History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 73

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 73

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Rye, even at a later period, was noted for its solid, unyielding conservatism ;1 and, in Rye and through- out Westchester-county, generally, the Purdys were

peculiarly noted for their unfaltering loyalty.2 Early in September, 1775, before the passage of the enaet- ment by the Provincial Congress, to which reference has been made, could have become generally known throughout that " border Town," Godfrey Haines, an unmarried man, was at the house of Daniel Purdy, in Rye; and, in conversation, he condemned the re- organization of the Militia, by the Provincial Con- gress ; declared he would not perform any duty in the new-organized Company; and denouneed the Con- gresses and Committees, generally, saying "he had as " leave be in hell as in the hands of any of them," an opinion which was, probably, confirmed, very soon afterwards. He evidently looked forward to an ex- pected movement of the Home Government, for the maintenance of its authority ; he wished the men-of- war would move up the Sound ; and, in his youthful outburst of indignation, he said he would be one of those who would indicate the persons on whom the Government should first lay the weight of its retribu- tive power.

Of that Godfrey Haines, nothing is now definitely known beyond the facts, told by himself, 3 that he was tolerably well educated, but was without any available property ; but it can be learned, from the papers in the case, that he was not a stranger in that neighborhood nor in that house. He was evidently a young man, suffering from wrongs already inflicted on him or on his personal friends, possessing a fiery temper, and warmly indignant at the movements and the threats of the revolutionary faction. He un- doubtedly knew that he was among those who enter- tained opinions and preferences which were similar in their character to those which he had declared ; but the latter may have been less willing to deelare what they preferred and what their opinions were, concern- ing the doings of those who were, then, aspiring to the Government of the Colony-he was, however, less fortunate than they, in the expression of his opinions in the presence of one who, either throughi ignorance or malevolence, was mean enough to betray him.

Samson had his Delilah; and Godfrey had his Eu- nice. Of Delilah, not an Israelite, we know that she betrayed her lover to his enemies, to the oppressors of his kindred and his people : of Eunice, an ignorant, unmarried woman ; unable to write her own name and, probably, unable to read what others had writ- ten-just sueli a tool, indeed, as suited the purposes of such men as, then, manipulated her spitefully- told information-and, evidently, a daughter or sister or other kinswoman of the man under whose roof and in the enjoyment of whose hospitality Godfrey was,

1 " The People of Rye being wholly devoted to the Interest of the " Crown shut their Eyes and Eurs against reason and knowledge" * * (Petition of George Harris, "HAERLEM, August 26, 1776"-Historical Manuscripts, etc. : Petitions : xxxiii., 158.)

the

2 At the marriage of Gabriel Purdy to Charity Purdy, at the White Plains, on the twenty . eighth of March, 1775, a large company, forty-seven in number, was assembled, among whom thirty-seveu were l'urdys, "and not a single Whig among them."-( Rirington's New- York Gazetteer, No. 105, NEW-YORK, Thursday, April 20, 1775.)

3 Petition to the Provincial Congress, "CITY HALL, October ye 4th, "1775"-page 117, post.

292

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

when he made those utterances, we know, also, that she betrayed a guest of the family, if not her own lover, into the hands of his enemies, into the hands of those who were oppressing his kindred and his people. She was not prompt in her treachery, which clearly indicates that it was an afterthought - prob- ably, it was a girlish act of spiteful retaliation for some boyish affrout, to which she had been subjected, subsequently to the day on which he had exposed hinself to her ignorant vindictiveuess. Whatever incited her, however, the story of Godfrey's outspokeu utterances was told by her, within three or fourweeks from the day of his visit to Purdy's ; and, because he had evidently thus made himself obnoxious to the con- trolling faction, although he had not been previously regarded with suspicion, 1 the County Committee, with intemperate zeal, promptly proceeded to display and to exercise its new-fouud authority-Godfrey was arrested and taken to the White Plains, on no other accusation than the merely verbal information of the affronted Eunice; and that viudictive maiden was, also, taken to the same place, and before the same County Committee, there, in order that her accusation might be made in a more formal mauner.

