USA > New York > Queens County > Newtown > The annals of Newtown, in Queens County, New York; containing its history from its first settlement, together with many interesting facts concerning the adjacent towns; > Part 20
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Newtown not only swarmed with troops, but she became the abode of many of the refugees who had fled to Long Is- land, as before stated. Being generally in destitute circum- stances, such as did not enlist in the military service found employment in other ways, as best they could. In autumn, 1778, they petitioned the king's commissioners for permission "to enclose and cultivate, for their own benefit, portions of the cleared woodlands and other uncultivated land of persons not under protection of government, on Long Island, and to erect
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temporary habitations thereon." The execution of this busi- ness, and the obtaining of signatures in Queen's county, was intrusted to Col. Moses Kirkland, an influential refugee from South Carolina, who, in October attended at the inn of Abra- ham Rapelye, the "corner house," in Newtown, to receive the names of the refugees.1 The petition was granted, and the following spring permits were issued on their presenting a eer- tificate of character at the office of police in New-York. In 1780 Philip J. Livingston, himself a refugee, and occupying the farm of Major Jonathan Lawrence, at Hellgate, was ap- pointed to answer applications of this nature.
Large numbers of the refugees enlisted in the New-raised Corps, as were called the provincial forees, embodied by order of Sir William Howe "to suppress the unnatural rebellion." In not a few cases they proved themselves consummate vil- lains, ready for plunder and blood. An illustration or two may be adduced. One night a brace of refugees entered the house of William Furman, Sen. at the Head of the Fly, (late Abiathar Rhodes' residence,) who being an executor of Robert Coe's estate, was supposed to be in possession of a large sum of money. He was robbed of $1600, and badly beaten as he lay in bed (where he was ordered to remain) to foree him to make further disclosures. The villains then ab- sconded, while Mr. Furman, covered with blood, ran to a neighbors to spread the alarm, but the robbers escaped. They were detected at Brooklyn ferry, from the peculiarity of the coin. Mr. Furman appeared before the British authorities at New-York, and identified some of the pieces, yet none of the money was ever restored. After the peace, he was sued by
1 Col. Kirkland is described as a stout, corpulent man, about five feet ten inches high, swarthy complexion, and then aged between fifty and sixty. He had been the owner of a plantation and some forty slaves, in the back country of South Carolina, but being proscribed for his active loyalty, he fled from his estate, and sailed for Boston. On the passage he was captured (Dec. 1775) by an American armed vessel, sent to Philadelphia, and lodged in prison, where he remained till the 7th of May succeeding, when he broke jail in the evening, and evading all pursuit, found safety among the king's forces. It is stated in Holt's Journal, that at the capture of a part of De- lancey's 1st battalion, which was taken near Savannah, Sept. 30th, 1779, through a daring stratagem of Col. White, of the Georgia line, Kirkland was found among the prisoners. His ultimate fate I have not learned.
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the heirs of Coe, and acquitted in the court of errors. At another time, a party of a new-raised corps, then occupying huts on John Bragaw's place, visited the pig-pen of Bergoon Van Alst, at the Dutch Kills. Van Alst was aroused from his bed, for it was night, and repairing to the garret, fired upon them from the window. They returned a volley, and renewed their efforts to get the pigs out of the pen, but Van Alst, nothing daunted, fired again and again, drawing aside as he discharged his piece, and actually drove them off before they had secured the bacon. On another occasion, the house of Joseph Hallett was broken open by six persons, who car- ried off a purse of ten guineas, with a gold and a silver watch. This robbery was committed on the night of Oct. 15th, 1778. Thieves and burglars infested the township.
