History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 78

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 78

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" I confess I am a little jealous of the honour of the Province, and " am persuaded that its reputation cau not he maintained without some " little spirit being mingled with its prudence."

4 Minutes of the General Committee of the City and County of New York, The record is in these words :

" Tuesday evening, December 5, 1775."

" A Draft of a Petition to the honourable the Provincial Congress for

" the Province of New-York, was read, and is as follows, viz. :

"'TO THE HONOURABLE THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS FOR THE PROV- "INCE OF NEW-YORK.

"' The Petition of the General Committee for the City and County of

"' New-York, humldy sheweth :

"' That a body of troops,* from a neighbouring Colony, did lately

* It is evident, from these words, that it was, then, supposed to have

Three days afterwards, [December 8, 1775,] that vigorous demand for protection, made by the local revolutionary Committee of the City of New York- the Committee of Westchester-county made no such movement, nor any other, in the matter-was pre- sented to the Provincial Congress, by which body, after some time had been spent "in debates thercon," it was sent to a special Committee, of which John Morin Scott was the Chairman, with instructions to " report thereon with all convenient speed." 5

Four days subscquently, [December 12, 1775,] a Report was made by the Committee, with a draft of a letter to be addressed to the Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, "on the subject matter of the Gen- " eral Committee's Petition," both of which were violently opposed by those who were most revolution- ary in their inclinations. The debates were coutinued through two Sessions of the Cougress, and various amendments were made in the letter, when it was adopted, Colonel Gilbert Drake and Stephen Ward, Deputies from Westchester-county, opposing the motion, and Colonel Lewis Graham, also a Deputy from that County, supporting it.6

" 'make their publick entry into the City, at noou-day, and did seize "'and carry off the types belonging to oue of the publick Printers of " ' this Colony, without any authority from the Continental or this Con- i''gress, your Petitioners, or any other body having power to grant "' such authority. And being apprehensive that such Incursions, " * should they be repeated, will be productive of many great and evil con- " 'sequences to the Inhabitants of such place wherein they may be here- ' 'after mado, your Petitioners do therefore conceive it highly necessary, "' in the present situation of publick affairs, as well for the sake of inter- "' nal peace and harmony of each Colony as for the maintenance of the "'general union of the Continent, now happily subsisting, and so essen- "'tial, at this juncture, that each of the associated Colonies ou the Con- "' tinent should have the sole management and regulation of its puhlick " "matters by its Congress or Committee, unless otherwise directed by "'the honourable the Continental Congress.

"' Your Petitioners do therefore most humbly pray, that this honour- " 'able House of Delegates would be pleased to take the premises into "'their consideration, and devise some expedient to prevent, for the "'future, the Inhabitants of any of the neighbouring Colonies "' coming into this, to direct the publick affairs of it, or to destroy the "' property or invade the liberty of its Inhabitants, without the direc- "'tion of the Continental or this Congress, or the Committee of Safety, "'or the Committee of the County into which such Inhabitants may " ' come, or of the Continental Gencrals, unless there should be an Inva- ""sion made into this Colony.

" ' And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, etc.

" ' By order of the Committee.'

"ORDEREn, That the same be fairly copied, and signed by the Chair-

"man of this Committee, and delivered to the Chairman of the Con- " gress."

" Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Friday morning, December 8, "1775."

6 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Martis, 10 ho., A. M., Deccm- "ber 12, 1775;" and the same, "Die Martis, 3 ho., P.M., Decr. 12, "1775." The following is a copy of that very important letter :

" IN PROVINCIAL CONGRESS, " NEW-YORK, 12th Decr., 1775.

" SIR :

"It gives us concern that we are under the necessity of addressing

been a regular military operation : that the fact was, then, unknown, that it was only an inroad of handitti, winked at, it is trne, hut without any authority, legal or revolutionary : that the Committee did not even suspoct that the raiders were only an organized band of robbers, com- posed only of the floating population of another Colony.

311

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

The Governor of Connecticut, regarding with rea- sonable contempt the feeble, if not the hypocritical, outpourings of such a bashful, if not such a double- faced,1 body as the Provincial Congress of New York then was-at the very moment when it was consider- ing the proposition to send a letter to him, on the subject of the raid which is now under notice, it was also balancing on the tight-rope of loyalty to the King and reconciliation with the Home Government,

"you en a subject that has given great discenteut to the inhabitants ef " the City and County of New-York.

