USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 34
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FROM JANUARY, 1775, TO JULY 9, 1776
Revolutionary cavalry, who, says Dawson, consumed or destroyed all the products of his glebe. The poor Tory clergyman finally, in desper- ation, fled with his wife and six children to the British lines.
Like Isaac Wilkins, also of the Borough of Westchester, Seabury continued a British sympathizer throughout the war; but after the Revolution he returned to America and became bishop of the (Epis- copalian) diocese of Connecticut. Wilkins, after a more protracted absence, came back to Westchester Town, and, taking holy orders, was made rector of the same parish of Saint Peter's which his com- patriot Seabury vacated in 1776. The question of the authorship of the A. W. Farmer tracts has puzzled many minds; but there is no reasonable doubt that they were written either by Seabury or by Wilkins. They were almost as noted in the polemic literature of their times as was Tom Paine's " Common Sense." Whatever the doubts respecting their authorship, it is certain that the apparent pseudonym " A. W. Farmer " stood for " A Westchester Farmer "; and both Seabury and Wilkins, though persons of polite character, were gentlemen farmers. The detestation in which these tracts were held by the patriotic people is well instanced by a resolution adopted by the committee of safety of Suffolk County, N. Y., February, 1775, in which it was declared " That all those publications which have a tendency to divide us, and thereby weaken our opposition to meas- ures taken to enslave us, ought to be treated with the utmost con- tempt by every friend to his country; in particular the pamphlet en- titled A Friendly Address, &c., and those under the signature of A. W. Farmer, and many others to the same purpose, which are replete with the most impudent falsehoods and the grossest misrepresentations; and that the authors, printers, and abettors of the above and such like publications ought to be esteemed and treated as traitors to their country, and enemies to the liberties of America." A writer in Dairson's Historical Magazine (January, 1868) says: "When copies of these pamphlets fell into the hands of the Whigs they were dis- posed of in such a manger as most emphatically to express detesta- tion of the anonymous authors and their sentiments. Sometimes they were publicly burned with imposing formality, sometimes decorated with tar and feathers (from the turkey buzzard, as . the fittest emblem of the author's odiousness ') and nailed to the whipping-post." In the draft of a document claimed to be in Seabury's own writing, he says that he was the author of a pamphlet entitled " Free Thoughts on the Proceedings of the Congress at Philadelphia," and of other publications which followed, all signed " A. W. Farmer." Dawson, however, after a careful study of the whole subject, concludes that
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the burden of evidence favors the opinion that Wilkins was their author.1
The provincial congress which assembled in May, 1775, continued in session, with several brief recesses, until the 4th of November, when it adjourned sine die. On the 7th of November elections for del- egates to a second provincial congress were held in a number of the counties of New York, those in Westchester County occurring, as usual, at White Plains. . The representatives chosen were Colonel Lewis Graham, Stephen Ward, Colonel Joseph Drake, Robert Gra- ham, John Thomas, Jr., William Paulding, Major Ebenezer Lockwood,
TEARING DOWN THE KING'S STATUE-NEW YORK CITY.
Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt, and Colonel Gilbert Drake, any three of whom were authorized to cast the vote of the county. The new body experienced considerable difficulty in procuring a quorum, and did not enter upon its active business until the 6th of December. This busi- ness was in continuation of the aggressive political and military meas- ures, harmonizing with the policies of the continental congress, that had been instituted by the first congress of the province. Like its predecessor, the second congress adjourned temporarily several times, vesting complete administrative authority, during such intervals.
1 Ser Scharf. i., 313, note.
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FROM JANUARY, 1775, TO JULY 9, 1776
in a general committee of safety, of which Pierre Van Cortlandt was chairman for some months. The last session of the second provincial congress was held on the 13th of May, 1776.