The succeeding winter Newtown presented an unusually animated appearance. Fears being excited that Gen. Wash- ington meditated an attack upon New-York, Sir Henry Clin- ton took active measures to strengthen that place. For the preservation of the shipping, as well as the safety of the city, he directed all vessels intending to winter at New-York, and not in the service of government, to be removed to Newtown Creek. Here a great many craft found a secure harbor for the winter. In the township a large number of British troops were barracked. There was the 17th regiment of Light Dra- goons, the same that so inhumanly murdered Gen. Woodhull, and who, during the preceding summer, had been engaged at the battle of Monmouth. The Maryland Loyalists, Lt. Col. Chalmers, lay at the Head of the Fly, and the 42d regiment, or Royal Highlanders, were at Hempstead Swamp, their guard-house being at Capt. Van Duyn's, now D. S. Mills'. The Maryland Loyalists were encamped divers times in Newtown. On one occasion, two of their officers, Lieut. Levin Townsend and Adjutant James Henly, quartered at William Leverich's, (since Wm. Sackett's property.) The festivities which were indulged in during the winter months, and served to relieve the tedium of the camp, are thus warmly alluded to some years after, by the commanding officer, then in Ireland, in a letter to a friend in America :- " I felt," he remarks, " great regret at leaving New-York, where I had enjoyed the pleasures of social friendship, amid a circle of worthy inhabi-
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tants-yes, I look back often with heartfelt satisfaction, on the delightful scenes, the heightened joys that filled up every day, even in the severity of winter months, in the sweet village of Newtown, on Long Island, where we frequently had our quar- ters and cantonments. I hope I may be indulged this small tribute of grateful remembrance and affection for many agree- able families of that place; to the Moores, of that neighbor- hood, I am particularly indebted, a family ancient and respect- able; to the charms of their company, to the hospitable attentions of their numerous connections, I owe many happy hours of festivity and innocent mirth. The Rev. Benjamin Moore had been long eminent in his pastoral functions, as a minister of the Episcopal church; he is a clergyman of most amiable manners, humane, benevolent, affectionate; as much revered in private life as he is admired and distinguished in the pulpit. You will pardon this honest warmth of a suscep- tible heart. I could not omit this small tribute of gratitude for numerous proofs of affectionate esteem conferred on me by a worthy people." 1
The Royal Highland Regiment, Lt. Col. Thomas Sterling, commandant, had seen long and arduous service in America, during the French and Indian war. Early in 1776, after re- cruiting in Scotland, it took ship at Cork for America, being composed of 1168 men, and wearing a red uniform faced with blue, with belted plaid and hose. They formed part of the reserve at the battle of Long Island, shared in the capture of Fort Washington, and also in that of Fort Montgomery, and during the last campaign, 1778, accompanied the expedition of Maj. Gen. Gray, down the Sound, to annoy the settlements along the Connecticut shore. Part of the regiment helped to form a detachment which attacked Elizabethtown, in Febru- ary, 1779, of which enterprise Col. Sterling had the command. Being chosen soon after to go on a predatory expedition to Virginia, the Highlanders prepared to break up their winter encampment in Newtown. On the morning before this took
1 This regiment left New-York, Sept. 16th, 1783, in the transport ship Martha, for St. John, in the Bay of Fundy, but being wrecked near Cape Sable, on the night of the 21st, more than half the corps perished in the waves. The particulars are fearfully depicted in the letter above quoted, as published in the New-York Museum of February, 1800.
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place, the principal inhabitants presented the following address to their commander, April 28th.
" The inhabitants of Newtown beg leave to make their hearty and grateful acknowledgements to Col. Sterling and the officers of the 42d regiment, for their very equitable, po- lite, and friendly conduct, during their winter stay among them. They will ever entertain an affectionate esteem and regard for them, and will never forget that they have been treated with all the justice and cordiality due to fellow-subjects and citizens. They at the same time request the favor of Col. Sterling to return their sincere thanks to the regiment in gen- eral, for their regular, orderly, and honorable behavior, so con- formable to the true character of gentlemen and soldiers. They part with the 42d regiment with regret, and wish them glory and success." 1
After embarkation, Col. Sterling indited the following re- ply, dated on board the Nestor transport, May 1st.
" GENTLEMEN :- It gives me a very sensible pleasure to find the orderly and good behavior of the 42d regiment, under my command, during their winter quarters in Newtown, has drawn so honorable an acknowledgement from the inhabitants of that district. It has ever been my wish and study to pro- tect the peaceable subject to the utmost of my power, at a time when the civil law, owing to this unhappy rebellion, is suspended from giving that protection so enviable and so much to be wished for, by every one who has tasted the sweets of it. I beg to assure the inhabitants of Newtown of every protec- tion in my power as a soldier, and of every good wish as a fellow-citizen, for their welfare and happiness."