" We are informed by a Petition from the General Committee, that a "bedy of troops from your Coleny lately made a public entry into this "City, at noou-day, and seized aud carried off the types belonging to ene "of the public printers, without any authority from the Ceutiuental or " this Congress er their Committee.

" While we consider this conduct as an insult offered te this Celony, we "aro disposed to attribute it te an imprudent though well-intended zeal " for the public canse; and cannot entertain the mest distant thought "tlint your Colony will approve of the measure. It is unnecessary to "use arguments to show the impropriety ef a proceeding that has a "manifest tendency to interrupt that harmeny and uuion which, at "present, happily subsists throughout, and is so essential to the interest "of the whole Coutinont. It is our earnest desire that you would tuke "the most effectual steps to prevent any of the people of yenr Colony " frou entering into this, for the like purposes, unless invited by our " Provincial Cougress, a Committee of Safety, or the Geueral Couuuit- " tee of one of our Counties, as we cannot but consider such intrusions "as an invasion of our essential rights, as a distinct Colony ; and eom- " mon justice obliges us to request that you will give orders that all tlie "types be returned to tho Chairman of the General Committee of the "City and County of New-York. We beg you will uot ceusider this re- " quisitiou as an attempt to justify thio mau from whem tho types were " taken : we are fully sousible of his demerits ; but we earuestly wish "that the glory of the present coutest for Liberty way uet he sullied hy "an attempt to restrain the Freedom of the Press.

" The same body of troops, we are informed, seized the Mayer of the " Borongh of Westchester, the Rector of that Parish, aud one of the "Justices of the County, and carried them to your Colouy. Mr. Seabury, " wo are informed, is still detained. If such should be the case, we umst " entreat your friendly iuterposition for his immediate discharge ; the " more especially as, considering his ecclesiastical character, which, per- "haps, is venerated by many friends to Liberty, the severity that has " been used towards him umay be subject to misconstructions prejudicial " to the common canse, aud the more effectually to restrain such incur- "sions which, if repeated, may be productive of mischief of the most se- " rious consequence ; and, as wo would be exceedingly sorry to give "room for jealonsies among individuals in your Colony that we are "desirous to damp the spirit of Liberty or countenauce any of its "enemies among us, we proposo to apply to the Continental Congress, " not by way of complaint, but for such a general regulation, en this "subject, as may as well prevent such jealousies as any future ineur- " siens by the inhabitants of either Colony into the other, for the appre- " hending or punishing any euemy or supposed euemy to the cause of " Liberty, without application to the Congress, the Committee of Safety, "or the Committee of the Conuty within the jurisdiction of which such "persons shall reside, or command of the Continental Congress.

" We are, Sir, with the utmost respect and esteen, " Your mo. obt, servts.

" By order of the Provincial Congress.

"To the Honhle JONA. TRUMBULL,

"NATH'L. WOOOHULL, Pres't. " Gov. of the Colony of Connecticut."

1 It is proper to say, in this counoctiou, that the insincerity of the Pro vineial Congress was never more boldly presented than in its Order con- cerning the disposition which was to he made of the letter which it had just ordered to be written to the Governor of Connecticut, in the matter of the raid of Connecticut's ruthians-instead of ordering it to be forwarded to the Governor, it " ORDEREn, That the said letter be engrossed aud signed " by the President, so as to be ready to he transmitted, WHEN DIRECTED." (Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Martis, 3 ho., P. M., Decr. 12, "'1775.")

Just when the Congress " directed" it to be "transmitted," is not known.

under the leadership of Thomas Smith, one of the distinguished body of political acrobats of that name? -made no reply whatever to its letter, until the fol- lowing June, when he adroitly turned the scale against the complaining Provineial Congress, by re- minding it that the leader of the banditti was a resident of the City of New York,3 doing business in that City, and, also, a member of the complaining Provincial Congress; that he was, therefore, amena- ble, directly, to the Congress itself, for what he had done; and that it was not expedient, then, to call the rest of the banditti to aeeonnt +-a conclusion which was perfectly reasonable while the complaining Con- gress complaeently permitted the leader of the party, who was the principal offender, to go at large, within its own jurisdiction, without question concerning it. The long process of intercolonial diplomaey, on what, in this instance, would have been an inter- esting topic, had the parties in that diplomatic correspondenee been honest and consistent, mnight have been productive of useful results; but they were neither consistent nor honest; and, like the greater part of other diplomaey, it consisted of little else than empty words, really meaning nothing and, really, producing nothing.5