During its lifetime the general condition of affairs steadily grew more critical, events of commanding importance transpired, and de- velopments of portentous significance to the people of New York and Westchester County resulted. In the early part of this period the invasion of Canada by the American troops was brought to a disas- trons end before the walls of Quebec,1 but the collapse in that quarter was more than compensated for by the surrender of Boston to Gen- eral Washington in March. Thereupon the war, which had previously been localized in New England, was terminated there for the time being. It needed no keen prevision to forecast its course in the near future. New York City, as the central point of vantage, command- ing a waterway which completely divided the rebellious colonies, would unquestionably be attacked as soon as a sufficient expedi- tionary force for the purpose could be gathered. Any other plan of campaign was unthinkable. New York was the ouly quarter from which offensive operations could be conducted with equal facility against every section of the country. With New York in their hands, the British would be prepared for any emergency that the strategy of Washington or the fortunes of battle might produce. Absolutely secure against recapture from the sea, since the Americans possessed no tleet, and almost completely incapable of being invested by land, that city would certainly remain theirs to the last. Even if exten- sive campaigns should fail, and pitched battle after pitched battk. should go against them, with New York as a base they could still wage the conflict with great advantage of position. Such was the reasoning which naturally occurred to intelligent men after the fall of Boston, and it was fully sustained by results. If the British had not captured and held New York, it is in every way historically im- probable that they could have made even a respectable struggle for
1 The lamented General Richard Montgomery. whose death in this exjualition will always be remembered as one of the capital tragedies of the Revolution, was a resident of our county. and some of the most important associations of the War of Independener cluster around the place where his home stood. It was on the spot now wrenpled by the residence of William Ogden Giles, at Kingsbridge the identical spot where Furt Independence was built. About 1772 Montgomery, after several years uf Serv- ler as a captain in the British army. resigned his commission, purchased this land with ron- siderable more, and engaged in agrienliural pursuits. In 1773 he married one of the aristo-
vratie Livingston family. Montgomery's Kings. bridge house -- or rather cottage- was an entire- ly unpretentious building. a story and a half high. His sister was the Viscountess of Rane- lagh. In bis will. made at Crown Point. he says: ") give to my sister. Lady Ranelagh. . . . Iny estate at Kingsbridge, near New York." adding that " my dear sister's large family want all I can spare them." One of the witnesses of this will was the Rev. John Peter Tetard. also of Kingsbridge, whose fam- ily gave its name to Trtard's Hill. Rev. Mr. Irtard was a chaplain in one of the regiments Indlunging to the Canadian expedition.
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the retention of the colonies, and, indeed, it is not likely that they would have persevered long in the attempt. In the very act of taking New York they all but annihilated the American nation at one blow, missing by a mere chance the capture of Washington's whole army; and thereafter for a dreary period the distinguishing phases of the War of Independence were complete British prestige and almost as complete American confusion, relieved only by masterly retreat, brilliant triumph in a few minor engagements, and heroic forti- inde. Finally the destruction of Burgoyne's army gave an altered aspect to the mequal warfare. But this did not at all reverse condi- tions. It merely established for the Americans a fighting chance, and decided France to espouse their cause. The principal element of the situation remained the possession of New York by the British. That overwhelming disadvantage could only be neutralized by con- seentive successes in campaigns large and small elsewhere, whose net result would be to convince the British statesmen that they conld never conquer America. It was a disadvantage that could not be eliminated by the reduction of New York itself, which was never at- tempted and probably never seriously thought of. On the other hand, if New York had continued American, the British would have been left without any assured standing as combatants. They might have taken the Revolutionary capital, Philadelphia, but that would have been an utterly ridiculous proceeding in view of its untenability as a primary base compared with New York. In such an event, or in any other except the mastery of New York, which, with its iner- itable consequences, seemed to establish the supremacy of Great Britain beyond the possibility of dispute, the French alliance wonid have been a matter of months instead of years.
After the evacuation of New York by its small British garrison, in June, 1775, the city, although in fact fully controlled by the patriot party, remained nominally for a brief time inder a divided authority. It is a curious fact that on the same day when Washington arrived in New York en route to the army in Massachusetts, the royal Gov- ernor Tryon returned there after a short absence, and that both were received with every manifestation of popular respect. But before many weeks Governor Tryon perceived that his residence in the city was perilous. Intimations were given him of a plot to seize his person and arraign him before the provincial congress, which had already begun to take high-handed measures against loyal Brit- ish subjects. He accordingly fled to a ship in the harbor, from which safe retreat he continued to administer the forms of government until the retaking of the city.
