RECOLLECTIONS OF THE REVOLUTION

BY JUDGE CALEB TOMPKINS 1

(Found among the McDonald papers in the Library of the New York Historical Society and probably written for Mr. McDonald's use.) All that I know about the ancestry of my Father, is what I have heard from him; that in the early settlement of West-chester County, three Brothers emigrated to this County, from England, and purchased the whole or greater part of what is now the town of Eastchester. From that time, I know nothing of their descendants down to the Father of Jonathan G. Tompkins, who owned a very valuable farm at Westchester, bordering on the sound. Being somewhat In-volved, he exchanged farms with a Brother of his, who owned the farm in Scarsdale, where James Varian and family resided previous to the Revolution and since to the present time. He then removed to a house at the junction of the road (leading to Mamaroneck) with the post road to White Plains, where Jonathan G. Tompkins was born, and was named Joshua after his Father, and where his Father died. When he was about four years old, Capt. Jonathan Griffen who lived near by, took a fancy to him, and he was bound to him by Indenture until he was 21 years old, to learn the farming business, which Indenture I have seen and read. After he was 21 Capt. Griffen having no children of his own, adopted him as his son and had him baptized by the name of Jonathan Griffen. From that time and for several years