The above address of the inhabitants doubtless emanated from the loyalists, who, during this seven years' reign of ter- ror, had everything in their own way. And it is pitiful to observe among the names appended to the address, not a few who are known to have been undoubted whigs, at heart, and who could not utter a serious aspiration for the glory and suc- cess of their country's enemies, but in this, as in other in- stances, were forced into mortifying concessions to the wishes and movements of the tories.
1 To this address 93 names were appended, for which, see Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents of Queen's Co. p. 135.
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The Highlanders proceeded with the forces under Sir Geo. Collier and Gen. Matthews, to Virginia, spreading ruin where- ver they went, by burning houses, vessels, naval stores, and magazines of provisions. They then returned to New-York, satiated with "glory and success," but toward the close of the same year again embarked with Gen. Clinton for South Caro- lina, shared in the reduction of that province, and returned to New-York the next summer.
This regiment wintered in Newtown subsequently, and circumstances are related which show that they were given to the same lawless practices that disgraced the foreign troops in general. During one of their encampments at Hempstead Swamp, some of them were billeted in the house of Samuel Waldron, now the residence of Edward Tompkins, Esq. They were insolent and annoying in the highest degree. Whenever they had occasion to shoe their horses, they would, without ceremony, enter the blacksmith-shop, and make free use of the forge and iron, not allowing Mr. Waldron any compensa- tion for his serious interruptions and loss. They stole all of his cows but one, which was saved only by shutting it up in a bed-room in the house. Of course he got nothing for them. In one instance, the enclosure was broken open at night, and a cow taken. It was driven a short distance, killed, and the quarters carried to the camp. The next day Waldron traced them by the blood, and entered a complaint. "Point them out," said the officer, "and I will flog them." Waldron told him this was impossible, as he did not witness the deed, though the trail of blood made it evident that some of his men were the offenders. He requested pay for his cow, which the Scotchman refused, but offered him a dollar for the head, to feed his dog. Indignant at such villany, Waldron retraced his steps homeward, but was followed by a servant, who threw down a dollar, and carried away the cow's head.
It seems that these Highlanders were addicted to cow- stealing, but in another instance one of their number met with an awful retribution. At the time referred to, they lay in Trains Meadow, on the land of John Leverich, (where the widow of Richard now lives,) and occupied huts back of the barn. Two of the soldiers, on a certain night, crossed the meadow, and entered the barn-yard of Cornelius Rapelye, (now
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Purdy's,) for the purpose of stealing his cattle. They were heard by the negroes, and they alarmed their master, who went out with his carbine, (for he commanded the troop of horse,) and ordered them off. To this they gave no heed, when Ra- pelye fired, but without effect, and hastened to the house to reload. With this, one of the Scotchmen jumped over into the road, where the blacks, Sam and Fronce, were stationed, the latter armed with an old Queen Anne's piece. Sam im- mediately clenched him, and being the best fellow, began to force the soldier towards the house, a prisoner, Fronce aiding by pushing him with the breech of his gun. At this moment, his accomplice ran to his rescue, and with an uplifted hatchet was about to split the skull of Fronce, when the latter turned, presented the muzzle of his gun to the Scotchman's breast, and fired. The ball pierced his heart, and he fell dead upon his face. The other was secured, and in the morning taken before the commanding officer, who justified Rapelye and his men, but expressed a wish that the survivor had been the victim, as he was a noted scamp, while the one shot had pre- viously sustained a good character. If this were so, what a lesson it conveys. The first indulgence of bad company may prove one's ruin.1
Thus it will be seen that stern justice sometimes arrested these plunderers in the very act of their villany. The farmers indeed soon learned to be prepared for them. Each kept loaded guns in his house, often a number; the utmost precau- tion was used to secure their out-buildings and barn-yards, and a watch placed at night over their crops approaching to matu- rity. An alarming sense of insecurity prevailed, for none knew at what unsuspecting hour of night a band of maraud. ing soldiery might steal upon them, to rob, perhaps to murder. Much of the crime perpetrated was justly chargeable upon the refugees. And their depredations were not always confined to midnight theft; occasionally they sallied forth upon a more open and daring expedition. On June 29th, 1779, a party of
1 The Royal Highlanders remained in America till the peace. In 1801 their regiment formed one of those that repulsed the French on the shores of Aboukir, in Egypt, and covered the landing of the English army under Sir Ralph Abercrombie. They were recently stationed in Bermuda, where their precision in military tactics during parade excited special admiration.