The removal of the guns in the city to Kingsbridge by the Sons
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FROM JANUARY. 1775, TO JULY 9, 1776
of Liberty, after the news of Lexington, was, as we have seen, the first overi demonstration by the Revolutionary element in New York. The guns taken up at that time, and during the next few months, did not ineInde, however, the fine ordnance of the fort. Nevertheless they made a formidable showing as to numbers, although hardly as to serviceability. At Kingsbridge they were divided, by the order of congress, into three parcels, one portion being left there, another sent to Williams's Bridge, and a third to Valentine's Hill, near Kings- bridge.1 " Before the close of the year 1775," says Dawson, whose facts may generally be accepted without question, " between three and four hundred cannon, of all calibers, grades, and conditions, some of them good and serviceable, others less valuable and less use- ful, the greater mmber honeycombed and worthless, unless for old iron, and all of them unmounted and without carriages, were accu- mulated in three large gatherings, one of about fifty guns being at . John Williams's,' the Williams's Bridge of the present day, one 'at or near Kingsbridge,' and the third or larger parcel within two hun- dred and fifty yards of Isaac Valentine's house, the Valentine's Hill of that period as well as this." For a number of months they re- ceived no further attention, and were even left unguarded. Their unprotected condition presented an irresistible temptation to some mischievous Tory spirits, who one night in January, 1776, plugged them with large stones, effectually spiking them. This incident threw the county into great excitement, and was the occasion of numerous arrests of suspected citizens of the Towns of Westchester, Eastchester, Mamaroneck, and Yonkers. Soon afterward all the guns were accu- minlaied at Valentine's, unspiked, and placed under guard. Subse- quently, during the military administration of the noted and noto- rious General Charles Lee in New York City. most of the heavy canton in Fort George and npon the Battery were, in anticipation of the capture of the place by the British, removed to Kingsbridge. These were about two hundred altogether, mostly excellent pieces of artil- lery. The reply of General Lee to the persons charged with trans- porting them to Kingsbridge, who complained to him that they could not gel sufficient horses for the work, is somewhat celebrated. "Chain twenty damned Tories to each gun," said he, " and let them draw them out and be cursed. It is a proper employment for such villains, and a punishment they deserve for their eternal loyalty they so much boast of."
General Charles Lee, at the time second in command of the conti-
1 This locality should not be confounded with the eminener of the same name in the present ('ity of Yonkers. The Valentine's Ilill at Kings-
bridge is located, on old maps, hard by the bridge. Valentine's HIHI In Yonkers is the spot where Saint Joseph's Seminary now stands.
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
mental army, was dispatched by Washington to New York in the latter part of January, 1776, with instructions to put the place " in the best posture of defense the season and circumstances will admit of." in his march through Westchester County he caused numerous dwell- ings to be entered and searched for arms, which he appropriated and bore away with him for the good of the cause. Dawson pathetically observes that this was indeed a heavy and melancholy visitation of fate upon the wretched farmers of the Boston Post Road, who thus, only a few weeks after being pillaged by the cowardly banditti from Connecticut, were forced to submit to a similar diabolical outrage hy an infamous military despot. Lee, establishing himself in New York, entered upon a very energetic régime. Skilled in military science, he constructed defenses which would undoubtedly have proved of con- siderable utility if the city had been held to resist a siege. One of these defenses, a redoubt on Hoern's Hook, at the mouth of the Har- lem River, commanding the Hellgate pass and also the Long Island ferry, was erected by Colonel Samuel Drake's regiment of Westchester County minute men, a body of one hundred and eleven privates and numerous officers. Of this organization it is recorded in an official document that it possessed, when summoned into active duty, no fewer than " four field officers, two captains, thirteen other commis- sioned officers, and twenty non-commissioned officers "-a most ridic- ulous state of things, about which Dawson makes merry as illustrat- ing the abominable propensity to office-holding among the so-called " friends of Liberty " in Westchester County. General Lee ordered a rigorous reduction of the staff, and directed the eliminated officers to "return to their county, in order to complete their corps," which were as deticient in numbers as the list of their commanders was enormous.