While that feeble demonstration of her " independ- " ence and dignity " was being presented by the revo- lutionary authorities in New York, and there was no other demonstration, by either the Colonial Govern- ment or the armed force which occupied the harbor and commanded the City, the Rector of the Parish of Westchester, as has been already stated, remained in captivity, in the hands of the banditti who had seized

2 Vide page 317, pest.

3 The notice of the raid which was published in The Connecticut Journal, already copied iuto this narrative, clearly indicated that Isaac Sears was only a temporary sojourner at New Haven, when he wiade that raid.

4 Governor Trumbull to the President of the Provincial Congress of New York, "HARTFORD, June 10th, 1776."

5 The Provincial Congress evidently called the attention of the Delega- tion in the Continental Congress to the subject, as it promised to do, in its letter to Governor Trumbull ; and on tho eleventh of January, 1776, the Delegation wrote, in reply : " We highly applaud the spirit, "and, at the same time, respectful manner in which yon have supported "the dignity and independence of our Colony, and demanded reparation "on the subject of the Connecticut inroad. An interposition, so rash, "officious, and violent gave us great anxiety, as it was not only a high "insult to your authority, but had a direct tendency to confirm that fatal "spirit of jealousy and distrust of our enstern brethren which has done "so much injury te our cause, and which every wise and virtuous patriot "should study to suppress." The Government of Connecticut, we are " persuaded, will not only do yon the justice which you have required, " but adopt effectual means to restrain their inhabitants from sumuilar at- " terupts in future. In this expectation, we shall take the liberty " to defer the application to Congress which you direct, until we are " faveured with a copy of Governor Trumbull's answer to your letter." (Philip Livingston, James Imane, John Jay, Henry Wisner, and William Floyd to the Provincial Congress, "PHILADELPHIA, 5th January, 1776.")

The Governor of Connecticut having, meanwhile, taken no notico whatever of the letter which the Provincial Congress had written to him, in the preceding December, on the 8th of March, 1776, the Iatter informed the Delegation from New York in the Continental Congress, of that fact, (Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Veneris, "10 ho., A.M., March 8, 1776; ") but there seems to have been no ac- tion, on that subject, in the former body, then or at any other time.

312

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

him and carried him from his home; and he was thus held by that law-defying gang of ruffians, in one of the Capital-towns of Connecticut, in which the Legislature was, then, in session, without the slightest attempt, by the legally constituted Government of that Colony, to interfere, either for the reseuc of the captive or for the vindication of the Law of the land, which had been indisputably violated by those who held him. As has been stated, the eaptive was not permitted to hold a frec intercourse with his friends ; the use of pen, ink, and paper, unless for the purpose of writing to his family, was interdicted ; and his correspondence with his family was subjected to examination by his eaptors. As a matter of favor, however, he was permitted to memorialize the General Assembly of the Colony within which he was held in captivity, although that Assembly had been dissolved by Proelamation of the Governor, six days previously ; and, because that Memorial is a portion of the revolu- tionary literature of Westchester-eounty, to say nothing of its importance as an authority in history, a place for it may be properly found in the text of this narrative.1 It was in the following words :

" TO THE HONORABLE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE " GOV. AND COMPANY OF THE COLONY OF CON- " NECTICUT, NOW SITTING IN NEW HAVEN, IN "SAID COLONY, BY SPECIAL ORDER OF HIS " HONOR, THE GOVERNOR.

" The Memorial of Samuel Seabury, Clerk, A.M., " Rector of the Parish of West Chester, in the County " of West Chester and Province of New York, humbly " showeth :-

"That on Wednesday, the 22d day of November "last, your Memorialist was seized at a house in " West Chester where he taught a grammar school, by "a company of armed men, to the number, as he "supposes, of about forty ; that after being carried to "his own house and being allowed time to send for " his horse, he was forced away on the road to Kings- "bridge, but soon meeting another company of "armed men, they joined and procecded to East " Chester.

