USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 31
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5 Bartholomew Haines was arrested and thrown into Prison at the White Plains. His name will be seen, very frequently, in the following pages of this narrative.
" Captain Joshna Purdy was, probably, the person of that name who has been referred to, elsewhere, in these notes, in connection with another person, bearing the same name but without a title, who was, also, named on this list of the proscribed of Westrhe-ter-county. Although the rec- orda do not mention the distinguishing title, if he had one, of the victim whose arrest and imprisonment and conditional release are mentioned in the note referred to, and, therefore, the untitled "Joshua Purdy" has been connected with those records, there are cirenmistances which favor the impression that Captain Joshna was the person to whom they really referredl.
" Solomon Fowler was reported to the Provincial Congress, a second time, in June, 1776, and summoned to appear before the " Committee " 1.1: Conspiracies," soon after.
a Joshana Purdy, either this person of that name or Captam Joelina who
"Gilbert Ba,'
" Edmond Ward.10
"Calel Morzain, 11 " James Hortan, Esq.1
" William Barker, Esq.13
Jonathan Pi be, Wla. Plains. it
Saml. Merrit, Manor of Courtlandt, 17
Mr. Peter Hatfield, Isaac Hatfield,
" Per-on Seabury,1 Edward Palmer, Is
"Godfrey Haines, added Nath. Whitney, Esq.
"on Saturday evening, B3 Pater Drake,1'
"Jeremith Travess, Junr., Peter Corney,20
"Joshua Carne."
There need be no surprise that that remarkable en- actment and the activity in enforcing its provisions which was seen among those who favored the Rebel- lion and among those who desired the advantages which a general breaking down of those who oppo-ed that Rebellion would probably ensure to them, iu the expected and intended sequestrations and confisca- tions and sales of properties, real and personal, throughout the County, aroused the attention and the indignation of the great body of the conservative
is also named on this list, was reported to the Provincial Congress, a second time ; summoned before the " Committee on Conspiracies;" im- prisoned at the White Plains ; and released from prison on condition that he should board with William Miller, Deputy Chairman of the County Committee, at his own expense, instead of at his own home.
9 Gilbert Horton was arrested and thrown into the Prison at the White Plains.
3 Elnund Ward was arrested and thrown into the Prison at the White Plains.
11 Caleb Morgan was reported to the Provincial Congress, a second time : arrested ; and thrown into the Prison at the White Plains.
12 James Horton, Esq., was sumuoned before the "Committee of "Safety," as the County Committee callal itself, in Angust, 1777; was minusually independent in his answers to that body ; and appears to have remained withont further Ironble.
13 William Barker, Esq., was reported to the Provincial Congress, a second time ; arrested ; examined by the Committee on Conspiracies; and thrown into the Prisonat the White Plains.
14 Rev. Sammel Seabury, soon afterwards, was seized and carried to Connectiont, where he was imprisoned. Ilis very peculiar case will be noticed in the text, in its order.
15 Godfrey Haines was seized, and sent to the City of New York, a few days after the transmission of this memorandumn. This case will be seen in the text of this narrative, pages 115-120, just.
16 Jonathan Purly, of the White Plains, was arrested and thrown into the Prison at that place.
17 Samuel Merrit was reported to the Provincial Congress, a second time ; arrested ; aud thrown into the Prison at The White Plains.
Is Edward Fabner was a resident of Cortlandt'. Manor ; and was suis ?. quently accused of entistnig mien for the Royal Army. There are some reasons for supposing that he was the young man who was so ostenta- tiously hnung, as a spy, by the order of General Putnam, in Angust, ITT ;. of which mention will be made hereafter.
19 Peter Drake wasone of the Drakes of the Cortlandt Manor; and was an active Loyalist : Iont was not disturbed-he was a Drake.
29 Peter forney was reported to the Provincial Congress, a second time ; arrested and taken before the " Conanittee on Conspiracies ;" and permitted to go to Long Island, where he was peculiarly servicealde to those who desired to remove from that place. Because of this, the Committee of Safety and Committee on Conspiracies of the Provincia! Congress, perinttrd his son-in-law to take aud ocenpy his property ; but the local Committee of Sequestration disregarded that permision : seized the property ; and sold it, under penliarly distressing civengistances. Historical Monscripts, etc. : Petitions, XANH, 522 ; the same : Micell neons Papers, xxxvii., 25, 50 ; xxxviii., 147; Jommed of Committee of Safety, with Cornsy's son-in law's affidavit, " Die Veneris, tho., P.M., " J'ime a, 1777.")