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them crossed to Westchester, and with the assistance of a guard ship below City Island, and without sustaining any injury, brought off 50 milch cows, 12 or 14 horses, and 150 sheep, which they drove to Jamaica Plains. On another occasion, as the owner of a fine meadow arose in the morning, she found 15 horses turned into it to graze, which had been stolen from the Main.
We have beheld the property of exiled whigs given up to the use of refugees. Of course the British commanders did not hesitate to appropriate to the use of the army anything their premises afforded. In the fall of 1779, the Prince of Hesse's Infantry, Capt. Aldenberg, were quartered at John Morrell's, Dutch Kills, and another corps of Hessians near Ja- cobus Riker's. These last had orders to cut fuel on the wood- land of William Lawrence and Peter Rapelje, both of whom had been rebel officers. The season which succeeded was, from its inclemency, denominated the " hard winter." Snow covered the ground to a great depth, concealing the fences, and there was a beaten road from Lawrence's (now Woolsey's) Point, across the Sound to Westchester. Taking advantage of this easy communication, the British crossed to the Main, and made the farmers bring over their hay to Long Island. At this time Col. Abijah Willard, a commissary in the British service, quartered at J. Riker's, kept two men with a horse and sled employed during the winter cutting and drawing wood from the swamp of Major Jonathan Lawrence. He kept a prodi- gious fire burning in his room.
Col. Willard was in person large and portly. He had been a man of some distinction in Lancaster, Mass. but having ac- cepted a seat in the council of that province by royal appoint- ment, it gave such offence to the people, that they assembled, seized Willard, and condemned him to Newgate prison, in Simsbury, as a traitor to his country, but finally released him on his promise under oath not to sit or act in the said council. When the crisis came which put every man's sentiments to the test, Col. Willard clung to royalty, accepted a command in the British service, and proved himself an active partizan be- fore he came to Long Island. Here he held the post of com- missary, and drew large pay. He is represented as a gentle- man in manners and character, though fully imbued with that deep hatred against the anti-loyalists which his principles and
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former treatment were calculated to produce. During the campaign of 1779, he accompanied, as a volunteer, an expedi- tion of the Associated Loyalists, which ravaged the shore of Connecticut, making incursions upon the villages of Norwalk, Green Farms, Mill River, &c. "occasioning," say they, "new troubles to our enemies." It may be added, that Col. Willard settled in New Brunswick, at the peace; was a member of the council of that province, and died in 1789, aged 67. His family afterwards returned to Massachusetts.
Among the incidents of 1780, may be mentioned the loss of the English frigate Huzza, which in attempting to pass Hellgate, late in the fall, bound for New England, with pay for the British army, struck the Pot Rock, and floating as far as Morris's Island, there filled and sunk in deep water, carry- ing down several of the crew, who were drowned.1
This fall and winter Newtown, as usual, presented the scene of a military camp. The Royal Artillery, with their cannon and horses, were here, as they had also been in the previous year. So was the 33d regiment, Lord Cornwallis's. This regiment is known to have occupied huts on the land of John Bragaw, (now Wm. Gosman's,) near the Dutch Kills, and it was probably at this time; for there is an order dated Dec. 20th, 1780, directing John Bragaw and five of his neighbors to cart the provisions of said regiment till further orders. Very likely, too, they were the grenadiers called Macaronis, from their neatness, who, according to Mr. Onderdonk, lay at the Kills. They are represented as large, noble looking fel- lows; one of their captains, Hildebrand Oakes, was billetted
1 Since the Revolution several attempts have been made to raise or search this vessel, under the impression that the military chest had not been re- moved. As far as disclosed, nothing has been recovered except fragments of the wreck, a few pieces of cannon, some cases of bottled wine spoiled by sea water, &e. A specimen of cannister-shot taken up from the ruins is in possession of the compiler, who visited the spot during a recent attempt to explore the wreck. She lies in very deep water, has fallen to pieces, and is nearly imbedded in mud. It is said that this vessel lay anchored in Hal- lett's Cove one or two days before she attempted to pass the Gate, and that circumstances favored the belief that the money she contained was smuggled ashore during that time, and then the vessel purposely run upon the rocks to sink her and conceal the embezzlement. If this be true, much useless labor has been expended upon the wreck.
