USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume II > Part 13
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After the battle the whole of the territory now included in Greater New York on Long Island settled down under British military rule, a few weeks later New York City being also thus invested, and before the end of the year the whole of Manhattan Island likewise. This remained the situation throughout the rest of the War for Independ-
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ence. In a few days the farmers came back to their homes to find them mostly destroyed. Poverty-stricken as they were, they made the most primitive provisions for re-occupying them. Where the fire had left the walls.standing, but had gutted the interior, floors between stories were only partially restored. Crops and cattle were both gone. A few families on returning to their farms found one or two cows hidden in back lots, shielded from observation by the friendly thick- ets. Keeping them there ont of sight and securing their milk, this and the butter therefrom obtained for thrifty housewives goodly returns from the British officers. An honest penny was also turned by the care and pasturage of the officers' horses. We have taken dne account of the prevalence of loyalty to the English gov- ernment in Kings County. Yet a most astonishing evidence is af- forded of deep devotion of the people to the cause of the patriots when it is mentioned that out of these precarious earnings, with all they had liable to robbery at any moment, the families of the county man- aged to contribute nearly $200,000 to the cause of liberty. The sums were conveyed in small installments through the American officers who had been prisoners as they were exchanged, to whom they were intrusted without a scrap of paper stating amount or pur- pose, so that all depended npon their honesty.
The island towns were of course placed under martial law, which abrogated the civil, and wiped out the whole system of courts and justices. " The administration of justice was suspended," says the early historian Wood; " the army was a sanctuary for crimes and robbery, and the grossest offenses were atoned for by enlistment." Officers and men were quartered upon the inhabitants without con- sulting their convenience, and occupied always the best portions of the dwelling. Studied humiliations were put upon the people whether Tory or Whig. The men who owned farms and slaves were compelled to doff their hats as they passed the officers on pain of a caning or worse punishment, and they must hold their hats under their arms when they conversed with them. The brutal instinct of the Briton that usually comes to the foreground when he deals with a fallen foe, made him coldly oblivions to these acts of deference, which re- mained unreturned by the slightest act of recognition. License in conduct had full sway, and the quiet towns rang with carousing and profanity. Gambling and drinking and licentiousness ran rampant, and left many a permanent effect upon the half-grown youth of the villages, whose ideas of fine gentlemen were formed upon what they saw of the " gentlemen " of the army. The British officials in New York forbade the holding of elections, and not till 1780 was a sort of police court opened at Jamaica. As is nsual at such times, the peo- ple suffered most from their own countrymen, the Tories, who seemed to be more embittered than the Englishmen. Many of these paraded as adherents of Britain only to practice unmolested, or under the
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quasi-anthority of military rule, their real profession of robbery. Under such circumstances, experiencing the worst of treatment from high and low, it would not seem that the people of Kings County could contemplate with much satisfaction the re-establishment of the King's rule in their midst. Yet fulsome addresses were more than once prepared and sent to George III., to express the satisfaction and happiness of his subjects in these towns. Everywhere freeholders in large numbers took the oath of allegiance. Howe had issued a proclamation, in the name of the King, on September 19, offering pardon to those who had opposed the King's forces or magistrates, provided those who had so done would sign an oath of allegiance. On November 17, these obsequious and repentant citizens prepared and subscribed an address, which set forth their compliance, and re- flected " with the tenderest emotions of gratitude on this instance of His Majesty's paternal goodness." There was more such stuff in it about " the affectionate manner in which His Majesty's gracious purpose hath been conveyed," and about the " enlarged sentiments which form the most shining characters." This flattering opinion of the " shining characters " of the proffigate Howe and his stolid and stupid king, led logically to the fatal admission, the deathblow to all patriotic principle or concern for their own liberty, that they es- teemed " the constitutional supremacy of Great Britain over these colonies as essential to the union, security, and welfare of the whole empire." The industry of Mr. Henry Onderdonk has pre- served for us another document which, perhaps, had better have been buried in oblivion. Yet a true picture of the times and of the state of things in this immediate vicinity requires that it be noted and pondered. The historian gives the forty names that were subscribed to it, but perhaps their reproduction would not be pleasant reading to modern descendants. The paper explains itself and who were the persons who perpetrated it. It read : " We, the members of the Pro- vincial Congress, the County Committee, and the Committees of the different townships, elected for and by the inhabitants of Kings County, feel the highest satisfaction in having it in our power to dissolve ourselves without danger of the county being desolated, as it was by repeated threats, some short time ago. We do hereby ac- cordingly dissolve ourselves, rejecting and disclaiming all power of Congress and Committees, totally refusing obedience thereto, and re- voking all proceedings under them whatsoever, as being repugnant to the laws and constitution of the British empire, and undutiful to our sovereign, and ruinous to the welfare and prosperity of this county. We beg leave to assure your Excellency we shall be exceeding hap- py in obeying the legal authority of government, whenever your Ex- cellency shall be pleased to call us forth, being from long experience, well assured of your Excellency's mild and upright administration." The " Excellency," whose "mild administration " had included an