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farmers of Westchester-county -- they would have been Jes than men, and unworthy of either respect or sym- peculiarly noted for their unfaltering loyalty.2 Early in September, 1775, before the passage of the enact- pathy, had they remained passive spectators of what i ment by the Provincial Congress, to which reference was then in progress, for the seizure of their persons, has been made, could have become generally known throughout that "border Town," Godtrey Haines, an unmarried man, was at the house of Daniel Purdy, in Rye; and, in conversation, he condemned the re- organization of the Militia, by the Provincial Con- gress ; declared he would not perform any duty in the against their recognized Sovereign. new-organized Company; and denounced the Con- gresses and Committees, generally, saying " he had as " leave be in hell as in the hands of any of them," an opinion which was, probably, confirmed, very soon afterwards. He evidently looked forward to an ex- pected movement of the Home Government, for the maintenance of its authority ; he wished the men-of- war would move up the Sound ; and, in his youthful ontburst of indignation, he said he would be one of those who would indicate the persons on whom the Government should first lay the weight of its retribu- tive power. for the sequestration of their homes and of their estates, and for the impoverishment of their aged parents, of their wives, and of their dependent chil- dren, without just cause, without due process of Law, and by those who were in acknowledged rebellion Indeed, the honest, hard-working yeomanry, throughout the entire extent of the County, those of revolutionary as well as those of conservative associations, was im- mediately thrown into a state of the most intense excitement ; suspicion between those who had been peaceful neighbors and friends, was aroused and fostered ; memories of half-forgotten piques and quarrels were recalled; and the animosities and the jealousies and the misunderstandings and the disputes of the past were revived and intensified ; and, while the more zealous of the party of the Rebellion were loud in their threats and aggressive in their actions, Of that Godfrey Haines, nothing is now definitely known beyond the facts, told by himself, 3 that he was tolerably well educated, but was without any available property ; but it can be learned, from the papers in the case, that he was not a stranger in that neighborhood nor in that house. He was evidently a young man, suffering from wrongs already inflicted on him or on his personal friends, possessing a fiery temper, and warmly indignant at the movements and the threats of the revolutionary faction. He un- doubtedly knew that he was among those who enter- tained opinions and preferences which were similar in their character to those which he had declared ; but the latter may have been less willing to declare what they preferred and what their opinions were, concern- ing the doings of those who were, then, aspiring to the Goverment of the Colony-he was, however, less fortunate than they, in the expression of his opinions in the presence of one who, either through ignorance or malevolenice, was mean enough to betray him. those who constituted the great body of the inhabit- ants of the County and who were peaceful in all their relations, anxiously watched the progress of events, and, in some notable instances, denounced the euact- ments of the Provincial Congress and the Congress who had enacted them ; declared their confidence- their ill-founded but honest confidence - that the Home Government would soon interfere for their pro- tection ; armed and organized themselves for their immediate security ; and established strong patrols, from among themselves, to guard against surprise, by night or by day. Violence on the one side, of actions as well as of words, begat violence on the other. A lawless assault on the persons or the properties of the conservatives and the loyal, by the promptings of embittered human nature and the unwritten law of retaliation, was followed, sooner or later, by equally lawless assaults on the persons or on the families or on the properties of those, of the opposite party, who had been the original aggressors ; and, very seldom, on those occasions, was a tooth or an eye regarded as a sufficient equivalent for the tooth or the eye which had been taken. "They hunted every man bis " brother with a net; " the reign of peace, of happi- ness, and of prosperity - the era of good-feelings between neighbors, of regard among friends, of affec- tion in families-in the old agricultural County of Westchester was ended ; and partisan strife and per- sonal and domestic misery and general waste and ruin prevailed.
Samson had his Delilah ; and Godfrey had his Eu- nice. Of Delilah, not an Israelite, we know that she betrayed her lover to his enemies, to the oppressors of his kindred and his people : of Eunice. an ignorant, unmarried woman ; unable to write her own name and, probably, unable to read what others had writ- ten-just such a tool, indeed, as suited the purposes of such men as, then, manipulated her spitefully- told information-and, evidently, a daughter or sister or other kinswoman of the man under whose roof and in the enjoyment of whose hospitality Godfrey was,
Rye, even at a later period, was noted for its solid, unyielding conservatism ; and, in Rye and through- out Westchester-county, generally, the Purdys were
1 " The People of Rye being wholly devoted to the Interest of the " frown shut their Eyes and Ears against reason and knowledge" * * ยท Patos of George Harris, "HAELLEN, August 20, 1776"-Hvorical M. www. ripta, rte. : Petit.ons : xxxiii., 15M. )
2 At the marriage of Gabriel Purdy to Charity Purdy, at the White Plains, ou the twenty eighth of March, 1775, a large company, forty-sevra in number, was assembled, among whom thirty-seven were Purlys, "and not a single Whig among them "-( Rivington's New- York Gazetteer, No. 105, NEW-YORK, Thursday, April 20. 1775.)