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în Mr. Bragaw's family, a portly, handsome man, who, after the war, returned to England, and became a distinguished officer in the British service. This regiment was destitute of the usual facings upon their coats, of which they had been deprived, as was said, for having lost their colors in an en- gagement. Their huts were fifty feet long and of a rectangular form, thus, [ being open at the south to admit the sun's rays, the roof thatched, and the three sides sodded up to the eaves, to keep off the north-west wind. The inner wall was of square hewn logs, and in the centre of the enclosure formed by the huts, the soldiers were wont to parade and perform military evolutions. Those huts were also occupied for a time by the new-raised corps.
The 37th regiment, grenadiers, Col. Sir Eyre Coote, K. B. which was encamped at Hellgate in the spring of 1780, lay the succeeding winter at Capt. Thomas Lawrence's, on Flush- ing Bay, now Daniel Lent's. This shore had to be closely guarded to prevent the approach of whaleboatmen, and other hostile vessels, from the north side of the Sound. The whaleboatmen were Americans, living on the Connecticut shore, (many of them refugees from Long Island,) who had commissions from the governors of New-York and Connecti- cut to cruise against British vessels in Long Island Sound. The number, boldness, and dexterity of these soon made them a formidable foe. Their boats were sharp at each end, of the lightest material, and exactly fitted to their employment. In- festing the bays and inlets, and always on the look-out, they would dart out of their lurking-places and board market-boats, and even cut off the detached vessels of a convoy. They ex- tended their visits to the shores of Long Island, for the purpose of carrying off British goods, or seizing the persons of noted loyalists, so as to exchange them for whig prisoners.
But this species of warfare at length degenerated into downright robbery; families living near the shore on Long Island, whether whig or loyalist, were indiscriminately plun- dered of their money and goods, and often cruelly treated to force them to tell where their treasure was secreted. As a de- fence against them, a British guard ship was usually stationed at or near Riker's Island, and the Newtown shore was further secured by guards posted at Lawrence's Point and the Bowery
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Bay. Notwithstanding this, the whaleboats would often ven- ture into Flushing Bay at night. Twice they made fruitless visits to the premises of John Fish, who kept the mill, now Jackson's. Once they were driven off by his son-in-law, Wil- liam Palmer, who fired upon them through the door. On another occasion they entered the house and demanded from Fish his money. He denied having any, upon which they tied the old man to a chair, placed the shovel in the fire, and were about to torture him into a confession, but before they had effected their purpose, an alarm was given to certain British officers quartered on the other side of the creek, when the robbers decamped and took to their boat. They were said to be refugees from Morrisania.1 In June, 1781, two whale- boats, commanded by Blacker and Jones, appeared off Barn Island, but on seeing a signal given to Adjutant Dunn of the Royal Garrison Battalion, posted at Hellgate, they thought proper to steer off, which they did under a fire from several Hessian grenadiers belonging to Col. De Linsing's regiment du Corps, and a party of refugees on Barn Island. Newtown was visited by these depredators less frequently than the more easterly towns on the Island, as she was better protected against their approaches, by the presence of British troops.
In the fall of 1781 the Royal Highland Regiment was quartered at Newtown, also the Associated Refugees or King's American Regiment, Col. Edmund Fanning, a corps of loyal refugees, as their title indicates.2 The Garrison of Pensacola wintered at the same place. The Royal Garrison Battalion, (composed, I believe, of invalid soldiers, unfit for field service,) having been transferred, in July, to Brooklyn fort, the Royal
1 It was a common practice to bury money to save it. Mr. Fish buried part of his in the cellar. It was forgotten, and accidentally discovered a few years since. Several years ago a pot of coin was found on the premises now of Mr. Kneeland, which was believed to have been buried during the Revolution by the Brinckerhoff's, who then resided there.
2 This corps of 460 men was raised in 1777, at an expense of over £2500, subscribed by New-York city, King's, Queen's, and Richmond counties. The late David Purdy, of Newtown, received an ensign's commission in this regi- ment, and afterwards arose to a captaincy. They were engaged at the battle of Rhode Island, Aug. 29th, 1778. when Ensign Purdy was wounded in the shoulder by a musket-ball. The next year they ravaged the shore of Con- necticut, as I have before noticed.
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