"That a person styled Captain Lothrop ordered "your Memorialist to be seized. That after the two " companies joined, the command appeared to your " Memorialist to be in Captain Isaae Scars, and the "whole number of men to be about one hundred. " That from East Chester your Memorialist, in eom-

1 A portion of this notable paper was published by Ilinman, in his Historical Collections of the part sustained by Connecticut during the War of the Revolution, (pages 548-551.) Rev. E. E. Beardsley, D.D . in his Life and Correspondence of the Right Reverend Sumuel Seabury, D.D., (Second Edition, 36-42,) published as nearly a complete and accurate copy of it as those who printed his book would permit him to give to his readers. It is believed that, with his kind assistance, we have the privilege of laying an entirely accurate and complete copy of the original manu- script before our readers, from the copy of that originaj which was fur- nished to him by Charles J. Hoadley, the Librarian of the State Library, at Hartford, the custodian of that paper.

"pany with Jonathan Fowler, Esq., of East Chester, "and Nathl. Underhill, Esq., of West Chester, was " sent under a guard of about twenty armed men2 to " Horseneck,3 and on the Monday following was " brought to this town and carried in triumph through " a great part of it, aeeompanied by a large number " of men on horsback and in carriages, chiefly armed. " That the whole company arranged themselves before "the house of Captain Sears. That after firing two "eannon and huzzaing, your Memorialist was sent " under a guard of four or five men to the house of "Mrs. Lyman, where he has ever since been kept "under guard. That during this time your Memor- " ialist hath been prevented from enjoying a free inter- " course with his friends; forbidden to visit some of " them, though in compauy with his guard ; prohibited " from reading prayers in the church, and in perform- "ing any part of divine service, though invited by " the Rev. Mr. Hubbard so to do ; interdicted the use " of pen, ink, and paper, except for the purpose of " writing to his family, and then it was required that " his letters should be examined and lieensed before "they were sent off; though on Friday last, Captain "Sears eondescended that your Memorialist should "be indulged in writing a Memorial to this Hon. "Assembly. That your Memorialist hath received "but one letter from his family sinee he has been " under eonfinement, and that was delivered to him " open, though brought by the post.

" Your Memorialist begs leave further to represent, " that he hath heard a verbal account that one of his " daughters was abused and insulted by some of the " people when at his house on the 22d of November. " That a bayonet was thrust through her cap, and her " cap thereby tore from" [her] "head. That the " handkerchief about her neck was pierced by a bay- " onet, both before and behind. That a quilt in the " frame on which the daughters of your Memorialist " were at work was so cut and pierced with bayonets " as to be rendered useless. That while your Memo- "rialist was waiting for his horse, on the said 22d day " of November, the people obliged the wife of your " Memorialist to open his desk, where they examined "his papers, part of the time in presenee of your " Memorialist. That he had in a drawer in the desk "three or four dollars and a few pieces of small sil- "ver. That he hath heard that only an English " shilling and three or four eoppers were found in the " drawers after he was brought away. That your " Memorialist thinks this not improbable, as Jonathan " Fowler, Esq., informed him that a new beaver hat, a " silver-mounted horsewhip, and two silver spoons were " earried off from his house on said day. Mr. Meloy, "also, of this town, informed your Memorialist that

2 It will be observed that Mr. Seabury did not regard his captors as " troops" or " Light Ilorse" or military men, of any class: he evi- dently considered them as what are known as " irregulars;" and, for that reason, called them only "armed men."

3 Ilorse Neck of that period is West Greenwich of this.

313

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

" le, the said Meloy, had been accused by some pco- "ple of pointing a bayonet at the breast of a daughter " of your Memorialist, desiring your Memorialist to ex- " culpate him from the charge, to which request your " Memorialist replied that he was not at his house but " at his school house when the affair was said to have " happened ; but that a daughter of your Memorialist " met him as he was brought from the school house, " and told him that one of the men had pushed a " bayonet against her breast and otherwise insulted "her; and your Memorialist remembers that when "he left his house in the morning his daughter had a "cap on, but when she met him near the school " house she had none on and her hair was hanging " over her shoulders.