3 Petition to the Provincial Congress, "CITY HALL, October ye 4th, ":1775" -- page 117, 1-)st.
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when he made those utterances, we know, also, that she betrayed a gaest, of the family, if not her own lover, into the hands of his enemies, into the hands of three who were oppressing his kindred and his people. She was not prompt in her treachery, which clearly indicates that it was an afterthought - prob- ably, it was a girlish act of spiteful retaliation for some boyish affront, to which she had been subjected, subsequently to the day on which he had exposed himself to her ignorant vindictiveness. Whatever incited her, however, the story of Godfrey's outspoken utterances was told by her, within three or four weeks from the day of his visit to Purdy's ; and, because he had vi-lently thus made himself obnoxious to the con- trolling taction, although he had not been previously regarded with suspicion, ' the County Committee, with intemperate zeal, promptly proceeded to display and to exercise its new-found authority-Godfrey was arrested and taken to the White Plains, on no other accusation than the merely verbal information of the affronted Eunice; and that vindictive mai len was, also, taken to the same place, and before the same County Committee, there, in order that her accusation might be made in a more formal manner.
None of the details of the doings of that zealous County Committee, thus acting in its threefold char- acter of prosecutor, julge, and executioner, have been recorded in history ; but an affidavit was framed ; and Eunice addled "her mark" to it, and disappeared- even the industrious local historian has not found a place for her, in his genealogical record of the family of which she was apparently a member. The follow- ing is a copy of that affidavit, thas made, honestly or dishonestly, by Eunice Purdy, before the Committee of Safety of the County of Westchester :
" WESTCHESTER COUNTY, ES. :
"Eunice Purdy, of Rye, in the said County, "Spinster, being duly sworn upon the Holy Evange- " lists of Almighty God, deposeth and saith that, on or "about the second of September instant, Godfrey " Hains was at Daniel Purdy's, at Rye, and in con- "versation, at that time, said he understood that the "Committee or Congress had made a law to oblige all " to train under them ; and that, 'damn them, if they "'carne after him, they should either kill hir: or he "' would kill some of them ; and that, dead or alive, "*he would be revenged : " and that he had enough "'in his pocket, then, for five or six of them.' That "he also damned the Congresses and Committees, " frequently, and said that he had as leave be in hell
I was in the hands of the Congress or Committee ; that " they would see if they were not all ent down, in a " fortnight, at farthest ; that he wished the then-of- "war would come along the Sound ; and that he wish- "ed they had raised their Company, three months "ago, for then the matter would have been settled " before that time; and further this Deponent saith "not.
her " EUNICE + PURDY. mark.
"Sworn the 25th September, 1775, ! " before me, " GILBT. DRAKE."
There was no other evidence than this evidently spitefully made affidavit ; and it is said Godfrey was "convicted," on this testimony, of "denying the au- "thority and speaking contemptuously of the Con- " gresses and the Committee of the County "-nothing appears to have been done on the charge, by Eunice, that he had u-ed other and, apparently, more offensive words. He was ordered to be disarmed; but the judgment was returned unsatisfied, since he had concealed his arms and ammunition ; and the Com- mittee stated that it was highly improbable that they could be found. It was determined, however, that be was "a very dangerous man;" and, for its own peace sake as well as for its own safety, that very zealous Committee determined to send him to the Provincial Congress, in the City of New York, in order that that body might employ its more practised hand, in the further prosecution of him.
On the day after he had been tried and convicted and punished, as far as the Westchester-county Com- mittee could do all these, [September 29, 1775,] God- frey was placed in the custody of Daniel Winter, and seut to the City, the following letter, from that Com- mittee, explaining the cirenmistances under which the victim had been thus transported from the County in which he had lived, being sent with him:
" WHITE PLAINS, Sept. 29, 1775.
" GENTLEMEN :
"We send you by Mr. Daniel Winter, Godfrey " Haines, a person who was accused and convicted, be- " fore us, of denying the authority and speaking con- "tenatuously of the Congresses and the Committee "of this County. He was ordered to be disarmed ; and, "upon examining him respecting his arms and am- " munition, he confessed that he has a gun, pistol. "sword, powder, and ball, but refused informing the "Committee where they are ; and as Hains is a single " man, the Committee think it highly improbable that "his arms can be found.
