Valentine hath not received them. B. Lincoln,

On the 0th of .Tune, 1778, Sir William Erskine fell back towards Valentine's Hill. Tlie Queen's Rangers encamping on Odell's Hill, soon after, these corps formed part of an escort wliich accompanied the English commander-in-chief to the White Plains, a 1778. Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton was ordered, witfi the whole of the English cavalry, to this hill, for the purpose of covering the right, when they endeavored to surprise General Gist in the parsonage. The same year, upon the retiring of Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, the continental forces again took possession of the hill.

On the 16th September, 1782, (says General Heath,) the enemy made a grand forage near Valentine's Hill ; Sir Guy Carleton was out in person, as was the young Prince (VVilliani Henry, Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William the Fourth.) The covering party, it was said, consisted of five or six thousand nien.b

During the absence of the armies, Valentine's Hill was much exposed to the depredations of gangs of outlaws called Cowboys and Skinners, who roamed the country in search of plunder. On one occasion, a party of the former forced their entrance into the

» Simcoe's Mil. Journal. ', t Heath's Mem. 353.

COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. ■ 437

Valentine House ; seizing the proprietar, Thomas Valentine, they demanded his life or money ; whereupon, disbelieving or aifecting to disbelieve him, they threatened, on his again refusing, to hang him instantly. Obtaining no satisfactory answer, they carried him to the foot of a cherry tree, still standing, near the corner of the old garden, and had placed the cord around his neck, when he suddenly threw it off, exclaiming, " Don't be such