to distinguish them from the rebels. The red rag men proceeded with the army in every direction, giving information against every person whom they disliked, and causing them to be plundered, imprisoned and tormented at their pleasure. " Shortly after the army landed General Howe ordered that every inhabitant who desired favor should attend at headquarters and receive a certificate of protection. Many obeyed as friends, and many from fear, but the greatest number remained at home. Every one who at- tended at headquarters was ordered to mount a red rag in his hat. When those persons who remained at home found out that there was magic in a red rag they all mounted the badge; negroes, boys, old and young wore red rags. These badges of submission soon produced a scarcity of the needful article, and then, forsooth, red petticoats suffered. Many were torn into shreds for hat bands, and those who wore them were held in derision by the British and called the petticoat gentry."

It has always been said of the loyalists or tories on this island that they were guilty of greater atrocities toward the rebels or Whigs than were the British soldiers who were sent to reduce the rebellious colonies to sub- jection; and this was doubtless in many instances true, for these soldiers were under military discipline, and, to some extent at least, were held to an observance of the rules of civilized warfare. The tories carried on hostil- ities without any such restraint, and the worst among them formed marauding bands who, under the pretense of loyalty, plundered and often murdered their rebellious neighbors. On the other hand it is a matter of history that the Whigs were not behindhand in carrying on this predatory kind of warfare. Parties from the New Eng- land States crossed the sound and united with some of the worst characters among the Whigs on the island to plunder the tories, or to kill or make prisoners of them. Similar expeditions were made from New Jersey.

A century has passed since the Revolutionary struggle, and scarcely a word has been uttered in condemnation or even mild censure of the lawless acts and crimes of the patriots, while, on the other hand, not even an apology is offered for any of the deeds of the tories. In this case, as in many others, success or failure is the criterion by which they are judged, and the measure of praise be- stowed or of reproach heaped on them. In the American colonies the spirit of liberty had been developed more than a century, and when the mother country sought, by her unjust, arbitrary and oppressive acts to crush out

WHIGS AND TORIES.

this spirit open resistance followed, and a nation was es- tablished which has astonished the world by its rapid growth and prosperity, and has solved the previously doubtful problemi of man's capacity for self-government. Unmeasured praise is lavished on those who achieved the success which has led to this stupendous result, the mo- tives by which some of them may have been actuated are never questioned, and no word of censure is ever applied to any of their acts. Had the rebellion failed, had the authority of the parent country been re-established, and had the American colonies grown great under English rule, there is no reason to doubt that the loyalists would have been recorded in history as the conservators of the blessings by which they were surrounded, the friends of good order, and the foes of that anarchy which the rebels sought to establish; and that the Whigs would, even now, be stigmatized as traitors who sought to subvert the au- thority of a beneficent government and inaugurate a reign of lawlessness, and that their acts would by many be con- sidered execrable crimes against humanity.

As before stated, many of the inhabitants of the island were tories because of the force of circumstances. Policy or fear prompted them to give their adhesion to a cause which they would not otherwise have embraced; and by association they ultimately came to be earnest supporters of that with which they had at first no sympathy. In this case, as in every similar one, a large class were noisy adher- ents of the crown because the popular current bore them unresistingly in that direction; while their honest convic- tions of right prompted a portion to remain loyal to the government of Great Britain. In other regions the rebels or Whigs were influenced by similar motives, though a much larger proportion of them than of the tories here were controlled by principle. When people learn to look with more charity on those who differ with them in opinion, and to recognize in others the same freedom of thought which they claim for themselves, this will be a better world than it now is.

Lawless bands, both of tories and Whigs, who were not controlled by military discipline, committed robberies and even murders with impunity. There is hardly a town on the island the history of which in that period does not contain accounts of raids by these marauders. Thompson says:

" Most parts of the island, and particularly along the sound, suffered greatly from depredations of little bands of piratical plunderers designated 'whaleboat men,' from the fact of their craft resembling those used in whaling along shore. With these they would make frequent de- scents under cover of night, attack detached houses, rifle the inhabitants of their money, plate, and other valuables, and, availing themselves of the speed of their vessels, reach their lurking places among the islands of the sound, or upon the main shore, before any effectual means could be taken to intercept them. Indeed, so great was the apprehension of these sudden attacks that many of the inhabitants had their doors and windows protected by iron bars; and it became usual for people to pass the nights in the woods and other secret places, to avoid violence."