" We enclose you an affidavit which induces us to "think hint a dangerous man; and therefore send " him to you to be dealt with as you think proper. " After reading the affidavit we think it needless to " acquaint you that his conduct (by the best infor- "mation we can get) has been very extraordinary-
I It will be seen, by referetice to the list of those who were proscribed, (page 114, ante.) that. Godfrey Haines's name was not on it, as it was originally written-it was "added" to that list "on Saturday "evet. ing."
" This remark very clearly indicated that, when Godfrey moule these violent remarks, he was starting from wrongs already inflicted on him- self or on those who were dear to him, by those of the revolutionary faction in Westchester-county or by thow, from Connecticut, umber General Wooster of others, who bil come into the County, for the sup- purt of the Rebellion.
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" such as going armed, and giving out threats against : " his being rescued by persons inimical to the cause "some of the Committee and the Connecticut " irops, etc.
" The committre think it extremely necessary, for ! " said Godfrey Haines be committed to the Jail in this "the safety of the County, that the Commissions for " the Militia Officers should be immediately for- "warded.
" We are, gentlemen, " Your most humble servants, " By order of the Committee, " GILBT. DRAKE, Chairman. " To THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY,
"FOR THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK."
Although the Autumn was well advanced and the days had become much shorter. Winter and his prisoner and the guard who accompanied them leit the White Plains carly enough to reach the City before nine o'clock on the morning of the twenty- ninth of September, the day on which the letter was written ; 1 and the first subject which was brought before the Committee of Safety, there, at its morning session, in the City of New York, was the letter from the Committee of Westchester-county, which Winter had brought, with his prisoner.
Although Gilbert Livingston, and Alexander McDongal, and Isaac Sears, and others of the more radical revolutionists were present, in the Committec, that body handled the subject with great caution, and determined to have no connection with it, ordering, as the result of its deliberations, "That the said "Godfrey Haines be sent back to the Committee of "Westchester, under the care of the persons who "brought him to this City ; and that Mr. Paulding, a " Deputy for the said County, be requested to write a "letter to the said Committee, informing them that " it is the opinion of this Committee, that, agrecable "to the Resolutions of the Provincial Congress of this "Colony, the County Committees are altogether com- "petent for punishing and confining persons guilty "of a breach of the said Resolutions or of either of " them." 2
The Westchester-county-men were not inclined, however, to be troubled with the subject, especially with the knowledge which they possessed concerning the temper of many of those who were within that County ; and, on the morning of the thirtieth of Sep- tember, Daniel Winter "represented" to the Com- mittee in New York "that the taking the said God- "frey Haines baek will be attended with danger of
"of Liberty ; " and that body thereupon reconsidered its Order of the preceding day, and ordered " that the "City till the further order of this Committee or the "Provincial Congress of this Colony ; "3 and into the Jail, in New York, Godfrey was accordingly cast. without, however, the slightest provision for his sup- port, while he should remain there.
The Jail, in the City of New York, when Godfrey Haines was east into it, was confining other victims of arbitrary and unwarranted arrests who, also, had been sent to the Congress, by the country Counties ; and it may be reasonably supposed that his animosi- ties against the Congresses and the County Commit- tees and those who favored them, were not, in the slightest degree, modified, by his association with those prisoners or by his own imprisonment. But, not- withstanding those animosities, his necessities com- pelled him to seek relief; and, on the fourth of October, the fifth day of his confinement, he united with his fellow.prisoners, in the following Petition. probably written by himself, addressed to the Provin- cial Congress, which had reassembled on the morning of that day : 4
"TO THE HONOURABLE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS. "GENTLEMEN : As there is Six of us Confined in "Goal by your order Charg'd with misdemeanors, we " should take it kind of you if you'd bring us to Im- "ediate tryal or provide for us in our Confinement as "we have not wherewithal to suport our ourselves. " And you will oblige yours "CITY HALL, October ye 4th, 1775.
"GODFREY HAINS, ADAM BERGH,
"TIMOTHY DOUGHTY, CHRISTIAN BERGH, JUN'., " JOHN DOB, DAVID DOR."
That Petition was duly presented to the Congress, on the day of its date, and was read before that body ; but no action whatever appears to have been taken on it, & then or subsequently.