None of the details of the doings of that zcalous County Committee, thus acting iu its threefold char- acter of prosecutor, judge, and executioner, have been recorded in history ; but an affidavit was framed ; and Eunice added "her mark" to it, and disappeared- even the industrious local historian has not found a place for her, in his genealogical record of the family of which she was apparently a member. The follow- iug is a copy of that affidavit, thus made, honestly or dishonestly, by Euuice Purdy, before the Committee of Safety of the County of Westchester :

" WESTCHESTER COUNTY, SS. :

" Eunice Purdy, of Rye, in the said County, "Spinster, being duly sworn upon the Holy Evange- "lists of Almighty God, deposeth and saith that, on or "about the second of September instant, Godfrey " Hains was at Daniel Purdy's, at Rye, and iu con- "versation, at that time, said he understood that the "Committee or Congress had made a law to oblige all " to train under them ; and that, 'damn them, if they ""' came after him, they should either kill him or he "' would kill some of them ; and that, dead or alive, " 'he would be revenged ; 2 and that he had enough ""'in his pocket, then, for five or six of them.' That "he also damned the Congresses and Committees, " frequently, and said that he had as leave be in hell

"as in the hands of the Congress or Committee ; that " they would see if they were not all cut down, in a " fortnight, at farthest ; that he wished the men-of- "war would come along the Sound ; and that he wish- "ed they had raised their Company, three months "ago, for then the matter would have been settled "before that time; and further this Deponent saith "not.

her "EUNICE + PURDY. mark.

"Sworn the 28th September, 1775, 1 " before me,

" GILBT. DRAKE."

There was no other evidence than this evidently spitefully-made affidavit ; and it is said Godfrey was "convicted," on this testimony, of "denying the au- "thority aud speaking contemptuously of the Con- " gresses and the Committee of the County "-nothing appears to have been done on the charge, by Eunice, that he had used other and, apparently, more offensive words. He was ordered to be disarmed; but the judgment was returned uusatisfied, since he had concealed his arms and ammunition ; and the Com- mittce stated that it was highly improbable that they could be found. It was determined, however, that he was "a very dangerous man;" aud, for its own peace sake as well as for its own safety, that very zealous Committee determined to send him to the Provincial Congress, in the City of New York, in order that that body might employ its more practised hand, in the further prosecution of him.

On the day after he had been tried aud convicted and punished, as far as the Westchester-county Com- mittee could do all these, [September 29, 1775,] God- frey was placed in the custody of Daniel Winter, aud sent to the City, the following letter, from that Com- mittee, explaining the circumstances under which the victim had beeu thus trausported from the County in which he had lived, being sent with him :

" WHITE PLAINS, Sept. 29, 1775.

"GENTLEMEN :

"We send you by Mr. Daniel Winter, Godfrey " Hains, a person who was accused and convicted, be- " fore us, of denying the authority and speaking con- "temptuously of the Cougresses and the Committee 'of this County. He was ordered to be disarmed ; and, "npon examining him respecting his arms and am- " munition, he confessed that he has a gun, pistol, " sword, powder, and ball, but refused informing the "Committee where they are; and as Hains is a single " man, the Committee thiuk it highly improbable that "his arms can be found.

" We enclose you au affidavit which induces us to "think him a dangerous man; and therefore send " him to you to be dealt with as you think proper.

" After reading the affidavit we think it needless to " acquaint you that his conduct (by the best infor- " mation we can get) has been very extraordinary-

1 It will be seen, by reference to the list of those who were proscribed, (page 114, ante,) that Godfrey Haines's name was not on it, as it was originally written-it was "added " to that list "on Saturday " evening."

2 This remark very clearly indicated that, when Godfrey made these violent remarks, he was smarting from wrongs already inflicted on him- self or on those who were dear to him, by those of the revolutionary faction in Westchester-county or by those, from Connecticut, under General Wooster or others, who had come into the County, for the sup- port of the Rebellion.

293

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

" such as going armed, and giving out threats against "some of the Committee and the Connecticut " troops, etc.

" The committee think it extremely neeessary, for " the safety of the County, that the Commissions for " the Militia Officers should be immediately for- " warded.

" We are, gentlemen, " Your most humble servants, " By order of the Committee, " GILBT. DRAKE, Chairman.

" TO THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY,

" FOR THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK."

Although the Autumn was well advanced and the days had become much shorter, Winter and his prisoner and the gnard who aeeompanied them left the White Plains early enough to reach the City before nine o'clock on the morning of the twenty- ninth of September, the day on which the letter was written ; 1 and the first subject which was brought before the Committee of Safety, there, at its morning session, in the City of New York, was the letter from the Committee of Westehester-county, which Winter had brought, with his prisoner.

