History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. II, Part 156

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286

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RYE BEACH ..

to his estate. He owned the lands on both sides of the post road, above the village, from "the Cedars " to Blind Brook. Josiah Purdy's house stood a few rods north of Park Institute, close upon the road.

Jonathan Kniffin's farm in 1770 bordered upon the post road, above Regent Street, and extended north- ward to Purchase Avenue. Regent Street was then called Kniffin's Lane. It was Jonathan Kniffin's daughter who was so cruelly murdered on the high- way near Rye in 1777. Peter Jay was living at this time on the estate which he had bought twenty-five years before at Rye from John Budd's grandson. The Jay mansion stood nearly on the site of the present honse. It was a long, low building, but one room deep and eighty feet in width, having attained this size by repeated additions to meet the wants of a munnerons family. Here John Jay spent his child-

hood. Mr. Jay, the father, exercised, no doubt, a marked influence in Rye. He is said to have been a man of sineere and fervent piety, of cheerful temper, warm affections and strong good sense. Mrs. Jay was a lady of cultivated mind.

The upper part of Budd's Neck was owned, a cen- tury ago, chiefly by the Purdys and Thealls. Captain Joshua Purdy lived in the house now owned by Mr. William Purdy. He adhered to the British side in the Revolutionary struggle, and was imprisoned. He lived until near the elose of the century. Charles Theall was living, in the Revolutionary era, in the house now Mr. B. Mead's, where, probably, his grand- father, Captain Joseph Theall, had lived eighty years before. Charles owned a farm said to have measured " a mile square." This he divided, before his death, eight years later, among his four sons. Gilbert, the eldest, was living on the west side of the brook, oppo- site the house where Mr. Corning resides. North of his farm lay the new parsonage land, a part of the late Rev. James Wetmore's farm, which he had left eleven years earlier for this use. James Wetinore, his son, lived north of this, where Mrs. Buckley lives ; and Timothy Wetmore now a leading man in Rye, lived in the old Square House. In Harrison's Preeinet, as it was called, on the border of Budd's Neck, Mr. David Haight, one of the largest proprietors, was liv- ing in 1770. His house stood, its gable close to the road-side, on North Street, by the gate of the grounds lately owned by Captain Josiah Macy. He was now almost seventy, and lived to be nearly a hundred years old.

In the northern part the town, Judge Thomas was the most prominent personage. Ilis estate in " Rye Woods" was large, and furnished with a number of slaves. His eldest son, John Thomas, Jr., was supervisor of the town as well as justice of the peace and farmer of the exeise for the county. The Thomas family, with the Jays in the lower part of the town, held a commanding position among the inhabitants of Rye. Both families espoused the patriotic side in the Revolutionary struggle, and during the earlier years of the war, at least, their influence was greatly felt.

RYE FAIR .- Among the topics of village talk in 1770, perhaps the chief was the plan for establishing a fair at Rye. The Browns, the Halsteds, the Parks and the Purdys of that day joined with many others in a petition to the Governor, Lord Dunmore. in which, after stating that, by an act of Assembly passed

F.MG

"WHITBY," RESIDENCE OF JOSEPH PARK, RYE, WESTCHESTER CO., N. Y.

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many years before (1692), Rye had been declared entitled to the benefit of holding a fair once (in Oeto- ber) in every year, to sell " all Country Produce and other effects whatsoever," but the inhabitants had never applied to have the fair held, as they had the right, the request was made that the Governor "would please to appoint Doetor Ebenezer Haviland, of said Rye, to be Governor, and to have full power aceord- ing to said Act of Assembly to keep and hold a fair in Said Rye, in the month of October next." Gov- ernor Dunmore granted the request and appointed Dr. Haviland to be governor of such a fair, to be kept at Rye on the second Tuesday in October, yearly, and to end the Friday next following, being in all four days and no longer. Such fairs had been held from time immemorial in England. It is not known how far the eustom was carried out in Rye, but there is reason to suppose a brisk trade was driven on these oeeasions.

Before the Revolution, Rye Beach was a popular resort for pleasure-seekers. Horse-racing on "Rye Flats " was a favorite pastime.