Enlistments in the continental line were certainly not attended by attractive conditions. By an act of the continental congress, passed January 19, 1776, four battalions were ordered to be raised for the defense of the Colony of New York. The committee of safety, in its instructions to the recruiting officers charged with enlisting men under this act, prescribed that the pay of privates should be $5 per month, and that each should receive, as a bounty, a felt hat, a pair of yarn stockings, a pair of shoes, and, if they could be procured, a hunting-shirt and a blanket. On the other hand, the men were to furnish their own arms, or, if too poor to do so, were to be armed at the public expense, the value of their weapons to be deducted from their pay. Concerning this matter of arms, the following explicit statement was made in a circular letter from the president of the provincial congress: " It is expected that each man furnishes him-
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FROM JANUARY, 1775, TO JULY 9, 1776
self with a good gun and bayonet, tomahawk, knapsack or haver- sack, and two bills. But those who are not able to furnish them- selves with these arms and accoutrements will be supplied at the public expense, for the payment of which small stoppages will be made out of their monthly pay, til! the whole are paid for; then they are to remain the property of the men." Little wonder that the rela- tive numbers of officers and volunteer privates were somewhat dispro- portionate.
On the 13th of February, 1776, at a meeting in Harrison's Pro- einet, a cavalry force was organized, Samuel Tredwell being elected captain. This was the beginning of the well-known Westchester Troop of Horse. About the same time there were various enlistments in the county for the infantry service. Local zeal for the cause con- tinned to manifest itself in the ominous forms of information and arrest, and it was even proposed by some Westchester enthusiasts, who doubtless had acquired thorough experience in that particular line at home, to proceed to other counties where Tories notoriously abounded and lay upon them the heavy hand of discipline. One Wil- liam Miller, of White Plains, in a communication to the committee of safety, informed that honorable body that, as many of the inhabit. ants of Queens County were behaving themselves in a manner preju- dicial to the American cause, he and other " Friends of Liberty in this County " were desirous to go thither and " reduce the Enemies to their Country before they are supported by the Regular Troops." Of course no attention was paid to the offer.
In March, 1776, General Lee was superseded in connand in Now York City by General Lord Stirling, son of the famous colonial lawyer, James Alexander. He was replaced by General Putnam, who re- mained in charge until Washington's arrival (April 14).
The second provincial congress expired on the 13th of May, 1776, and the following day was appointed for the assembling of the third. No quorum was obtained, however, until the 18th. The delegates from Westchester County were Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt, Colonel Lewis Graham, Colonel Gilbert Drake, Major Ebenezer Lock wood, Gouverneur Morris, William Paulding, Jonathan G. Tompkins, Sam- uel Haviland, and Poter Fleming. The third provincial congress was the last of the series to sit in the City of New York, where its sessions came to an abrupt end on the 30th of June, the enemy's long-expected fleet having arrived the day before in the bay. Among the members of this congress were John Jay, James Duane, John Alsop, Philip Livingston, and Francis Lewis, who also were representatives from New York City in the continental congress then sitting at Phila- delphia.
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
Although the career of the third congress of the Province of New York was exceedingly brief, its transactions were highly interesting. The reader will observe that its existence coincided with the period of the final deliberations of the continental congress on the subject of independence-a period during which also culminated the starting transformation of the struggle with Great Britain from a principally wordy character, with but a slight physical aspect, into a grim and gigantic war. On the day when this congress suddenly dispersed there were riding in the Lower Bay the advance vessels of a fleet of one hundred and thirty sail-ships-of-the-line, frigates, tenders, and transports-which bore an invading army of thirty-three thousand men, all of them experienced in the business of fighting and magniti- cently equipped. The representatives of the patriotic people of New York, in legislative body assembled at this critical time, could not have failed to be occupied with the most grave and emergent public business, some of it very naturally reflecting the powerful popular passions of the day.