Eight days after the Provincial Congress had received and read the Petition of Godfrey Haines and his fellow-prisoners, that body received the fol- lowing Resolution from the Continental Congress, which probably served to intensity rather than to ameliorate the prevailing partisan animosities ; and it was certainly not well-constituted for the relief of those who were already imprisoned on similar charges :
" RESOLVED, That it be recommended to the several "Provincial Assemblies, or Conventions and Couu- "cils, or Committees of Safety, to arrest and secure "every person, in their respective Colonies, who is
! It is not impossible bat this arrest had been made after it had be- come dark, on the twenty-eighth of September : it is quite clear that the Committee was in session, that the letter of transmission was written, and that Godfrey was hurried through the County, after midnight, on the ji lowing morning. Sperery was probably necessary to ensure success, where the revolutionary faction was so insignificant in numbers, expe- cially, as will be seen in the farther proceeding- in this case, when those. who were also active, in the maintenance of their own rights and pro- perties, had been aroused.
" Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die Veneris, 9 ho., A.M., Sep- " trancher 29, 1775."
3 Journal of the Commited of Safety, " Die Sabbati, 9 ho., A.J., Sep- " tember 30th, 1775."
A Historical Manuscripta, etc .: Petitions, xxx., 70.
5 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Mercurii, 9 ho., A. M., Octo- " te.r 4 th, 1775."
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"going at large, as may, in their opinion, endanger "the safety of the Colonies or the Liberties of : "America." 1
Appeutled to the copy of this Resolution which was laid before the Provincial Congress of New York, was a memorandum, not incholed in the official tran- seript of the Resolution, and without a signature, which was in these words : "To be kept as seeret as "its nature will admit ;" and it was accompanied by extracts from letters which the Continental Congress had received from London, in one of which the Gov- ernor of New York, William Tryon, was mentioned ; and in which, also, it was said that "it would be a ' capital stroke to get possession of Tryon."? The
same good fortune which Lieutenant governor Colden ; assembled, after its recess, those proceedings were had enjoyed, in receiving early information of what was proposed or done in the secret sessions of the Con- tinental Congress of 1774, was enjoyed by Governor Tryon, concerning the private correspondence and ; the secret proposals and doings of the Continental Congress of 1775;2 and he took refuge, first, on board
1 Journal of the Continental Congress, " Friday, October 6, 1775;" Jourd of the Provincial Congres, " Die Jovis, 9 ho., .A.M., October 12th, 177.1." " Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Jovis, 9 ho., A.M., October 12 "1775."
5 Compare the correspondence of Joseph Galloway and James Duane with the venerable Lieutenant governor of New York, and the knowledge of the latter, concerning the secret doings of the Congress of 1774, which the former, members of the Congress and pledged to secrecy, had cominui- cited to him, (pages 27, 23. 34, ente,) with this later instance of secret information and copies of secret correspondence, "received from the " Fountain-Head," by Governor Tryon, enabling hun to secure his personal safety by taking refuge, first, on the Ilalifar, a packet-ship, and, finally, on the Duchess of Gordon, the Intter lying under the pro- tecting guns of the Asit.
Judge Jones, in his History of New York during the Revolutionary Hui, (i., 61,) said that information was conveyed to the Governor by lgleit Dunrond, a member of the delegation from Ulster-county, in the l'ro- vincial Congress ; and de Lancey, in his Notes on that work, (i., 559,060, ) acquiesced in that statement. Wo cannot bring ourself to an agreement with those excellent authorities.
The Resolution was adopted by the Continental Congress, on Friday, the sixth of October; transmitted to the Provincial Congress, by the President of the Continental Congress, on the ninth of October ; and was not laid before the Provincial Congress, until the twelfth of October, until which day Dumond could not have hal any knowledge of it. But, on the tenth of October, two, days before the Provincial Congress received it, Governor Tryon had received the information, "from undoubted an "thority from the City of Philadelphia," (Goto nor Tegen to the Mayor of the City of New York. "New York, 10th Ort. 1776; ") and his subsequent statement, that be was in correspondence with "the Fountain-head," (Governor Tryon to the Earl of Dartmouth, "OX BOARD THE DUTCHESS OF "GORDEN NEW YORK 11 th Nov 1775,") confirmed his former statement, that the inforination came " from the City of Philadelphia." Having failed to service that guaranty of protection from the Corporation of the City of New York which the circumstances led him to ask for, he went on board the Halifax, on the eighteenth or meteenth of October, (Governor Tryon to Mayer Hicks, ' ON BOARD THE HALIFAX PACKET, 19th "October, 1775.")
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