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attempt to poison Washington, and laid waste the coast of Connecti- cut a little later, was the last Royal Governor of New York, William
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Tryon. The date of this fine document was December. 1776. Again, later, in 1780, when the shadow of a civil government was instituted for New York as an Eng- lish province, to offset its - organization as a State by the patriots, the people of Kings County hastened to recognize it and hail it. As we said in our previous vol- ume (p. 226), this device had " a shadow of reality only in New York City, and possibly also in the coun- ties on Long Island and Staten Island." On July 17, 1780, the inhabitants of the " Dutch towns" showed that by them the arrange- ment was accepted as real government. They ad- dressed a congratulatory memorial to the newly ap- pointed governor, James Robertson, in which their excess of loyalty led them to speak very ill-naturedly of their fellow-countrymen struggling for a liberty which has brought wealth and distinction to many of their own descendants. They scrupled not to say that they concurred with - Robertson " in ascribing to the ambitious and self-in- terested views of a few who STATEN ISLAND BEACH, WHERE THE BRITISH EMBARKED FOR THE LONG ISLAND CAMPAIGN. conceal from the multitude the offers of Great Britain, that our countrymen, once so happy, are brought to feel the miseries held up to their fears, subjected, as they now are, to a usurpation that has anni-
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hilated their commerce, shed their blood, and wasted their prop- erty, and is now dragging the laborious husbandman from the plow to the field of battle, to support their unauthorized combinations with designing, popish, and arbitrary powers." It seems hardly conceivable that Americans should express themselves so. With what justice can such terms as usurpation, deception. arbitrariness be applied to a policy of which Washington was the champion and right hand? And why the unnecessary and offensive fling at " popish powers "? Yet this address bore such honorable names as Rutgert van Brunt, Geromus Lott, the Cowenhovens, Leffert Lefferts, Jo- hannes Bergen, Abram Luquere. One wonders whether any of their descendants belong to some of the present-day societies of Sons or Daughters of the Revolution. Only two names appear appropriate upon such a paper-that of Richard Stillwell, from the always too English Gravesend, and that of Colonel William Axtell, the English owner of Melrose Hall at Flatbush, fellow-plotter with Mayor Mat- thews against the life of Washington. "
Some incidental results of the occupation of Long Island by the British are interesting. Every autumn, and as the winter approached, the two counties nearest New York would be called upon to furnish thousands of cords of wood for the use of the British garrison in the city and surrounding camps. Thus, the woods of Queens and Kings Counties gradually disappeared. The winter of 1780-81, as noted in our first volume, was extremely severe; to meet the emergency, Queens County was ordered by Governor Robertson to furnish 4,500 cords of wood, and Kings County 1,500, under heavy penalties if the supply should come short. The East River was frozen solid half way across. and on the edge of the ice-bank the farmers were directed to pile up the firewood for further transportation to the city. Besides the denuding of woodland, the soldiers burned up all the fences, mak- ing cultivation almost impossible. Another deleterious consequence of this desperate hunt for fuel was the cutting up of the fields for peat. The Hessians were especially on the lookout for this material, to the use of which they were accustomed at home, and they found it where none others had suspected, much to the surprise as well as the chagrin of the farmers, who were left with ugly holes in their fertile fields, which soon became pools of stagnant water. While draining the island of fuel and food supplies, the British soldiery also made it serve their moments of leisure and recreation. On birthdays of members of the royal house, on the anniversary of the coronation of the king, and at every possible excuse for merrymaking, the su- perior attractions of public houses at Brooklyn or Bedford, and other centers of population, brought over great numbers of the military for banquets or dances, or carousings generally. Then " Rebels " were carefully warned not to come anywhere near the scenes of hilar- ity. For the meaner soldiery. bull-baitings were provided. Flatlands
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Plains, called " Ascot Heath " in the advertisements of the day, were constantly made lively by horse racing; sports being carried on some- times for three days in succession, including trial of speed by packs of hunting dogs, foot races by men, and even by women. Booths were erected all over the vast level country, and a veritable Vanity Fair created in the otherwise solitary wilderness. Fox-hunting parties were also frequently formed, riding at their sweet will over fields no longer separated by fences.
