From the petition of Jonathan Ward (one of the former proprietors of this place) to Congress in 1825, we learn, ' that at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, Stephen Ward (the petitioner's father) resided in Eastchcster, and county of Westchester, seven miles south of White Plains; that the British troops took possession of the city of New York and the southern part of the county of Westchester, in the autumn of 1776; that in consequence of which, the said Stephen Ward left his residence, consisting of a large and valuable dwelling, barn, and sundry other buildings; that between this period and the autumn of 1778, those buildings were occupied, a large portion of time, by the American troops, at which place there were several engagements between them and the British; that in November, 1778, a large body of the British forces, commanded by General Tryon, made an excursion as far as Ward's house, and, by the General's orders, totally destroyed, by a fire, the buildings, with considerable other property."6 a Corporation Doc.

6 Amer. State Papers, No. cccclxv, 654. See Simcoe's JIU. Journal, p. 92.

THE TOWN OF EAST CHESTER.

In the Spring of 1776, Captain Archibald Campbell, with a strong force of the enemy, surprised the Continental guard (under the command of Captain Delavan) stationed at Ward's house. After an offer of surrender had been made by the Americans, a shot was fired from one of the windows (by Lieut. Paddock) which, unfortunately, killed Captain Campbell. The British, seeing their commander fall, instantly forced the house, and, no resistance being made, revenged his death by killing upwards of twenty on the stairs and in the adjoining rooms; a few effected their escape by jumping out of the back windows. The dead who fell upon this occasion, were interred among the locusts on the west side of the road.