Although Gilbert Livingston, and Alexander MeDougal, and Isaac Sears, and others of the more radical revolutionists were present, in the Committee, that body handled the subject with great eaution, and determined to have no connection with it, ordering, as the result of its deliberations, "That the said " Godfrey Haines be sent baek to the Committee of " Westchester, under the eare of the persons who " brought him to this City ; and that Mr. Paulding, a " Deputy for the said County, be requested to write a " letter to the said Committee, informing them that " it is the opinion of this Committee, that, agreeable " to the Resolutions of the Provincial Congress of this " Colony, the County Committees are altogether com- "petent for punishing and confining persons guilty " of a breach of the said Resolutions or of either of " them." 2

The Westchester-county-men were not inclined, however, to be troubled with the subject, especially with the knowledge which they possessed eoneerning the temper of many of those who were within that County ; and, on the morning of the thirtieth of Sep- tember, Daniel Winter "represented" to the Com- mittee in New York "that the taking the said God- " frey Haines baek will be attended with danger of

" his being rescued by persons inimical to the cause " of Liberty ; " and that body thereupon reconsidered its Order of the preceding day, and ordered " that the " said Godfrey Haines be committed to the Jail in this "City till the further order of this Committee or the " Provincial Congress of this Colony ; "3 and into the Jail, in New York, Godfrey was accordingly east. without, however, the slightest provision for his sup- port, while he should remain there.

The Jail, in the City of New York, when Godfrey Haines was cast into it, was confining other victims of arbitrary and unwarranted arrests who, also, had been sent to the Congress, by the country Counties ; and it may be reasonably supposed that his animosi- ties against the Congresses and the County Commit- tecs and those who favored them, were not, in the slightest degree, modified, by his association with those prisoners or by his own imprisonment. But, not- withstanding those animosities, his necessities com- pelled him to seek relief; and, on the fourth of October, the fifth day of his eonfinement, he united with his fellow-prisoners, in the following Petition, probably written by himself, addressed to the Provin- cial Congress, which had reassembled on the morning of that day : ‘

"TO THE HONOURABLE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS.

"GENTLEMEN : As there is Six of us Confined in "Goal by your order Charg'd with misdemeanors, we " should take it kind of you if you'd bring us to Im- " ediate tryal or provide for us in our Confinement as "we have not wherewithal to suport our ourselves. " And you will oblige yours

"CITY HALL, October ye 4th, 1775.

" GODFREY HAINS, ADAM BERGHI,

"TIMOTHY DOUGHTY, CHRISTIAN BERGII, JUN.,

" JOHN DOB, DAVID DOB."

That Petition was duly presented to the Congress, on the day of its date, and was read before that body ; but no action whatever appears to have been taken on it, & then or subsequently.

Eight days after the Provincial Congress had received and read the Petition of Godfrey Haines and his fellow-prisoners, that body received the fol- lowing Resolution from the Continental Congress, which probably served to intensify rather than to ameliorate the prevailing partisan animosities ; and it was certainly not well-constituted for the relief of those who were already imprisoned on similar charges :

" RESOLVED, That it be recommended to the several "Provincial Assemblies, or Conventions and Coun- "eils, or Committees of Safety, to arrest and secure " every person, in their respective Colonies, who is

1 It is not impossible that this arrest had been made after it had be- come dark, on the twenty-eighth of September : it is quite clear that the Committee was in session, that the letter of transmission was written, and that Godfrey was hurried through the County, after midnight, on the following morning. Secrecy was probably necessary to ensure success, where the revolutionary faction was No insignificant in numbers, expe- cially, as will be seen in the farther proceedings in this case, when those who were also active, in the maintenance of their own rights and pro- perties, had been aroused.

Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die Veneris, 9 ho., A.M., Sep- " tember 29, 1775."

3 Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die Sabbati, 9 ho., A MI., Sep- "tember 30th, 1 ;; 5."

4 Historical Manuscripta, etc. : Petitions, xxxi., 70.

5 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Mercurii, 9 ho., A. M., Octo- "ber 4 th, 1775."