In many cases these whaleboat men were downright robbers and pirates, who plundered Whigs and tories

without discrimination, and were often guilty of murder, either wantonly or under some flimsy pretext. Besides these whaleboat marauders, who infested the shores for purposes of robbery, there were those who were known as whaleboat privateers, who prowled around the western end of the island and greatly annoyed British troops there and at New York, as well as the shipping in the harbor and vicinity. Many vessels were captured or de- stroyed by them, and many officers and prominent loyal- ists made prisoners. At times they rendered the waters in this region unsafe except for large vessels, and unavail- ing efforts were made to destroy them. It must be ad- mitted that they were not always over scrupulous in their transactions. Space will not permit a recital of their many adventures here.

At the outbreak of the Revolution the strong tory pro- clivities of a majority of the people in Kings and Queens counties became known to the Revolutionary leaders and the Provincial Congress. Active and in some cases rather unscrupulous efforts were made to crush out this feeling, but without success. English ships of war were cruising off the southern coast, and with these the tories maintained communication in spite of the vigilance of the rebels who then had possession of the island. Attempts to disarm these tories were only partially successful, and the arms taken from them were speedily replaced from the British ships cruising off the coast. The enforcement of a draft was also a failure, though the recusant tories, who were termed deserters, were hunted in their hiding places in the swamps and elsewhere like wild beasts. Doubtless this active persecution by the Whigs was not forgotten by the tories when their time of triumph came.

Although in Kings and Queens counties the loyal sen- timent was from the first largely in the ascendant, Suffolk early gave evidence of her adhesion to the republican cause. Says Field:

"Out of its whole population of freeholders and adult male inhabitants, numbering 2,834 between the ages of six- teen and sixty, only 236 were reckoned as being of loyalist proclivities. The enrolled militia of the county exceeded 2,000, of whom 393 officers and privates were in the ranks of Colonel Smith's regiment, the best disci- plined and armed on the island. It was the only one which could be considered in any form to have survived the shock of the 27th of August, and only a small part even of this body ever did service after that fatal day.

" In Queens county the whole force of the Whigs which could be mustered under arms was insufficient to overawe their loyalist neighbors. Seventeen hundred and seventy ablebodied men among her citizens were enrolled on the roster of her militia, while only 379 were by the most stringent measures induced to appear in arms."

The comparative numerical strength of the Whigs and tories in Kings county is not known. It is certain, how- ever, that the tory element was largely in the ascendant.

Early in 1776 a conspiracy was discovered, in which the leading loyalists on Long Island bore a conspicuous part. Governor Tryon, who had been for some time on board the English man-of-war "Asia," cruising off the coast, and whose gubernatorial functions were exercised in the cabin of that vessel, was probably among the chief of those who concocted the plot. Though the conspiracy

GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND

had extensive ramifications, Long Island was to be the principal theater of the events which were to be accom- plished, and a majority of the leading conspirators were residents of Kings and Queens counties. The timely discovery of the conspiracy and the frustration of the conspirators' designs prolonged the rule of the rebels on the island for a brief time, but the plans of the conspira- tors were in part followed when the island was invaded by Lord Howe in the succeeding August.

CHAPTER VII.

THE BRITISH INVASION-BATTLE OF BROOKLYN-WASH- INGTON'S RETREAT.

N June 11th 1776 the British army, which had a short time previously evacuated Boston, where it had been closely besieged by the Americans, sailed from Halifax for New York harbor. The strategic importance of this point had long been apparent to the British commander, and it had been foreseen by Wash- ington that this would be the next point attacked. The plan of the British campaign was to possess New York and Long Island with an army of about 35,000 men; then to ascend the Hudson river and effect a junction with an army of some 13,000 that was to pass the lakes, penetrate to the Hudson and descend that river. The eastern provinces were thus to be divided from the middle and southern, and active operations were at the same time to be carried on at the south, and thus the rebellion was to be crushed in a single campaign. The failure of the southern campaign before the arrival of Howe at New York and the interruption of the Canadian army at the lakes frustrated the British commander's plan for the speedy subjugation of the rebellious colonies.

As early as the preceding March Washington had or- dered the commencement of fortifications at Brooklyn, and when, after the sailing of the British fleet from Halifax, it became certain that this was to be the next point of attack, the work was pushed with the utmost vigor. To prevent the sailing of the fleet at once into the East River, and the immediate possession by the enemy of Brooklyn Heights, obstructions were placed in the river, of such a character as to be thought by both parties impassable, though at the present day they would not be looked on as formidable.

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History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals., Part 7

Author: Publication date: 1882 Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell and Co. Number of Pages: 703

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell and Co.
Number of Pages: 703