Turning from this general view to a more specific record of events in the several towns during the Revolution, we repeatedly come upon incidents illustrative of the conditions of the time. Beginning at the north and ending with Brooklyn, we notice that Bushwick suffered as much as the other towns from the loss of its woods. Many of the people left their homes, which were used as quarters by the troops, and shamefully and wantonly defaced by their hard usage. Captain Hendrick Suydam, an officer in the patriot army, found his house reeking with filth, breeding disease and fever. It had been occu- pied by a squad of Hessians, and with their swords they had ruth- lessly hacked and disfigured doorposts and window frames and other woodwork. The captain would never remove these evidences of the mean spirit of our antagonists in the War for Independence, and with the same grim determination his descendants followed out his sturdy purpose. Other Bushwick people endured similar experiences. Colonel Rahl and a regiment of Hessians were quartered at Bushwick. Their habits were naturally nnelean, and, with the exception of the spiteful conduct of the men at Suydam's house, the defilement of the dwell- ings of the people was not a specially malignant act. Gradually the Hessians found out that the Americans they had been hired to fight were not red savages, who were out after their scalps, and would give no quarter. The British had diligently inculcated this fiction. But especially after Howe's campaign in Pennsylvania, where the Hessians had some earnest talks with the German population, they began to appreciate the real inwardness of the American con- tention. They left the ranks of the British army by the hundreds, and preferred to settle in the land to going back to their homes. It is pleasant to read in the recorded recollections of persons living at the time that many of the officers and men of the British army treated the subjugated inhabitants with kindness and consideration. But here at Bushwick, as elsewhere, the people suffered most from Tory miscreants, their own renegade countrymen. A particularly nefa- rious assault was made on a Bushwick family in October. 1779. George and Peter Duryea, with their wives, occupied one house to- gether, located not far from Bushwick Creek. At nine o'clock in the evening five men suddenly burst into the house, features masked and blackened, armed with bayonetted guns, pistols, clubs, and cutlasses. They attacked the four occupants without waiting to see if they would
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resist or not. George Duryea was stunned by four heavy blows on the head, but retained consciousness enough to escape further maltreat- ment or murder by crawling under a bed. Peter Duryea, with six wounds on head and face, and a bleeding arm, managed to get away and alarm the neighbors. Catherine Duryea, Peter's wife, was seized by the throat and forced to the floor and nearly choken to death be- fore help arrived. But the robbers escaped with large booty in money and silverware. Governor Tryon offered a reward of $50 for the apprehension of the villains, but, as they had realized over $300 by their exploit, the offer was not specially effective. Bushwick was afflicted also by having stationed there a battalion of guides and pio- neers, from 1778 to 1783. Their very occupation makes obvious of what character they must have been. They were, of course, natives, and their work was the betrayal of their fellow-countrymen by means of their intimate knowledge of the varions sections of the land, part of their duty also being to act as spies. While these men were wait- ing calls for duty at Bushwick they relieved the tedium by thefts and other villainous deeds, complaints to the captains meeting with noth- ing bnt vile abuse in return.