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

"going at large, as may, in their opinion, endanger "the safety of the Colonies or the Liberties of " America." 1

Appended to the copy of this Resolution which was laid before the Provincial Congress of New York, was a memorandum, not included in the official tran- script of the Resolution, and without a signature, which was in these words : "To be kept as secret as " its nature will admit ;" and it was accompanied by extracts from letters which the Continental Congress had received from London, in one of which the Goy- ernor of New York, William Tryon, was mentioned ; and in which, also, it was said that "it would be a " capital stroke to get possession of Tryon." 2 The same good fortune which Lieutenant-governor Colden had enjoyed, in receiving early information of what was proposed or donc in the secret sessions of the Con- tinental Congress of 1774, was enjoyed by Governor Tryon, concerning the private correspondence and the secret proposals and doings of the Continental Congress of 1775; 3 and he took refuge, first, on board

1 Journal of the Continental Congress, " Friday, October 6, 1775; " Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Jovis, 9 ho., A. M., October 12tli, 1775." 2 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Jovis, 9 ho., A.M., October 12 "1775."

3 Compare the correspondence of Joseph Galloway and Jauics Duane with the venerable Lieutenant governor of New York, and the knowledge of the latter, concerning the secret doings of the Congress of 1774, which the former, members of the Congress and pledged to secrecy, had communi- cated to him, ( pages 27, 33, 34, ante,) with this later instance of secret information and copies of secret correspondence, "received from the "Fountain- Head," hy Governor Tryon, enabling him to secure his personal safety hy taking refuge, first, on the Halifax, a packet-ship, and, finally, on the Duchess of Gordon, the latter lying under the pro- tecting guns of the Asia.

Judge Jones, in his History of New York during the Revolutionary War, (i., 61,) said that information was conveyed to the Governor hy Egbert Dumond, a member of the delegation from Ulster-county, in the Pro- vincial Congress ; and de Lancey, in his Notes on that work, (i., 559, 560,) acquiesced in that statement. We cannot bring ourself to an agreement with those excellent authorities.

The Resolution was adopted by the Continental Congress, on Friday, the sixth of October; transmitted to the Provincial Congress, by the President of the Continental Congress, on the ninth of October; and was not laid before the Provincial Congress, until the twelfth of October, until which day Dumond could not have had any knowledge of it. But, on the tenth of October, two days before the Provincial Congress received it, Governor Tryon had received the information, "from uudonhted au "thority from the City of Philadelphia," ( Governor Tryon to the Mayor of the City of New York, "NEW YORK, 10th Oct. 1775 ; ") and his subsequent statement, that he was in correspondence with "the Fountain-head," (Governor Tryon to the Earl of Dartmouth, "ON BOARD THE DUTCHESS OF " GORDON NEW YORK 11 th Nov 1775,") confirmed his former statement, that the information came " from the City of Philadelphia." Having failed to secure that guaranty of protection from the Corporation of the City of New York which the circumstances led him to ask for, he went on hoard the Halifax, on the eighteenth or nineteenth of October, (Governor Tryon to Mayor Ilicks, "ON BOARD THE HALIFAX PACKET, 19th "October, 1775.")

As the Delegates from New York, in Philadelphia, were well-iuformed, not only concerning the Resolution hut concerning the secret corre- spondence of the Continental Congress, which evidently formed a portion of the information which was communicated to the Governor, there is reason for believing that the correspondent of the Governor was a mem. ber of that Delegation ; and the reader need not be told, in view of the fact that Lieutenant-governor Colden exposed the names of his corre- spondents, one of whom was in the Delegatiou of 1775, which was the particular Delegate who was undoubtedly the correspondent, also, of Governor Tryon, especially since, as was well known, the Governor's

the Halifax, packet, and, subsequently, on board the Duches of Gordon, the latter lying under the pro- tecting guns of the Asia. The prisoners in the Jail," victims of arbitrary power, were less fortunate, in their intercourse with those exercising authority, among the revolutionary faction.

There is no record of the discharge of Godfrey Haines from the Jail, in the City of New York ; but, on the contrary, when the record of the proceedings of the Committee of Safety, on the morning of the twenty-ninth of September, when he was taken before that body by Daniel Winter and the guard who had brought him from the White Plains,4 was laid before the Provincial Congress, after the latter body had re- assembled, after its rece-s, those proceedings were officially approved ; 5 and, subsequently, the furtlier proceedings of the Committec of Safety, on the morn- ing of the thirtieth of September, when Godfrey was committed to the Jail, in New York,6 were also offi- cially approved by the same Provincial Congress.7 He was not officially released; but, very soon after his Petition had been filed, without receiving any other attention, his necessities nerved his arms ;8 and, about midnight, he broke six grates out of the win- dow of his prison, and released himself. Hastening to the wharf, on the East River, the starved fugitive, from whom all food and drink had been withheld for more than a week," he "impressed," if he did not steal, a boat ; and found refuge and food on board of

official and personal leanings were toward the Livingstons rather than toward the rivals of the latter, the De Lanceys, who had previously oc- cupied the nearest place to the throne, in the Colony ; and, especially, since the Delegate referred to was, hy marriage, a member of the Liv- ingston family.