"Your Memorialist, also, begs leave further to " represent that after he had been eight or ten days "at New Haven, he was carried by Mr. Jonathan " Mix, to whose care he was committed, to the house "of Mr. Beers, innkeeper, in said town, where were "Captain Sears, Captain Lothrop, Mr. Brown, and " some others, whose namcs he did not know or does " not recollect. That several questions were asked " him, to some of which he gave the most explicit " answers, but perceiving some insidious design "against him by some of the questions, he refused to "answer any more. That Captain Sears then ob- " served to him, if he understood him right, that they " did not intend to release him, nor to make such a " compromise with him as had been made with Judge " Fowler and Mr. Underhill,1 but to keep him a pris- "oner till the unhappy disputes between Great "Britain and America were settled. That whatever "your Memorialist might think, what they had done "they would take upon themselves and support. "That your Memorialist then asked an explicit de- " claration of the charges against him, and was told " that the charges against him were :--

"That he, your Memorialist, had entered into a "combination with six or seven others to seize Cap- " tain Sears as he was passing through the county of " West Chester, and convey him on board a man-of- " war.

"That your Memorialist had signed a Protest at the " White Plains, in the county of West Chester, " against the proceedings of the Continental Con- " gress.

"That your Memorialist had neglected to open his " church on the day of the Continental Fast.

"And that he had written pamphlets and news- " papers against the liberties of America.

"To thic first and last of these charges your " Memorialist pleads not guilty, and will be ready to " vindicate his innocence, as soon as he shall be "restored to his liberty in that province to which only " he conceives himself to be amenable.2 He considers

"it a high infringement of the liberty for which the " virtuous sons of America are now nobly struggling, "to be carried by force out of one colony into "another, for the sake either of trial or imprison-

which was accessible to us, we reached the conclusions that the celebra- ted political tracts of "A. W. FARMER" [a Westchester Farmer] which were published in 1774, and which created such an intense excitement among the revolutionary faction, were written by Isaac Wilkins, of Westchester, and uot by the Rev. Samuel Seabury, also of Westchester, to whom they had been generally attributed. Several years afterwards, those conclusions secured the respect and deference of one whose respect and deference, in such matters, were distinctions of which any one might have been reasonably proud, (Historical Magazine, New Series, iii., 9-January, 1868 ; ) and we have not since seen the slightest reason for revising our early judgment, in that much canvassed question of authorship.

Within a few months after the publication of those notable political essays, the satirist, John Trumbull, wrote his versified version of Gen- eral Gage's Proclamation of the twelfth of June, 1775, in which, in the following lines, the well-informed anthor of that well-written piece very clearly indicated thre person who, at that early date, was recognized as the detested "A. W. FARMER : "

" What disappointments sad and bilkings,

" Awaited poor departing W . . . . 8;

" What wild confusion, rout and hobble, you

" Made with his farmer, Don A. W."

(Trumbull's Origin of McFingul, 31, 32 ; ) and within six months after Trumbull's publication, Samuel Seabury, in that portion of his Memorial to the General Assembly of Connecticut which is now under notice, added his very clear, very precise, and very unequivocal testimony, on the same interesting question. With these two independent pieces of evidence before him, the reader may easily ascertain with how uruch of accuracy that early judgment was formed.

We are not unacquainted, also, with a paper, entitled The Westchester Farmer, written by D. Williams, and published in The Magazine of Amer- ican History, viii., 117-February, 1882. It contains what purports to have been an unsigned draft of a Memorial supposed to have been addressed, or intended to have been addressed, by Samuel Seabury, sev- eral years after the occurrences uow under consideration, to the Commis- sioners fer adjusting the losses of the Loyal Refugees, in which dratt of a Memorial he claimed, if the paper is not something else than what it purports to have been, to have been the SOLE author of the "A. W. "FARMER " tracts, as well as of various other tracts and publications. But we are constrained to say that, whether the paper is what it purports to have been or not, and whether it was copied and delivered to the Commissioners or not, of both of which we have grave doubts, there are evidences within itself of its entire untrustworthiness, in its recital of known facts ; that we do not believe, therefore, that it was written by Samuel Seabury, carefully and deliberately, if he really wrote it ; and that we need more evidence than we have yet seen, that he was capable of deliberately and understandingly telling or writing unqualified false- hoods, for any purpose, either while he was in New Ilaven, in 1775-6, or in Lond n, after he had received his Doctor's degree from Oxford Uni- versity, several years afterwards.

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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 78

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