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR-EMIGRATION .- The French and Indian War drew many recruits from Rye. The muster-rolls of companies raised in Westchester County in 1758 and 1759 contain the names of thirty- four or thirty-five men whose "place of birth " was Rye. Undoubtedly many others went from the town in the course of the war, but the muster-rolls for the earlier campaigns do not specify the place where the reeruits belonged. Not a few of the returned soldiers settled afterwards in the neighborhood of Lake Champlain and Lake George. The conquest of Canada was followed by a considerable emigration, eneouraged by the large grants of land made to the parties applying for them. Among these applicants were some eighty families, mostly from Westehester County, N. Y. Dr. William Hooker Smith, son of the venerable minister of Rye, was among the leaders of the enterprise, and several others were from Rye. How many of these petitioners actually removed to " the northern frontier" cannot be determined, but it is a matter of tradition that several families of Rye emigrated "after the French war " to that region. An old inhabitant remembered hearing in his youth that "a good many went from Rye as recruits at the time of the French war and afterwards settled about Lake Champlain."

RYE IN THE REVOLUTION .- Rye played its hnm- ble part in the Revolutionary War, and not a few events of interest occurred in the town and the region round-about. At several periods in the course of the war the place was occupied by British or American forces, while at other times it lay between the opposing armies. In common with all the southern portion of Westehester County, it suffered severely from the ravages of both armies. The town was divided in sentiment. There were warm parti- sans of the British cause at Rye, and there were also

those who boldly espoused the people's side. The prevailing mood, however, was one of uncertainty, and the thought of resistance to law and revolt from the mother country was abhorrent to many minds. In 1774 the first recorded action took place at a meeting held on the 10th of August. The occasion of the meeting was the closing of the port of Boston. The "Freeholders and Inhabitants of the township of Rye" who composed this meeting selected John Thomas, Jr., James Horton, Jr., Robert Bloomer, Zeno Carpenter and Ebenezer Haviland as a eommit- tee to eonsult and determine with committees of the other towns and distriets of Westchester County upon the expedieney of sending one or more delegates to the Congress to be held in Philadelphia in September following. The committee elected Ebenezer Havi- land chairman, and presented the following resolu- tions which were unanimously approved :

" This Meeting being greatly alarmed at the late Proceedings of the British Parliament, in order to raise a Revenue in America, and consid- ering their late most cruel, unjust and unwarrantable Act for blocking np the Port of Boston, having a direct Tendency to deprive a free People of their most valuable Rights and Privileges, an Introduction to subju- gate the Inhabitants of the English Colonies, and render them Vassals to the British House of Commons.

" RESOLVE FIRST. That they think it their greatest Happiness to hve under the illustrious House of Hanover, and that they will steadfastly and uniformly bear true and faithful Allegiance to his Majesty King George the Third, under the Enjoyments of their constitutional Rights and Privileges, as fellow-Subjects with those in England.

"SECOND. That we conceive it a fundamental Part of the British Con- stitution, that no Man shall be taxed but by his own Consent, or that of liis Representative in Parliament ; and as we are by no Means represented, we consider all Acts of Parliament imposing Taxes on the Colonies an undne exertion of Power, and subversive of one of the most valuable Privileges of the English Constitution.

"THIRD. That it is the Opinion of this Meeting, that the Act of Par- liament for shutting up the Port of Boston, and divesting some of the Inhabitants of private Property, is a most unparalelled, rigorous and unjust Piece of Cruelty and Despotism.

"FOURTH. That Unanimity and firmness of Measures in the Colonies are the most effectual Means to secure the invaded Rights and Privileges of America, and to avoid the impending Ruin which now threatens this once happy Country.

"FIFTH. That the most effectual Mode of redressing our Grievances will be by General Congress of Delegates from the different Colonies, and that we are willing to abide by such Measures as they in their Wisdom shall think most conducive upon such an important Occasion.

" By Order of the Committee,

"EBENEZER HAVILAND, Chairman."

The action of this meeting made no small stir among the people of Rye. Opinions were divided as to the wisdom of the resolutions passed. They were moderate enough certainly, but there was danger lest they uright be misunderstood. To prevent this, a paper was gotten up, six weeks after the meeting of August 10th, and signed by a large proportion of the inhabitants, whose names appear attached to it in Rivington's New York Gazetteer of October 13, 1774,-

" RYE, September 24, 1774.

".We, the subscribers, freeholders and inhabitants of the town of Rye, in the County of Westchester, being much concerned with the unhappy situation of public affairs, think it our duty to our King and country to declare, that we have not been concerned in any resolutions entered into, or measures taken, with regard to the disputes at present subsisting with the mother country : we also testify our dislike to many hot and furious proceedings, in consequence of said disputes, which we think are more

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

likely to ruin this once happy country than remove grievances, if any There are.