The Memorandum which the Governor is said to have subsequently stated " was the ground of my subsequent conduct in removing on Board " the Packet," (Governor Tryon to the Earl of Dartmouth, "ON BOARD THE " DUTCHESS OF GORDON NEW YORK 11 th Nov 1775,") bears, on its face, the date when he is said to have received it-" MEM. Recd from N York : "the hest authority Nov 2 1775 W T."-and it may have been sent to him by Egbert Dumont, as stated by Judge Jones and his commentator ; hut, when it was said to have been received, the Governor had surely heen on the Halifax or on the Duchess of Gordon, more than a fortuight.

The nauic of the real author of that Memorandum, on which Governor Tryon is inconsistently said to have placed so much dependence, and the purpose for which it was trausmitted to him, after he had been warned of his danger and had secured his safety, are questious which need uot be discussed, in this place.

4 See page 293, ante.

5 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Jovis, 10 ho., A.M., October " 26th, 1775."

6 See page 293, ante.

7 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Veneris, 10 ho., A. M., Oc- " toher, 27, 1775."

8 " David Rhea says that Captain Haines told him he was put in jail " because he refused to deliver up his arms; and that his puuishment " had been determined, that he should not eat uor drink until he had " delivered them up."-(Testimony of David Rhea, before the Committee of Safety - Journal of the Committee, " Die Sabhati, 10 ho., A.M., January "20th, 1776.")

9 Haines was tried and sentenced, at the White Plains, ou the twenty- eighth or twenty ninth of September, when his sentence of starvation probably commenced to run. Six, if not seven, days afterwards, he petitioued for food, saying "he had not wherewithal to suport himself," his jailers, in the City of New York, doing nothing more thau to read his Petition, and to place it on their files, (page 293, ante.) It is not probable that his long fast was continued longer thau the succeeding miduight.

295

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

the Asia, man-of-war, then lying in the stream.1 Captain Vandeput of that ship, treated him kindly ; 'gave him an order for some oars ; and evidently found a way to restore him to his home, in Rye. He was there, during the same month, engaged in "getting " out a parcel of oars for the man-of-war," in New York,2 declaring, at the same time, that he "was " determined to have satisfaction on some partieular " persons," evidently in retaliation for the wrongs which those persons had inflicted on him.3

The subsequent career of that unfortunate victim of Westchester-county's "patriotism " would afford material for a romanee, as it has done that for dis- passionate history. During the sueeeeding Decem- ber [1775], in company with "one Palmer "-said to have been of Mamaroneek-he loaded the Sloop Polly and Ann, which he had recently purchased from Isaae Gedney, with Beef, Pork, and other Provisions ; and, taking on board three quarter-casks of Madeira Wine, a package of Turnips, and other artieles, all of them for General Howe, and other packages for General Ruggles, Mr. Willard, and Mrs. Ann Wood, together with Isaae Gedney, Bartholomew Haines (who was his eousiu) Mr. Palmer (who was one of the owners of the eargo), and seven other persons, pas- sengers, he sailed for Boston. He sailed from New York, on a Wednesday, the nineteenth of December, nominally for the West Indies, but undoubtedly for Boston. It appears, however, that adversity still ae- companied him; and, on the following Saturday night, [December 23, 1775], the Polly and Ann was driven ashore, at Squam Beach, on the coast of New Jersey, so widely known as the " graveyard" of the mercantile marine of the world.

The savory reputation of the "wreekers " of that treacherous coast, sometimes made more treacherous by reason of the false lights displayed by those who lived there, will prepare the reader for the remainder of that sad story of adventure and of disaster-the vessel does not appear to have gone to pieces; and that and what remained of her cargo, after the "wreckers " had satisfied themselves from it, were seized by the local revolutionary Committee of Monmouth-county, and sold, not for the benefit of the owners of cithier the vessel or the eargo, but for what- ever other purpose the Provincial Congress of New Jersey should determine; while " the Captain, Mas- " ter, and Passengers," or sueli of them as had not already abandoned the seene of their last affliction, after nineteen days had elapsed sinee the wreck of

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 73

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354