A party of royalists, under Colonels Bayard and Fanning, came to the Peekskill house, and commencing their customary course of treatment, one insultingly asked her, ' Are you not the daughter of that old rebel Pierre Van Cortlandt ? ' She replied, ' I am the daughter of Pierre Van Cortlandt, but it becomes not such as you to call my father a rebel.' The tory raised his musket, when she, with great calmness, reproved him for his insolence and bade him begone. The coward turned away abashed, and she remained uninjured. The narrative thus continues: -- 'Her letters written about this time, many of which are now in existence, abound in patriotic spirit. Excited by personal wrongs and the aggressions she witnessed all around her, she gave vent to her feelings in most severe reproaches upon the enemy, and in frevent prayers for the American success. But although thus exposed, she refused to leave her home, and continued to reside in the same place until the close of the war. Mrs. Beeckman possessed a powerful memory, and to the close of her life could relate with exact minuteness, the interesting events of which she was cognizant ; and the
HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.
recital of those incidents abounded in interest, as all who know her can well bear witness.'
" A number of years after the war, Mrs. Beeckman removed to the old manor house, on Philips' manor, situated in what is now known as Beeckmantown, where she continued to reside to the day of her death.