" We also declare our great desire and full resolution lo live and die peaceable subjects to our gracious sovereign King George the third, aud his laws." 1

Fifteen of the subseribers 2 published a statement on the 17th of October, 1774, declaring that they had been " suddenly and unwarily drawn in to sigu " the document of September 24th, and that, upon mature deliberation, being eonvineed that they acted "pre- posterously," and without adverting properly to the matter in dispute between the mother country and her colonies, they were " sorry " that they ever had any concern in the paper and " do by these presents utterly diselaim every part thereof, except our ex- pression of loyalty to the king and obedienee to the constitutional laws of the realm."

Timothy Wetmore, son of the late reetor of Rye, and a man of considerable influence in the place, also published a statement in which he took the ground that Parliament had no right to tax America, though it had a right to regulate the trade of the empire. "I am further of opinion," le deelared, " that several acts of Parliament are grievances, and that the execution of them ought to be opposed iu sneh manner as may be consistent with the duty of a subject to our sovereign : tho' I cannot help express- ing my disapprobation of many violent proceedings in some of the eolonies." An ardent patriot about the same time addresses " the Knaves and Fools in the town of Rye," asking the " Fools," what in the world could have put into their heads that it were bet- ter for them to have their " faces blacked and be negroes and beasts of burden for people in England," than to live and die like their forefathers, in a state of free- dom. "I really could not have believed," he adds, " that there had been so many asses in all America, as there appears to be in your little paltry town. Instead of Rye Town, let it hereafter be called Simple Town. It seems you are such geese as not to

1 (Signed) Isaac Gidney, Daniel Erwin, Philemon Halstead, Abraham Wetmore, Roger Park, James Budd, John Collum, Roger Kniffen, Thomas Kniffen, Henry Bird, John Hawkins, Gilbert Merritt, Esq", Robert Merril, Andrew Merrit, John Carhart, Roger Merrit, Archi- bald Tilford, Israel Seaman, Isaac Anderson, Adam Seaman, Willinm Hall, John Willis, Rievers Morrel, Capt. Abraham Bush, Nehemiah Sherwood, Abraham Miller, Andrew Lion, William Crooker, Jonalhan Kuiffen, James Jamison, Andrew Carhart, John Buvelot, Thomas Brown, Seth Purdy, Gilbert Thaell, Gilbert Thael Jun, Dishbury Park, Isaac Brown, Joseph Merrit June, Major James Ilortou, l'eter Florence, Jonathan Gedney, Nathaniel Sniffen, William Armstrong, John Guion, Sol. Gidney, James Haines, Elijah Haines, Bartholomew Haines, Thomas Thach, John Affrey, Gilbert Haius, Dennis Lary, Dack. Purdy, Joshun Purdy, Roger Purdy, Charles TharHI Esqr, James Wetmore, Gilbert Brandidge, Jolin Kniffen, William Brown, Joseph Clark, John Park, Joseph Purdy, James Gedney, Joshina Gedney, Jonathan Budd, James Purdy, Ebenezer Brown, Ebenezer Brown June, John Adee, John Slater, Henry Slaler, Nathan- iel l'undy, Benjamin Kniffen, Andrew Kniffen, Joseph Wilson, Ncheminh Wilson, Thomas Wilson, Benjamin Wilson, Gilbert Morris Jans, Tim- othy Wetmore Esqr. Jnines Hart.

" Abraham Miller, William Crooker, James Jameson, Andrew Care- harl, John Bullot, Willlam Brown, Gilbert Brundige, Israel Seaman, John Willis, Adam Senman, Andrew Lyon, Gilbert Merritt, Jolin Care- hurt, Julin Slaler, Isaac Anderson.

know when you are oppressed, and when you are not."

Among the delegates to the Second Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia ou the 10th of May, 1775, was John Thomas, Jr., of Rye.

The call for soldiers for the Continental army was promptly responded to in Rye. Three companies were formed, mostly within the limits of Rye, which then included Harrison and the White Plains. These com- panies were embraced in the "South Battalion of Westehester County." The officers ehosen were the following :

1. Mamaroneck and Rye, except the upper end of King Street: Robert Bloomer, captain ; Alexander Hunt, first lieutenant ; Ezekiel Halsted, seeoud lieu- tenant ; and Daniel Horton, ensign.

2. Searsdale, White Plains and Brown's Point: Joshua Hatfield, eaptain; James Verrian, first lieu- tenant; Anthony Miller, seeond lieutenant; and John Faleoner, ensign.

3. Harrison's Preeinet and the upper end of King Street : Henry Dusinberry, captain ; Lyon Miller, first lieutenant ; Caleb Paulding Horton, second lieu- tenant; and Gilbert Dusinberry, ensign.