At Flatbush, civil law having been superseded by military author- ity. there was no very great need of the old Court House for its legiti- mate and intended purpose. The British soldiers, therefore, made it contribute to their gayeties. The courtroom was converted into a ballroom. This was harmless enough. A more sinister use to which it was put was as a guardhouse for the " Nassau Blues." These were " a band of men of notoriously bad character," says Mrs. Vanderbilt; " they not only helped themselves freely to the property of the in- habitants, of whom they were called the ' Guards,' but they were the terror of respectable people." At Flatbush, as we saw above, re- sided Mayor Matthews, a near neighbor of Colonel Axtell. These men and many other Tory officials were more abusive toward the American officers who were prisoners of war than the English themselves. One of these Americans, Captain William Marriner, after his exchange, determined to make an effort to capture some of these Tories. Being in Middletown, N. J., he organized a party of picked men, manned a whaleboat, and rowed across the bay to Gravesend Beach. As he was familiar with the country, he easily conducted his men to Flat- bush, and there divided them into four parties, assigning the quarters of a Tory colonel to each. Two of these raids were success- ful, Colonels Moncrief and Sherbrook being taken back to the whale- boat, and so to New Jersey. But Matthews and Axtell were away from home. It speaks well for the address of Captain Marriner and his men that they managed to escape with their prey, for there was stir enough to arouse the village, and the Tory sympathizer, Domine Rubel, himself rang an alarm with the church bell.
Flatbush, and, to some extent, the other towns also, was selected
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by the British authorities for the billeting of American officers cap- tured in battle. Instead of confining these men in prisons, they were required to give parole, and then sent to board among the families of the county, Congress agreeing to pay $2 per week for their board. This payment was not excessive, and would hardly invite large outlays for regaling them; besides, congressional credit was none of the best, so that even the $2 was a very conjectural remuneration. The board bill amounted to $20,000 at the end of the war, and in later years as much as $30,000 were appropriated by Congress to meet that sum and its interest with its depreciated currency. Colonel Graydon was one of those thus billeted at Flatbush, at the home of Jacob Suydam. Room and bed were clean, he tells us in his " Memoirs," but the liv-
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ing rather scanty. What was meant for tea at breakfast he calls a " sorry wash "; the bread was half baked, because fuel was so scarce. A little pickled beef was boiled for dinner when the officers first came; but that gone, clams, called clippers, took its place. For supper they got supon, or spawn, mush, and skimmed milk or buttermilk, with mo- lasses. This was the food relished best of all, after they became used to it. It is of more than passing interest to learn that this practice of paroling captive officers and quartering them on Long Island, brought into contact with our local history a character whom all our school book and general histories delight to dwell on, that is, Colonel Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga. During the campaign against Canada in the winter of 1775-6, Allen made a rash movement against Montreal, wherein he was left unsupported, and he and his men had
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to surrender to overwhelming numbers of the enemy. The often un- generous spirit of the British came out strongly in the treatment of this brave officer. He was first sent in chains to England and impris- oned there in Pendennis Castle. When this came to the knowledge of some men in Parliament great indignation was aroused, and Allen was relieved from chains and close confinement. He was soon sent back to America, and in the transit experienced various treatment from different captains charged with his keeping. At last he was sent to that haven of American prisoners of war, Kings County. It was his fortune to be billeted at the house of Daniel Rapalje, situated in the New Lots of Flatbush. It was across his farm that the British had marched in their approach to the Jamaica Pass. He was a lieu- tenant in the American army, and later became a major; he was, therefore, of quite opposite politics to those of John Rapalje at Brook- lyn Ferry, who was, of course, a relative more or less distant. Daniel Rapalje's house, where Col. Ethan Allen boarded, is still standing. It is now part of a more recent structure, but in the old-fashioned style, the two being easily distinguished by a difference in the level of the floors. It is located on the New Lots Road, between the present Sheffield and Pennsylvania avenues. East New York. Daniel Rapalje's great grandchildren occupied the original farm until within a few years ago, the generation after them now owning such of the property as has not been sold for city lots. Allen remained here until news came to him of the Battle of Bennington. in August, 1777. fought and won by the patriots under General Starke, in his native Vermont. When the impulsive colonel heard of this he mounted the roof of How- ard's Halfway House, and, swinging his hat, gave three cheers. The exasperated British authorities chose to regard this as a violation of his parole, and Allen was consigned to the Provost Prison (now the Hall of Records) in New York. Later he was exchanged for Colonel Campbell, and lived to a good old age in his own State, prominent in its counsels, and publishing also a philosophical work somewhat an- tagonistic to the received notions about religion or Christianity.