One of the first acts of the congress was the appointment of a committee "to consider of the ways and means to prevent the dan- gers to which this colony is exposed by its intestine enemies." Al- though the committee was headed by one of the principal conserva tives of the province, John Alsop, who soon afterward resigned his seat in the continental congress on account of the Declaration of Independence, it brought in a report recommending stringent meas- ures against suspected persons. Rumors of conspiracies by the Tories of New York had long been rife, some of them resting on more sub- stantial foundations than suspicion. Investigations of various al- leged transactions by emissaries of Governor Tryon's for providing suspected individuals with arms and ammunition disclosed strong moral evidence in support of the charges. In the month of June the famous " Hickey plot " to poison Washington and other American generals was unearthed ; and proofs were found which resulted in the hanging of the chief person accused. In such circumstances, and in view of the crisis of invasion then impending, it is not surprising that the third provincial congress, although comprising in its member- ship influential men of singularly calm and judicious tempera- ment, who had previously been noted for moderation, was pervaded by a determination to deal summarily with all Tories of the danger- ous or irreconcilable type. The Alsop report was followed by an elaborate series of resolutions concerning such characters, wherein a muaber of them were indicated by name, with directions that they he brought before the congress either by the process of summons or by that of arrest. The specified persons were divided into two
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FROM JANUARY, 1775, TO JULY 9, 1776
classes-private individuals and officers of the crown. A special com- mittee of the congress, known as the Committee to Detect Conspir- aries, was created to deal with all cases. John Jay was made its chairman, and among its members were Gouverneur Morris and Lewis Graham, of Westchester County.
In Westchester County the private persous designated as " suspi- cions or equivocal " were Frederick Philipse, Caleb Morgan, Na- thaniel Underhill, Samuel Merritt, Peter Corne, Peter Huggeford. James Horton, Jr., William Sutton, William Barker, Joshua Purdy, and Absalom Gidney, all of whom were given the opportunity to show their respect for the committee through the medium of a sunt- mons, but, in default of appearance, were to be ar- resied. The committee was directed to inquire as to their guilt or innocence upon the following points : (1) Whether they had afforded aid or sustenance to the British fleets or armies; (2) whether they had been active in dissuading inhabitants from associat- ing for the defense of the united colonies; (3) whether they had decried the value of the conti- mental money and endeavored to prevent its cur- reney; and (+) whether they had been concerned or actually engaged in any schemes to defeat, retard, or oppose the measures in the interest of the united colonies. All found innocent were to be discharged with certificates of character. Those found guilty were, at the discretion of the committee, to be im- prisoned or removed under parole from their usual places of residence, or simply released under bonds guaranteeing subsequent good behavior. The only crown officials residing in Westchester County who wore named in the resolutions were Solomon Fowler and Richard Morris, neither of whom was found CONTINENTAL SOLDIER. guilty of any offense. Richard Morris was a brother of Colonel Lewis Morris, the signer of the Declar- ation of Independence, and a half-brother of Gouverneur Mor- ris. He was judge of the colonial Court of Admiralty, but his designation as a possible for to the Revolutionary programme seems to have been wholly undeserved. He resigned his crown commission, giving as his reason that he could not conscientiously retain it, and his country-seat at Scarsdale was subsequently burned by the British and his estate devastated. On JJuly 31, 1776, less than two months after he was singled out as a possible traitor, he was unanimously ap. pointed by the fourth provincial congress judge of the High Court
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
of Admiralty under the new provisional government. In 1779 he became chief justice of the New York State Supreme Court, succeed- ing John Jay.
The committee to detect conspiracies began its sessions on the 15th of June, with John Jay as its chairman. It sent summonses to all the Westchester County men named in the resolutions. The limits of our space do not admit of a detailed notice of the action of the committee concerning these various cases, none of which, except- ing that of Frederick Philipse, possesses any very important historic interest. The history of Philipse's case may properly be completed in the present connection.
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