One of the first who volunteered was Frederick de Weissenfels, who kept the tavern at Rye Ferry. He applied. with Marinus Willett, Gershom Mott and five others, on the 6th of June, 1775, for a commis- sion in the service. Weissenfels was appointed eap- tain of Company I, First Regiment New York Conti- nental Troops. He was soon after made colonel and was in command of a regiment at the battle of White Plaius. In October, 1780, he was in command under General Heath at Albany. Conceiving that his ser- viees were not properly appreciated, he left the army before the close of the war, but bore a high eharaeter as an officer and a patriot. He was one of the original members of the New York Society of the Cineinnati. He died May 14, 1806. Among others

from the town of Rye who embarked early in the country's eause, were Dr. Ebenezer Haviland, Dr. William Hooker Smith and Colonel Thomas Thomas. Colonel Gilbert Budd, though a resident of Mamaroneek, should not be omitted, for he be- longed to one of the oldest families of Rye.

On the 12th of June, 1775, the Connecticut forees, eneamped near Greenwich, were reviewed by General Wooster. On the 27th these forees, or a portion, passed through Rye on their way to New York. General Wooster afterwards had his headquarters at Rye for a considerable time. On the day before the arrival of the Connecticut troops, General Washing- ton had passed through Rye on his way to the camp at Boston, where he was to take command of the Continental army. He was attended, as far as King's Bridge, by a troop of gentlemen of the l'hiladelphia Light Horse and a number of the inhabitants of New York City.

Frequent outrages and depredations show that the

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state of the country had already become precarious and unsettled. At Rye several daring robberics were perpetrated. The friends of Congress complained that the Tories were "getting the upper hand of them, and threaten them daily." Some patriots had their private property injured by the destruction of fences and cropping of horses' tails and manes. Some of the Torics declared they would fire upon any one who should come to their houses and attempt to take away their arms. Godrey Hains, of Rye Neck, was one of the most defiant of the Loyalists, and was finally arrested for speaking disrespectfully of Con- gress. He succeeded, however, in making his escape from jail, and took refuge on board a man-of-war in New York Harbor. With a number of others living on Rye Neck, he formed a plan to capture Judge Thomas at his house in Rye Woods. The plot, how- ever, came to the knowledge of Captain Gilbert Budd, of Mamaroneck, and, upon his information, William Lounsberry and several others were arrested and bound over to keep the peace.

The Tories of the neighborhood made strenuous efforts to procure supplies for the British army at Boston. Between Byram River and King's Bridge, in December, 1775, there were about two thousand barrels of pork, chiefly in the hands of the Torics, besides what had been sent off. In the same neigh- borhood, for three or four miles around, there were not more than eight or ten Whigs to one hundred and twenty Tories. On the night of January 17, 1776, some cannon which had been placed near King's Bridge for the purpose of defending the ap- proaches to New York City in that direction, were found to have been spiked. It was ascertained that William Lounsberry and his Tory associates of Rye Neck and Mamaroneck were the guilty parties.

In May, 1776, a Committee of Safety was chosen for Rye, to serve one year in the interest of the patriot cause. It was composed of Samuel Townsend, Isaac Seaman, Frederick Jay, Samuel Lyon, Gilbert Lyon and John Thomas, Jr. Acting in conjunction with a similar committee for Harrison, it kept a vigi- lant eye upon the Tories in Rye Neck. Lounsberry was again active, this time endeavoring to obtain re- cruits for the royal army. On the 5th of June several persons disaffected to the American cause were or- dered to be arrested. Among them were William Sutton, Joseph Purdy and James Horton, Jr. Others " considered in a suspicious light" werc to appear when summoned, Solomon Fowler among them. On the arrival of the British men-of-war in New York Harbor, in the summer of 1776,the Tories of Rye and vicinity grew bolder. It was found necessary to ar- rest William Sutton and his son, John, " because of inimical declarations and threats." Several farmers of Rye had already been detained for some time at the White Plains as disaffected persons. Among them were Monmouth Hart, John McCullum, Joseph and John Gedney, Joseph Purdy, Gilbert Horton,

Captain Joshua Purdy, Josiah and Isaac Brown, Bartholomew Hains, Joseph Haviland, Adam Sea- man, Samuel Merritt and Jeremiah Travis.

With the arrival of the British fleet the waters of Long Island Sound became, for the first time, a scene of hostilities. The appearance of two men-of-war between Hart and City Islands, and of another near Frog's Neck, caused great excitement. The Com- mittee of Safety, at Rye, ordered out the militia to guard from Rye Neck to Rodman's Neck. Colonel Budd was in command.