The ease wherewith Captain Marriner and his whaleboat crew had carried out their project at Flatbush, tempted him and others to imi- tate the example of the whaleboat men, who were in the habit of de- scending upon the north shore of Long Island from the bays and « ports of Connecticut. These often degenerated into mere piratical expeditions, but then Long Island was enemy's territory. and it was hard to draw the line between piracy and foraging. A Captain Heyler was associated with Marriner in these exploits, each com- manding his own small but swiftly moving and well-manned craft. Thus, on the night of August 4, 1781, the crew of a whaleboat coming over from the Jersey shore, entered Jamaica Bay, landed in Flatlands Township, and robbed the house of Colonel Lott of six hundred pounds sterling and two slaves. At another time, Heyler boldly attacked
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a British sloop-of-war off Coney Island. Stealing up unawares in the dark, he surprised captain and crew and had them prisoners before they could strike a blow in their defense. No less than $40,000 were found on board. . The ship was fired and the captain and crew carried to American headquarters.
Several items of interest illuminate the pages of Brooklyn's history during the Revolutionary days. We are pleased to meet on this side of the East River that charming personality who managed to put some bright spots into the dark story of British occupation of New York. the wife of General de Riedesel. We cited her account of experiences during the hard winter of 1780 while staying at the Beekman country seat, in our first volume. In the spring of 1781 she joined her hus- band, who had been appointed to the command of Brooklyn in the autumn of 1780, and who resided in a small house near the river bank. General de Riedesel was very nervous about capture by the alert and sly Yankees. Two colonels, as we saw, were kidnapped very neatly at Flatbush, and one of Riedesel's own officers, Major Maibohm, quartered at Michael Bergen's house at Gowanus, had been cap- tured from the center of two picket guards without alarming them until far beyond reach, by a Captain Huyler, of New Brunswick, N. J. Hence the general took extraordinary precautions. Besides careful and strictly observed regulations about guard mounting and picket duty, he posted sentinels in and about the house he occupied. But not satisfied with this, he and his wife took turns at sleeping, and at the least noise he was up and abont. In July, 1781, he left for Canada.
Annoying restrictions were placed upon travel by the ferry. Offi- cers of the army and navy could pass back and forth unmolested; but every other person had to submit to a rigid examination, and pre- sent passes obtained from the mayor in New York or Colonel Axtell at Flatbush. A guard of soldiers occupied the landings on either shore. The "Corporation House," the tavern built and owned by the Cor- poration of the City of New York, had been vacated by Captain Wal- dron, the previous ferrymaster, when the British took possession. Two Royalists, Charles Loosely and Thomas Elms, leased it now, fit- ting it up finely, and naming it " The King's Head." Here banquets were held, and various sports were continually arranged by Loosely to keep trade brisk for his house, and to amuse the military. A little sheet called the Supra Extra Gazette was published by Loosely, or in Loosely's interest, June 8, 1782. Some have supposed this was a regu- larly issued newspaper, and therefore the first in Brooklyn, but it may only have been a Brooklyn number of the Gazette to advertise Loosely's amusement plans. All his advertisements, whether of horse races or lotteries, were always preceded by the pom- pous motto: "Pro Bono Publico." Brooklyn Hall was also a name popularly applied to this hostelry. In addition to the for- tifications abandoned by the Americans, most of which were
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