The retreat of Washington to the White Plains, in October, 1776, transferred the scene of active mili- tary operations to the vicinity of Rye. The period of real danger and suffering to the inhabitants now be- gan. The town was occupied at first by a small American force,-the Twentieth Regiment of Connec- ticut Militia, commanded by Major Zabdiel Rogers. The roar of cannon during the battle of White Plains was heard in Rye, only seven miles away, and the day must have been passed by the inhabitants in great agitation. The action on Chatterton's Hill took place just outside the town limits, in Greenburgh, west of the Bronx River. On the 1st of November a fight took place, within the limits of Rye, between the American division, under General Heath, and a portion of the British army, at which General Wash- ington himself was present. The British were re- pulsed with the loss to the Americans of only one man.

A scarcity of provisions, resulting from the presence of so large a body of men, intensified the distress in the vicinity of Rye, and the wanton destruction of property by both armies caused great suffering to the non-combatants. The court-house, Presbyterian Church and other buildings at White Plains were burned, and similar scenes were enacted elsewhere in the neighborhood. Many a night the reddened horizon or the visible flames betokened the ruin of some family whose barn or house was being con- sumed within the region of the " debatable land."

The first appearance of the "King's troops " at Rye was in the last days of October, 1776. Just be- fore General Howe withdrew his army from the White Plains, a brigade under the command of General Agnew "pushed forward about two miles beyond Rye," in hopes of bringing a " large detach- ment of the American army, which was stationed at Saw Pit, to an engagement." Not being able to come up with them, they returned on Sunday afternoon, November 3d, to join the royal forces near the White Plains. It was a great day for the Loyalists at Rye. " Many of them showed particular marks of joy" upon the passage of the King's troops. Conspicuous among these was the Rev. Mr. Avery, the rector of the parish, who had been in correspondence with Gover- nor Tryon before the arrival of the British army in New York, and had been very outspoken in his pro- fessions of sympathy with the British cause. The

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American troops reached Rye on the same evening, and, by the Loyalist account, "showed their resent- ment " toward the Tory sympathizers "by plunder- ing their houses, driving off their cattle, taking away their grain and imprisoning some of them." Among the rest, Mr. Avery was a sufferer and lost his cattle, horses, ete. Two days later he was found dead in the neighborhood of his house. "Many people," writes Mr. Seabury from New York, to the secretary of the Gospel Propagation Society in England, "are very confident that he was murdered by the rebels. Others suppose that his late repeated losses and disappoint- ments, the insults and threats of the rebels and the absence of his best friends, who had, the day before, gone off for fear of the rebels, drove him into a state of desperation too severe for his strength of mind."

Lawless bands of marauders-Cowboys and Skin- ners-infested the Neutral Ground, ravaging the whole country between the British and American lines, a region some thirty miles in extent, embracing nearly the whole of Westchester County. Rye was still protected to some extent, however, by the presence of some American troops. General Parsons was at Saw Pit (now Port Chester) early in November with a portion of his brigade. He had a post, also, " near the head of Rye Pond," October 29th, securing the communication of the army at the White Plains in that direction. A month later, in December, 1776, General Wooster, commanding the Conneetient Mili- tia, had his headquarters at Saw Pit. Complaint was made, however, that some of his men oppressed the inhabitants even more than the enemy themselves, taking off' stock, household furniture and even farm- ing utensils.

Early in 1777 the American forces were withdrawn and the country given over to the enemy. "The Queen's Rangers," a body of American Loyalists, soon became the scourge of the population. They had been recruited originally in Connecticut and the vicinity of New York, and were commanded by Robert Rogers, of New Hampshire, "one of the most odious of all Americans of note" who had enlisted under the royal standard. His men made daily ex- cursions into different parts of the county, "taking with them by force of arms many good inhabitants, also their stock, grain and everything else that falls in their way, and destroying all that they cannot take with them." Although an American force was sta- tioned at Saw Pit, they did not hesitate to make an occasional dash into the neighborhood. On one of these occasions, Thomas Kuiten, a lad of fourteen or fifteen, was passing through "Steep Hollow," between Rye and Saw Pit, driving his father's cows home from pasture. As he approached the post road a party "from below" came along the road, and took him prisoner, making him drive the cows down to New York Island, where he remained in camp with them for several weeks. By this time the cattle had been

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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. II, Part 156

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1286

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898,
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1286